Archives 2016

The population in South Florida exceeded six million for the first time in history, according to a recent report.

The region is now the eighth most populous area in the United States, and it seems like it is increasing at an alarming rate. In Florida alone, about 1,000 people move there every single day, and over the last five years, about 500,000 people moved to the lower part of the Sunshine State.

Broward County has the highest growth with an 8.5% rise over the past few years, and now their population is at 1.9 million. Miami-Dade County, which is the most populous county in the entire state, saw a 7.8% increase and now has a population of 2.7 million.

Carlos Gimenez, Mayor of Miami-Dade County, told the Miami Herald that the diverse population leads more diverse people to the area.

“People are drawn here because it’s international,” Gimenez said. “We speak their language. We speak lots of languages.”

Most of Florida’s new immigrants are Cubans and Canadians, according to Ying Wang, a researcher for the Bureau of Economic and Business Research at the University of Florida. Wang said that 25% of all new Florida immigrants move to Miami-Dade County.

“We have a good environment for them. Their friends and family are here. We have good food, policies and a good work environment,” Wang said.

Orlando is one of the largest-growing metropolitan regions in the country as well. According to WFTV, the Orlando area added 60,000 new residents in 2015, which was the most in the country.

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows that the vast majority — about 65% or over 335,000 people — of the new residents moving to these Florida regions have come from other countries. Only 2,659 people have relocated from the U.S. to move to these popular regions of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade.

In a recent OSHA document, the first to come out after a federal law required employers to report severe work-related injuries, has found a disturbing trend of “numerous reports of fingertip amputations among workers using food slicers.”

The first year of federally-required reporting brought news of the 10,388 severe work-related injuries reported in 2015. The report included 2,644 amputations and 7,636 hospitalizations.

Employers are required to report injuries involving eye loss, amputations, or hospitalization within 24 hours; fatalities must be reported within eight hours. In the past, the top cause for worker-related fatalities was transportation accidents, accounting for 42% of the total injuries in 2012.

Until this requirement, OSHA did not have all the facts or a good grasp on the situation at large. “Too often, we would investigate a fatal injury only to find a history of serious injuries at the same workplace. Each of those injuries was a wake-up call for safety that went unheeded,” said the OSHA report.

The new rule might not even be entirely accurate. “We think the actual number might be twice as high,” said Assistant Secretary of Labor David Michaels.

Some of the other results included reports of a sanitation worker in a Missouri meat processing plant who lost both lower arms when cleaning a blender, a worker whose arm was amputated while he cleared a conveyor jam, and a woman whose arm was mangled by machinery in Chicago.

Those examples come from the private sector, but public agencies like the U.S. Postal Service also rank high on the list of groups reporting severe injuries.

The reports are largely done by the employers onsite; there are too few OSHA inspectors for the number of workplaces in the country. Micheals said that the agency has 2,500 inspectors, and yet there are seven to eight million workplaces.

Some employers use this to their advantage and try to cheat the system, which can be hazardous to employee health.

Peg Seminario, the AFL-CIO safety and health director, said, “The OSHA report shows that teh OSHA Severe Injury Reporting rule issued last year is a common sense regulation that is helping to target dangerous workplaces and to spot emerging safety and health problems that pose a wider threat.”

The Obama administration will be implementing a new rule surrounding silica in order to potentially prevent 600 deaths in the United States each year.

Crystalline silica is a dust, 100 times smaller than a grain of sand, that comes from granite and sand, and it can affect workers’ lungs. Under the silica rule, the feds will be lowering the amount of silica dust that companies can legally expose to its workers.

The Huffington Post reports that workers, labor unions, and health experts have been lobbying for standards like these for decades — 45 years, to be exact.

Tom Ward, a Detroit bricklayer, lost his father to this disease. “When I became an apprentice, I didn’t think I would be exposed to the same hazard that killed my father.”

“All of you who have been suffering,” Ward added, “your voice has been heard.”

According to HomeAdvisor, cleaning up construction sites can cost anywhere from $150 to $950, but the deadly disease hidden in the dust of those sites causes many more problems.

The diseases and ailments caused by exposure to silica dust — lung cancer, kidney disease, silicosis, and emphysema — are expensive to treat as well, so the Occupational Safety and Health Administration believes that these new regulations will save between $3.8 and $7.7 billion.

