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Category: Health

  • MIL-OSI USA: Dingell, Merkley, Welch, Sanders Introduce Bill to Lower Prescription Drug Prices for All Americans

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (12th District of Michigan)

    Congresswoman Debbie Dingell (MI-06) along with Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Peter Welch (D-VT), and Bernie Sanders (I-VT), today introduced the End Price Gouging for Medications Act.

    The bicameral bill would lower prescription drug costs for all Americans and end pharmaceutical price gouging by requiring drug companies to offer medications in the United States at no more than the lowest price per drug in twelve other similarly developed countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom.

    “In the wealthiest nation on earth, no one should have to choose between buying groceries and affording the medications they need to survive.” said Dingell. “There’s no reason we should be spending more on prescriptions than any other country. This legislation will bring down the cost of prescription drugs, hold drug companies accountable for their unchecked greed, and provide much-needed relief to American families.”

    “Americans pay the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs, even though we invest the most in cutting-edge research and development. That is unconscionable,” said Merkley. “In my town halls across every corner of Oregon, I’ve heard time and again from Oregonians about how sky-high prescription drug prices are pushing their budgets to the limit. The End Price Gouging for Medications Act will crack down on Big Pharma’s greed. If President Trump is serious about lowering prescription drug costs for families and seniors across America, he should work with Congress to ensure we get the best prices, not the worst.”

    “No one should ever be forced to choose between paying for the prescriptions they need or putting food on the table. It’s unacceptable, and for too many Americans it’s a reality because of Big Pharma’s price gouging,” said Welch. “The End Price Gouging for Medications Act would put an end to this bad practice and help more Vermonters access the medications they need. I’m proud to join Sen. Merkley to introduce this bill and help Vermonters get the care they need.”

    On average, Americans spend over $1,400 on prescription drugs every year—the highest per capita drug spending in the world—largely because the pharmaceutical industry is hiking up the cost of drugs to make billions in profits each year. The American people want action, and lowering prescription drug prices to levels obtained in nations similar to the United States has strong bipartisan support. This includes medication such as:

    • Ozempic, which costs Americans nearly $13,000 annually to treat type 2 diabetes compared to roughly $820 in Japan; and
    • Humira, which costs Americans with Crohn’s disease more than $100,000 per year compared to roughly $3,320 per year in Austria.

    Unlike Trump’s recent executive order (EO) on international reference pricing, which only applies to Medicare and Medicaid, the End Price Gouging for Medications Act goes further by requiring drug companies to offer prescription drugs at the established reference price to all individuals in the U.S. market, regardless of insurance or health care status. That includes individuals utilizing all federal health programs, uninsured individuals, individuals covered under a group health plan, or individuals who have purchased their own health insurance coverage.

    In addition to Dingell, Merkley, Welch, and Sanders, the End Price Gouging for Medications Act is co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL). The bicameral bill is endorsed by Public Citizen, Center for Health and Democracy, Just Care USA, Center for Medicare Advocacy, and Social Security Works.

    “American consumers pay far too much for drugs, not because it is costly to manufacture them, or even because of the expense of research and development. We pay too much because the U.S. government grants patents and other monopolies to brand-name drug corporations and then does far too little to rein in Big Pharma’s exploitation of those monopolies to price gouge consumers and the government itself. If President Trump were serious about bringing U.S. drug prices down to levels in other countries, he would embrace this legislation and use the bully pulpit to urge legislators to support it instead of retrograde proposals to take away health care from millions of people to give tax cuts to billionaires and corporations. We applaud Senators Merkley, Sanders and Welch for their leadership,” said Peter Maybarduk, Director of Public Citizen’s Access to Medicines Program.

    “There’s no good reason Americans should be forced to pay as much as four times more for our drugs than people in France, Japan and Canada. Senator Merkley, Senator Welch, Ranking Member Sanders, and Representative Dingell’s ‘End Price Gouging for Medications Act’ legislation recognizes that monopoly pricing by drug corporations is killing tens of thousands of Americans each year and driving countless more into medical debt. It rightly calls for fair drug pricing, which is essential to our health and well-being,” said Diane Archer, President, Just Care USA.

    Full text of the End Price Gouging for Medications Act can be found here. 

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Four Bilirakis Proposals Advance As Part of Reconciliation Package

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Gus Bilirakis (FL-12)

    Washington, DC:  Today, the House Energy & Commerce Committee advanced a broad reconciliation bill that implements fiscally-sound policies to end wasteful spending on Green New Deal-style projects, support the rapid innovation and modernization of American Commerce, and protect Medicaid for vulnerable Americans for generations to come by cutting waste, fraud, and abuse.  One of the provisions included in the package, the LIVE Beneficiaries Act, authored by Representative Bilirakis, will help strengthen funding for the Medicaid program and its beneficiaries. This provision requires states to quarterly certify that those enrolled in Medicaid are still living.  Bilirakis filed his bill in response to a recent independent audit of just 14 states in one year that documented $249 million in payments to providers on behalf of deceased individuals.  The reconciliation package also prohibits beneficiaries from being enrolled in Medicaid in multiple states at the same time and prohibits those individuals who are here illegally from participating in Medicaid.  

    “I’m proud of the common-sense approach we’ve put forth to achieve significant savings while preserving benefits and access to care for our most vulnerable individuals,” said Congressman Bilirakis.  “We have a responsibility to ensure taxpayer dollars are used wisely and that includes protecting access to healthcare for low-income children, seniors, pregnant women, and those with disabilities. Despite the fear-mongering rhetoric from my colleagues on the other side of the aisle throughout the hearing – these critical populations will not see any change to their healthcare under our bill.  Instead, we will disallow duplicative reimbursement, payments for deceased individuals, and coverage for illegal aliens. In doing so – we will strengthen and preserve Medicaid for generations to come while helping to restore fiscal responsibility.  

    Congressman Bilirakis, who is the Chairman of the Commerce, Manufacturing and Technology Subcommittee in the House, also spearheaded a measure included in the package that would implement a 10-year moratorium on state and local regulation of AI models.  This moratorium will prevent the failures we have seen from the state-based regulatory morass on internet privacy from infecting the budding AI marketplace led by the United States.

    “Harnessing the potential of AI is not just an opportunity for the United States, it’s an absolute necessity to secure economic leadership, strengthen national security, and ensure that American values shape the future of this transformative technology,” said Chairman Bilirakis.  “We must prevent a fragmented patchwork of rules from each state that could stifle innovation, confuse compliance, and undermine the creation of effective, nationwide standards that protect both progress and the public.  The moratorium included in this package enables us to achieve that goal.”  

    As Co-Chair of the Rare Disease Caucus, Congressman Bilirakis has worked tirelessly for many years to support rare disease patients and families by streamlining FDA processes and encouraging the development of treatments and cures for smaller patient populations.  Two measures co-authored by Bilirakis to help rare disease patients were also included in the reconciliation package that passed out of Committee today.  Children with complex medical needs may not have the specialized care they need within their home state. In these instances, parents must work with health care providers and state Medicaid officials to find out-of-state care. The process is difficult and complex, often delaying children and their families from receiving the care they desperately need – and in some cases blocking access to care all together. The Accelerating Kids’ Access to Care Act addresses this concern by allowing states to streamline the process for out-of-state pediatric care providers to enroll in another state’s Medicaid program, while also safeguarding important program integrity processes. The legislation enables smooth coordination across state lines by clarifying the process by which state Medicaid programs can cover this care regardless of where the child lives and where their care is received.  The Orphan CURES Act is a bipartisan measure that would accelerate the development of new life-saving cures and provide hope to millions of Americans affected by rare diseases. Under current federal law, a drug or treatment that receives approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to exclusively treat one rare disease – commonly known as an “orphan drug” – is eligible for certain incentives, including an exemption from Medicare’s drug negotiation program.  Unfortunately, those same incentives do not exist if an orphan drug receives FDA approval to treat two or more rare diseases.  The result is a disincentive for American innovators to invest in the expensive and time-intensive research necessary to determine if an orphan drug could cure or treat additional rare diseases. The ORPHAN Cures Act would remedy these harmful, unintended consequences by honoring the intent of the Orphan Drug Act of 1983 and restoring proven, time-tested incentives to encourage the discovery of new cures for the narrow patient populations affected by rare diseases.

    “Including these two critical provisions in the reconciliation package is a huge win for the rare disease community,”  said Congressman Gus Bilirakis who serves as Co-Chair of the Rare Disease Caucus.  “My colleagues and I will continue to work toward advancing the development of treatments and cures for rare disease patients and removing regulatory barriers that prevent patients from accessing care.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: As Historic Measles Outbreak Worsens, Murphy Blasts RFK Jr. On Vaccine Lies

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Connecticut – Chris Murphy
    [embedded content]
    WASHINGTON—U.S. Senator Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), a member of the U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Wednesday questioned U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on President Trump’s Fiscal Year 2026 skinny budget request for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Murphy pressed Kennedy on broken promises made during his confirmation hearing and accused him of misleading the Committee and the public about his support for vaccines, especially for the measles vaccine.
    “I want to talk to you about the statements that you made to the Chairman of this committee and to members of this committee during your confirmation hearing about vaccines,” said Murphy. “You did not tell the truth. I find that to be really dangerous for our relationship. If I were the Chairman, who believes in vaccines and voted for you because he believed what you said about supporting vaccines, my head would be exploding. In the hearing, you told us ‘I will not work to impound, divert, or otherwise reduce any funding appropriated by Congress for the purpose of vaccination programs.’ That is not the truth. You have canceled $12 billion in public health grants to states. Whether you know this or not, that funding is used by the states in part to be able to administer and dispense information about vaccines.”
    Murphy called out Kennedy for putting public health at risk by lying to Congress during his nomination hearing and spreading misinformation that undermines trust in vaccines: “You also promised Chairman Cassidy that the FDA would not change vaccine standards from ‘historical norms.’ But what happened as soon as you were sworn in? You announced new standards for vaccine approvals that you proudly referred to in your own press release as a radical departure from current practice. And experts say that that departure will delay approvals. You also said, specific to the measles vaccine, that you support the measles vaccine, but you have consistently been undermining the measles vaccine. You told the public that the vaccine wanes very quickly. You went on the Dr. Phil show and said the measles vaccine was never fully tested for safety. You said there was fetal debris in the measles vaccine.”
    “Just this morning, in front of the House of Representatives, you also said that you in fact would not recommend that kids get vaccinated for measles,” Murphy continued. “You said you would just lay out the pros and cons. This is the summation of everything that you have said to compromise people’s faith in the measles vaccine in particular. It is contrary to what you said before this committee. You said you support the measles vaccine, but then you have laid out a set of facts that are contested, and I will submit information for the record from experts who contest what you have said about the vaccine. And the result is to undermine faith in the vaccines. Kind of like saying ‘Listen, I think you should swim in that lake, but, you know, the lake is probably toxic, and there are probably a ton of snakes and alligators in that lake, but I think you should swim in it.’ Nobody is going to swim in that lake, if that’s what you say. And so I want you to acknowledge that when you say you support the measles vaccine and then go out and repeatedly undermine the vaccine with information that is contested by public health experts, that is not supporting the vaccine.”
    After Kennedy refused to say he supports the measles vaccine, Murphy concluded: “I think you’re answering the question, and that’s really dangerous for the American public and for families in this country. The Secretary of Health and Human Services is no longer recommending the measles vaccine.”
    As of early May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed over 1,000 measles cases across the country, making this the single largest measles outbreak in the 21st century. Those cases have led to 126 hospitalizations and three deaths.
    A full transcript of Murphy’s exchange with RFK Jr. can be found below:
    MURPHY: “Thank you very much, Madame Chair. Secretary Kennedy, I want to talk to you about your relationship with this committee and this Congress. I want to talk to you about the statements that you made to the Chairman of this committee and to members of this committee during your confirmation hearing about vaccines. You did not tell the truth. I find that to be really dangerous for our relationship. If I were the Chairman, who believes in vaccines and voted for you because he believed what you said about supporting vaccines, my head would be exploding.
    “In the hearing, you told us ‘I will not work to impound, divert, or otherwise reduce any funding appropriated by Congress for the purpose of vaccination programs.’ That is not the truth. Let me finish my question.”
    KENNEDY: “I didn’t hear what you said. I’m just asking you to repeat it so I can understand your question.”
    MURPHY: “I’ll repeat it. During the hearing you said to this committee, and to the Finance Committee, ‘I will not work to impound, divert, or otherwise reduce funding appropriated by Congress for the purpose of vaccination programs.’ That is not what happened. You have done the opposite. You canceled $12 billion in grants to the states, including my state, that are used to administer and track vaccines. You promised Chairman Cassidy– ”
    KENNEDY: “When did I do that?”
    MURPHY: “Madam Chair, would you allow me to finish my question?”
    MURKOWSKI: “Keep going with your question.”
    KENNEDY: “When did I do that?”
    MURPHY: “Let me finish my question.”
    KENNEDY: “You’re making these accusations, just tell me when I did it so I can understand what the question is.”
    MURPHY: “You have canceled $12 billion in public health grants to states. Whether you know this or not, that funding is used by the states in part to be able to administer and dispense information about vaccines. Mr. Secretary, let me give you the full panoply of things you said before this Committee that didn’t turn out to be true. You also promised Chairman Cassidy that the FDA would not change vaccine standards from ‘historical norms.’ But what happened as soon as you were sworn in? You announced new standards for vaccine approvals that you proudly referred to in your own press release as a radical departure from current practice. And experts say that that departure will delay approvals. You also said, specific to the measles vaccine, that you support the measles vaccine, but you have consistently been undermining the measles vaccine. You told the public that the vaccine wanes very quickly. You went on the Dr. Phil show and said the measles vaccine was never fully tested for safety. You said there was fetal debris in the measles vaccine. And this morning–”
    KENNEDY: “All true! All true. Do you want me to lie to the public?”
    MURPHY: “None of that is true.”
    KENNEDY: “Of course it’s true. Of course it’s true, Senator. Senator, begging your pardon, but you do not know what you are talking about.”
    MURKOWSKI: Let’s have a little bit of order so that you can get your question and that he can get his answer.
    MURPHY: “I didn’t ask for a response yet. I’d like to lay out the predicate of my question before I’m interrupted by the witness. He should have some respect for this Committee.”
    MURKOWSKI: “Go ahead.”
    MURPHY: “Just this morning, in front of the House of Representatives, you also said that you in fact would not recommend that kids get vaccinated for measles. You said you would just lay out the pros and cons. This is the summation of everything that you have said to compromise people’s faith in the measles vaccine in particular. It is contrary to what you said before this committee. You said you support the measles vaccine, but then you have laid out a set of facts that are contested, and I will submit information for the record from experts who contest what you have said about the vaccine. And the result is to undermine faith in the vaccines. Kind of like saying ‘Listen, I think you should swim in that lake, but, you know, the lake is probably toxic, and there are probably a ton of snakes and alligators in that lake, but I think you should swim in it.’ Nobody is going to swim in that lake, if that’s what you say. And so I want you to acknowledge that when you say you support the measles vaccine and then go out and repeatedly undermine the vaccine with information that is contested by public health experts, that is not supporting the vaccine. 
    “And so I guess I have two simple questions for you. One is, can you clarify what you said in the House this morning? Are you or are you not recommending that families get their children vaccinated? Or are you just giving people the pros and cons? And do you understand that when you say these things about the measles vaccine, what ends up happening is less people get the vaccine. That may be what you want, but do you understand that the result of constantly questioning the efficacy or safety of the vaccine results in less people getting the vaccine? I don’t necessarily want to spend the remaining 20 seconds in an argument over the science. But do you at least understand that that is the consequence of what you are saying? And are you actually still recommending people get the vaccine or are you not?”
    KENNEDY: “Senator, if I advise you to swim in a lake that I knew there to be alligators in, wouldn’t you want me to tell you there were alligators in it?”
    MURPHY: “So are you recommending the measles vaccine or not?”
    KENNEDY: “What I have said, and what I said in–”
    MURPHY: “It doesn’t sound like you are, if that’s–”
    KENNEDY: “Are you going to let me answer, or are you going to keep interrupting me?”
    MURPHY: “Are you, or are you not?”
    KENNEDY: “Are you going to let me answer? What I pledged before this committee during my confirmation is that I would tell the truth, and that I would have radical transparency. I’m going to tell the truth about everything we know and we don’t know about vaccines.”
    MURPHY: “Are you recommending the measles vaccine or not?”
    KENNEDY: “I am not going to just tell people everything is safe and effective if I know that there’s issues. I need to respect people’s intelligence.”
    MURPHY: “I think you’re answering the question. I think you’re answering the question, and that’s really dangerous for the American public and for families in this country.”
    KENNEDY: “The reason people have lost faith in this program is because they’ve been lied to by public officials for year after year after year.”
    MURPHY: “The Secretary of Health and Human Services is no longer recommending the measles vaccine.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Oakton doctor sentenced to 13 years in prison for running urgent care center as opioid pill mill

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    ALEXANDRIA, Va. – An Oakton doctor was sentenced today to 13 years in prison for conspiring to distribute oxycodone and amphetamines, maintaining drug premises, and false statements relating to health care matters.

    According to court documents, David Allingham, 65, was the owner of and sole medically licensed practitioner at Oakton Primacy Care Center (OPCC), an urgent care center. His practice advertised on his website that Allingham specialized as an “Addiction Medicine Family Doctor” with “special training and skill in preventing, diagnosing, and treating patients with addiction.”

    Between at least April 2019 and January 2024, Allingham wrote prescriptions for opioids and amphetamines for numerous patients without properly assessing the individual needs of those patients, which was outside the usual course of professional practice and regulations and without legitimate medical purpose. During that time, Virginia pharmacies filled approximately 7,330 prescriptions for oxycodone prescribed by Allingham, totaling approximately 405,164 pills.

    All of Allingham’s patients were instructed to pay out of pocket for office visits at Allingham’s practice, which cost $300-$550 per patient, typically paid via cash, credit card, or Venmo. An extra $700 was required if the patient wanted a doctor’s letter. Allingham required his chronic pain patients to pay for an office visit at least every 21 days, though he allowed a significant number of these “office visits” to be conducted via a phone call to employees who were not medically trained. Allingham authorized renewals of opioid medication without physically examining patients or without medical indication other than the uncorroborated information the patients provided.

    Multiple pharmacies investigated Allingham’s opioid prescribing practices and thereafter refused to fill prescriptions for controlled substances issued by Allingham. After a national pharmacy chain informed Allingham that its stores would no longer fill prescriptions written by him, Allingham instructed his employees to phase out all brand pharmacies in favor of “mom and pop” pharmacies to avoid further scrutiny of his patients and so he could continue to prescribe high-dose opioids for them.

    Allingham typically required a urine drug screen (UDS) at each in office appointment but failed to act on them in a medically appropriate way. Allingham consistently excused or ignored failed UDSs, which were then withheld from patient files or falsely documented in his medical records. One patient failed 40 drug tests between 2019 and 2023. Allingham’s medical record falsely documented that the patient had tested positive for cocaine in his urine merely from handling currency contaminated with cocaine residue. Allingham nevertheless continued to prescribe oxycodone to the patient.

    Allingham also prescribed amphetamines to multiple chronic pain patients to assist them in weight loss in contravention of regulations. Allingham prescribed amphetamines for weight loss purposes regardless of whether the patient was obese. During the conspiracy, Allingham distributed at least 527 prescriptions for amphetamines for this purpose, totaling over 13,500 pills.

    Allingham also unlawfully used and directed his employees to use another doctor’s identity without authorization to prescribe medications for himself and his family. Allingham instructed his employees to provide the OPCC phone number for prescriptions purportedly written by that doctor and directed them how to respond if pharmacists called inquiring about the prescriptions, because at that time the doctor was not an employee of OPCC.

    Multiple of Allingham’s patients died of drug overdoses within hours, days, or weeks of receiving an oxycodone prescription from Allingham.

    In July 2023, law enforcement conducted a search of Allingham’s residence and medical practice. When interviewed by law enforcement, Allingham made false statements regarding his prescribing practices and directed at least one of his employees to delete records of her text message communications with him.

    Erik S. Siebert, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Ibrar A. Mian, Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Division; Maureen R. Dixon, Special Agent in Charge of the Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; and Col. Matt Hanley, Superintendent of Virginia State Police, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Rossie D. Alston Jr.

    The Fairfax County Police Department provided valuable assistance in the investigation.

    Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather D. Call prosecuted the case.

    A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:25-cr-2.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Pediatric Physician Sentenced to 25 Years for Producing Child Pornography

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    KANSAS CITY, Mo. – An Overland Park, Ks., pediatric physician was sentenced in federal court today for producing child pornography and possession of child pornography.

    Brian Aalbers, 51, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Brian C. Wimes to 25 years in federal prison without parole. The court also ordered Aalbers to serve supervised release for Life following his incarceration.

    Aalbers, a pediatric neurologist at Overland Park Regional Hospital in Overland Park, Ks., had pleaded guilty to using concealed video cameras to secretly record 13 child victims for the purpose of producing child pornography over a three-year period.  Aalbers also had admitted that he was in possession of child pornography.

    Concerns were received by both the FBI and the United States Attorney’s Office regarding the potential victimization of patients of Aalbers’s pediatric practice. During the investigation, it was determined there was no evidence to indicate any current or former patients were victimized by Aalbers. To protect and maintain the privacy of Aalbers’s victims, no additional information regarding the victims will be released.

    According to the plea agreement, Kansas City, Mo., police officers investigated a report regarding concealed video cameras that had been found on Oct. 28, 2023. A witness later contacted officers to report that Aalbers was sending suicidal text messages. Lenexa, Ks., police officers located Aalbers and transported him to a local hospital to obtain voluntary mental health treatment. The hospital took possession of two laptop computers, two iPad tablets, and a cell phone that were inside a backpack Aalbers brought with him when he entered the facility.

    Investigators obtained search warrants for those devices, as well as other cameras and electronic devices owned by Aalbers. Investigators found more than 50,000 video files associated with the hidden video cameras used by Aalbers, including more than 1,000 videos that contained pornographic depictions of the 13 child victims.

    Investigators also obtained a search warrant for Aalbers’s iCloud account, which contained 1,000 additional images and 163 additional videos of child pornography, which included videos of the identified child victims that had been produced by Aalbers.

