Gallego touts work on lowering seniors’ prescription drug prices

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

Backed by a group of Arizona seniors, Gallego highlighted his work to lower prescription drug prices at Phoenix pharmacy Monday and took the time to contrast himself with Lake, who he said previously called to significantly cut the federal budget and likened price negotiation on pharmaceuticals to communism. Gallego chiefly highlighted his work backing the Inflation Reduction Act, which, in part, caps the cost of insulin at $35 and puts a $2,000 limit on out-of-pocket costs for those on Medicare. Doug Hart, a senior and former president of Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans, said his out-of-pocket costs were $5,000, and under the $2,000 price cap, he would be saving $3,000. “Any senior that votes for Kari Lake has got to think, do I really want to spend $3,000 more out of pocket to vote for her?” Hart said. Gallego said Lake proposed a 50% to 70% cut to the federal budget, which he claimed would “put Medicare and other vital programs on the chopping block.” Lake did not make any specific mention of Medicare when proposing cuts. And she said most recently at Trump’s rally in Glendale that “any politician who tries to lay a finger on your Medicare or Social Security will have to go through me.” But when asked about price controls on Medicare in an interview August 15, Lake said the proposal fell in line with communism. Gallego’s press conference Monday again highlighted his support from senior organizations. He received endorsements in May from the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans and the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.  “I will continue to work in partnership with Arizona seniors because of our shared mission of making Arizona a place where people have access to safe retirement, access to health care, and they can retire comfortably, safely and with dignity,” Gallego said. “I will always fight to protect Medicare, to keep medication affordable and to preserve Arizona’s part or benefits, and this is a fight that will take with me all the way to the Senate.”

Feds allege Russians funneled $10M through conservative outlet in Tennessee

Posted on by Erik Schelzig

After being dropped by distributors in 2022, the television network formerly known as Russia Today covertly funded a conservative content creation company in Tennessee to spread misinformation, according to a federal indictment unsealed Wednesday.

RT employees Kostiantyn Kalashnikov and Elena Afanasyeva were charged with conspiracy to violate the Foreign Agents Registration Act and to commit money laundering. 

Afanasyeva allegedly used multiple false personalities to post hundreds of videos on the platforms controlled by an entity identified in the indictment as Company 1, which described itself as a “network of heterodox commentators that focus on Western political and cultural issues.” The description matches language on the website of Tenet Media, which is based in the Green Hills neighborhood of Nashville. 

Tenet Media’s description of its mission. (Credit: Tenet website)

The indictment also says the company registered with the Tennessee Secretary of State on May 22, 2023, the same date that state records show a company called Roaming USA Corp. changed its assumed name to Tenet Media. 

The complaint said the company received about 30 wire transfers from foreign entities totaling $9.7 million. The outfit never publicly disclosed that it was funded and directed by RT or registered as an agent of a foreign principal, federal prosecutors said. 

According to the HuffPost’s Yashar Ali, Tenet is owned by Lauren Chen, who is affiliated with Turning Point USA, and her husband, Liam Donovan. Donovan is listed as Tenet’s agent in the filings with the Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s office.

A Hargett spokesman declined to say whether the office had received a subpoena from federal investigators.

The company’s founders allegedly worked together with the defendants to “deceive” two of the site’s prominent commentators, who had 2.4 million and 1.3 million YouTube subscribers, to post the content. Tenet’s roster includes Laura Southern, Tim Pool, Taylor Hansen, Matt Christiansen, Dave Rubin, and Benny Johnson.

Kalashnikov, Afanasyeva and the company’s founders “worked together to mask U.S. Company 1’s true source of funding — i.e., RT,” the indictment said.

A message left by State Affairs with Tenet through its website was not immediately returned.

The indictments were part of a larger effort by the federal government to crack down on Russian efforts to influence the 2024 election.

“The American people are entitled to know when a foreign power engages in political activities or seeks to influence public discourse,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said. 

More Tennessee connections

RT had Tennessee connections when it was still on the air. Nashville political operative and attorney Steve Gill was a frequent guest. Scottie Nell Hughes worked as an anchor. 

“I’ve never heard of these people, never been aware of anything that they’ve been supposedly operating here in Tennessee,” Gill told The Tennessee Journal. “I’ve got to tell you, if you gave me $10 million, I could definitely affect an election. Better than having some troll bots out there doing ads [in 2016] that apparently some of which were trying to help Hillary [Clinton] and some of which were attacking Trump.

