Tag: NH State Wire

What to know about the impacts Medicaid cuts are having on rural health care

FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) — The closing of a health center in rural New Hampshire has raised concerns that the projected cuts in Medicaid are already taking a toll.

Last month, a site of the Ammonoosuc Community Health Services in Franconia, a town of around 1,000 people, closed for good.

Ammonoosuc officials and a Democratic senator have blamed Medicaid cuts for the closure of the facility that served 1,400 patients from Franconia, Easton, Lincoln and Sugar Hill. These are all tiny communities around the White Mountains, whose patients typically are older and sicker than in other parts of the state.

Threats to rural health care

The closure of the Franconia center reflects the financial struggles facing community health centers and rural health care systems more broadly amid Medicaid cuts and a feared spike in health insurance rates. The government shutdown, which ended last week, was driven by a Democratic demand to extend tax credits, which ensure low- and middle-income people can afford health insurance through the Affordable Care Act, or ACA.

More than 100 hospitals closed over the past decade, according to the Center For Healthcare Quality and Payment Reform, a policy and advocacy group, and more than 700 more hospitals are at risk of closure. A branch of the HealthFirst Family Care Center, a facility in Canaan, New Hampshire also announced it was closing at the end of October due in part to “changes in Medicaid reimbursement and federal funding” for these facilities.

On average, the federally-funded community health centers like the one in Franconia are losing money, relying heavily on cash reserves, making service changes and sometimes closing locations to stay afloat, NACHC found. Nearly half have less than 90 days’ cash on hand, according to the association. And the future is even more bleak with at least 2 million community health center patients expected to lose Medicaid coverage by 2034 and 2 million more who are newly uninsured turning to the centers for care.

Hard choices for CEO

Ed Shanshala, the CEO of Ammonoosuc, said the Medicaid cuts are to blame for the closure of the Franconia center.

Shanshala runs a network of five health centers in New Hampshire which relies more than $2 million in federal funding — out of a $12 million budget. He faced a $500,000 shortfall due to the cuts and realized closing Franconia would save about half that money. It also was the only facility where they leased space.

“We’re really left with no choice,” Shanshala said, adding the closure would save $250,000. Finding additional cuts is hard, given that the centers provide services to anyone under 200% of federal poverty levels, he said. And if he cuts additional services, Shanshala fears some patients will end up in a hospital emergency room or “stop engaging in health care period.”

Patients struggle to adjust

Susan Bushby, a 70-year-old housekeeper, talked about how much she loved the staff and feared going to a new health center. She wouldn’t know her way around a larger facility and wouldn’t have the same rapport with the people there.

“I was very disturbed. I was down right angry,” said Bushby, who was brought to tears as she discussed the challenges of starting over at a new health center. “I just really like it there. I don’t know, I’m just really going to miss it. It’s really hard for me to explain, but it’s going to be sad.”

Marsha Luce, whose family moved from Washington, D.C. area, in 2000, is especially concerned about the impact on her 72-year-old husband, a former volunteer firefighter who has a left ear and part of his jaw removed due to cancer. He also has heart and memory issues.

She worries about longer waits to see his doctor and the loss of relationships built up over decades in Franconia.

“It’s going to be hard,” she said. “But it’s a relationship that’s going to be missed. It’s a relationship that you can talk to people and you tell them something and you go, yeah, well, I’ve had cancer. Oh, let’s see. Oh, yeah. There it is in your chart. Do you know what I mean?”

Source link

November 19, 2025
PHOTO ESSAY: A health center’s closure leaves unanswered questions in this New England mountain town

FRANCONIA, N.H. (AP) — For more than two decades, residents in this tiny tourist town in the shadow of the White Mountains knew they could just drive a few minutes down the road to their community health center for a physical, a Vitamin B-12 shot or to get checked out for a case of the sniffles or high blood pressure.

But that changed last month, when this site of the Ammonoosuc Community Health Services in Franconia closed.

Employees at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services pack up the reception office as the clinic closes for good, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The Franconia Range of the White Mountains dominates the landscape, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Sugar Hill, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The nearly 1,400 patients, who are often older and with more health problems than others in New Hampshire, will have to drive farther for their health care — a tricky prospect for some, especially during the winter months. More importantly, they will lose the close-knit bonds they forged with staffers like Diane LaDuke, who greets everyone with a smile from her perch at the front desk.

