crazy 8 ace rule While on the campaign trail in 2015, former President Donald Trump promised to forgo his entire presidential salary if elected. “As far as the salary is concerned, I won’t take even $1. I’m totally giving up my salary if I become president,” Trump, who will serve again as president beginning in January 2025, said in a September 2015 video posted on X , formerly Twitter. The president is required by federal law to receive a $400,000 annual salary . When Trump took office his then-press secretary Sean Spicer said Trump planned to donate that money , according to multiple media reports. After Trump’s reelection in November 2024, multiple VERIFY readers asked us if the former president fulfilled his promise to donate his salary. Here’s what we found. THE QUESTION Did Donald Trump donate any of his salary during his first term as president? THE SOURCES Various White House press briefings held while Trump was in office in 2017 and 2018 Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s office National Park Service (NPS) Department of Education spokesperson Statement from Linda McMahon, former head of the Small Business Administration (SBA), in October 2018 Associated Press reports Redacted copy of a Trump presidential salary donation check shared by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) May 2019 report from Agri-Pulse , a news outlet covering farm and food policy Various X posts from former members of the Trump administration August 2020 X post from former Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt THE ANSWER Yes, Donald Trump appears to have donated most of his presidential salary. WHAT WE FOUND During his first term, Donald Trump appears to have donated his presidential salary on a quarterly basis in 2017, 2018 and 2019, and at least a portion of it in 2020, according to spokespersons for the Trump administration, multiple federal agencies and various news reports. VERIFY was not able to independently confirm all of the salary donations from sources outside of the Trump administration. We found independent proof of the donations or photos of checks in some cases, while other salary donations were only confirmed by Trump’s former press secretaries or administration leaders at the time. Here’s what we can VERIFY about Trump’s presidential salary donations. 2017 In 2017, Trump gave $78,000 to the National Park Service (NPS) and $100,000 to the Department of Education. The Trump administration said he also donated his quarterly salary to the Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Transportation (DOT) that same year. The president’s quarter salary would be $100,000, though administration officials did not specify an exact amount in these cases. Former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke’s office confirmed Trump’s salary donation of $78,333 to the NPS in a press release on April 3, 2017 . That donation went toward two restoration projects at the Antietam National Battlefield in Maryland, the National Park Service (NPS) said in July 2017 . A spokesperson for the Department of Education also confirmed to VERIFY via email on Dec. 2, 2024, that Trump donated $100,000 to the agency in July 2017. The White House said at the time that the funds would be “used to host a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM)-focused camp for students.” Trump’s quarterly salary donations to HHS and DOT in 2017 were announced during White House press briefings with former press secretary Sarah Sanders and agency officials. The salary donation to HHS would be put toward the “planning and design of a large-scale public awareness campaign about the dangers of opioid addiction,” Acting HHS Secretary Eric Hargan said during a briefing on Nov. 30, 2017 . Trump’s salary donation to the DOT was earmarked for the department’s INFRA grant programs, former Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao said during a briefing on Feb. 13, 2018 . INFRA grants fund projects that are aimed at improving the “safety, efficiency and reliability” of various transportation systems at the national and regional level, the DOT says . VERIFY reached out to HHS for further confirmation of Trump’s salary donations, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. The DOT referred us to Trump’s presidential transition team, who has not responded to VERIFY’s request for comment. 2018 Trump donated his salary in 2018 to the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), the Small Business Administration (SBA), the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), according to various sources. DHS and the NIAAA received $100,000 each, though VERIFY was not able to confirm the exact amount of money given to the VA and SBA. Trump’s quarterly salary donation to the VA was announced during a White House press briefing on May 17, 2018 . The VA had “already earmarked” Trump’s donation “for caregiver support in the form of mental health and peer support programs, financial aid, education training and research,” former acting VA Secretary Robert Wilkie said during that briefing. Linda McMahon, former head of the SBA, released a statement upon receiving Trump’s salary donation on Oct. 4, 2018 . The gift would “assist the SBA with creating a seven-month intensive entrepreneur training program for veterans,” McMahon said at the time. According to an Associated Press report published on Jan. 25, 2019 , the White House said Trump donated $100,000 to the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), which is part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). DHS confirmed that Trump donated $100,000 to the agency when it shared a redacted copy of a check dated March 12, 2019. VERIFY reached out to the VA and SBA for further confirmation of Trump’s salary donations, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. The NIAAA referred us to the Biden White House press office. 2019 Trump donated $100,000 each to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Surgeon General’s Office, as well as $200,000 to HHS in 2019, according to various sources. Agri-Pulse , a news outlet covering farm and food policy, reported on Trump’s $100,000 donation to the USDA on May 16, 2019, citing a White House official. Trump’s contribution would be put toward “outreach programs that benefit farmers,” Agri-Pulse reported at the time. Former deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere announced Trump’s donation to the Surgeon General’s Office in an X post on Aug. 16, 2019 . Deere’s post linked out to a USA Today article that said the $100,000 salary donation would “fund an upcoming public health advisory,” according to the White House. Officials did not elaborate on the subject of the public health advisory at the time. A White House official told the Associated Press in November 2019 that Trump donated his third-quarter salary of $100,000 to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Health (OASH), a federal agency under HHS which oversees federal public health offices and programs. The White House said the funds were earmarked “to continue the ongoing fight against the opioid crisis.” Trump’s then- Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said in an X post on March 3, 2020 that his final 2019 salary donation would go to HHS to “support the efforts being undertaken to confront, contain and combat coronavirus.” McEnany shared a photo of a $100,000 check from Trump written out to OASH, dated Jan. 29, 2020. VERIFY reached out to the USDA, Surgeon General’s Office and HHS for confirmation of Trump’s salary donations, but did not receive a response by the time of publication. 