Random News: July 7, 2023

DISCLAIMER: Zak's Random News is very random and doesn't cover many things, and not everything may be accurate, because I'm just some guy. Go find a real news source.

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Good morning. It’s July 7, 2023, and if you can believe it, it’s a Friday once again! I’m looking forward to a weekend, but I have a whole day of responsible things to do before I get there. Let’s see what’s happened first…

• President Joe Biden wants skimpy, short-term health coverage to last no more than four months, reversing a Trump-era regulation.
• HHS, the Treasury Department and the Department of Labor issued proposed rules today that clamp down on short-term limited duration health plans, which offer cheap but sparse coverage that Democrats deride as “junk insurance.” The rule would overturn a 2018 Trump-era regulation.
• Short-term plans do not have to meet the same requirements as a health insurance plan sold on the Obamacare insurance exchanges. These requirements can include coverage of pre-existing conditions and certain essential health benefits such as prescription drugs.
• Speaking of health care…
• Yesterday, the US Food and Drug Administration granted traditional full approval to the Alzheimer’s drug Leqembi, the first medicine proven to slow the course of the memory-robbing disease.
• The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said that it will now expand coverage of the drug, broadening access for up to an estimated million people with early forms of the disease.
• This is huge. Previous to this approval, Alzheimers patients had to pay $26,500 annually for the drug before insurance coverage.
• Let’s do some politics…
• The House Freedom Caucus voted to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) from the pro-Trump group last month, indicating that her fight with Rep. Lauren Boebert was part of the group’s reasoning.
• “A vote was taken to remove Marjorie Taylor Greene from the House Freedom Caucus for some of the things she’s done,” said Freedom Caucus board member Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD). When asked if she was formally out, he replied, “As far as I know, that is the way it is.”
• Speaking of Sporky…
• Joe Biden says he’ll soon make a swing to Empty-G’s backyard.
• Yesterday he announced plans to attend the groundbreaking of a Georgia solar facility that he credits to his Bidenomics agenda. The visit would amount to the most high-profile example yet of the White House’s strategy of drawing a contrast with Republicans who opposed the president’s bills — placing Biden on the home turf of a House GOP member who has pushed for his impeachment.
• The solar panel manufacturer Qcells announced in January that it planned a $2.5 billion expansion of its Georgia facility, potentially the largest ever investment in such manufacturing in the U.S., and open another one northwest of Atlanta.
• Back to health and the environment…
• A new study from the United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates that “forever chemicals” now taint nearly half of the nation’s tap water.
• The federal study, one of the most extensive of its kind looking directly at water coming out of a tap, adds to a body of research showing that PFAS — per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances — chemicals are not only long-lasting but widespread in drinking supplies.
• These widely-used chemicals found in products ranging from clothing and cosmetics to fast-food wrappers and microwave popcorn bags persist in the environment and can build up in the body.
• “Millions of people have been drinking a toxic forever chemical linked to cancer all their lives and are only discovering it today,” Scott Faber, the Environmental Working Group
• Sigh.
• And now, The Weather: “Regenarrate” by J Racecar
• Threads, the new social media network from the makers of Facebook and Instagram, got off to a healthy start in its goal as being got e “Twitter killer”. 
• One day after launch, 50 million people have downloaded the app. As of yesterday afternoon, Threads was the number-one free app on the iOS App Store.
• Elmo Muck was not happy. His lawyers sent mean letters, accusing Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg of having hired former Twitter employees who “have improperly retained Twitter documents and electronic devices” and that Meta “deliberately” involved these employees in developing Threads.
• Meta spokesperson Andy Stone flatly dismissed the letter. “No one on the Threads engineering team is a former Twitter employee — that’s just not a thing,” he said on Threads.
• I signed up. It seems… fine. For those complaining about the TOS who are also posting on Facebook and Instagram, well… I have some bad news for ya.
• In related news, another Twitter rival, Bluesky, has now topped a million downloads across iOS and Android, despite remaining an invite-only app.
• Bluesky (which I have not yet tried) is run by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
• Maybe Elmo should have stuck with cars and rocket ships.
• From the Sports Desk… San Antonio Spurs rookie Victor Wembanyama’s security detail punched Britney Spears in the face after she (depending on who you ask) either tapped him on the shoulder or grabbed him.
• She filed a police report. I’m just gonna leave that there.
• Today in history… A retrial verdict acquits Joan of Arc of heresy 25 years after her execution (1456). Jacques Cartier makes his first contact with aboriginal peoples in what is now Canada (1534). As a result of the XYZ Affair, the US Congress rescinds the Treaty of Alliance with France sparking the “Quasi-War" (1798). In New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began (1834). US troops occupy Monterey and Yerba Buena, thus beginning the US conquest of California (1846). The United States begins its first military draft; exemptions cost $300 (1863). Four conspirators in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln are hanged (1865). US President William McKinley signs the Newlands Resolution annexing Hawaii as a territory of the United States (1898). The United States, UK, Japan, and Russia sign the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention of 1911 banning open-water seal hunting, the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues (1911). Sliced bread is sold for the first time by the Chillicothe Baking Company of Chillicothe, MO (1928). Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of Boulder Dam, now known as Hoover Dam (1930). Howard Hughes nearly dies when his XF-11 reconnaissance aircraft prototype crashes in a Beverly Hills neighborhood (1946). US President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the Alaska Statehood Act into law (1958). Institution of sharia law in Iran (1980). Boris Becker becomes the youngest male player ever to win Wimbledon at age 17 (1985). The New York Court of Appeals rules that women have the same right as men to go topless in public (1992). Boris Johnson announces his resignation as leader of the Conservative Party following days of pressure from the Members of Parliament (MPs) during the July 2022 United Kingdom government crisis (2022).
• July 7 is the birthday of weaver/merchant Joseph Marie Jacquard (1752), composer Gustav Mahler (1860), film director George Cukor (1899), MLB player Satchel Paige (1906), singer/guitarist Mary Ford (1924), trumpet player/bandleader Doc Severinsen (1927), keyboardist/composer Joe Zawinul (1932), singer-songwriter/drummer Ringo Starr (1940), actress Shelly Duvall (1949), NBA player Ralph Sampson (1960), comedian Jim Gaffigan (1966), NHL player Joe Sakic (1969), and figure skater Michelle Kwan (1980).

Okay, that’s all I got. I mean, there’s always more but I’m out of time. Enjoy your day.