Marsha Luce, a patient at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, delivers food to a Head Start program, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Littleton, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Marsha Luce, a patient at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, wears a mask to avoid spreading her cold while volunteering at a local church, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Marsha Luce, left, a patient at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services clinic, speaks with a friend while doing volunteer work at a community church food pantry, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Marsha, left, and Kirk Luce, both patients at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, prepare dinner, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, at their home in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Town Hall stands behind a pair of colorful maple trees, Wednesday, Oct. 22, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

On the center’s last day, longtime patient Susan Bushby, a 70-year-old housekeeper, stopped by to check her blood pressure — and to get a hug from LaDuke. Bushby had come to rely on LaDuke’s comforting words over the years and admits she is worried about finding the same kind of reception when she goes to one of Ammonoosuc’s other centers.

Susan Bushby, right, a patient at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, and her son, Steven, sit in their home, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Lisbon, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

“I just really like it there. I don’t know, I’m just really going to miss it. It’s really hard for me to explain, but it’s going to be sad,” Bushby said.

Susan Bushby, a patient at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, lights a cigarette at her home, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Lisbon, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.

Follow on

Exhausted from working several weeks straight at a nearby inn, Bushby was talking about the center as she relaxed on her couch at her modest home in Lisbon. She often ends her day with cigarette and a glass of champagne. An avid angler, Bushby’s house was filled with photos and other Native American memorabilia and her dog Smiley was a constant presence.

A fisherman casts for trout at Pearl Lake, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Lisbon, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Susan Bushby, a patient at the Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, offers an apple to deer passing through her backyard, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Lisbon, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

As she talked about the center closing, Bushby had a basket of apples on the kitchen counter ready for the deer that show up in her backyard almost every day. She joked that the center’s doctor, Dr. Melissa Buddensee, doubles as her therapist at times because she “listens to her where other people don’t.”

For another patient, Marsha Luce, it’s mostly about ensuring her husband gets the kind of care he had come to rely on over the years. Recovering from cancer that resulted in him losing part of his left ear and jaw, Luce worries about longer waits to see his doctor and the loss of relationships built up over decades in Franconia.

Susan Bushby is weighed during an appointment at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Receptionist Diane LaDuke, right, shares a laugh with longtime patient Susan Bushby at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

Susan Bushby looks at her medical paperwork after an appointment at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

The family, who moved to Franconia about 25 years ago, live in an old farmhouse that they renovated. Much of Luce’s time is spent caring for her husband, including keeping track of his appointment dates and all the various medications he needs to take. She also is a regular presence in the community, playing mahjong weekly with friends at the library and volunteering with the Head Start program.

Having to switch to another health center, she said, puts at risk the trust she and her husband have built up over the years at Ammonoosuc.

An exam table is moved onto a trailer on the final day of operation at Ammonoosuc Community Health Services as the clinic closes for good, Thursday, Oct. 23, 2025, in Franconia, N.H. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

“It’s going to be hard,” said Luce, who was wearing a mask because she had a cold. “It’s a relationship that you can talk to people and you tell them something and you go, yeah, well, I’ve had cancer. Oh, let’s see. Oh, yeah. There it is in your chart. Do you know what I mean?”

___

This is a documentary photo story curated by AP photo editors.

Source link

November 19, 2025
A lesser-known Farmers’ Almanac will fold after 2 centuries, citing money trouble

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — It’s the Maine one, not the main one — a 208-year-old, Maine-based publication that farmers, gardeners and others have relied on for planting guidance and weather predictions will publish for the final time.

The Farmers’ Almanac, not to be confused with its older, longtime competitor, The Old Farmer’s Almanac in neighboring New Hampshire, said Thursday that its 2026 edition will be its last. The almanac cited the growing financial challenges of producing and distributing the book in today’s “chaotic media environment.” Access to the online version will cease next month.

The Farmers’ Almanac was first printed in 1818 and the Old Farmer’s Almanac started in 1792, and it’s believed to be the oldest continually published periodical in North America. Both almanacs used secret formulas based on sunspots, planetary positions and lunar cycles to generate long-range weather forecasts.

“It is with a heavy heart,” Editor Sandi Duncan said in a statement, “that we share the end of what has not only been an annual tradition in millions of homes and hearths for hundreds of years, but also a way of life, an inspiration for many who realize the wisdom of generations past is the key to the generations of the future.”

Editors at the other publication noted there’s been some confusion between the two. “The OLD Farmer’s Almanac isn’t going anywhere,” they posted online.