“Again, the whole thing to me looks a little bit light,” Gill added, arguing that intelligence officials improperly downplayed the significance of Hunter Biden’s laptop during the 2020 presidential election, which he likened to “actual election interference.”

Steve Gill appears on RT in 2020. (Credit: Screengrab from RT)

Gill said the Biden administration, meanwhile, is “not doing anything against Iran which is actively trying to interfere with the election to defeat Trump because they’d rather have the more pliable Biden administration through Harris.”

He charged the Biden administration is “all about intimidation, silencing opposition, silencing” questioning U.S. policy in areas ranging from Ukraine to vaccine skepticism. 

Gil said he “never received a dime” for his appearances on RT. 

“You know me,” he said. “Do you think anybody’s ever told me what to say?”

He said he has appeared on other outlets as well, including Iranian TV where he has criticized the Iranian government.

“My opinions have been consistent for 35 years,” Gill said with a laugh.

ACC candidates face off in only debate before election

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

The six candidates vying for three seats on the Arizona Corporation Commission laid out their priorities during a debate hosted by the Citizens Clean Elections Commission on Tuesday night. The Democrats – Ylenia Aguilar, Jonathon Hill and Joshua Polacheck – pitched themselves as reformers who could change the trajectory of the Republican-led commission. The Republicans – incumbent Commissioner Lea Marquez Peterson, Rachel Walden and Rene Lopez – promised to stay the course and uphold the ACC’s recent policy decisions. Much of the conversation centered around energy sources and utility rates, with the Democrats emphasizing the environment, and the Republicans stressing the economy. Aguilar, Hill and Polacheck said they’ll advocate for a transition to 100% renewable energy in the state, while the Republicans said they want to focus on a diversity of energy sources. All candidates said they want to ensure lower costs for ratepayers; Republicans said they want to use the free market to do so, while Democrats said they want to impose a tighter leash on utility companies. The conversation stayed mainly focused on energy policy, not delving much further into the other issues the commission deals with like securities and railroads. During his closing remarks Polacheck briefly mentioned election integrity, saying he wished the candidates had been asked whether they thought Arizona’s elections had been “free and fair” in recent years. “I’m not sure everyone on the stage agrees with [that],” Polacheck said. It’s unclear who the comment was directed at, but Walden has been supportive of Trump on social media and aligned with Trump-backed candidates in Arizona. None of the Republican candidates responded to Polacheck’s statement. Tuesday’s debate was the only one scheduled for the ACC race and likely the only chance voters have to see the candidates square off face-to-face before Election Day.

AFL expands suit over federal-only voting lists

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

A lawsuit from America First Legal claiming failure to verify citizenship and remove noncitizens from federal-only voting lists moved to federal court and expanded to all 15 counties, per an amended complaint filed Monday. Before filing suit, AFL sent demand letters to all 15 county recorders for information and confirmation of citizenship checks on federal-only voters in July. And in August, the Trump-aligned legal group sued Maricopa County and its recorder, Stephen Richer, on behalf of Strong Communities Foundation of Arizona Inc., or EZAZ, in Maricopa County Superior Court, alleging failure to conduct regular list maintenance and failure to send information about federal-only voters to the AG. The county then requested the case be moved to the district court given its dealings with federal law. And now in federal court, AFL added all 15 counties to the suit. The parties are scheduled for a case management conference on October 3.

Committee gets peek at new unemployment compensation system

Posted on by Bryan Richardson

The Unemployment Compensation Modernization and Improvement Council on Wednesday took a first look at a new system that state officials believe will help prevent fraudulent claims.

Kansas Department of Labor Secretary Amber Shultz said the system will go live Nov. 19, which is a delay from the late-September goal the department had been shooting for.

“It’s imperative to me that we delay because of the training,” she said, emphasizing the priority of ensuring labor employees know the system well.

Shultz said the additional weeks will provide staff members with better understanding of the system and more opportunities to find necessary tweaks before the system goes live.

House Bill 2570, an unemployment bill the Legislature passed in April, included a provision that extended the sunset date for the council to Dec. 31, 2026. The previous sunset date would’ve passed in June, but the implementation of the new system required more time.

Labor officials provided the committee with a demonstration of the new system.

Sen. Renee Erickson, R-Wichita, called it “an exciting day.”

“This is a day that’s been in the works for a long time,” the committee chair said. “We get a glimpse at the hard work that’s gone into this project.”

In 2022, the labor department hired Tata Consultancy Service to update the unemployment system after the Legislature established the modernization project in 2021.

