Missouri continues to lag behind most states in children’s health, report finds
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New federal rule will remove medical debt from credit reports
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday finalized a rule to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports. The rule would erase an estimated $49 billion in unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of roughly 15 million Americans. That could help boost those borrowers’ credit scores by an average of 20 points, helping them qualify for mortgages and other loans. The final rule is set to take effect in March – but that timeline could be delayed by legal challenges. But major credit reporting agencies have already announced voluntary steps to removeMedical debt from their reports.
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In a major change that could affect millions of Americans’ credit scores, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau on Tuesday finalized a rule to remove medical debt from consumer credit reports.
MORE: Biden announces $4.28 billion in student loan relief for 55,000 borrowers
The rule would erase an estimated $49 billion in unpaid medical bills from the credit reports of roughly 15 million Americans, the CFPB said.
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That could help boost those borrowers’ credit scores by an average of 20 points, helping them qualify for mortgages and other loans.
PHOTO: Vice President Kamala Harris waits in the Old Senate Chamber before swearing in new senators at the U.S. Capitol, Dec. 9, 2024, in Washington. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
“No one should be denied economic opportunity because they got sick or experienced a medical emergency,” Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement touting the new rule.
She announced the proposal for the rule last June alongside CFPB Director Rohit Chopra.
“This will be life-changing for millions of families, making it easier for them to be approved for a car loan, a home loan or a small-business loan,” Harris added.
MORE: 1st bird flu death in the US reported in Louisiana
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Major credit reporting agencies have already announced voluntary steps to remove medical debt from their reports.
The final rule is set to take effect in March – but that timeline could be delayed by legal challenges.
Debt collection industry groups like the Association of Credit and Collection Professionals have opposed the change, saying it would result in “reduced consequences for not paying your bills, which in turn will reduce access to credit and health care for those that need it most.”
New federal rule will remove medical debt from credit reports originally appeared on abcnews.go.com
Missouri continues to lag behind most states in children’s health, report finds
Missouri ranked in the bottom third of all states for children’s health, according to a report released Monday. The annual Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation used data from 2023. Only nine states had higher rates of child and teen deaths in 2023 than Missouri. The report notes that while covid deaths contributed to the increase, the rise was largely due to rising firearm deaths and drug overdoses, particularly among teens ages 15 to 19. The data show a “continuing need to invest in education in Missouri,” Family and Community Trust said in a press release. The state ranked 27th out of 50 for overall child well-being, weighed down by poor performance in health and education. The rate of kids in poverty declined to 14% in the state in 20 23, below the 16% national average.
Missouri ranked in the bottom third of all states for children’s health, according to a report released Monday — due in part to a high rate of child and teen deaths.
The annual Kids Count Data Book from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, which used data from 2023, evaluated all states on four metrics of child well-being: health, economic well-being, education, and family and community.
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Missouri ranked near the middle of states for overall child well-being, at 27th out of 50, weighed down by poor performance in health and education.
Missouri’s rankings in the four categories were:
13th in economic well-being,
33rd in education,
35th in health
And 25th in family & community.
“Children’s health remains an area of concern,” noted a press release Monday from Family and Community Trust, the Missouri-based nonprofit partner to Kids Count.
Only nine states had higher rates of child and teen deaths in 2023 than Missouri, one of the factors considered in the health ranking. (Those were: Mississippi, Louisiana, New Mexico, Alabama, Tennessee, Arkansas, Alaska, Oklahoma and Montana.)
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Missouri generally ranks among the states with the highest rate of firearm deaths for kids. Firearms became the leading cause of kids’ deaths in the United States in 2020, surpassing car accidents.
While the national average in 2023 was 29 child and teen deaths per 100,000, that number was 37 deaths per 100,000 in Missouri.
The national average rose overall in 2023. The report notes that while covid deaths contributed to the increase, the rise was largely due to rising firearm deaths and drug overdoses, particularly among teens ages 15 to 19.
Also bringing Missouri’s health ranking down: Missouri’s rate of low-birth weight babies increased in 2023 from 2019 and is above the national average.
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Other factors helped Missouri’s score. For one, Missouri has seen major improvements in children’s insurance coverage since the state implemented Medicaid expansion in 2021. The rate of uninsured kids fell from 7% in 2019 to 5% in 2023, which is now on par with the national average.
Nationally, Missouri saw among the sharpest declines in uninsured people overall from 2019 to 2023 with the expansion of Medicaid.
Those gains could be threatened by Congress’ budget proposal to reduce Medicaid spending in part by imposing more barriers to care.
Teen births in the state have gone down, in line with national trends — though the state’s average is still above the national one.
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The rate of overweight or obese kids has also improved in Missouri and is down to 31% of kids in 2023, on par with the national average.
The rate of kids in poverty declined to 14% in the state in 2023, below the 16% national average.
Missouri’s education ranking slipped in recent years.
In 2023, 77% of Missouri eighth graders were not proficient at math, according to the report, which is nearly 10 percentage points worse than 2019 and is worse than the national average.
