Category: Watching

Five Medicaid healthcare insurers have violated Florida’s rule against using taxpayer funds to provide transgender treatments, and the state is now fining them for the action. It’s the first time any state has taken this step in regard to gender transition coverage.

Among the procedures one of the plans covered was a double mastectomy on a 16-year-old girl. The other plans paid for puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors. Florida health officials sent out letters informing the providers they were being fined over the violation late Thursday.

“These plans recklessly continued to cover these services with permanent, harmful effects, after the rule was adopted,” Jason Weida, Secretary of the Agency for Healthcare Administration, told The Daily Wire news podcast Morning Wire. “[They] will not stand in the way of our fight to protect the innocence of Florida’s kids.”

Though a federal judge recently blocked a new law in Florida that banned transgender surgeries and medications for children, a rule from the Agency for Health Care Administration still required the state’s Medicaid plan providers to deny coverage for all such treatments.

The rule went into effect last August after the agency performed a systematic review of the medical literature on treatments for gender dysphoria in children, including surgeries, puberty blockers, and cross-sex hormones. It determined they are not medically necessary. But in December, well after the agency says Medicaid healthcare plan providers were notified of the rule, the five providers covered the trans treatments anyway. The violations were caught as part of a routine audit of the Medicaid system.

Typically, Medicaid rule violations occur when providers refuse to pay for treatment that should have been covered. Paying for procedures and medications that have been banned is extremely unusual, raising the question of whether the providers’ decisions to provide coverage were politically motivated. Weida told The Daily Wire he doesn’t want to speculate about their reasons but “they’re certainly going to be on notice now.” He added that his office would consider more drastic penalties for any further violations.

Simply Healthcare, the provider that covered the mastectomy, is facing a $30,000 penalty and will be sanctioned. The other providers face smaller, unspecified fines, but the non-willful sanction is the more serious penalty as it places a black mark on a provider’s record that must be disclosed when it competes for contracts. Providers who have been sanctioned are much less likely to be awarded other state contracts for 10 years until the sanction expires. According to the Agency for Health Care Administration, Simply Health has already replaced the team that approved the mastectomy coverage.

Weida told The Daily Wire that he’s grateful Governor Ron DeSantis empowered his office to issue the rule blocking public money from going to transgender surgeries, and he doesn’t see it as a question of politics but of ethics.

Read more at: www.dailywire.com

Many people are familiar with the account in the biblical Book of Genesis about the two sin-filled cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and their cataclysmic destruction.

Yet many in this modern, scientific age struggle — or outright refuse — to accept that the cities ever really existed, much less that God wiped them out with fire from heaven. …

But last week — and again this week — on THE ROSENBERG REPORT, I sat down for an exclusive interview with Dr. Steven Collins, the archaeologist who claims that he and his team have actually uncovered the Biblical cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the Kingdom of Jordan.

If he is right, Collins is responsible for the most dramatic — and controversial — archaeological find of the 21st century. …

As Collins explained in the interview, he first rejected the notion that Sodom and Gomorrah are fictional, mythical cities that were made up by ancient writers. …

Second, Collins said that the wealth and size of Sodom as described in the Bible meant that Sodom would have been one of the largest and most influential and powerful cities of its time. And thus hard to make up to ancient audiences who knew the history and the geography of the region well.

Third, Collins noted that the apocalyptic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ought to be verifiable, if the cities really existed.

So, Collins told me, he simply followed all the location clues laid out in Genesis and boom — he uncovered the biggest Bronze Age city in the entire Middle East, a city that comports with the Biblical account of Sodom in every respect, including its sudden and cataclysmic annihilation. …

Another clue the Bible gives regarding the location of Sodom, he told me, is the description of the meeting between Abraham and Lot before they parted ways.

“The proper question to ask in the location of Sodom is, ‘Where was Lot standing when he lifted up his eyes and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well-watered?’ It was Bethel and AI,” Collins explained. …

All this led Collins and his team to dig in a site called Tall el-Hammam, with the permission of — and under the supervision of — the Kingdom of Jordan.

And what did they find?

A massive series of cities, including the biggest and wealthiest city of the Bronze Age in the entire region.

What’s more, they found a massive metropolitan city that was completely wiped out in a sudden firestorm and then uninhabited for the next 700 years. …

Read more at: allisrael.com

A religious couple in Massachusetts took the Commonwealth to court today for banning them from welcoming vulnerable children into their home through the Commonwealth’s foster care program. In Burke v. Walsh, Mike and Kitty Burke wanted to foster and someday adopt children in need of a family. Even though Massachusetts has a foster care crisis, state officials refused to let the Burkes foster any children in the state.

The reason was their religious beliefs about marriage, sexuality, and gender. With the help of Becket, the Burkes are asking the court to ensure that qualified families no longer suffer for their religious beliefs and that vulnerable children are given a loving home.

Mike and Kitty Burke are a Catholic couple from Massachusetts who have long wanted to become parents. Mike is an Iraq war veteran, Kitty is a former paraprofessional for special needs kids, and together they run a business and perform music for Mass.  Mike and Kitty began exploring becoming foster parents through the state’s foster care program, hoping to care for and eventually adopt children in need of a stable, loving home like theirs.

