In 'very abnormal' development, longtime sponsors bail on San Francisco Pride

Several longtime corporate sponsors of San Francisco’s Pride celebrations are pulling their funding for the festivities, leaving Pride organizers searching for another way to raise $300,000.

In the past four weeks, multiple companies told San Francisco Pride, the nonprofit behind San Francisco’s annual Pride Parade and Civic Center celebration, that they would not support the 2025 Pride celebrations. In an interview with SFGATE, San Francisco Pride’s executive director, Suzanne Ford, said she was “really disappointed” by the developments.

In their communications with San Francisco Pride, the sponsors all cited a lack of funds. None of them mentioned the political climate. But Ford noted that it was “very abnormal” for several multiyear sponsors to suddenly drop their support for the event. A few sponsors pull their support every year, she said, but they typically do so after a series of conversations with the nonprofit.

“I just interpreted that companies are making decisions that at this time it’s not good to be sponsoring Pride,” Ford told SFGATE. “I think in this political environment that they thought that was a risky decision. But that’s just me reading the tea leaves. I think for a long-term sponsor not to sponsor us, they are responding to what we are.”

Ford told KTVU-TV that those sponsors included Comcast; Anheuser-Busch, the company behind Budweiser and Beck’s beer; wine company La Crema; and Diageo, the beverage company that produces Guinness, Smirnoff and other alcoholic drink brands. Aside from Comcast, all of those companies specialize in alcoholic beverages, a market that has become more volatile as Americans’ drinking preferences shift.

Janel Lubanski, a spokesperson for La Crema’s parent company, Jackson Family Wines, told SFGATE that the wine company still hopes to partner with San Francisco Pride but will not be able to do so in the same capacity as in previous years.

“We’re not stepping away from our support of the LGBTQ+ community,” she wrote in an email to SFGATE, noting that the wine industry is facing challenges and listing a series of Pride events in California that the company is still supporting, including Sonoma Pride, Windsor Pride and Palm Springs Pride.

Comcast, Anheuser-Busch and Diageo did not return requests for comment in time for publication.

San Francisco Pride has budgeted $3.2 million for its events on the weekend of June 28-29, Ford said, and of that sum, corporate sponsorships are meant to cover $2.3 million. The companies that withdrew represented a combined $300,000 in funding.

Earlier this month, Ford announced that San Francisco Pride was ending its relationship with Meta, the parent company of Facebook. The social media giant recently ended its major diversity, equity and inclusion programs and scaled back its content moderation policies. In an interview with KGO-TV, Ford noted that the nonprofit was pausing its relationships with sponsors that don’t align with San Francisco Pride’s values.

“I’m both proud and sad that we don’t have a relationship with Meta,” she told KGO-TV. “That was discontinued last year. So, at this moment, and I don’t see it being rectified, Meta will not be included.”

She invited concerned San Franciscans to donate to San Francisco Pride and to support the free celebrations by purchasing tickets to the nonprofit’s City Hall party and grandstand seating for the Pride Parade.

Ford didn’t hesitate when asked whether the Pride festivities June 28-29 would still go as planned. “We have no choice,” she told SFGATE. “There are too many people depending on us. We will find a way to find the funds.”

She said that she will keep knocking on doors to secure funding and hopes that wealthy donors can help the celebration get over the hill.

“I want to say to everyone, if you’re feeling helpless and that you have not had a way to stand up to what’s happening to the LGBTQ community right now, here’s your chance,” Ford said. “Come out on Pride weekend and make this the largest attended Pride ever, and that will send a clear statement to the federal government that here in San Francisco, we believe in inclusion and authenticity.”

https://www.sfgate.com/sf-culture/article/longtime-sponsors-bail-on-sf-pride-20226582.php

More older women becoming first-time moms amid U.S. fertility rate declines

For the first time in 2023, there were more births among women 40 and older than there were to teenage girls, according to a government report.

Amid growing evidence of slowing fertility rates in the United States, a new report contained a pair of surprising details from two divergent age groups: A growing number of women older than 40 are having children and a record low number of teenagers are giving birth.

The report, released earlier this month by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), showed that the U.S. fertility rate — the average number of children born to a woman during her reproductive years — continued its decadeslong slide through 2023, with American women having an average of 1.62 children, compared to 1.66 in 2021 and 2022.

