Restaurant Chain Adds Obamacare Surcharge to Customers’ Bills

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Photo Credit: REUTERS/Larry DowningA chain of Florida restaurants are making customers pick up the tab for the company’s mandatory participation in the Affordable Care Act — with a surcharge to every bill to help cover the cost of providing healthcare to their employees.

Eight Gator’s Dockside restaurants have started putting an “ACA Surchar” on every customer’s bill. The new charge adds one percent to the total check, which would mean 15 cents for an average $15 lunch according to a CNN report.

“The costs associated with ACA compliance could ultimately close our doors,” a sign outside one restaurant reads. “Instead of raising prices on our products to generate the additional revenue needed to cover the costs of ACA compliance, certain Gator’s Dockside locations have implemented a 1 percent surcharge on all food and beverage purchases only.”

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North Korea Launches Missiles into Sea (+video)

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Photo Credit: CNNNorth Korea launched four Scud missiles into the sea off its eastern coast Thursday, the South Korean Defense Ministry said.

The missiles were fired in the direction of Russia and fell into the sea, according to the Pentagon, which described the launch as a very low-level matter.

The missiles were fired just days after the start of annual joint military exercises between South Korea and the United States that North Korea opposes. The joint military exercises routinely spark tension between North Korea, South Korea and the United States.

For example, last year’s exercises triggered weeks of heightened tensions between the nations and North Korean threats of nuclear war.

The South Korean and U.S. militaries have not been specific about where they are conducting their drills.

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D.C. Health Plans to Include Gender-Reassignment Surgeries

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Photo Credit: ASTRID RIECKEND.C. Mayor Vincent C. Gray on Thursday announced that the city will recognize gender dysphoria as a medical condition, forcing insurance companies to cover treatments such as gender-reassignment surgery for transgender people.

The coverage extends to all D.C. residents with group or individual health insurance — including the roughly one-third of city residents receiving Medicaid benefits — whose doctors diagnose the condition and for whom treatment is deemed medically necessary.

“This action places the District at the forefront of advancing the rights of transgender individuals,” Mr. Gray said at his ceremonial office at City Hall. The District joins California, Colorado, Connecticut, Oregon and Vermont in requiring the coverage, which the federal government will not be made to offer to its employees.

Transgender activists applauded the move, saying it guarantees coverage for treatments such as gender reassignment surgery that can cost tens of thousands of dollars and which have been denied by insurance companies that deemed the procedures cosmetic.

“This isn’t about who’s paying for things. This is about whether or not it’s medical care and who gets to decide that,” said Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. “Nobody in America wants their health care decisions made by the insurance companies.”

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Commander: U.S. Military Not Ready for Cyber Warfare

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Photo Credit: Gen. Keith Alexander / APThe U.S. military is ill-prepared for waging cyber warfare and needs to bolster defenses against the growing threat of cyber attacks against both military systems and private infrastructure, the commander of U.S. Cyber Command told Congress on Thursday.

“Those attacks are coming and I think those are near term and we’re not ready for them,” said Army Gen. Keith Alexander, head of Cyber Command and also outgoing director of the National Security Agency.

Alexander, in prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, sounded the alarm on the need for better cyber attack and defense capabilities. He said the command’s priorities include setting up a secure “defensible” telecommunications architecture, training cyber warfare personnel, increasing intelligence data on global cyber threats, and clarifying lines of authority for conducting cyber attacks and defending government and private networks.

Cyber Command, currently staffed by 1,100 people, is making progress in all areas, said Alexander, who retires next month. However, he warned that cyber threats are increasing, shifting from temporarily disruptive attacks, to extremely damaging cyber strikes that can destroy data and machines, and potentially threaten the U.S. economy and endanger American lives.

“Despite our progress at U.S. [Cyber Command], I worry that we might not be ready in time,” he said. “Threats to our nation in cyberspace are growing.”

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SC Officer Shoots Man Reaching for Cane

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A police officer in South Carolina shot a 70-year-old motorist who was reaching for a cane during a traffic stop because he thought the man was grabbing a rifle from the bed of his pickup truck, investigators said. The man was expected to survive.

The York County deputy, Terrence Knox, pulled over Bobby Canipe (kah-NYP’) of Lincolnton, N.C., for an expired license tag about 7:30 p.m. Tuesday north of Clover, S.C., York County sheriff’s spokesman Trent Faris said.

After stopping, Canipe got out of his pickup truck and reached into the bed, pulling out what Knox thought was a long-barreled rifle, Faris said. It was Canipe’s walking cane. The officer fired several times, hitting Canipe once, Faris said.

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Texas City Working To Turn Sewer Water Into Tap Water (+video)

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Photo Credit: Titanas/flickrDrastic times call for drastic measures. But what would it take for you to drink tap water that had been recycled straight from the sewer?

The concept sounds crazy but it could happen soon in one North Texas city. Wichita Falls is two hours outside of Dallas. Three years ago 88-percent of Texas was under exceptional drought conditions – that’s the worst classification of drought. Today there are just two small areas that still have that designation and the city of Wichita Falls is in one of them.

You need drive no further than nearby Lake Arrowhead to see how bad the drought is. The lake is one of the main water sources for the town, but it’s only at about 27-percent capacity. Boat docks stand 10 to 15 feet above dry land and the nearest water is hundreds of feet away. The lake bed is littered with dead fish and shells. When the wind blows you’re reminded of a dustbowl.