According to OSHA, approximately 2.3 million U.S. construction workers are exposed to silica dust.

The new rule will reduce the allowed exposure to silica to 50 micrograms per cubic meter of air. However, Business Insurance reports that some workers are skeptical about the new rule.

“There’s definitely concern that there’s not going to be a way to get to this limit,” Matthew Linton, of Holland and Hart L.L.P. in Denver, said. “Obviously, OSHA disagreed and moved the rule forward anyway.”

Patrick Devine, a construction worker in Ohio, is worried about achieving these goals of the silica plan. “It’s hard to argue with the science,” Devine said, “but it’s the feasibility, the economic impact it will have, that is the argument.”

The National Association of Manufacturers also criticized the new rule, saying it’s “fundamentally flawed” and relies on “appallingly out-of-date economic data.”

David Michaels, the head of the OSHA, was asked about these criticisms. “Industries typically overestimate the true cost of new regulations,” Michaels said, but he won’t underestimate the importance the rule will have on workers’ health.

“This is the most important health standard OSHA has issued in decades,” Michaels stated.

President Barack Obama officially shortened the sentences of 61 imprisoned drug offenders on Wednesday, March 30.

The President of the United States has the power to grant pardons and commutations to convicted felons that he believes “deserve a second chance.” The 61 inmates, many of whom were nonviolent offenders, and more than one-third of whom were serving life sentences, will be released as early as July 28.

As the first active president to visit a federal prison, Obama has now commuted 248 inmates, which is more than the past six presidents combined.

“Throughout the remainder of his time in office, the president is committed to continuing to issue more grants of clemency as well as to strengthening the rehabilitation programs,” reported White House counsel Neil Eggleston.

On a mission to overhaul the nation’s criminal justice system, the president sat down with former inmates who had been granted clemency and asked them about the challenges of re-entering society. He found that several of them have pursued careers in law, and many of them got married and had families.

“Their stories are extraordinary,” Obama said. “We’re all imperfect. We all make mistakes.”

Obama has made criminal justice issues a major priority at the end of his final term in office, though he has always called for getting rid of strict sentences for drug offenses. He argues that punishments have been excessive and incarceration rates are far too high.

Opponents of the president’s clemency initiative are critical of Obama’s stance, worried that violent criminals will be released “en masse onto the streets.”

The president’s view on drug-related crime and sentencing does have supporters in both the Democrat and Republican parties across the nation. Last fall, California voters passed Prop 47, a bill that reduced drug possession and non-violent thefts from felonies to misdemeanors.

Alabama Governor Robert Bentley is facing a scandal after a law enforcement officer exposed evidence of the governor’s affair with one of his top advisors.

The police officer was fired on the same day he made the allegations, and the alleged connection between the two incidents has increased the media’s interest in the governor’s affair.

After 50 years of marriage, Mrs. Bentley filed for divorce from her husband on August 28, 2015. She gave no reason other than to say that the marriage had “suffered an irretrievable breakdown.” The divorce came as a great shock to the people of Alabama.

Shortly after his wife filed for divorce, allegations began to surface suggesting that Bentley was having an affair with his administration’s Communications Director Rebekah Caldwell Mason. Mason served as Bentley’s campaign press secretary before he was elected and is also known for being a former Miss Alabama contender.

Bentley initially denied any allegations that he and Mason had a relationship beyond their professional affiliation. He said, “I have never had a physical affair with Mrs. Mason. I have never done anything illegal.” He did later admit, however, to making “inappropriate comments” to Mason two years ago.

Officer Collier says that in 2014 he investigated text messages and audio recordings “of a sexual nature” between Bentley and Mason. When he confronted the governor about his findings, Bentley confirmed the affair and promised that it would end.

“Less than a month ago,” Collier reported at a recent press conference, “the governor told me he was still madly in love with Rebekah Mason.”

When it comes to divorce across the U.S. as a whole, 20 to 25% of mediation groups say that an affair was the reason for the divorce. In Alabama, adultery is illegal, and as a part of America’s conservative religious “Bible Belt” region, residents of the state take this issue very seriously. State Representative Allen Farley spoke for himself and the people of Alabama when he said that Bentley’s affair and dishonesty would make him unfit for office.