2020 Trump donated his salary to HHS and the National Park Service (NPS) in 2020, according to his administration. His first-quarter salary donation to HHS would “help in the development of new therapeutics to treat COVID-19 infections,” former deputy White House press secretary Judd Deere said in an X post on May 22, 2020 . VERIFY could not find further confirmation of this donation. In an X post on Aug. 14, 2020 , Trump shared an image of a check for $100,000 made out to the NPS and dated July 13, 2020. He said the donation would “help repair and restore our great national monuments.” Former Department of the Interior Secretary David Bernhardt reposted Trump’s message , writing, “Following @realDonaldTrump ’s enactment of the greatest conservation funding legislation in U.S. history, he has again demonstrated his unwavering commitment to improving our national parks, public lands, and monuments.” The Department of the Interior oversees NPS. VERIFY reached out to HHS for confirmation of Trump’s salary donation but did not receive a response by the time of publication. Trump salary donation announcements stopped at the end of his term For Trump’s first three-and-a-half years in office, his administration publicly announced the quarterly salary donations. But those donation announcements stopped in the middle of 2020. The White House never said if Trump donated the last $220,000 of his salary, which covered “the final six months of 2020 and the first 20 days of 2021,” according to a report from The Washington Post published in July 2021 . Trump’s 2017 , 2018 and 2019 tax returns show that he reported charitable contributions. But those tax returns don’t show where that money went. Trump did not report any charitable contributions on his 2020 tax return . VERIFY reached out to Trump’s presidential transition team for clarity and to ask if Trump plans to donate his salary again during his second term, but did not receive a response at the time of publication. Trump isn’t the only president to donate his presidential salary. Former Presidents John F. Kennedy and Herbert Hoover also donated their earnings while in office. Former President Barack Obama donated more than $1 million to charity while he was president, Forbes reported in February 2017 . Related Articles Yes, Trump’s proposed tariffs would raise costs for Americans What we can VERIFY about Trump’s plan to close the U.S. Department of Education No, the Department of Government Efficiency is not a new government agency The VERIFY team works to separate fact from fiction so that you can understand what is true and false. Please consider subscribing to our daily newsletter , text alerts and our YouTube channel . You can also follow us on Snapchat , Instagram , Facebook and TikTok . Learn More » Follow Us YouTube Snapchat Instagram Facebook TikTok Want something VERIFIED? Text: 202-410-8808EDITOR'S NOTE — This story includes discussion of suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, the national suicide and crisis lifeline in the U.S. is available by calling or texting 988. Suchir Balaji, a former OpenAI engineer and whistleblower who helped train the artificial intelligence systems behind ChatGPT and later said he believed those practices violated copyright law, has died, according to his parents and San Francisco officials. He was 26. Balaji worked at OpenAI for nearly four years before quitting in August. He was well-regarded by colleagues at the San Francisco company, where a co-founder this week called him one of OpenAI's strongest contributors who was essential to developing some of its products. "We are devastated to learn of this incredibly sad news and our hearts go out to Suchir's loved ones during this difficult time," said a statement from OpenAI. Balaji was found dead in his San Francisco apartment on Nov. 26 in what police said "appeared to be a suicide. No evidence of foul play was found during the initial investigation." The city's chief medical examiner's office confirmed the manner of death to be suicide. His parents Poornima Ramarao and Balaji Ramamurthy said they are still seeking answers, describing their son as a "happy, smart and brave young man" who loved to hike and recently returned from a trip with friends. Balaji grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and first arrived at the fledgling AI research lab for a 2018 summer internship while studying computer science at the University of California, Berkeley. He returned a few years later to work at OpenAI, where one of his first projects, called WebGPT, helped pave the way for ChatGPT. "Suchir's contributions to this project were essential, and it wouldn't have succeeded without him," said OpenAI co-founder John Schulman in a social media post memorializing Balaji. Schulman, who recruited Balaji to his team, said what made him such an exceptional engineer and scientist was his attention to detail and ability to notice subtle bugs or logical errors. "He had a knack for finding simple solutions and writing elegant code that worked," Schulman wrote. "He'd think through the details of things carefully and rigorously." Balaji later shifted to organizing the huge datasets of online writings and other media used to train GPT-4, the fourth generation of OpenAI's flagship large language model and a basis for the company's famous chatbot. It was that work that eventually caused Balaji to question the technology he helped build, especially after newspapers, novelists and others began suing OpenAI and other AI companies for copyright infringement. He first raised his concerns with The New York Times, which reported them in an October profile of Balaji . He later told The Associated Press he would "try to testify" in the strongest copyright infringement cases and considered a lawsuit brought by The New York Times last year to be the "most serious." Times lawyers named him in a Nov. 18 court filing as someone who might have "unique and relevant documents" supporting allegations of OpenAI's willful copyright infringement. His records were also sought by lawyers in a separate case brought by book authors including the comedian Sarah Silverman, according to a court filing. "It doesn't feel right to be training on people's data and then competing with them in the marketplace," Balaji told the AP in late October. "I don't think you should be able to do that. I don't think you are able to do that legally." He told the AP that he gradually grew more disillusioned with OpenAI, especially after the internal turmoil that led its board of directors to fire and then rehire CEO Sam Altman last year. Balaji said he was broadly concerned about how its commercial products were rolling out, including their propensity for spouting false information known as hallucinations. But of the "bag of issues" he was concerned about, he said he was focusing on copyright as the one it was "actually possible to do something about." He acknowledged that it was an unpopular opinion within the AI research community, which is accustomed to pulling data from the internet, but said "they will have to change and it's a matter of time." He had not been deposed and it's unclear to what extent his revelations will be admitted as evidence in any legal cases after his death. He also published a personal blog post with his opinions about the topic. Schulman, who resigned from OpenAI in August, said he and Balaji coincidentally left on the same day and celebrated with fellow colleagues that night with dinner and drinks at a San Francisco bar. Another of Balaji's mentors, co-founder and chief scientist Ilya Sutskever, had left OpenAI several months earlier, which Balaji saw as another impetus to leave. Schulman said Balaji had told him earlier this year of his plans to leave OpenAI and that Balaji didn't think that better-than-human AI known as artificial general intelligence "was right around the corner, like the rest of the company seemed to believe." The younger engineer expressed interest in getting a doctorate and exploring "some more off-the-beaten path ideas about how to build intelligence," Schulman said. Balaji's family said a memorial is being planned for later this month at the India Community Center in Milpitas, California, not far from his hometown of Cupertino. —————- The Associated Press and OpenAI have a licensing and technology agreement allowing OpenAI access to part of the AP's text archives.