    This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Maureen A. Brackett. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Kansas City, Missouri Police Department, and Lenexa, Kansas Police Department.

    Project Safe Childhood

    This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc . For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “resources.”

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI: Kaleido Life Introduces the Third Way to Fund Your Future: Cash. Credit. Kaleido.

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Photo Courtesy of Craig Du Bruyn

    ATLANTA, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Forget cash or credit. Kaleido Life is pioneering a third way to fund your life—by inheriting from your future self, today.

    Currently in pre-launch, Kaleido Life is an Atlanta-based insurtech company building a new category in life insurance: interest-free, upfront cash benefits delivered at the start of a policy—not at the end of life. Designed for today’s generation of value-seekers, the platform uses AI, biometrics, and behavioral science to offer hyper-personalized liquidity with no loans, no interest, and no credit checks.

    “Our product is the bridge between people’s dreams and their reality,” said Craig Du Bruyn, Founder and CEO of Kaleido Life. “Life insurance is simply how we deliver it. It’s not a loan—it’s your money, unlocked.”

    Not Borrowed. Not Earned. Inherited.

    Through Kaleido’s proprietary Life Liquidity Score™, qualified customers receive up to 25% of their death benefit in cash at policy inception. The system dynamically evaluates mortality, health behaviors, and lifestyle to determine eligibility and tiered benefit levels. The funds can be used for real needs—paying off student debt, funding a first home, starting a business, or taking a life-changing leap—without sacrificing long-term protection.

    Unlike traditional life insurance, which only pays out after death, or loans that burden the future with interest, Kaleido offers an immediate and debt-free bridge between aspiration and reality.

    Built for Living, Not Just Leaving

    Kaleido’s tech stack eliminates the typical friction in life insurance onboarding. Its AI-powered underwriting engine delivers real-time decisions, while its 360º Wellness Matrix integrates with wearables like Apple Watch and Oura Ring to promote long-term engagement. Healthier habits can lead to increased benefits, cashback rewards, and lower premiums over time.

    The result: a feedback loop that makes financial well-being and physical well-being mutually reinforcing.

    “We don’t just predict risk—we predict potential,” said Craig Du Bruyn. “Even if someone doesn’t qualify today, we guide them toward it. Our system reflects real lives—not just data points—and we build life insurance around what people actually need to live better now.”

    From Passive Product to Active Platform

    Kaleido Life isn’t competing on price—it’s competing on access, immediacy, and relevance. With 125 million Americans uninsured and 50% of policyholders saying they’d switch providers for a better experience, the company is positioning itself not just as an insurer—but as a financial wellness ally.

    Distribution is designed for the modern world: embedded finance partners, AI-powered influencer ecosystems, and social distribution models that scale trust—not just impressions.

    “Kaleido isn’t just another fintech—they’re building what legacy institutions can’t,” said Gary Bennett, former CEO and Chairman of CreditAccess Life and Seguros Monterrey New York Life. “This is the transformation the industry has been waiting for.”

    About Kaleido Life, Inc.

    Kaleido Life, Inc. is a pre-launch insurtech company based in Atlanta, Georgia, redefining the purpose of life insurance. Through AI, biometric data, and a proprietary liquidity engine, Kaleido enables policyholders to access future value today. With no loans, no interest, and no credit checks, the company’s Life Benefits™ platform is transforming life insurance from a passive promise into an active tool for financial and personal freedom.

    Contact Information:

    Contact Person’s Name: Craig Du Bruyn
    Organization / Company: Kaleido Life, Inc.
    Company website: https://kaleido-life.com/
    Contact Email Address: craig@kaleido-life.com
    City, State / Province, Country, Zip Code: Atlanta, GA

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3d771b7b-7e67-4f33-ba2b-77e66bc622d2

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Diversified Royalty Corp. Announces First Quarter 2025 Results and Leadership Update

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Diversified Royalty Corp. (TSX: DIV and DIV.DB.A) (the “Corporation” or “DIV”) is pleased to announce its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2025 (“Q1 2025”) and an update to its leadership structure.

    Highlights

    • The weighted average organic royalty growth1 of DIV’s diversified royalty portfolio was 4.9% in Q1 2025, compared to 6.0% for the three months ended March 31, 2024 (“Q1 2024”). The weighted average organic royalty growth1 on a consistent currency basis was 3.9% in Q1 2025, compared to 6.0% in Q1 2024.
    • Revenue was $15.6 million in Q1 2025, up 3.7%, compared to $15.1 million in Q1 2024.
    • Adjusted revenue1 was $17.0 million in Q1 2025, up 3.6%, compared to $16.4 million in Q1 2024.
    • Distributable cash1 was $11.1 million in Q1 2025, up 16.3%, compared to $9.6 million in Q1 2024.
    • Payout ratio1 was 93.8% in Q1 2025 on dividends of $0.0625 per share ($0.2500 per share annualized), compared to 97.2% in Q1 2024 on dividends of $0.0611 per share ($0.2444 per share annualized), which is an annualized growth of 2.3% in dividends year-over-year.

    First Quarter Commentary

    Sean Morrison, President and Chief Executive Officer of DIV stated, “The first quarter of 2025 once again saw a strong performance from our top royalty partner, Mr. Lube + Tires, which continues to produce strong growth across the system, generating SSSG6 of 9.5%. DIV’s other variable royalty partners generated mixed results with both Oxford and Mr. Mikes generating positive SSSG in Q1. DIV’s fixed royalty partners, Nurse Next Door, Stratus and BarBurrito made their fixed royalty payments. As previously announced, the deferral of 20% of Sutton’s royalties that began in the fourth quarter of 2024 will continue to the end of 2025, to help Sutton invest in the business, and build on the positive momentum that began in the last quarter. DIV continues to see a decrease in royalty income from AIR MILES® because of the continued softness across the AIR MILES® Rewards Program.”

    1. Adjusted revenue and distributable cash are non-IFRS financial measures, payout ratio is a non-IFRS ratio and weighted average organic royalty growth and Same-store-sales growth or SSSG is a supplementary financial measure – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    First Quarter Results

        Three months ended March 31,  
    (000’s)     2025     2024  
    Mr. Lube + Tires   $ 7,180   $ 6,644  
    Stratusa     2,380     2,130  
    BarBurrito     2,129     2,100  
    Nurse Next Doorb     1,349     1,323  
    Oxford     1,249     1,182  
    Mr. Mikes     1,026     1,016  
    Sutton     899     1,096  
    AIR MILES®     756     892  
    Adjusted revenuec   $ 16,968   $ 16,383  

    a)   Stratus royalty income for the three months ended March 31, 2025, was US$1.7 million, translated at an average foreign exchange rate of $1.4344 to US$1 (March 31, 2024 – US$1.6 million, translated at a foreign exchange rate of $1.3483 to US$1).
    b)   Represents the DIV Royalty Entitlement plus management fees received from Nurse Next Door.
    c)   DIV Royalty Entitlement and adjusted revenue are non-IFRS financial measures and as such, do not have standardized meanings under IFRS. For additional information, refer to “Non-IFRS Measures” in this news release.

    In Q1 2025, DIV generated $15.6 million of revenue compared to $15.1 million in Q1 2024. After taking into account the DIV Royalty Entitlement2 (defined below) related to DIV’s royalty arrangements with Nurse Next Door, DIV’s adjusted revenue2 was $17.0 million in Q1 2025, compared to $16.4 million in Q1 2024. Adjusted revenue increased primarily due to positive SSSG2 (defined below) at Mr. Lube + Tires, Oxford and Mr. Mikes, the annual contractual increases at Stratus, Nurse Next Door and BarBurrito, partially offset by lower royalty income from AIR MILES® and Sutton’s 20% royalty deferral, all as discussed in further detail below.

    2. Adjusted revenue and DIV Royalty Entitlement are non-IFRS financial measures and SSSG are supplementary financial measures – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    Royalty Partner Business Updates

    Mr. Lube + Tires: Mr. Lube + Tires generated SSSG3 of 9.5% for the Mr. Lube + Tires stores in the royalty pool for Q1 2025, compared to SSSG of 14.6% in Q1 2024. SSSG in the current period is primarily due to the sustained growth across the Mr. Lube + Tires system.

    3. Same-store-sales growth or SSSG is a supplementary financial measure – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    Stratus: Royalty income from SBS Franchising LLC (“Stratus”) was $2.4 million (US$1.7 million translated at an average foreign exchange rate of $1.4344 to US$1.00) for Q1 2025. The fixed royalty payable by Stratus increases each November at a rate of 5% until and including November 2026 and 4% each November thereafter during the term of the license, with the most recent increase effective November 15, 2024.

    Nurse Next Door: The royalty entitlement to DIV (the “DIV Royalty Entitlement4”) from Nurse Next Door Professional Homecare Services Inc. (“Nurse Next Door”) was $1.3 million in Q1 2025. The DIV Royalty Entitlement from Nurse Next Door grows at a fixed rate of 2.0% per annum during the term of the license, with the most recent increase effective October 1, 2024.

    4. DIV Royalty Entitlement is a non-IFRS measure – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    Mr. Mikes: SSSG5 for the Mr. Mikes Restaurants Corporation (“Mr. Mikes”) restaurants in the Mr. Mikes royalty pool was 1.5% in Q1 2025, compared to SSSG of -5.5% in Q1 2024. The higher SSSG percentage in the current period is due to an increase in restaurant guest traffic.

    Royalty income and management fees of $1.0 million were generated from Mr. Mikes for Q1 2025 and 2024, respectively.

    5. Same-store-sales growth or SSSG is a supplementary financial measure – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    Oxford: The Oxford Learning Centres, Inc. (“Oxford”) locations in the Oxford royalty pool generated SSSG6 (on a constant currency basis) of 5.5% in Q1 2025, compared to SSSG -2.1% in Q1 2024. Oxford’s positive SSSG for the quarter is due to the solid performance of the Oxford system during the quarter.

    6. Same-store-sales growth or SSSG is a supplementary financial measure – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    AIR MILES®: In Q1 2025, royalty income of $0.8 million was generated from the AIR MILES® Licenses compared to $0.9 million generated in Q1 2024, a decrease of 15.2% from the comparable quarter. The decrease is largely due to continued softness in the AIR MILES® Rewards Program.

    Sutton: In Q1 2025, royalty income of $0.9 million was generated from Sutton, which includes a 20% royalty deferral for Q1, 2025, compared to $1.1 million for Q1, 2024. The deferred royalties do not accrue interest and are due in full on December 31, 2027. The fixed royalty payable by Sutton increases at a rate of 2% per year, with the most recent increase effective July 1, 2024.

    BarBurrito: Royalty income from BarBurrito Restaurants Inc. (“BarBurrito”) was $2.1 million for Q1 2025. The royalty payable by BarBurrito initially grows at a fixed rate of 4% per annum each March from and including March 2025 to and including March 2030 and, commencing on January 1, 2031, will fluctuate based on the gross sales of the BarBurrito locations in the royalty pool.

    Distributable Cash and Dividends Declared

    In Q1 2025, distributable cash7 increased to $11.1 million ($0.0666 per share), compared to $9.6 million ($0.0629 per share), in Q1 2024. The increase in distributable cash per share7 for the quarter was primarily due to an increase in distributable cash, partially offset by a higher weighted average number of common shares outstanding7.

    In Q1 2025, the payout ratio7 was 93.8% on dividends of $0.0625 per share, compared to the payout ratio of 97.2% on dividends of $0.0611 per share for the same respective period in 2024. The decrease to the payout ratio was primarily due to higher distributable cash per share7, partially offset by higher dividends declared per share7.

    7. Distributable cash is a non-IFRS financial measure and distributable cash per share and payout ratio are non-IFRS ratios – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    Net Income

    Net income for Q1 2025 was $8.0 million compared to net income of $7.5 million for the three months ended March 31, 2024. The increase in net income in Q1 2025, was primarily due to the higher adjusted revenues8, lower interest expenses and share-based compensation expenses, partially offset by higher salaries and benefits, income tax expenses, and other finance costs.

    8. Adjusted revenue is a non-IFRS financial measure – see “Non-IFRS Measures” below.

    Availability of Annual General Meeting Materials and Leadership Update

    The proxy-related materials for DIV’s upcoming Annual General meeting of shareholders  (the “Meeting”) to be held on Thursday, June 19, 2025 are now available and have been posted under DIV’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com and on DIV’s website at: https://www.diversifiedroyaltycorp.com/investors/financial-and-regulatory-reports/financial-reports-2025/.

    At the Meeting, shareholders will be asked to: (i) receive the consolidated financial statements of DIV for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2024, together with the report of the auditors thereon, (ii) elect directors of the Corporation for the ensuing year, and (iii) appoint KPMG LLP as auditors of the Corporation for the ensuing year and to authorize the directors of the Corporation to fix their remuneration.

    The Board is pleased to nominate Sean Morrison, our President and Chief Executive Officer, for election to the Board, alongside the current directors. The Board is also pleased to announce the promotion of Greg Gutmanis from Chief Financial Officer and Vice President, Acquisitions, to President and Chief Financial Officer, effective July 1, 2025.

    In his expanded role, Greg will assume greater responsibility for DIV’s day-to-day operations, including oversight of our Royalty Partners’ businesses, identifying and executing new acquisition opportunities, and engaging with DIV’s shareholders and prospective investors. Greg has played a key role in DIV’s growth since its inception. He is widely recognized within Vancouver’s finance community, having received the 2020 BC CFO Award and being named one of Business in Vancouver’s “Top Forty Under 40” in 2017. During his tenure at DIV, Greg has managed approximately $400 million in equity and convertible debenture offerings and over $200 million in senior debt. Prior to joining DIV, he co-managed $165 million across two private equity funds and worked as an investment banker.

    Sean Morrison, stated, “Greg’s promotion to President and Chief Financial Officer is well deserved. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Greg for nearly 20 years in investment banking, private equity, and for the past decade at DIV. Greg is a consummate professional who continues to broaden his expertise and expand his leadership role each year. As continuing CFO and incoming President, I’m confident Greg will continue to grow his responsibilities, and I look forward to working closely with him to deliver value to DIV shareholders.”

    Sean will continue to lead DIV’s strategic direction and overall business as its Chief Executive Officer.

    About Diversified Royalty Corp.

    DIV is a multi-royalty corporation, engaged in the business of acquiring top-line royalties from well-managed multi-location businesses and franchisors in North America. DIV’s objective is to acquire predictable, growing royalty streams from a diverse group of multi-location businesses and franchisors.

    DIV currently owns the Mr. Lube + Tires, AIR MILES®, Sutton, Mr. Mikes, Nurse Next Door, Oxford Learning Centres, Stratus Building Solutions and BarBurrito trademarks. Mr. Lube + Tires is the leading quick lube service business in Canada, with locations across Canada. AIR MILES® is Canada’s largest coalition loyalty program. Sutton is among the leading residential real estate brokerage franchisor businesses in Canada. Mr. Mikes operates casual steakhouse restaurants primarily in western Canadian communities. Nurse Next Door is a home care provider with locations across Canada and the United States as well as in Australia. Oxford Learning Centres is one of Canada’s leading franchisee supplemental education services. Stratus Building Solutions is a leading commercial cleaning service franchise company providing comprehensive building cleaning, and office cleaning services primarily in the United States. BarBurrito is the largest quick service Mexican restaurant food chain in Canada.

    DIV’s objective is to increase cash flow per share by making accretive royalty purchases and through the growth of purchased royalties. DIV intends to continue to pay a predictable and stable monthly dividend to shareholders and increase the dividend over time, in each case as cash flow per share allows.

    Forward-Looking Statements

    Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute “forward-looking information” within the meaning of applicable securities laws that involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. The use of any of the words “anticipate”, “continue”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “may”, “will”, ”project”, “should”, “believe”, “confident”, “plan” and “intend” and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking information, although not all forward-looking information contains these identifying words. Specifically, forward-looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, statements made in relation to: the deferral of Sutton Royalties continuing for the remainder of 2025 to help Sutton invest in the business and build on the positive momentum that began in the last quarter; the terms on which the deferred royalties are required to be paid by Sutton; the promotion of Greg Gutmanis to President and Chief Financial Officer effective July 1, 2025, and that Sean Morrisson will continue to lead DIV’s strategic direction and overall business as Chief Executive Officer; details of DIV’s upcoming Annual General Meeting; DIV’s intention to pay monthly dividends to shareholders; and DIV’s corporate objectives. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events, performance, or achievements of DIV to differ materially from those anticipated or implied by such forward-looking information. DIV believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information included in this news release are reasonable but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct. In particular, risks and uncertainties include: DIV’s royalty partners may not make their respective royalty payments to DIV, in whole or in part; the decline in royalties received under the AIR MILES® licenses could cause AM Royalties Limited Partnership (“AM LP”) to be required to make partial or full repayment of the outstanding principal amount under its credit agreement, or cause AM LP to be in default under its credit agreement; current positive trends being experienced by certain of DIV’s royalty partners (and their respective franchisees) may not continue and may regress, and negative trends experienced by certain of DIV’s Royalty Partners (including their respective franchisees) may continue and may regress; Sutton may not pay all deferred royalties in accordance with the timing required or at all; Sutton’s investment of the deferred royalties may not achieve their intended effects; Sutton may require further deferrals of royalties beyond those contemplated by the current deferral agreement; DIV and its royalty partners performance in the remainder of 2025 may not meet management’s expectations; DIV may not be able to make monthly dividend payments to the holders of its common shares; dividends are not guaranteed and may be reduced, suspended or terminated at any time; or DIV may not achieve any of its corporate objectives. Given these uncertainties, readers are cautioned that forward-looking information included in this news release is not a guarantee of future performance, and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon. More information about the risks and uncertainties affecting DIV’s business and the businesses of its royalty partners can be found in the “Risk Factors” section of its Annual Information Form dated March 24, 2025 and in DIV’s management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, copies of which are available under DIV’s profile on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

    In formulating the forward-looking information contained herein, management has assumed that DIV will generate sufficient cash flows from its royalties to service its debt and pay dividends to shareholders; lenders will provide any necessary waivers required in order to allow DIV to continue to pay dividends; lenders will provide any other necessary covenant waivers to DIV and its royalty partners; the performance of DIV’s royalty partners will be consistent with DIV’s and its royalty partners’ respective expectations; recent positive trends for certain of DIV’s royalty partners (including their respective franchisees) will continue and not regress; current negative trends experienced by certain of DIV’s royalty partners (including their respective franchisees) will not materially regress; Sutton will pay all deferred royalties in accordance with the required timing in full and will not require further deferrals; Sutton’s investment of the deferred royalties will achieve its intended effects; the businesses of DIV’s respective royalty partners will not suffer any material adverse effect; and the business and economic conditions affecting DIV and its royalty partners will continue substantially in the ordinary course, including without limitation with respect to general industry conditions, general levels of economic activity and regulations. These assumptions, although considered reasonable by management at the time of preparation, may prove to be incorrect.

    All of the forward-looking information in this news release is qualified by these cautionary statements and other cautionary statements or factors contained herein, and there can be no assurance that the actual results or developments will be realized or, even if substantially realized, that it will have the expected consequences to, or effects on, DIV. The forward-looking information in this news release is made as of the date of this news release and DIV assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable law.

    Non-IFRS Measures

    Management believes that disclosing certain non-IFRS financial measures, non-IFRS ratios and supplementary financial measures provides readers with important information regarding the Corporation’s financial performance and its ability to pay dividends and the performance of its royalty partners. By considering these measures in combination with the most closely comparable IFRS measure, management believes that investors are provided with additional and more useful information about the Corporation and its royalty partners than investors would have if they simply considered IFRS measures alone. The non-IFRS financial measures, non-IFRS ratios and supplementary financial measures do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and therefore are unlikely to be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. Investors are cautioned that non-IFRS measures should not be construed as a substitute or an alternative to net income or cash flows from operating activities as determined in accordance with IFRS.

    “Adjusted revenue”, “adjusted royalty income”, “DIV Royalty Entitlement” and “distributable cash” are used as non-IFRS financial measures in this news release.

    Adjusted revenue is calculated as royalty income plus DIV Royalty Entitlement and management fees. The following table reconciles adjusted revenue and adjusted royalty income to royalty income, the most directly comparable IFRS measure disclosed in the financial statements:

        Three months ended March 31,  
    (000’s)     2025     2024  
    Mr. Lube + Tires   $ 7,120   $ 6,585  
    Stratus     2,380     2,130  
    BarBurrito     2,108     2,080  
    Oxford     1,238     1,172  
    Mr. Mikes     1,015     1,006  
    Sutton     871     1,068  
    AIR MILES®     756     892  
    Royalty income   $ 15,488   $ 14,933  
    DIV Royalty Entitlement     1,329     1,303  
    Adjusted royalty income   $ 16,817   $ 16,236  
    Management fees     151     147  
    Adjusted revenue   $ 16,968   $ 16,383  
               

    For further details with respect to adjusted revenue and adjusted royalty income, refer to the subsection “Non-IFRS Financial Measures” under “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in the Corporation’s management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, a copy of which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

    The most closely comparable IFRS measure to DIV Royalty Entitlement is “distributions received from NND LP”. DIV Royalty Entitlement is calculated as distributions received from NND LP, before any deduction for expenses incurred by NND Holdings Limited Partnership (“NND LP”), which expenses include legal, audit, tax and advisory services. Note that distributions received from NND LP is derived from the royalty paid by Nurse Next Door to NND LP. The following table reconciles DIV Royalty Entitlement to distributions received from NND LP in the financial statements:

        Three months ended March 31,  
    (000’s)     2025     2024  
    Distributions received from NND LP   $ 1,325   $ 1,300  
    Add: NND Royalties LP expenses     4     3  
    DIV Royalty Entitlement     1,329     1,303  
           
    Less: NND Royalties LP expenses     (4 )   (3 )
    DIV Royalty Entitlement, net of NND Royalties LP expenses   $ 1,325   $ 1,300  
           

    For further details with respect to DIV Royalty Entitlement, refer to the subsection “Non-IFRS Financial Measures” under “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in the Corporation’s management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, a copy of which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

    The following table reconciles distributable cash to cash flows generated from operating activities, the most directly comparable IFRS measure disclosed in the financial statements:

        Three months ended March 31,  
    (000’s)     2025     2024  
           
    Cash flows generated from operating activities   $ 10,160   $ 10,850  
           
    Current tax expense     (1,719 )   (1,291 )
    Accrued interest on convertible debentures     (788 )   (788 )
    Accrued interest on bank loans     (374 )   –  
    Distributions on MRM units earned in current periods     (48 )   (41 )
    Mandatory principal payments on credit facilities     –     (628 )
    Payment of lease obligations     (28 )   (27 )
    NND LP expenses     (4 )   (3 )
    Accrued DIV Royalty Entitlement, net of distributions     4     3  
    Foreign exchange and other     49     42  
    Changes in working capital     850     263  
    Taxes paid     3,036     1,498  
    Note receivable     –     (305 )
    Distributable cash   $ 11,138   $ 9,573  


    For further details with respect to distributable cash, refer to the subsection “Non-IFRS Financial Measures” under “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in the Corporation’s management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, a copy of which is available on SEDAR+ at     www.sedarplus.com.