“As a man of faith, this to me is very serious… We’re always failing — we’re human — but this is the Bible Belt,” Farley commented. “A lot of the popularity that got Dr. Robert Bentley elected was talking about his faith and being a Sunday school teacher and a deacon of the church. Those things resonated with the Republicans in Alabama, so you can see how this resonates with the same people.”

The average family of four may use up to 400 gallons of water a day, have an average of two cars, and make an average of $63,000 a year — and the woman of that family is more likely to be religious than the man, says a recent study from Pew Research.

Although many religious denominations allow only men to be part of the clergy “it often appears that the ranks of the faithful are dominated by women,” said the report.

The report showed that women, particularly Christian women, are more religious than men worldwide — an estimated 83% of women internationally identify with a faith group, compared with 80% of men.

The writers of the report, Conrad Hackett and Caryle Murphy, said that that was not a conclusion one could have reached just by observation.

Murphy said, “If you were a Christian woman in Kansas, and you and your husband both go to church, you might think men and woman are equally religious.”

But according to the report, women pray more than their male peers, attend church more, and are more likely to say that religion is important to them.

This was true across denominations, with the one exception being Muslims, who make up 23% of the world’s population. Muslim men attend mosque more than women, says Hackett.

The study also found that religiosity decreased among Christian women as they moved up the economic ladder. It was also found that people who declared no self-identified religious affiliation are more likely to be men: 55% to 45% for women.

The study did not answer some causal questions. For instance, the researchers did not evaluate how factors like theology, economics, and majority or minority gaps by race or religion make a difference to the general gap.

Linda Woodhead, a professor in the department of politics, philosophy, and religion at Lancaster University, commented that theology may have something to do with the difference between men and women in Christianity.

“Christianity is a highly feminized religion: Jesus is not all macho, unlike Muhammad,” commented Woodhead.

A terrorist attack targeting Christians killed over 70 people in Punjab province of Pakistan on Easter Sunday.

As Pakistani Christians were celebrating Easter in a crowded park, a suicide bomber took his life along with many others in an area of the park designated for women and children.

A faction of the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack. Spokesperson Ehsanullah Ehsan stated, “It was our people who attacked the Christians in Lahore, celebrating Easter. It’s our message to the government that we will carry out such attacks again until sharia [Islamic law] is imposed in the country.”

Christian leaders across the globe are standing in solidarity with the Christians of Pakistan. Vincent Nichols, the Catholic leader in England and Wales, said, “The perversity of evil knows no bounds. It sinks to a new low of hatred in deliberately targeting women and children celebrating their Easter Day in peace.”

Of Pakistan’s population of 192.8 million people, only 3.8 million are Christians. A Muslim nation, Pakistan enforces strict blasphemy laws that punish religious minorities by death or life imprisonment for going against the word of the prophet Muhammad.

Christianity was first introduced to Pakistan by European Roman Catholic missionaries in the 17th century. The majority of the country’s Christians are the descendants of Hindus who had converted under British rule. Their lineage is often from a low caste, and many have remained on the poorer end of Pakistani society.

Most Muslims and Christians in the region coexist in peace; however, incidents of hostility and persecution have become more common in recent years. In 2013, a suicide bombing left more than 100 people dead at a church in Peshawar, and 14 were killed in a series of attacks on churches in Lahore. The attacks are all attributed to Pakistani Taliban groups.

Punjab’s chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, condemns Sunday’s attacks, posting on his Twitter account, “Those who target innocent citizens do not deserve to be called humans.” The government has declared three days of mourning to honor the victims.

There are approximately 173 million Christian adults in the U.S. today, making Christians the majority among religious groups in the country.

Aid to the Church in Need is a Catholic organization based out of New York. ACN lists Pakistan in its “high persecution category”; the group is taking donations and encourages Americans to volunteer their services in any way they can.

Although there are more environmental initiatives aimed at saving the planet these days, there’s always more that can be done. FirstEnergy Corp., an Ohio-based diversified energy company, wants to be a part of that effort and recently announced their latest campaign encouraging people to “Do More, Paper Less” with their online electronic billing services.

According to a press release from the company on PRnewswire.com, customers will be able to do even more with the eBill service while also freeing themselves of the clutter and environmentally unfriendly nature of paper bills.

“More than one million customers of FirstEnergy utilities already use eBill, and currently enjoy the convenience and security of this free service,” the release states. “In addition to offering greater convenience for customers, eBill is an easy way to go green by reducing resources associated with printing and delivering traditional bills.”