Overall, the rate has declined 14% since 1990, driven largely by younger women under the age of 30 who are having fewer children.

For the first time in 2023, there were more births among women 40 and older than there were to teenage girls, a trend which aligns with both long-sought public health goals of decreasing teen births, while reflecting medical advancements which have allowed older women to have healthy pregnancies.

“There’s a flip in the age distribution,” said Elizabeth Wildsmith, a family demographer and sociologist at Child Trends, a nonpartisan research group.

In 1990, adolescents accounted for almost 13% of all births; in 2023, they made up 4%. And most critically, the fertility rate for girls ages 10 to 14 dropped from 1.4 to almost zero, something Wildsmith called “a success story” from a public health perspective.

At the same time, demographers are still trying to discern why women are choosing to become pregnant and give birth later. The most recent data show that most births now occur to women ages 30 to 34, while a decade ago the cohort that was most likely to give birth was 25 to 29.

As the average maternal age has increased, far more women ages 35 and older are also having children, according to the NCHS, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention which tallies all known births in the U.S. From 1990 to 2023, the fertility rate for women ages 35 to 39 increased 71%, and for women ages 40 to 44, the rate increased 127%.

Researchers say that there are a number of possible explanations for the gradual increase in the age of new mothers, including evolving social expectations and values; changes in technology and dating behavior; the economic burden of child rearing; and increasing college enrollment among women.

“All of those conditions shape when people want to start having children,” said Wildsmith, who also noted that when “women are able to control their fertility,” other opportunities — including professional, political and economic — become easier to access.

Teen births drop sharply

While the national decline in teen births has been hailed by public health officials, that decrease has not been uniform across all states, according to federal data. Southern states from West Virginia to Texas have higher rates of teen births than other regions, and the teen birth rate in Mississippi, Arkansas and Louisiana is double that of the national rate.

In Mississippi, for example, 53% of high school students did not use a condom the last time they had sex, according to a state youth risk behavior survey. Teen mothers are less likely to complete high school and, in Mississippi, about half of teen girls who give birth receive a high school diploma.

Still, the teen birth rate in Mississippi has dropped precipitously from 46.1 in 2012 to 23.6 in 2021, according to state data.

Dr. Samuel Jones, a family practice physician and the clinic director at the student health center at Jackson State University, said students can receive free or low-cost contraceptives, including birth control pills and long-acting methods such as injections and patches.

“We are advocates for healthy children,” he said. “Unplanned pregnancies may have an effect on our college students. They are career bound, and many are dating for the first time.”

Jones, who has practiced family medicine long enough in Mississippi that patients he knew as children are now parents themselves, says longer term contraceptives, including Depo Provera, an injectable long-acting birth control, have proved popular with teen patients – and their parents.

“The pills were somewhat problematic because the dropout rate was higher,” he said, adding that routine shots of Depo Provera give many parents peace of mind that their children will be protected from unplanned pregnancy.

The Affordable Care Act, signed by then-President Barack Obama in 2010, ushered in a new era of teen pregnancy prevention. The federal law required that preventative health care, which included all contraceptive products, be included with no co-pays or deductibles.

States with the lowest teen birth rates include New England, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Utah, Washington, California and Wisconsin, where there seems to be a connection between lower rates and comprehensive sex education, said Dr. Aisha Mays, founder of the Dream Youth Clinic in Oakland, California, and a clinical researcher with the UCSF Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health. Elements of those programs include medically accurate education about fertility anatomy, contraception, sexual consent and sexual readiness.

And just as vital for teens, she said, is insurance coverage and access to contraception without parental consent “so that young people can talk freely with a medical provider.”

Complications may increase with age

While many women become pregnant without medical intervention, advances in reproductive technology and expanded insurance coverage for fertility preservation and treatment have allowed women and couples to “prioritize their career and life goals,” said Dr. Arianna Cassidy, a maternal-fetal medicine specialist at University of California, San Francisco.

The risk of various pregnancy and fetal complications increases incrementally for women over age 35, she said. That includes the risk of certain genetic and chromosomal abnormalities including Down syndrome, and the risk of pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and postpartum hemorrhage.

“There’s not a switch that goes on at age 35 where all these things are going to happen, it’s more of a continuum,” she said.