After 10 straight wins, Lions face Packers with much to accomplish

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The plan for the Minnesota Vikings was to bring in Sam Darnold as the bridge between Kirk Cousins and J.J. McCarthy, confident his strong arm and starting experience would sufficiently run a high-caliber offense until the rookie was deemed ready to play. Darnold's performance to date has been much closer to superstar than mere stopgap. “He’s a baller," Vikings safety Harrison Smith said. "He can make stuff happen when he needs to. I know with the outside narrative on him and his path and everything, you might not think that, but ever since he got here, it felt like that was going to happen.” Having led the Vikings (10-2) to their fifth consecutive victory with the go-ahead touchdown pass against Arizona last week, one game after a stellar overtime drive to beat Chicago , Darnold has become one of the darlings of this NFL this season with his success in coach Kevin O'Connell's system after the third overall pick in the 2018 draft started his career in rather bleak fashion. His first year in Minnesota sure has been smoother than what Cousins has gone through in his debut with the Atlanta Falcons . Last week in a loss at home to the Los Angeles Chargers, Cousins matched his career high with four interceptions. “I don’t think anybody can put any more pressure on Kirk than he has for himself. He’s carried us through this season when we were figuring out a lot of things on defense,” Falcons defensive tackle Grady Jarrett said. “He’s just having a hard time right now. There’s nothing to say he can’t catch fire and light it up like he’s been doing.” The Falcons (6-6) take their three-game losing streak on the road to face the Vikings, with division races for both teams in full swing. The quarterback contrasts have made this matchup all the more intriguing, with Cousins coming back to the place where he spent the previous six seasons. Cousins has a $25 million salary cap hit this season, the 11th-highest among quarterbacks in the league. Even if the Falcons were to move on in 2026 and swallow the dead money for two more years with eighth overall pick Michael Penix Jr. waiting in the wings, Cousins will carry a $40 million charge in 2025. Darnold’s cap charge is $5 million this season, just 31st on the list. Though he will become a free agent in March, the Vikings structured his contract with void years to spread his cap hit into next season for another $5 million. McCarthy, the 10th overall pick, won't be ready until next year after having surgery to repair the meniscus he tore in his right knee in his first preseason game. Though Darnold has had a couple of clunkers this year, the Vikings still won those games and he's bounced back strong without letting interceptions linger into future decisions. "He’s kind of found a little balance, at least the last few weeks, of ‘When is it too risky?’ and ‘When can I take my shot at something?’” offensive coordinator Wes Phillips said. The Falcons have seen as much on tape. “I think he’s playing free,” Pro Bowl safety Jessie Bates said. “It’s not a lot of complicated throws or anything that he’s doing. I just think that he’s finally able to feel comfortable in himself.” Falcons coach Raheem Morris decided to address the significance of Cousins’ homecoming with the team, bracing for the type of crowd reaction that will only intensify the noise at U.S. Bank Stadium that's already daunting for opponents. Minnesota's defense has thrived this season at home, using the fans to enhance the effectiveness of a disguise-based, aggressive scheme that leads the league with 18 interceptions and has also been adept at rushing the passer and stuffing the run. “The environment they create up in Minnesota is absolutely outstanding,” Morris said. Cousins isn't the only key figure from the Falcons who's well-known to Vikings coaches. Morris was the defensive coordinator in 2021 with the Los Angeles Rams when O'Connell was the offensive coordinator and Phillips was the tight ends coach on that Super Bowl champion team. Vikings running back Aaron Jones has fumbled three times in the last two games, losing two of them, but he hasn't lost the confidence of coaches or teammates as evidenced by the pass called for his go-ahead touchdown catch against the Cardinals. Family is a strong support system for him, too, but sometimes that means tough love. His mother, Vurgess Jones, let him have it after the game when they talked about the turnovers. “I was like, ‘I’ve got to learn from it,'” Jones said. “She was like, ‘You didn’t learn last week?'” He has matched his career high in 2024 with five fumbles and three lost, a fact not lost on a Falcons defense that's aggressive with dislodging techniques despite only four recovered fumbles in 12 games. “You can see it all over the tape: Those guys are coaching it," Phillips said. Vikings outside linebacker Jonathan Greenard, who was named the NFC Defensive Player of the Month after racking up eight tackles for loss in November, carried his pass-rushing mojo into December with a couple of clutch plays in the final minute to preserve the victory over Arizona. Greenard has 10 of the team's 39 sacks. “How many times this year has he affected the quarterback, drawn a penalty, sacked the quarterback, strip-sacked like last week in these critical moments where you need your best players to go make those plays?” O'Connell said. “He’s done it time and time again.” Falcons running back Bijan Robinson set a career high last week with 26 carries. He had 102 yards rushing and was again a significant part of the passing attack with six catches against the Chargers. “I just do whatever I can to help us as a team,” said Robinson, who’s fifth in the NFL with 1,277 combined yards from scrimmage. “I just trust whatever they have in the plan.” AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/NFL

TransMedics Appoints Gerardo Hernandez as Chief Financial Officer and Provides Updated 2024 Financial Outlook

