April 17, 2024 marked eight years since my mother, Victoria Billingsley, departed this life at the age of 94. It was also the same day she received a letter from Hôtel-Dieu Grace Healthcare about “the recent cyber incident” affecting local hospitals in the Southwest Ontario region.
FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan should read Shuhart’s article but don’t hold your breath. Apparently, she doesn’t know the sordid history of FTC’s anti-antitrust enforcement. Would you expect Samsung to have been pressing Khan to take on its Apple case? I’d bet on it.
The U.S. government borrows an average of $10 billion daily, which means the national debt increases by $1 trillion every 100 days. It is no secret that paying interest on the national debt has become the fastest-growing category of government spending during President Biden’s tenure. That’s the inevitable outcome of combining an oversized national debt with excessive spending and rising interest rates.
On April 5, the government of Ecuador made the controversial decision to raid the embassy of Mexico in Quito to arrest former Vice President Jorge Glas just hours after Mexico had granted him political asylum. Glas, who was twice convicted on bribery and corruption charges and spent five years in prison, is under investigation once again, this time for the alleged mismanagement of reconstruction funds in the aftermath of an earthquake.
Spending more doesn’t always get you more and that includes money going towards combatting America’s ongoing opioid crisis. But don’t tell that to the Biden Administration.
If approved by the US Postal Rate Commission, the price of a first-class stamp will go up by five cents in July. It would be the fourth stamp price increase since January 2023.
A recently released documentary, Phantom Parrot, sheds light on the United Kingdom’s extensive state surveillance apparatus. The movie’s namesake comes from the UK government’s “disquieting” data collection program, “Phantom Parrot,” which targets particular individuals of interest to the government.
Last January, the Department of Energy (DOE) proposed a rule that would change the efficiency standards for the steel used in the cores of distribution transformers. The rule is now final pending review at the Office of Management and Budget, with lawmakers looking to push back on the standards it would impose.
The CBO issued its latest ten-year budget and economic outlook earlier this year. It projects the public portion of the U.S. national debt will reach 116% of GDP by 2034.
California’s insurance crisis keeps getting worse. State Farm, the largest insurer in the state, just revealed that it will not be renewing 72,000 home insurance policies in California. State Farm had already announced in January that it would no longer be issuing new policies in the state, joining other major insurance companies such as Allstate, AIG and Chubb. In addition, The Hartford also stopped writing policies in California and Farmers Insurance, the second-largest insurer in the state, imposed a limit on the number of new policies written, starting July 2023. In all, seven of the 12 biggest insurers in the state have halted or restricted new business in California since 2022.