“After months of interviews and training, and after years of heartbreak, we were on the verge of finally becoming parents,” said Mike and Kitty Burke. “We were absolutely devastated to learn that Massachusetts would rather children sleep in the hallways of hospitals than let us welcome children in need into our home.”

Children in foster care throughout Massachusetts are waiting for families like the Burkes. The Department of Children and Families (DCF) currently does not have enough foster homes or facilities to meet the needs of the children in its care, leaving over 1,500 children without a family. The crisis has become so extreme that the state has resorted to housing children in hospitals for weeks on end. Now more than ever, Massachusetts needs the help of parents like Mike and Kitty to foster children in need.

During their application process, the Burkes underwent hours of training, extensive interviews, and an examination of their home. Mike and Kitty completed the training successfully and received high marks from the instructors. However, during their home interviews, the Burkes were troubled that many questions centered on their Catholic views about sexual orientation and gender dysphoria. In response, the Burkes emphasized that they would love and accept any child, no matter the child’s future sexual orientation or struggles with gender identity.

Read more at: www.lifenews.com

When most people hear the words “Disney magic,” they think of the cruise ship or the decades of charming and delightful adventures that inspired generations of childhood wonder for millions of viewers, not cloaks, daggers, and dark rituals done in the dead of night. Recent promos for Haunted Mansion rely on precisely that.

Disney and horror rarely dwell in the same house, but the studio can have some truly unsettling and eerie creations when they do. As the studio prepares to welcome all foolish mortals to the Haunted Mansion with the upcoming film adaptation, they might be working some black magic in the process.

Occult Rituals of the Haunted Mansion

Fans of the prolific Disney Parks attraction know the sordid history of the Gracey Manor’s lore. From ghostly butlers to murderous pirates with a collection of dead brides, the original Disneyland attraction was one of the earliest examples of Disney’s darker side. The studio embraces that original flavor with some of Haunted Mansion’s latest marketing.

Hitting theaters July 28, 2023, the newest posters for Haunted Mansion depict its lead characters framed on the faces of tarot cards. Rosario Dawson, Owen Wilson, Danny DeVito, and all the rest are depicted as representing select cards in the deck, clearly a nod to the ones seen on Madam Leota’s table in the seance room. While this is creative marketing on Disney’s part, it might have a deeper meaning.

Read more at: insidethemagic.net

 

The Satanic Temple claimed that Texas abortion laws infringed on their “rituals,” but the judge dismissed the suit for being filed in “bad faith.”

A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas has dismissed a lawsuit filed by The Satanic Temple (TST), calling their claims “willfully inadequate and deficient.”

 

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of “Ann Doe,” stems from TST’s claims that Texas abortion laws are preventing its members from performing their abortion “rituals.”

Lawyers on behalf of the complainant stated, “The abortion ritual requires an abortion; and affirms [Doe’s] religious subscription to TST’s Third and Fifth Tenets.”

Judge Charles Eskridge in Houston saw the case differently.

Eskridge called the complaint “spare and unusually cryptic” and explained that TST did not give sufficient information on how Texas law had a direct effect on their “belief structure.”

Providing numerous points of dissolution with TST’s claims, Eskridge continued on to explain that the “supposed ‘religious statutes’ aren’t specified or explained in any way. Neither are ‘the Seven Tenets’ or ‘the ritual.’”

The defendant in the case is Cecile Young, executive commissioner of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission. She sought to dismiss this case, as she argued it lacked standing because the complaint failed to state a claim.

Young argued that the complaint should be dismissed also on the grounds of sovereign immunity, as it applies to state officials.

“Young argues that the third amended complaint is so devoid of explanation that Plaintiffs fail to demonstrate that any exception to sovereign immunity applies,” Eskridge said. “Plaintiffs don’t respond to this argument in any meaningful way.”

He went on to explain that it is not up to the court to “theorize what the best argument in this regard might be, or to imagine how they might be connected to facts that haven’t been pleaded.”

Eskridge continued this line of reasoning for the dismissal, stating that it is “unknown” how Young is involved in the enforcement of the complaint in the case at all. He asked in response, “How, when, why, and in what way did she apply them to Plaintiffs?”

Read more at: thetexan.news

With imported sacrificial cows, ancient hymns and growing support, some nationalist Jews hope to rebuild their temple in Jerusalem’s Old City, at a site at the heart of Israeli-Palestinian tensions.

In a suburb of Tel Aviv, a group of choristers were getting ready for the moment they will rejoice at the reconstruction of the Jewish temple some 2,000 years after its destruction, which they believe will accelerate the arrival of the messiah.

But for others, realising their goal would massively inflame tensions around the Al-Aqsa mosque compound in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem.

Chorister Shmuel Kam said Jews have been “waiting” two millennia for the revival of the temple.

Members of the Orthodox Jewish group claim to be descendants of the biblical Tribe of Levi, which performed hymns and music at the holy site.

“When the temple will be built, we will ask the Levites to come sing and they won’t know. They have to learn,” said Menahem Rozenthal, director of the men-only choir created a few months ago by the Temple Institute.

