The top pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) — CVS Health’s Caremark Rx, Cigna’s Express Scripts and UnitedHealth Group’s OptumRx — generated roughly $7.3 billion through price hikes over about five years starting in 2017, the FTC said.

The “excess” price hikes affected generic drugs used to treat heart disease, HIV and cancer, among other conditions, with some increases more than 1,000% of the national average costs of acquiring the medications, the commission said.

The FTC also said these so-called Big Three health care companies — which it estimates administer 80% of all prescriptions in the U.S. — are inflating drug prices “at an alarming rate, which means there is an urgent need for policymakers to address it.”

Top three insurers reaped $7.3 billion through their drug middlemen's markups, FTC says

Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg is celebrating “masculine energy” in corporate culture amid news that his company is making several policy and program changes, including trashing multiple initiatives around diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI.

Also, abandoning its fact-checking program, as fact-checkers were “too politically biased.”

Hah. The truth is biased?

Like everyone else in his party, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) voted against the Inflation Reduction Act in August 2022.
...
In a Nov. 15, 2024, letter, Johnson privately urged the Environmental Protection Agency to award an environmental justice grant to a city in his district ― a grant funded by the IRA,

Well, isn't he special?

The Blount County Director of Schools David Murrell resigned Monday, January 6, 2025. In his resignation letter, he said he wants to "return to a tenured faculty position with BCS."

... "the district had been through three directors in three years and would be going into a fourth."

In a Blount County Board of Education meeting Thursday, an addendum was added to the agenda.

The addendum read, “Agreement, Release, and Covenant Not to Sue,” and attached was an agreement signed by Board Chair Chris Pass and Murrell.

It stated that the board would place Murrell on paid administrative leave until the acting director assigns him to an educator position, which could happen this school year or at the beginning of the next. It also read that the board will not remove Murrell’s tenure “based on any events that have happened before the effective resignation date.”

The agreement also said that Murrell would release BCS from any claim regarding employment, termination, attorney’s fees, discrimination, wrongful discharge, or “any other federal, state, or local constitution, regulation, law (statutory or common), or legal theory.”

What the heck is going on? Why is this Director of Education leaving? Why did the other two leave? Why the deception? Why can't Blount County Schools keep a Director?

In one example listed in the lawsuit, a single mother with two dependents was given a loan even though she had a residual income of -$0.50 based on Vanderbilt’s low monthly expense estimate for the family as well as nine debts in collections.

Sounds kind of like 2007-2008

Maryville-based lender accused of giving borrowers mortgages they could not repay

One of the largest companies that tracks Americans’ location through smartphone data has been hacked by Russian cybercriminals in exchange for ransom, according to two cybersecurity researchers, a person who has posted a massive trove of allegedly hacked files and a notice the company sent to the Norwegian government.

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/security/location-data-broker-gravy-analytics-was-seemingly-hacked-experts-say-rcna187038

You may have heard that last month Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson made her Broadway debut in a specially created one-night-only walk-on role in the jukebox musical & Juliet.
I have it on good authority that another Supreme Court judicial musical is in the works. It borrows very heavily from Evita, and is called Alito.
It culminates with the extremist right-wing jurist Samuel Alito singing as follows:

Don't cry for me, Federalist Society
The truth is, I do Trump’s bidding
These are my wild days, my mad existence
I take his phone calls
And fly my freak flags

Don't cry for me, Tangerine Man
The truth is, I always help you
These are my wild days, my mad existence
Make me Chief Justice
Not that wimp Roberts

Don't cry for me, pregnant women
The truth is, I took your rights, gals
These are my wild days, my mad existence
I need protection
Please keep your distance

Saw the development going up on the South side of the river, looking from the UT campus, around Neyland Stadium.

Gives the area a lot of character. /s

Any parks going up around all those apartments? Any public access to the river?

Makes you think about all the apartments built (or in the process) along Cumberland. They did a good job with the street scaping. However, the sidewalks are too small and the buildings are too close to the road.

A yearlong bipartisan congressional investigation into two private equity-backed U.S. hospital systems found that patient care deteriorated at both operations as their private equity owners reaped significant payouts on their investments in the systems. The findings reinforced academic research showing how private equity health care investments harm patients while enriching investors.

Private equity reduces patient care while enriching investors, Senate report finds

The National Weather Service is predicting 2-8 inches of snow today through tomorrow morning.

Winter weather message.
WINTER STORM WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM 10 AM EST /9 AM CST/
THIS MORNING TO 7 AM EST /6 AM CST/ SATURDAY...
Snow will begin by mid to late morning, moderate to heavy
at times this afternoon and evening. The snow may mix with sleet
or possibly freezing rain for areas east of interstate 81 and 75
this afternoon. Total snow accumulations between 3 and 6 inches
west of interstate 81 and 75, and 2 to 4 inches east. Ice
accumulations around a light glaze.

