Small Businesses Opt To Pay Obamacare Penalty Instead Of Offering Health Insurance

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Since the Affordable Care Act passed into law, companies have been vocal about the drastic measures they’ll take to avoid paying for basic health care coverage for their employees, including cutting hours and firing workers.

An increasing number of companies now say paying the government’s penalty to break the law will be cheaper than following it, The Wall Street Journal reports.

An Obamacare provision that goes into effect next year requires businesses with 50 or more full-time workers to provide health care coverage for employees. For businesses that don’t, there is a $2,000 penalty for each full-time worker above the 30-employee threshold. (Full-time workers are defined as anyone who works more than 30 hours a week in a given month.)

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Eric Holder: Drone Strike To Kill U.S. Citizen On American Soil Legal, Hypothetically

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The Obama administration believes it could technically use military force to kill an American on U.S. soil in an “extraordinary circumstance” but has “no intention of doing so,” U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said in a letter disclosed Tuesday.

Holder’s March 4 letter was disclosed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who had asked whether the Justice Department believed President Barack Obama had the legal authority to order a targeted strike against an American citizen located within the United States.

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U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder answers questions following a speech at the University of Massachusetts School of Law in Dartmouth, Mass., Friday, March 1, 2013. (AP Photo/Stew Milne)

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Elizabeth Warren Embarrasses Hapless Bank Regulators At First Hearing (VIDEO)

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Bank regulators got a sense Thursday of how their lives will be slightly different now that Elizabeth Warren sits on a Senate committee overseeing their agencies.

At her first Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee hearing, Warren questioned top regulators from the alphabet soup that is the nation’s financial regulatory structure: the FDIC, SEC, OCC, CFPB, CFTC, Fed and Treasury.

The Democratic senator from Massachusetts had a straightforward question for them: When was the last time you took a Wall Street bank to trial? It was a harder question than it seemed.

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Andrew ‘Weev’ Auernheimer’s Conviction Could Make You Less Safe Online

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In a New Jersey courtroom last month, federal prosecutors described Andrew Auernheimer as a publicity-hungry hacker who violated the privacy of thousands of iPad owners by disclosing their email addresses to a reporter.

A jury agreed, finding him guilty of identity theft and conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

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Steve Morris, Outgoing Kansas Senator, Praised For Bipartisan Career By Nation’s Legislators

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WASHINGTON — The nation’s state legislators concluded their fall forum here Friday by praising bipartisanship through a tribute to their former leader, who was ousted from his own legislative seat in a bitter Republican Party war that pitted moderates against conservatives.

Kansas Senate President Steve Morris (R-Hugoton) was given a minute-long standing ovation by members of the National Conference of State Legislatures for his leadership of the group.

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Kansas Senate President Steve Morris

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Discover To Pay $200 Million In Settlement For Marketing Of Credit-Protection Products

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(Reuters) – Discover Financial Services said its subsidiary, Discover Bank, will pay about $200 million to cardholders who bought certain credit-protection products over the phone, as part of an agreement with U.S. regulators.

The issuer of credit cards, which reached an agreement in principle with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), will pay an additional $14 million in penalties to be split between the regulators.

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Obesity Rates By State: New CDC Data Looks At Weight Across The Country

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By now, America’s weight problem is well established: more than 35 percent of adults across the country are considered obese, with a BMI greater than or equal to 30. That’s more than 78 million people.

But how do those numbers shake out by state? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently mapped out the percentage of obese Americans by state using 2011 data, finding that greater percentages of obese people tend to reside in the south.

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Least Obese State : Colorado. 20.7% of adults in Colorado were reported as being obese.

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FDA Panel Gives Nod to New Diet Drug

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An FDA advisory committee has voted 18-4, with one abstention, in favor of approving lorcaserin hydrochloride (Lorqess) as the first new weight loss drug in more than a decade.

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Social Security Battle: AARP Plans Secret ‘Salon’ With Social Security Opponents

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WASHINGTON — The senior citizens lobby AARP on Monday will kick off a national Social Security and Medicare “listening tour” called “You’ve Earned a Say and We’re Listening.” Through “town halls, community conversations, bus tours and other events,” the influential organization promises to offer members a chance to speak out on the simmering debate over the future of Social Security and Medicare.

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