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — While Gov. Ron DeSantis is a top contender to be nominated as defense secretary under President-elect Donald Trump, people around the two men see obstacles that could keep Trump from offering the job, and DeSantis from accepting it. The Herald/Times Tallahassee Bureau spoke to 11 political insiders close to both DeSantis and Trump for this story. The potential hurdles are both personal and political. Pete Hegseth could still get the job Trump’s current nominee isn’t sunk yet. And he has a major champion in U.S. Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican who has never had a warm relationship with DeSantis, who succeeded him when he left office in January 2019. “ @PeteHegseth has gone into combat and put his life on the line for our country,” Scott said in a statement on X late Wednesday evening. “He will do an unbelievable job at the Department of Defense, and that’s why I support him.” DeSantis served in the Navy as a lawyer , and at one point advised U.S. Navy SEALs in Iraq. Hegseth, a Fox and Friends co-host and Trump ally, has been mired in controversy since the Washington Post reported he paid a woman for her silence after she accused him of rape. Hegseth has denied the rape allegation and insisted that the encounter was consensual. DeSantis and Trump’s complicated history It’s well known that DeSantis and Trump traded barbs during the Republican presidential primary last year. And while they have since buried the hatchet, with DeSantis offering to fundraise for Trump during the general election, both DeSantis and the president-elect have reputations for holding grudges. One potential comparison drawn was between DeSantis and Republican Utah Sen. Mitt Romney. In 2016, Romney called Trump during his first presidential bid “ a phony, a fraud .” But Romney still wanted to be his U.S. Secretary of State when Trump floated his name as a possible nomination after he won the election. The about-face came to nothing in the end. Trump ultimately passed over Romney – but not before publishing a picture of Trump and a sheepish-looking Romney meeting over dinner. This analogy only goes so far. DeSantis has largely stayed away from taking moral positions against Trump, focusing instead on political differences. He argued during his presidential primary campaign that the party was ready for the next iteration of Trump, one who had less baggage and more focus on implementing the conservative agenda. But at times they have disagreed over what that agenda should be. Trump has taken issue with DeSantis’ approach in Florida to the insurance crisis , recreational marijuana and abortion . And Trump’s incoming chief of staff is Susie Wiles, who was ousted by DeSantis after she helped him win his first gubernatorial bid in 2018. Wiles didn’t return a request for comment. Spokespeople for Trump and DeSantis also did not respond to requests for comment for this article. The job might not be in DeSantis’ best interest There have been different opinions on this. The defense secretary job is high-profile and would keep DeSantis in D.C. and potentially on television, both of which would help him build support for a potential 2028 presidential bid. But the job is a federal governmental position, which would make raising money more difficult thanks to a 1939 law called the Hatch Act that prohibits executive branch employees from participating in certain political activities, including soliciting and accepting campaign contributions. On the other hand, the restriction may not all be all that enforceable. The Office of Special Counsel investigated Hatch Act complaints and found in a report released in 2021 that 13 senior Trump officials had violated it during his first term as president. The report notes that “discipline is no longer possible once subjects leave government service.” It’s also a new job. DeSantis would be pivoting to a whole new agenda, which is always a risk. He’s overwhelmingly powerful in Florida, ground zero for the new Republican party. And when he terms out of his governorship in 2027, he could easily transition into campaigning for president. Serving in a Cabinet post would also limit DeSantis’ ability to criticize or distance himself from the Trump administration in a future presidential bid. If he remains in the governor’s mansion for another two years, DeSantis could still play the role of Trump ally, while maintaining an air of independence from the president-elect and his agenda. DeSantis isn’t particularly wealthy. And D.C. is expensive. DeSantis’ net worth in December of last year was nearly $1.8 million, according to a state ethics form elected officials must fill out each year. Much of his wealth came from the publishing of his 2023 memoir, "Courage to Be Free: Florida’s Blueprint for America’s Revival." DeSantis’ gubernatorial salary last year was $141,400. He still owed $16,929.11 in student loans. He had no mortgage. He lives in the governor’s mansion in Tallahassee. Becoming defense secretary would come with a significant raise for DeSantis; as of this year, the job pays $246,400 annually . But it could also come with new bills: If DeSantis, who has three young children, leaves his job to take the defense secretary position, he may have to purchase or lease not just one home, but two — one in Florida and one in Washington, D.C. Working for Trump doesn’t scream job security For all the prestige that comes with serving in a presidential administration, Cabinet secretaries serve at the pleasure of the president, meaning DeSantis could be pushed out of office on a whim if that’s what Trump wants. During his first term in the White House, the famously mercurial Trump repeatedly ousted and replaced advisors and appointees. His first defense secretary, ret. Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, served in the role for just under two years. If he remains in the governor’s mansion, DeSantis will remain in the political spotlight for at least another two years – a guarantee he wouldn’t have if he takes the job at the Pentagon. (McClatchy Chief Washington Correspondent Michael Wilner contributed to this report.) ©2024 Miami Herald. Visit at miamiherald.com . Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.NEW YORK — The masked gunman who stalked and killed the leader of one of the largest U.S. health insurance companies outside a Manhattan hotel used ammunition emblazoned with the words "deny," "defend" and "depose," two law enforcement officials said Thursday. The words were written in permanent marker, according to one of the officials, who spoke to The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity. With the gunman still at large, police also released photos of a person they said was wanted for questioning in connection with the shooting. UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, 50, died in a dawn ambush Wednesday as he walked to the company's annual investor conference at a Hilton hotel in Midtown. The reason behind the killing remained unknown, but investigators believe it was a targeted attack. This image shows a man wanted for questioning in connection to the investigation of the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel. The message left on the ammunition echoes the phrase "delay, deny, defend," which is commonly used by attorneys and insurance industry critics to describe tactics used to avoid paying claims. It refers to insurers delaying payment, denying a claim and then defending their actions. Health insurers like UnitedHealthcare have become frequent targets of criticism from doctors and patients for complicating access to care. Investigators recovered several 9 mm shell casings from outside the hotel