Medicare's $2,000 prescription drug cap expected to bring major relief to cancer patients
Giants topple Colts 45-33 to eliminate Indy from the playoff race EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The New York Giants snapped a franchise-record 10-game losing streak and ended the Indianapolis Colts' slim playoff hopes Sunday as Drew Lock threw four touchdown passes and ran for another in a 45-33 victory. Tom Canavan, The Associated Press Dec 29, 2024 1:52 PM Dec 29, 2024 2:05 PM Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message New York Giants wide receiver Malik Nabers (1) celebrates after catching a touchdown pass against the Indianapolis Colts in the first half of an NFL football game Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in East Rutherford, N.J. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The New York Giants snapped a franchise-record 10-game losing streak and ended the Indianapolis Colts' slim playoff hopes Sunday as Drew Lock threw four touchdown passes and ran for another in a 45-33 victory. New York earned its first home win of the season and it no longer has control of the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Lock sandwiched touchdown passes of 31 and 59 yards to Malik Nabers around TD passes of 32 yards to Darius Slayton and 5 yards to Wan'Dale Robinson in leading the Giants (3-13) to their first win since beating Seattle on Oct. 6. Ihmir Smith-Marsette had a 100-yard return on the second-half kickoff on a day the league's worst offense set a season high for points. Jonathan Taylor scored on runs of 3 and 26 yards for Indianapolis (7-9), while Joe Flacco, subbing for the injured Anthony Richardson, threw touchdown passes of 13 yards to Alec Pierce and 7 yards to Michael Pittman, the last bringing the Colts within 35-33 with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter. Lock, who finished 17 of 23 for 309 yards, iced the game by leading a nine-play, 70-yard drive that he capped with a 5-yard run. The 45 points were the most for New York since putting up 49 in a 52-49 loss to the Saints in 2015. It’s the Giants most in a win since a 45-14 rout against Washington in 2014 and most at home since a 52-27 win against the Saints in 2012. Nabers finished with seven catches for a career-high 171 yards. Flacco was 26 of 38 for 330 yards with two interceptions, the second by rookie Dru Phillips shortly after Lock's TD run. Taylor, who rushed for 218 yards in a win over Tennessee last weekend, finished with 125 yards on 32 carries. Pierce had six catches for 122 yards. Rookies Nabers and running back Tyrone Tracy become the third pair of rookies to have more than 1,000 yards from scrimmage in the same season. The previous duo was running back Reggie Bush and receiver Marques Colston of the Saints in 2006. Injuries Colts: Richardson was inactive with foot and back injuries sustained against Tennessee. Giants: DL Armon Watts (knee) was ruled out in the first half. Up next Colts: Finish the regular season by hosting Jacksonville. Giants: At Philadelphia to face Saquon Barkley and the Eagles. ___ AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Tom Canavan, The Associated Press See a typo/mistake? Have a story/tip? This has been shared 0 times 0 Shares Share by Email Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Print Share via Text Message Get your daily Victoria news briefing Email Sign Up More Football (NFL) Jim Harbaugh and Chargers focused on accomplishing more after wrapping up playoff berth Dec 29, 2024 2:02 PM Bills clinch the AFC's No. 2 seed with a 40-14 rout of the undisciplined Jets Dec 29, 2024 1:36 PM Brock Bowers sets NFL rookie records as the Raiders roll to a 25-10 victory over the Saints Dec 29, 2024 1:35 PM
Tax evasion nets Richmond man $2.1M fine, conditional sentenceEAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. (AP) — The New York Giants snapped a franchise-record 10-game losing streak and ended the Indianapolis Colts' slim playoff hopes Sunday as Drew Lock threw four touchdown passes and ran for another in a 45-33 victory. New York earned its first home win of the season and it no longer has control of the No. 1 overall pick in the draft. Lock sandwiched touchdown passes of 31 and 59 yards to Malik Nabers around TD passes of 32 yards to Darius Slayton and 5 yards to Wan'Dale Robinson in leading the Giants (3-13) to their first win since beating Seattle on Oct. 6. Ihmir Smith-Marsette had a 100-yard return on the second-half kickoff on a day the league's worst offense set a season high for points. Jonathan Taylor scored on runs of 3 and 26 yards for Indianapolis (7-9), while Joe Flacco, subbing for the injured Anthony Richardson, threw touchdown passes of 13 yards to Alec Pierce and 7 yards to Michael Pittman, the last bringing the Colts within 35-33 with 6:38 left in the fourth quarter. Lock, who finished 17 of 23 for 309 yards, iced the game by leading a nine-play, 70-yard drive that he capped with a 5-yard run. The 45 points were the most for New York since putting up 49 in a 52-49 loss to the Saints in 2015. It’s the Giants most in a win since a 45-14 rout against Washington in 2014 and most at home since a 52-27 win against the Saints in 2012. Nabers finished with seven catches for a career-high 171 yards. Flacco was 26 of 38 for 330 yards with two interceptions, the second by rookie Dru Phillips shortly after Lock's TD run. Taylor, who rushed for 218 yards in a win over Tennessee last weekend, finished with 125 yards on 32 carries. Pierce had six catches for 122 yards. Rookies Nabers and running back Tyrone Tracy become the third pair of rookies to have more than 1,000 yards from scrimmage in the same season. The previous duo was running back Reggie Bush and receiver Marques Colston of the Saints in 2006. Injuries Colts: Richardson was inactive with foot and back injuries sustained against Tennessee. Giants: DL Armon Watts (knee) was ruled out in the first half. Up next Colts: Finish the regular season by hosting Jacksonville. Giants: At Philadelphia to face Saquon Barkley and the Eagles. ___ AP NFL coverage: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL Tom Canavan, The Associated Press
