u/rblackinrva

“Diana Marrero guides people in the Richmond area as they look for health insurance.
She said the expiration of federal assistance that lowered people's healthcare costs from 2021 to the end of 2025 has led to skyrocketing premium payments this year — which have left many with ‘impossible choices.’
‘Families that I work with were forced to choose either between basic necessities such as rent, groceries, utilities, over health insurance, Marrero said in an interview.

The top three causes of personal bankruptcy in the United States are medical expenses, loss of income, and divorce. Medical issues alone account for about 66.5% of all bankruptcies filed.”

A friend said to me recently, “who would not want free medical care for life?”

https://www.whro.org/health/2026-06-29/virginians-are-feeling-the-effects-of-spiking-health-insurance-premiums

The history of Europeans interactions with natives residing in Virginia is deplorable. Now residents of Virginia now can do something to recognize, support, and honor native tribes.

https://www.whro.org/arts-culture/2026-06-18/virginia-tribes-unite-to-protect-henrico-birthplace-of-chief-powhatan

I saw this dog at the beach (note to moderator: Virginia Beach) yesterday.
Any idea what breed it is?

In 2024, Trump cobbled together enough groups who thought that way to win the White House, and as soon as he took power, he set out to destroy democratic government with the help of loyalists he installed in key positions. In its place, he sought to establish an authoritarian government with himself and his family at its head.

Now the effects of his plans on the American people are filtering through to those who weren’t paying close attention. Trump’s initial tariffs of April 2025—his so-called “Liberation Day” tariffs—destroyed the foreign markets for U.S. agricultural products, while Trump’s war on Iran has sent the price of the diesel fuel farmers need skyrocketing and put the cost of fertilizer out of reach. Farm diesel has gone up 95% in the last year, to $5.41 a gallon; farmers lost $28 billion last year; 70% of farmers say they cannot afford fertilizer because of Trump’s war on Iran.

In March 2025 the Trump administration cut funding for disease control and prevention, including that of New World screwworm. And now New World screwworm, a parasitic fly larva that had been eradicated in the U.S. since the 1960s, is back.

U.S. oil reserves are at their lowest level in twenty-two years. The administration has released them to try to control oil prices that are skyrocketing after Trump’s war on Iran prompted the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20% of the world’s oil passed before the war. Oil industry analysts warned that oil prices will shoot higher if the crisis isn’t resolved.

Today President Donald J. Trump appeared to fall asleep again at a meeting in the Oval Office.

Trump’s interest in profiting off the presidency remains clear. Jonathan Edwards of the Washington Post reported today that 14 of the 27 known donors to Trump’s $400 million ballroom project have won new or expanded federal contracts totaling over $50 billion since they made their donations.

MAGA Republican governance is good at extraordinary corruption that siphons taxpayer money into the pockets of a small group of wealthy elites and their loyalists.

Trump’s deal with his appointees at the Department of Justice to establish a slush fund of $1.776 billion to pay his supporters

He settled the suit with himself to create a $1.8 billion slush fund so he can cut checks to cronies and Jan[uary] 6 foot soldiers, the same men who sacked the Capitol to seize the presidency for Donald Trump, who beat police officers with flagpoles, built a gallows on the Capitol lawn, and hunted the vice president to lynch him. Donald Trump’s brownshirts. He pardoned them, and now he wants you to pay them.

He promised to bring down prices on day one. Instead, prices are soaring. Ground beef’s up 25% since Trump was sworn in. Coffee, 40%. The price of gas, 33%. Groceries, rent, health care, and the power bill hit their new all-time highs last month. And while you pay more for everything, Donald Trump wants your tax dollars for what many are calling the Jeffrey Epstein Memorial Ballroom.”

Gun violence memorials in the United states are deeply sad and troubling. We mourn the lives lost and despair a country that refuses to deal with the problem.

https://www.whro.org/2026-05-28/virginia-beach-unveils-its-5-31-memorial-on-sunday

My opinion on the U.S. president affecting the economy is that they have minimal influence. But that observation applies to a democratic form of government with three co-equal branches. Now one autocrat is wrecking the world economy.

Inflation outpaced wage growth in April for the first time in three years, according to a Labor Department report released yesterday. Inflation-adjusted hourly wages fell 0.3% year-over-year, as inflation climbed 3.8%—its fastest increase in three years.

Economists largely attribute rising inflation to the energy chokehold caused by the Iran war's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical shipping route for about one-fifth of the world’s oil and natural gas. Energy costs climbed roughly 18% from a year earlier, with gasoline up 28% and airfare up 21%. Meanwhile, core inflation, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 2.8% year-over-year.

Gasoline prices in VA continue to climb, hitting a statewide average of $4.32 for a gallon of regular unleaded according to AAA.

https://www.whro.org/2026-05-07/as-gas-prices-rise-virginia-democrats-push-for-federal-electric-vehicle-funding