Stay up to date with the news and the best of AP by following our WhatsApp channel.

Follow on

The two publications come from an era where hundreds of almanacs served a nation of farmers over time. Most were regional publications and no longer exist. The Farmers’ Almanac was founded in New Jersey and moved its headquarters to Lewiston, Maine, in 1955.

They contain gardening tips, trivia, jokes, and natural remedies, such as catnip as a pain reliever and elderberry syrup as an immune booster. But its weather forecasts make the most headlines.

Scientists sometimes disputed the accuracy of the predictions and the reliability of the secret formula. Studies of the almanacs’ accuracy have found them to be a little more than 50% accurate, or slightly better than random chance.

The almanac was a “quaint relic” with a special kind of charm, but its use as a forecasting tool was debatable, said Val Kiddings, a senior fellow at the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation and a longtime researcher of science and agriculture.

“It might have had some value looking back, as a historical indicator,” Giddings said, “but I never took any of its prognostications at all seriously.”

Readers, saddened to hear the news, posted online about how they used it in their families for generations as a guide to help them plant gardens and follow the weather.

Julie Broomhall in San Diego, California, told The Associated Press in a social media post that she’s used the Farmers’ Almanac for years to decide when to take trips and plant flowers.

She said she planned a three-month, cross-country trip last year by reading the almanac. On one leg of it, she left Oklahoma the day before a prediction for a major snowstorm in the area. It snowed.

“I missed several I-40 mishaps because of the predictions,” she wrote.

In 2017, when the Farmers’ Almanac reported a circulation of 2.1 million in North America, its editor said it was gaining new readers among people interested in where their food came from and who were growing fresh produce in home gardens. It developed followers online and sent a weekly email to readers in addition to its printed editions.

Many of these readers lived in cities, prompting the publication to feature skyscrapers as well as an old farmhouse on its cover.

Among Farmers’ Almanac articles from the past is one from 1923 urging folks to remember “old-fashioned neighborhoodliness” in the face of newfangled technology like cars, daily mail and telephones. Editors urged readers in 1834 to abandon tobacco and, in 1850, promoted the common bean leaf to combat bedbugs.

The almanac had some forward-thinking advice for women in 1876, telling them to learn skills to avoid being dependent on finding a husband. “It is better to be a woman than a wife, and do not degrade your sex by making your whole existence turn on the pivot of matrimony,” it counseled.

___

McCormack reported from Concord, New Hampshire.

Source link

November 7, 2025
New Jersey man pleads guilty in smuggling scheme intended to aid Russia’s war effort

NEW YORK (AP) — A New Jersey man who was among seven people charged with smuggling electronic components to aid Russia’s war effort pleaded guilty Friday to conspiracy to commit bank fraud and other charges, authorities said.

Vadim Yermolenko, 43, faces up to 30 years in prison for his role in a transnational procurement and money laundering network that sought to acquire sensitive electronics for Russian military and intelligence services, Breon Peace, the U.S. attorney in Brooklyn, said in a statement.

Yermolenko, who lives in Upper Saddle River, New Jersey and has dual U.S. and Russian citizenship, was indicted along with six other people in December 2022.

Prosecutors said the conspirators worked with two Moscow-based companies controlled by Russian intelligence services to acquire electronic components in the U.S. that have civilian uses but can also be used to make nuclear and hypersonic weapons and in quantum computing.

The exporting of the technology violated U.S. sanctions, prosecutors said.

The prosecution was coordinated through the Justice Department’s Task Force KleptoCapture, an interagency entity dedicated to enforcing sanctions imposed after Russian invaded Ukraine.

Attorney General Merrick Garland said in statement that Yermolenko “joins the nearly two dozen other criminals that our Task Force KleptoCapture has brought to justice in American courtrooms over the past two and a half years for enabling Russia’s military aggression.”

A message seeking comment was sent to Yermolenko’s attorney with the federal public defender’s office.

Prosecutors said Yermolenko helped set up shell companies and U.S. bank accounts to move money and export-controlled goods. Money from one of his accounts was used to purchase export-controlled sniper bullets that were intercepted in Estonia before they could be smuggled into Russia, they said.

One of Yermolenko’s co-defendants, Alexey Brayman of Merrimack, New Hampshire, pleaded guilty previously to conspiracy to defraud the United States and is awaiting sentencing.

