June 12 top stories
Hello, it is June 12. Here are today’s top stories.
Sandy Hook survivors set to graduate from high school
Sandy Hook survivors will graduate high school today and remember the classmates they lost in the first grade massacre.
High school seniors will hear their names read out Wednesday as they are called to collect their diplomas and start the next chapter of their lives.
But they are also steeling themselves to hear 20 other names of former classmates who never got to leave first grade, let alone plan for college and grow into adulthood.
Today is the day that the 20 children massacred at Sandy Hook Elementary School in December 2012 would have graduated, perhaps cheered on by the six teachers and administrators also killed in the deadliest K-12 shooting in U.S. history.
Newtown High School’s Class of 2024 will be wearing green and white ribbons on their graduation gowns, each inscribed with “Forever In Our Hearts” to remember the children and adults who were killed while the new graduates survived, because they happened to be in a different classroom or got an extra few seconds to escape.
Biden administration to ban medical debt from credit reports
The Biden administration is moving to ban medical debt from credit reports.
Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday that the proposed rule, released through the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), would reduce the number of people in the U.S. with medical debt listed on their credit reports to zero, down from 46 million in 2020.
Harris said the move would help improve the financial health and well-being of millions of Americans. A CFPB representative said the earliest the rule would take effect would be next year.
The administration calculates that if it is implemented, the rule would raise affected people’s credit scores by an average of 20 points and could lead to the approval of about 22,000 additional mortgages every year as a result of the cleaned-up credit reports.
A recent study reported in the journal JAMA Network estimated that 1 in 5 U.S. households live with medical debt, including people with health insurance, and that on average, a typical American household owes about $4,600 in medical debts.
Federal judge blocks Florida law restricting transgender health care
A federal court has blocked Florida from enforcing a law that bans gender-affirming care, specifically puberty blockers and hormone replacement therapy, for minors and restricts it for adults.
What happened? SB 254 was passed by the state legislature, signed by Gov. DeSantis and put into effect in 2023. It codified into law the ban on gender-affirming care for minors. For adults, it also required that care be required exclusively by physicians, barred telehealth and required patients to sign consent forms that were not medically accurate and contained transphobic language.
The ruling by a federal judge on Tuesday ruled that last year’s restrictions to care are unconstitutional, and that Florida can regulate treatments but cannot deny transgender individuals “safe and effective medical treatment,” especially the treatment with those medications is still provided to cisgender patients with the state’s full approval.
A spokesperson for Gov. DeSantis said the state plans to appeal the ruling.
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Port of Baltimore shipping channel reopens after Key Bridge collapse
Authorities anticipate commercial shipping traffic through the Port of Baltimore will soon return to normal levels since the channel fully reopened earlier this week for the first time since the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse.
A local official said during a virtual press briefing Tuesday afternoon: “They are back open for business, ready to bring in the largest container ships that call there.”
Officials said some shipping companies rerouted their cargo to other ports following the deadly bridge collapse in March. The disaster halted most maritime traffic through Baltimore’s busy port as crews worked around the clock to clear an estimated 50,000 tons of fallen steel and concrete from the Patapsco River – a roughly $100 million effort that involved federal, state and local agencies.
See Alex’s brief on a champion hot-dog eater Joey Chestnut being excluded from the competition in New York.
Top professional eater Joey Chestnut barred from hotdog competition
Thanks, Callie.
Joey Chestnut, who is America’s top professional eater who won the Nathan’s Famous Fourth Of July hotdog eating contest 16 times, will not be allowed to participate in this year’s contest because he signed a sponsorship deal with a rival brand that is a plant-based meat company.
Chestnut said he was “gutted to learn… that after 19 years… he had been banned from the competition…”
The organizer of the event is Major League Eating (MLE). MLE said they had to do this because Chestnut has “chosen to represent a rival brand…” They said it’s like if Michael Jordan, back in the day, decided to represent Nike and Adidas.
MLE said the door was still open to him returning if he drops his deal with the rival brand, which is Impossible Foods.
The Nathan’s contest has competitors seated up at a table, where they are given 10 minutes to eat as many franks and buns as possible.
Thanks for the brief. That’s all the top stories for today. See you tomorrow and stay with the light!
Sandy Hook survivors set to graduate from high school
Biden administration to ban medical debt from credit reports
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/11/us/politics/biden-medical-debt-credit-reports.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/medical-debt-credit-reports-cfpb/
Federal judge blocks Florida law restricting transgender health care
https://www.politico.com/news/2024/06/11/florida-ban-gender-affirming-care-00162721
Port of Baltimore shipping channel reopens after Key Bridge collapse
Top professional eater Joey Chestnut barred from hotdog competition
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/article/2024/jun/12/joey-chestnut-banned-nathans-hotdog-contest