Abortion pills, often confused with Plan B (the morning-after pill), and historically referred to as RU486 (mifepristone), are part of a broader category of reproductive health medications that women have been using for decades. But they are not the same thing.

Plan B is emergency contraception used shortly after unprotected sex to prevent pregnancy from occurring. Abortion pills, by contrast—typically a combination of mifepristone and misoprostol—are used to terminate an early pregnancy after it has already begun. These medications have become the most common method of abortion in the United States.

Related: scientist shows how her brain changes on birth control

While there are documented health effects if misused, these pills—both emergency contraception and medication abortion—have significantly increased sexual freedom and reproductive autonomy for women. And these effects catch on in the Middle East, where abortion is illegal for for the most part. Most women in the Middle East, and increasingly now in parts of America, if you can believe it, do not have reliable access to abortion pills or even Plan B.

Years ago, I worked with writer Loolwa Khazoom researching a piece for Vogue or Harper’s on an abortion boat, a Dutch-flagged ship that operated off the coast of countries like Spain when abortion was illegal. Women would be taken into international waters where Dutch physician Rebecca Gomberts could legally perform abortions on her floating clinic. She said, “I figured we would sail from country to country and help X number of women per day.”

It was a workaround that was creative, controversial, and telling.

Today, the workaround is digital and under threat.

I am not arguing here whether abortion should or should not be offered on moral or religious grounds. That is a private decision. But the fact that the United States is now moving to restrict the mailing of abortion pills like mifepristone means that some states that have outlawed abortion may end up with women’s lives on their hands.

A recent federal appeals court ruling has moved to block the mailing of abortion pills and require in-person dispensing, challenging long-standing FDA guidance that allowed telehealth prescriptions and pharmacy access. Medication abortion—often prescribed online and delivered by mail—accounts for the majority of abortions in the U.S., and about one in four had been accessed via telehealth.

Related: Turkish woman first to receive womb transplant 

US states where abortion is illegal

• Alabama
• Arkansas
• Idaho
• Indiana
• Kentucky
• Louisiana
• Mississippi
• Missouri
• Oklahoma
• South Dakota
• Tennessee
• Texas
• West Virginia

Like I said, there are a variety of reasons why women seek abortions.

In the Middle East, except in countries like Turkey and Israel, premarital sex is not socially accepted. Of course people have sex secretly and then deal with the consequences according to local customs and doctors who often work quietly behind the scenes. In Egypt, for instance, social pressures have led to practices like hymen reconstruction surgeries. These realities exist regardless of the law. Read here about the creative ways Muslims stay virgins in Arab countries.

In Turkey, many parts of the country are conservative and if you are renting a hotel with a man you do need to say you are married and use his last name. Honor killings still happen. In a shocking case, an 18-year woman Oya Budak was murdered by her fiance after he discovered she was pregnant by her rapist. She was raped by someone familiar to her and did not disclose this fact prior to them making an arranged married.

Women in conservative societies can face severe consequences for pregnancy outside marriage, including violence. The stakes are high. I know a doctor whose patient was killed after not receiving an abortion in time.

Restricting access to abortion pills does not eliminate abortion—it pushes it underground or across borders.

In the U.S., people are already finding ways around restrictions. Some travel across state lines to access care. Others rely on telehealth providers in states with legal protections, or order abortion pills online from international services operating in legal gray zones. Some use misoprostol-only regimens, which are widely recognized as safe and effective. Information networks, encrypted consultations, and nonprofit support systems have become part of the new infrastructure of access.

Restricting access to abortion pills will not stop abortions. It will only make them harder, riskier, and more unequal.

While I do believe marrying young and having children young might be a stable path for some (something I wasn’t taught), I will leave my kids with that decision to make.

If your are connected to the Palestinian cause, where abortions are not legal, maybe you can use some online warrior energy and help women EVERYWHERE get access to abortion pills. Here are the countries in the Middle East with access to abortion pills:

Middle East abortion access (updated)

The post Abortion Pills, Plan B and Mifepristone and what the new US mail ban means appeared first on Green Prophet.

The CFTC, FINRA, and NASAA have jointly warned retirees about precious metals fraud targeting retirement accounts. This checklist provides a structured framework for evaluating any company before transferring savings — and illustrates what credible providers look like across 7 measurable criteria.

