DL Open Thread: Weds., May 21, 2025

Uh, they, and we, already did.  Stood by while the genocide occurred.  Israel is eradicating an entire people from the face of the Earth.  Didn’t something like this happen before?

Cross Another Destination For Deported Immigrants Off Your List. This time, South Sudan:

A federal judge in Massachusetts questioned the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday about whether it had deported any migrants to South Sudan.

The judge, Brian Murphy, had in April barred any deportations of migrants from the U.S. to countries other than their own, unless they’re given sufficient time to contest their deportations, and a notice in their native language.

But lawyers for at least one migrant, originally from Vietnam and known by the initials T.T.P in the court case, alleged he was on his way to South Sudan in Africa, the world’s youngest country. The lawyers spoke during an emergency remote hearing Murphy called on Tuesday evening.

They argued that their Vietnamese client was given less than 24 hours’ notice of his removal, and had no ability to contest it in his native language.

If those facts are true, “that leaves me in the uncomfortable position that this person is on their way to South Sudan in violation to my court order,” Murphy said during Tuesday’s hearing.

Lawyers from DHS and the Department of Justice said during the hearing that the destination of the plane carrying T.T.P. was classified.

The Trump administration has been negotiating with other countries willing to take in people deported from the U.S.

Hey, Let’s Ration COVID Shots:

The Food and Drug Administration is taking a new approach to COVID-19 vaccines that would prioritize immunizations for people at highest risk for serious complications from the disease but could make it harder for many other people to get the shots.

The new strategy would continue the current vaccine approval process for people ages 65 and older and younger people with health problems that put them at high risk, according to an article published Tuesday in The New England Journal of Medicine. But the FDA will now require vaccine manufacturers to conduct additional large studies to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of the vaccines for children and younger healthy adults.

“Secretary Kennedy had made it clear that he would never take vaccines away from anyone,”  Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said in an interview with NPR, referring to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who oversees the FDA. “This violates that in every way possible” because if insurance companies won’t pay for the vaccine many people simply won’t be able to afford it.”

UnitedHealth Bribed Nursing Homes At The Expense Of Residents Needing Hospital Care.  They should be shut down:

UnitedHealth Group, the nation’s largest healthcare conglomerate, has secretly paid nursing homes thousands in bonuses to help slash hospital transfers for ailing residents – part of a series of cost-cutting tactics that has saved the company millions, but at times risked residents’ health, a Guardian investigation has found.

Those secret bonuses have been paid out as part of a UnitedHealth program that stations the company’s own medical teams in nursing homes and pushes them to cut care expenses for residents covered by the insurance giant.

Is this happening at any Delaware nursing homes? 

In several cases identified by the Guardian, nursing home residents who needed immediate hospital care under the program failed to receive it, after interventions from UnitedHealth staffers. At least one lived with permanent brain damage following his delayed transfer, according to a confidential nursing home incident log, recordings and photo evidence.

“No one is truly investigating when a patient suffers harm. Absolutely no one,” said one current UnitedHealth nurse practitioner who recently filed a congressional complaint about the nursing home program. “These incidents are hidden, downplayed and minimized. The sense is: ‘Well, they’re medically frail, and no one lives for ever.”

Delaware SNAP Recipients Scammed Out Of Benefits.  Meaning, no food on the table:

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, 117,000 Delawareans got assistance from the SNAP program last year. But they and others across the country who get public assistance like food stamps and cash assistance are facing an unrelenting threat. Scammers are using skimming devices to steal the card number and pin number through point of sale machines at stores and ATMs. The thieves then use that information to take money from victims’ accounts.

The government puts money on the card through what’s called an Electronic Benefits Transfer, or EBT. SNAP cards have a magnetic stripe and a pin. When swiped on a skimmed device, a criminal can access their card number and PIN code. They clone the cards and use them in other places and in other states.

In 2024, Delaware SNAP recipients reported 2,154 claims of stolen benefits. The U.S. Department of Agriculture approved 1,975 of those claims and replaced more than $956,000.

Congress allocated funding to replace stolen benefits between October 2022 and the end of last year. But the federal government stopped reimbursing victims of scammers as of December.

Delaware Health and Social Services leaders said the department has already received 1,132 reports of theft totaling $166,308 so far this year. But with no replacement funds available, there is nothing for recipients to do except try to survive until their next month’s benefits come in.

Yet More Battling Over Edgemoor Port Project.  The projected (possible) project completion date of September 2028 is more likely to be closer to the start date of the project–if it ever gets started at all.

What do you want to talk about?