The agency has spent nearly $25 million on the project as of Aug. 28, Shultz said, adding the spending is within budget and scope.

The enhancements include a requirement for all claimants to record weekly work search activities, integration with KansasWorks for My Reemployment Plan and a segregation that would allow claimants and employers to use the system if other state systems fail.

The project also aims to improve fraud prevention through multifactor authentication.

Shultz said she expects “nefarious actors” to attempt to exploit the system once it goes live.

“They’re watching for when we are going to go live,” Shultz said. “As soon as we do, they’re going to attempt to start poking holes by utilizing social engineering to get somebody to let them in the system through the back door.”

YouTube video

Bryan Richardson is the managing editor at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected] or on X @RichInNews.

Dems contemplate 15-15 state senate split, rules to govern

Posted on by Yellow Sheet Report Staff

Despite rumblings behind the scenes between Republicans and Democrats about a tied Senate, leaders said their focus remains on the majority, and Epstein noted that a tie would require a rewrite of the chamber’s rulebook. Epstein said it is “to be expected” that lawmakers have conversations across the aisle about what a tied Senate would look like, but noted that the focus is to win a Democrat majority. Though Epstein did not deny that such conversations have taken place, she said she has not yet reached out to Republicans to consider what a tied Senate could look like. “I’m a computer systems analyst, so I believe in making decision trees in many aspects of my life,” Epstein said. “As such, I’ve got a decision tree for a 15-15 split. So yes, working on that is an option, but that is certainly not the goal.” In the case of a tied chamber, Epstein said she would seek out an agreement that allows for “checks-and-balances” within the chamber. “If we have a 15-15 split, I’d like people to stop focusing on who is in charge and start focusing on how to have a system of checks and balances,” Epstein said. She said that in the situation of a split chamber the Senate president role would not matter. Instead, new rules should be put into place to ensure fair representation for both parties, Epstein said. For instance, she said one party could have the power to assign bills to committees, while the other could decide which ones receive a floor reading. The agreement, which was made by lawmakers in the Senate in 2000 — the most recent instance in which Arizona has seen a tied chamber  — gave Democrats control of powerful committees, such as Appropriations, while a Republican led the chamber. “The rules change,” Epstein said. “If we have a 15-15 split, the first thing we do is re-write the rules. Therefore, the role of the president and the role of committees all need to be set up in that we have checks and balances for both parties. The current rules give the president far too much power.” On the other hand, Petersen said he remains “optimistic” that Republicans will hold their majority – or even flip the chamber. “I think the time to discuss a tied Senate would be after the election and right before the next session,” he said. He added that he has not personally been a part of any discussions about a 15-15 chamber with Democrat lawmakers.

Secretary of state announces 2024 presidential electors

Posted on by Bryan Richardson

The Secretary of State’s Office has received the names of the 24 Kansans who will serve as 2024 presidential electors.

Secretary of State Scott Schwab on Wednesday announced each recognized political party and independent candidate submitted their slate of electors as required by law.

Democratic Party electors: Benjamin Cohen of Topeka, Ariel Dillon of Wichita, Sharon Gordon of Udall, Jo Ann Roth of Ellinwood, Kent A. Roth of Ellinwood and Tom Sawyer of Wichita.

Republican Party electors: Mike Brown of Overland Park, Kristi Brown of Overland Park, Maria Holiday of Overland Park, Mark Kahrs of Wichita, Cheryl Reynolds of Topeka and Alan Townsend of Goodland.

Libertarian Party electors: Tim Giblin of Lawrence, David (Ric) Koehn of Cimarron, Eric Lund of Paola, David Graham of Overland Park, John Hauer of Topeka and Loren John Hermreck of Wichita.

Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. electors: Benjamin Luker Gloe of Kansas City, Gena Marie Reeves of Leawood, Heather Lorraine Lowe of Leawood, Lisa Gae Everett Andersen of Olathe, Elizabeth Ellen Heilman of Wichita and Andrea Michelle Fehr of Marysville.

Kennedy, who suspended his presidential campaign Aug. 23, is seeking to remove his name from the ballot in 10 states, but Kansas isn’t one of them.

Once the State Board of Canvassers certifies the November election results, Gov. Laura Kelly will prepare Certificates of Ascertainment identifying the prevailing slate of electors.

The electors will meet at noon Dec. 17 to cast their votes as members of the Electoral College ahead of Jan. 6, when Congress will meet to count the electoral votes.