    “Distributable cash per share” and “payout ratio” are non-IFRS ratios that do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS, and therefore may not be comparable to similar ratios presented by other issuers. Distributable cash per share is defined as distributable cash, a non-IFRS measure, divided by the weighted average number of common shares outstanding during the period. The payout ratio is calculated by dividing the dividends per share during the period by the distributable cash per share, a non-IFRS measure, generated in that period. For further details, refer to the subsection entitled “Non-IFRS Ratios” under “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in the Corporation’s management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, a copy of which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

    “Weighted average organic royalty growth” is the average same store sales growth percentage related to Mr. Lube + Tires, Oxford and Mr. Mikes plus the average increase in adjusted royalty income from AIR MILES®, Sutton (less 20% deferral in Q1, 2025), Nurse Next Door, BarBurrito and Stratus over the prior comparable period taking into account the percentage weighting of each royalty partner’s adjusted royalty income in proportion of the total adjusted royalty income for the period. Weighted average organic royalty growth is a supplementary financial measure and does not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. However, the Corporation believes that weighted average organic royalty growth is a useful measure as it provides investors with an indication of the change in year-over-year growth of each royalty partner, taking into account the percentage weighting of royalty partner’s growth in proportion of total growth, as applicable. The Corporation’s method of calculating weighted average organic royalty growth may differ from those of other issuers or companies and, accordingly, weighted average organic royalty growth may not be comparable to similar measures used by other issuers or companies.

    “Same store sales growth” or “SSSG” and “system sales” are supplementary financial measures and do not have standardized meanings prescribed by IFRS and therefore may not be comparable to similar measures presented by other issuers. SSSG and system sales figures are reported to DIV by its Royalty Partners – see “Third Party Information”. For further details, refer to the subsection entitled “Supplementary Financial Measures” under “Description of Non-IFRS Financial Measures, Non-IFRS Ratios and Supplementary Financial Measures” in the Corporation’s management’s discussion and analysis for the three months ended March 31, 2025, a copy of which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

    Third Party Information

    This news release includes information obtained from third party company filings and reports and other publicly available sources as well as financial statements and other reports provided to DIV by its royalty partners. Although DIV believes these sources to be generally reliable, such information cannot be verified with complete certainty. Accordingly, the accuracy and completeness of this information is not guaranteed. DIV has not independently verified any of the information from third party sources referred to in this news release nor ascertained the underlying assumptions relied upon by such sources.

    THE TORONTO STOCK EXCHANGE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR THE ACCURACY OF THIS RELEASE.

    Additional Information

    The information in this news release should be read in conjunction with DIV’s consolidated financial statements and management’s discussion and analysis (“MD&A”) for the three months ended March 31, 2025, which are available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

    Additional information relating to the Corporation and other public filings, is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com.

    Contact:
    Sean Morrison, President and Chief Executive Officer
    Diversified Royalty Corp.
    (236) 521-8470

    Greg Gutmanis, Chief Financial Officer and VP Acquisitions
    Diversified Royalty Corp.
    (236) 521-8471

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-Evening Report: Whatever happened to Barbie’s feet? Podiatrists studied 2,750 dolls to find out

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Cylie Williams, Professor, School of Primary and Allied Health Care, Monash University

    elinaxx1v/Shutterstock

    What do you get when a group of podiatrists (and shoe lovers) team up with a Barbie doll collector? A huge opportunity to explore how Barbie reflects changes in the types of shoes women wear.

    It all started with the blockbuster Barbie movie in 2023. In particular, we discussed a scene when Barbie was distressed to find she didn’t have to walk on tip-toes. She could walk on flat feet.

    Soon, we had designed a research project to study the feet of Barbie dolls on the market from her launch in 1959 to June 2024. That’s 2,750 Barbies in all.

    How this scene from the Barbie movie inspired our research project.

    In our study published today, we found a general shift away from Barbie’s iconic feet – on tip-toes, ready to slip on high-heeled shoes – to flat feet for flat shoes.

    We found, like many women today, Barbie “chooses” her footwear depending on what she has to do – flats for skateboarding or working as an astronaut but heels when dressing up for a night out.

    We also question whether high heels that Barbie and some women choose to wear are really as bad for your health as we’ve been led to believe.

    The movie that sparked the #barbiefootchallenge

    Barbie’s feet – in particular her tip-toe posture – triggered TikTok’s #barbiefoottrend and #barbiefootchallenge. When the movie was released, fans made videos to re-create how Barbie stepped out of her high-heeled shoes, yet stayed on tip-toes. Margot Robbie, the Australian actor who played Barbie in the movie, was even interviewed about it.

    Despite the obvious interest in Barbie’s iconic foot stance, there had been no specific research on her feet or choice of footwear.

    So our research team decided to look at how Barbie’s feet had changed over the years to reflect the kinds of shoes she’s worn, and how that ties in with her different jobs and growing diversity.

    What we did

    One of our research team has an extensive Barbie doll collection. This guided our search through online catalogues to examine the foot positions of 2,750 Barbie dolls.

    Our custom-made audit tool allowed us to classify Barbie’s foot posture as tip-toe (known as equinus) or flat.

    We also looked at when the dolls were made, whether they were diverse or inclusive (for instance, represented people with disabilities), and whether Barbie was employed.

    Our device allowed us to classify Barbie’s feet as (a) tip-toe (equinus) or (b) flat.
    Cylie Williams, CC BY-NC-ND

    What we found

    We were surprised that Barbie’s high-heel wearing foot posture was no longer the norm. Barbie does, however, still wear high heels when dressed for fun.

    We found, just like Barbie in the movie, she’s made a transition from high heels (equinus foot posture) to flat shoes (flat foot posture), especially when employed.

    We suggest this mirrors broader societal changes. This includes how women choose footwear according to how much they have to move in the day, and away from only wearing high heels in some workplaces.

    Barbie ditched her high-heel wearing foot posture as she climbed the career ladder. In the 1960s, all Barbies tip-toed around, but by the 2020s, only 40% did.

    Meanwhile, her resume expanded, going from not being represented as having a job to 33% representing real-world jobs.

    Barbie’s been an astronaut since before the Moon landing.
    8th.creator/Shutterstock

    She was an astronaut in 1965, before the Moon landing, and a surgeon when the vast majority of doctors in the United States were men.

    US laws changed in the late 80s, supporting women to own businesses without a man’s permission. And Barbie mirrored this.

    She started trading stilettos for flats and strutting into male-dominated fields. Barbie didn’t just break the mould, she kicked it off with low-heeled shoes.

    Barbie also evolved to better reflect the population. We found a moderate link between her having flat feet and representing diversity or disability.

    For example, she chooses a stable flat shoe when using a prosthetic limb. But it was also great to see her break footwear stereotypes by wearing high heels when using a wheelchair.

    Are high heels so bad?

    Some celebrities, the media and public health advice warn against wearing high heels. But we know women (and Barbie) choose to wear them from time to time. In fact it’s discussions about women’s shoe choices that also gave us the idea for this fun research.

    For instance, health professionals often link high-heeled shoes with developing bunions, knee osteoarthritis, back pain or being injured.

    However bunions, and knee and back pain are just as common in people who don’t wear high heels.

    Studies exploring the risk of high heels are also often performed with people who don’t usually wear high heels, or during competitive sports.

    We couldn’t find any investigations exploring the long-term effect of wearing high heels.

    Research does show that high-heeled shoes make you walk slower and make it harder to balance.

    But high heels have different features, such as heel height or shape. So different types of high heels probably present a different risk. That risk also probably differs from person to person, including how often they walk in heels.

    Lessons for all shoe lovers

    But back to Barbie and lessons we learned. We know Barbie is a social construct that reflects some aspects of the real world. She chooses heels when fashion is the goal and flat shoes when needing speed and stability.

    Rather than demonise high heels, messages about footwear need to evolve to acknowledge choice, and trust women can balance their own priorities and needs.

    As Barbie’s journey shows, women already make thoughtful shoe choices based on comfort, function and identity.

    Cylie Williams receives funding from the Medical Research Future Foundation. In the past five years, she has previously received research funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, Department of Health and Aged Care (Australia), Bobux International Limited, Department of Health (Victoria) and Sports and Exercise Podiatry Australia.

    Helen Banwell is a practitioner member of the Podiatry Board of Australia.

    – ref. Whatever happened to Barbie’s feet? Podiatrists studied 2,750 dolls to find out – https://theconversation.com/whatever-happened-to-barbies-feet-podiatrists-studied-2-750-dolls-to-find-out-256211

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-Evening Report: This 6-point plan can ease Australia’s gambling problems – if our government has the guts

    Source: The Conversation (Au and NZ) – By Charles Livingstone, Associate Professor, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University

    WHYFRAME/Shutterstock

    We have a refreshed and revitalised Australian government, enriched with great political capital.

    During the last term of parliament before the election, opportunities to address Australia’s raging gambling habit were neglected.

    Could this government now have enough authority and courage to take on the gambling ecosystem?

    A massive issue

    Australians are the world’s biggest gambling losers.

    Many attribute this to some inherent Australian trait. But what it really comes down to is the proliferation of gambling operators and their products.

    They’re everywhere, along with their marketing and promotion.

    Half of the gambling problems in Australia are associated with poker machines, ubiquitous in all states and territories other than Western Australia (WA).

    Consequently, and unsurprisingly, WA has the lowest rate of gambling harms. The state has 2,500 pokies at a single Perth casino and none in clubs or pubs.

    New South Wales boasts nearly 90,000 pokies, the highest pokie “density” in Australia, and its clubs and pubs make $8.1 billion a year.

    Overall, pokie losses in Australia total $15.8 billion per year.

    Wagering (betting on sport, racing and even elections), is now mainly online, and reaps another $8.4 billion in Australia. This is the fastest growing gambling sector, with growth, adjusted for inflation, of more than 45% between 2018-19 and 2022-23.

    Pokies grew by a more modest 7.6% during the same period. Only casinos went backwards.

    Overall, gambling costs Australians more than $32 billion annually.

    This has been fuelled by relentless promotion and marketing and the expansion of the gambling ecosystem: the network of commercial actors who reap a major dividend from gambling losses.

    It includes the bookies, pub and club chains as well as sporting leagues, financial services providers, software and game developers, charitable organisations, broadcasters, and state and territory governments.

    Of course, gambling comes at a cost: it is strongly linked to broken relationships, loss of assets, employment and educational opportunities, and crime rates.

    Intimate partner violence and neglect of children, along with poor mental and physical health, are also connected to gambling accessibility. As, unfortunately, is suicide.

    However, there are ways to reduce gambling harm.

    Six ways to tackle the problem

    1. First up, we need a national gambling regulator. This was an important recommendation in the 2023 report of the all-party parliamentary committee chaired by the late Peta Murphy.

    Currently, gambling is regulated by each state and territory. Some have reasonably robust systems in place. Others, somewhat less so. None are best practice.

    A national system is long overdue, as many gambling businesses operate across multiple Australian jurisdictions.

    In the absence of national regulation, the Northern Territory has become the de facto national regulator for online wagering. It offers a low-tax and arguably low intervention regulatory system.

    Yet the vast majority of losses from punters come in other jurisdictions.

    National regulation would also assist in standardising tax rates and maintaining reasonable uniform standards of regulation and enforcement.

    2. Poker machines are Australia’s biggest gambling problem, but a national precommitment scheme would provide a tool for people to manage their gambling.

    This proposal has been frequently mooted in Australia since the Productivity Commission recommended it in 2010.

    It has worked well in Europe: forms of it now operate in 27 European countries.

    Both Victoria and Tasmania have proposed it, as did the Perrottet government in the lead into the last NSW election.

    Unfortunately, the power of the pokie lobby, supercharged by the addiction surplus it reaps from punters, has slowed or stopped its implementation.

    But it’s eminently feasible and is highly likely to significantly reduce the harm of pokies.

    The technical challenges are far from insurmountable, despite what industry interests argue.



    Read more:
    Pokies line the coffers of governments and venues – but there are ways to tame this gambling gorilla

    3. Limiting accessibility to pokies is an important way to reduce harm.

    Nothing good happens in a pokie room after midnight, yet they are often open until 4am, with reopening time only a little later.

    Closing down venues after midnight and not opening until 10am would help a lot of people.

    4. We can’t talk about political access without considering some key tools of the gambling ecosystem.

    Pokie operators have enormous ability to influence politicians. Donations are a typical method to ensure access, backed up by the “revolving door” of post-politics jobs.

    Politicians also enjoy a stream of freebies from the gambling ecosystem, which allow these businesses to bend the ear of a guest for hours at a time, at lunch, over drinks, or during an event.

    To address this, we need better rules around acceptance of hospitality and gifts. Some states have moved towards such arrangements but there has been little action on the national front.

    5. Another major recommendation from the Murphy committee was the banning of online gambling ads.

    The majority of Australians want it to happen, and gambling ads are banned for almost all other forms of gambling.

    The special treatment for this rapidly growing, highly harmful gambling product makes no sense.

    6. Finally, we need to properly resource research into gambling harm and its prevention.

    Much gambling research (and its conferences) are funded by the gambling ecosystem, either directly or via representative organisations.

    This raises massive conflicts and has lead to a poor evidence base for policy making.

    The time is now

    Anything that stops people getting into trouble with gambling will be opposed by the gambling ecosystem because their best customers are those with the biggest losses.

    But nobody is saying we should do away with gambling.

    The evidence-based ideas above would help people with existing problems, and stop many more from ending up in trouble.

    Gambling is a problem we can solve.

    It does need political effort – but the Albanese government has the political capital to solve this problem.

    Charles Livingstone has received funding from the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation, the (former) Victorian Gambling Research Panel, and the South Australian Independent Gambling Authority (the funds for which were derived from hypothecation of gambling tax revenue to research purposes), from the Australian and New Zealand School of Government and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, and from non-government organisations for research into multiple aspects of poker machine gambling, including regulatory reform, existing harm minimisation practices, and technical characteristics of gambling forms. He has received travel and co-operation grants from the Alberta Problem Gambling Research Institute, the Finnish Institute for Public Health, the Finnish Alcohol Research Foundation, the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Committee, the Turkish Red Crescent Society, and the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand. He was a Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council funded project researching mechanisms of influence on government by the tobacco, alcohol and gambling industries. He has undertaken consultancy research for local governments and non-government organisations in Australia and the UK seeking to restrict or reduce the concentration of poker machines and gambling impacts, and was a member of the Australian government’s Ministerial Expert Advisory Group on Gambling in 2010-11. He is a member of the Lancet Public Health Commission into gambling, and of the World Health Organisation expert group on gambling and gambling harm. He made a submission to and appeared before the HoR Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs inquiry into online gambling and its impacts on those experiencing gambling harm.

    Angela Rintoul holds a postdoctoral fellowship funded by Suicide Prevention Australia. In the past she has received funding from the Victoria Responsible Gambling Foundation, which was supported by allocations from the Community Support Fund, a government administered trust fund constituted from direct taxes on EGMs in hotels. She has also received funding from the Winston Churchill Memorial Trust and ANROWS. She is a member of the WHO meeting on gambling and received travel funding from the Turkish Green Crescent Society and consultancy funding from WHO. She has been paid to review grants by the British Academic Forum for the Study of Gambling, which administered via Gambling Research Exchange Ontario, funded by regulatory settlements from gambling companies who have breached the law.

    – ref. This 6-point plan can ease Australia’s gambling problems – if our government has the guts – https://theconversation.com/this-6-point-plan-can-ease-australias-gambling-problems-if-our-government-has-the-guts-256442

    MIL OSI Analysis – EveningReport.nz –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Should AD stand for Alzheimer’s disease, or for Auguste Deter, the patient whose case was first described?

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Donald Weaver, Professor of Chemistry and Senior Scientist of the Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, University of Toronto

    Alzheimer’s disease is named for Alois Alheimer (left), but his patient, Auguste Deter (right), should not be overlooked. (Wikimedia Commons)

    Auguste Deter was born 175 years ago on May 16, 1850. Though the story of her life is not widely known, it should be. Through her suffering and dignity, Deter puts a much-needed human face on the tragedy of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), one of the most important medical problems currently confronting humankind. Auguste Deter reminds us that AD is a disease of people, not proteins.

    Often, scientists reduce AD to a disorder of shrunken brain cells or misfolded proteins. However, AD is so much more.

    It is a disease that impairs thought processes and personal memories — the very essence of what makes each one of us an individual capable of hopes, dreams, love and being loved. AD is a very human disease and a very human struggle for individuals, their families and society as a whole. Deter is a crucial reminder of the human aspects of this devastating disease.

    ‘I have lost myself’

    Although dementia had been recognized for centuries, Deter was the first person officially diagnosed with the type of dementia now recognized as Alzheimer’s disease.

    Auguste Deter was a patient of Alois Alzheimer. His report on her case was the first description of what is now Alzheimer’s disease.
    (Wikimedia Commons)

    Born Auguste Hochmann into a working-class family, the financial hardships imposed by her father’s early death forced Deter into full-time employment as a seamstress at age 14. She continued this work until marrying Karl Deter, a railway clerk. The couple moved to Frankfurt, Germany where they lived as a happy and harmonious family with their daughter, Thekla.

    Tragically in the spring of 1901, this loving and caring 51-year-old woman began to be incapable of routine household activities. Soon, due to her progressive memory loss and intellectual impairment, she was no longer able to function on her own. She was admitted to the Frankfurt Psychiatric Hospital under the care of Dr. Alois Alzheimer.

    Alzheimer asked her many questions to which she would sometimes quietly reply “Ich habe mich verloren.” (“I have lost myself.”) Sadly, her relentless cognitive decline continued. On July 12, 1905, Alzheimer recorded that Deter’s deterioration had progressed such that she was lying on her side in a pool of urine, knees drawn up, unable to communicate. She died on April 8, 1906 from pneumonia and infected bed sores.

    Definitive features

    Alois Alzheimer.
    (Provided by U.S. National Library of Medicine)

    During the subsequent autopsy, Alzheimer identified not only Deter’s marked brain shrinkage but also localized clumps (“plaques”) of an unknown deposited substance as well as dense bundles of tangled fibres in what were once healthy brain cells.

    These latter two observations — now recognized as amyloid plaques and tau tangles — have become the diagnostic features that define the pathology of AD. In 1907, Alzheimer published a scientific paper in which he described Deter’s brain and her “new” type of dementia.

    Unfortunately, Alzheimer was unable to dedicate a long career to a more comprehensive understanding of this disease. He contracted rheumatic fever in 1912, dying of its complications three years later at age 51. Nonetheless, the Deter case report was sufficient to establish his legacy as the discoverer of Alzheimer’s disease.

    As an inquisitive psychiatrist and pathologist, Alzheimer had been interested in medicine and science, not fame. He was not seeking to name a disease after himself. In 1910, Alzheimer’s boss, the renowned German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin, wrote the influential Handbook of Psychiatry – a textbook in which he named this newly identified type of dementia “Alzheimer’s Disease.” In doing so, Kraepelin’s textbook ultimately transformed Alzheimer’s name into a household word.

    Meanwhile, in Prague

    But does Alzheimer’s disease truly deserve to be called Alzheimer’s disease? There are other people who can claim contributions to the discovery of Alzheimer’s disease.

    In 1907, the same year that Alzheimer published his single case description of Deter, a Czech psychiatrist named Oskar Fischer independently published a thorough structural analysis of plaques in the brains of 12 people with dementia. Between 1910-1912, he went on to analyze plaques and pathological brain changes in another 58 cases of dementia.

    Oskar Fischer.
    (Wikimedia Commons)

    Arguably, Fischer made more important contributions than Alzheimer to the comprehensive description of the disease. Yet it is called Alzheimer’s disease, not Fischer’s disease.

    There are many reasons for this. Fischer was Jewish and subject to antisemitism. He was not at a prominent German university and did not have a powerful ally like Emil Kraepelin promoting his career. And science is, after all, a very human activity.

    Unfortunately, Fischer later became trapped in occupied Prague under the oppression of authoritarian Nazi rule. Fischer was arrested in 1941 and died in the Gestapo’s notorious Small Fortress prison on Feb. 28, 1942.

    It seemed likely that Fischer’s seminal contributions to our understanding of dementia would be lost. Thankfully in 2008, Michel Goedert of Cambridge University rediscovered Fischer’s significant contributions stored in the archives of Charles University in Prague. This has restored Fischer to his rightful position as one of the discoverers of AD and retrospectively raises questions about the correct naming attribution of AD.

    However, when considering the naming of AD, we must not forget Patient No. 1: Auguste Deter. Interestingly and fortuitously, her initials are AD. So, should AD signify Auguste Deter disease rather than Alzheimer’s disease? Should the Alzheimer-Fischer controversy be resolved by simply reassigning the AD abbreviation to Auguste Deter? Should the disease be named after its “first patient,” rather than the physician(s) who discovered it?

    Medicine has a penchant for naming signs, symptoms and diseases after the physicians who first described them. We typically tend not to name them after the afflicted person. Perhaps this is done to preserve patient confidentiality; perhaps not.

    But AD is a disease like no other. It’s very personal. It affects the memories, thoughts and emotions that define us as human beings. We must never forget that AD is a disease of people and families, not just proteins and fibrils. Deter tragically yet courageously embodies the human heartbreak of this dreadful disease.