Key Takeaways

• Precious metals fraud disproportionately targets retirees. The CFTC has pursued cases involving more than $500 million in overpriced metals sold to consumers over the past decade. A structured due diligence process — not a “best of” list — is the most reliable defense.
• The 7 criteria in this checklist are drawn from CFTC and FINRA investor advisories, BBB evaluation standards, and common patterns in documented fraud cases. Each criterion includes a specific action item and, where relevant, an example of a company that performs well on that measure.
• Among the established providers, Lear Capital (founded 1997), Birch Gold Group (founded 2003), and Rosland Capital (founded 2008) offer the longest operational track records.
• No single company excels on every criterion. The purpose of this checklist is to give retirees a repeatable, evidence-based process for evaluating any provider — including ones not named here.

The Checklist: 7 Criteria That Retirees Should Verify

1. Years in Business and Transaction Volume

Why it matters: Longevity alone doesn’t guarantee quality, but it demonstrates regulatory survival. A company operating for 20+ years has weathered multiple market cycles, changes in IRS rules, and the scrutiny that comes with scale. Firms that routinely defraud customers tend not to last decades.

What to check: Look for the founding year on the company’s website and verify it against BBB accreditation records. Ask about total transaction volume if it’s not published.

Example: Lear Capital has operated since 1997 and has served over 100,000 customers. Birch Gold Group has been in business since 2003 and has served over 39,000 customers 

2. BBB Accreditation and Rating

Why it matters: The Better Business Bureau evaluates companies on 16 variables including complaint history, transparency, and responsiveness. An A+ rating indicates compliance with BBB standards; it does not mean zero complaints. Complaint patterns — and how a company responds — matter more than the rating letter itself.

What to check: Visit bbb.org and search the company name. Review both the letter grade and the star rating (customer reviews), which can diverge. Read the actual complaints, not just the count. Look at whether the company responded and whether resolutions were reached.

Current ratings (as of early 2026):

Sources: Individual BBB business profiles. All seven providers currently hold the same top-level grade, which underscores why looking beyond the letter rating is essential.

3. Third-Party Review Consistency

Why it matters: A company with 4.9 stars on Trustpilot but 2.5 stars on the BBB’s customer review section warrants closer examination. Large gaps between platforms may indicate that positive reviews cluster around the initial sales experience, while negative reviews surface later — around pricing, buyback, or account management.

What to check: Compare ratings across at least three platforms: Trustpilot, Google Reviews, BBB customer reviews, and ConsumerAffairs. Read negative reviews specifically — they reveal the failure modes that positive reviews obscure.

4. Fee Transparency and Written Disclosure

Why it matters: The single most common element in CFTC enforcement cases against precious metals dealers is undisclosed or misleading fee information. A reputable company discloses all fees — setup, annual administration, storage, wire transfer, and dealer markup — in writing before you commit funds.

What to check: Ask every company you’re evaluating to provide a complete, written fee schedule that separates custodian fees, storage fees, and the dealer’s markup over spot price. If a company declines to put its fees in writing before you purchase, treat that as a disqualifying signal.

Example: Birch Gold Group publishes its full fee schedule on its website, including one-time and annual charges. Lear Capital also publishes an itemized breakdown of first-year and recurring fees on its knowledge base, including application fees, maintenance, and storage by type.Both practices exceed the industry norm. 

During research for this article, we attempted to locate published fee schedules on the websites of every company profiled. Priority Gold, Preserve Gold, Rosland Capital, and Noble Gold do not publish itemized fee breakdowns online; each requires a phone consultation for specific numbers. Augusta discloses its setup fee but directs prospective clients to a call for the rest. 

5. Custodian and Depository Partnerships

Why it matters: Your gold IRA company is the dealer — it sells you metals. The custodian holds the account; the depository stores the physical metal. Knowing who these partners are lets you independently verify their credentials.

What to check: Ask for the name of the custodian and depository before opening an account. Verify the custodian is an IRS-approved financial institution. Verify the depository is IRS-approved and carries adequate insurance. Delaware Depository and Brink’s Global Services are the two most commonly used across the industry.

6. Sales Process and Pressure Tactics

Why it matters: The CFTC specifically identifies high-pressure sales tactics and urgency-based messaging as hallmarks of precious metals fraud. A legitimate company gives you time to compare options and never implies that a market crash is imminent or that you must act immediately.

What to check: Pay attention to the initial call. Does the representative ask about your goals and financial situation, or immediately push products? Are they willing to send written information and let you call back? Do they encourage you to consult a financial advisor?

7. Post-Sale Support and Account Access

Why it matters: A gold IRA is a long-term holding. You need ongoing access to account information, responsive support for RMD processing, and assistance if you decide to liquidate, transfer, or add to your holdings years later.

What to check: Does the custodian provide online portfolio access? How are quarterly statements delivered? Is there a dedicated contact person, or will you reach a general call center? 

