I, the thalamus .

Royal Blood: Julius Caesar

Diego Rivera: Liberation of the peon

Critics have long criticized for-profit schools for recruiting unqualified students who go on to have higher loan default rates than their peers. In their defense, for-profit schools point out that they tend to attract more economically disadvantaged students from less educated families.

A new study from two Boston University economists has controlled for these socio-economic differences and finds that students at for-profit schools fail to receive any wage boost from obtaining a certificate or associate’s degree. “There is little evidence of a return to any certificate or degree from a for-profit,” the researchers write in a new paper for the National Bureau of Economic Research

By contrast, students who receive degrees “from a public or not-for-profit institution receive a large wage premium,” they explain, boosting their earnings by as much as 15 percent. The same doesn’t hold true for non-degree certificate programs, with one exception: certificate programs in health fields boost wages, but only if they are from non-profit or public universities, the paper concludes.

(Source: Washington Post)

With the Supreme Court no longer threatening the future of the Affordable Care Act, and with implementation deadlines looming, Republican governors have some decisions to make. They oppose the federal law, despite the benefits it’ll bring to their state and constituents, but ignoring it brings a host of other problems.

Some, including Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), are prepared to move forward, implementing the law and creating exchanges for consumers. New Mexico Gov. Susana Martinez (R) has also suggested she supports some of the provisions in “Obamacare.”

On the other hand, we also see governors like Rick Scott (R) of Florida, whose office announced that it will simply refuse to move forward under the current framework. “We are not going to expand Medicaid and we’re not going to implement exchanges,” Scott’s spokesperson told the AP. The governor’s office also said Medicaid expansion would cost Florida taxpayers $1.9 billion a year — an imaginary figure that Rick Scott appears to have made up out of whole cloth.

(Source: MSN)

Coca is still the apple of discord between the Governments of Bolivia and the United States. The discrepancy on the traditional uses of the legendary plant in the Andean country is not new, but  President Evo Morales’ disagreement is more fundamental. Since coming to Government in 2006, Morales has expelled the ambassador and the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency USA), has closed the military base Chimoré and recently announced its withdrawal from the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio Treaty). As a counterpoint, the Bolivian president last week signed an agreement in La Paz with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in the fight against drugs.

The Supreme Court ruling on health care did not win the law new supporters – but, in a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, it does look like Americans want to see the national debate move past the law.

Fifty-six percent of all those surveyed want to see the law’s opponents “move on to other national issues” rather than “continue to block the law from being implemented:”

This poll won’t thrill Republicans. In the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling, they quickly pivoted to measures to stall Obamacare. Some are symbolic: A House vote to repeal the health reform law, scheduled for next week, is dead-on-arrival in the Senate. Some, like Republican governors opting out of the Medicaid expansion, are more concrete.

All of them though, are intended to do one thing: Make the future of health reform appear in limbo, part of a continuing debate over the law.

This Kaiser poll suggests that’s not how most Americans see the issue.  Even though a lot of people don’t like the law – only 41 percent rated it favorably in this same poll – it looks like most see it as the law of the land going forward.

One other noteworthy finding from the Kaiser poll: It found 41 percent of Americans to be unaware of the Supreme Court decision.

That isn’t due to any dearth of news coverage. The decision story was front page news Friday pretty much everywhere in the country. But most Americans won’t notice the benefits until 2014, when 30 million gain coverage through Medicaid and private insurance. Until then, health reform isn’t something most Americans are obsessing about. And they think Washington should follow their lead.

Dearest most beloved readers,

It has been a few days (weeks?) since I have posted anything. This is vexatious since right before I vanished I promised several new segments. Unfortunately, I had to fly to a land far far away where internet access is, well, shitty. That’s the word for it. But alas dearest readers I return and it’s time to relay. information to y’alls cortex.

EPSP-ing

-The thalamus.