    Deter’s contribution to the 1907 single case report study by Alzheimer was immense: Deter’s life, illness and death are the story of AD. Deter should be remembered. It was and is her disease.

    Donald Weaver does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

    – ref. Should AD stand for Alzheimer’s disease, or for Auguste Deter, the patient whose case was first described? – https://theconversation.com/should-ad-stand-for-alzheimers-disease-or-for-auguste-deter-the-patient-whose-case-was-first-described-255942

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: May 9th, 2025 Heinrich, Luján, Vasquez Call on Trump Administration to Crack Down on U.S. Firearms Flowing to Latin American Drug Cartels

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for New Mexico Martin Heinrich
    WASHINGTON — U.S. Senator Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of the core bipartisan group of senators who negotiated and passed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA), joined U.S. Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) and U.S. Representative Gabe Vasquez (D-N.M.) to urge the Trump Administration to use its recent designation of Latin American cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) to take aggressive action to stop the illegal trafficking of American firearms across the Southern Border.
    In a letter addressed to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Attorney General Pam Bondi, the lawmakers called for a coordinated federal response to stem the flow of hundreds of thousands of American firearms that arm violent drug cartels, fuel lawlessness along the Southern Border, and bring drugs into communities across the United States.
    “We were pleased that President Trump agreed to address the outflow of hundreds of thousands of American-made firearms across the southern border when he initially postponed the implementation of tariffs on our ally Mexico. Accordingly, we urge you to utilize the FTO designation to take aggressive action to stem the flow of American guns to the cartels,” the lawmakers wrote.
    Anywhere between 200,000 and 500,000 American firearms are smuggled across U.S. borders into Mexico every year, arming Latin American criminal organizations that have used them to undermine domestic law enforcement and assert control over fentanyl and human trafficking operations back into the United States. 
    “The new FTO designation for these cartels provides additional legal tools to bolster interagency coordination, disrupt their financial networks, and impose stricter penalties on those who provide material support to these criminal enterprises. Specifically, under current statute, it is unlawful to knowingly provide material support or resources to a Foreign Terrorist Organization and those who do so can be fined or imprisoned for up to 20 years,” the lawmakers continued.
    The members urged the administration to effectively and strategically employ the full suite of legal options this new designation enables and offered their assistance to empower it to specifically address the “Iron River” of American firearms that are fueling violence and destruction in communities across the United States and Mexico. 
    “We hope that you move swiftly and use these new legal authorities to combat southbound arms trafficking. We stand ready to assist in this effort in any way we can, including through legislation that expands your programmatic authorities to address this critical issue,” the lawmakers concluded.
    The letter was led by Luján and U.S. Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) in the Senate and U.S. Representatives Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) and Rob Menendez (D-N.J.) in the House. Alongside Heinrich and Vasquez, the letter was signed by U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) and U.S. Representatives Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.), J. Luis Correa (D-Calif.), Seth Magaziner (D-R.I.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Timothy Kennedy (D-N.Y.), and Nellie Pou (D-N.J.).
    The full text of the letter is here. 
    Background on Heinrich-Led Gun Trafficking and Straw Purchase Provisions:
    Heinrich-led provisions in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act increased criminal penalties for straw purchasers and made it a crime, for the first time ever, to traffic firearms out of the United States. Straw purchasers are people who buy guns for those who cannot buy them directly themselves due to their age, felony criminal convictions, or other limitations. By increasing penalties for straw purchasing, Heinrich’s provision is helping to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and those who would use them against our communities. By making it illegal to traffic firearms out of the country, Heinrich’s provision gave law enforcement the tools needed to prosecute and disrupt the flow of firearms to Mexico and the Northern Triangle, fueling the violence that has driven so many to flee their home countries.  
    To date, the Department of Justice has charged more than 600 defendants using BSCA’s gun trafficking and straw purchasing laws, removing hundreds of firearms off the streets in the process. These cases are significant, often preventing and prosecuting highly dangerous activity, such as crimes linked to organized trafficking rings and transnational criminal organizations.  
    For example, in March 2024, the Justice Department charged several defendants with trafficking and straw purchasing over 100 firearms, including many military-grade weapons, that were allegedly intended to be smuggled to a Mexican drug cartel. In April 2024, a defendant was sentenced to 276 months in prison for firearms trafficking and straw purchasing, as well as distribution of fentanyl, where the evidence showed that two of the trafficked firearms had been used in gang-related shootings. In 2o23, a defendant was sentenced to two years in prison for running an illegal gun trafficking enterprise, repeatedly taking money to lie on firearm purchase forms and obtain weapons for convicted felons. 
    In New Mexico, the Office of the United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico has charged 11 defendants with BSCA violations. 
    Heinrich’s Longtime Leadership to Tackle Gun Violence:
    A gun owner and father, Heinrich has long worked to advance and pass bipartisan policies that save lives, protect public safety, and reduce gun violence.
    Heinrich recently co-sponsored the Preventing Illegal Weapons Trafficking Act, legislation to protect communities from gun violence by requiring federal law enforcement to coordinate efforts to prevent the importation and trafficking of machinegun conversion devices including ‘auto-sears’ — illegal gun modification devices that can convert semi-automatic weapons into fully-automatic weapons — and seize all profits that come from the illegal trafficking of these devices.
    Last month, Heinrich introduced his Gas-Operated Semi-Automatic Firearms Exclusion (GOSAFE) Act and bipartisan Banning Unlawful Machinegun Parts (BUMP) Act, commonsense legislation designed to protect communities from gun violence, while safeguarding Americans’ constitutional right to own a firearm for legitimate self-defense, hunting, and sporting purposes.
    Heinrich also convened a press conference in Albuquerque with New Mexicans to Prevent Gun Violence, Everytown, community leaders, and students to announce the introduction of his GOSAFE Act. For photos and videos of that event, click here.
    In October 2024, Heinrich secured critical funding for New Mexico law enforcement to purchase four new NIBIN machines for Las Cruces, Farmington, Gallup, and Roswell. This allows law enforcement to trace firearms used in crimes and hold criminals accountable, all while saving officers valuable time and resources.
    In July 2023, Heinrich cosponsored the bicameral Ghost Guns and Untraceable Firearms Act, legislation to require online and other sellers of gun-making kits to comply with federal firearm safety regulations.     
    In 2017, Heinrich cosponsored the bipartisan Fix NICS Act, which now requires federal and state authorities to produce background check implementation plans and holds federal agencies accountable for reporting relevant criminal records to the National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS). Heinrich also led the successful call to repeal the Dickey Amendment, which had previously prevented the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) from funding research on gun violence and its effects on public health.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Senator Murray, WA Broadband Office, Digital Equity Advocates Slam Trump for Ripping Away Resources to Close Digital Divide

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
    ICYMI: Senator Murray Blasts Trump’s Attack on Resources to Close Digital Divide: “Republicans Will Have to Explain Why Middle Schoolers in Rural Districts Shouldn’t Get Laptops”
    Murray first authored and introduced the Digital Equity Act in 2019 and got it passed into law as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law
    ***WATCH FULL PRESS CONFERENCE HERE; DOWNLOAD HERE***
    Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), Vice Chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and author of the Digital Equity Act, held a virtual press conference in response to President Trump illegally blocking funding from the Digital Equity Act after falsely attacking the law as “racist” and “unconstitutional.” Murray first authored and introduced the Digital Equity Act in 2019 and got it passed into law as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Joining Senator Murray for the call were Aaron Wheeler, Director of the Washington State Broadband Office, and Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA).
    Senator Murray’s Digital Equity Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in 2022 and provides $2.75 billion to help cities, states, and Tribes close the digital divide by providing individuals and communities with the skills, supports, and technologies necessary to take full advantage of a broadband internet connection—from helping seniors get online to ensuring students in every classroom have the tools they need to succeed.
    “A President cannot overrule a law—period. And certainly not through a tweet. But that hasn’t stopped this administration from illegally blocking the funding from the Digital Equity Act to all 50 states. I passed this law in 2021 as a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—and I actually first introduced the bill in 2019 to help close the digital divide, even before COVID,” said Senator Murray. “I worked hard and built a massive coalition of support for the Digital Equity Act and I worked really hard to make sure Republicans would be on board too—Senator Portman from Ohio co-led the bill with me. And guess what? Digital Equity passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. And that’s because my Republican colleagues have heard the same stories as I have—like kids in rural communities forced to drive to McDonalds parking lots for Wi-Fi to do their homework… It is insane—absolutely nuts—that Trump is blocking resources to help make sure kids in rural school districts can get hotspots or laptops, all because he doesn’t like the word equity! This administration’s deranged obsession with forcing extremist right-wing culture wars on all of us is not an acceptable or legal reason to deny states access to these funds.”
    “Canceling contracts related to Washington State’s $15.9 million Digital Equity Capacity Grant will severely hinder our efforts to close the digital divide,” said Aaron Wheeler, Director of the Washington State Broadband Office. “Cutting this vital program will expose millions of Washington residents to cyber risks, weaken the economic framework of Washington’s communities, and set back educational and workforce opportunities. And the long-term costs of security breaches, cyber theft and public trust will outweigh any short-term budget savings… Our team had just awarded our Advanced Cybersecurity Literacy Program grant to begin the state’s efforts to develop a curriculum that would have rolled out across the state to help educate and protect vulnerable individuals who are often targets of online scams. Then we got the federal notice that our grant had been canceled. We have all seen stories about victims of these complex online crimes and the impact they can have when they fall victim to online fraud. Our cybersecurity work would have helped prevent this by providing education about the online risks everyone faces. The program would have provided the tools people need to avoid these scams.”
    “The Digital Equity Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress to help close the digital divide in rural, urban, and Tribal communities. Fifty states and six territories are counting on these funds to implement essential programs, and that work is already underway. NDIA is one of 65 projects recommended for award, and our subgrantees were prepared to launch 13 programs in 11 states beginning on March 1. NDIA’s shovel-ready projects alone would have supported over 30,000 people in applying for jobs, talking to their doctors, completing homework assignments, and learning to avoid online scams. We are grateful to Senator Murray for standing up for this vital work and the communities that cannot afford to be left behind,” said Angela Siefer, Executive Director of the National Digital Inclusion Alliance (NDIA).
    Senator Murray first introduced the Digital Equity Act in 2019 and worked hard to build a robust coalition of 100+ organizations to secure strong bipartisan consensus and support for her legislation, ultimately passing it into law as a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. Senator Murray’s Digital Equity Act provided $2.75 billion to establish three federal grant programs, administered by the NTIA, to promote digital equity nationwide by:
    Building Capacity within States through Formula Grants: Creates a five-year $300 million per year formula grant program for all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico to fund the creation and implementation of comprehensive digital equity plans in each State.
    Spurring Targeted Action through Competitive Grants: Creates a five-year $250 million per year competitive grant program to support digital inclusion projects undertaken by individual groups, coalitions, and/or communities of interest.
    Supporting Research and Evidence-Based Policymaking: Tasks NTIA with evaluating digital equity projects and providing policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels with detailed information about which projects are most effective.
    Digital equity funds can be used in all kinds of ways to support Washington state families and our economy:
    Workforce: supporting the work of local workforce boards, community and technical colleges, and community-based organizations by increasing access to devices across underserved populations, increasing the digital skills of Washington’s current and future workforce, and by increasing the accessibility of state and local resources to workers.
    Education: supporting Washington’s public schools, community and technical colleges, and community-based organizations as they work to integrate technology literacy and fluency in their curriculum, reducing barriers and advancing access to technology, including digital devices, internet connection, and digital skills training.
    Health Care: supporting the Washington Department of Health and the Washington State Health Care Authority in expanding opportunities for Washingtonians to access telehealth services, reducing the need to travel long distances in rural areas for preventative and specialist care. Additionally, the digital equity funds could be used to work with partner organizations to expand the availability and awareness of culturally sensitive and linguistically accessible online healthcare resources and services.
    And much more.
    Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below and HERE:
    “Thank you everyone for joining. I wish we didn’t need to have this call today, but as usual President Trump is spouting off about something he has no clue about—and he’s making it everyone else’s problem.
    “Last week, on a Thursday afternoon President Trump suddenly decided to ‘declare’ the Digital Equity Act, a bipartisan law that I wrote, unconstitutional. Needless to say, a President cannot overrule a law—period. And certainly not through a tweet. But that hasn’t stopped this administration from illegally blocking the funding from the Digital Equity Act to all 50 states.
    “I passed this law in 2021 as a part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law—and I actually first introduced the bill in 2019 to help close the digital divide, even before COVID.
    “I remember being in Forks Washington back in 2019, a very remote part of my state on the Olympic Peninsula talking about this bill. A local math teacher told me when it came to high-speed internet and digital resources, they felt like Port Townsend in the 1890s waiting for rail—for anyone who’s not familiar, the train never did make it over the mountains to Port Townsend. But I was determined to not let history repeat itself with high-speed internet. 
    “So, I worked hard and built a massive coalition of support for the Digital Equity Act and I worked really hard to make sure Republicans would be on board too—Senator Portman from Ohio co-led the bill with me.
    “And guess what? Digital Equity passed with overwhelming bipartisan support. And that’s because my Republican colleagues have heard the same stories as I have—like kids in rural communities forced to drive to McDonalds parking lots for Wi-Fi to do their homework. That shouldn’t happen in America!
    “Everyone agrees the federal government has a role to play in closing the digital divide. This isn’t a partisan issue. That’s why we saw public statements of support for Digital Equity dollars from Democrats and Republicans.
    “Every single state—all 50 of them—submitted a plan to the Biden administration to qualify for Digital Equity dollars, outlining exactly how they would use these funds and why they needed them.
    “Not a single Republican governor in 2024 felt the law was unconstitutional then—certainly none of them thought it was ‘racist’ or ‘illegal’ like the President is saying.
    “That’s why people as conservative as the Republican governors of Montana and Ohio were touting Digital Equity dollars. Even Kristi Noem’s administration made certain to plaster her name all over the digital equity plan they submitted to the Biden administration.
    “Everyone wanted Digital Equity dollars—and listen, call it digital equity or digital opportunity, the money does the same thing! So why is the President all of a sudden doing this?
    “It is insane—absolutely nuts—that Trump is blocking resources to help make sure kids in rural school districts can get hotspots or laptops, all because he doesn’t like the word equity!
    “This administration’s deranged obsession with forcing extremist right-wing culture wars on all of us is not an acceptable or legal reason to deny states access to these funds.
    “Whether it’s helping veterans in Ohio navigate the VA benefits available to them online or making sure seniors in rural Texas can access telehealth resources—Trump is stealing from every state in America.
    “Democrats will fight this every step of the way, but my Republican colleagues will need to explain to their constituents why middle schoolers in rural districts shouldn’t get laptops.
    “With that, I’m glad to turn it over to Aaron Wheeler who knows better than anyone that Digital Equity dollars will help everyone—in every community, in every part of Washington state.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: “NIH Cuts Will Hurt” RFK Jr. Admits When Pressed by Senator Murray On Harm to NIH Clinical Care, Confronted with Constituent’s Personal Story

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
    In response to question about Trump’s proposal to nearly halve the NIH’s budget, Kennedy concedes “I think the cuts that are now proposed by NIH are gonna hurt.”
    ICYMI: In Seattle, Senator Murray Highlights Consequences of Trump & Elon’s Cuts & Layoffs at NIH—Hears from Leading Researchers, Patients, and Early Career Scientists
    ***WATCH: Senator Murray’s remarks and questioning of Secretary Kennedy***
    ***WATCH: Senator Murray rebuts Secretary Kennedy’s claims about her constituent, Natalie***
    Washington, D.C. — Today, at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing with U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the HELP Committee, grilled Secretary Kennedy on how the Trump administration is endangering Americans’ health and safety by slashing staff and blocking funding at the National Institute of Health (NIH) and firing nearly 90 percent of staff at the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), including nearly 100 staff in Spokane.
    In their unprecedented and reckless effort to gut HHS—including pushing out 20,000 HHS employees and defunding critical research—President Trump and Secretary Kennedy are creating total chaos, delaying funding and stalling research for lifesaving treatments and cures, weakening our biomedical workforce, cancelling vital ongoing studies and delaying clinical trials, and threatening to undo decades of hard-won progress.
    Senator Murray began by sharing the story of her constituent, Natalie Phelps of Washington state: “One of my constituents, Natalie Phelps—a mom of two from Bainbridge Island in Washington state. She has been fighting aggressive Stage Four colorectal cancer for nearly five years now. Her best hope now is a clinical trial at the NIH Clinical Center. She flew out to the NIH just a few weeks ago for her first appointment, and her care team wanted her to come back in four weeks to start treatment. But because of the thoughtless, mass firing of thousands of critical employees across NIH and HHS that you have carried out, Natalie’s doctors at that clinical center have told her that they have no choice but to delay her treatment by an additional four weeks. Now, an extra four weeks may not sound like a long time but, I will tell you, for Stage Four cancer patients like Natalie, this could mean the difference between life and death.”
    Senator Murray asked Secretary Kennedy, “How many staff have been cut from the NIH’s Clinical Center? I want a specific number.”
    “I can’t tell you that now, Senator Murray. What I can tell you is that if you contact my office tomorrow, I’ll look specifically into that,” replied Secretary Kennedy.
    Senator Murray pressed, “Well, that is not acceptable. I want an answer back [on] that. She deserves it. She doesn’t have much time. She deserves an answer back.”
    Secretary Kennedy demurred, again saying Murray should contact his office, and eventually stated: “I don’t think that should happen to anybody.”
    Senator Murray then pressed: “What have you—and I mean you personally—done to assess how these staff cuts are impacting patient care? She is one of many. What have you done to assess that?” Senator Murray
    Secretary Kennedy responded, “I’ve revised the guidelines and said we shouldn’t—no, no clinical trials should be affected by the cuts.”
    Senator Murray made clear: “Mr. Secretary, I just have a short amount of time. They [your cuts] are impacting clinical trials. … I want to tell you, you need to know this. Natalie, is sitting there waiting.”
    Secretary Kennedy then repeatedly interrupted. Senator Murray reclaimed her time and pressed further: “I am asking you a question and it is critical. You are here to defend cutting NIH by half. Do you genuinely believe that that won’t result in more stories like Natalie’s?”
    Secretary Kennedy responded: “I think the cuts that are now proposed by NIH are gonna hurt. I think President Trump – you know, there’s no agency head in government like myself who wants to see their budget cut.”
    After more back and forth, Senator Murray stated: “Well, I will just say that it is my job to be a voice for people like Natalie and countless other patients who are like her. So you’ve got to fix this. I want to know, and I want a personal update on Natalie’s case, and you’ve offered that, please give that to me in the next 24 hours, and I expect details and transparency about the state of NIH clinical care.”
    Senator Murray continued her questioning by pressing Secretary Kennedy on the decimation of NIOSH and mass firings, including at the NIOSH Spokane Research Laboratory in Eastern Washington, which is the largest NIOSH facility west of the Mississippi River. Senator Murray has slammed the Trump administration for eviscerating the NIOSH Laboratory in Spokane as part of their mass layoffs. “I’m alarmed by your decision to essentially eliminate the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health,” said Senator Murray. “You have already fired nearly 90 percent of staff. That includes the staff in my state at the Spokane Research Lab. Those are experts who do essential work to protect miners and firefighters and farm workers and people who are working in dangerous conditions. I am told that after backlash, you are reinstating some of those, mainly in the West Virginia office … nobody in the Western United States, and there doesn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason as to how you’ve made these decisions. And how do you explain this to my constituents in Spokane, who are out of a job, and the workers that are being impacted by that.”
    Secretary Kennedy confirmed that he has brought back some of the workers he’d fired after facing backlash, but did not provide a rationale for the cuts in Washington, stating in part: “The work at NIOSH will not be interrupted. We’re going – I brought back 328 workers, mainly in the Cleveland office and the Morgantown office, and for the World Trade Center site. And that work will continue. The work on mine safety will continue.” However, critical mine safety research occurred at the Spokane lab—and Secretary Kennedy failed to provide any explanation for those cuts—or a commitment to rehire those workers. (Secretary Kennedy also misstated the number of fired workers that have since been rehired and where they work: 313, not 328, have been rehired, and the office in question is Cincinnati, not Cleveland.)
    Senator Murray concluded: “Mr. Chairman, I would just say you can’t fire 90 percent of the people and assume the work gets done.”
    Later in the hearing, Secretary Kennedy asserted that Natalie was ineligible for her clinical trial and called her story a “canard,” saying: “Senator Murray had raised the issue of a constituent of hers who she said had been denied a place in a clinical trial in Washington due to the RIF. We’ve been able to run down that case. The patient was medically ineligible for that trial. It had nothing to do with the RIF. And NIH has been trying to get her into another clinical trial, but none of our clinical trials have been shut down because of the RIF. That was a canard.”
    Senator Murray returned to the hearing to respond directly to Secretary Kennedy: “Secretary Kennedy came back and said my constituent, who I spoke about earlier, [her care] was not delayed by staffing cuts. First off, she is already enrolled in that clinical trial. It’s not a question of eligibility—the issue, as I stated clearly, was the delay in care that she got. And what you stated, Secretary Kennedy, is not true.”
    “I spoke with Natalie, actually, last night. She asked her NIH doctor directly why, when she was informed of the delay, and her doctor at NIH said very plainly TWICE: her care was delayed because of staffing cuts. And Mr. Chairman, I think it’s important for the record to show, my staff has put in inquiries with HHS leadership and they’ve been unresponsive so far.And, just to make clear, this is just one case of many. But those are the facts,” Senator Murray said.
    ___________________________________
    Senator Murray has been a leading voice in Congress raising the alarm over HHS’ unilateral reorganization plan and slamming the closure of the HHS Region 10 office in Seattle and the CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) Spokane Research Laboratory. Senator Murray has sent oversight letters and hosted numerous press conferences and events to lay out how the administration’s reckless gutting of HHS is risking Americans health and safety and will set our country back decades, and lifting up the voices of HHS employees who were fired for no reason and through no fault of their own.
    In particular, Senator Murray has been leading the charge against the Trump administration’s efforts to gut lifesaving research at NIH and pushed out nearly 5,000 NIH skilled scientists, grants administrators, and other employees at the agency. When the Trump administration attempted to illegally cap indirect cost rates at 15 percent, Senator Murray immediately and forcefully condemned the move, led the entire Senate Democratic caucus in a letter decrying the proposed change, and introduced amendments to Senate Republicans’ budget resolution to reverse it, which Republicans blocked. Murray has led Congressional efforts to boost biomedical research. Previously, over her years as Chair of the Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee, Senator Murray secured billions of dollars in increases for biomedical research at NIH, and during her time as Chair of the HELP Committee she established the new ARPA-H research agency as part of her PREVENT Pandemics Act to advance some of the most cutting-edge research in the field. Senator Murray was also the lead Democratic negotiator of the bipartisan 21st Century Cures Act, which delivered a major federal investment to boost NIH research, among many other investments. 
    Senator Murray forcefully opposed the nomination of notorious anti-vaccine activist RFK Jr. to be Secretary of HHS, and she has long worked to combat vaccine skepticism and highlight the importance of scientific research and vaccines. Murray was also a leading voice against the nomination of Dr. Dave Weldon to lead CDC, repeatedly speaking up about her serious concerns with the nominee immediately after their meeting. In 2019, Senator Murray co-led a bipartisan hearing in the HELP Committee on vaccine hesitancy and spoke about the importance of addressing vaccine skepticism and getting people the facts they need to keep their families and communities safe and healthy. Ahead of the 2019 hearing, as multiple states were facing measles outbreaks in under-vaccinated areas, Murray sent a bipartisan letter with former HELP Committee Chair Lamar Alexander pressing Trump’s CDC Director and HHS Assistant Secretary for Health on their efforts to promote vaccination and vaccine confidence.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Murray, Cantwell, Baldwin, Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Hold Press Conference Slamming Republican Effort to Defund Planned Parenthood, Pass Largest-Ever Cut to Medicaid