Applying the Checklist: A Step-by-Step Process

For retirees ready to evaluate providers, here is a practical sequence:

Step 1: Narrow your list to three companies. Request information from each without committing.

Step 2: Request written fee schedules from each remaining company. Compare custodian fees, storage fees, and — critically — the markup on specific products you’ve been quoted, calculated against the same-day spot price.

Step 3: Score each company across all 17 criteria. You may weigh certain criteria more heavily based on your priorities. An investor with a $25,000 rollover might prioritize low minimums and fee waivers; a retiree with a $200,000 account might prioritize long-term support.

Step 4: Consult a fee-only financial advisor or tax professional before finalizing a rollover. Precious metals dealers are not fiduciaries and are not licensed to provide investment advice.

FAQ

Q: Which precious metals company is best for retirees? There is no universal answer. Lear Capital combines the longest operating history (since 1997) with a $10,000 minimum, published fee disclosures, and a dedicated IRA processing team. Birch Gold Group offers the lowest entry point at $5,000 with transparent published fees. Priority Gold (founded 2001) earns strong marks for patient, non-pressured service and first-year fee waivers on larger rollovers. Evaluate each against the 7 criteria in this checklist.

Q: Should I worry about a company that has had BBB complaints? Not necessarily. Every high-volume company receives complaints. What matters is the pattern and the response. A company with dozens of resolved complaints over 25 years of operation and thousands of transactions has a different profile than a company with the same number of complaints over two years. Read the specific complaints to understand whether they reflect systemic issues or isolated incidents.

Q: Can I use this checklist for companies not named in this article? Yes. The checklist is designed to be applied to any precious metals company. The companies referenced here are illustrative examples, not an exhaustive list.

This article reflects publicly available information as of February 2026 and does not constitute financial, legal, or tax advice. Regulatory records, fees, ratings, and company policies can change. Always verify current information directly with the company and relevant regulatory bodies before making investment decisions.

The post Recommended Precious Metals Companies: A Due Diligence Checklist for Retirees appeared first on Green Prophet.

Teens as young as 12 are vaping in schools around the world. Devices are sold in the same places kids buy candy. They’re packaged with cartoon characters, bright colors, and playful branding that makes nicotine look harmless — even fun.

By 2019, youth vaping in the United States had surged to 20%, up from just 8.1% two years earlier. A generation of teens was being pulled into nicotine addiction through design, marketing, and easy access. Public health campaigns were trying to catch up, but they were competing with a fast-moving culture — social media, influencers on IG and Tiktok, and products engineered to appeal to young users.

Then something changed. Researchers from the University of California San Diego found that 2019 marked a rare and dramatic reversal in youth vaping, driven not by one factor, but by a convergence of media forces.

“What we saw in California between 2017–18 and 2019–20 was a rare, dramatic population-level shift in adolescent vaping behavior,” said senior author of the study, Shu-Hong Zhu, PhD, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health professor. “A convergence of media forces — aggressive public health campaigns and frightening news reports about people being hospitalized with severe lung injuries — appears to have shaken adolescents out of complacency and motivated many of them to quit.”

On one side: aggressive anti-vaping campaigns from the FDA, Truth Initiative, and state programs, backed by over $100 million in annual spending. On the other: a public health crisis.

The EVALI outbreak which was a wave of lung injuries linked to vaping led to more than 2,800 hospitalizations and 68 deaths. News coverage was relentless, with nearly 20,000 articles published in less than a year.

Suddenly, vaping didn’t feel abstract. The dangers were real.

Among teen vapers: Quit attempts nearly doubled, from 28.8% to 53.2% Intentions to quit rose from 56.9% to 79.1%

Among teens who had never vaped:Interest in trying vaping dropped significantly

Perhaps most striking: awareness of the EVALI outbreak alone reduced interest in vaping among non-users — even more effectively than expensive advertising campaigns.

In other words, real-world fear, amplified by media, worked. EVALI was later linked primarily to black-market THC vape products, not standard nicotine e-cigarettes. Yet many teens came away believing that all vaping caused lung injury.

“Quit attempt rates on a population level almost never change this dramatically from one period to the next,” said first author Jijiang Wang, PhD, a postdoctoral researcher at the Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health, whose doctoral dissertation as a student in the Joint Doctoral Program in Public Health focused on this topic. “When they do, it tells us something important about what is possible when the media environment shifts.”

The post Kids are vaping. The media shock that made them stop appeared first on Green Prophet.

My mother smoked two packs a day while pregnant with me in Canada in the 1970s. It was normal then. Doctors didn’t panic, they smoked beside their patients and left ashtrays in the waiting room. My parents smoked in the car, windows closed, despite my protest. Entire generations inhaled smoke before they could walk.

