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21 votes
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2022 guidance from President Biden's administration assures doctors they’ll be protected by US federal law for providing emergency abortion care even if their state bans the procedure
40 votes -
Recommendations for finding a local('ish?) repair for name brand quality headset?
Hiya - I'm looking for some help because despite a lot of Google quality time, I'm sincerely struggling to get a solution. I have a Plantronics 4220 wireless headset that I use for work (and also...
Hiya -
I'm looking for some help because despite a lot of Google quality time, I'm sincerely struggling to get a solution.
I have a Plantronics 4220 wireless headset that I use for work (and also to connect with Bluetooth to my PC at the same time between calls), and somehow the audio is starting to flake out. It's like it only gets audio in one ear, but if I tilt my head slightly it'll get into the other ear or sometimes both. Pretty weird... it's something I might expect from a wired headset where the cord itself is dying, but not on a wireless one like this.
Anyhow, I'm very comfortable with tech stuff (building my own rigs for like 20 years now), but I've never really felt comfortable about iFixit kind of solutions where tools or hardware is involved with the hardware. I'd pretty much just rather throw a little money at a pro who can fix it in 5 minutes and charge me $50 or whatever, lol.
However when I am going to look for places that might offer repair services, all I'm getting are locations in the US... but I'm in Canada. Specifically Ontario. Anyone have a source (from personal experience or otherwise) on how I might best look up a place I can get this fixed at? Figuring out what to search for on this subject seems oddly arcane!
6 votes -
Abortion laws are driving academics out of some US states—and keeping others from coming
29 votes -
US states scrutinize the amount of charity spending from nonprofit hospitals in light of high salaries and large tax breaks
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/nonprofit-hospitals-tax-breaks-community-benefit/ POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly...
https://kffhealthnews.org/news/article/nonprofit-hospitals-tax-breaks-community-benefit/
POTTSTOWN, Pa. — The public school system here had to scramble in 2018 when the local hospital, newly purchased, was converted to a tax-exempt nonprofit entity.
The takeover by Tower Health meant the 219-bed Pottstown Hospital no longer had to pay federal and state taxes. It also no longer had to pay local property taxes, taking away more than $900,000 a year from the already underfunded Pottstown School District, school officials said.
The district, about an hour’s drive from Philadelphia, had no choice but to trim expenses. It cut teacher aide positions and eliminated middle school foreign language classes.
“We have less curriculum, less coaches, less transportation,” said Superintendent Stephen Rodriguez.
The school system appealed Pottstown Hospital’s new nonprofit status, and earlier this year a state court struck down the facility’s property tax break. It cited the “eye-popping” compensation for multiple Tower Health executives as contrary to how Pennsylvania law defines a charity.
The court decision, which Tower Health is appealing, stunned the nonprofit hospital industry, which includes roughly 3,000 nongovernment tax-exempt hospitals nationwide.
“The ruling sent a warning shot to all nonprofit hospitals, highlighting that their state and local tax exemptions, which are often greater than their federal income tax exemptions, can be challenged by state and local courts,” said Ge Bai, a health policy expert at Johns Hopkins University.
The Pottstown case reflects the growing scrutiny of how much the nation’s nonprofit hospitals spend — and on what — to justify billions in state and federal tax breaks. In exchange for these savings, hospitals are supposed to provide community benefits, like care for those who can’t afford it and free health screenings.
More than a dozen states have considered or passed legislation to better define charity care, to increase transparency about the benefits hospitals provide, or, in some cases, to set minimum financial thresholds for charitable help to their communities.
The growing interest in how tax-exempt hospitals operate — from lawmakers, the public, and the media — has coincided with a stubborn increase in consumers’ medical debt. KFF Health News reported last year that more than 100 million Americans are saddled with medical bills they can’t pay, and has documented aggressive bill-collection practices by hospitals, many of them nonprofits.
(article continues)
15 votes -
Nonprofit trust buying Press Herald, other Maine newspapers in landmark deal
22 votes -
The manufacturing backlash: No factory in my backyard
15 votes -
Plastics have shaped nearly every aspect of society. Now what?
22 votes -
Tennessee ban on gender-affirming care for minors to go into effect for now
39 votes -
The history behind Orkney's vote to ‘join Norway’
9 votes -
How Chicago solves its overheating problem
11 votes -
Free transit in Stavanger, Norway, places the city in a growing vanguard of municipalities that have made buses, trains and trams free at point of use
12 votes -
Vote to block Georgia spaceport upheld by state’s high court
17 votes -
Iowa joins dozens of other US states in legalizing sales of raw milk
57 votes -
Orkney could leave the UK to become a self-governing territory of Norway after its council opted to explore alternative forms of governance
23 votes -
Florida bill allowing radioactive roads made of potentially cancer-causing mining waste signed by Ron DeSantis
43 votes -
How a megachurch wields power in a regional California city and influence in the music industry
7 votes -
SEPTA Board approves $1.69 billion FY24 operating and capital budget ahead of expected fiscal cliff
11 votes -
New York City is cleared for first-in-US congestion tolls as soon as April
45 votes -
You may soon have to pay more to drive that SUV in New York
37 votes -
The invisible victims of American anti-semitism
40 votes -
A Delaware city is set to give corporations the right to vote in elections
28 votes -
Seattle plans to extend and upgrade Third Avenue transit mall in 2024
16 votes -
What the hell happened to the California of the ’50s and ’60s?
12 votes -
Oklahoma City continues planning for bus rapid transit
26 votes -
Philadelphia politician proposes more local options for mass-transit funding
11 votes -
Atlantic City designated as New Jersey's 35th Transit Village
8 votes -
Calgary Transit goes electric as feds commit additional $325M for zero-emission buses
13 votes -
Alabama town gets first Black mayor, but the previous one won't leave
46 votes -
Ontario government awards contract for eastern GO Transit extension in Toronto area
10 votes -
Landmark ‘kids’ climate trial begins: how science will take the stand
13 votes -
I-95 highway in Philadelphia has collapsed; officials say repairs will take "months"
32 votes -
Residents of Christiania in Denmark may vote to end open cannabis trade over fears of rising gang violence
6 votes -
Australian governments impose recycling rules after the packaging industry fails on waste
7 votes -
Welsh town seats world’s first known nonbinary mayor
12 votes -
A Republican suburb designed for cyclists
15 votes -
Indiana governor signs “Don’t Say Gay” bill that forces teachers to out trans kids to their parents
12 votes -
F1 star Lewis Hamilton blasts Florida’s anti-LBGTQ measures
8 votes -
Colorado becomes first state to pass “right to repair” law for farmers
14 votes -
Is Oslo the next great cycling city?
4 votes -
Cities sue Hyundai, Kia after wave of car thefts
14 votes -
Residents of Greenland have switched to daylight saving time this weekend for the very last time
11 votes -
Joko Widodo wants local governments to ditch Visa, Mastercard
4 votes -
Child labor laws are under attack in states across the country
9 votes -
Producers of the latest Mission: Impossible film have dropped their attempt to obtain permission for dozens of helicopter landings on Svalbard
3 votes -
Nebraska lawmaker three weeks into filibuster over trans bill
21 votes -
How Californians are weaponizing environmental law
9 votes -
Bergen is gearing up to open the world's longest purpose-built pedestrian and bicycle tunnel – 2.9km tunnel takes 30-45 minutes to walk through
8 votes -
Sacramento recycle center shutters, blames California agency for ‘irate’ customers
8 votes -
Alaska says it’s now legal “in some instances” to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals
12 votes