ComBank crowned ‘Green Brand of the Year’ with Gold at SLIM Brand Excellence AwardsThe demands of achieving both one-day shipping and a satisfying orgasm collide in Halina Reijn’s a kinky and darkly comic erotic thriller about sex in the Amazon era. stars as Romy Mathis, the chief executive of Tensile, a robotics business that pioneered automotive warehouses. In the movie’s opening credits, a maze of conveyor belts and bots shuttle boxes this way and that without a human in sight. Romy, too, is a little robotic. She intensely presides over the company. Her eyes are glued to her phone. She gets Botox injections, practices corporate-speak presentations (“Look up, smile and never show your weakness”) and maintains a floor-through New York apartment, along with a mansion in the suburbs that she shares with her theater-director husband ( ) and two teenage daughters (Esther McGregor and Vaughan Reilly). But the veneer of control is only that in “Babygirl,” a sometimes campy, frequently entertaining modern update to the erotically charged movies of the 1990s, like “Basic Instinct” and “9 1/2 Weeks.” Reijn, the Dutch director of has critically made her film from a more female point of view, resulting in ever-shifting gender and power dynamics that make “Babygirl” seldom predictable — even if the film is never quite as daring as it seems to thinks it is. The opening moments of “Babygirl,” which A24 releases Wednesday, are of Kidman in close-up and apparent climax. But moments after she and her husband finish and say “I love you,” she retreats down the hall to writhe on the floor while watching cheap, transgressive internet pornography. The breathy soundtrack, by the composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer, heaves and puffs along with the film’s main character. One day while walking into the office, Romy is taken by a scene on the street. A violent dog gets loose but a young man, with remarkable calmness, calls to the dog and settles it. She seems infatuated. The man turns out to be Samuel (Harris Dickinson), one of the interns just starting at Tensile. When they meet inside the building, his manner with her is disarmingly frank. Samuel arranges for a brief meeting with Romy, during which he tells her, point blank, “I think you like to be told what to do.” She doesn’t disagree. Some of the same dynamic seen on the sidewalk, of animalistic urges and submission to them, ensues between Samuel and Romy. A great deal of the pleasure in “Babygirl” comes in watching Kidman, who so indelibly depicted uncompromised female desire in Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” again wade into the mysteries of sexual hunger. “Babygirl,” which Reijn also wrote, is sometimes a bit much. (In one scene, Samuel feeds Romy saucers of milk while George Michael’s “Father Figure” blares.) But its two lead actors are never anything but completely magnetic. Kidman deftly portrays Romy as a woman falling helplessly into an affair; she both knows what she’s doing and doesn’t. Dickinson exudes a disarming intensity; his chemistry with Kidman, despite their quickly forgotten age gap, is visceral. As their affair evolves, Samuel’s sense of control expands and he begins to threaten a call to HR. That he could destroy her doesn’t necessarily make Romy any less interested in seeing him, though there are some delicious post-#MeToo ironies in their clandestine CEO-intern relationship. Also in the mix is Romy’s executive assistant, Esme (Sophie Wilde, also very good), who’s eager for her own promotion. Where “Babygirl” heads from here, I won’t say. But the movie is less interested in workplace politics than it is in acknowledging authentic desires, even if they’re a little ludicrous. There’s genuine tenderness in their meetings, no matter the games that are played. Late in the film, Samuel describes it as “two children playing.” As a kind of erotic parable of control, “Babygirl” is also, either fittingly or ironically, shot in the very New York headquarters of its distributor, A24. For a studio that’s sometimes been accused of having a “house style,” here’s a movie that goes one step further by literally moving in. What about that automation stuff earlier? Well, our collective submission to digital overloads might have been a compelling jumping-off point for the film, but along the way, not every thread gets unraveled in the easily distracted “Babygirl.” Saucers of milk will do that. “Babygirl,” an A24 release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “strong sexual content, nudity and language.” Running time: 114 minutes. Three stars out of four.