Another, Vadim Konoshchenok, a suspected officer with Russia’s Federal Security Service, was arrested in Estonia and extradited to the United States. He was later released from U.S. custody as part of a prisoner exchange that included Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and other individuals.

The four others named in the indictment are Russian nationals who remain at large, prosecutors said.

Source link

November 4, 2024
OceanGate employee pushes back against idea of ‘desperation’ to complete missions

A key employee with the company that owned the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic pushed back at a question from a Coast Guard investigator about whether OceanGate felt a sense of “desperation” to complete the dives because of the high price tag.

Amber Bay, director of administration for the company that owned the doomed Titan submersible, insisted Tuesday that the company would not “conduct dives that would be risky just to meet a need.”

But she agreed that the company wanted to deliver for those who paid $250,000 and were encouraged to participate as “mission specialists.”

“There definitely was an urgency to deliver on what we had offered and a dedication and perseverance towards that goal,” she told a Coast Guard panel.

OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the submersible imploded in June 2023.

The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the troubled nature of the company.

On Tuesday, Bay pushed back at earlier testimony from Antonella Wilby, a former OceanGate contractor who said Bay told her “you don’t seem to have an explorer mindset” after she raised safety concerns. Bay said Wilby’s concerns were noted at the time and treated with respect. Bay added that her own duties did not include engineering or operations.

She later broke down in tears when discussing the tragedy, which was personal, because she knew the victims.

“I had the privilege of knowing the explorers lives who were lost,” Bay said through tears. “And there’s not a day that passes that I don’t think of them, their families and the loss.”

Earlier in the hearings, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money. “The whole idea behind the company was to make money,” Lochridge testified. “There was very little in the way of science.”

Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

On Tuesday, submersible pilot and designer Karl Stanley of the Roatan Institute of Deepsea Exploration testified to provide perspective about deep-sea submersible operations and safety. He said the phenomenon of “billionaires courting scientists” has upset the economics of the industry.

Stanley also said he viewed OceanGate’s characterization of paid passengers as “mission specialists” to be an attempt to avoid accountability.

“It’s clearly a dodge with trying to get around U.S. regulations with passengers,” Stanley said.

Additionally, the company’s “entire business plan made zero sense,” Stanley said. He also said he felt the implosion ultimately stemmed from Rush’s desire to leave his mark on history.

“There was nothing unexpected about this. This was expected by everyone who had access to a little bit of information,” Stanley said.

The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.

Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, said during testimony Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans.

“This can’t be the end of deep ocean exploration. This can’t be the end of deep-diving submersibles and I don’t believe that it will be,” he said.

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

OceanGate said it has been fully cooperating with the Coast Guard and NTSB investigations since they began. Titan had been making voyages to the Titanic wreckage site going back to 2021.

Source link

September 25, 2024
NTSB engineer says carbon fiber hull from submersible showed signs of flaws

The carbon fiber hull of the experimental submersible that imploded en route to the wreckage of the Titanic had imperfections dating to the manufacturing process and behaved differently after a loud bang was heard on one of the dives the year before the tragedy, an engineer with the National Transportation Safety Board said Wednesday.

Engineer Don Kramer told a Coast Guard panel there were wrinkles, porosity and voids in the carbon fiber used for the pressure hull of OceanGate’s Titan submersible. Two different types of sensors on Titan recorded the “loud acoustic event” that earlier witnesses testified about hearing on a dive on July 15, 2022, he said.

Hull pieces recovered after the tragedy showed substantial delamination of the layers of carbon fiber, which were bonded to create the hull of the experimental submersible, he said.

OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush was among the five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded in June 2023.

Kramer’s statements were followed by testimony from William Kohnen, a longtime submersibles expert and key member of the Marine Technology Society. Kohnen emerged as a critic of OceanGate in the aftermath of the implosion and has described the disaster as preventable.

On Wednesday, Kohnen pushed back at the idea the Titan could not have been thoroughly tested before use because of its experimental nature. He also said OceanGate’s operations raised concerns among many people in the industry.

Kohnen said “I don’t think many people ever told Stockton no.” He described Rush as not receptive to outside scrutiny.

“This is not something where we don’t want you to do it. We want you to do it right,” Kohnen said.

The Coast Guard opened a public hearing earlier this month that is part of a high level investigation into the cause of the implosion. Some of the testimony has focused on the submersible’s carbon fiber construction, which was unusual. Other testimony focused on the troubled nature of the company.

