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Editorial: Medicare Advantage not so great for taxpayers

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

Every year, from mid-October to early December, millions of Medicare beneficiaries get the chance to pick a new health plan. With dozens to choose from and a blizzard of advertising, more seniors are going with the simplest, cheapest option: privately run plans known as Medicare Advantage.Such plans are a one-stop-shop. They typically offer perks excluded from traditional Medicare, such as vision and dental coverage, with low or zero premiums and caps on out-of-pocket spending. Despite more limited networks of doctors and hospitals, most seniors who’ve signed up say they’re happy with the choice.Yet Medicare Advantage has drawbacks — notably, its exorbitant cost. Government reports show the program routinely overcharges taxpayers relative to original Medicare — to the tune of $27 billion this year alone — at a time when the system’s solvency is at risk.With more than half of enrollees now covered by Medicare Advantage — a share expected to grow briskly — the program could well displ...

Soccer notebook: Painful loss in 2022 drives Billerica boys

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

BILLERICA — Billerica’s boys soccer program has established itself as one of the state’s elite, and its recent success is somewhat newfound.“We can score goals,” said Billerica soccer coach John Vassallo. “So that helps. We’ve got some guys that we moved around, couple guys that played midfield last year that are playing central defense this year, and we have a goalie who’s a junior and is coming into his own. He has been tremendous also.”Last fall, the Indians reached the Div. 2 playoff field as the No. 11 seed with a record of 11-2-5, only to be bounced in the Round of 32 (a 2-1 loss to Nauset).“It really helped motivate us, the loss last year,” said Vassallo. “Because we had a home game, so we thought we were going to be able to go a little bit further than we did. But reality kicked in, finding a program like Nauset who has always been really good. They knew how to win in the playoffs, and we didn’t. These  guys dedicated themselves for the summer, and said our goal is to ...

‘Sideways’ team reunites for ‘The Holdovers’

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

It took 10 years but with “The Holdovers,” Paul Giamatti and director Alexander Payne reunite for the first time since the Oscar-winning “Sideways.”An offbeat buddy comedy set in 1970 at an all-boys Massachusetts boarding school, the title refers to Giamatti’s single, dedicated but universally hated, long-term teacher Paul Hunham who is to supervise the few students that remain at Barton Academy over Christmas vacation.Thus a life-changing journey begins for Hunham with his troubled, if brilliant, student Angus Tully (Dominic Sessa in his screen debut).While Payne won his Oscar co-scripting “Sideways,” “Holdovers” lists him only as director.  This project didn’t begin with David Hemingson’s script because, Payne said in a post screening conversation, “There was no script.“I got the idea for the movie from a fairly obscure 1935 French film called ‘Merlusse’ by the director Marcel Pagnol, who has other masterpieces. That’s maybe one of his more forgotten films. But I saw it at a...

Dear Abby: Tipsy relatives put wedding plans on the rocks

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

Dear Abby: My nephew is getting married soon, and he and his father are having issues with the guest list. My brother-in-law has a few immediate family members who don’t know their limit when it comes to alcohol, and my nephew is worried that if they’re invited, they’ll abuse the open bar and embarrass the family.My nephew doesn’t want to invite these family members to his wedding. My brother-in-law says he will speak to them beforehand to warn them about their alcohol intake, but he insists he won’t attend the wedding if these family members aren’t invited. Neither one is budging, and what is supposed to be a happy occasion is becoming a battleground. Please offer some words of advice that will work for all. — Anti-Alcohol AuntieDear Auntie: I’ll try. A wedding celebrates more than the joining of two people in matrimony, it is also the joining together of TWO FAMILIES. Sooner or later, your nephew’s wife and in-laws are going to...

At China military forum, Russian defense minister accuses the US of fueling geopolitical tensions

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

BEIJING (AP) — Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Monday the United States is fueling geopolitical tensions to uphold its “hegemony” and warned of the risk of confrontation between major countries.Speaking at a defense forum in Beijing, Shoigu also said the U.S. and its Asia-Pacific allies are undermining stability in the region.“To maintain its geopolitical and strategic dominance, the United States is deliberately undermining the basis of international security and strategic stability,” Shoigu said, according to a simultaneous translation provided at the Xiangshan Forum, which China’s biggest annual event centered on military diplomacy.He added that the U.S. and its Western allies are threatening Russia through NATO’s “eastward expansion.” “Western countries aim to escalate the conflict with Russia and increase the risk of major country confrontation,” he said. “This will lead to serious consequences.” Turning to Russia’s war in Ukraine, Shoigu said Moscow was open ...