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Washington State Patty Murray
    ICYMI: Senator Murray Statement on House Republicans’ Bill to Defund Planned Parenthood, Slash Medicaid
    KFF Explainer: How Will the 2025 Budget Reconciliation Affect the ACA, Medicaid, and the Uninsured Rate?
    ***WATCH PRESS CONFERENCE HERE***
    Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senators Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, Maria Cantwell (D-WA), and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) joined Planned Parenthood Action Fund President Alexis McGill Johnson and Planned Parenthood advocates in holding a press conference on the Republicans’ partisan reconciliation bill that includes provisions to “defund” Planned Parenthood and make the largest-ever cut to Medicaid in history.
    Republicans’ reconciliation bill, which only requires a simple majority to pass in each chamber of Congress, would result in at least 13.7 million people losing health insurance by 2034, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO)—this figure is a result of Republican cuts to Medicaid combined with Republicans’ refusal to extend Affordable Care Act tax credits and the Trump administration’s sabotage of the ACA marketplace. CBO estimates that the provision in House Republicans’ legislation defunding Planned Parenthood would increase the deficit by $300 million.
    “Republicans are gearing [up] to kick more than 8.6 million people off their health insurance, and while they are moving heaven and earth to extend tax cuts for the richest people on the planet, they are not so much as lifting a finger to save the health plan tax credits for working families—something that will push yet another 4 million people off their insurance… Because the brutal reality is that Republicans are not just taking away people’s health coverage, they also want to shut the doors on one of the biggest health care providers in the country. They want to defund Planned Parenthood,” said Senator Murray.“About three in four people say they oppose defunding Planned Parenthood health centers. But Republicans do not care—they need to appease their far-right, anti-choice fringe. Now this is going to hurt their own constituents, seeing as one in three women have been to a Planned Parenthood health center for care. But Republicans don’t care—after all, billionaire tax cuts won’t pay for themselves! Although the irony is, in this case, defunding Planned Parenthood would actually cost our country more money in the long term. CBO estimated yesterday that one provision in House Republicans’ bill would actually increase the deficit by $300 million dollars! And, defunding Planned Parenthood will cut off millions of patients from basic health care like cancer screenings, pap tests, birth control. But Republicans just don’t care—whatever Donald Trump wants, comes first for them. Well, I want everyone to know, Democrats do care. And we are not going to let Republicans blow past all the warning signs. Saving people’s access to basic health care—saving Planned Parenthood—is just too important.”
    One in three women have been to a Planned Parenthood health center for care and for many people, Planned Parenthood health centers are their only source of health care. Planned Parenthood is more popular than any elected official or party, and nearly three-quarters of voters, including more than half of Trump voters, oppose Congress taking away funds from Planned Parenthood health centers for providing birth control, wellness exams, and cancer screenings.
    “Make no mistake: The House’s reconciliation bill is targeting Planned Parenthood. By moving full steam ahead to push a dangerously unpopular agenda, House Republicans have shown they aren’t concerned about their constituents or cutting costs. This effort to ‘defund’ Planned Parenthood will threaten Americans’ health and futures, and leave a gap in care no other provider can fill. We cannot allow these lawmakers to play politics with health care. Planned Parenthood Action Fund is showing up every day with reproductive freedom champions like Sen. Patty Murray until we defeat this outrageous attack,” said Alexis McGill Johnson, President, Planned Parenthood Action Fund.
    “In the State of Washington, Planned Parenthood serves about 100,000 patients annually. So that just tells you, where are those 100,000 people going to go if you don’t have Medicaid as a reimbursement mechanism? About half of those patients rely on Medicaid,” Senator Cantwell said. “Small communities like Pullman, Washington, and other parts of Eastern Washington — where there are no other choices to deliver this kind of care — you’re asking people then to either do without care that might tell us something about a very pressing health care condition, or make you have to give up job time, or drive miles and miles and miles and miles, just to get the care you deserve.”
    “Plain and simple: Republicans are putting health care further out of reach for Americans, all because they need to give tax handouts to their rich friends. Planned Parenthood is a health care provider – they do cancer screenings, regular checkups, and so much more, but Republicans refuse to accept that and would rather try to score political points, so they are going to take that essential health care away from American families. It’s wrong and we are going to fight it,” said Senator Baldwin.
    Senator Murray is a longtime leader in the fight to protect and expand access to reproductive health care and abortion rights and is widely credited with holding the line against any budget deal that would cut funding for Planned Parenthood in 2011 and leading the fight to uphold President Obama’s policy requiring insurers to cover birth control as part of the Affordable Care Act. Murray has led Congressional efforts to fight back after the Supreme Court’s disastrous decision overturning Roe v. Wade, introducing more than a dozen pieces of legislation to protect reproductive rights from further attacks, protect providers, and help ensure women get the care they need; Murray has led efforts to push for passage of these bills on the floor multiple times. Last year, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, Murray led her colleagues in hosting a “State of Abortion Rights” briefing with women who have suffered firsthand from Republican abortion bans, and last June, she chaired a HELP Committee hearing titled “The Assault on Women’s Freedoms: How Abortion Bans Have Created a Health Care Nightmare Across America.” Murray helped lead efforts to force Republicans on the record on votes to protect access to contraception and access to IVF (twice), and led her colleagues in raising the alarm about the threat a second Trump administration poses to reproductive rights and abortion access in every state, as outlined in Project 2025.
    Senator Murray’s remarks, as delivered, are below and HERE:
    “Well, thank you all so much for joining us. We are here to raise the alarm as Republicans are now moving heaven and earth to gut health care in this country.
    “You know the saying ‘women and children first?’ Well for Republicans, billionaires go first—and women and children go overboard.
    “That’s essentially the principle they are writing into their reconciliation bill right now.
    “Despite all the warnings from families across the country—despite warnings from themselves, Republicans are gearing [up] to kick more than 8.6 million people off their health insurance.
    “And while they are moving heaven and earth to extend tax cuts for the richest people on the planet, they are not so much as lifting a finger to save the health plan tax credits for working families, something that will push yet another 4 million people off their insurance.
    “But it gets worse—much worse—and that’s what I want to remind everyone here today now.
    “Because the brutal reality is that Republicans are not just taking away people’s health coverage, they also want to shut the doors on one of the biggest health care providers in our country.
    “They want to defund Planned Parenthood.
    “That is wildly unpopular—about three in four people say they oppose defunding Planned Parenthood health centers. But Republicans do not care—they need to appease their far-right, anti-choice fringe.
    “Now this is going to hurt their own constituents, seeing as one in three women have been to a Planned Parenthood health center for care. But Republicans don’t care—after all, billionaire tax cuts won’t pay for themselves!
    “Although the irony is, in this case, defunding Planned Parenthood would actually cost our country more money in the long term. CBO estimated yesterday that one provision in House Republicans’ bill would actually increase the deficit by $300 million dollars!
    “And, defunding Planned Parenthood will cut off millions of patients from basic health care like cancer screenings, pap tests, birth control. But Republicans just don’t care—whatever Donald Trump wants, comes first.
    “Well I want everyone to know, Democrats do care. And we are not going to let Republicans blow past all the warning signs. Saving people’s access to basic health care—saving Planned Parenthood—is just too important.
    “We don’t have to guess at the stakes here—we already know from experience. We have seen exactly what has happened when Republican states have defunded Planned Parenthood: health care outcomes—worse, fewer patients receive care.
    “The fact of the matter is, if Republicans get their way—if they succeed in shutting the doors of Planned Parenthood clinics across the country—millions of women will have nowhere else to turn.
    “After all, two-thirds of Planned Parenthood health centers are in rural and medically underserved areas—places where there’s already a shortage of clinics and health care professionals. And for a lot of these patients, Planned Parenthood is literally the only provider in reach and in budget. They literally can’t afford to lose this care.
    “So, we are not going to stand by as Republicans try to cut off this lifeline, just so they can cut a massive check to billionaires like Trump and Elon Musk.
    “We are here today to put a bright and burning spotlight on the full extent of the destruction Republicans are planning. And to lift up the voices Republicans are most afraid of—the patients who they are trying to cut off from health care.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Following Grassley Oversight, CMS Takes Action on Rural Hospital Demonstration Program

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator for Iowa Chuck Grassley
    WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) welcomed an action by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to fill 10 available spaces in its Rural Community Hospital Demonstration (RCHD) program. Citing the program’s efficacy and qualifying hospitals’ interest, Grassley has spent years pushing CMS to open RCHD applications and fill empty slots.  
    At a Senate Finance Committee nomination hearing in March, Grassley pressed Dr. Mehmet Oz, then-nominee to be CMS Administrator, to protect and support access to rural health care, including a specific request to fill RCHD slots. 
    “I’m glad to see CMS fill these slots and give more rural hospitals a chance to thrive. Through this program, rural hospitals will have a better opportunity to keep their doors open and continue providing needed services for their local communities. This fight is not over, and Congress must continue pushing to support rural health care in America,” Grassley said. 
    Background:
    The RCHD program boosts financial viability for rural hospitals that are too large to be Critical Access Hospitals and too small to benefit from Medicare’s hospital inpatient prospective payment system. Congress created the RCHD in 2003 and has reauthorized it three times. Currently, there are four Iowa hospitals participating in RCHD.
    Grassley’s Continued Advocacy:
    In 2023, Grassley secured a commitment from then-Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra that his agency would “do more” to support struggling rural hospitals. Grassley followed up by urging CMS to open RCHD spots. At Grassley’s request, CMS spoke with Iowa facilities looking to participate in the RCHD program. 
    However, after months of inaction by the Biden administration, Grassley questioned Secretary Becerra about his failure to fill program openings and penned a letter with Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) reminding CMS it should be wielding every tool available to help rural hospitals. 
    -30-

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI: Aterian Reports 2025 First Quarter Financial Results

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    SUMMIT, N.J., May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Aterian, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATER) (“Aterian” or the “Company”), a consumer products company, today announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2025 (“Q1 2025”). The Company also provided an update on a series of initiatives that are underway to mitigate the impact of tariffs on the Company’s performance, including the commencement of a cost optimization plan designed to produce annual savings of approximately $5 – $6 million.

    “While tariffs did not have a direct impact on our first quarter results, the uncertainty in the broader macroeconomic environment led to some softness in consumer demand,” said Arturo Rodriguez, Chief Executive Officer. “That said, sales seasonality remained consistent with prior years, and we continued to see solid performance across our core products.”

    First Quarter 2025 Highlights
    All comparisons are to the first quarter ended March 31, 2024 (“Q1 2024”)

    • Net revenue was $15.4 million compared to $20.2 million, primarily reflecting the previously announced SKU rationalization designed to focus on the Company’s most profitable products and changes to Amazon’s affiliate market program leading to reduced traffic and conversions for certain products.
    • Gross margin was 61.4% compared to 65.1%, reflecting a change in product mix.
    • Contribution margin decreased to 13.4% from 14.1%.
    • Operating loss narrowed to $(3.7) million from an operating loss of $(5.3) million. Q1 2025 operating loss included $(0.8) million of non-cash stock compensation, while Q1 2024 operating loss included $(1.7) million of non-cash stock compensation, and restructuring costs of $(0.6) million.
    • Net loss improved to $(3.9) million from $(5.2) million. Q1 2025 net loss included ($0.8) million of non-cash stock compensation and a gain on fair value of warrant liability of $0.1 million, while Q1 2024 net loss included ($1.7) million of non-cash stock compensation, restructuring costs of $(0.6) million, and a gain on fair value of warrant liability of $0.5 million.
    • Adjusted EBITDA loss was $(2.5) million compared to a loss of $(2.6) million.
    • Total cash balance at March 31, 2025 declined to $14.3 million from $18.0 million at December 31, 2024.

    Tariff Mitigation Initiatives and Cost Optimization Plan

    Mr. Rodriguez continued, “The uncertainty created by tariffs and broader macroeconomic conditions has energized our team to manage those elements of Aterian’s business that are within our control, including: 1) reducing fixed costs; 2) accelerating our plan of re-sourcing and diversifying our manufacturing; 3) hastening our advance towards a more resilient business model by deepening our expansion into consumables, the majority of which will be US-manufactured; and 4) strategically raising prices.”

    “The actions we are taking will allow us to maintain an acceptable level of revenue during this transition period, conserve cash, preserve margin, maximize cash flow, and optimize our cost structure, all while maintaining the high level of innovation and customer service that has defined our company. This is a significant undertaking; however, we believe that these initiatives will mitigate the effects of tariffs on our results in 2025 and position Aterian to pivot towards a return to growth and profitability beyond 2025, even under prolonged tariff pressure.”

    Tariff Response

    • Accelerated product re-sourcing and diversification initiatives to regions with more favorable cost and tariff structures.
    • Established a new goal of manufacturing no more than 30% of goods from China by the end of 2025 compared to a previously stated objective to reduce manufacturing in China to less than 40% by the second half of 2026.
    • Implemented strategic pricing increases across our product portfolio.
    • Remained on track for the late Q3 2025 launch of our Squatty Potty flushable wipes. We are redoubling our efforts to launch a portfolio of new tariff-exempt US-sourced consumable products in 2025, including additional wipe-based products.
    • Paused new product category launches originating in Asia, specifically our hard electronic goods.
    • Implemented supply chain and inventory changes, including partnering with our manufacturers to find cost savings, renegotiating price and delivery timelines, and accelerating expansion into non-US territories to mitigate the impact of tariffs and redirect a portion of our previously produced China inventory.

    Cost Optimization Plan

    These initiatives include emphasizing targeted workforce reductions and vendor savings. The plan is expected to generate $5-$6 million of pre-tax cost savings, $5 million of which is expected to be realized by the end of 2025 with the balance realized in 2026. The Company currently estimates that it will incur approximately $2.3 million in total costs associated with the plan.

    Guidance Commentary

    Josh Feldman, Chief Financial Officer, commented, “The current economic landscape is marked by significant uncertainty, and the rapidly changing market conditions make it challenging to predict future developments. Because of that, we are withdrawing our previously issued net revenue and Adjusted EBITDA guidance for 2025. However, we do believe that the steps underway will soften the impact of tariffs and their related costs for much of 2025. We will continue to evaluate our ability to provide guidance as the year progresses.”

    Webcast and Conference Call Information

    Aterian will host a live conference call to discuss financial results today, May 14, 2025, at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time, which will be accessible by telephone and the internet. Investors interested in participating in the live call can dial:

    • (800) 715-9871 (Domestic)
    • (646) 307-1963 (International)
      Passcode: 1616427

    Participants may also access the call through a live webcast at https://ir.aterian.io. The archived online replay will be available for a limited time after the call in the investors section of the Aterian corporate website.

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures
    For more information on our non-GAAP financial measures and a reconciliation of GAAP to non-GAAP measures, please see the “Non-GAAP Financial Measures” section below. The most directly comparable GAAP financial measure for EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA is net loss and we are reporting a net loss for the quarter ending March 31, 2025 due primarily to our operating losses, which includes stock-based compensation expense, and interest expense. We are unable to reconcile the forward-looking statements of EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA in this press release to their nearest GAAP measures because the nearest GAAP financial measures are not accessible on a forward-looking basis and reconciling information is not available without unreasonable effort.

    About Aterian, Inc.
    Aterian, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATER) is a consumer products company that builds and acquires leading e-commerce brands with top-selling consumer products, in multiple categories, including home and kitchen appliances, health and wellness and air quality devices. The Company sells across the world’s largest online marketplaces with a focus on Amazon, Walmart and Target in the U.S. and on its own direct to consumer websites. Our primary brands include Squatty Potty, hOmeLabs, Mueller Living, PurSteam, Healing Solutions and Photo Paper Direct.

    Forward Looking Statements
    All statements other than statements of historical facts included in this press release that address activities, events or developments that we expect, believe or anticipate will or may occur in the future are forward-looking statements including, in particular, the statements regarding our ability to successfully implement our tariff mitigation and cost optimization plans, and the current global environment and inflation and our ability to return to growth and profitability beyond 2025, even under prolonged tariff pressure. These forward-looking statements are based on management’s current expectations and beliefs and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and other factors, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control and could cause actual results to differ materially and adversely from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks include, but are not limited to, those related to our ability to continue as a going concern, the effect of tariffs and other costs on our results, our ability to continue to operate following our reduction in workforce, our ability to meet financial covenants with our lenders, our ability to maintain and to grow market share in existing and new product categories; our ability to continue to profitably sell the SKUs we operate; our ability to maintain Amazon’s Prime badge on our seller accounts or reinstate the Prime badge in the event of any removal of such badge by Amazon; our ability to create operating leverage and efficiency when integrating companies that we acquire, including through the use of our team’s expertise, the economies of scale of our supply chain and automation driven by our platform; those related to our ability to grow internationally and through the launch of products under our brands and the acquisition of additional brands; those related to consumer demand, our cash flows, financial condition, forecasting and revenue growth rate; our supply chain including sourcing, manufacturing, warehousing and fulfillment; our ability to manage expenses, working capital and capital expenditures efficiently; our business model and our technology platform; our ability to disrupt the consumer products industry; our ability to generate profitability and stockholder value; international tariffs and trade measures; inventory management, product liability claims, recalls or other safety and regulatory concerns; reliance on third party online marketplaces; seasonal and quarterly variations in our revenue; acquisitions of other companies and technologies and our ability to integrate such companies and technologies with our business; our ability to continue to access debt and equity capital (including on terms advantageous to the Company) and the extent of our leverage; and other factors discussed in the “Risk Factors” section of our most recent periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), all of which you may obtain for free on the SEC’s website at www.sec.gov.

    Although we believe that the expectations reflected in our forward-looking statements are reasonable, we do not know whether our expectations will prove correct. You are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof, even if subsequently made available by us on our website or otherwise. We do not undertake any obligation to update, amend or clarify these forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws.

