Wednesday on First Coast Connect, we spoke with former State Representative and CEO of Agape Community Health Center Mia Jones about the bipartisan health care proposal announced Tuesday in Washington (01:10).
OneJax speaker Dr. Carolyn Lukensmeyer discussed what can be done to reduce political dysfunction and incivility in our political system (29:28).
To commemorate Breast Cancer Awareness Month we spoke with Mayo Clinic oncologist and breast cancer survivor Dr. Dawn Mussallem (37:40).
Our tech guru Ray Hollister told us about the dangers of new computer attack that affects Wi-Fi networks (44:00).
Health Care Deal
Two U.S. senators reached a bipartisan deal late Tuesday to fund critical subsidies to the nation’s insurers. It’s a move to stabilize teetering health insurance markets under the Affordable Care Act. President Trump has voiced support for the plan from Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA).
It would fund the subsidies for two years, a step that would provide at least short-term certainty to insurers. The subsidies, known as cost-sharing reduction payments, reimburse insurance companies for lowering deductibles, co-payments and other out-of-pocket costs for low-income customers.
Carolyn Lukensmeyer
OneJax and the University of North Florida presented the latest program in their Civil Discourse Project Tuesday night.
Lukensmeyer, who was the featured speaker, is Executive Director of the National Institute for Civil Discourse. The group works to reduce political dysfunction and incivility in our political system.
As a leader in the field of deliberative democracy, she works to restore democracy to reflect what she says was the intended vision of our founding fathers. She discussed NICD’s initiative to revive civility as well as respect and offered suggestions as to how individuals, UNF and the community can get involved.
Dawn Mussallem
Breast cancer rates are going down. One theory is that this decrease is partially due to the reduced use of hormone replacement therapy by women.
Still, About one in eight U.S. women (about 12%) will develop invasive breast cancer over the course of her lifetime. Mussallem at the Mayo Clinic counsels patients on survivorship.
KRACK
There is a new computer attack that renders most Wi-Fi networks unsecured. It's called KRACK (Key Reinstallation AttaCK) and exploits weaknesses in WPA2, which is a security protocol used by most Wi-Fi routers. When KRACK is installed on a nearby laptop a hacker can see information presumed to be safely encrypted over Wi-Fi.
Hollister said it is as scary as it sounds and offered advice on how to avoid it.
Kevin Meerschaert can be reached at kmeerschaert@wjct.org, 904-358-6334 or on Twitter at @KMeerschaertJax.