The Houston Texans (9-6) square off against the Baltimore Ravens (10-5) at NRG Stadium on Wednesday, December 25, 2024. What channel is Ravens vs. Texans on? What time is Ravens vs. Texans? The Ravens and the Texans play at 4:30 p.m. ET. NFL STATS CENTRAL: The latest NFL scores, schedules, odds, stats and more. Ravens vs. Texans betting odds, lines, spread Ravens vs. Texans recent matchups Ravens schedule Texans schedule NFL week 17 schedule This content was created for Gannett using technology provided by Data Skrive.MONTREAL, Dec. 24, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mosaic Minerals Corporation (CSE: MOC) (“Mosaic” or “the Company”) announces some updates about the Company and takes this opportunity to thank its shareholders, partners and suppliers for their trust throughout 2024 and wishes them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year 2025. Mirabelli and Maqua Results The Company announces that it has received all its results related to the summer and fall 2024 exploration campaigns on the Mirabelli SM and Maqua SM properties. These do not reveal any significant grades in the metals and minerals initially sought. Management announces that exploration work will not be continued on these properties. The Company also announces that it no longer intends to continue exploration related to Lithium and will focus on the gold potential of its properties, in particular, the Amanda project now 100% owned and which contains numerous gold showings. Lichen and 113 North Projects Mosaic announces that it has received formal notification from Castlebar Capital Corporation that it is abandoning the option agreement to acquire 100% of the Lichen property ( see press release dated June 11, 2024 ). Mosaic is regaining control of this property which consists of 282 claims covering a total area of 15,622 hectares and is located approximately 100 km west of the Chibougamau mining camp. The property is underlain by volcanic rocks of the Obatogamau Formation intersected by intermediate stocks and plutons. The volcanic belt parallels two known gold-bearing volcanic belts, the Bachelor Lake gold zone to the west and the Osisko-Windfall gold zone to the south. The Nelligan and Monster Lake gold projects are located at the eastern end of the volcanic belt. The Company also announces that it has received formal notification from Panther Minerals Inc. (formerly Lithium Lion Metals Inc.) that the latter is abandoning the option agreement to acquire 100% of the 113 North property ( see press release dated December 5, 2023 ). Mosaic is regaining control of this property which is located in the southeastern part of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt and comprises 59 cells totaling 3,010 hectares within a 6- to 12-kilometre-wide band of volcano-sedimentary rocks located between the Josselin and Montgay granodiorite-tonalite batholiths. The volcanic rocks in this group have felsic, intermediate and mafic compositions and are cut by dunite, gabbro and diorite dykes. Iron formations (sulphides and oxides) and clastic sedimentary rocks, such as greywackes and schists, are also present. Gold, copper, nickel, platinum and palladium occurrences have been discovered in this geological environment near the project. The scientific and technical information of Mosaic Minerals Corporation included in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Gilles Laverdière, P.Geo, Vice-President Exploration of Mosaic Minerals and qualified person under National Instrument 43-101 respecting information concerning mining projects (“Regulation 43-101”). About Mosaic Minerals Corporation Mosaic Minerals Corp. is a Canadian mining exploration company listed on the Canadian Securities Exchange (CSE: MOC) focusing on the exploration of critical minerals such as Nickel in the province of Quebec. Source: M. Jonathan Hamel President & CEO jhamel@mosaicminerals.ca This release contains certain “forward-looking information” under applicable Canadian securities laws concerning the Arrangement. Forward-looking information reflects the Company’s current internal expectations or beliefs and is based on information currently available to the Company. In some cases, forward-looking information can be identified by terminology such as “may”, “will”, “should”, “expect”, “intend”, “plan”, “anticipate”, “believe”, “estimate”, “projects”, “potential”, “scheduled”, “forecast”, “budget” or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. Assumptions upon which such forward-looking information is based includes, among others, that the conditions to closing of the Arrangement will be satisfied and that the Arrangement will be completed on the terms set out in the definitive agreement. Many of these assumptions are based on factors and events that are not within the control of the Company, and there is no assurance they will prove to be correct or accurate. Risk factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted herein include, without limitation: that the remaining conditions to the Arrangement will not be satisfied; that the business prospects and opportunities of the Company will not proceed as anticipated; changes in the global prices for gold or certain other commodities (such as diesel, aluminum and electricity); changes in U.S. dollar and other currency exchange rates, interest rates or gold lease rates; risks arising from holding derivative instruments; the level of liquidity and capital resources; access to capital markets, financing and interest rates; mining tax regimes; ability to successfully integrate acquired assets; legislative, political or economic developments in the jurisdictions in which the Company carries on business; operating or technical difficulties in connection with mining or development activities; laws and regulations governing the protection of the environment; employee relations; availability and increasing costs associated with mining inputs and labour; the speculative nature of exploration and development; contests over title to properties, particularly title to undeveloped properties; and the risks involved in the exploration, development and mining business. Risks and unknowns inherent in all projects include the inaccuracy of estimated reserves and resources, metallurgical recoveries, capital and operating costs of such projects, and the future prices for the relevant minerals. The Canadian Securities Exchange does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release. NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION IN THE UNITED STATES OR ANY US NEWS WIRE SERVICES AND DOES NOT CONSTITUTE AN OFFER OF THE TITLES DESCRIBED HEREIN.