    Investor Contact:

    The Equity Group

    Devin Sullivan
    Managing Director
    dsullivan@equityny.com

    Conor Rodriguez
    Associate
    crodriguez@equityny.com

           
    ATERIAN, INC.
    Consolidated Balance Sheets
    (in thousands, except share and per share data)
           
      December 31,
    2024    		   March 31,
    2025
    ASSETS      
    Current assets:      
    Cash $ 17,998     $ 14,337  
    Accounts receivable, net   3,782       3,391  
    Inventory   13,749       18,144  
    Prepaid and other current assets   3,190       3,512  
    Total current assets   38,719       39,384  
    Property and equipment, net   685       689  
    Intangibles, net   9,757       9,366  
    Other non-current assets   381       379  
    Total assets $ 49,542     $ 49,818  
    LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY      
    Current liabilities:      
    Credit facility $ 6,948     $ 7,511  
    Accounts payable   3,080       6,164  
    Seller notes   466       471  
    Accrued and other current liabilities   8,804       8,404  
    Total current liabilities   19,298       22,550  
    Other liabilities   227       229  
    Total liabilities   19,525       22,779  
    Commitments and contingencies      
    Stockholders’ equity:      
    Common stock, $0.0001 par value, 500,000,000 shares authorized and 8,750,741 and 8,748,741 shares outstanding at December 31, 2024 and March 31, 2025, respectively   9       9  
    Additional paid-in capital   742,591       743,374  
    Accumulated deficit   (711,677 )     (715,573 )
    Accumulated other comprehensive loss   (906 )     (771 )
    Total stockholders’ equity   30,017       27,039  
    Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity $ 49,542     $ 49,818  
                   
       
    ATERIAN, INC. 
    Consolidated Statements of Operations 
    (in thousands, except share and per share data) 
       
      Three Months Ended March 31,
        2024       2025  
    Net revenue $ 20,214     $ 15,360  
    Cost of goods sold   7,046       5,936  
    Gross profit   13,168       9,424  
    Operating expenses:      
    Sales and distribution   13,214       9,661  
    General and administrative   5,232       3,459  
    Total operating expenses   18,446       13,120  
    Operating loss   (5,278 )     (3,696 )
    Interest expense, net   323       175  
    Change in fair value of warrant liabilities   (517 )     (55 )
    Other expense, net   7       60  
    Loss before provision for income taxes   (5,091 )     (3,876 )
    Provision for income taxes   71       20  
    Net loss $ (5,162 )   $ (3,896 )
    Net loss per share, basic and diluted $ (0.76 )   $ (0.52 )
    Weighted-average number of shares outstanding, basic and diluted   6,789,955       7,452,957  
                   
       
    ATERIAN, INC. 
    Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows 
    (in thousands, except share and per share data)
       
      Three Months Ended March 31,
        2024       2025  
    OPERATING ACTIVITIES:      
    Net loss $ (5,162 )   $ (3,896 )
    Adjustments to reconcile net loss to net cash used in operating activities:      
    Depreciation and amortization   428       408  
    Provision for sales returns   64       (72 )
    Amortization of deferred financing cost and debt discounts   83       37  
    Stock-based compensation   1,667       783  
    Change in deferred tax expense   (5 )     —  
    Change in inventory provisions   (976 )     86  
    Change in fair value of warrant liabilities   (517 )     (55 )
    Allowance for credit losses   —       (147 )
    Changes in assets and liabilities:      
    Accounts receivable   1,843       538  
    Inventory   2,846       (4,481 )
    Prepaid and other current assets   249       33  
    Accounts payable, accrued and other liabilities   (526 )     2,898  
    Cash used in operating activities   (6 )     (3,868 )
    INVESTING ACTIVITIES:      
    Purchase of fixed assets   (36 )     —  
    Purchase of minority equity investment   (200 )     —  
    Cash used in investing activities   (236 )     —  
    FINANCING ACTIVITIES:      
    Repayments on seller notes   (153 )     —  
    Borrowings from MidCap credit facilities   11,453       10,296  
    Repayments for MidCap credit facilities   (13,244 )     (9,777 )
    Insurance obligation payments   (254 )     (235 )
    Insurance financing proceeds   —       156  
    Cash provided by (used in) financing activities   (2,198 )     440  
    Foreign currency effect on cash and restricted cash   (49 )     123  
    Net change in cash and restricted cash for the year   (2,489 )     (3,305 )
    Cash and restricted cash at beginning of year   22,195       19,143  
    Cash and restricted cash at end of year $ 19,706     $ 15,838  
    RECONCILIATION OF CASH AND RESTRICTED CASH:      
    Cash   17,545       14,337  
    Restricted Cash—Prepaid and other current assets   2,032       1,372  
    Restricted cash—Other non-current assets   129       129  
    TOTAL CASH AND RESTRICTED CASH $ 19,706     $ 15,838  
           
    SUPPLEMENTAL DISCLOSURES OF CASH FLOW INFORMATION      
    Cash paid for interest $ 402     $ 200  
    Cash paid for taxes $ 3     $ 5  
    NON-CASH INVESTING AND FINANCING ACTIVITIES:      
    Non-cash consideration paid to contractors $ 620     $ —  
    Non-cash minority equity investment $ 50     $ —  
                   

    Non-GAAP Financial Measures

    We believe that our financial statements and the other financial data included in this press release have been prepared in a manner that complies, in all material respects, with generally accepted accounting principles in the U.S. (“GAAP”). However, for the reasons discussed below, we have presented certain non-GAAP measures herein.

    We have presented the following non-GAAP measures to assist investors in understanding our core net operating results on an on-going basis: (i) Contribution Margin; (ii) Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue; (iii) EBITDA (iv) Adjusted EBITDA; and (v) Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue. These non-GAAP financial measures may also assist investors in making comparisons of our core operating results with those of other companies.

    As used herein, Contribution margin represents gross profit less amortization of inventory step-up from acquisitions (included in cost of goods sold) and e-commerce platform commissions, online advertising, selling and logistics expenses (included in sales and distribution expenses). As used herein, Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue represents Contribution margin divided by net revenue. As used herein, EBITDA represents net loss plus depreciation and amortization, interest expense, net and provision for income taxes. As used herein, Adjusted EBITDA represents EBITDA plus stock-based compensation expense, changes in fair-market value of warrant liability, restructuring expenses, and other expenses, net. As used herein, Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue represents Adjusted EBITDA divided by net revenue. Contribution margin, EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA do not represent and should not be considered as alternatives to loss from operations or net loss, as determined under GAAP.

    We present Contribution margin and Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue, as we believe each of these measures provides an additional metric to evaluate our operations and, when considered with both our GAAP results and the reconciliation to gross profit, provides useful supplemental information for investors. Specifically, Contribution margin and Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue are two of our key metrics in running our business. All product decisions made by us, from the approval of launching a new product and to the liquidation of a product at the end of its life cycle, are measured primarily from Contribution margin and/or Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue. Further, we believe these measures provide improved transparency to our stockholders to determine the performance of our products prior to fixed costs as opposed to referencing gross profit alone.

    In the reconciliation to calculate contribution margin, we add e-commerce platform commissions, online advertising, selling and logistics expenses (“sales and distribution variable expense”) to gross profit to inform users of our financial statements of what our product profitability is at each period prior to fixed costs (such as sales and distribution expenses such as salaries as well as research and development expenses and general administrative expenses). By excluding these fixed costs, we believe this allows users of our financial statements to understand our products performance and allows them to measure our products performance over time.

    We present EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue because we believe each of these measures provides an additional metric to evaluate our operations and, when considered with both our GAAP results and the reconciliation to net loss, provide useful supplemental information for investors. We use these measures with financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, such as sales and gross margins, to assess our historical and prospective operating performance, to provide meaningful comparisons of operating performance across periods, to enhance our understanding of our operating performance and to compare our performance to that of our peers and competitors. We believe EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue are useful to investors in assessing the operating performance of our business without the effect of non-cash items.

    Contribution margin, Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue should not be considered in isolation or as alternatives to net loss, loss from operations or any other measure of financial performance calculated and prescribed in accordance with GAAP. Neither EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA or Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue should be considered a measure of discretionary cash available to us to invest in the growth of our business. Our Contribution margin, Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue may not be comparable to similar titled measures in other organizations because other organizations may not calculate Contribution margin, Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue, EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA or Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue in the same manner as we do. Our presentation of Contribution margin and Adjusted EBITDA should not be construed as an inference that our future results will be unaffected by the expenses that are excluded from such terms or by unusual or non-recurring items.

    We recognize that EBITDA, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue, have limitations as analytical financial measures. For example, neither EBITDA nor Adjusted EBITDA reflects:

    • our capital expenditures or future requirements for capital expenditures or mergers and acquisitions;
    • the interest expense or the cash requirements necessary to service interest expense or principal payments, associated with indebtedness;
    • depreciation and amortization, which are non-cash charges, although the assets being depreciated and amortized will likely have to be replaced in the future, or any cash requirements for the replacement of assets;
    • changes in cash requirements for our working capital needs; or
    • changes in fair value of warrant liabilities

    Additionally, Adjusted EBITDA excludes non-cash expense for stock-based compensation, which is and is expected to remain a key element of our overall long-term incentive compensation package.

    We also recognize that Contribution margin and Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue have limitations as analytical financial measures. For example, Contribution margin does not reflect:

    • general and administrative expense necessary to operate our business;
    • research and development expenses necessary for the development, operation and support of our software platform;
    • the fixed costs portion of our sales and distribution expenses including stock-based compensation expense; or
    • changes in fair value warrant liabilities

    Contribution Margin

    The following table provides a reconciliation of Contribution margin to gross profit and Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue to gross profit as a percentage of net revenue, which are the most directly comparable financial measures presented in accordance with GAAP.

       
      Three Months Ended March 31,
        2024       2025  
      (in thousands, except percentages)
    Gross Profit $ 13,168     $ 9,424  
    Less:      
    E-commerce platform commissions, online advertising, selling and logistics expenses   (10,320 )     (7,373 )
    Contribution margin $ 2,848     $ 2,051  
    Gross Profit as a percentage of net revenue   65.1 %     61.4 %
    Contribution margin as a percentage of net revenue   14.1 %     13.4 %
                   

    Adjusted EBITDA

    The following table provides a reconciliation of EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA to net loss, which is the most directly comparable financial measure presented in accordance with GAAP:

       
      Three Months Ended March 31,
        2024       2025  
      (in thousands, except percentages)
    Net loss $ (5,162 )   $ (3,896 )
    Add:      
    Provision for income taxes   71       20  
    Interest expense, net   323       175  
    Depreciation and amortization   428       408  
    EBITDA   (4,340 )     (3,293 )
    Other expense, net   7       60  
    Change in fair market value of warrant liabilities   (517 )     (55 )
    Restructuring expense   558       —  
    Stock-based compensation expense   1,667       783  
    Adjusted EBITDA $ (2,625 )   $ (2,505 )
    Net loss as a percentage of net revenue   (25.5 )%     (25.4 )%
    Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of net revenue   (13.0 )%     (16.3 )%
                   

    Each of our products typically goes through the Launch phase and depending on its level of success is moved to one of the other phases as further described below:

    1. Launch phase: During this phase, we leverage our technology to target opportunities identified using AIMEE (Artificial Intelligence Marketplace e-Commerce Engine) and other sources. This phase also includes revenue from new product variations and relaunches. During this period of time, due to the combination of discounts and investment in marketing, our net margin for a product could be as low as approximately negative 35%. Net margin is calculated by taking net revenue less the cost of goods sold, less fulfillment, online advertising and selling expenses. These primarily reflect the estimated variable costs related to the sale of a product.
    2. Sustain phase: Our goal is for every product we launch to enter the sustain phase and become profitable, with a target of positive 15% net margin for most products, within approximately three months of launch on average. Net margin primarily reflects a combination of manual and automated adjustments in price and marketing spend.
    3. Liquidate phase: If a product does not enter the sustain phase or if the customer satisfaction of the product (i.e., ratings) is not satisfactory, then it will go to the liquidate phase and we will sell through the remaining inventory. Products can also be liquidated as part of inventory normalization especially when steep discounts are required.

    The following tables break out our first quarter of 2024 and 2025 results of operations by our product phases (in thousands):

       
      Three months ended March 31, 2024
      Sustain   Launch   Liquidation/
    Other    		   Fixed Costs   Stock Based
    Compensation    		   Total
    Net revenue $ 18,200   $ 408   $ 1,606   $ —   $ —   $ 20,214
    Cost of goods sold   6,449     125     472     —     —     7,046
    Gross profit   11,751     283     1,134     —     —     13,168
    Operating expenses:                      
    Sales and distribution expenses   8,833     232     1,255     2,595     299     13,214
    General and administrative   —     —     —     3,864     1,368     5,232
                           
      Three months ended March 31, 2025
      Sustain   Launch   Liquidation/
    Other    		   Fixed Costs   Stock Based
    Compensation    		   Total
    Net revenue $ 14,638   $ 386   $ 336   $ —   $ —   $ 15,360
    Cost of goods sold   5,499     241     196     —     —     5,936
    Gross profit   9,139     145     140     —     —     9,424
    Operating expenses:                      
    Sales and distribution expenses   6,879     268     326     1,996     192     9,661
    General and administrative   —     —     —     2,868     591     3,459
                                       

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI: Investview, Inc. (“INVU”) Reports Financial Results and Current Operational and Financial Highlights for the First Quarter Ended March 31, 2025

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Haverford, PA, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Investview, Inc. (OTCQB: INVU), a diversified financial technology services company that offers multiple business units across key sectors, including a financial education division offering tools, products and content through a global network of independent distributors; a manufacturing division focused on proprietary aesthetics, health, nutrition, & cognitive wellness products for wholesale and retail markets, with strategic plans for global expansion; an early-stage online trading platform that intends to offer self-directed retail brokerage services; and a business unit that owns and operates a sustainable blockchain business focused on bitcoin mining, today reported its first quarter 2025 financial results and shared highlights of key operational progress, strategic milestones, and forward-focused initiatives.

    Summary Consolidated Financial Highlights:

    Results of Operations-Three Months Ended March 31, 2025 vs March 31, 2024

    • Gross Revenue (a Non-GAAP measure) decreased 35.3% to $10.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to $16.5 million for the comparable prior year period.
    • Net Revenue decreased 36.0% to $10.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to $15.7 million for the comparable prior year period.
    • Net cash used in operating activities was ($3.4) million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to net cash provided by operating activities of $4.8 million for the comparable prior year period.
    • Net income from operations decreased 122.1% to ($0.4) million for the three months ended March 31, 2025, compared to net income from operations of $1.9 million for the comparable prior year period.

    Balance Sheet Data – March 31, 2025 vs December 31, 2024

    • Cash and cash equivalents at March 31, 2025 was $17.5 million, down $5.0 million or 22.1% from $22.5 million at December 31, 2024. The decrease was mainly attributable to a deposit to secure a writ of attachment order of $1.9 million in favor of the Company, an increase in bitcoin holdings of $0.5 million, an increase in prepaid assets of $0.8 million, purchases of inventory and manufacturing equipment of $0.7 million, and payments made under an agreement for the purchase of our common shares in a private transaction of $0.8 million.
    • Total assets decreased by $1.6 million or 5.2% to $29.9 million. Total liabilities decreased by $1.2 million or 8.7% to $13.1 million. Our current ratio remains strong at 2.29 as of March 31, 2025.
    • Working capital balance decreased by 6.1% at March 31, 2025, a decrease of $0.9 million from December 31, 2024.
    • Outstanding debt increased by $0.1 million to $3.3 million at March 31, 2025, up from $3.2 million at December 31, 2024.
    • Total stockholders’ equity at March 31, 2025 was $16.8 million, a decrease of $0.4 million, or 2.2%, from $17.2 million at December 31, 2024.

    Comments on our industry segments and business units

    Financial Education and Technology Segment

    iGenius net revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was $8.8 million, a decrease of $4.2 million or 32.5% over the comparable period in 2024. The decrease was largely attributable to a combination of shifts in consumer behavior and demand following the COVID-19 pandemic as individuals reassess their spending priorities, lifestyle choices, and engagement habits. Broader macroeconomic headwinds also contributed to a general slowdown in direct sales and home-based business sectors.

    Despite these challenges, iGenius remains optimistic about its long-term growth trajectory. The company is actively investing in the expansion of its sales network and is focused on broadening its portfolio of products and services. Management is confident that the core direct selling model remains robust and scalable, particularly as it evolves to include offerings beyond financial education.

    As part of its strategic vision, iGenius plans to strengthen its value proposition through the continued development of its myLife Wellness division, which includes health, beauty, and wellness products. These initiatives are expected to enhance engagement across the sales network and drive future growth opportunities.

    Our Blockchain Technology and Crypto Mining Products and Services Segment

    SAFETek net revenue in the first quarter of 2025 was $0.9 million, a decrease of $1.8 million or 67.3% over the comparable period. The decrease in net revenue was primarily driven by the April 2024 Bitcoin halving event, which reduced block rewards by 50%, a more than 3.5% increase in mining network difficulty for the period, and a government-mandated energy curtailment due to low hydroelectric reservoir levels in our host country.

    Despite a highly challenging environment, SAFETek successfully produced 9.12 Bitcoin during the first quarter of 2025. The company navigated the combined impact of tighter block rewards, escalating network difficulty, and energy restrictions, while simultaneously capitalizing on reduced power costs resulting from the curtailment, effectively turning operational adversity into a cost-management initiative that we expect will serve us well over time.

    In 2024, SAFETek proactively executed key strategic initiatives to fortify long-term operational efficiency. These included the retirement of legacy mining hardware, deployment of next-generation ASIC miners, and the consolidation of mining operations—collectively lowering our hash cost and enhancing our competitive position in the global mining landscape. Importantly, we remain debt-free on all equipment purchases and maintain a strong balance sheet that provides the financial flexibility to pursue selective expansion opportunities.

    SAFETek currently holds a reserve of nearly 2,900 mining machines, strategically positioned for deployment in qualified expansion scenarios. While the Bitcoin mining sector continues to evolve amid macroeconomic and protocol-level shifts, our outlook remains cautiously optimistic. We are committed to a disciplined, forward-looking strategy that prioritizes long-term sustainability and prepares us to scale when conditions improve.

    Our Manufacturing and Development of Health, Beauty and Wellness Products Segment

    In October 2024, we entered the over-the-counter health, beauty, and wellness market through our wholly owned subsidiary, myLife Wellness Company (“myLife Wellness”), with the strategic acquisition of Renu Laboratories, Inc. (“Renu Labs”), a contract developer and manufacturer of proprietary and non-proprietary products serving wholesale and retail clients. This acquisition marks a key milestone in our strategy to extend our platform into high-demand consumer verticals, with a growing focus on aesthetics, nutrition, and cognitive wellness.

    Since the acquisition, we have made accelerated investments in Renu Labs’ core capabilities, including upgraded equipment, enhanced production technology, and key talent recruitment, which have resulted in measurable gains in both production output and operational efficiency. Net revenue for the first quarter of 2025 totaled $0.4 million. Encouragingly, net revenue generated to date in the second quarter has already exceeded first-quarter results, signaling continued momentum.

    We are optimistic about Renu’s long-term growth trajectory and are focused on scaling manufacturing capacity while expanding our product portfolio and contract manufacturing (CMO) engagements with qualified partners. These steps are designed to position Renu as a nimble and scalable manufacturer in a market increasingly seeking trusted, innovative wellness product providers.

    As the commercial arm of this initiative, myLife Wellness will serve as both the marketing engine and e-commerce platform for the products developed and manufactured by Renu Labs. The brand’s growing product catalog, centered around aesthetics, health, nutrition, and cognitive wellness, is expected to be distributed through a combination of retail (B2C) and wholesale (B2B) channels.

    In addition to operating as a standalone consumer platform, myLife Wellness will also benefit from strategic collaboration with our iGenius subsidiary, enabling expanded access to retail, wholesale, and direct-to-consumer channels. This partnership is expected to significantly enhance market reach, while creating new revenue opportunities by introducing wellness products to a global member base and established consumer relationships.

    We believe this integrated ecosystem represents a powerful foundation for long-term value creation across the health and wellness space.

    Our Financial Services Initiatives

    In March 2024, we achieved a significant milestone in our fintech growth strategy with the acquisition of Opencash Securities LLC, an early-stage registered broker-dealer. While the platform has not yet commenced commercial operations, this acquisition represents a strategic foundation for building a modern, mobile-first trading experience to-be focused on accessibility, simplicity, and cost-efficiency for retail investors globally.

    Opencash is currently advancing through its final stages of development, including clearing integration, infrastructure buildout, and internal testing, in preparation for its commercial launch. Our goal is to establish Opencash as a low-cost, and commission-free platform offering trading in stocks, ETFs, and options, tailored to meet the expectations of today’s digitally native investor.

    The Opencash initiative is designed to work in tandem with our proprietary MPower Trading Systems – Prodigio trading engine, acquired in 2021. Once fully deployed, we expect to offer two complementary trading solutions under the Opencash brand:

    • Opencash – a streamlined platform for everyday retail investors
    • OpencashPro – a feature-rich platform for advanced traders and active investors

    Together, these platforms are expected to deliver a seamless, data-driven trading experience that integrates intelligent analytics, automation, and user-friendly interfaces, positioning us competitively in the evolving fintech landscape.

    We remain optimistic about the long-term potential of the Opencash platform and are committed to executing a disciplined phased rollout that prioritizes regulatory readiness, technological integrity, and a superior user experience.

    Operational Highlights (Quotes)

    Victor Oviedo, Investview CEO, commented, “during the first quarter of 2025, Investview continued to make strategic progress across its diversified operating segments. In our financial education and direct selling division, iGenius generated $8.8 million in net revenue. While this represented a material contraction in our business compared to the prior-year period, the business remains focused on long-term growth through the planned expansion of its global sales network and the planned integration of health and wellness offerings from myLife Wellness.

    “Our blockchain and crypto mining division, SAFETek, produced 9.12 Bitcoin during the quarter despite facing significant headwinds including the April 2024 halving event, a network difficulty increase of over 3.5%, and a government-mandated energy curtailment. These challenges were met with proactive operational adjustments, including the retirement of legacy hardware and the deployment of next-generation ASIC miners. SAFETek remains debt-free on all equipment purchases and holds a reserve of approximately 2,900 mining machines, preserving flexibility for future expansion.

    “In our health, beauty, and wellness segment, Renu Labs generated $0.4 million in net revenue for the quarter, with revenues to date in Q2 2025 already exceeding first-quarter results. Strategic investments in production technology, equipment, and personnel are expected to lead to continued improvements in output and efficiency. The Company continues to position itself as a nimble and scalable manufacturer serving both proprietary and third-party CMO clients.

    “Our fintech division also advanced with the continued development of Opencash Securities LLC. As a mobile-first platform for low-cost, and commission-free trading of stocks, ETFs, and options, “Opencash is progressing through clearing integration and platform testing in preparation for launch. The platform is expected to work in tandem with our MPower Prodigio trading engine, offering solutions for both retail and advanced traders under the Opencash and OpencashPro brands.

    “Investview ended the quarter with $17.5 million in cash and cash equivalents, $1.7 million in bitcoin, maintained a strong current ratio of 2.29 and had a working capital balance of $14.2 million, reflecting prudent financial management and positioning the company to capitalize on future growth opportunities across its expanding portfolio.”

    About Investview, Inc.

    Investview, Inc., a Nevada corporation, operates a financial technology (FinTech) services company, offering several different lines of business, including a Financial Education and Technology business that delivers a series of products and services involving financial education, digital assets and related technology, through a network of independent distributors; and a Blockchain Technology and Crypto Mining Products and Services business, including leading-edge research, development and FinTech services involving the management of digital asset technologies with a focus on Bitcoin mining and the new generation of digital assets. In addition, we are in the process of creating a Brokerage and Financial Markets business within the investment management and brokerage industries by, among others, commercializing on a proprietary trading platform we acquired in September 2021. For more information on Investview, please visit: www.investview.com.

    About Opencash Securities LLC

    Brokerage services are provided by Opencash Securities LLC, a member of FINRA and SIPC. Options involve risk and are not suitable for all investors. Please review Characteristics and Risks of Standardized Options prior to engaging in options trading. Opencash Securities LLC does not provide investment advice. Please consult with investment, tax, or legal professionals before making any investment decisions. All investments involve risks, including the possible loss of capital. Check the background of this investment professional on BrokerCheck. Opencash Securities LLC is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Investview, Inc.