Some of those risks can be mitigated with proactive medical care such as taking baby aspirin during pregnancy for those with risk factors for pre-eclampsia; prescribing medication to control blood pressure and gestational diabetes; and better awareness about the dangers of postpartum hemorrhage.

Adverse outcomes are still rare. The risk of pre-eclampsia, a dangerous hypertensive disorder that is poorly understood but remains a leading cause of maternal and perinatal mortality worldwide, is less than 5% among the general population of pregnant women.

Among women older than 40, Cassidy said, the risk doubles to about 10%.

“We’re seeing more and more people who come into pregnancy in their 40s who already have high blood pressure, kidney disease or diabetes,” she said. “Age is not a modifiable thing.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/health/rcna196809

Tesla removed as participant in 2025 Vancouver International Auto Show

Tesla has been removed from the Vancouver International Auto Show.

The decision was announced Tuesday afternoon, March 18, by Eric Nicholl, executive director of the 2025 event taking place this week at the Vancouver Convention Centre.

In a statement, Nicholl explained the American-based automaker was given multiple chances to voluntarily withdraw from the show.

"The Vancouver Auto Show’s primary concern is the safety of attendees, exhibitors, and staff," Nicholl added.

"This decision will ensure all attendees can be solely focused on enjoying the many positive elements of the event."

Canadians in several cities have joined a wave of "Tesla Takedown" protests to denounce CEO Elon Musk and his role advising U.S. President Donald Trump.

Hundreds of people attended an anti-Tesla protest in Vancouver this past Saturday at the Tesla dealership at W 4th Avenue and Fir Street.

The protests took place days after BC Hydro announced it was removing Tesla products from its electric vehicle rebate program.

The move is in line with B.C.'s efforts to prioritize Canadian goods and exclude American products from rebates when practical as the trade dispute between the two countries wears on.

"Crazy," wrote Musk on his social media site X (formerly known as Twitter), in response to a video of Premier David Eby speaking to the rebate ban.

The 2025 Vancouver International Auto Show runs Wednesday, March 19 to Sunday, March 23.

https://www.vancouverisawesome.com/local-news/tesla-removed-as-participant-in-2025-vancouver-international-auto-show-10394725

Chuck Schumer makes absolutely makes no sense.

https://x.com/CitizenFreePres/status/1902164344986652696

Who is Gary Underhill and why was he assassinated?

https://x.com/Timcast/status/1902152275075665987

Michael Shellenberger

@shellenberger

The former head of the UK's foreign intelligence agency, MI6, told Boris Johnson in early 2020 that the Covid virus escaped from the Wuhan lab. That means that the US, UK, Chinese, & German governments all knew the truth, covered it up, and spread disinformation. Case closed.

https://x.com/shellenberger/status/1901093982374904120

Newt Gingrich

@newtgingrich

Those upset by the emerging dictatorship of district court justices behaving as though they were president should read the Judiciary Act of 1802. Jefferson and his party completely revised the court system and abolished a series of federalist judges they deemed illegitimate. A warning to the current out of control judiciary.

https://x.com/newtgingrich/status/1901235197271552490

>>22786261

Sounds like he hates both sides and everything in general. Just a thorn in everyone's dick.

Judge says dismantling of USAID was unconstitutional, orders Musk to restore access for employees

Elon Musk's attempt to unilaterally dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development likely violated the United States Constitution, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang ordered Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to immediately give USAID employees access to their "email, payment, security notification, and all other electronic systems," and ordered a pause on any efforts to shut down USAID.

Judge Chuang wrote that Musk's takeover "usurped the authority of the public's elected representatives in Congress to make decisions on whether, when, and how to eliminate a federal government agency, and of Officers of the United States duly appointed under the Constitution to exercise the authority entrusted to them."

While Judge Chuang rebuked Musk's role within the Trump administration, the exact implications of the decision on the operations of USAID are unclear.

DOGE and Musk were also ordered to submit a written agreement within two weeks that ensures USAID can reoccupy its former headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington, D.C.

The foreign aid agency was among the first government agencies DOGE slashed in its effort to scale back or dismantle much of the federal government. The Trump administration has laid off thousands of employees, revoked funding for more than 80% of its programs, and shed its Washington, D.C. headquarters.