Every time the water in the lake drops, officials in Wichita Falls consider enacting more severe water restrictions. Through conservation efforts, city water usage dropped from between 45 and 50 million gallons of water each day before the drought, to 12 million gallons a day now. But the water savings still aren’t enough.

“This reuse system will put five million gallons [of water] back in the distribution system a day,” explained Mayor Glenn Barham. “So, it saves us taking five million gallons out of the lake.”

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Ted Cruz Blasts Obama for Failing Venezuela: ‘Negotiating with Tyrants and Bullies Never Works’

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Fernando LlanoSen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, spoke out strongly in support of the political uprising in Venezuela and criticized President Obama for his history of “negotiating with tyrants and bullies” in the country.

Cruz criticized a State Department spokeswoman who explained Tuesday that the United States was open to closer engagement with the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.

“Negotiating with tyrants and bullies never works,” Cruz said, calling for the United States to demand the tyrannical government to stop oppressing its people and censoring the media.

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Rand Paul – An Early GOP Presidential Front-Runner

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Photo Credit: BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFPRepublican strategists like to say the party’s next nominee needs to hail from the GOP’s gubernatorial ranks. It’s a response to how unpopular Washington is—particularly the party’s congressional wing—and a reflection of the party’s strength in holding a majority of governorships. But another reason for the gubernatorial focus is to sidestep the one formidable candidate that gives the establishment heartburn: Sen. Rand Paul.

Make no mistake: The Kentuckian scares the living daylights out of many Republicans looking for an electable nominee capable of challenging Hillary Clinton. At the same time, he’s working overtime to broaden the party’s image outside its traditional avenues of support. The 2016 Republican nominating fight will go a long way toward determining whether Paul is the modern version of Barry Goldwater or at the leading edge of a new, more libertarian brand of Republicanism.

“That’s the big challenge—is America ready? I think that Rand and his small-L libertarian Republicanism can break through,” said Paul’s longtime adviser Jesse Benton. “He’s a fundamentally better messenger than Barry Goldwater—[Goldwater’s 1964 campaign slogan] ‘In your heart you know he’s right’ is not very compelling. Rand is a wonderful communicator, and I think a message of individual liberty can build wide support.”

Either way, Paul’s brand of politics is a distinct departure from the party’s traditional moorings. His occasional sympathy for Edward Snowden puts him on an island within the party. His critique of the National Security Agency’s domestic surveillance techniques and noninterventionist views on foreign policy are gaining some conservative followers, but are still outside the party mainstream. Many conservative foreign policy hawks could sooner support Clinton than Paul in a 2016 matchup.

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Brewer’s Foolish Veto

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By Rich Lowry.

It was jarring to read the coverage of the new “anti-gay bill” passed by the Arizona Legislature and then look up the text of the instantly notorious SB 1062. The bill was roughly 998 pages shorter than much of legislation that passes in Washington, so reading it didn’t take much of a commitment. Clocking in at barely two pages, it was easy to scan for disparaging references to homosexuality, for veiled references to homosexuality, for any references to homosexuality at all.

They weren’t there. A headline from The Week declared, “There is nothing Christian about Arizona’s anti-gay bill.” It would be more accurate to say that there was nothing anti-gay about Arizona’s anti-gay bill.

The legislation consisted of minor clarifications of the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which has been on the books for 15 years and is modeled on the federal act that passed with big bipartisan majorities in the 1990s and was signed into law by President Bill Clinton…

Eleven legal experts on religious freedom statutes — who represent a variety of views on gay marriage — wrote a letter to Gov. Brewer prior to her veto explaining how the bill “has been egregiously misrepresented by many of its critics.”

In addition to the federal government, 18 states have such statutes and about a dozen other states interpret their state constitutions as extending the same protections, according to the letter. The statutes, the scholars write, “say that before government can burden a person’s religious exercise, the government has to show a compelling justification.”

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Photo Credit: AP Photo/Ross D. FranklinBy Bob Christie.

Gov. Jan Brewer on Wednesday vetoed a Republican bill that set off a national debate over gay rights, religion and discrimination and subjected Arizona to blistering criticism from major corporations and political leaders from both parties.

Loud cheers erupted outside the Capitol building immediately after Brewer made her announcement.

“My agenda is to sign into law legislation that advances Arizona,” Brewer said at a news conference. “I call them like I see them despite the cheers or the boos from the crowd. After weighing all the arguments, I have vetoed Senate Bill 1062 moments ago.”

The Republican governor said she gave the legislation careful deliberation in talking to her lawyers, citizens, businesses and lawmakers on both sides of the debate. Her office said it received more than 40,000 calls and emails on the legislation, with most of them urging a veto.

Brewer said the bill “could divide Arizona in ways we could not even imagine and no one would ever want.” The bill was broadly worded and could result in unintended negative consequences, she added.

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National Young Republican Vice Chair: Tea Party ‘Senile,’ Full of ‘Bullies’

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Photo Credit: Breitbart An animated discussion over the proper role of the Tea Party in the greater conservative movement erupted on Twitter Tuesday night when Southern Regional Vice Chair Luke Niles of the Young Republican National Federation (YRNF) labeled grassroots activists as “senile.” He further labeled them “bullies” and prone to “temper tantrum[s].”

Niles engaged with a number of individuals taking issue with his claims, including Breitbart Texas’ Managing Director Brandon Darby.

The dialogue took a rather ironic trajectory when Niles categorically labeled grassroots activists in the Tea Party as “senile angry people mad at everything.”

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