Accuweather has a great radar map to follow.

We'll see. I'm ok with snow here in the South. I always hope it's gone the next day.

Bezos' Amazon film and television studio will pay $40 million to license the rights to a documentary about Melania Trump.

...documentary directed by Brett Ratner,... who happens to be the disgraced “Rush Hour” director who has not made a Hollywood movie since 2018, when he was accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women..

$40 million???? Just think what good he could do with $40 million.

OMG!

In October 2023, the City of Knoxville obtained the land for the pedestrian bridge, located at 23253 W. Blount Avenue. The city also designated $20 million of state funds toward the pedestrian bridge development.

Knoxville to get $24.7M RAISE grant for pedestrian bridge

Knoxville's long-awaited pedestrian bridge project receives over $20M in federal funding

“Back in 1867, Democratic President Harry Truman tried to buy Greenland”

[image or embed]

— Acyn (@acyn.bsky.social) January 7, 2025 at 6:22 PM

U.S. consumers will no longer have medical debt appear on their credit reports under to a new rule the Biden administration finalized Tuesday.

About 1 in 12 adults in the U.S. have medical debt, according to a 2024 poll from KFF, a nonprofit group that researches health policy issues. The CFPB determined that a medical bill on a person’s credit report was a poor predictor of whether they would repay a loan yet contributed to thousands of denied mortgage applications.

Biden administration finalizes rule to strike medical debt from credit reports

Residents, business owners and other stakeholders are invited to learn more about the Sevier Avenue Streetscape Project at a public open house on Thursday, Jan. 9, 5:30-7 p.m. at South Knoxville Elementary School, 801 Sevier Ave.
The project includes ADA-compliant sidewalks, a new railroad crossing, new streetlights and traffic signals, a roundabout, and upgraded (and buried) utilities.

Sevier Avenue Streetscape Project.

CNN’s Van Jones had a tense exchange with Tennessee state Rep. Jeremy Faison, the chair of the Republican Caucus, saying in the interview that state Republicans had been “unreasonable” in expelling two Black Democrats over a floor protest on gun violence.

CNN’s Van Jones in tense exchange with GOP Tennessee state lawmaker: ‘Why are you being so unreasonable?’

Stopped by a major chain fast food restaurant in South Knoxville yesterday. A customer came up to the counter and asked for the code to the restroom. I asked the employee what the deal was with requiring a code for the restroom. He said there are a lot of bad characters in the area. Pretty rough. How sad.

Reminds me of when I was job hunting in the 80's in Orlando. I stopped for gas and there was bullet proof glass protecting the cashiers. I avoided that part of town from then on.

I've cooked on a stove with coil burners for a looonnng time. It's a little hard to find a coil cooktop. I know of at least one person that has used a glass top for probably 30 years.

In a recent New York Times Wirecutter article they describe how to clean a glass top stove. To summarize, it takes 20 minutes to clean and you need a retractable safety scraper for use with a single-edge razor blade and a ceramic-glass cooktop cleaning paste.

Now, i admit I'm not a great cook and not a great house cleaner. But, heh, i clean my coil cooktop every time I cook with water and paper towels (or a washable cloth), sometimes a Clorox wipe. It takes about 30 seconds. If the drip pans get really bad, you can replace them pretty cheaply, which I haven't done. We've had our coil cooktop for 20 years with one minor repair, $20, I believe.

The only reason I can think of to get a glass cooktop is for resale value. I think I'll wait.

The move comes after months of complaints about the new system. The food hall quietly removed the paid parking signs from its lot on Tuesday: "Just park and enjoy."

Good move.

Also, to me there should be a trolley, golf carts service, ferry across river, whatever that connects downtown, Old City, waterfronts, Sevier Ave, and Kerns. So you can park your car once and go to any of them.

Kern's Food Hall ditches unpopular paid parking system

From Knoxnews,

It is truly amazing U.S. Rep. Tim Burchett continues to embarrass and vote against East Tennesseans, this time by voting on Dec. 20 to shut down the federal government.

...
Consider our neighboring congressman, Chuck Fleischmann, who represents Oak Ridge. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee and actually gets things done for his district. He is conservative but not foolish.

And, what about his friendships with George Santos and Matt Gaetz?

A south Knoxville railway may soon become a trail connecting Chapman Highway and Ijams Nature Center.

On December 11, Gulf and Ohio Railways applied to abandon the 3.8 miles rail in south Knoxville, with the intent to give the property to the city of Knoxville and Legacy Parks Foundation. Now, Legacy Parks, who was already planning a trail in the area, is seeking to turn the rail into a greenway.

‘Rail-to-trail’: Legacy Parks aims to turn South Knoxville railroad into greenway

Rail-to-Trail: South Knoxville rail line to become urban trail