and a cellphone from the alleyway through which the shooter fled. Inside a nearby trash can, they found a water bottle and protein bar wrapper that they say the gunman purchased from a nearby Starbucks minutes before the shooting. The city's medical examiner was looking for fingerprints. The killing and the shooter's movements in the minutes before and after were captured on some of the multitudes of security cameras present in that part of the city. The shooter fled on a bike and was last seen riding into Central Park. Bullets lie on the sidewalk Wednesday outside the Hilton Hotel in midtown Manhattan where Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed in New York. The hunt for the shooter brought New York City police to at least two hostels on Manhattan's Upper West Side on Thursday morning, based on a tip that the suspected shooter might have stayed at one of the residences, according to one of the law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation. The photos police released Thursday of a man wanted for questioning were taken in the lobby of the HI New York City hostel. "We are fully cooperating with the NYPD and, as this is an active investigation, can not comment at this time," said Danielle Brumfitt, a spokesperson for the hostel. Police received a flood of tips from members of the public, many of them unfounded. On Wednesday evening, police searched a Long Island Rail Road train after a commuter claimed to have spotted the shooter, but found no sign of the gunman. "We're following up on every single tip that comes in," said Carlos Nieves, a police spokesperson. "That little piece of information could be the missing piece of the puzzle that ties everything together." Investigators believe, judging from surveillance video and evidence collected from the scene, that the shooter had at least some prior firearms training and experience with guns and the weapon was equipped with a silencer, said one of the law enforcement officials who spoke with the AP. This still image from surveillance video shows the suspect, left, sought in the the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, center, Wednesday outside a Manhattan hotel. Security camera video showed the killer approach Thompson from behind, level his pistol and fire several shots, barely pausing to clear a gun jam while the health executive tumbled to the pavement. Cameras showed him fleeing the block across a pedestrian plaza before getting on the bicycle. Police issued several surveillance images of the man wearing a hooded jacket and a mask that concealed most of his face, which wouldn't have attracted attention on a frigid day. Authorities also used drones, helicopters and dogs in an intensive search, but the killer's whereabouts remained unknown. Thompson, a father of two sons who lived in suburban Minneapolis, was with UnitedHealthcare since 2004 and served as CEO for more than three years. The insurer's Minnetonka, Minnesota-based parent company, UnitedHealth Group Inc., was holding its annual meeting with investors in New York to update Wall Street on the company's direction and expectations for the coming year. The company ended the conference early in the wake of Thompson's death. UnitedHealthcare is the largest provider of Medicare Advantage plans in the U.S. and manages health insurance coverage for employers and state and federally funded Medicaid programs. In the U.S. healthcare system, even the simplest act, like booking an appointment with your primary care physician, may feel intimidating. As you wade through intake forms and insurance statements, and research out-of-network coverage , you might wonder, "When did U.S. health care get so confusing?" Short answer? It's complicated. The history of modern U.S. health care spans nearly a century, with social movements, legislation, and politics driving change. Take a trip back in time as Thatch highlights some of the most impactful legislation and policies that gave us the existing healthcare system, particularly how and when things got complicated. In the beginning, a common perception of American doctors was that they were kindly old men stepping right out of a Saturday Evening Post cover illustration to make house calls. If their patients couldn't afford their fee, they'd accept payment in chicken or goats. Health care was relatively affordable and accessible. Then it all fell apart during the Great Depression of the 1930s. That's when hospital administrators started looking for ways to guarantee payment. According to the American College of Healthcare Executives, this is when the earliest form of health insurance was born. Interestingly, doctors would have none of it at first. The earliest health plans covered hospitalization only. A new set of challenges from the Second World War required a new set of responses. During the Depression, there were far too many people and too few jobs. The war economy had the opposite effect. Suddenly, all able-bodied men were in the military, but somebody still had to build the weapons and provision the troops. Even with women entering the workforce in unprecedented numbers, there was simply too much to get done. The competition for skilled labor was brutal. A wage freeze starting in 1942 forced employers to find other means of recruiting and retaining workers. Building on the recently mandated workers' compensation plans, employers or their union counterparts started offering insurance to cover hospital and doctor visits. Of course, the wage freeze ended soon after the war. However, the tax code and the courts soon clarified that employer-sponsored health insurance was non-taxable. Medicare, a government-sponsored health plan for retirees 65 and older, debuted in 1965. Nowadays, Medicare is offered in Parts A, B, C, and D; each offering a different layer of coverage for older Americans. As of 2023, over a quarter of all U.S. adults are enrolled in Medicare. The structure of Medicare is not dissimilar to universal health care offered in other countries, although the policy covers everyone, not just people over a certain age. Medicaid was also signed into law with Medicare. Medicaid provides health care coverage for Americans with low incomes. Over 74 million Americans are enrolled in Medicaid today. The Obama administration was neither the first nor the last to champion new ways to provide health care coverage to a wider swath of Americans. The first attempts to harmonize U.S. healthcare delivery systems with those of other developed economies came just five years after Medicare and Medicaid. Two separate bills were introduced in 1970 alone. Both bills aimed to widen affordable health benefits for Americans, either by making people Medicare-eligible or providing free health benefits for all Americans. As is the case with many bills, both these died, even though there was bipartisan support. But the chairman of