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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Health Insurance for Kids Shot Down Again

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009   

Bismarck, ND – The North Dakota House of Representatives turned a lot of heads at the State Capitol on Monday by shooting down an expansion of kids' healthcare coverage for the second time this session. Lawmakers voted to kill the expansion of the S-CHIP program that provides health insurance coverage for children in the state who otherwise would go without.

The program, known in North Dakota as "Healthy Steps," covers about 3400 children; the proposed expansion would have added another 1100. Don Morrison, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy coalition NDpeople.org, believes legislative leaders are looking at the program "all wrong" - especially considering the insurance costs a North Dakota family is expected to pay.

"The status quo that the Republican legislators are working so hard to protect just doesn't work for working families anymore. If the state law remains as is, a family of three must fit a health insurance premium of $12,000 into a net income of less than $36,000."

Lawmakers who opposed the expansion question the idea of government playing an expanded role in providing healthcare, largely on ideological grounds.

In December, Gov. John Hoeven had proposed that the legislature raise "Healthy Steps" eligibility to children of families earning incomes of up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, or roughly $36,000 a year. Supporters say they're not ready to drop the issue, and will continue to look for to pass some form of healthcare coverage expansion before the session ends.



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