- Sen. Ron Johnson’s report on CDC failure to alert the public about suspected adverse reactions to the covid vaccine.
- Only 8% of all TANF families have someone working enough hours in unsubsidized employment to count under TANF’s federal work participation measure.
- The Congressional Budget Office estimated in February that Medicare costs over the next decade will be $1 trillion higher than previously expected. The majority of that increase is due to the [Democrat’s] IRA’s changes to Part D costing more than expected. (WaPo)
- The truth about SNAP cuts in the OBBBA. (WaPo)
- Nearly 1 in 7 Part D beneficiaries continued to spend more than $420 annually on insulin (12 times the $35 monthly cap established in the IRA), and rates of cost-related medication nonadherence remained unchanged.
Medicaid Work Requirements and the Misguided Plan to Penalize Employers
New regulations require able-bodied adult Medicaid recipients to show proof of work before they qualify for benefits. The requirements are not that strict.
Saturday Links – 1 August 2026
- The Biden White House pressured Facebook and Instagram to censor Covid facts, including its origin.
- Now we know: Scientists who signed a paper claiming a natural origin for Covid turn out not to have believed it themselves. (WSJ)
- The real DeSantis record: In 2020 Florida had the tenth lowest age-adjusted Covid death rate in the country, which was nearly 20% lower than California’s. (WSJ)
- When did people stop being drunk all the time? From the Middle Ages to the pre-industrial era, the average person consumed about a liter of beer a day, around four times as much as consumption in modern beer-drinking countries. HT: Tyler
- DEI training doesn’t work: 30 years of data from more than 800 U.S. companies show that mandatory diversity training programs have practically no effect on employee attitudes — and may even backfire.
- An estimated 795 000 Americans become permanently disabled or die annually because dangerous diseases are misdiagnosed. Just 15 diseases account for about half of all serious harms. HT: Arnold Kling
Learning 101: Is Listening to Audiobooks as Effective as Reading?
There are a few common techniques people use to gain and retain knowledge. Reading is one method people use to learn. Listening to a lecture is another way people learn. Writing down classroom notes and reviewing them later is another common way people study. A study published in the journal, Frontiers in Psychology, claims that listening to audiobooks is less effective than reading. The reason is mostly because your mind wanders more while listening when compared to actively reading.