Critics of the Trump administration say its efforts to nullify the agency will cripple American influence overseas and carry devastating effects for some of the most vulnerable populations in the world, which relied on U.S. funding for health care, food, and other basic needs.

https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/story?id=119923733

Morgan Stanley to lay off about 2,000 employees to trim costs, source says

(Reuters) -Wall Street heavyweight Morgan Stanley is planning to lay off about 2,000 employees later this month, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Tuesday.

The reduction of 2% to 3% of the company's workforce, excluding financial advisers, was aimed at improving operational efficiency, the person said, requesting anonymity.

Morgan Stanley had more than 80,000 employees worldwide at the end of 2024. The layoffs were not related to current market conditions, the source said.

The bank's move follows a string of job cuts by Wall Street lenders in recent weeks as they prepare for an uncertain economic environment, especially after President Donald Trump's newly announced tariffs against trading partners.

Rival Goldman Sachs has brought forward its annual performance review process and plans to trim its staffing by 3% to 5%.

Bank of America has eliminated 150 junior banker roles in its investment banking arm, Reuters reported earlier this month.

Bloomberg News first reported the development at Morgan Stanley earlier in the day.

Some of the upcoming job cuts at the lender are tied to performance, while others are the result of changes to locations where the bank bases some of its workers, Bloomberg News reported.

Bankers had expected a robust rebound in capital markets this year after Trump's election, but that optimism has so far failed to translate into activity as clients grapple with the president's ever-changing tariff threats.

Morgan Stanley Co-President Daniel Simkowitz said at a conference on Tuesday that new equity issues and mergers and acquisitions are "certainly a bit on pause, or the bar is high because of some of the policy uncertainties".

Still, the bank was adding "real headcount" at senior levels of its investment banking arm, Simkowitz said.

(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru and Tatiana Bautzer in New York; Editing by Pooja Desai)

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/pfizer-inc-pfe-attracting-investor-130016800.html

LAWFARE: Judge Falsifies USAID Origins in Anti-Trump Order Rebuking ‘Unconstitutional’ Foreign Aid Freeze.

A federal judge, in a ruling aimed at restoring the core functions of the defunct United States Agency for International Development (USAID), appeared either to not know or, indeed, falsify how the agency was created. The bizarre error will now call into question the validity of his ruling Tuesday, which even seeks to reopen building access for dismissed USAID employees.U.S. District Court Judge Theodore D. Chuang, who serves on the Federal District Court of Maryland bench and was appointed by former President Barack Obama, claims that Congress created USAID and, therefore, it cannot be shut down solely through presidential authority. However, this is not the case.“For the foregoing reasons, the Court finds that Defendants’ actions taken to shut down USAID on an accelerated basis, including its apparent decision to permanently close USAID headquarters without the approval of a duly appointed USAID Officer, likely violated the United States Constitution in multiple ways, and that these actions harmed not only Plantiffs, but also the public interest, because they deprived the public’s elected representatives in Congress of their constitutional authority to decide whether, when, and how to close down agency created by Congress,” Judge Chuang wrote, ordering: “Accordingly, the Motion for a Preliminary Injunction will be GRANTED IN PART and DENIED IN PART. The Motion will be granted in that the Court will issue the accompanying Preliminary Injunction. The Motion will be otherwise denied.”While Chuang does not order that fired USAID workers be reinstated, the injunction does appear to restrict President Donald J. Trump‘s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) from making any further cuts to USAID. It leaves open the possibility that the agency could be restored entirely to its status before the U.S. State Department absorbed its functions. However, Judge Chuang’s order is based on an incorrect assertion regarding the constitutional nature of USAID itself.

HISTORY OF USAID.

Congress did not, in fact, create the foreign aid agency. Rather, it was created through an executive order signed in 1961 by the late President John F. Kennedy, as recently noted by The National Pulse Editor-in-Chief Raheem Kassam. Kennedy saw the agency’s mission as temporary, only necessary for an especially tense and strategically critical phase of the Cold War.Kennedy’s executive order aimed to create a new agency (USAID), consolidating several foreign aid organizations that already existed but were uncoordinated in their efforts. Congress did not create USAID but later provided authorizing language under the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act of 1998. Specifically, the law’s language states: “…there is within the Executive branch of Government the United States Agency for International Development…”Again, Judge Chuang’s ruling runs into a problem, as the eventual authorizing statute only states that such an agency in name shall exist—but it leaves specific functions up to the executive branch. However, Judge Chuang appears to be ordering the reinstatement of certain functions, something not granted by Congress to the judiciary and statutorily granted to the President.Additionally, the 1998 law gives the President a degree of leeway in reforming the agency, which arguably President Donald J. Trump did in transferring most of its core functions to the State Department.