The press release from Family and Community Trust said the data show a “continuing need to invest in education in Missouri.”
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Green Beret who exploded Cybertruck in Las Vegas used AI to plan blast
Yahoo is using AI to generate takeaways from this article. This means the info may not always match what’s in the article. Reporting mistakes helps us improve the experience. Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Globally: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact information for crisis centers around the world. The active-duty US Army Green Beret who authorities say exploded a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas last week used artificial intelligence to plan the blast, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Authorities did not say what answers ChatGPT gave Livelsberger to his searches about explosives, firearms, and how to buy a cell phone without providing personal information. He fatally shot himself shortly before the truck exploded and seven other people were injured, officials said. The explosion was caused by a combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel in the bed of the vehicle detonated by a device controlled by the driver.
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Editor’s Note: Help is available if you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts or mental health matters. In the US: Call or text 988, the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. Globally: The International Association for Suicide Prevention and Befrienders Worldwide have contact information for crisis centers around the world.
The active-duty US Army Green Beret who authorities say exploded a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas last week used artificial intelligence to plan the blast, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a Tuesday news conference the soldier, Matthew Livelsberger, started using ChatGPT to get information on how to conduct his plot, calling it a “game changer.”
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“We knew that AI was going to change the game at some point or another in all of our lives,” said McMahill. “Certainly, I think this is the first incident on US soil where ChatGPT is utilized to help an individual build a particular device to learn information all across the country as they’re moving forward.”
“Absolutely, it’s a concerning moment for us,” said the sheriff.
Authorities did not say what answers ChatGPT gave Livelsberger to his searches about explosives, firearms, and how to buy a cell phone without providing personal information.
OpenAI, the developer of ChatGPT, told CNN the company is “saddened by this incident and committed to seeing AI tools used responsibly.”
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“Our models are designed to refuse harmful instructions and minimize harmful content. In this case, ChatGPT responded with information already publicly available on the internet and provided warnings against harmful or illegal activities. We’re working with law enforcement to support their investigation,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.
Authorities released new information about the explosion, emphasizing Livelsberger used a bomb and describing a six-page manifesto found on his cell phone.
“This new information comes with more questions than answers. I will not provide an opinion on what the documents mean, nor will we release information or documents that have not been completely verified” by agency investigators, along with the FBI and ATF -the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives-, McMahill said.
The document is additional evidence to the previously released two letters, in which the suspect wrote of “political grievances,” armed conflicts elsewhere and domestic issues in the days leading up to his suicide, officials said Friday.
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Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado, was on leave from his base in Germany at the time of Wednesday’s blast, sources told CNN. He fatally shot himself shortly before the truck exploded and seven other people were injured, officials said.
Soldier used car bomb to explode Cybertruck, authorities say
The explosion was caused by a combination of fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel in the bed of the vehicle detonated by a device controlled by the driver.
Authorities on Tuesday said a car bomb or vehicle-borne improvised explosive device was used to explode the Cybertruck, citing video footage that confirmed the suspect “did prepare and stage for his planned attack,” said Assistant Sheriff Dori Koren.
The incident appeared to be “a tragic case of suicide involving a heavily decorated combat veteran who was struggling with PTSD and other issues,” Spencer Evans, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Las Vegas Division, said Friday.
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Three 50-caliber, expended cartridge casings were were recovered at the scene, said Koren, and two of them had “primers that were burned out through the intense heat.”
“This is consistent with the type of explosion that we believe occurred,” said Koren.
In the six-page document, the soldier discusses the Cybertruck being used as a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device and describes “graphic encounters from his military experience that replay in his head over and over, and that now he feels like he’s a shell of a human being with nothing to live for,” authorities said.
He also talked about his intent to make the blast “as public as possible” and that he is “loaded up on boom and quotations and fireworks for New Year’s,” police said.
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The sheriff said the explosion could have been much greater, but in one of the suspect’s writings, he said he “didn’t intend to hurt anybody else.”
Initial findings from the investigation found at least 60 pounds of explosive material, said Kenny Cooper, assistant special agent in charge with the ATF.
“If he was to achieve a high order detonation of that, it would have been a significantly different blast,” said Cooper. “Whether he failed to achieve that mission, whether he backed out of that and went more to just a suicide – those are just hypotheticals we can’t get inside his head to answer.”
When asked if authorities consider the explosion a terrorist attack, the sheriff said, “We haven’t closed a single door on what the investigation is looking at.” He said no additional suspects will be prosecuted for the case.
CNN’s Andi Babineau contributed to this report.
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‘Pizzagate’ gunman killed by police during traffic stop in North Carolina
Edgar Maddison Welch was shot by police over the weekend and died from his injuries Monday, authorities in North Carolina said. Welch made national headlines when he traveled to the nation’s capital from North Carolina and fired shots in the Comet Ping Pong restaurant. Welch was trying to investigate an internet conspiracy theory about the pizza restaurant’s being home to a child sex-trafficking ring connected to prominent Democratic politicians, a false claim that became known as “pizzagate” Welch ended up surrendering to police after he did not find evidence to support the conspiracy theory, according to court documents.