Today, Britain is attempting something that would have seemed unthinkable back then. Lawmakers have passed legislation designed to create a “smoke-free generation,” meaning that people who are currently children will never legally be able to purchase tobacco if the policy remains in place. They have started by promoting that sales of tobacco will be banned to anyone born after 2008.

The law works by raising the legal age for buying tobacco by one year every year. This means that those who are under the legal age today will not grow into eligibility later. The policy has passed through Parliament and is moving through the final stages required to become law. These laws could explain why tobacco companies have started investing in cannabis instead.

The aim is to gradually phase out smoking in the UK, where tobacco use still causes tens of thousands of deaths annually.

The scope of the law includes all tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars, and loose tobacco. Vaping is not banned under the same framework, but it is being increasingly regulated, with separate measures tightening controls on marketing, flavors, and youth access. The UK government has also proposed restrictions on disposable vapes as part of a broader effort to reduce nicotine use among young people.

The cultural implications are more complex when it comes to practices such as shisha, also known as hookah or nargila, which are common in parts of the Middle East and among Arab communities globally. When tobacco is involved, these practices fall under existing tobacco regulations, meaning the same age-based restrictions would apply.

Cannabis is not included in this legislation and is governed under separate laws.

Britain is among the first countries to pursue a generational approach to tobacco control, although similar ideas have been discussed or proposed elsewhere. New Zealand previously passed a comparable policy but later reversed it before implementation, highlighting the political challenges of sustaining such measures over time.

The scientific evidence around smoking behavior suggests that restricting access can reduce uptake, particularly among young people, but it is not the only factor. Research indexed in PubMed and across public health studies has shown that early exposure, peer influence, stress, and social environment all play significant roles in whether individuals begin and continue smoking.

What Britain is attempting is not only a public health intervention but also a cultural shift. It is testing whether a habit that was once deeply embedded in daily life can be gradually removed through policy.

The change from my mother’s generation to today reflects a profound shift in how risk and health are understood. What was once widely accepted is now increasingly restricted and discouraged.

Children growing up under this framework may never encounter smoking as a normal part of adult life, at least in legal terms.

Whether the law achieves its intended outcome will depend not only on enforcement but on whether social norms continue to move in the same direction.

The ambition is clear. It is not simply to reduce smoking rates but to make smoking obsolete over time.

The post Is Britain creating a smoke-free generation by banning sales to those born after 2008? appeared first on Green Prophet.

For centuries, the Sámi shaman drum was one of the most powerful sacred objects in northern Europe, and one of the most feared by church and state. If ISIS looks bad to us today for its religious fundamentalism, Christians were just as fervent.

In Denmark-Norway during the 17th and early 18th centuries, Sámi drums were confiscated as part of aggressive Christian missionary campaigns. In some witchcraft and idolatry prosecutions, drum owners faced severe punishment, including death sentences, although the legal reality varied case by case rather than through one simple blanket ban.

One of the most important records of these drums survives because of Knud Leem (1697–1774), a Norwegian priest and linguist who worked in Finnmark and became one of the earliest major documentarians of Sámi life, language, and belief. Leem began missionary work among the Sámi in 1725, learned Sámi language, and closely observed daily life, religion, and reindeer culture.

His landmark work, Beskrivelse over Finmarkens Lapper, was published in Copenhagen in 1767. The book included parallel Danish/Norwegian and Latin text and was illustrated with numerous copperplate engravings, making it one of the most significant 18th-century ethnographic works on the Sámi published in northern Europe. Some of the imagery was engraved by O.H. von Lode from drawings associated with Leem’s documentation.

How the Sámi drum worked

The Sámi drum, also called a runebomme or shaman drum, was used by a noaidi (Sámi ritual specialist or shaman) for divination and spiritual communication.

The drum membrane was often marked with symbolic figures, sometimes painted in red pigment, and these symbols could represent gods, humans, animals, sacred sites, hunting, illness, or the dead. On some North Sámi drums, the surface was structured into symbolic zones representing the upper world, human world, and underworld.

To use the drum, the noaidi placed a small metal pointer or ring, often referred to in sources as a vuorbi, on the skin and beat the drum. The movement of the ring was then interpreted as an answer to a question like a ouija board. Some questions they might ask include

Where a lost reindeer might be found
Whether a hunt would succeed
What kind of offering or ritual action was needed

The Sámi shaman who played his drum in court

One of the best-documented cases is that of Anders Poulsen, an elderly Sámi noaidi who was tried in Vadsø, northern Norway, in 1692 after his drum was confiscated.