Bryan Richardson is the managing editor at State Affairs Pro Kansas/Hawver’s Capitol Report. Reach him at [email protected] or on X @RichInNews.

Statewide proficiency levels ‘startling,’ superintendent says

Posted on by Matthew Sasser

While North Carolina students made gains in many reported categories and slowly recover to pre-pandemic levels, the state superintendent of public instruction, Catherine Truitt, said student proficiency data was “startling” before the pandemic and remains so in 2024. 

“We’re still looking at, especially in our Black and Hispanic communities, proficiency ranks in the eighth grade of 26% in math and 30% in reading,” Truitt said. “The overwhelming majority of Black and Hispanic students are attending a failing school. This is unacceptable.” 

Truitt said school performance grades are not always indicative of school quality or student success, but the state board of education needs to be focused on the proficiency levels. 

According to data shared by Tammy Howard, senior director for the Office of Accountability and Testing, students in North Carolina have almost reached the same levels of proficiency reported in 2019, the last year of data unaffected by COVID-19. 

In third grade math, 97% of students in 2024 met the proficiency level that was reported in 2019. Up to eighth grade math, students are only a few percentage points behind the 2019 data. In science, grade levels three through five reported 91% of students have achieved the 2019 proficiency level. 

Truitt said the fact that two designations, state and federal, exist for low-performing schools creates a barrier to school improvement. The discrepancy creates reporting headaches, the funding doesn’t exist at the state level and available personnel from the federal resources isn’t enough, according to Truitt. 

“These are ongoing challenges … [and] if we do not find a way to fix these challenges, we are going to continue to repeat this cycle that we have seen for the last 20 years of our low-income and students of color continuing to receive substandard education despite the fact that teachers are working harder than ever before,” Truitt said. 

An 86.9% graduation rate was reported for the 2023-24 school year in North Carolina, a slight increase from previous years. However, that increase didn’t inspire confidence in Truitt. 

“I’m also shocked to see these low levels of proficiency with higher graduation rates than ever before,” Truitt said. “What does that say about the students that we’re graduating? We have a diploma integrity problem.”

Truitt referenced a study from the Equitable Grading Project released in August that reported increased grade inflation occurring nationwide, especially among minority students. 

Truitt said there’s a lot to celebrate from the North Carolina data shared at the meeting, but more work needs to be done. 

“We can’t expect our teachers to do the same things over and over again and expect different results,” Truitt said. 

State board of education member at large Catty Moore agreed with Truitt that multiple designations of low-performing schools is damaging. 

“Multiple agencies to which you are having to respond makes it very difficult, I believe, for our classroom teachers, the boots on the ground, to actually focus on what they have to focus on in the classroom every day,” Moore said. “That’s something that, until we fix, we’re not going to see any changes.”

In addition to the board’s goal of a highly qualified and well-compensated teacher in every classroom, Moore said there’s a disconnect between what the board says is needed and how the board is able to implement the demands of their constituents. 

“All of those sit in our Legislature with no action,” Moore said of the new school accountability model and additional compensation for teachers. “The proposals are there; the requests are there. Listening to our stakeholder groups around what those needs are, and there has been no movement. I think that until we figure that out, what it takes to get movement from all levels, and that’s from the Legislature on down to the classroom level. … We can’t hear what we hear from teachers, hear what we hear from principals … and then take no action.”

Vice Chairman Alan Duncan agreed with Moore’s assessment, saying she’s “right on point.” Chairman Eric Davis said the conversation around testing is important to continue and should be added to next month’s agenda for further discussion.

For questions or comments, or to pass along story ideas, please write to Matthew Sasser at [email protected] or contact the NC Insider at [email protected] or @StateAffairsNC 

Federal judge grants limited injunctive relief for families in attendant care lawsuit

Posted on by Jarred Meeks

A federal court judge last week granted a preliminary injunction ordering the Indiana Family and Social Services Administration to arrange in-home skilled nursing care for two medically fragile children impacted by changes made this year to the state’s Medicaid waivers.

Tanya Walton Pratt, chief judge of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, said in an amended order that the children — E.R., a 6-year-old, and G.S., a 10-year-old, cared for by their single mothers — would likely lose dozens of hours of weekly services and be at “serious risk for institutionalization” because of the changes.

The preliminary injunction calls for E.R. to receive at least 40 hours a week of in-home skilled nursing services and G.S. to get at least 80 hours a week of the same. Their mothers must also be reimbursed for providing structured family caregiving services in conjunction, the order said.

