Karen Cyphers - page 19

On Tuesday, protestors are scheduled to gather in front of Blue Cross Blue Shield offices in Tampa, Ft. Myers, Orlando, and West Palm Beach to bring scrutiny to BCBS’s role in directing Enroll America, the non-profit entity created to shepherd people into insurance policies through federal exchanges. It is no secret that BCBS stands to benefit greatly from federal health care reforms under Obamacare, but according to Americans for Prosperity Florida state director Slade O’Brien, the mega-insurer is going about…

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As medicinal marijuana advocates up their efforts in Florida, it would be the stuff of their dreams for a physician celebrity to announce a change of heart on the matter.  And today, that happened. In a feature piece for CNN titled, “Why I changed my mind on weed” chief medical correspondent and neurosurgeon Sanjay Gupta shared his yearlong transformation of opinion on the medical use of marijuana, and describes his feeling that Americans have been “terribly and systematically misled” on…

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Stephen King wrote in The Shawshank Redemption, “Get busy living, or get busy dying.”  And according to a study just released, most Americans don’t balk at either. While only 38% of Americans would themselves want medical treatments that slow the aging process and allow them to live decades longer to at least 120 years, roughly two-thirds (68%) think that most other people would want to do so.  This was one of many findings presented in a comprehensive public opinion study…

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A website launched by Nova Southeastern University’s Guy Harvey Research Institute in Hollywood, Florida, lets you monitor the movement of 18 satellite-tagged sharks via the internet and observe the extreme distances and depths these sea predators travel. Public access to the project was well-timed to begin with Discovery Channel’s “Shark Week”, and lets shark enthusiasts follow the fish alongside teams of scientists who are looking to identify migration patterns and the ‘secret pathways’ that sharks cover. NSU began tagging sharks…

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Twin studies are awesome. Twin studies in space? Even better.  And now, thanks to two brothers, such plans are in progress.  According to Florida Today, astronauts Scott and Mark Kelly came up with the idea themselves: Scott will head to the International Space Station in 2015 for 12 months in space while his identical twin will remain on Earth, both submitting to regular blood, saliva, and other tests with the hope of illuminating the effects of long-term spaceflight on humans.…

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Every four years, the Department of Defense is reviewed in the legislatively-mandated Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR), from which a long-term course is defined and DoD strategies are rebalanced to address tomorrow’s conflicts and threats. In the upcoming 2014 review, “everything is on the table”… well, everything except for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that is, according to Air Force QDR director Maj. Gen. Steven Kwast.    Kwast addressed the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank in DC…

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There’s a well-known lifecycle to the political year, in which the few months following bill signings are particularly quiet for lobbying firms.  Not so this year, thanks to the adoption of new political contribution laws that eliminate committees of continual existence (CCEs) and replace them with new-but-largely-the-same political committees (PCs).  For the most part, CCEs were run by legitimate associations that collected dues and contributions from members with the intent to affect policy change. Yet a smaller number of bad…

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