Court records show that Poulsen was interrogated in detail about the symbols on his drum, making his testimony one of the most important surviving descriptions of Sámi cosmology and drum symbolism. Historians describe the case as part of the wider Finnmark witch trials, among the most intense witch persecutions in northern Europe.

Before any final conviction could be carried out, Poulsen was killed in custody with an axe by Willum (Villum) Gundersen, a servant later described in historical records as mentally unstable. Poulsen is often remembered as one of the last victims of the Finnmark witch trials.

Why did the Christians hunt sami drums?

Shamanism was seen as a type of devil worship. Shaman drumming, and ritual practices put them in league with the devil. Consequently, Christianity characterized Sámi noaidi as witches who consulted demons, and persecuted them mercilessly.

Why so few Sámi drums survived

Many Sámi drums did not survive the missionary era. Missionary Thomas von Westen and his network collected large numbers of drums in the early 1700s as part of the Christianization campaign. Historical sources indicate that around 100 drums were taken, many of them sent to Copenhagen. A large portion of these were later destroyed in the Great Fire of Copenhagen in 1728, where about 70 drums were reportedly lost.

Today, only a small number of original Sámi drums survive in museum and institutional collections around the world. Scholars and museums generally place the number at roughly 70 to 75 known surviving drums, depending on classification and provenance.

The Sámi drum is not just an artifact. It is a surviving record of Indigenous cosmology, resistance, and memory. What church authorities once treated as evidence of “paganism” is now understood as part of a sophisticated spiritual and symbolic system tied to land, reindeer, ancestors, and survival in the Arctic.

And because missionaries, courts, and collectors tried so hard to destroy them, every surviving drum now carries two histories at once, the Sámi world it came from, and the violence used to erase it.

Who are the Sámi? 

The Sámi people are an indigenous group of approximately 80,000–100,000 individuals living in Sápmi, a region stretching across the northern parts of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia’s Kola Peninsula. While traditionally nomadic reindeer herders, most modern Sámi live in permanent homes in northern Scandinavia, with the largest population concentrated in Norway.

The post Sámi shaman drums and why owning one could get you killed appeared first on Green Prophet.

At a time when climate anxiety can feel abstract and overwhelming, and being Jewish something people may need to hide in big cities, Adamah Los Angeles is trying something different: turning Jewish values into local climate action with dirt-under-the-fingernails practicality.

This spring, the Los Angeles-based branch of Adamah is inviting the Jewish community to engage climate work not as a distant political slogan, but as a lived spiritual and communal responsibility. Its newly opened LA Sustainability Fund is one of the clearest examples. Jewish nonprofits in the greater Los Angeles area can apply for grants of up to $20,000 to support energy-saving and sustainability projects, provided they are part of the Jewish Climate Leadership Coalition.

That’s real money for real change – the kind of funds that can help schools, synagogues, camps, and community spaces lower emissions and utility bills while becoming more resilient in a warming California.

The initiative arrives alongside LA Climate Week (April 12–16), where Adamah LA is organizing and promoting events rooted in regenerative gardening, volunteering, faith, and climate resilience. Rather than framing environmentalism as gloom and doom, Adamah leans into repair, ritual, and relationship the Jewish way.

This is very much Adamah’s broader model: blending Jewish learning, land connection, food, farming, climate literacy and spiritual renewal into one ecosystem. Even its seasonal offerings reflect that approach. For Passover, which is still ongoing, Adamah has released a sustainability-focused haggadah supplement that brings ecological reflection into the seder through Torah (the Bible), meditation, and climate questions.

There’s also a professional side to the movement so Jewish communal workers can attend “ReTreat Yourself!”, a no-cost June retreat at Camp Ramah in California, designed to strengthen both leadership and spiritual resilience in these hard times.

In a city known for its urban sprawl, wildfires, and climate vulnerability, Adamah LA is building something close to the ground: a Jewish climate culture that is local, networked, and rooted in action.

In Hebrew Adamah is the connection between adam (human) and adamah, the earth.

While Adamah LA has emerged as a strong Jewish climate organizer during LA Climate Week, the broader week also opens space for Christian and Indigenous leadership, two groups whose environmental work often runs deeper than branding or institutional visibility.

For many Christian communities in Los Angeles, climate action is increasingly framed as a matter of stewardship, justice, and care for creation. Churches, faith-based nonprofits, and Catholic organizers often use Climate Week to host conversations around energy, food systems, environmental racism, and resilience in vulnerable neighborhoods. Their language may differ from activist circles, but the mission is often the same: protecting life, land, and future generations.