Eric Mangini joins Colin Cowherd to discuss the New York Jets' blueprint for a successful offseason. From key roster decisions to potential coaching adjustments, Mangini analyzes how the Jets can position themselves for a playoff push next season. Aaron Rodgers hoped to achieve milestone touchdown pass No. 500 in a New York Jets win over the Buffalo Bills on Sunday afternoon but got the completely opposite result. Rodgers was sacked four times and threw two interceptions as Buffalo defeated New York , 40-14. It was Tyrod Taylor who threw two touchdown passes in the Jets’ loss. CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers, center, stands on the sidelines after he was pulled from the game during the second half of an NFL football game against the Buffalo Bills on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar) Instead of reaching the 500-touchdown plateau, Rodgers set a rather negative record. He became the most sacked quarterback in NFL history. He has been sacked 568 times in 247 career games – three more than Tom Brady, who was sacked 565 times in his career. Russell Wilson is right there as well with 556 sacks. Fran Tarkenton played before the NFL started counting sacks. The stat didn’t become official until 1982. Football researchers started counting sacks before the stat was official, and Fran Tarkenton is credited with holding the unofficial record. New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) is sacked by Buffalo Bills defensive end AJ Epenesa, right, in the end zone for a safety during the first half of an NFL football game on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus) JAGUARS FAN HAS MESSAGE FOR OWNER SHAD KHAN AMID DISMAL 2024 SEASON Rodgers could very well catch Tarkenton’s record in the Jets’ final game of the 2024 season. New York will welcome the Miami Dolphins into East Rutherford, New Jersey, next week. The Jets quarterback has been sacked 37 times this season. He led the league twice in times sacked in his career – both when he was with the Green Bay Packers. In 2012, he was sacked 51 times. In 2010, he was sacked 50 times. New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers (8) is sacked by Buffalo Bills linebacker Von Miller (40) during the second half of an NFL football game on Sunday, Dec. 29, 2024, in Orchard Park, N.Y. (AP Photo/Adrian Kraus) CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP New York fell to 4-12 on the year. The team hasn’t made the playoffs since the 2010 season and hasn't had a winning record since 2015. Follow Fox News Digital’s sports coverage on X , and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter . Ryan Gaydos is a senior editor for Fox News Digital.Are you ready to get Glicked this weekend? No, I didn’t call you a dirty name, that’s the actual moniker being used for the simultaneous release of Wicked and Gladiator II . I’m not going to see either this weekend as both are expected to make tons of cash and draw in a lot of crowds in theaters over the next few days. I’m content to stay in this weekend and queue up a good movie (or three) on Netflix. Feel the same way? Well, here’s a handy list of a few underrated movies that are worth your time. You can always watch Glicked later in the year ... or never, if that’s more your vibe. We also have guides to the best movies on Netflix , the best movies on Hulu , the best movies on Amazon Prime Video , the best movies on Max , and the best movies on Disney+ . Spy Game (2001) Sometimes, you just need to see two bona fide movie stars show off their charisma for two hours even if the movie they are in is only so-so. That’s the case with Spy Game , a 2001 action thriller from Top Gun director Tony Scott. The stars in question are Robert Redford, then entering his senior citizen heartthrob phase, and Brad Pitt, who was still in his prime, golden locks and all. It’s a pity the movie itself wasn’t any better. Redford stars as Nathan Muir, a grizzled CIA officer who is pulled into one final case involving his former protégé, Tom Bishop (Pitt). It seems Bishop has run afoul with China’s government and is set to be executed in 24 hours. Muir is the only one who can save him, but as he reflects on their complicated past and their shady spy missions in locales such as West Germany, he wonders if this isn’t the fate Bishop deserves. Spy Game is streaming on