[Update: Though the precise nature of the cardiac event remains unclear, Rybak has now taken to Twitter from the hospital to assure friends and supporters that he is okay.]
RT @janashortal: Breaking: mult. Sources confirming former Mpls Mayor RT Rybak had massive heart attack hours ago. Now in ICU. #prayersforRT
— KARE 11 (@kare11) January 4, 2014
Other local news outlets have reports up but with very limited information. The only common thread is that Rybak was apparently cross-country skiing with his wife when the event occurred. Here’s kare11’s report on the web.
Late Update: Tribune Reporter Eric Roper reports on Twitter the City Council President Barb Johnson said Rybak was “talking with his family following the incident” which would be a positive sign. But every report at this point should be taken as subject to revision. Other reports speak only of “chest pains” but the Kare11 tweet-report above seems most specific, detailed.
Late Update #2: The Strib has released their first published report. Gist is that he’s hospitalized after chest pains, reportedly talking to family members, according to city official. No more details on severity of the event.
It’s become something of a cliche: disabled, aged or relatively impoverished whites who literally could not survive without federal government assistance in many case nonetheless raging against Washington, “hand outs” and government dependency. It’s there with a vengeance in this article in National Journal by Beth Reinhard on GOP plans to double down on race-based class warfare as the ticket to success in the 2014 elections.
[THIS POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED.]
We’re hiring a front end web designer to join our tech team. See listing after the jump.
Emails emerge from ex-Utah AG scandal with staffers trashing transgender delegate to GOP state convention as “that thing.”
As you’ll remember, in the last couple months of the 2012 presidential election, a growing body of opinion on right decided that if you took the available public polls (which pointed to an Obama victory) and shifted them several points in Romney’s direction, suddenly they started saying Romney was the likely victor. Thus was born the great unskewing movement of 2012. Of course, it didn’t turn out well.
Lauren Rankin: “more abortion restrictions were enacted from 2011-2013 than in the entire preceding decade.”
Bill Nye “The Science Guy” is going to debate evolution at Kentucky’s Creation Museum.
If you want a graphic, bracing look at the collective nervous breakdown many right-wing anti-Obamacare dead-enders are undergoing as they make first contact with actual number of people who’ve gotten coverage because of Obamacare (Approximately 10 million so far) check out my twitter feed over the last 12 hours or so.
In pretty closely related news, “Science Guy” Bill Nye to debate evolution at Kentucky creationism museum.
It is amazing to witness the sheer depths of rage, denial and disgust many people experience as they see millions of people gaining access to affordable health care for the first time. Back on the 31st I wrote this overview which outlined how more than 9 million people now have health care coverage because of the Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare). It now seems like the number is more like 10 million (more on that in a moment).
This evening I mentioned this number on Twitter and saw the full force of denial and outrage as many anti-Obamacare diehards made first contact with the actual number of Americans who’ve gained coverage under the program. More though, it was clear how in the absence of a dead in the water website to cry crocodile tears over, anti-Obamacare hardliners have suddenly gotten a whole lot angrier about Obamacare.
Join me after the jump and we’ll review the numbers.
Federal Judge negs anti-Muslim hate group over ads in the Boston subway system.