https://thenationalpulse.com/analysis-post/lawfare-judge-falsifies-usaid-origins-in-anti-trumporder-rebuking-unconstitutional-foreign-aid-freeze/

Literally Cash Cows: Gangs Allegedly Smuggling Drugs Across Border Inside Cattle

The Mexican cartels appear to be smuggling drugs into the U.S. inside cows, according to sources interviewed at the border in Texas and New Mexico last week. The cartels are known to use cattle cars to smuggle drugs, but also seem to be using the cattle themselves as couriers.

“When they do the spaying process, they’ll ship the drugs in the cows,” Hudspeth County, Texas, Sheriff Arvin West told The Daily Signal, adding the cartels are nothing if not ”creative.”

Sporting a cowboy hat and a badge pinned to his chest, West said the cartels began using bovine couriers for drugs when Mexico started shipping more heifers—young female cows that have never given birth—into the U.S. due to shrinking U.S. cattle inventory.

The U.S. imported more than 1.2 million head of cattle from Mexico in 2024, a little over 400,000 of which were heifers, according to Oklahoma State University. U.S. regulation requires every heifer be spayed in Mexico before entering the U.S., and the cartels found a way to exploit this U.S. policy.

Former New Mexico state Sen. Steve McCutcheon is a cattle rancher himself and explained the practice to The Daily Signal during a visit in Luna County, New Mexico.

The cartels have a network of livestock buyers in Mexico who pay cash for cattle, McCutcheon said. When the heifers are spayed, if the cow is being used for smuggling, a vacuum sealed bag of drugs is inserted inside before the animal’s flank is stapled back together, he explained.

Dr. Gary Thrasher, a large-animal veterinarian based near the border in Arizona, spent over a decade working with veterinarians in Mexico to train them how to properly spay heifers. Cattle are not prone to infection in the same way horses or other large animals are, Thrasher told The Daily Signal on a call Monday.

“It’s really a rare thing for a cow to have an infection,” Thrasher said, explaining that it would be possible for a cow to be physically unaffected by a sealed bag of drugs inside it. While putting a bag of drugs in a heifer would not be difficult, removal would be challenging, Thrasher said, adding that it would also be expensive, but after spending years working on both sides of the border, the veterinarian said, the cartels “may be doing it.”

The cartels operate their own trucking companies that are legitimate American businesses, but are “owned and funded by the cartels,” McCutcheon said. While the cattles’ papers are checked at the border, detection of drugs inside animals poses a unique challenge to Customs and Border Protection officials.

Once the cattle make it through a port of entry, the cartels remove the drugs from the cattle in the U.S. before the animals are sold in a legal sale. Then, the cartels trade the drugs for cash in the U.S., the drug money is hidden inside the trucks that go back into Mexico, and that cash can then be used to buy more cattle, and the cycle repeats, McCutcheon explained.

“This is something we have not encountered, nor is there any evidence to suggest that this is happening at the Santa Teresa port-of-entry cattle crossing,” Roger Maier, public affairs specialist for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, told The Daily Signal in an email Monday.

The Daily Signal also reached out to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service to ask whether the office was aware of this possible methodology of drug smuggling.

“Combating drug smuggling is not part of the APHIS mission,” Michael Stepien, a spokesman for the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, told The Daily Signal when asked about the unique drug smuggling technique.

Over the course of his 29-year career at the CBP, Robert Perez says he never encountered a cow being used to smuggle drugs into the U.S., but added such a practice “does not surprise me, because the lengths with which the cartels … will go to smuggle and conceal the drugs, it really knows no bounds.”

Perez, who retired in 2021 after serving as CBP deputy commissioner for more than three years, says during his career, the CBP did encounter a dog being used to smuggle drugs into the U.S.

“I’ve seen … planted narcotics in dogs where … quite inhumanely—cruelly, you know—the animals were operated on, and then drugs were inserted in to the animal in a way that … would allow the animal to obviously persevere through coming through the border only to then later have the drugs extracted,” Perez said in a call Monday.