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The “pizzagate” gunman who fired his rifle in a Washington, D.C., pizza restaurant in 2016, acting on a debunked conspiracy theory, has died after police shot him in a traffic stop.
Edgar Maddison Welch was shot by police over the weekend and died from his injuries Monday, authorities in North Carolina said Thursday.
Almost 10 years ago, Welch made national headlines when he traveled to the nation’s capital from North Carolina and fired shots in the Comet Ping Pong restaurant, spurred by a conspiracy theory that had spread online.
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Prosecutors said at the time that Welch was trying to investigate an internet conspiracy theory about the pizza restaurant’s being home to a child sex-trafficking ring connected to prominent Democratic politicians, a false claim that became known as “pizzagate.”
Welch, who was 28 when the incident occurred, ended up surrendering to police after he did not find evidence to support the conspiracy theory, according to court documents at the time.
Welch was sentenced in 2017 to four years in prison after he pleaded guilty to weapons charges. He had carried an AR-15 rifle and a revolver into the restaurant, according to investigators. No one was injured by the gunfire.
Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson sentenced Welch when she was a federal judge, saying at the time that his actions “literally left psychological wreckage,” according to The Associated Press.
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Police Chief Terry L. Spry of Kannapolis, North Carolina, near Charlotte, said in a news release Thursday that police shot Welch on Saturday during a traffic stop and that a police officer “recognized the front seat passenger as the person with the outstanding warrant for arrest.”
Welch had an outstanding arrest warrant for violating probation, according to the police department.
When an officer opened the passenger door to arrest Welch, Spry said, Welch “pulled a handgun from his jacket and pointed it in the direction of the officer” and did not put the gun down when officers ordered him to.
“After the passenger failed to comply with their repeated requests, both officers fired their duty weapon at the passenger, striking him,” Spry said.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
‘They blocked my calls’: This Ohio man accidentally bought an entire street for $5K — now the city wants it back
Jason Fauntleroy purchased a vacant lot in Trenton, Ohio, for $5,000 three years ago. He only planned to use the lot to build himself a home, but the price included the entire street. Now, the city of Trenton is trying to reclaim the street through eminent domain. The city plans to convert the private drive — which is the only way to access several homes on the street — into a publicly maintained roadway. The Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that eminent domain was permissible to restore access to the Newark Earthworks’ Octagon Mounds, finding the public benefit outweighed the private loss. In City of Norwood v. Horney, for instance, the Ohio Supreme. Court ruled against the city, citing the importance of protecting property rights in the case. The definition of “just compensation’ is often subject to dispute.
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Jason Fauntleroy thought he’d snagged a great deal when he purchased a vacant lot in Trenton, Ohio, for $5,000 from the Butler County Sheriff’s Office auction three years ago.
Yet he quickly realized he got more than he bargained for.
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He only planned to use the lot to build himself a home, but the price included the entire street, where several other homes are located.
Now, the city of Trenton is trying to reclaim the street through eminent domain. Fauntleroy told WCPO 9 News he’s not being offered what he deserves.
“They shut me out,” Fauntleroy said of his interactions with the city. “They blocked my calls. It’s hard to even get through to anybody. It’s been a nightmare.”
How did this happen?
When the city began the process of reclaiming the land, Fauntleroy says they only assessed the value of the lot — not the entire street.
“I’m not sure how that [Fauntleroy’s ownership of the street] occurs other than it was a private drive that was created through a homeowner’s association,” Trenton City Manager Marcos Nichols told WCPO News.
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“The homeowner’s association was responsible for maintaining that property and upkeeping it.”
When asked why only a portion of the lot was considered for the appraisal value, Nichols replied, “I cannot speak to the appraised value.”
According to Nichols, the city plans to convert the private drive — which is the only way to access several homes on the street — into a publicly maintained roadway.
Read more: Are you rich enough to join the top 1%? Here’s the net worth you need to rank among America’s wealthiest — plus 2 ways to build that first-class portfolio
Is this even legal?
Eminent domain does allow the government to seize private property for public use, but the law also requires just compensation for the property owner. The definition of “just compensation” is often subject to dispute.
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“Don’t just take advantage of someone because they don’t have the means of getting an attorney,” Fauntleroy asks.
Ohio has a long history with eminent domain, and Fauntleroy’s battle isn’t unique. In City of Norwood v. Horney, for instance, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled against the city, citing the importance of protecting property rights.
Fauntleroy’s case is different, though, as it involves converting a private drive into a public-use road. In a similar situation, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that eminent domain was permissible to restore access to the Newark Earthworks’ Octagon Mounds, finding the public benefit outweighed the private loss.
His best option may be to seek help from the local legal aid society, which assists lower-income individuals in accessing legal support. If successful, that could help him navigate Ohio’s eminent domain laws, push for an independent appraisal of the property and hold the city accountable.
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