the relevant Senate panel had his own bill in mind, which got through the committee. It effectively said that all Americans were entitled to the kind of health benefits enjoyed by the United Auto Workers Union or AFL-CIO—for free. But shortly after Sen. Edward Kennedy began hearings on his bill in early 1971 , a competing proposal came from an unexpected source: Richard Nixon's White House. President Nixon's approach , in retrospect, had some commonalities with what Obamacare turned out to be. There was the employer mandate, for example, and an expansion of Medicaid. It favored healthcare delivery via health maintenance organizations, or HMOs, which was a novel idea at the time. HMOs, which offer managed care within a tight network of health care providers, descended from the prepaid health plans that flourished briefly in the 1910s and 1920s. They were first conceived in their current form around 1970 by Dr. Paul M. Ellwood, Jr. In 1973, a law was passed to require large companies to give their employees an HMO option as well as a traditional health insurance option. But that was always intended to be ancillary to Nixon's more ambitious proposal, which got even closer to what exists now after it wallowed in the swamp for a while. When Nixon reintroduced the proposal in 1974, it featured state-run health insurance plans as a substitute for Medicaid—not a far cry from the tax credit-fueled state-run exchanges of today. Of course, Nixon had other things to worry about in 1974: inflation, recession, a nation just beginning to heal from its first lost war—and his looming impeachment. His successor, Gerald Ford, tried to keep the proposal moving forward, but to no avail. But this raises a good question: If the Republican president and the Democratic Senate majority both see the same problem and have competing but not irreconcilable proposals to address it, why wasn't there some kind of compromise? What major issue divided the two parties? It was a matter of funding. The Democrats wanted to pay for universal health coverage through the U.S. Treasury's general fund, acknowledging that Congress would have to raise taxes to pay for it. The Republicans wanted it to pay for itself by charging participants insurance premiums, which would be, in effect, a new tax. The next significant legislation came from President Reagan, who signed the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA, in 1985. COBRA enabled laid-off workers to hold onto their health insurance—providing that they pay 100% of the premium, which had been wholly or at least in part subsidized by their erstwhile employer. While COBRA offers continued coverage, its high expense doesn't offer much relief for the unemployed. A 2006 Commonwealth Fund survey found that only 9% of people eligible for COBRA coverage actually signed up for it. The COBRA law had a section, though, that was only tangentially related. The Emergency Medical Treatment and Active Labor Act, or EMTALA, which was incorporated into COBRA, required all emergency medical facilities that take Medicare—that is, all of them—to treat patients irrespective of their insurance status or ability to pay. As Forbes staff writer Avik Roy wrote during the Obamacare debate, EMTALA has come to overshadow the rest of the COBRA law in its influence on American health care policy. More on that soon. It wasn't until the 1990s that Washington saw another serious attempt at healthcare reform. Bill Clinton's first order of business as president was to establish a new health care plan. For the first time, the First Lady took on the role of heavy-lifting policy advisor to the president and became the White House point person on universal health care. Hillary Clinton's proposal mandated : The Clintons' plan centralized decision-making in Washington, with a "National Health Board" overseeing quality assurance, training physicians, guaranteeing abortion coverage, and running both long-term care facilities and rural health systems. The insurance lobbyists had a field day with that. The famous "Harry and Louise" ads portrayed a generic American couple having tense conversations in their breakfast nook about how the federal government would come between them and their doctor. By the 1994 midterms, any chance of universal health care in America had died. In this case, it wasn't funding but the debate between big and small governments that killed the Clinton reform. It would be another generation before the U.S. saw universal health care take the stage. Fast-forward to 2010. It was clear that employer-sponsored plans were vestiges of another time. They made sense when people stayed with the same company for their entire careers, but as job-hopping and layoffs became more prevalent, plans tied to the job became obsolete. Thus the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, was proposed by Barack Obama's White House and squeaked by Congress and the Supreme Court with the narrowest of margins. The ACA introduced an individual mandate requiring everyone to have health insurance regardless of job status. It set up an array of government-sponsored online exchanges where individuals could buy coverage . It also provided advance premium tax credits to defray the cost to consumers. But it didn't ignore hat most people were already getting health insurance through work, and a significant proportion didn't want to change . So the ACA also required employers with 50 or more full-time equivalent employees to provide health coverage to at least 95% of them. The law, nicknamed Obamacare by supporters and detractors, set a minimum baseline of coverage and affordability. The penalty for an employer that offers inadequate or unaffordable coverage can never be greater than the penalty for not offering coverage at all. The model for Obamacare was the health care reform package that went into effect in Massachusetts in 2006. The initial proposal was made by then-Governor Mitt Romney, a Republican who now serves as a senator from Utah. Despite an onslaught of court challenges, Obamacare remains the law of the land. For a while, Republican congressional candidates ran on a "repeal-and-replace" platform plank, but even when they were in the majority, there was little legislative action to do either. Still, Obamacare is not the last word in American health care reform. Since then, there have been two important improvements to Health Reimbursement Arrangements, through which companies pay employees back for out-of-pocket medical-related expenses. HRAs had been evolving informally since at least the 1960s but were first addressed by the Internal Revenue Service in 2002. Not much more happened on that front until Obama's lame-duck period. In December 2016, he signed the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which was mainly a funding bill supporting the National Institutes of Health as it addressed the opioid