In addition to setting up and making payments, customer will be able to view and print past or current bills, set up text/email alerts for when a new bill arrives, and manage virtually every aspect of their account without ever having to pick up a phone or touch a piece of paper.

Electronic billing is certainly nothing new, but it is interesting that companies are now starting to make dedicated efforts to transitioning people from traditional services to these newer means. The healthcare industry is one field in which great strides have been made in these areas, not only for the environmental reasons but as a practical way of combating rising costs.

When it comes to the medical arena, the average cost of processing a clean claim is about $6.63 when sent manually by paper, compared to just $2.90 electronically, according to the American Medical Association (AMA).

Signed into law six years ago on March 23, 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act has been criticized, scrutinized, and ridiculed, but it’s also loved, cheered, and adored since the beginning.

For the first time in American history, more than 90% of people have health insurance. Whitehouse.gov reports that the U.S. rate of uninsured Americans is now at 8.8%.

However, as a result of the Affordable Care Act, there may have been larger negative financial impacts than were originally expected. According to Business Wire, over the last year due to the APA enrollment population of older members, carriers both small and large have been negatively impacted.

A report titled, “ACA Impact Challenges Insurers,” by 2016 Review and Preview Best’s Special Report, stressed that there are many difficulties on the health insurance horizon. Rising pharmaceutical costs, consumer demand issues, member-focused insurers, and cyber risk are some of the challenges that the health insurance sector plans to face in the coming months.

Though there are people who are extremely against and extremely for the Affordable Care Act, it’s important to take the middle ground when reviewing and to remove any and all biases.

Over the last six years, the Affordable Care Act, along with providing new health coverage to 20 million people, has added 14.3 million jobs. Organizations are required through the Affordable Care Act to provide appropriate health benefits to all employees when their staffing contingent equals 50 full-time employees. So many people around the U.S. are celebrating all that the Affordable Care Act has done.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act still has much more it hopes to accomplish. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Supreme Court has a contraception coverage case that is being addressed this week (oral arguments begin Wednesday), and a very large debate will be coming about the Affordable Care Aft if a Republican wins the presidential race.

President Obama made widespread changes to healthcare when he passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010. The act, informally known as “Obamacare,” recently turned six years old, and the president is celebrating the occasion by helping to fund preventative programs for those at risk for developing diabetes.


According to The New York Times, Obama’s administration has proposed an expansion of Medicare that would cover the costs of diabetes prevention programs for the millions of people who are in danger of developing the disease.


The proposed plan would allow people at risk of Type 2 diabetes to participate in “lifestyle change programs” under the guidance of trained counselors. The counselors would create customized meal plans and exercise regimens for those with “prediabetes,” a condition in which blood sugar is rapidly approaching dangerous levels.


Sylvia Mathews Burwell, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, has spearheaded the proposal through her work with the Y.M.C.A. In 2012, the National Council of Y.M.C.A.s received a $12 million federal grant to test the effectiveness of diabetes prevention programs in eight states.


After the program was properly evaluated, Burwell said that “this program has been shown to reduce health care costs and help prevent diabetes.” In fact, federal officials claim that Medicare saved approximately $2,650 for each person that was enrolled in the program over 15 months.


Preventative diabetes initiatives have been a major talking point among U.S. health officials for quite some time, and for good reason. The American Diabetes Association estimates that the U.S. spends about $245 million every year to care for people with diabetes, and recent projections have determined that one in three adults will have diabetes by 2050 if nothing changes.


The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention believes that 86 million U.S. adults are prediabetic, which has increased the urgency to fund preventative programs through Medicare. Since Obamacare was passed, the federal government can now fund these types of programs without approval from Congress, making them more feasible than ever before.


According to Associations Now, several non-profit organizations have also made a push to expand and enhance diabetes care in the U.S. The American Medical Group Association (AMGA) recently announced its Diabetes: Together 2 program, a collaboration of local health systems and industry partners to improve Type 2 diabetes care for one million patients by 2019.


While both of these programs are quite promising, there is still much work to be done before they can help people get healthier. Obama’s administration has not yet said how it would pay for diabetes prevention services, though many assume that Medicare would directly reimburse health providers that render the treatment.


America’s diabetes problem is far from over, but big-time decision makers are starting to approve funding that could change millions of lives around the country in the near future.