Indigenous voices, meanwhile, bring something even more foundational. Rather than treating climate as a policy issue alone, Indigenous leaders tend to center land relationship, ancestral responsibility, water protection, and sacred ecology. Their presence in climate events can shift the conversation from sustainability as a technical fix to sustainability as a way of living in right relationship with the earth.

Together, Christian and Indigenous participants help expand LA Climate Week beyond panels and policy. They remind the city that climate action is not only scientific or political, it is also moral, spiritual, and deeply rooted in place.

If you know of other faith-based events happening during the week, drop them in the comments below.

The post Adamah in Los Angeles wants to make Jewish climate action local, practical and spiritual appeared first on Green Prophet.

People comparing their healthcare financing options often run into a question with a deceptively short answer: Is Liberty HealthShare insurance? No, it is not. But that single-word answer carries significant weight, and understanding what sits behind it matters far more than the answer itself.

Liberty HealthShare is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Christian medical cost-sharing ministry based in Canton, Ohio. Founded in 1995, the ministry facilitates voluntary sharing of eligible medical expenses among members who share Christian values and a commitment to mutual aid. That structure places it in an entirely different legal and operational category than insurance.

The Legal Difference Is Not Semantic

Health insurance is a regulated financial product. Insurers operate under binding contracts, overseen by state insurance commissioners, that legally obligate them to pay claims meeting policy terms. Policyholders who believe a covered claim was wrongfully denied have legal recourse through state regulatory channels.

Liberty HealthShare functions outside that framework entirely. Voluntary member contributions are assigned to other members with eligible medical expenses that are approved for sharing. Liberty HealthShare facilitates that sharing. No contractual guarantee of payment exists. The ministry states plainly that its sharing programs “do not guarantee or promise that a member’s medical bills will be paid or assigned to others for payment.”

Healthcare sharing ministries are exempt from state insurance regulations precisely because they operate as voluntary member-to-member sharing communities, not as financial products with legally enforceable payment obligations. That exemption reflects a structural difference in how these models are built and governed.

Federal Recognition Under the ACA

Despite not being insurance, Liberty HealthShare holds a meaningful federal designation. The ministry received recognition as an eligible healthcare sharing ministry under the Affordable Care Act in 2014, a status that exempts members from ACA insurance mandates.

That designation creates a third category in American healthcare financing — distinct from being insured and distinct from being uninsured. Members participate in a faith-based sharing community without facing penalties for not carrying insurance. The ACA’s recognition of this category reflects a congressional acknowledgment that healthcare sharing ministries operate according to principles and structures that fall outside the insurance regulatory model.

How the Facilitation Model Works in Practice

“We’re not trying to make a profit on this. Our focus is we facilitate, and that’s it. There’s no other objective on our part. We just want to help our members get the best care possible at the best value,” posts Liberty HealthShare Chief Executive Officer Dorsey Morrow.

That facilitation model shapes member interactions from the beginning. Liberty HealthShare’s Care Navigation team works directly with members to help them understand proposed treatments, question provider charges, and make informed decisions before bills are finalized. Members track their contributions and sharing activity through their personal ShareBox, a secure online portal that shows how monthly shares support others in the community. That degree of financial transparency is uncommon in insurance arrangements, where members rarely see how their premiums are distributed.

Morrow explains that one of the ministry’s core goals is encouraging members to engage actively with their healthcare decisions rather than approaching the system passively: “We want our members to take back that control.”

Six Programs, No Open Enrollment Window

Liberty HealthShare offers six medical cost-sharing programs designed to accommodate different household sizes and budgets, as well as supplemental dental and vision sharing programs. Suggested monthly share amounts for individuals range from $87 to $369, with family options starting at $319 per month. Members can switch between programs or leave without annual commitments.

Enrollment is available year-round, with no qualifying life event required. That open enrollment structure contrasts with insurance models governed by ACA open enrollment periods or employer plan windows, and it reflects the ministry’s status as a non-insurance sharing community rather than a regulated financial product.

What the Distinction Requires of Members

Understanding that Liberty HealthShare is not insurance is not a footnote — it is foundational to making an informed decision about membership. Sharing is voluntary. No guarantee of payment exists. Members who join do so within a community built on shared Christian values, mutual aid, and personal engagement with healthcare decisions.

For those whose values and circumstances fit that model, the ministry has operated for 30 years and facilitated nearly $5 billion in eligible, repriced medical expenses for its members since 2014. For those who need contractual payment guarantees, insurance is the appropriate path. Liberty HealthShare has never claimed otherwise.

More information is available at LibertyHealthShare.org or by calling 855-585-4237.