crisis. But, just like the right to free emergency room treatment was nested in the larger COBRA law, the legal framework of Qualified Small Employer Health Reimbursement Arrangements was tucked away in a corner of the Cures Act. QSEHRAs, offered only by companies with fewer than 50 full-time employees, allow firms to let their employees pick their insurance coverage off the Obamacare exchanges. The firms pay the employees back for some or all of the cost of those premiums. The employees then become ineligible for the premium tax credit provided by the ACA, but a well-constructed QSEHRA will meet or exceed the value of that subsidy. That brings this timeline to one last innovation, which expands QSEHRA-like treatment to companies with more than 50 employees or aspiring to have them. Individual Coverage Health Reimbursement Arrangements , or ICHRAs, were established by a 2019 IRS rule . ICHRAs allow firms of any size to offer employees tax-free contributions to cover up to 100% of their individual health insurance premiums as well as other eligible medical expenses. Instead of offering insurance policies directly, companies advise employees to shop on a government-sponsored exchange and select the best plan that suits their needs. Employer reimbursement rather than an advance premium tax credit reduces premiums. And because these plans are already ACA-compliant, there's no risk to the employer that they won't meet coverage or affordability standards. The U.S. is never going back to the mid-20th century model of lifetime employment at one company. Now, with remote employees and gig workers characterizing the workforce, the portability of an ICHRA provides some consistency for those who expect to be independent contractors for their entire careers. Simultaneously, allows bootstrap-phase startups to offer the dignity of health coverage to their Day One associates. The U.S. health care system can feel clunky and confusing to navigate. It is also regressive and penalizes startups and small businesses. For a country founded by entrepreneurs, it's sad that corporations like Google pay less for health care per employee than a small coffee shop in Florida. In many ways, ICHRA democratizes procuring health care coverage. In the same way that large employers enjoy the benefits of better rates, ICHRA plan quality and prices improve as the ICHRA risk pool grows. Moving away from the traditional employer model will change the incentive structure of the healthcare industry. Insurers will be able to compete and differentiate on the merits of their product. They will be incentivized to build products for people, not one-size-fits-all solutions for employers. This story was produced by Thatch and reviewed and distributed by Stacker Media. Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.Lots of people, especially city dwellers and renters, don’t have rooftops where they can install solar panels to generate some of the electricity they use in their daily lives. Community solar offers a partial solution for some, but it is not available everywhere. In Germany, more than 1.5 million people have installed Balkonkraftwerke , which translates as “balcony power plants.” Almost every apartment has a balcony with a railing to keep folks from tumbling into the street below. If it gets any sun exposure during the day, balcony solar panels can be mounted to those railings to make electricity that helps power a home. Proponents say balcony solar panels are easy to install on railings (and uninstall if need be in the event of storms). Once in place, people simply plug a micro-inverter into an available wall outlet. Add a small battery to store any solar energy not needed right away and you have your own personal micro-minigrid inside your home. The systems sell for between $500 and $1000, depending on the number of solar panels purchased. A typical system consists of two 150-watt panels and can pay for itself in a few years. It is also highly portable, so it can easily be transported from one apartment to another if the owner moves. According to Grist , Germany now has more than 550,000 balcony solar installations , half of which were installed in 2023. During the first six months of 2024, Germany added 200 megawatts of balcony solar. Regulations limit each system to just 800 watts, which is enough to power a small fridge or charge a laptop, but the cumulative effect is nudging the country toward its clean energy goals while giving apartment dwellers, who make up more than half of the German population, an easy way to save money and address the climate crisis. Matthias Weyland, who lives in Keil, tells Grist , “I love the feeling of charging the bike when the sun is shining, or having the washing machine run when the sun is shining, and to know that it comes directly from the sun. It’s a small step you can take as a tenant” and an act of “self-efficacy, to not just sit and wait until the climate crisis gets worse.” Balcony solar started a decade ago, but didn’t really catch on until 2019 when the German government enacted the first technical regulations for plug-in solar devices, allowing balcony solar systems to use standard electrical plugs and feed into the grid. That prompted an influx of plug-in devices and advocates to promote the technology. The pandemic helped fuel the surge in popularity as people spent more time working from home. The escalating energy price of electricity that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine led more Germans to consider balcony solar. “People just did anything they could to reduce their energy bills,” said Wolfgang Gründinger, who works with the clean energy company Enpal . In April, the German government simplified permitting and registration requirements, and in July, federal lawmakers passed renter protections that prevent landlords from arbitrarily blocking installations. Cities throughout Germany, including Berlin, have offered millions of euros in subsidies to install balcony solar. Gründinger and experts at the German Solar Industry Association noted that the devices don’t generate enough power to strain the grid, and their standardized design and safety features allow them to integrate into balconies smoothly and easily. Many of them like the idea of producing energy at home and gaining a bit of independence from the grid. The system also provides a tangible way to take climate action. “It makes the energy transition feel a little more concrete and not so abstract,” said Helena Holenweger of Environmental Action Germany. She installed a balcony solar system on top of her garage about a year ago. “You can literally do something about it.” Holenweger and others say balcony solar led them to reevaluate their understanding of electricity consumption and take steps to reduce it. “For lots of people, energy is just something that comes out of your socket. You never think