The injunctive relief applies to only the plaintiffs. The court determined the preliminary injunction the plaintiffs sought — to enjoin the defendants from enforcing attendant care restrictions — posed too great a risk to the state. The broader injunctive relief would have put the state out of compliance with Medicaid regulations, potentially jeopardizing federal reimbursement funds Indiana receives and, by extension, Medicaid services offered to Hoosiers, the court said.

The court said a permanent injunction requiring the administration to amend its Health and Wellness Waiver could still be possible. The court decided not to make such a mandate in the order because, by its estimation, the administration would be irreparably harmed “should they rewrite the H&W [Health and Wellness] Waiver and later succeed in this case.”

In December, the administration revealed it had made a nearly $1 billion Medicaid forecasting error.

To corral the unexpected costs, the administration announced plans to no longer allow biological parents and guardians of minors to provide attendant care under what would later become the state’s Health and Wellness Waiver. (In July, the state’s Aged and Disabled Waiver became two separate waiver programs — the Health and Wellness Waiver for Hoosiers aged 59 and younger, and the PathWays for Aging Waiver for Hoosiers aged 60 and older — as the state started its PathWays for Aging program.)

Yet the administration allows the parents and guardians to provide care under the state’s Structured Family Caregiving program, which often pays a lesser, capped per diem rate. The plaintiffs argue the program does not pay enough and that the per diem rate would force the mothers to seek outside employment, which would leave their children without care.

Representing the two minors, the Indiana Protection and Advocacy Services Commission filed litigation against the administration in May. The commission claims the administration failed to ensure care is available for medically complex children enrolled in the state’s Health and Wellness Waiver — children determined to need “nursing facility level of care.”

E.R., G.S. and their families have been without nursing care for years, according to the order, even though the administration has approved them for in-home skilled nursing and has “agreed to pay for those services.” Both parties highlighted the state’s nursing shortage as a contributing factor to the families’ difficulty in securing services.

“It is undisputed that there is a nurse shortage in Indiana and that nurses are unable to provide skill[ed] nursing services for the number of hours G.S. and E.R. are approved for,” the court said.

On Tuesday, the plaintiffs filed an emergency motion to modify the preliminary injunction because “arranging for qualified nursing staff is not an overnight endeavor.” To ensure the children’s continued care, the plaintiffs ask the court to allow E.R.’s and G.S.’s mothers to continue providing attendant care services “at least until they [E.R. and G.S.] receive qualified and trained nursing staff capable of attending to their complex medical needs while their mothers return to the workforce.”

As of Tuesday, the families had not yet received skilled nursing services, according to the motion.

Contact Jarred Meeks on X @jarredsmeeks or email him at [email protected].

Lilly Endowment earmarks $50 million for Indiana State Parks

Posted on by Jarred Meeks

Lilly Endowment on Wednesday said it had given the Indiana Department of Natural Resources a $50 million grant to improve Indiana State Parks.

The department has committed an additional $10 million to supplement the grant. The department’s contribution will be used on Indiana State Parks’ continued deferred maintenance needs, according to a news release.

Half of the Lilly Endowment grant will be used at Prophetstown State Park, Indiana’s newest state park, which last month celebrated its 20th anniversary. According to the news release, the park, which sits near Battle Ground, is a part of the Myaamia homelands and was “used by other Indigenous peoples for thousands of years.”

The state plans to use $15 million to create more than 120 new campsites at the park, doubling its current offerings. Additional facilities — such as a visitors center, outdoor exhibits and a recreated Native American village — will cost $8 million, according to the release. The state will spend $1 million developing new trails and another $1 million making upgrades to the pool and other water features at the park’s aquatic center.

“We particularly appreciate and look forward to strengthening the connections that help Hoosiers understand and appreciate Native American ties to the land at what is now Prophetstown State Park,” Scott Brewer, chair of the Native American Indian Affairs Commission and a member of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi, said in the release.

The remaining $25 million from the Lilly grant will be used across the state parks system: The state plans to spend $11 million renovating and repairing playgrounds, $10 million upgrading campsites to be “full-service,” $3 million repairing historic structures and $1 million providing motorized wheelchairs.

“These funds will greatly enhance the facilities and services at our Indiana State Parks, along with the interpretation of the natural and cultural resources we conserve and manage,” Terry Coleman, director of the Division of State Parks, said in the release.

Contact Jarred Meeks on X @jarredsmeeks or email him at [email protected].

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