Another Wednesday witness, Bart Kemper of Kemper Engineering Services of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, testified about his review of the OceanGate submersible’s development. He expressed particular concern about the sub’s window.

“This is consistent with something on the path of failure,” Kemper said.

Coast Guard officials noted at the start of the hearing that the submersible had not been independently reviewed, as is standard practice. That and Titan’s unusual design subjected it to scrutiny in the undersea exploration community.

Earlier in the hearing, former OceanGate operations director David Lochridge said he frequently clashed with Rush and felt the company was committed only to making money.

Lochridge and other previous witnesses painted a picture of a company that was impatient to get its unconventionally designed craft into the water. The accident set off a worldwide debate about the future of private undersea exploration.

The hearing is expected to run through Friday and include several more witnesses, some of whom were closely connected to the company.

The co-founder of the company told the Coast Guard panel Monday that he hoped a silver lining of the disaster is that it will inspire a renewed interest in exploration, including the deepest waters of the world’s oceans. Businessman Guillermo Sohnlein, who helped found OceanGate with Rush, ultimately left the company before the Titan disaster.

OceanGate, based in Washington state, suspended its operations after the implosion. The company has no full-time employees currently, but has been represented by an attorney during the hearing.

During the submersible’s final dive on June 18, 2023, the crew lost contact after an exchange of texts about Titan’s depth and weight as it descended. The support ship Polar Prince then sent repeated messages asking if Titan could still see the ship on its onboard display.

One of the last messages from Titan’s crew to Polar Prince before the submersible imploded stated, “all good here,” according to a visual re-creation presented earlier in the hearing.

When the submersible was reported overdue, rescuers rushed ships, planes and other equipment to an area about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Wreckage of the Titan was subsequently found on the ocean floor about 330 yards (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, Coast Guard officials said. No one on board survived.

Source link

September 25, 2024
Even on quiet summer weekends, huge news stories spread to millions more swiftly than ever before
James Peeler’s phone blew up with messages as he drove home from church in Texas. Reading a book on her couch in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Wendy Schweiger spied something on Facebook. After finishing a late-night swim in the Baltic Sea off Finland, Matti Niiranen clicked on a CNN livestream.

Each learned that President Joe Biden had abandoned his re-election bid minutes after he dropped a statement online without warning on a summer Sunday.

Eight days after the assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, it marked the second straight July weekend that a seismic American story broke at a time most people weren’t paying attention to the news. Biden’s announcement was a startling example of how fast and how far word spreads in today’s always-connected world.

“It seemed like a third of the nation knew it instantly,” said longtime news executive Bill Wheatley, “and they told another third.”

News travels fast, as they say

Wheatley, now retired and summering in Maine, had sat down to check his email and absent-mindedly refreshed the CNN.com home site on his computer. If he didn’t learn the news that way, text messages from friends would have alerted him soon after.

At 1:46 p.m. Eastern Time, the moment Biden posted his announcement on X, an estimated 215,000 people happened to be logged on to one of 124 major U.S. news websites. Fifteen minutes later, those sites had 893,000 readers, according to Chartbeat.

On apnews.com, 3,580 people entered the site during the 1:46 p.m. minute. Nearly an hour later, at 2:43 p.m., The Associated Press’ online news destination site hit the afternoon’s peak of 18,936 new visitors. CNN.com and its news app saw its usage quintuple within 20 minutes of the news breaking, the network said.

Television networks broke into regular programming for the story between 1:50 and 2:04 p.m. During the relatively quiet quarter-hour before 2 p.m., a total of 2.69 million people were watching either CNN, Fox News Channel or MSNBC, the Nielsen company said. The audience on those three networks swelled to 6.84 million between 2 and 4 p.m. Eastern. Add ABC and CBS, which also had special coverage in those hours, and there were at least 9.27 million following the story on television.

How did everybody get there so quickly? As Wheatley suggested, word of mouth played a big role. To his credit, Peeler said he didn’t open his text messages until stopping his car.

Many people also have alerts set up on their phone.
What to know about the 2024 Election

Democracy: American democracy has overcome big stress tests since 2020. More challenges lie ahead in 2024.

AP’s Role: The Associated Press is the most trusted source of information on election night, with a history of accuracy dating to 1848. Learn more.

Stay informed. Keep your pulse on the news with breaking news email alerts. Sign up here.
“Our phones are constantly chirping at us and we have them with us all the time,” said Brian Ott, a media and communications professor at Missouri State University and author of “The Twitter Presidency: Donald J. Trump and the Politics of White Rage.”