about how it gets there or how it works.” The systems don’t include battery storage, so the juice they generate must be used immediately, leading people to plan the best time to run the washing machine to ensure they’re using renewable energy. In that way, it becomes something of a game. Many balcony solar kits feature an app to track daily energy generation. That has become something of a scorecard for many who have balcony solar systems. “They screenshot that, they send it around to their Facebook groups, family WhatsApp groups. They’re super proud,” Gründinger said. Manufacturers say that installing a couple of 300-watt panels will give savings of up to 30% on a typical household’s electricity bill, but there are lots of variables that come with that claim. It depends on which direction the balcony faces and whether the panels are shaded part of the day. Perhaps the biggest benefit is the increased awareness of the need to find solutions to climate emissions. People with balcony solar systems influence others and it seems reasonable to expect they will vote for leaders who share their concerns. In Spain, where two thirds of the population live in apartments and installing panels on the roof requires the consent of a majority of the building’s residents, this DIY technology has obvious advantages. With solar balconies, no such consent is required unless the facade is listed as being of historic interest or there is a specific prohibition from the residents’ association or the local authority. According to The Guardian , as long as the installation does not exceed 800 watts — about what a typical hairdryer uses — one doesn’t require certification. “The beauty of the solar balconies is they are flexible, cheap and plug straight into the domestic network via a converter, so you don’t have to pay for the installation,” says Santiago Vernetta, CEO of Tornasol Energy , one of Spain’s main suppliers. As the cost of solar panels continues to fall, Vernetta says the labor cost of installing rooftop solar is often greater than the price of the materials. He adds that the vertical surface area of cities is far greater than that of available roofs and that balcony panels benefit more than roof panels from the low winter sun. Raquel Paule, director of the Fundación Renovables in Madrid, says the increasingly popular energy communities in which residents benefit from solar installations on the roofs of nearby schools and sports centers are another way around the problem of majority consent. “Balcony power is another piece in the puzzle. They are another step towards using the built environment to generate electricity. Paule emphasizes that self sufficiency, whether in individual households or energy communities, is a vital part of energy transition, especially for cities which depend on outside sources for about 97% of their electricity. “Cities need to become more self-sufficient by generating more,” she says. “Energy transition involves a change from cities depending on a centralised system with big companies supplying electricity to a more widely distributed, more democratic and more participative model, and this is what the energy companies are scared of. Big energy companies should be pushing for renewables because they’ve played a big part in getting us into this situation. Instead of creating obstacles, they should be facilitators by giving everyone access to the grid that they control.” “Plug-in solar is part of the whole array of options,” says Michael Schmela, director of market intelligence at SolarPower Europe, an umbrella group for 320 European solar power organisations. “What’s special about balcony power is it’s so versatile and you can install it as part of the building. This is the next step. The technology is there but the regulations and architects have to embrace it. There are so many solutions and balcony solar is the latest trend. For years solar has been the fastest growing and cheapest in the energy sector,” Schmela says, adding that what is needed now is battery development and greater cohesion between wind, solar, and other renewables. Vernetta says Spain has been slow to catch on to balcony power, but he remains confident the technology will take off. “If 1.5 million Germans have bought solar balcony kits there must be something in it,” he says. CleanTechnica's Comment Policy LinkedIn WhatsApp Facebook Bluesky Email RedditWASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. of Maryland announced Monday that he will run to become the top Democrat on the powerful House Judiciary Committee next year, directly challenging fellow Democratic Rep. as the party prepares to fight a second Trump administration and an emboldened Republican majority. "House Democrats must stand in the breach to defend the principles and institutions of constitutional democracy," Raskin wrote in a letter to colleagues. “That is our historic assignment now. We dare not fail.” Raskin said in the letter — obtained by The Associated Press — that he decided to run for the post after spending the week consulting with House Democrats and “engaging in serious introspection” about where the party is following their stunning electoral defeat last month that handed Republicans control of Congress and the White House. While currently the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Raskin said that come next year, the Judiciary Committee under his leadership would become "the headquarters of Congressional opposition to authoritarianism" as well as other efforts by President and his allies to thwart the Constitution. Being the face of the resistance against Trump is not new territory for Raskin who spent the last two years on Oversight as the most vocal defender of President and his family as they faced a sprawling Republican investigation — encouraged by Trump — into their various business affairs. Raskin, who is a former constitutional law professor, also helped draft articles of impeachment against the incoming president for his encouragement of the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021, and led the impeachment prosecution in the Senate. But by throwing his hat in the ring, Raskin is inviting what a bitter intra-party fight with Nadler, who is currently serving his 17th term in Congress and who has held the top spot on Judiciary since 2019. Democrats have over the years rarely broken from the seniority system for committee assignments, no matter how long someone has held a position, making the outcome of the race uncertain. Both men did not respond to requests for comment but Raskin closed his letter by praising Nadler, saying that he made this decision “with respect and boundless admiration” for him. “If I’m lucky enough to be chosen for this responsibility in the 119th Congress, I will turn to Jerry first and throughout for his always wise counsel and political judgment,” Raskin added.