Founded in 1987, the institute aims to rebuild the temple, training choirs and clerics and making objects for use in religious rites.

While apprentice choristers come from across Israel to delve into the collection of ancient hymns, the Temple Institute has made all of the objects deemed necessary for Jewish rites according to rabbinical instructions.

These include priestly robes, baking moulds for bread, incense burners and musical instruments.

Read more at: www.france24.com

The metaverse has a dark side, it seems. Florida’s attorney general wants answers from social media giant Meta over human trafficking activities on its platforms. Since Meta platforms host up to 85% of child sex trafficking incidents reported on social media, it’s an urgent crisis that needs addressing.

As leftist media outlets launch disgusting attacks on the movie exposing child sex trafficking, “Sound of Freedom,” it turns out there’s another human trafficking problem not being discussed — except by Florida’s attorney general. AG Ashley Moody sent a letter on July 10 to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg highlighting the issue of human trafficking activities on Meta-owned platforms lnstagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger.

Moody also serves as Chair of Florida’s Statewide Council on Human Trafficking. The Council, under orders from the state legislature, recently looked into the “frequency and extent to which social media platforms are used to assist, facilitate or support human trafficking” in Florida, with the help of law enforcement agencies, the letter explained. Moody called the results “extraordinary.” They were also sobering.

From Moody’s letter to Zuckerberg:

According to the survey, 146 of the 271 reported instances of social media platform use in human trafficking were attributable to Meta platforms (lnstagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger), more than 53% of the reported instances involved. To put this number in perspective, after Meta platforms, the next-highest social media platform used in human trafficking was Snapchat, and it was utilized 19 times, seven times less than Meta platforms.

According to the 2022 Federal Human Trafficking Report, Facebook was the top platform used in recruitment of human trafficking victims from 2019-2022. Facebook and Instagram combined to make up 60% of the top ten platforms included in the study.

Now, if you discuss election fraud, a Hunter Biden scandal, or problems with transgender indoctrination of kids, Meta will be on you like a ton of bricks. But it doesn’t seem to be doing nearly enough to target human trafficking. Talk about messed-up priorities.

Read more at: www.pjmedia.com

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously strengthened religious liberty in the workplace Thursday, ruling in favor of a Christian postal worker who lost his job for refusing to work on Sundays.

The Court’s unanimous opinion in Groff v. DeJoy, authored by Justice Samuel Alito, overruled the decision of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which held that the United States Postal Service (USPS) did not violate the religious accommodation rights of postal worker Gerald Groff under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

“This decision will give those religious minorities a fair shot in court and, one would hope, encourage more employers to adopt more inclusive workplace policies so that religious employees won’t have to choose between their livelihood and their faith,” Joshua McDaniel, director of Harvard Law School’s Religious Liberty Clinic, said.

After clarifying Title VII’s requirements, the Court gave the case back to the Third Circuit to retry the case because of its factual complexity. This means that either Groff or the USPS could eventually prevail, but the USPS — and all employers — must meet a much higher standard to deny a religious accommodation.

Groff, an Evangelical Christian and longtime employee of the USPS, never worked Sundays in line with his religious beliefs and his initial job description. But when the USPS started to deliver packages on Sundays because of a deal with Amazon, the postal service would require him to work on his Sabbath. To avoid conflict, he transferred to a different location.

His new location started delivering on Sundays, and he claimed that USPS “progressive[ly] discipline[d]” him because he refused to work Sundays. He then resigned and sued the USPS for religious discrimination. The Third Circuit rejected his claim.

The controversy in this case surrounded a 50-year-old standard from Trans World Airlines v. Hardison. In that case, the Court held that an employer could deny an accommodation if it causes a “more than de minimis cost” — a legal term meaning that anything more than a “very small” cost would be enough for an employer to legally deny any religious accommodation.

The Court held that Title VII’s “undue hardship” language requires employers to show that the accommodation would impose a burden that “is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” Justice Alito stated that a business proving the accommodation would cause a small cost is not enough “to establish ‘undue hardship’ under Title VII.” This means that an employer now needs to show a substantial hardship would be caused by the religious accommodation in order to deny it.

His new location started delivering on Sundays, and he claimed that USPS “progressive[ly] discipline[d]” him because he refused to work Sundays. He then resigned and sued the USPS for religious discrimination. The Third Circuit rejected his claim.

The controversy in this case surrounded a 50-year-old standard from Trans World Airlines v. Hardison. In that case, the Court held that an employer could deny an accommodation if it causes a “more than de minimis cost” — a legal term meaning that anything more than a “very small” cost would be enough for an employer to legally deny any religious accommodation.

The Court held that Title VII’s “undue hardship” language requires employers to show that the accommodation would impose a burden that “is substantial in the overall context of an employer’s business.” Justice Alito stated that a business proving the accommodation would cause a small cost is not enough “to establish ‘undue hardship’ under Title VII.” This means that an employer now needs to show a substantial hardship would be caused by the religious accommodation in order to deny it.

Read more at: www.dailywire.com