Using cattle and cattle cars to smuggle the drugs is not only appealing to cartels due to the detection challenges, but cattle cars tend to move faster than other trucks, according to James Frietze, who spent 25 years serving in the New Mexico State Police, retiring in 2019.

During transport, cows lose weight because they are not eating, Frietze explained. The faster the livestock can reach their destination, the less weight they lose, the healthier they stay, and the more money the seller makes. Likewise, more drugs moving into the U.S. faster also means more money for the cartels.

Speaking over a cup of coffee in downtown El Paso, Texas, Frietze told The Daily Signal some in law enforcement in New Mexico think the cartels are backing away from human smuggling due to President Donald Trump’s actions to secure the border. Instead, the cartels are expected to increase drug smuggling; specifically, of methylphenidate and cocaine. Methylphenidate is used to treat attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder.

Given increased security at the border under the Trump administration, the cartels are “going to start doing more tunnels,” Frietze said, noting that U.S. law enforcement’s use of drones is pushing some drug smuggling underground.

In January, authorities discovered a tunnel under the border wall connecting Juárez, Mexico, to El Paso.

CBP seized 275,000 pounds of drugs at the southern border in fiscal year 2024. Already in fiscal year 2025, which began Oct. 1, CBP has seized more than 81,000 pounds of drugs at the southern border.

Frietze says his concern is the drug smuggling will increase in New Mexico “because Texas is doing what it needs to do” to secure its border.

https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/03/17/cartels-cattle-gangs-could-be-smuggling-drugs-across-border-inside-bovines-sources-say/

Van hits pedestrians killing woman near Somerset House as police arrest 'drug-driver'

A woman has died after a van collided with pedestrians on the Strand in central London.

Police and paramedics scrambled to the scene on the junction with Melbourne Place, Aldwych just after 12pm on Tuesday.

A woman in her 20s has been pronounced dead at the scene, officers said. Two pedestrians have been taken to hospital, one with potentially life-threatening injuries.

Scotland Yard said the incident, which happened close to the entrance to King's College London and Somerset House, was not terror related.

Photographs taken at the scene show paramedics treating a person on the ground.

In a statement, police said: “The driver of the van, a 26-year-old man was arrested at the scene on suspicion causing death by careless driving and driving with concentration of specified controlled drug above specified limit.

“He remains in custody.”

There is significant traffic disruption in the area and members of the public are urged to avoid the location while emergency services continue their response.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/strand-crash-live-van-hits-130408202.html

GOP Rep Unveils Bill To Prevent Federal Dollars From Subsidizing Sex Change Surgeries

Republican South Dakota Rep. Dusty Johnson will introduce legislation Tuesday to bar healthcare entities from using some federal dollars to subsidize sex change surgeries and hormone replacement therapies.

Johnson’s No 340B Savings for Transgender Care Act would prohibit healthcare entities from using savings under the 340B drug pricing program to offer free or discounted sex change procedures to uninsured or low-income Americans. The legislation would ensure that healthcare entities are not pushing left-wing gender ideology with savings derived from participation in the program, according to background on the bill obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Congress created the 340B program in 1992 to stretch eligible healthcare entities’ federal dollars by requiring drug manufacturers participating in Medicaid to sell discounted drugs to eligible healthcare entities, which allows them to use the derived savings to provide additional services and expand healthcare access. Some healthcare entities in blue states, such as Howard Brown Health in Chicago, Illinois, have publicized that they use their 340B savings on sex-altering procedures, including “hormone therapy, group therapy and gender-affirming surgical navigation.”

Between 2018 and 2023, 16 states funneled more than $165 million in funding to so-called “gender-transition services,” including so-called puberty blockers and sex change surgeries.

Sex-altering procedures are especially expensive for uninsured patients, ranging from up to $15,000 for just genital reconstruction, to $50,000 for genital reconstruction, facial alteration and breast removal, according to the DCNF’s previous reporting.

Individuals who undergo sex-change procedures will also need to remain on hormone replacement therapy for the remainder of their life, which can cost as much as $1,500 per year.

“The federal government should not be subsidizing hormone therapies and gender altering surgeries when our nation faces significant health crises,” according to background on the bill shared with the DCNF.

Former President Joe Biden’s administration and Democratic-led states oversaw a massive increase in taxpayer-funded child sex-change procedures, the DCNF previously learned.