The post What Is Liberty HealthShare, and Should I Learn More? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Using a Mac cleanup tool is one of the best ways to keep your Mac running in a very good shape. And the most important thing is to narrow down what works for you and where you can obtain the best possible outcome. In most cases, what you want to do is to use a Mac cleaner if you see that your device is slow, you have too little RAM or the system data folders are getting very large. Here are some of the apps you want to use.

Daisy Disk

It’s definitely meant to be a simpler solution, but make no mistake, it can still help you remove unwanted files from your device. The app focuses more on managing your storage and yes, it does a very good job at that. However, it’s not offering a whole lot of features beyond that, which could prove to be rather problematic. That’s why it’s a good idea to test it in the trial mode and see if it fits your requirements.

Cleaner One Disk Clean

Made by Trend Micro, this is a tool that you can get for free from the Mac App Store. The downside is that it has only a free version with limitations. So you still have to pay for some features. But it can do a good job at cleaning up your memory and doing some basic cleaning.

MacCleaner Pro

The app is designed to offer a fast way of cleaning your Mac and it does include quite a lot of apps that you can use. It’s designed to remove system clutter quickly, and it will make it easier to optimize your Mac by rebuilding the Spotlight index and freeing up RAM. It does all the basic stuff for cleanup, along with some extra features. But it is on the more expensive side, so keep that in mind.

CleanMyMac

It’s one of the best free Mac cleaners available on the market because it can delete a huge number of junk files, duplicate files and temporary items. Using it often can lead to a great performance boost, not to mention the entire process is very fast. All of this combined is going to help more than expected, and the upside is that you can retry this process as many times as you need. 

Plus, the app also has other benefits, like real-time malware protection, memory and CPU load monitoring, not to mention it can help you uninstall apps already installed on your device. And there is also a privacy feature along with setting reminders to help you scan your Mac. 

Onyx

The fact that it’s free makes Onyx a good tool for many people. Again, it’s not going to help with everything you want from a cleanup tool. But it does help improve performance by handling some cleanup and optimization tasks. The fact that it’s free is what sets is apart from all the other options out there. And yes, it also does a very good job at including great optimization solutions for newcomers, too.

Disk Drill

It’s a data recovery app at its core, so that’s definitely the thing you want to use it for. But it has a module for clearing up items from your device and doing a cleanup. Yes, it’s not dedicated for this task specifically, but the module they added is pretty solid, and it will give you very much the boost and benefits you are looking for. 

Mac Washing Machine 

Since this is a part of the Intego app bundle, it’s not an app that you can buy separately. But is it worth it though? What you will notice is that it can help you reclaim space, delete duplicates, while also organizing the desktop and folders. Considering the price of the Intego app bundle, it is expensive to access, but if you are going to use those tools already, then it’s definitely worth using.

CCleaner

CCleaner is very popular on PC, and it also does a good job on Mac as well. Here, you will be able to use it for cleaning your browser, removing clutter from your Mac, finding duplicates, managing startup items and uninstalling apps. It has a straightforward interface and the work that it does is pretty good. Plus, many of the features are free to access, yet you can access everything with a paid upgrade.

Conclusion

It’s clear that a Mac cleanup tool is very much a necessity these days. The most important thing is to take your time, see what your device needs and what maintenance will help boost its performance. It might not seem like a lot, but the upside is that you can improve the performance of your device in no time if you use these tools. And if you start using them regularly, you can see a great improvement overall, which makes them well-worth your time. 

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As Passover approaches, a global online gathering is inviting people to explore the holiday’s ancient story of liberation through a modern lens of compassion, sustainability and ethical food choices.

An American group called Jewish Vegan Life (JVL) will host a virtual event titled “Liberation for All: The Compassionate Passover” on March 19, 2026, bringing together rabbis, activists and food innovators to discuss how the themes of the Passover story can inspire more compassionate holiday traditions.

Passover, which commemorates the biblical journey from slavery to freedom, begins during the Hebrew month of Nisan, the biblical new year associated with renewal and transformation. Organizers say the holiday offers an opportunity to rethink how the concept of liberation might extend beyond human freedom to include animals and the natural world.

“Passover is the story of moving from constriction to freedom,” said Michael Gribov, Head of Movement Building at Jewish Vegan Life. “This event invites us to expand that liberation, to our plates, to the planet and to all living beings.”

The live online program will be hosted by Stephanie Dryer and will feature a number of speakers exploring the connection between Jewish tradition and plant-based living.

Rabbi Donn Gross, head of Congregation Bet Dovid in New Jersey, will speak about the spiritual meaning of Passover and how a vegan Seder can deepen the holiday’s message of freedom and compassion.