Ott and his wife were traveling in Belgrade, Serbia, and, with the time difference, had gone to bed on Sunday night before Biden made his announcement. Ott found out the next morning when he checked news sites online and told his wife when she woke up.

“Oh, I already know,” she responded. She had logged on to X when she got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night.

Since then, as he has moved on to Italy, visiting Rome and Florence, Ott said everyone he’s run into who hears he speaks English has wanted to talk to him about Biden.

“My sense is that the compulsion is the same for everyone,” he said. “In our digital world, information is capital, and everyone wants to demonstrate their capital.”

Finding out in various ways

At his summer house in Pyharanta, Finland, Niiranen has taken a keen interest in U.S. politics, which the semiretired writer said dates to his time as an exchange student in Michigan. He had gone for a swim after 10 p.m. on Sunday, since daylight lingers longer there.

Niiranen had read speculation that Biden might drop out, so when he sat down on his deck after getting out of the water, he checked the CNN stream and found that was the case.

“Interesting election you have there!” he said. “I’ll be watching it.”

Visiting family in Canaan, New Hampshire, Tracy Jasnowski was having a mostly unplugged week because of spotty internet service. Once a day, adults and children alike retreated with their devices to a spot on the lawn where the service is more consistent. That’s when she found out.

“Honestly, I thought I might vomit,” she said. “I was shocked. I was cast adrift. I had no idea that would happen.”

Even if she hadn’t learned it then, Jasnowski said she quickly got text messages from friends. And when her father woke up from his nap, he turned on Fox News.

A generation or two earlier, people would have to be watching TV or listening to the radio to hear a special report about momentous news, said Wheatley, a former executive at NBC News. Then people would spread it by telling friends or family. Now with social media, text alerts and websites available at a click, news moves “much, much faster.”

“The next logical question,” he said, “is how accurate is it?”

Get it first, but first get it right

It’s a mantra drummed into young journalists: Get the news fast but, more importantly, get it right. A mistake on a major, breaking story can derail a career. This month’s big stories illustrated the pressure that comes with the need for speed.

Almost immediately after Biden’s announcement, it became a major part of the story journalists were filing that he hadn’t endorsed his vice president, Kamala Harris, to succeed him. He did within a half hour, but that’s an eternity for those who want to raise questions or float conspiracy theories.

Similarly, video of the Trump rally where shots were fired appeared instantly on television screens. But most initial news reports were extremely cautious, sticking to what was known: Trump was hurried off the stage by Secret Service agents. Blood was visible. There was a noise that sounded like gunshots.

That, in turn, led some to criticize journalists for being too wary, too reluctant to call it an assassination attempt. Yet not all facts are quickly known; nearly two weeks later, at a congressional hearing, FBI Director Christopher Wray said it still wasn’t fully clear whether Trump had been hit by a bullet or shrapnel. The next day, the FBI announced it had concluded it was a bullet.

In other words, it’s common that there’s more to a story than meets the eye, and the frenzy of initial breaking news requires strong adherence to the facts available at the moment, no matter what becomes clear later.

When Peeler arrived at his destination in Texas last week and checked on what his friends had texted him about Biden, he called up the websites of local TV network affiliates. In Pennsylvania, Schweiger turned immediately to the AP and The New York Times online.

Both were grateful they had someplace they considered reliable to learn the facts.

“I operate under the assumption that news is 24 hours, and that you always have people that can be pressed into service for anything at any time,” Schweiger said.

___

David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.
Source link
July 29, 2024
Justice Department defends group’s right to sue over AI robocalls sent to New Hampshire voters

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — The federal Justice Department is defending the legal right to challenge robocalls sent to New Hampshire voters that used artificial intelligence to mimic President Joe Biden’s voice.

Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke and U.S. Attorney Jane Young filed a statement of interest Thursday in the lawsuit brought by the League of Women Voters against Steve Kramer — the political consultant behind the calls — and the three companies involved in transmitting them.

Kramer, who is facing separate criminal charges related to the calls, has yet to respond to the lawsuit filed in March, but the companies filed a motion to dismiss last month. Among other arguments, they said robocalls don’t violate the section of the Voting Rights Act that prohibits attempting to or actually intimidating, threatening or coercing voters and that there is no private right of action under the law.