    Forward-Looking Statement

    All statements in this release that are not based on historical fact are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. Forward-looking statements, which are based on certain assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies, and expectations, can generally be identified by the use of forward-looking terms such as “believe,” “expect,” “may,” “should,” “could,” “seek,” “intend,” “plan,” “goal,” “estimate,” “anticipate” or other comparable terms. These forward-looking statements are based on Investview’s current beliefs and assumptions and information currently available to Investview and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Our forward-looking statements expect that we will be able to expand the scope and scale of our iGenius network, despite the recent material contractions in its business. Our forward-looking statements also expect that we will ultimately be able to develop retail brokerage operations at Opencash, although it is currently in the pre-revenue and early stage of its operations. We plan to do this by, among others, investing the funds we believe are necessary to develop the infrastructure necessary to achieve retail operations. This includes, among others, the on-boarding of customer support personnel and software developers, the development and implementation of a marketing strategy, the securing of necessary securities clearing arrangements, and the continued development of the online Opencash trading platform and completing its integration with the proprietary algorithmic trading platform we acquired in September 2021. Despite our best efforts, there can be no assurance that we will be able to achieve these objectives on a timely basis, if at all, as the development of an early-stage securities brokerage business involves inherent regulatory and operational risks and uncertainties, including the uncertain ability of us to integrate the Opencash investment platform application with the proprietary algorithmic trading platform we acquired in September 2021, particularly as the platform we acquired in 2021 has not been placed in commercial service since 2021; thus, any such integration could be subject to IT-related and commercial risks. More information on potential factors that could affect Investview’s financial results is included from time to time in Investview’s public reports filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and Current Reports on Form 8-K. The forward-looking statements made in this release speak only as of the date of this release, and Investview, Inc. assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements to reflect actual results or changes in expectations, except as otherwise required by law.

    Investor Relations
    Contact: Ralph R. Valvano
    Phone Number: 732.889.4300
    Email: pr@investview.com

    Reconciliation of Gross Revenue to Net Revenue
    (unaudited)

    As used in this report, Gross Revenues are not a measure of financial performance under United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (“GAAP”). Gross Revenues are presented as they are used by management to understand the total revenue before certain items such as refunds, incentives, credits, chargebacks, and amounts paid to third party providers. The non-GAAP Gross Revenue measure is a supplement to the GAAP financial information. A reconciliation between Gross Revenue (non-GAAP) and Net Revenue is presented in the table below.

    Gross Revenue (non-GAAP) to Net Revenue reconciliation for the three months ended March 31, 2025 is as follows:

        Membership
    revenue    		     Mining revenue     Health and wellness product sales     Other Revenue     Total  
    Gross billings/receipts   $ 9,439,857     $ 862,944     $ 368,443     $ 7,344     $ 10,678,588  
    Refunds, incentives, credits, and chargebacks     (648,414 )     –       (122 )     –       (648,536 )
    Net revenue   $ 8,791,443     $ 862,944     $ 368,321     $ 7,344     $ 10,030,052  

    Gross Revenue (non-GAAP) to Net Revenue reconciliation for the three months ended March 31, 2024 is as follows:

        Membership
    Revenue    		     Mining Revenue     Total  
    Gross billings/receipts   $ 13,851,294     $ 2,642,599     $ 16,493,893  
    Refunds, incentives, credits, and chargebacks     (821,976 )     –       (821,976 )
    Net revenue   $ 13,029,318     $ 2,642,599     $ 15,671,917  

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Texas Company Charged with Aiding and Abetting Fraudulent Transactions Related to False Ethanol Sales

    Source: Office of United States Attorneys

    NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA –Today, Acting United States Attorney Michael M. Simpson announced the filing of a bill of information charging Plano, Texas-based MUREX MANAGEMENT, INC. (“MMI”), with aiding and abetting transactions that defrauded financial institutions, including the failed New Orleans-based First NBC Bank.

    According to the bill of information, MMI was the management company of an affiliate that engaged in ethanol marketing and logistics services. Additionally, Company A was the U.S.-based subsidiary of a foreign, publicly traded, company that operated ethanol production plants.

    According to the bill of information, beginning in 2013, Company A and its parent companies began to experience financial stress. In order to ameliorate cash flow issues and to manufacture additional financing for its debts, Company A initiated a strategy called “buy/sells” and targeted MMI to assist in this strategy. Company A’s plan called for both companies to create fictitious invoices purporting to be sales of ethanol between the two companies, which could then be sold as accounts receivable to unwitting buyers via a New Orleans-based online marketplace. This would provide cash flow for Company A and a profit to MMI. The unwitting buyers of these accounts receivable included financial institutions like First NBC Bank.

    The bill of information alleges that, between October 28, 2013 and September 18, 2015, Company A and MMI conducted approximately $1.2 billion in fraudulent “buy/sell” transactions, with MMI making a profit of approximately $6,073,049. Company A eventually defaulted on paying financial institutions for the accounts receivable that had been posted for auction by MMI. The defaulted auctions caused a loss of approximately $73,073,683.05 to First NBC Bank, and a loss of approximately $8,330,427.02 to a North Carolina bank.

    If convicted, MMI faces a maximum fine of $1,000,000.00, or twice the gross gain or twice the gross loss to any victim. It also will be required to pay restitution and a mandatory special assessment fee of $400.00.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson reiterated that the bill of information is merely a charge and that the guilt of the defendant must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.

    Acting U.S. Attorney Simpson praised the work of the FDIC Office of Inspector General, Dallas Field Office, and the Environmental Protection Agency, Criminal Investigation Division, Houston Resident Office, that investigated this matter. Assistant United States Attorneys Matthew R. Payne of the Financial Crimes Unit and Nicholas D. Moses, Health Care Fraud Coordinator, handled this prosecution.

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Doggett, Schakowsky, Warren and Wyden Push Congressional Leadership to Reject Medicaid Cuts, Crack Down on Medicare Advantage Upcoding

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)

    Congressional Republicans’ current plan sets them up to slash hundreds of billions from Medicaid and CHIP; Lawmakers cite bipartisan support for cracking down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare Advantage

    Contact: Alexis.Torres@mail.house.gov

    Washington, D.C. – As Congress considers reconciliation legislation, Representatives Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), along with Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee led their colleagues in writing to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, urging them to crack down on waste, fraud, and abuse in Medicare Advantage (MA) instead of forging ahead with cuts to Medicaid.

    “As Congress considers reconciliation legislation, we urge you to reject cuts to Medicaid, which are deeply unpopular and will rip away health care from millions of Americans,” wrote the lawmakers. “Where there is widespread agreement is the need to address waste, fraud, and abuse by private, for-profit insurance companies. We write to urge you to crack down on the growing threat to the Medicare program known as ‘upcoding.’”

    Upcoding is the practice by which private insurers in Medicare Advantage exaggerate the medical diagnoses of their enrollees to secure higher payments from the federal government. This results in wasteful spending in Medicare, overcharging seniors and taxpayers while adding tens of billions in costs to the federal government. Analysis from the non-partisan Medicare Payment Advisory Committee (MedPAC) found that upcoding is expected to increase Medicare payments to private health insurance companies by an estimated 10 percent, or $40 billion, in 2025.

    This waste, fraud, and abuse has been called out by both Democrats and Republicans. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz even noted that tackling this fraud “is relatively enjoyable to go after, because … we have bipartisan support.” Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) has launched an inquiry into UnitedHealth’s billing practices in Medicare Advantage, and Senator Bill Cassidy (R-LA) supports the No UPCODE Act, which would ban some of the most aggressive forms of upcoding by private insurers in the program.

    “The Wall Street Journal, MedPAC, Administrator Oz, and Congressional Republicans all seem to agree: wasteful spending in MA, driven by abusive upcoding practices, are a ‘more rational’  route to securing health care savings that will benefit the Medicare program and taxpayers,” continued the lawmakers. “Your directive to cut federal health care spending should come from reducing waste, fraud, and abuse like upcoding by for-profit insurance companies, not by cutting health care benefits for American families who rely on Medicaid to make ends meet.”

    Nevertheless, Congressional Republicans are forging ahead with plans to slash hundreds of billions of dollars from Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)  – which will put health and livelihoods at risk for the nearly 80 million Americans, including 37 million children, eight million people with disabilities, and seven million seniors covered by these programs

    “If there is no course correction that protects Medicaid, tens of millions of Americans will be kicked off their health care,” wrote the lawmakers. “We urge you instead to listen to Administrator Oz and tackle real fraud, waste, and abuse by private, for-profit health insurers in MA.”

    The letters were also signed by Representatives Hank Johnson (D-Ga.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), Joaquin Castro (D-Texas), Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Nydia Velazquez (D-N.Y.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Al Green (D-Texas), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Eleanor Homes Norton (D-D.C.), Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), Mark Takano (D-Calif.), Danny Davis (D-Ill.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Maxwell Frost (D-Florida), Chuy Garcia (D-Ill.), Sylvia Garcia (D-Texas), Greg Casar (D-Texas), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), Val Hoyle (D-Ore.), Shri Thanedar (D-Mich.), Andre Carson (D-Ind.), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), and Melanie Stansbury (D-N.M.), as well as Senators Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

    The letters have been endorsed by the Center for American Progress, Center for Medicare Advocacy, Families USA, LeadingAge, P Street Project, Protect Our Care, and Public Citizen. 

    The full letter can be read here.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Rep. Doggett’s Reaction to Trump’s Executive Order on Drug Prices

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)

    Contact: Alexis.Torres@mail.house.gov

    Washington, D.C.—Today, U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Ranking Member of the House Ways and Means Health Subcommittee, released the following statement:

    “Rather than changing the law, Trump issues another press release that will offer consumers little or nothing. Begging Big Pharma to show some benevolence to the taxpayers and consumers, whom they continue to price gouge, will do nothing to assure access to affordable medications. As in his first term, Trump keeps talking big about drug prices but fails to accomplish anything. Simply by utilizing his existing authority to lower prices for drugs made possible through taxpayer research investments, as I have repeatedly urged, he could provide genuine relief to millions of Americans. And since Trump has failed to include real drug price relief this week in his ‘one big, beautiful bill,’ he could at least insist that House Republicans stop their continued attempt to weaken or repeal Medicare price negotiations.”

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Security: Director General in Ecuador to Support Nuclear Power Plans, the Galapagos and More

    Source: International Atomic Energy Agency – IAEA

    Alongside energy, the Director General and Foreign Minister Sommerfeld also discussed how IAEA initiatives to promote the benefits of nuclear science are supporting Ecuador’s progress in many key development areas.  

    High on the agenda was cancer care, where IAEA flagship initiative Rays of Hope is increasing  access to radiotherapy in the country. During his trip, Mr Grossi visited Carlos Andrade Marin Hospital where he was pleased to see “how IAEA efforts and local investment in cancer care — including access to radiotherapy — are making a life-changing difference.” 

    Nuclear science is also a powerful tool to boost food security and strengthen food export potential, and the IAEA’s Atoms4Food is helping Ecuador and other countries battle invasive insect pests like Mediterranean Fruit Fly, make banana crops more resilient to disease and map water resources to ensure a sustainable supply. 

    NUTEC Plastics, the IAEA initiative to use nuclear science to monitor and reduce marine plastic pollution, is also of relevance to the coastal country. During his trip, the Director General exchanged on the importance of tackling plastic pollution in valuable ecosystems, such as Antarctica where he recently launched microplastics research, and the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador where the IAEA has helped establish one of the world’s leading laboratories in microplastics. He also met with a range of local partners already working with the IAEA on the archipelago to preserve biodiversity and work for a healthier ocean. 

    MIL Security OSI –

  • MIL-OSI Russia: Released lists shed light on Japanese germ warfare units’ activities in China

    Translation. Region: Russian Federal

    Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –

    Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News

    TOKYO, May 14 (Xinhua) — The National Archives of Japan on Wednesday released lists of personnel of three biological warfare units of the Imperial Japanese Army.

    The documents contain detailed personal information on members of Units 1644, 8604 and 8609, including names, dates of birth, family register details, addresses and assignment details.

    These lists, originally under the control of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, were transferred to the National Archives in March 2024 and were included in the list of documents to be released to the public in March 2025.

    The documents were released at the request of researchers, including renowned bacteriological warfare expert and professor emeritus at the Shiga Prefectural University of Medical Sciences, Katsuo Nishiyama.

    Kazuo Nishiyama said Wednesday that the discovery of the lists disproves previous claims that the germ warfare units existed.

    During the invasion of China, the Japanese army formed several biological warfare units, including the infamous “Unit 731.” –0–

    MIL OSI Russia News –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Decades of neglect: Migrant farm worker housing needs national regulatory standards

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By C. Susana Caxaj, Associate Professor, Nursing, Western University

    Housing for migrant workers in Western Canada. Many workers live in poorly maintained housing and face surveillance and harassment from employers. (Elise Hjalmarson/RAMA Okanagan)

    In today’s political climate, temporary migrants in Canada are being scapegoated for everything from rising grocery bills to the affordable housing crisis. Yet migrant workers, particularly farm workers, face a hidden housing crisis that needs urgent attention.

    Much of Canada’s ability to produce food hinges on hiring migrant agricultural workers from countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Jamaica and elsewhere. Yet, housing for migrant agricultural workers in Canada is often overcrowded, dangerous and undignified.

    Amid government inaction, our group of 29 researchers, clinicians and advocates with the Coalition for National Housing Standards for Migrant Agricultural Workers (CoNaMi), have developed a proposal for national housing standards. This work is backed by clinical experience, hundreds of interviews and surveys and migrant agricultural workers’ own advocacy.

    Inadequate housing

    When two of us — Anelyse and Susana — interviewed 151 migrants in Ontario and British Columbia as part of our research, workers described conditions of isolation, crowding, inadequate ventilation, poor maintenance and close proximity to hazards such as agrochemicals.

    Both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers struggled to access health care, groceries and social services. In addition, their phone and internet access was often unreliable.

    Some workers reported employer-imposed restrictions on leaving the property, and bans on visitors. These living conditions pose serious risks to workers.

    Similarly to research led by the Centre for Climate Justice in British Columbia, we also encountered several workers who endured significant hardships as a result of extreme weather events.

    Consistent with recent research in Nova Scotia, we found that a lack of meaningful union representation, precarious status and low wages created coercive conditions in which workers felt forced to accept poor living conditions.

    Marginalization and exploitation

    As migrant workers typically live on the farms where they work, the lines between work and home can be blurred. This living arrangement often contributes to isolation and surveillance by employers. It may also enable harassment and abuse.

    Furthermore, migrants are geographically separated from their families for months or years at a time. Research that Adam has conducted in Atlantic Canada and Ontario, Jill in Québec and Susana in Ontario and British Columbia, outlines how poor housing conditions not only threaten workers’ health and well-being, but also contribute to their marginalization and exploitation.

    Workers often describe feeling demeaned and controlled, and they wonder why Canada, a country so willing to accept their labour, is so reluctant to accept their common humanity.

    In 2024, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery has described Canada’s temporary foreign worker program, accessed by migrant agricultural workers to come to Canada, as “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery,” a statement echoed by international human rights watchdog Amnesty International.

    Yet the federal government has failed to meaningfully improve housing conditions or establish clear, enforceable and mandatory standards. This inaction persists despite years of reviews, consultations and recommendations.

    In fact, a study commissioned by the federal government to review the possibility of a national housing standard for migrant agricultural workers in 2018 called for greater consistency in housing quality assessments.

    Academic experts have long called for a national housing standard, as well as proactive and unannounced housing inspections. Other professional and labour organizations have identified the need for greater inter-jurisdictional co-ordination and attention to issues of safety, pandemic preparedness, privacy and dignity.

    Furthermore, safeguarding housing quality requires policy changes that provide meaningful status and adequate collective bargaining representation to migrant workers, as these conditions underlie their vulnerability in housing.

    In the 2020 Auditor General of Canada report, the need for national minimum accommodation requirements for migrant agricultural workers was identified. However, housing remains a key concern for these workers who have not yet benefited from such proposed recommendations.

    National housing standard

    A national housing standard for migrant agricultural workers is a crucial step towards protecting their rights and mitigating their vulnerability. These standards must include:

    1. Appropriate and enforced housing standards: Ensure robust and proactive enforcement of housing standard. Living quarters must be well-constructed, safe and dignified.

    2. Privacy, security, access and freedom: Guarantee workers’ rights to privacy, movement, access to health and social services and freedom from surveillance. Workers must have access to transportation and be able to enjoy rest, leisure and a social life.

    3. Dignified living conditions: Safeguard basic rights to comfort, storage and personal care by prescribing minimum standards and ratios for private bedrooms, common areas, laundry and cooking facilities. Workers should have private bedrooms and reliable internet access.

    4. Health and safety in housing: Protect workers from the spread of illness, extreme weather events and other hazards through proper air conditioning, ventilation and reduced occupancy ratios for bathrooms and kitchens.

    5. Co-ordinated government leadership: Prevent different jurisdictions passing the buck by mandating co-ordination, data-sharing and training among federal, provincial and municipal governments. For example, inspectors should be trauma-informed and armed with strategies to mitigate implicit bias and to anticipate barriers this group faces because of their precarious status. The federal government must lead with adequate funding and policy reform to address barriers that prevent workers from advocating for decent housing.

    The evidence is clear. Canadian governments must raise the bar from the floor, and create national standards for migrant agricultural workers’ housing.

    C. Susana Caxaj has received Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to carry out this research. Previously, her work has been funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research, Vancouver Foundation and Western University. She is a co-founder and member of the Migrant Worker Health Expert Working Group.

    Anelyse Weiler receives funding from SSHRC and the Hari Sharma Foundation. She is a board member with the B.C. Employment Standards Coalition and is involved with the Worker Solidarity Network.

    J. Adam Perry receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

    Jill Hanley receives funding from SSHRC and CIHR for her research on farmworkers. She is affiliated with the Immigrant Workers Centre and the SHERPA University Institute.

    – ref. Decades of neglect: Migrant farm worker housing needs national regulatory standards – https://theconversation.com/decades-of-neglect-migrant-farm-worker-housing-needs-national-regulatory-standards-255709

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI: $190M Raised: Canada’s Top 20 Moonshot Ventures™ of 2025 Unveiled After Closed-Door NACO Showcase

    Source: GlobeNewswire (MIL-OSI)

    Canada’s most promising early-stage companies officially unveiled today following a closed-door showcase at the NACO Summit, with ventures spanning AI, cleantech, healthtech, and space.

    OTTAWA, Ontario, May 14, 2025 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) today unveiled Canada’s Top 20 Moonshot Ventures™ of 2025—emerging companies led by bold entrepreneurs building transformative solutions across sectors.

    These ventures were selected through a rigorous, member-driven process. NACO invited its 100 member organizations—Canada’s leading angel groups, incubators, accelerators and early-stage venture capital funds—to each nominate one high-potential company. From this curated pool, 23 ventures were selected by NACO’s investment committee to take the Moonshots Stage™ at a closed-door NACO showcase held at the National Arts Centre during NACO Summit 2025. The audience featured top-tier angel investors, venture capitalists, and senior corporate leaders.

    “Ontario’s future depends on entrepreneurs, risk takers, and the investors who believe in them” said Premier Doug Ford, “That’s what makes events like this so important. As we face global economic uncertainty, Ontario’s innovators are leading the way, building new companies and creating jobs.”

    Collectively, the selected Moonshots companies have raised over $190 million to date. They represent the future of Canadian innovation—driving breakthroughs in AI, cleantech, healthtech, space, deeptech, consumer products, and more. Founders hailed from across the country, with companies based in Ontario, Quebec, British Columbia, Alberta, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Nova Scotia. The 2025 Moonshots cohort includes founders from diverse backgrounds, sectors, and regions—reflecting the inclusive strength and geographic breadth of Canada’s innovation economy.

    “These founders represent the bold ideas, entrepreneurial drive, and global ambition within Canada’s innovation economy,” said Claudio Rojas, CEO of NACO. “The Moonshots Venture Showcase is designed to elevate the country’s most promising ventures by connecting them with the capital and networks they need to scale. We are proud to spotlight these exceptional companies as they take bold steps toward transformative growth and impact.”

    Top 20 Moonshots Stage™ Ventures of 2025

    Organized by sector and listed alphabetically

    AI & Next Gen Computing

    • Dreamwell AI — Co-Founder and CEO Kazzy Khazaal (Nominated by Panache Ventures)
    • Inner Logic — Co-Founder and CEO Bryce Tully (Nominated by Maple Leaf Angels)

    AI & Bioelectronics

    • Panaxium — Founder and CEO Brad Schmidt (Nominated by Brampton Angels / Altitude Accelerator)

    Cleantech

    • BluWave-ai — Founder and CEO Devashish Paul (Nominated by Capital Angel Network)
    • Evercloak — Co-Founder and CEO Evelyn Allen (Nominated by Capital Angel Network)

    Cleantech & Trade

    • PemPem — Founder and CEO Joann de Zegher (Nominated by Anges Quebec)

    Consumer Packaged Goods & Retail

    • The Little Cacao Co. — Founder and CEO Suzie Yorke (Nominated by Maple Leaf Angels)

    Enterprise, Software, & Deeptech

    • Cinareo — Co-Founder and CEO Karen Elliott (Nominated by SheBoot)
    • Depix AI — Founder and CEO Philip Lunn (Nominated by TandemLaunch)
    • H2 Analytics — Founder and CEO Hugo Hodgett (Nominated by Invest Ottawa)

    Healthtech & Biotech

    • Arbutus Medical — Founder and CEO Lawrence Buchan (Nominated by ThresholdImpact)
    • Hyivy Health — Founder and CEO Rachel Bartholomew (Nominated by Women’s Equity Lab)
    • JVP Labs — Founder and CEO Paul Weber (Nominated by Golden Triangle Angel Network)
    • mDetect — Founder and CDO Dr. Irsa Wiginton (Nominated by KNDL, Kingston Economic Development Corporation)
    • MedInclude — Founder and CEO Seun Adetunji (Nominated by Communitech)
    • Sparrow Bio — Founder and VP Rachel Collier (Nominated by The Firehood)
    • Zilia — Founder and CEO Dr. Patrick Sauvageau (Nominated by Anges Quebec)

    Insurtech, Femtech, & AI

    • Flora Fertility — Co-Founder and CEO Laura McDonald (Nominated by Highline Beta)

    Robotics, IoT, and Hardware

    • Solace Power — Founder, COO and CFO Colin Ryan

    Space, Mining, and Oceans

    • Mission Control Space Services — Founder and CEO Ewan Reid (Nominated by GreenSky President’s Club)
    • Open Ocean Robotics — Founder and CEO Julie Angus (Nominated by Spring Activator)

    Supply Chain / Inventory Management

    • Moselle — Founder and CEO Lakhveer Jajj (Nominated by Highline Beta, Angel One Investor Network)

    Travel & Media

    • The Hotel Communication Network — Founder and CEO Kevin Bidner (Nominated by Keiretsu Forum Canada)

    About the Nominating Organizations

    Canada’s Top 20 Moonshots Ventures™ of 2025 are shaped by the insight and leadership of NACO’s national member network. These organizations—spanning angel groups, accelerators, incubators, and innovation hubs—play a vital role in identifying Canada’s most promising early-stage ventures.

