What’s New?

Obama Bathroom Mandate

It is not enough to offer a transgender student access to clean and safe restrooms, locker rooms, and showers. The U.S Department of Justice ruled that would be discriminatory against a student who “identifies” with a sex other than their biological gender. To ensure inclusivity, the mandate ruled that transgender students must be allowed free access to any area of the school, regardless of their birth gender- even if it means discriminating against students who identify with their biological identity.

The mandate – while purported to be “guidance”- threatens to pull federal funds for schools who don’t allow free access to students into a bathroom, locker or shower room, of their chosen “gender.” It also allows for schools to make changes on official school records without parental notification or authorization.  Other significant issues with the mandate include hotel stays for sports or class trips, because schools must now allow a student to room with whoever they identify with –That means a 17 year old male student must be allowed to share hotel rooms with girls including their coaches and female, adult chaperones.

North Carolina

The United States Department of Justice filed suit in North Carolina against Charlotte based Carolinas HealthCare System alleging that the state’s largest chain of hospitals artificially inflated medical costs to prevent competition. The hospital system operates 10 hospitals in Charlotte, including the Carolinas Medical Center. The lawsuit also alleges that the provider uses restrictions in their healthcare contracts to discourage patients from using competitor services. In 2015, the provider had over $9 billion in revenue and employed $600,000 in over 900 locations in North and South Carolina.

If the U.S. Health Care system was a Country…

If the U.S. health care system was a country, it would release more greenhouse gas emissions than the entire country of Great Britain according to Matthew Eckelman of Northeastern University. In an analysis of direct emissions from data on US hospitals and provider offices, the results showed that a whopping 8% of the greenhouse gasses in the US can be attributed to the healthcare sector.  In the past ten years, emissions of greenhouse gas grew about 30% with non-greenhouse gas contributing up to 10% of smog and 9% of respiratory disease due to particle matter in the air.