Netflix . In Good Company (2004) In Good Company is just good enough, and what’s wrong with that? The 2004 comedy, which is just about to celebrate its 20th(!) anniversary, is the very definition of vanilla, with squeaky clean stars like Topher Grace, Scarlett Johansson, and Dennis Quaid all bringing varying degrees of beige to their respective roles. Yet the movie works, and Quaid in particular stands out as a star who knows how to turn on the charm to win over an audience. Dan Foreman (Quaid) is a longtime ad executive who is good at his job. That doesn’t prevent his company from undergoing severe layoffs and demoting him so he now reports to Carter Duryea (Grace), a 26-year-old business prodigy who is separating from his cheating wife. That’s awkward enough, but when Dan invites Carter over to dinner one night and his young boss begins to fall in love with his even younger daughter Alex (Johansson), things go from awkward to just plain weird fast. The movie plays this scenario largely for laughs, and it is funny to see Quaid work through the sheer absurdity of watching his twentysomething boss awkwardly try to romance his college-bound daughter. Is it also icky? Yeah, a bit, but Quaid and the rest of the cast sells it and the movie doesn’t take itself too seriously. In Good Company is streaming on Netflix . Kubo and the Two Strings (2016) Animation is currently in a golden age of creativity. The Spider-Verse films, The Boy and the Heron , and this year’s The Wild Robot are some of the best ever made in the genre, and that’s just the non-Disney ones! One of the very best in the last decade is Kubo and the Two Strings , a stunning stop-motion animated film from the good folks over at Laika Studios, who gave the world the modern goth girl classic Coraline . This one is just as good, and features the vocal talents of Charlize Theron, Ralph Fiennes, Matthew McConaughey, Rooney Mara, George Takei, and Art Parkinson as the 12-year-old title protagonist. In feudal Japan, the one-eyed Kubo is sent by his mother to a faraway land to flee his evil aunties and find his missing father’s armor. There, he teams up with Monkey, a snow monkey charm come to life, Little Hanzo, an origami figure resembling Kubo’s long-absent dad, and Beetle, a former samurai who cannot remember his past, to travel through strange lands and battle mystical creatures in an attempt to find the armor and avoid capture (or worse) from Kubo’s wicked extended family. As typical with movies like this, what Kubo finds instead is the value of friendship and the necessity of letting go of loved ones. The film features superb animation and a stirring score by Dario Marianelli, both of which create a colorful fantasy world that would impress even the most jaded cinephile. It’s a great kids film, yes, but it’s also a great film period, and all adults should watch Kubo and the Two Strings and ignite their imaginations once again. Kubo and the Two Strings is streaming on Netflix .Loo-less town's battle illustrates national problem
Mumbai : Bigg Boss 18 is nearing its grand finale next month and the competition has reached an intense level now. With just 11 contestants remaining in the house, all are leaving no stone unturned to deliver their best performances and secure their spot in the finale. This week, seven contestants have been nominated, putting their fate in the hands of their fans. The nominees for this week are: The voting lines are open, and fans have been rallying to save their favorite contestants. However, the latest voting trends reveal that three contestants are trailing behind and are currently in the danger zone. These bottom three are: Among these, Sara Arfeen Khan is widely speculated to be the next contestant to leave the house, based on the ongoing buzz among fans and viewers. However, there is also speculation that no elimination might take place this week because of the festive season of Christmas and New Year and the makers may decide to keep the celebratory mood intact. On the other hand, Vivian Dsena and Rajat Dalal are currently leading the polls with the highest number of votes, showcasing their strong fan following and popularity. The final decision will be revealed during the weekend episode, and all eyes are now on the upcoming developments. Stay tuned to Siasat.com for more interesting scoops and updates on Bigg Boss 18.
