Day: February 26, 2024

New Drug Prices Spiked in 2023 as Biden Admin Seeks to Keep Costs Down

South Carolina Sun Staff
Joe Biden Drug Costs

Pharmaceutical companies set median starting list prices 35% higher in 2023 than the previous year, despite the Biden administration’s ongoing efforts to tamp down on surging costs, Reuters reported Friday.

The median list price for a drug being placed on the market, many of which were for rare diseases, was $300,000 in 2023, which is up from a median price of $222,000 in 2022, according to an analysis by Reuters of 47 drugs. The Biden administration has made it a goal to tame drug prices, announcing steps like imposing automatic rebates to Medicare for drugmakers that raise their prices faster than the rate of inflation, which does not cover the starting list price.

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Gavin Newsom’s PAC Raised Almost $10 Million in Less than a Year

South Carolina Sun Staff
Gavin Newsom Money

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Campaign for Democracy PAC raised over $9.5 million in 2023, Federal Election Commission (FEC) records show.

The bulk of Campaign for Democracy’s 2023 revenue, about $6.2 million, was transferred from Newsom’s gubernatorial committee while the remaining $3.3 million came from individual contributions, according to FEC records. Though the majority of the PAC’s spending went toward advertisements, it also spent thousands of dollars on luxury travel expenses and gourmet food.

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Commentary: Foreign Cash Could Be the Culprit Turning Our Kids into Terrorist Sympathizers

South Carolina Sun Staff
Texas A&M

Shortly after Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, a Harvard CAPS-Harris X poll found that 48 percent of Americans ages 18-24 supported Hamas over Israel. This is in direct contrast to 95 percent of Americans 65 years of age and older who sided with Israel. This stark difference begs the question: why do half of young Americans support a group that has been designated by the State Department as a Foreign Terrorist Organization since October 1997? Our ongoing fight for transparency suggests at least some of the answers lie in Qatar’s pocketbooks.

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Commentary: How to Build a ‘Results in Advance’ Plan for Your Retirement

South Carolina Sun Staff
Retired Couple

Creating a solid retirement plan is essential for a worry-free and stable future. Still, many people lack the knowledge to achieve a successful retirement plan. 

Here’s a can’t-lose, three-step strategy to assist you in developing an effective “Results in Advance” plan for your retirement.

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Existing Home Sales up 3.1 Percent in January

The Center Square
New Home Owner

Existing home sales increased 3.1% in January, but year-over-year sales fell.

Existing home sales were up 3.1% from December to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4 million in January. Year-over-year, sales declined 1.7% (down from 4.07 million in January 2023), according to the National Association of Realtors.

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Commentary: Solving the Literacy Crisis

South Carolina Sun Staff
Reading

Learning to read is trending. The most fundamental of K-12 subjects is fueling YouTube videos and feature stories in People magazine and is now the subject of a report from Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La., ranking member of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Let’s hope the renewed interest spreads, because a shocking proportion of American children cannot read, and the data have profound implications for these children’s futures—and the entire criminal justice system.

Oliver James is the former convict who announced on social media that he taught himself to read as an adult, which sparked media coverage on how learning to read changed his life. As a student, James had been passed along from grade to grade without learning this basic skill.

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New York County Single-Handedly Bans Boys from Competing in Girls Sports

South Carolina Sun Staff
Girls Sports

A county in New York banned men from competing with women in competitive sports at county-run facilities, according to ABC 7 News.

The ban applies to competitive female sports, but co-ed sports or sports where biological females want to compete against biological males are allowed, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman said, according to ABC 7 News. The ban is alleged to be the first of its kind in the nation and is effective immediately.

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