Prescription drugs are the difference between life and death for millions of Americans each day, yet their costs are far too often unaffordable. Heavily influencing these prices are Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs). These are the third-party middlemen who negotiate prescription drug rates with pharmaceutical manufacturers on behalf of insurance companies. Earlier this month, the Federal...
TYLER—Victor Zillmer keeps the prices on his fresh berries, vegetables and jams as low as he can—but lately, he’s having to raise those prices more and more. It’s all due to two closely related costs: diesel fuel and fertilizer. On this warm June morning, he’s driven into Tyler from nearby Lindale with a truck full...
Former federal prosecutor Brett Tolman said Friday on “Fox & Friends First” Attorney General Merrick Garland should resign if the Justice Department is not going to enforce laws to protect Supreme Court justices. “It is playing with fire,” he said. “And the attorney general right now should either resign or enforce the law impartially. And that includes enforcing...
There’s something conspicuously absent from State Board of Education member Aicha Davis’s warmed-over critique of charter schools—the voices of the thousands of Texas families who are on waiting lists to get into them. Throughout this summer, families throughout the state will desperately await phone calls and emails informing them that a seat has opened up,...
As there seems to be a national day for almost everything, including peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, our readers may be wondering, does every national day apply to Life:Powered? Our answer is “probably, yes.” You see, energy affects everything that we do. Without it, I would have probably slept through my alarm, not have had...
We are a nation in crisis. It’s not a gun crisis or even a mental health crisis. It’s a crisis of fatherlessness. Each time we see such senseless violence unfold as the devastating shooting that made the small town of Uvalde a household name, we cry anew for policy solutions. But almost every such attack...
The Harris County Commissioners Court is considering whether to put a $1 billion bond measure on the November ballot to fund a variety of public safety, transportation, and flood control initiatives. This comes on the heels of the Court passing a $2.5 billion bond in 2018 for flood control, and an $850 million bond in...
Supporters waved flags and snapped selfies as they waited for the MORENA party’s final rally to start in Reynosa – the scruffy border city of maquiladoras opposite McAllen, Texas. Music blared two hours later as the rally for MORENA’s gubernatorial candidate Américo Villarreal still hadn’t started. Such tardiness can be common in Mexican political rallies as...
School’s out for summer and everyone is ready for a vacation. And who can blame them? The world’s been through a lot, so it makes sense that travel demand is up 86%. But with skyrocketing inflation on everything from the pump to plane tickets to groceries and more, who can afford to go anywhere besides...
Here’s a crash course on the Defense Production Act (DPA) for the current commander-in-chief — who, evidently, has never familiarized himself with the national defense infrastructure of the United States. F-22s don’t achieve supercruise speeds with batteries. Marines aren’t issued baby formula in their MREs. And Nimitz-class aircraft carriers don’t rip through the waves at...
The city of Austin will soon start sending out $1,000 checks—with no strings attached—to approximately 85 Austin families, in the state’s first experiment in “universal basic income” (UBI). But the Texas Constitution prohibits cities from giving gifts—and that’s why this program is likely unconstitutional. The program is aimed at people who are being priced out of...
As a Georgia peach, with “Peachtree” in my childhood home address, I have been skeptical about Texas’s peaches. So, when we pulled up to Burg’s Corner, the retail site of Jimmy Duecker Orchards, a store right off Highway 290 East, I was planning on disappointment. Founded in 1948, the store was the hub of the...