Steelers WR George Pickens to return vs. Chiefs
Half of Americans who haven’t retired yet expect to rely on Social Security benefits, but more than 70% of them are concerned that the retirement benefits they’ve been promised won’t be there for them, a new Bankrate survey showed. More than three-quarters of current retirees rely on Social Security to pay necessary expenses, Bankrate found. A concerning deadline is looming for many Americans: The Social Security trust fund is projected to be exhausted in 2033. But the trust fund isn’t what many Americans think it is, one expert said. Misunderstandings about the nature of Social Security are a big reason the program’s solvency remains an ongoing problem, said Romina Boccia of the Cato Institute. “Perhaps the best way to explain what the Social Security trust fund is, is by explaining what it isn’t,” Boccia said. “And that is a trust fund.” Boccia, the director of budget and entitlement policy at the libertarian-leaning think tank, said the Social Security trust fund is more of a political construct than a true repository of savings. The main source of income for Social Security is payroll taxes on working Americans, which support retirees. Until 2010, workers paid more in Social Security taxes than what the federal government paid out in benefits, Boccia said. Since then, Social Security has borrowed more than $1 trillion to bridge the gap. The government is expected to borrow another $4 trillion to make up the Social Security deficit between now and 2033. The Social Security Administration’s legal borrowing authority will run out in 2033. That’s what people think of as the trust fund becoming exhausted. That doesn’t mean there won’t be any money for retirees in 2034. But it does mean retirees can only be paid based on what’s currently coming in—mainly payroll taxes—which would be the equivalent of a roughly 20% across-the-board cut in benefits. Congress is likely to act before then, but the problem isn’t going to get easier to solve. “Those deficits are accelerating,” Boccia said. When Social Security collected more money than it needed to provide benefits, as it did before 2010, the government spent the surplus elsewhere, Boccia said. Now, the trust fund is essentially a “piggy bank that holds only IOUs” issued by the Treasury to the Social Security Administration so retirees can get their benefits. “Perhaps a technical way of describing it is that it’s an intragovernmental accounting ledger,” Boccia said. The government has been shuffling deck chairs around to maintain Social Security benefit levels for the last 14 years, Boccia said. “Some of those deck chairs have fallen overboard,” she said. Shifting demographics pose a big problem for Social Security, Boccia said. People are living longer, but she said the retirement age hasn’t been adjusted accordingly. Fertility has declined, meaning fewer new workers are generating tax revenue for retiree benefits. In the 1950s, 16 workers paid taxes for every Social Security beneficiary, Boccia said. Now, there are just 2.7 workers covering the costs for each beneficiary. Benefits are also becoming more expensive in real terms, meaning above inflation, Boccia said. That’s due to Social Security’s benefit formula, which provides new recipients with a one-time productivity increase based on wage growth in the economy, she said. The simplest and most politically viable solution to fix Social Security would be to slow the growth of future benefits, Boccia said. Index initial benefits to prices instead of wages, she said. That change alone would close about 80% of the current funding shortfall. She said her preferred reform would be “a more bottoms-up approach” introducing some type of universal flat benefit. By moving away from an earnings-related benefit toward one based on years worked, this change would better distribute benefits to those who need financial aid in old age the most, she said. For example, the flat rate could be 125% above the federal poverty level. That would honor the original intent of Social Security, which was to protect seniors against poverty in retirement. “The beauty of such a more fundamental change is that you give people certainty about the size of the benefit that they can expect in retirement, which makes it much easier for people to plan their own savings and investment in order to supplement the basic benefit they will receive from the government,” Boccia said. Does the government need to raise taxes to keep Social Security viable for future generations? Boccia said higher taxes aren’t absolutely required. “But the question is, is it going to be politically viable to make any Social Security reforms that do not involve higher taxes on some Americans,” she said. Social Security reform is a tough one for politicians to tackle. No one wants to pay higher taxes, and no one wants their retirement benefits slashed. Boccia said a congressionally established fiscal commission could be given the authority to reform Social Security. “Then, by leaving the details to the commission, Congress can have political cover ... for unpopular changes,” she said. Boccia said Americans should be more worried about the growing national debt than their Social Security benefits disappearing a decade from now. “The program has been around for 90 years,” she said. “And the most likely scenario without meaningful reforms is that Congress will decide to borrow more money and basically ignore the 2033 borrowing authority limit and just blow right through it, the way that they blow through the debt limit every time it comes up.”