The Justice Department countered that the law clearly allows aggrieved individuals and organizations representing them to enforce their rights under the law. And it said the companies were incorrect in arguing that the law doesn’t apply to robocalls because they are merely “deceptive” and not intimidating, threatening or coercive.

“Robocalls in particular can violate voting rights by incentivizing voters to remain away from the polls, deceive voters into believing false information and provoke fear among the targeted individuals,” Young said in a statement. “The U.S. Attorney’s Office commends any private citizen willing to stand up against these aggressive tactics and exercise their rights to participate in the enforcement process for the Voting Rights Act.”

At issue is a message sent to thousands of New Hampshire voters on Jan. 21 that featured a voice similar to Biden’s falsely suggesting that voting in the state’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary two days later would preclude them from casting ballots in November. Kramer, who paid a magician and self-described “digital nomad” who does technology consulting $150 to create the recording, has said he orchestrated the call to publicize the potential dangers of AI and spur action from lawmakers.

He faces 26 criminal charges in New Hampshire, along with a proposed $6 million fine from the Federal Communications Commission, which has taken multiple steps in recent months to combat the growing use of AI tools in political communications.

On Thursday, it advanced a proposal that would require political advertisers to disclose their use of artificial intelligence in broadcast television and radio ads, though it is unclear whether new regulations may be in place before the November presidential election.

Source link

July 27, 2024
Biden administration urges states to slow down on dropping people from Medicaid

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday urged states to slow down their purge of Medicaid rolls, citing concerns that large numbers of lower-income people are losing health care coverage due to administrative reasons.

The nation’s Medicaid rolls swelled during the coronavirus pandemic as states were prohibited from ending people’s coverage. But that came to a halt in April, and states now must re-evaluate recipients’ eligibility — just as they had been regularly required to do before the pandemic.

In some states, about half of those whose Medicaid renewal cases were decided in April or May have lost their coverage, according to data submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services and obtained by The Associated Press. The primary cause is what CMS describes as “procedural reasons,” such as the failure to return forms.

“I am deeply concerned with the number of people unnecessarily losing coverage, especially those who appear to have lost coverage for avoidable reasons that State Medicaid offices have the power to prevent or mitigate,” Health and Human Services Secretary Secretary Xavier Becerra wrote in a letter Monday to governors.

Instead of immediately dropping people who haven’t responded by a deadline, federal officials are encouraging state Medicaid agencies to delay procedural terminations for one month while conducting additional targeted outreach to Medicaid recipients. Among other things, they’re also encouraging states to allow providers of managed health care plans to help people submit Medicaid renewal forms.

Nobody “should lose coverage simply because they changed addresses, didn’t receive a form, or didn’t have enough information about the renewal process,” Becerra said in a statement.

States are moving at different paces to conduct Medicaid eligibility determinations. Some haven’t dropped anyone from their rolls yet while others already have removed tens of thousands of people.

Among 18 states that reported preliminary data to CMS, about 45% of those whose renewals were due in April kept their Medicaid coverage, about 31% lost coverage and about 24% were still being processed. Of those that lost coverage, 4-out-of-5 were for procedural reasons, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, New Hampshire and Oklahoma, about half or more of those whose eligibility cases were completed in April or May lost their Medicaid coverage, according data reviewed by the AP. Those figures may appear high because some states frontloaded the process, starting with people already deemed unlikely to remain eligible.

CMS officials have specifically highlighted concerns about Arkansas, which has dropped well over 100,000 Medicaid recipients, mostly for not returning renewal forms or requested information.

Arkansas officials said they are following a timeline under a 2021 law that requires the state to complete its redeterminations within six months of the end of the public health emergency. They said Medicaid recipients receive multiple notices — as well as texts, emails and phone calls, when possible — before being dropped. Some people probably don’t respond because they know they are no longer eligible, the state Department of Human Services said.

Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has dismissed criticism of the state’s redetermination process, saying Arkansas is merely getting the program back to its pre-pandemic coverage intentions.

But health care advocates said it’s particularly concerning when states have large numbers of people removed from Medicaid for not responding to re-enrollment notices.

“People who are procedurally disenrolled often are not going to realize they’ve lost coverage until they show up for a medical appointment or they go to fill their prescription and are told you no longer have insurance coverage,” said Allie Gardner, a senior research associate at the Georgetown University Center for Children and Families.

__

Associated Press writer Andrew DeMillo contributed from Little Rock, Arkansas.

Source link

June 12, 2023