Megan Tucker, founder of the Los Angeles plant-based company Mort & Betty’s, will share her personal vegan journey and demonstrate a Passover-friendly recipe that brings plant-based cooking to the Seder table.

Gribov will also introduce Jewish Vegan Life’s Passover Earth Day campaign, which connects the themes of liberation and renewal with environmental stewardship.

Participants will learn how to host a plant-based Seder, explore vegan Passover recipes and discuss how Jewish teachings on responsibility and compassion can guide modern food choices.

The event is open to anyone interested in the intersection of Jewish tradition, ethical eating and environmental responsibility. Organizers emphasize that participants do not need to be vegan to attend — only curious.

Registered participants will be able to watch the livestream, interact with speakers during a live chat and receive access to a recording of the event. Members of Jewish Vegan Life will also receive a complimentary copy of the organization’s Vegan Haggadah following the program.

The event takes place Thursday, March 19, 2026 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET and registration is now open online.

Want some more resources on a sustainable Passover? Green Prophet has you covered. Browse below for more.

• 10 Tips For Greening Your Passover
• Passover Recipe: Traditional Matzah Balls
• Haroset, The Passover Seder’s Sweet Treat Recipe
• A Sustainable Passover
• Eco Rabbi Explores Passover Cleaning To Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
• Yoko Ono Greens the Passover Atmosphere at the Ecosphere Festival in Israel
• Ecological Activities in Israel During Passover
• Jews Celebrate “Solar Seder” in the Arava Desert at Kibbutz Lotan
• Recipes for Simanim (Signs) for Rosh Hashanah’s Symbolic Foods

The post Jewish Vegans invite global community to “Compassionate Passover” event appeared first on Green Prophet.

The Purim holiday is coming up next week: this year, 2026, it occurs from the evening of March 2nd until the evening of March 3rd. (In Jerusalem, where Shushan Purim is celebrated, the festival takes place on the following day, from March 3rd to March 4th.) Read about Purim and building a good society here.

There’s feasting at home on the night and the next day, and to make sure everyone gets good things to eat, families send out packages of treats to friends and neighbors. Traditional goodies are hamentaschen, and other treats like our chocolate nut clusters .

Now here’s another treat for sending around: a delicate nut-filled Moroccan pastry called Haman’s Fingers. It’s a sweet take on savory Moroccan cigars.

Haman’s Fingers
Yield: 20 rolled pastries

Pastry Ingredients
2 cups whole walnuts
2 cups whole almonds
½ cup sugar syrup (recipe below)
1 tsp orange blossom water (optional)
½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cardamom
¼ tsp allspice
¼ tsp kosher salt
15 sheets of frozen phyllo pastry, thawed overnight in the refrigerator
1 stick (½ cup) melted butter

Syrup Ingredients
1 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp orange blossom water or 1 tbsp lemon juice
Zest of 1 orange

Directions

Remove the phyllo dough from the freezer to the fridge the night before starting. 2 hours before starting, remove the package from the fridge to room temperature. When ready to start, open the package and cover the phyllo with a damp towel or plastic wrap, to prevent drying out.

Make the syrup:
Bring water and sugar to a boil. Reduce the heat to a steady simmer and cook uncovered for 20-25 minutes, until syrup has reduced to about ⅔ cup. Add orange blossom water or lemon juice and orange zest. Set aside to cool.

Prepare the filling:
Place the walnuts and almonds in a food processor. Pulse until the texture resembles coarse crumbs, with some chunks.
Add ½ cup of the sugar syrup and the cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, salt, and optional orange blossom water. Pulse another couple of times until mixture comes together. Don’t overwork the filling; you don’t want a smooth paste, bu a mixture with some texture.

Roll the pastry:
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C).
Place a sheet of baking parchment on your work surface. Melt the butter (30 seconds in the microwave should do it) and set it aside to cool.
Place 1 sheet of phyllo on the baking parchment. Brush with melted butter. Place a second sheet over it, brush with butter. Do the same with a third sheet, finishing with brushed butter.
Roll the filling into a tube shape on a clean surface. Place it half an inch from the edge of the phyllo layers, on the long side. Carefully roll up the dough. Slice it into 4 pieces.
Transfer the cigars to the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining phyllo and filling.

Glaze the fingers:
Brush the finished cigars with more butter and then brush generously with syrup. There will be some syrup left for a final glazing.
Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and while still hot, brush with additional syrup to glaze.
Trim any filling that oozed out of the “fingers” off with a knife.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3-4 days.

Recipe and photo via Chabad.org

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