Rivian Scores $6.57 Billion Jackpot From Program Republicans Want To KillThe demands of achieving both one-day shipping and a satisfying orgasm collide in Halina Reijn’s a kinky and darkly comic erotic thriller about sex in the Amazon era. stars as Romy Mathis, the chief executive of Tensile, a robotics business that pioneered automotive warehouses. In the movie’s opening credits, a maze of conveyor belts and bots shuttle boxes this way and that without a human in sight. Romy, too, is a little robotic. She intensely presides over the company. Her eyes are glued to her phone. She gets Botox injections, practices corporate-speak presentations (“Look up, smile and never show your weakness”) and maintains a floor-through New York apartment, along with a mansion in the suburbs that she shares with her theater-director husband ( ) and two teenage daughters (Esther McGregor and Vaughan Reilly). But the veneer of control is only that in “Babygirl,” a sometimes campy, frequently entertaining modern update to the erotically charged movies of the 1990s, like “Basic Instinct” and “9 1/2 Weeks.” Reijn, the Dutch director of has critically made her film from a more female point of view, resulting in ever-shifting gender and power dynamics that make “Babygirl” seldom predictable — even if the film is never quite as daring as it seems to thinks it is. The opening moments of “Babygirl,” which A24 releases Wednesday, are of Kidman in close-up and apparent climax. But moments after she and her husband finish and say “I love you,” she retreats down the hall to writhe on the floor while watching cheap, transgressive internet pornography. The breathy soundtrack, by the composer Cristobal Tapia de Veer, heaves and puffs along with the film’s main character. One day while walking into the office, Romy is taken by a scene on the street. A violent dog gets loose but a young man, with remarkable calmness, calls to the dog and settles it. She seems infatuated. The man turns out to be Samuel (Harris Dickinson), one of the interns just starting at Tensile. When they meet inside the building, his manner with her is disarmingly frank. Samuel arranges for a brief meeting with Romy, during which he tells her, point blank, “I think you like to be told what to do.” She doesn’t disagree. Some of the same dynamic seen on the sidewalk, of animalistic urges and submission to them, ensues between Samuel and Romy. A great deal of the pleasure in “Babygirl” comes in watching Kidman, who so indelibly depicted uncompromised female desire in Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut,” again wade into the mysteries of sexual hunger. “Babygirl,” which Reijn also wrote, is sometimes a bit much. (In one scene, Samuel feeds Romy saucers of milk while George Michael’s “Father Figure” blares.) But its two lead actors are never anything but completely magnetic. Kidman deftly portrays Romy as a woman falling helplessly into an affair; she both knows what she’s doing and doesn’t. Dickinson exudes a disarming intensity; his chemistry with Kidman, despite their quickly forgotten age gap, is visceral. As their affair evolves, Samuel’s sense of control expands and he begins to threaten a call to HR. That he could destroy her doesn’t necessarily make Romy any less interested in seeing him, though there are some delicious post-#MeToo ironies in their clandestine CEO-intern relationship. Also in the mix is Romy’s executive assistant, Esme (Sophie Wilde, also very good), who’s eager for her own promotion. Where “Babygirl” heads from here, I won’t say. But the movie is less interested in workplace politics than it is in acknowledging authentic desires, even if they’re a little ludicrous. There’s genuine tenderness in their meetings, no matter the games that are played. Late in the film, Samuel describes it as “two children playing.” As a kind of erotic parable of control, “Babygirl” is also, either fittingly or ironically, shot in the very New York headquarters of its distributor, A24. For a studio that’s sometimes been accused of having a “house style,” here’s a movie that goes one step further by literally moving in. What about that automation stuff earlier? Well, our collective submission to digital overloads might have been a compelling jumping-off point for the film, but along the way, not every thread gets unraveled in the easily distracted “Babygirl.” Saucers of milk will do that. “Babygirl,” an A24 release, is rated R by the Motion Picture Association for “strong sexual content, nudity and language.” Running time: 114 minutes. Three stars out of four.