“Transgender surgeries do not qualify as essential, life-saving health care,” Johnson told the DCNF. “Low- income families and rural communities rely on programs like 340B for their health care. Ensuring these dollars are spent where they are needed the most will keep the program sustainable and as effective as possible to help those in need.”

“[T]his crucial program has been hijacked to fund and promote dangerous and elective procedures disguised as ‘gender-affirming care’ – including chemical and surgical castration,” Riley Gaines, host of the Gaines for Girls podcast and women’s sports advocate, told the DCNF. “This blatant misuse of taxpayer dollars diverts resources away from the program’s true mission: addressing urgent health needs and fighting real public health crises.”

The bill is cosponsored by Republican Reps. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma, Michael Rulli of Ohio, Austin Scott of Georgia, Mike Ezell of Mississippi, Barry Moore of Alabama, John Rose of Tennessee and Dan Crenshaw of Texas.

https://dailycallernewsfoundation.org/2025/03/18/exclusive-gop-rep-bill-federal-dollars-subsidizing-sex-change-surgeries/

Meet the Judge denying the Trump administration’s move to fire bureaucrats at six federal agencies

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1902048353023586792.html

China’s home prices drop for 21st straight month as property recovery remains elusive

China’s new-home prices fell for the 21st straight month in February as a recovery continued to elude the key economic sector, underscoring the need for more bold measures to stabilise the market.

Across 70 mainland cities, February new-home prices dropped 0.1 per cent month on month, the same decline recorded in January, according to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Monday. Prices for new homes fell 5.2 per cent year on year, slightly less steep than the 5.4 per cent year-on-year drop in January.

Second-hand home prices fell 0.3 per cent month on month in February across the 70 cities, the same decline as in January. On an annual basis, they fell 7.5 per cent, adding to a 7.8 per cent loss in January.

“Since February is a traditionally slow season for the market, such a decrease is normal,” said Yan Yuejin, vice-president of Shanghai-based E-House China Real Estate Research Institute. “In the first half of the year, the housing price index will experience a continued narrowing of declines, with some cities leading the price increases.”

Across China’s four top-tier cities – Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen – new-home prices edged up 0.1 per cent month on month in February, the same increase as January. Second-hand home prices in those cities lost 0.1 per cent last month, after a 0.1 per cent gain in January.

New-homes prices were unchanged in second-tier cities, including Tianjin, Wuhan and Chengdu, compared with a 0.1 per cent rise in January. Prices of second-hand homes in those cities slipped 0.4 per cent, adding to a 0.1 per cent drop in January.

https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/3302619/chinas-home-prices-drop-21st-straight-month-property-recovery-remains-elusive?mod=sponsored_main

Hundreds of Aussie Surfers Sick from Mysterious Sea Foam

A mysterious sea foam has appeared on South Australia’s shores, making surfers sick and killing marine life from fish to octopuses and more. The foamy phenomena has washed ashore at Waitpinga and Parsons Beach, near Adelaide, and has resulted in hundreds of surfers falling ill.

“It’s just covered in a really heavy, dense, yellow foam, with a fair bit of green, slimy, scummy stuff on the beach at the tidelines,” local surfer Anthony Rowland told The Guardian. After surfing amidst the foam, Rowland reported: “I was really raspy. It was sort of like when you inhale a potent cleaning product, if you’re cleaning a kitchen sink or something. It hit the back of my throat.”

As of now, it’s unclear whether or not the foam is related to ex-Tropical Cyclone Alfred, which slammed Australia’s east coast recently. However, that region experienced a similar situation.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency, a spokesperson reported:

“The EPA have received multiple reports that dead fish and seahorses could be found on shore and that there was red staining on the sand and foam on the beaches.

“The Epa are working with other agencies … to attend the scene and take water samples.

“It is believed the event could be due to a microalgal bloom that has been driven by hot temperatures and still water and an ongoing marine heatwave, with temperatures currently 2.5C warmer than usual, with little wind and small swell contributing to conditions.”

As for the foam on the beaches seen during TC Alfred on the Gold Coast, per the precautionary video from ABC above:

“It probably contains lots of sewage, made up of poop, pharmaceuticals, detergent from people’s laundries, and more…it’s best to avoid playing in the foam.”

https://www.surfer.com/nes/outerknown-bureo-partner-new-apex-evolution-trunks