News: ObamaCare

The government shut down over the affordable healthcare act (Obamacare), but the people have spoken. Rather they have called, logged in, and otherwise made a strong effort to enroll and benefit from government subsidies on healthcare. Unfortunately, the government website is having major technical problems this and the high volume of traffic has caused a number of private and public websites to crash.

Critics of the law have suggested that much of the traffic is generated by simple curiosity rather than genuine interest. Only time and a repaired website will tell if America wants affordable healthcare  or the naysayers can stop dreaming.  Story from the front page of the Los Angeles Times Sunday, October 6, 2013.

News, China, Crackdown on Bribery

This story appeared in the Sunday, October 6, 2013 Los Angeles Times sighting a major crackdown on bribery in china. It appears that it is Chinese tradition to give expensive gifts to those with an impact on your future like teachers, doctors, your boss, and the like. Officials in the Chinese government have tried to escape blame but claiming that some of these ‘gifts’ were given to family member such as wife, son, or even mistress. This tactic appears to rarely result in acquittal. 

The biggest challenge facing this crackdown is that if they persecuted all government officials who participated in bribes they would imprison a large part of the government. Chinese teachers have reported that keeping up with the common invitations to dinner by the families of their students is difficult, and that it is offensive if they say no. There has been at least one reported case of a doctor being attacked and battered for refusing a bribe from the family for one of his patients. 

Immigration News California

This was front page news on the Sunday, October 6, 2013 Los Angeles Times. California Governor Jerry Brown signed a group of bills making it legal for those without legal status to legally get a driver’s license and a license to practice law as well as making it illegal to detain an illegal immigrants who has committed a misdemeanor until they can be taken into custody by Immigration and Nationalization Services (INS).