NEW YORK — For about 50 years, adding cavity-preventing fluoride to drinking water was a popular public health measure in Yorktown, a leafy town north of New York City. But in September, the town’s supervisor used his emergency powers to stop the practice. The reason? A recent federal judge’s decision that ordered U.S. regulators to consider the risk that fluoride in water could cause lower IQ in kids. “It’s too dangerous to look at and just say, ‘Ah, screw it. We’ll keep going on,’” said the town supervisor, Ed Lachterman. Yorktown isn’t alone. The decision to add fluoride to drinking water rests with state and local officials, and fights are cropping up nationwide. Communities in Florida, Texas, Oregon, Utah, Wyoming and elsewhere have debated the idea in recent months — the total number is in the dozens, with several deciding to stop adding it to drinking water, according to Fluoride Action Network, an advocacy organization against water fluoridation. In Arkansas, legislators last week filed a bill to repeal the state’s fluoridation program. The debates have been ignited or fueled by three developments: In August, a federal agency reported “with moderate confidence” that there is a link between high levels of fluoride exposure — more than twice the recommended limit — and lower IQ in kids. In September, the federal judge ordered the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to further regulate fluoride in drinking water because high levels could pose a risk to the intellectual development of children. This month, just days before the election, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. declared that Donald Trump would push to remove fluoride from drinking water on his first day as president. Trump later picked Kennedy to run the Department of Health and Human Services. In Durango, Colo., there was an unsuccessful attempt to stop fluoridating the water during Trump’s first term in office. A new push came this year, as Trump saw a surge of political support. “It’s just kind of the ebb and flow of politics on the national level that ultimately affects us down here,” said city spokesman Tom Sluis. Fluoride is a public health success story but opposition persists Fluoride strengthens teeth and reduces cavities by replacing minerals lost during normal wear and tear, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 1950, federal officials endorsed water fluoridation to prevent tooth decay, and the addition of low levels of fluoride to drinking water has long been considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the last century. Fluoride can come from a number of sources, but drinking water is the main source for Americans, researchers say. Nearly two-thirds of the U.S. population gets fluoridated drinking water, according to CDC data. There is a recommended fluoridation level, but many communities exceed that, sometimes because fluoride occurs naturally at higher levels in certain water sources. Opposition is nothing new, though for decades it was considered a fringe opinion. Adherents included conspiracy theorists who claimed fluoridation was a plot to make people submissive to government power. Health officials could point to studies that showed that cavities were less common in communities with fluoridated water, and that dental health worsened in communities without it. But fluoride isn’t just in water. Through the years it became common in toothpaste, mouthwash and other products. And data began to emerge that there could be too much of a good thing: In 2011, officials reported that 2 out of 5 U.S. adolescents had at least mild tooth streaking or spottiness because of too much fluoride. In 2015, the CDC recommended that communities revisit how much they were putting in the water. Beginning in 1962, the government recommended a range of 0.7 milligrams per liter for warmer climates where people drink more water to 1.2 milligrams in cooler areas. The new standard became 0.7 everywhere. Over time, more studies pointed to a different problem: a link between higher levels of fluoride and brain development. The August report by the federal government’s National Toxicology Program — summarizing studies conducted in Canada, China, India, Iran, Pakistan and Mexico — concluded that drinking water containing more than 1.5 milligrams of fluoride per liter was associated with lower IQs in kids. “There’s no question that fluoride prevents cavities,” said Dr. Tom Frieden, who was director of the CDC when the agency changed the recommended fluoride levels. “There’s also no question we’re getting more fluoride than we were 50 years ago, through toothpaste and other things.” Frieden said “a legitimate question” has been raised about whether fluoride affects brain development, and studies making that link “need to be looked at carefully.” U.S. towns wrestle with what to do Many people in health care strongly embrace water fluoridation. The American Dental Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics reaffirmed their endorsement of current CDC recommendations in the wake of the federal report and the judge’s ruling. Colorado’s health department, which weighed in during a Nov. 5 Durango city council meeting, said in a statement that it “seeks to align its public health recommendations with the latest scientific research. The facts of this court ruling are not sufficient” to revise current fluoridation levels. Durango officials are waiting to see what the EPA does in reaction to the recent court decision, said Sluis, the city spokesman. “We follow the science,” he said. “It wouldn’t be in the best interest of the city to stop fluoridation based on one judge’s interpretation.” In Yorktown, Lachterman concluded the judge’s decision was enough to halt fluoridation. He recalled a community discussion several years ago in which most people in the room clearly favored fluoridation, but recently it seems public comment has reversed. “It’s like a total 180,” he said. But not all public pressure these days is against the idea. In September, Buffalo, N.Y., announced it would resume water fluoridation after not having it for nearly a decade. News reports had described an increase in tooth decay and families sued, seeking damages for dental costs. The Buffalo Sewer Authority’s general manager, Oluwole McFoy declined to discuss the decision with The Associated Press, citing the litigation. For its part, the EPA “is in the process of reviewing the district court’s decision,” spokesman Jeff Landis said last week. Debates become heated In Monroe, Wis., fluoridation “has become a very hot issue,” said its mayor, Donna Douglas. The small city, near Madison, started fluoridating its drinking water in the early 1960s. But in the late summer, some residents began calling and emailing Douglas, saying she needed to do something about what they saw as a public health danger. The first call “was more like a threat,” she recalled. Douglas said she did not take a position on whether to stop, but decided to raise it to the city council for discussion. The discussions were unusually emotional. Few people tend to speak during public comment sessions at council meetings, Douglas said. But more than two dozen people spoke at a city council meeting last month, most of them in favor of fluoridation. At a subsequent meeting, about a dozen more people — all opposed to fluoridation — came out to speak. “This is the first time we’ve had any debates at all” like this, Douglas said. “I didn’t realize it would be such a heated discussion.”
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