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A woman with MS pressed her senator on health care in a fiery exchange. It's a must-watch.

A town hall with Sen. Dean Heller turned electric Monday when a chronically ill Reno woman confronted him, asking if he would vote to mess with her health care and refusing to back down.

Photo by David Calvert/Getty Images.

Vivian Leal, a 51-year-old mother with multiple sclerosis, wanted to know whether the Nevada Republican would support a plan that would place her in a high-risk insurance pool because of her condition. High-risk pools segregate customers with pre-existing conditions into plans with higher premiums, while healthy people pay less.


Several Republican lawmakers, including Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, have expressed support for such plans.

"It’s harder to make laws about people who they’re going to affect when you have to face the people they might hurt," Leal says.

In a video circulating on Twitter, Heller began by offering that he was sorry to hear Leal's story.

Leal continued to press the senator as he attempted to steer the conversation to a discussion of why he rejected the Republican health care plan.

The exchange quickly became heated.

Soon, the crowd was chanting, "Yes or no," and Heller was forced to reply:

"I will support high-risk pools because there are some people who want them," Heller finally admitted to the crowd.

For Leal, portioning off health care is both a moral and economic concern.

"Who are we when we just huddle all our sick into one pool and make them pay higher penalties for being sick beyond their illness?" Leal wants to know.

Some states allowed residents to buy into high-risk insurance pools prior to the Affordable Care Act, which often featured far higher costs of care for sick customers. According to an NPR report, plans bought through Minnesota's pool, for example, cost about 25% more than regular plans, with some participants paying up to $18,000 per year in premiums.

Planned Parenthood supporters before Heller's town hall. Photo by David Calvert/Getty Images.

"Letting us buy into a high-risk pool is access, but it’s not really accessible coverage or affordable coverage at all. It might as well be no coverage for most people," Leal explains. Both she and her husband currently receive coverage through a plan on Nevada's ACA exchange, which Leal credits for giving her the "freedom from the fear of illness and bankruptcy."

Leal isn't the only American making it harder for her elected representative to get away with a "fuzzy answer" these days.

Last week, Oklahomans needling Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R) over his responsibility to serve their interests prompted the congressman to insist the notion that citizens pay his salary is "bull crap," touching off a mini-firestorm in the media.

Also on Monday, constituents of Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas) demanded to know whether he would apply the same zeal for investigating Russian election interference as he did for the attacks in Benghazi, Libya.

Time will tell how Heller's encounter with his constituents affects his votes on issues like health care.

In the meantime, as her senator prepares to travel back to Washington, Leal's message is clear:

"We see you."

Correction 4/19/2017: An earlier version of this article stated that Leal receives health coverage through her husband's job. Both she and her husband are covered by a plan on the Nevada ACA exchange.

A Korean mother and her son

A recently posted story on Reddit shows a mother confidently standing up for her family after being bullied by a teacher for her culture. Reddit user Flowergardens0 posted the story to the AITA forum, where people ask whether they are wrong in a specific situation.

Over 5,600 people commented on the story, and an overwhelming majority thought the mother was right. Here’s what went down:

“I (34F) have a (5M) son who attends preschool. A few hours after I picked him up from school today, I got a phone call from his teacher,” Flowergardens0 wrote. “She made absolutely no effort to sound kind when she, in an extremely rude and annoyed tone, told me to stop packing my son such ‘disgusting and inappropriate’ lunches."

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Photo by Egor Vikhrev on Unsplash

Let's talk about what makes people read articles.

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A new study seems to reinforce this idea. And much to our surprise, it's centered on headlines used in Upworthy stories.

Using a public archive of Upworthy headlines and traffic data from 2012 to 2015, two separate teams of researchers analyzed whether people's click tendencies changed with negative or positive words in headlines. In those olden days of Upworthy, a handful of headlines for a single story were tested on the website to see which one would receive the most clicks. The research teams analyzed those results and found that negative words in headlines led to more people clicking on a story (2.3% more), and positive words in headlines led to fewer clicks (1.0% fewer). They also found a preference for headlines that express sadness over those that express joy, fear or anger.

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Woman was mocked online for calling an $80 purse a 'luxury item.' Her response went viral.

"I'm so grateful that my dad was able to get me one. He worked so hard for that money.”

@zohtaco/TikTok

Zoe Gabriel, showing off her new purse from Charles & Keith

Insults of any kind are painful, but jabs towards someone’s financial status are their own breed.

In January 2023, Singapore-based Zoe Gabriel was on the receiving end of this particular flavor of mockery when she posted a TikTok about a purse from local retail brand Charles & Keith—a gift bought for her by her father.

In her excitement, the 17-year-old called the bag, which costs around $80, a “luxury” item as she unwrapped it. Her excitement was sadly cut short by some of the negative comments she received.

One comment seemed to stand out above the rest and prompted Gabriel to post an emotional response video.

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RuPaul's Drag Race 'Footloose' parody gets high praise from Kevin Bacon himself

When the OG Ren McCormack approves, you know you're in for something good.

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Fans of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” are well acquainted with the “Rusical” segment, but in case this word seems like something out of Dr. Seuss, here’s a brief explainer: A Rusical is a challenge on the show where contestants put on a live parody drag musical. Since debuting in Season 6, the Rusical has become a beloved staple of the series, with some of the most popular titles being “Madonna: The Unauthorized Rusical,” “HERstory of the World” and “Moulin Ru: The Rusical.”

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