Bill was introduced in Sep/25, but I only got a whiff of it in the last couple of weeks

See House Bill HB1878: https://fastdemocracy.com/bill-search/pa/2025-2026/bills/PAB00038963/

Are there any other states/countries taking similar initiatives?

Summary:

Pennsylvania homeowners deserve the right to choose native plant species they desire for landscaping around their homes. However, work is needed to remove bottlenecks for homeowners to select native vegetation for their desired landscaping.

This legislation will prevent homeowners associations (HOAs) from unreasonably prohibiting the use of native plants for landscaping on private property. This ensures homeowners residing within an HOA the same ability to choose native landscaping as other homeowners.

Native plants provide many beneficial functions that many homeowners desire. These include being aesthetically pleasing and providing habitat for pollinators while being adapted to the site and typically requiring lower maintenance than non-native plants. [...]

The defense secretary’s efforts to block or delay promotions to general or admiral for some officers has raised concerns that he may be targeting them because of race, gender or affiliation with the Biden administration, sources say.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has taken steps to block or delay promotions for more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across all four branches of the military, some of whom are seen as having been targeted because of their race, gender or perceived affiliation with Biden administration policies or officials, according to nine U.S. officials familiar with the process.

The process within the Army, the Air Force, the Navy and the Marines is structured to ensure the most qualified officers get promoted.

Hegseth’s decision to intervene in the process has raised concerns among some officials within those military branches and the White House, the nine U.S. officials familiar with the situation said.

Donald Trump is "unlawfully" trying to dictate how states run elections in violation of the U.S. Constitution by restricting voter eligibility and mail-in voting to lists of voters pre-authorized by the Trump administration, according to a federal lawsuit filed on Friday.

In March 2025, the 45th and 47th president issued Executive Order 14248, titled: "Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections." The order broadly seeks to reshape how elections are administered in the country by, among other things, purporting to enforce a requirement that all voters prove their citizenship by way of formal documentation and by putting a stop to vote-by-mail systems that count ballots postmarked by, but received after, Election Day.

Last month, Trump issued yet another elections-focused executive order titled: "Ensuring Citizenship Verification and Integrity in Federal Elections." The latest order aims to firm up and formalize the administration's citizenship-and-documentation efforts by creating and enforcing the use of approved voter lists, limiting mail-in voting based on harmony with such lists, and imposing record-keeping requirements on states.

Donald Trump said Sunday that if no peace deal is reached with Iran in the next 48 hours, "we're blowing up the entire country."

The president made the threat Sunday to ABC News' senior political correspondent Rachel Scott in response to a question regarding whether his previously stated timeline of two to three weeks for a deal was still accurate.

Concerns have been raised about targeting civilian infrastructure in Iran and the consequences that could bring.

More details here: https://www.techspot.com/news/111951-steam-could-soon-show-estimated-fps-based-crowd.html?hl=en-US

Lemmy, I really would like to hear your opinions on this. I am bipolar. after almost a decade of being misdiagnosed and on medication that made my manic symptoms worse, I found stable employment with good insurance and have been able to find a good psychiatrist. I've been consistently medicated for the past 3 years, and this is the most stable I have been in my entire life.

The office has rolled out the use of an app called MYIO app. My knee jerk reaction was to not be happy about the app, but I managed my emotions, took a breath and vowed to give it a chance. After being sent the link to validate my account, the app would force restart my phone at the last step of activation. (I have my phone locked down pretty tight, and lots of google shit, and data sharing is disabled, so I'm thinking that might be the cause. My phone is also like 4-5 years old, so that could also be the cause.)

Luckily I was able to complete the steps on PC and activate that way. Once I was in the account there were standard forms to sign, like the HIPAA release. There was also a form there requesting I consent to the use of AI. Hell to the NO. That's a no for me dawg.jpg.

I'm really emotional and not thinking rationally. I am hoping for the opinions of cooler heads.

If my doctor refuses to let me be a patient if I don't consent to AI, what should I do? What would you do? Agree even though this is a major line in the sand for me, or consent to keep a provider I have a rapport with, who knows me well enough to know when my meds need adjusting?

EDIT: This is the text of the AI agreement. As part of their ongoing commitment to provide the best possible service, your provider has opted to use an artificial intelligence note-taking tool that assists in generating clinical documentation based on your sessions. This allows for more time and focus to be spent on our interactions instead of taking time to jot down notes or trying to remember all the important details. A temporary recording and transcript or summary of the conversation may be created and used to generate the clinical note for that session. Your provider then reviews the content of that note to ensure its accuracy and completeness. After the note has been created, the recording and transcript are automatically deleted.

This artificial intelligence tool prioritizes the privacy and confidentiality of your personal health information. Your session information is strictly used for the purpose of your ongoing medical care. Your information is subject to strict data privacy regulations and is always secured and encrypted. Stringent business associate agreements ensure data privacy and HIPAA compliance.