    Each year, members are invited to nominate one high-potential Seed or Series A company they believe is ready for scale. This peer-driven process creates a national filter rooted in trust, experience, and proximity to innovation on the ground. The result is a curated group of ventures with strong traction, compelling leadership, and global ambition—brought together to engage with the country’s most sophisticated investors at the Moonshots Venture Showcase.

    About the Moonshots Stage™

    Launched in 2022, the Moonshots Stage™ is Canada’s premier platform for investment-ready Seed and Series A ventures. Unlike traditional pitch events, this showcase puts storytelling front and center—each founder delivers a personal, TED-style presentation designed to spark connection and catalyze opportunity with one of the most curated investor audiences in the country.

    Selected companies join the Moonshots Alumni Network™, a national peer community of ventures recognized for innovation, ambition, and global potential. It is a key pillar of NACO Summit, Canada’s most exclusive gathering of early-stage investors and innovation leaders.

    Learn more at nacosummit.com

    Media Contact:

    media@nacocanada.com / www.nacocanada.com

    About National Angel Capital Organization (NACO)

    Established in 2002, NACO is Canada’s professional association representing over 4,000 angel investors, serving as the national umbrella for more than 100 member organizations—including angel groups, venture funds, incubators, and accelerators. Collectively, NACO members have invested more than CAD $1.8 billion into over 2,000 Canadian ventures.

    Angel investors are individuals and funds deploying capital at the earliest stages of growth. They include limited partners (LPs) investing in venture funds, family offices backing pre-seed and seed-stage ventures, and individuals investing directly or through angel groups.

    High-growth companies backed by angel investment that went on to achieve significant global scale include Slack (British Columbia), Verafin (Newfoundland and Labrador), Wealthsimple (Ontario), Hopper (Québec), and Jobber and Neo Financial (Alberta). Recent standouts include CoLab (NL) and 7shifts (Saskatchewan). These successes illustrate how angel investment drives Canada’s pipeline of innovative ventures, fueling future global success stories.

    Learn more at nacocanada.com

    For media inquiries, contact:
    Claudio Rojas, CEO, National Angel Capital Organization
    Email: media@nacocanada.com

    A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/05dbaabe-343b-48f0-981f-6280c5881a57

    The MIL Network –

  • MIL-OSI Global: Looking for mental health or wellness advice in a book? Check the author’s credentials first

    Source: The Conversation – Canada – By Joanna Pozzulo, Chancellor’s Professor, Psychology, Carleton University

    Not all the suggestions provided in self-help books are evidence-based or written by professionals with advanced training in psychology or have a medical degree. (Shutterstock)

    Self-help books are a mainstay of the non-fiction market. According to a 2022 study by BookNet Canada, self-help titles account for 17 per cent of non-fiction book sales.

    Some of these books can go on to sell millions of copies, but popularity doesn’t always equal credibility. Achieving bestseller status can reflect effective marketing campaigns, a large social media following or the appeal of personal storytelling rather than academic or clinical credentials.

    To better understand the current self-help landscape, my graduate student and I are reviewing New York Times bestsellers under the “Advice, How-To & Miscellaneous” category, which includes self-help books.

    Our preliminary analysis for April 2025 identified 22 relevant books, with only three written by authors with advanced training in psychology or medicine:

    This isn’t a new issue. A 2008 study examining 50 top-selling books directed at anxiety, depression and trauma found that more than half contained strategies that were not supported by evidence.

    Can self-help books help? It depends

    The effectiveness of a self-help book depends largely on the quality of its content and how it is used by readers.

    Books that draw on peer-reviewed research are more likely to offer reliable, evidence-based strategies for improving well-being.

    Peer review is a process in academic publishing where experts in a given field vet a research study’s quality before it’s published. This process helps ensure the research is of high quality and adheres to the standards of the discipline.



    Read more:
    Explainer: what is peer review?

    Evidence-based books are ones that rely on peer-reviewed research to support their claims and suggestions for improved well-being. Having psychological science make its way to the general public via self-help books can provide a useful resource to support well-being and self-improvement.

    In contrast, books that are based on someone’s opinion or their lived experiences have not had their ideas tested or verified. Although these books can contain useful information that were helpful to the author, they can also be problematic, as the ideas have not been empirically examined.

    Risks of non-evidence-based self-help books

    Relying on untested self-help strategies can delay people from seeking appropriate support for the challenges they face. When they turn to self-help books instead of seeking professional care, it can lead to worsening symptoms and missed opportunities for effective treatment.

    This can have serious consequences, particularly for those dealing with complex mental health challenges like anxiety, depression or trauma.

    Relying on untested self-help strategies can delay individuals from seeking appropriate support for the challenges they face.
    (Shutterstock)

    In addition, exposure to misinformation or disinformation can make matters worse. When such content circulates widely, like through best-selling books, it can reinforce harmful stereotypes or downplay the seriousness of psychological distress.

    This can perpetuate stigma and make people feel ashamed or reluctant to seek therapy, medical treatment or other professional help.



    Read more:
    Why do we fall for wellness scams? Our cultural biases and myths are often to blame

    At the same time, the booming global wellness industry has created new risks for consumers. In 2023, the wellness industry was valued at an estimated US$6.3 trillion.

    The size and growth of the industry has created fertile ground for wellness grifters to financially exploit people’s desire for better health and happiness.

    Community for science-based self-help readers

    If you’re interested in more evidence-based books for well-being and self-improvement, consider joining my Reading for Well-Being Community Book Club.

    Each month, members receive a newsletter announcing “Professor Pozzulo’s Pick” — an evidence-based book chosen by me that is focused on some dimension of well-being or self-improvement.

    The newsletter also provides access to a digital platform where my review will be posted, along with a discussion board where club members can share their thoughts about the book.

    Membership is free and sign-up is located here. You can also hear directly from the authors of the selected books through the Reading for Well-Being Podcast, which provides deeper insight into the evidence and ideas behind each book.

    Summer reading recommendations

    For readers seeking self-help books supported by research, here are four accessible and evidence-based suggestions:

    The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health, and Longevity by Psychologist Catherine A. Sanderson (2019, Published by BenBella Books).

    ‘The Positive Shift: Mastering Mindset to Improve Happiness, Health, and Longevity’ by Catherine A. Sanderson.
    (BenBella Books)

    Sanderson explains that our level of happiness, physical health and even our longevity is connected to how “we think about ourselves and our world around us.” In other words, our mindset.

    By making small changes, Sanderson shows how we can improve our happiness and physical and mental health. The book is full of straightforward, science-backed strategies to “shift your mindset.”

    One study Sanderson highlights found that people who read for more than 3.5 hours per week tended to live longer.

    Chatter: The Voice in our Head, Why it Matters, and How to Harness It by Ethan Kross (2021, Published by Crown Publishing Group).

    ‘Chatter: The Voice in Our Head’ by Ethan Kross.
    (Crown Publishing Group)

    Anyone who has found themselves lying awake in the middle of the night with endless thoughts of potential doom can likely relate to this book. In Chatter, psychologist Ethan Kross examines this inner voice.

    According to Kross, by changing the dialogue we have with ourselves, we can potentially change our lives and ultimately improve our health and well-being.

    The last section of the book, titled “The Tools,” includes several evidence-based strategies to reduce the negative loops that can run in our minds.

    Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most by Cassie Holmes (2022, published by Gallery Books).

    ‘Happier Hour: How to Beat Distraction, Expand Your Time, and Focus on What Matters Most’ by Cassie Holmes.
    (Gallery Books)

    Do you ever feel like you never have the time for the things you want or need to do? Management professor Cassie Holmes writes that people who are “time poor” can “feel less happy and less satisfied with life.”

    Several studies have found that when people make time to do the things they want, they feel they have more time to do the things they need.

    Holmes encourages readers to reflect on how they spend their time. Although we can’t change the amount of time we have, we can re-prioritize how we spend it, and by doing so, improve our sense of well-being and life satisfaction.

    How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be by Katy Milkman (2021, published by Portfolio).

    ‘How to Change: The Science of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be’ by Katy Milkman.
    (Portfolio)

    If you feel like you need a change or find it hard to make a change last, you might be using an ineffective strategy or approach.

    Economist Katy Milkman reviews the science of how to make behaviour change last with several evidence-based strategies to help you reach your goals.

    Each chapter examines an internal obstacle that stands between people and their goals. By the end of the book, you’ll learn how to recognize these obstacles and what you can do to overcome them.

    Joanna Pozzulo receives funding from the Social Sciences and Research Council of Canada.

    – ref. Looking for mental health or wellness advice in a book? Check the author’s credentials first – https://theconversation.com/looking-for-mental-health-or-wellness-advice-in-a-book-check-the-authors-credentials-first-256082

    MIL OSI – Global Reports –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Hawley Urges Defense Health Agency Not to Downgrade Fort Leonard Wood’s Community Hospital

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo)
    Yesterday, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Acting Director of the Defense Health Agency Dr. David J. Smith urging him not to downgrade Fort Leonard Wood’s newly built hospital, citing readiness and training issues.
    Senator Hawley wrote, “I write with great concern over reports that the Defense Health Agency (DHA) is considering downgrading the General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital to a clinic. I urge you to reconsider this and ensure that Fort Leonard Wood keeps its newly built hospital.”
    He continued, “As you are no doubt aware, the DHA also moved to downgrade Fort Leonard Wood’s hospital under the previous Administration. I demanded Secretary Austin reverse course then, and have continued to remain engaged on the issue. Downgrading this hospital would seriously harm soldiers, their families, and the broader community. It would jeopardize Fort Leonard Wood’s critical role as a major Army training center, including for Basic Combat Training and numerous advanced specialties.”
    Senator Hawley concluded, “The DHA has previously considered downgrading this hospital as a cost savings measure, but in point of fact such a move would represent the abandonment of over $400 million in recent investments to upgrade Fort Leonard Wood’s medical facilities. It would also impose additional costs on servicemembers assigned to Fort Leonard Wood, who would have to travel long distances to receive anything more than outpatient services. A downgrade of this facility should not happen. I urge you to reconsider and reverse any determinations that have been made to do so. You must act to protect a hospital that is critical to servicemembers and constituents in my state.”
    Read the full letter here or below. 
    Dr. David J. SmithActing Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs and Acting Director, Defense Health Agency7700 Arlington Blvd., Suite 5101Falls Church, VA 22042
    Dear Dr. Smith,
    I write with great concern over reports that the Defense Health Agency (DHA) is considering downgrading the General Leonard Wood Army Community Hospital to a clinic. I urge you to reconsider this and ensure that Fort Leonard Wood keeps its newly built hospital.
    As you are no doubt aware, the DHA also moved to downgrade Fort Leonard Wood’s hospital under the previous Administration. I demanded Secretary Austin reverse course then, and have continued to remain engaged on the issue.
    Downgrading this hospital would seriously harm soldiers, their families, and the broader community. It would jeopardize Fort Leonard Wood’s critical role as a major Army training center, including for Basic Combat Training and numerous advanced specialties.
    The DHA has previously considered downgrading this hospital as a cost savings measure, but in point of fact such a move would represent the abandonment of over $400 million in recent investments to upgrade Fort Leonard Wood’s medical facilities. It would also impose additional costs on servicemembers assigned to Fort Leonard Wood, who would have to travel long distances to receive anything more than outpatient services.
    A downgrade of this facility should not happen. I urge you to reconsider and reverse any determinations that have been made to do so. You must act to protect a hospital that is critical to servicemembers and constituents in my state.
    Sincerely,
    Josh HawleyU.S. Senator

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: ICYMI: Senator Reverend Warnock Delivers Commencement Address to Paine College’s Class of 2025 in Augusta

    US Senate News:

    Source: United States Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock – Georgia

    ICYMI: Senator Reverend Warnock Delivers Commencement Address to Paine College’s Class of 2025 in Augusta

    On Sunday, Senator Reverend Warnock delivered the keynote commencement speech to Paine College’s Class of 2025 in Augusta, Georgia
    Senator Warnock encouraged the Class of 2025 to make their life’s project longer and larger than their lifespan, give themselves over to a mission that is larger than themselves
    Paine College is one of ten Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) in Georgia; Senator Reverend Warnock is a 1991 graduate of Morehouse College and is the only sitting U.S. Senators to graduate from an HBCU
    Senator Warnock has secured $664 million for Georgia’s HBCUs to date, part of $17 billion in federal investments championed by the Senator since 2021

    Above: Senator Warnock addresses the Class of 2025 at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia
    Photo credit: Rob Davis, Augusta Chronicle
    Augusta, Georgia – On Sunday, U.S. Senator Reverend Raphael Warnock (D-GA) delivered the commencement address for the Class of 2025 at Paine College in Augusta, Georgia. Paine College is one of ten Historically Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) across Georgia. The Senator commended Paine College for its rich history, academic excellence, and commitment to fostering Black leadership across industries. 
    During the college’s 143rd commencement ceremony, Senator Warnock, an alum of Atlanta’s Morehouse College and the only sitting U.S. Senator to graduate from an HBCU, urged the graduates to make their life’s project longer and larger than their lifespan and give themselves over to a mission that is larger than themselves. In a moment in which there are those in power trying to silence the voices of young people, Senator Warnock charged the graduates to not allow them to silence their voices or squash the activist spirit that fuels peaceful protest in pursuit of social change. 
    In recognition of his lifelong commitment to service, moral leadership, and the pursuit of social justice, Paine College awarded Senator Warnock the honorary degree of Doctor of Humane Letters during the ceremony, as well as a plaque of appreciation for delivering the keynote address.

    Above: Senator Warnock and Paine College President Dr. Lester McCorn
    Photo credit: Rob Davis, Augusta Chronicle
    Additionally, the Senator highlighted the important role of HBCUs in helping shape the next generation of changemakers, as well as his work to successfully secure $664 million in federal funding for Georgia’s HBCUs, part of $17 billion in investments the federal government has delivered to HBCU campuses throughout the nation since the Senator came to the Senate. 
    Over the weekend, Senator Warnock also addressed the Class of 2025 at Virginia Union University, an HBCU in Richmond, Virginia. 
    Watch video of Senator Reverend Warnock’s address to Paine College’s Class of 2025 HERE.
    Key excerpts from media coverage of Senator Warnock’s commencement address can be found below:
    FOX 54: Sen. Warnock joins Paine College’s 2025 graduation ceremony
    The campus of Paine College was filled with cheers and tears Sunday as graduates turned over their tassels. […] The commencement had prominent speakers, from alumni Michael Thurmond to Senator Raphael Warnock.
    The senator was the lead commencement speaker, and emphasized the need for more funding in college education, specifically HBCUs.
    “Let’s face it, these kids are coming out of school at a difficult time in our nation, we’ve got to invest in higher education, invest in Technical and Community Schools. I’m an HBCU graduate, and what you get in these schools is a commitment to bringing head and heart to the work of community service, social change,” said Senator Warnock.
    The Augusta Press: Sen. Raphael Warnock speaks at Paine College convocation ceremony 
    Paine College’s HEAL Complex welcomed hundreds of visitors, Sunday morning, mostly the families of students, as it celebrated its 143rd Commencement Convocation.
    Sen. Warnock, a close friend of McCorn’s and a fellow Morehouse alumnus, would have normally been speaking from the pulpit in Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church on Sunday. His exhortations to graduating students during his address were delivered with comparable enthusiasm.
    “As an HBCU (historically Black college/university) graduate, I know the unique history of places like Paine College. I know what you represent, I know the sacrifice that it took to get you here,” Warnock said.
    The senator referred to his own personal history in encouraging grads to persevere amid what he called “a difficult time in our nation.”
    “I wanted to recognize that it is difficult. Many of them had to work really hard, had to push against financial and other restraints just to get this far,” he said, alluding to his own work in Washington, including his membership in the Senate’s Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs. “But I hope that my own story might be an example, a model, of how you keep pushing even when you don’t have the answers, and when you’re working and doing the work very often, help comes in unexpected places, and I’m trying to do that work every single day in the United States Senate.”
    WRDW: Sen. Warnock gives keynote speech at Paine College graduation
    Despite the rainy day, Paine College still celebrated its graduates Sunday. Hundreds of students walked across the stage today to celebrate their academic achievements, and on Mother’s Day, nonetheless. Senator Raphael Warnock was the keynote speaker at commencement.
    “America is great because of its diversity, and here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to fight for that kid who was me growing up in public housing down in Savannah, GA. But I’m also going to fight for the poor, white rural kid who’s growing up in communities that have been too long forgotten about and overlooked,” said Warnock. 
    He also talked about what he has done to help schools like Paine College thrive.
    Interested media can view photos of Paine College’s commencement ceremony in the Augusta Chronicle HERE.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: US Department of Labor cites Georgia stone product manufacturer for exposing workers to respirable crystalline silica

    Source: US Department of Labor

    ATLANTA – A U.S. Department of Labor follow-up inspection found that Art Stone-Granite & Marble Inc., a stone product manufacturer in Marietta, had failed to administer hearing conservation and respiratory protection programs identified previously on an April 2024 safety and health inspection.

    Five months after the initial inspection, the department’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration cited the company with two repeat violations and 13 serious violations for not providing workplace protections for employees exposed to hazards such as silica dust and occupational related noise. The company will pay $120,000 in penalties, take action to correct the hazardous conditions, and put steps in place to prevent recurrence.

    For information on silica hazards, read OSHA’s fact sheet on respirable crystalline silica standard for general industry. OSHA’s National Emphasis Program for Respirable Crystalline Silica addresses the agency’s efforts to reduce worker exposures to silica. Employers can contact the agency for free compliance assistance and resources.

    The citation will be provided upon request.

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI USA: Congressman Valadao Introduces Legislation to Improve Access to Healthcare in Rural Communities

    Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman David G Valadao (CA-21)

    WASHINGTON – Today, Congressman David Valadao (CA-22) and Congressman Adam Gray (CA-13) introduced the Telehealth Network and Telehealth Resource Centers Grant Program Reauthorization Act. This bipartisan bill would provide investment in rural healthcare by reauthorizing the telehealth network and telehealth resource centers grant programs through Fiscal Year 2030.

    “In the Central Valley and rural communities across the country, telehealth isn’t just a convenience—it’s a lifeline,” said Congressman Valadao. “With too few doctors, long wait times, and clinics often hours away, families are still struggling to get the care they need. This bipartisan bill gives Valley families the flexibility and tools required to better connect with providers, and I’m proud to join Congressman Gray in strengthening rural healthcare for the long haul.”

    “In rural areas like the Central Valley, access to telehealth may be the only way folks can see a medical provider,” said Congressman Gray. “While our community experiences one of the worst physician shortages in the country, we need to make it easier to get care—not harder. This bipartisan, commonsense bill to reauthorize telehealth network and resource grants will allow families to access care no matter where they live.”  

    Background:

    Originally enacted in 1944, the Public Health Service Act (PHSA) provides the foundation for the nation’s public health programs and workforce. Over the years, it has been a critical tool in addressing America’s evolving health care needs—particularly in rural and underserved communities where access to quality care remains a challenge.

    Through key provisions supporting community health centers, workforce development programs, and telehealth expansion, the PHSA has helped bring vital services to millions of Americans living in rural areas. Reauthorizing the telehealth network and telehealth resource grant programs ensures continued investment in initiatives that recruit and retain health professionals in rural communities, strengthens rural hospitals and clinics, and closes the geographic gaps in receiving quality care.

    Read the full bill here.

    ###

    MIL OSI USA News –

  • MIL-OSI Europe: Answer to a written question – EU action and leadership on global health in view of the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization (WHO) – P-000773/2025(ASW)

    Source: European Parliament

    Through contributions to the World Health Organisation and health initiatives, the EU and its Member States are leading contributors to global health financing. The EU remains committed to global health, including by supporting sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and the fight against human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and is taking a wide range of actions such as the Team Europe Initiative on SRHR in Africa and financial contributions to the United Nations Population Fund and the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria[1]. The EU will continue supporting global health in line with its commitments and available resources.

    The fight against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) remains a Commission priority[2]. The 2022 Global Health Strategy sets out EU’s international actions. The 2023 Council Recommendation sets recommendations to address AMR. The Commission has played an active role in reaching a preliminary agreement in recent negotiations on a Global Pandemic Agreement. This agreement includes AMR and is expected to be formally adopted at the 78th World Health Assembly in May 2025. The Commission also supports the Quadripartite Multi-Stakeholder Partnership Platform and the AMR Multi-Partner Trust Fund[3] and engages with international partners (G7, G20).

    Moreover, the Commission’s proposed reform of the EU’s general pharmaceutical legislation[4] provides for incentives for the development of novel antimicrobials and contains measures for the prudent use of antimicrobials.

    Building upon the Preparedness Union Strategy, the Commission will present a medical countermeasures (MCM) strategy to enhance the EU’s preparedness for health threats such as AMR by improving innovation and access to MCM, including antibiotics and AMR products. This will complement the Commission work with Member States to develop a financial incentive pilot in the form of a revenue guarantee.

    • [1] https://www.theglobalfund.org/en/.
    • [2] The 2024 United Nations General Assembly declaration marks a milestone of international commitments: https://www.unep.org/news-and-stories/press-release/world-leaders-commit-decisive-action-antimicrobial-resistance.
    • [3] https://www.qjsamr.org/.
    • [4] https://health.ec.europa.eu/medicinal-products/legal-framework-governing-medicinal-products-human-use-eu/reform-eu-pharmaceutical-legislation_en.
    Last updated: 14 May 2025

    MIL OSI Europe News –