Joan L. Cannon wrote: "Most people are uncomfortable in the presence of what they see as authority. That’s the way most patients see their doctors. Subtleties like the relative position of the authority figure who sits on a stool a little below the level of the patient’s chair help to alleviate this artificial distance, but a common understanding of human behavior based on a lot more than one person can acquire through direct experience can be the biggest help of all. Once in practice, few doctors will have time for artistic or literary excursions, so it probably would be a good idea to give them as much of that experience as possible as early as possible."

Bills Introduced: The importance of reducing the rate of maternal mortality and morbidity among Black women; A bill to address the use of opioids and substance use disorders with respect to pregnant women and babies; A bill to prohibit the pricing of consumer products and services that are substantially similar if such products or services are priced differently based on the gender of the individuals for whose use the products are intended or marketed or for whom the services are performed or offered; a bill to require the secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide child care assistance to veterans receiving certain training or vocational rehabilitation.

Jo Freeman reviews and writes: Alan Venable was one of Hope’s kids. A junior at Harvard, he joined 18 students from Brandeis University and four from other Boston area schools to go to Columbia S.C. for ten weeks. After two weeks, six of them moved to Calhoun County. When they started canvassing only 490 blacks were registered to vote in that county. They registered 114 in July, under the very restrictive registration rules typical of the Southern states, which were generally applied to blacks but not to whites. When the VRA became law on August 6, it removed the literacy test. Another 500 registered in the next two months.

The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) final paper details genomic alterations in 10 key signaling pathways that control the stages of the cell’s life cycle, growth, and death. The researchers found that 89% of tumors had at least one significant alteration in these pathways. About 57% of tumors had at least one alteration that could be targeted with currently known drugs and 30% had multiple targetable alterations. These findings will help researchers explore treatments with more tailored approaches, such as using a combination of drugs to target multiple pathways at the same time.

“The number of pictures increases, but what we see decrease”, says Sean Snyder, one of the artists. Society is in the midst of a technological revolution. The stream of images and the balance of power are now changing because of the ubiquity of the smartphone camera and the immediacy and reach of social media. These are new times, and art is posing new questions. In each their own way, the works presented at the “Faithless Pictures” exhibition address the vast amount of imagery that surrounds us, the visual torrent that seemingly represents our lives, our times, our world – the news clips, holiday photos, and flickers from the depths of the internet that meet us in a fragmented world of half illusion and half reality.

Rose Madeline Mula writes: "As I sat at Mass one recent Saturday afternoon, I thought the officiating priest said something about “Fake News” and the current political climate. Was he sympathizing with Donald Trump? My first instinct was to walk out. But since I hadn’t heard the context of his remarks, I wasn’t sure. So I stayed, recalling another Mass, at another church, during another era of political contention, when another priest declaimed from the pulpit that it was our responsibility to vote for George Bush. I was furious!"

Almost all mammals communicate using sound, but few species produce complex songs. Two baleen whales sing complex songs that change annually, though only the humpback whale has received much research attention. This study focuses on the other baleen whale singer, the bowhead whale. Members of the Spitsbergen bowhead whale population produced 184 different song types over a 3-year period, based on duty-cycled recordings from a site in Fram Strait in the northeast Atlantic. Nor is it known if individual bowhead whales maintain the same song throughout their lifetime or if they switch within and/or between years.

House price growth has varied significantly nationwide since the end of the Great Recession in 2009: In some metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs), prices have grown as quickly as 7 percent annually, while others have seen prices decline almost as quickly, with many more MSAs falling somewhere in between. Since households spend more on housing than any other good or service, we would expect that inflation rates would show the same variation. They do not. 

Jo Freeman writes: March 24 had a milder flavor than most protests, in part because the teenagers who organized it had parental approval and lots of adult support. Even the cops were cool; police would prefer to be the only ones to carry guns. The DC National Guard blocked the streets and cops directed traffic elsewhere. If the issue of gun violence had not been so grave, it would have felt like a celebration rather than a protest. Staff from the Democratic National Committee and volunteers from the League of Women Voters asked participants to sign statements that they would register to vote. The DNC passed out stickers to young people with the year they would reach voting age.

The ripple effects of a market collapse would be severe, and taxpayers would potentially be on the hook for losses posted by failed mortgage companies. In addition to loans backed by the FHA or VA, the government is exposed through Ginnie Mae, the federal agency that provides payment guarantees when mortgages are pooled and sold as securities to investors. The mortgage companies are supposed to bear the losses if these securitized loans go bad. But if those companies go under, the government “will probably bear the majority of the increased credit and operational losses,” the paper concludes. Ginnie Mae is especially vulnerable because almost 60 percent of the dollar volume of the mortgages it guarantees comes from nonbank lenders.

Pennsylvania is one of 41 states where some counties and cities use election equipment that is more than a decade old, according to the New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice. Older machines are more likely to malfunction or break down on Election Day, causing long lines and potentially dissuading some people from casting their ballots. Some older machines also are susceptible to wireless malware attacks, even if they are not directly connected to the internet, or have removable memory devices a hacker might manipulate.

Ferida Wolff writes: It’s hard to ignore the changes that are taking place across the world. The atmosphere is heating up, causing glaciers to melt, oceans to rise, more floods, and fires in drier lands. And yet, we can still have snow at the beginning of Spring. It reminds me not to take anything for granted. Trees are so strong and impressive yet they, too, are part of the progression of life. Even as we plan for the future we can live moment to moment along the way. Which is good to remember because another rain/snow storm is expected tomorrow.

Bills Introduced: A resolution recognizing the heritage, culture, and contributions of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian women in the United States; A bill to reauthorize programs authorized under the Debbie Smith Act of 2004; A bill to direct the Secretary of Homeland Security to develop educational materials relating to human trafficking in schools; A bill to provide rental assistance to low-income tenants of certain multi-family rural housing projects, and for other purposes.  

“Consumers are fed up with illegal robocalls that disturb their privacy and often pitch scams,” said Acting FTC Chairman Ohlhausen. “We’re going to expand our fight against this scourge through initiatives like the upcoming Technology Expo and Policy Forum, which amplify our impact through close coordination with the FCC and other partners.” “Scam robocalls and deceptive spoofing are real threats to American consumers, and they are the number one consumer complaint at the FCC,” said FCC Chairman Pai. “We’re committed to confronting this problem using every tool we have. I’m pleased to announce these efforts in our continued work with the FTC to protect consumers.”