As economy falters, more Chinese migrants take a perilous journey to the US border to seek asylum

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The young Chinese man looked lost and exhausted when Border Patrol agents left him at a transit station. Deng Guangsen, 28, had spent the last two months traveling to San Diego from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong, through seven countries on plane, bus and foot, including traversing Panama’s dangerous Darién Gap jungle. “I feel nothing,” Deng said in the San Diego parking lot, insisting on using the broken English he learned from the “Harry Potter” film series. “I have no brother, no sister. I have nobody.”Deng is part of a major influx of Chinese migration to the United States on a relatively new and perilous route that has become increasingly popular with the help of social media. Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year, according to Panamanian immigration authorities. Chinese asylum-seekers who spoke to The Associated Press, ...

Takeaways from AP’s reporting on Chinese migrants who traverse the Darién Gap to reach the US

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The U.S. is seeing a big increase in Chinese immigrants arriving using a relatively new and perilous route through Panama’s Darién Gap jungle, thanks in part to social media posts and videos providing step-by-step guidance. Chinese people were the fourth-highest nationality, after Venezuelans, Ecuadorians and Haitians, crossing the Darién Gap during the first nine months of this year, according to Panamanian immigration authorities. Chinese migrants using this route fly to Ecuador and then make their way north to the U.S.-Mexico border.Chinese migrants interviewed by The Associated Press said they are seeking to escape an increasingly repressive political climate and bleak economic prospects.Here are some takeaways from the AP’s reporting:HOW MANY CHINESE MIGRANTS ARE COMING THROUGH THE DARIÉN GAP?The monthly number of Chinese migrants crossing the Darién has been rising gradually, from 913 in January to 2,588 in September. For the first nine months of this year, Pa...

Illinois man to appear in court on hate crime and murder charges in attack on Muslim mother and son

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — A man accused of murder, attempted murder and a hate crime in an attack on a Palestinian-American woman and her young son is scheduled to appear in court on Monday following his indictmen t by an Illinois grand jury.Joseph Czuba, 71, is expected to enter a plea at an arraignment on eight counts in the indictment filed last week. He is charged in the fatal stabbing of Wadea Al-Fayoume, 6, and the wounding of Hanaan Shahin on Oct. 14. Authorities said the victims were targeted because of their Muslim faith.Shahin told police that Czuba, her landlord in Plainfield in Will County, was upset over the Israel-Hamas war and attacked them after she had urged him to “pray for peace.”Shahin, 32, is recovering from multiple stab wounds. Hundreds of people attended her son’s funeral on Oct. 16.The murder charge in the indictment against Czuba describes the boy’s death as the result of “exceptionally brutal or heinous behavior.”Defense attorney George Lenard has sa...

Court arguments begin in effort to bar Trump from presidential ballot under ‘insurrection’ clause

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

DENVER (AP) — The campaign to use the U.S. Constitution’s “insurrection” clause to bar former President Donald Trump from running for the White House again enters a new phase this week as hearings begin in two states on lawsuits that might end up reaching the U.S. Supreme Court.A weeklong hearing on one lawsuit to bar Trump from the ballot in Colorado begins Monday, while on Thursday oral arguments are scheduled before the Minnesota Supreme Court on an effort to kick the former president off the ballot in that state.Whether the judges keep Trump on the ballot or boot him, their rulings are likely to be swiftly appealed, eventually to the U.S. Supreme Court. The nation’s highest court has never ruled on the Civil War-era provision in the 14th Amendment that prohibits those who swore an oath to uphold the constitution and then “engaged in insurrection” against it from holding higher office.“We’ve had hearings with presidential candidates debating their eligibility be...

Idaho left early education up to families. One town set out to get universal preschool anyway

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 15:21:03 GMT

AMERICAN FALLS, Idaho (AP) — After reading a book about the five senses to a semicircle of rapt 4-year-olds, Abi Hawker tells the children in her afternoon preschool class that she has a surprise for them.She drags a small popcorn maker onto the carpet and asks them to consider: Which of their senses might be activated when she pours the kernels into the machine? When the kernels heat up? When the popcorn begins to pop?Moments later, the children shriek with joy as the corn kernels burst. While Hawker explains what the kids are seeing, she asks them questions that connect back to the day’s lesson. From the activity, the class transitions to snack time, stimulating two more senses: touch and taste. A few years ago, this experience would’ve been inaccessible to nearly half of the children in Hawker’s classroom. Their families don’t make enough money to afford early childhood education. Other kids come from families who may have the means but, until recently, didn’t make early learning...