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Stephen Fehr writes: The Oklahoma Capitol is one of many statehouses around the country that need fixing. Visitors enter the building under scaffolding so they don’t get bonked on the head by falling rock. Minnesota Gov.Dayton and Pennsylvania Gov. Corbett have called for money to repair their declining capitols, as have officials in Alaska, Colorado, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Oregon and Wyoming. New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee and Wisconsin have refurbished parts of their statehouses in the last few years, and major restorations are winding down in Illinois and Kansas.
Traditionally, suicide prevention efforts have been focused mostly on youths and older adults, but recent evidence suggests that there have been substantial increases in suicide rates among middle-aged adults in the United States. Suicide deaths have surpassed deaths from motor vehicle crashes in recent years in the United States.
"Some people walk because they choose to do so. Some of these may have chosen not to own a passenger vehicle. Others may have vehicles available but choose to walk for some of their travel. On the other hand, there are people who walk because they have little choice of alternative modes. These are largely captive walkers. While risk of riding in a passenger vehicle has been declining considerably over the last several decades, it is the captive walkers who have been adversely affected by the increased exposure to vehicle traffic." The Fatality Risk of Walking in America
Julia Sneden writes: Children need to be assured that they are their own persons, no matter how much they look like someone from the past. It’s entirely possible that personality types are inherited as easily as the shape and color of eyes, but unlike the physical traits, personality is surely influenced by the nurturing dynamics of each immediate family. It seems to me that those dynamics create what we call character.
Last week Congress introduced these bills: Sen. Patty Murray, D-WA, a bill to ensure access to high-quality child care for homeless children and families, and for other purposes. Rep. Bill Cassidy, R-LA, a bill to permit health plans without a deductible for prenatal, labor and delivery, and postpartum care to be treated as high deductible plans with respect to health savings accounts. Rep. Gene Green, D-TX, a bill to provide for 12-month continuous enrollment of individuals under the Medicaid and Children's Health Insurance Program.
Frances Perkins speaks: One thing I know: Social Security is so firmly embedded in the American psychology today that no politician, no political party, no political group could possibly destroy this Act and still maintain our democratic system. It is safe. It is safe forever, and for the everlasting benefit of the people of the United States.
Research shows that programs with trained examiners, such as Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs) or Sexual Assault Forensic Examiners (SAFEs), using modern standards like those in the SAFE Protocol significantly increase evidence collection and investigation in sexual assault cases. Better evidence collection results in significantly higher prosecution rates, convictions, and guilty-pleas.
The research supports the idea that drops in the financial market may be preceded by periods of investor concern. Investors may search for more information about the market before they are prepared to sell at lower prices. Conversely, the researchers found that drops in interest in financial topics could be used as a signal for subsequent stock market rises.
Val Castronovo writes: A tribute to art and a tribute to science, the elaborate gilded works on display date from the early 16th to the 19th century. Their provenance: England, France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland. They were valued as much for their artistry and craft as for their functionality. They signified a person’s wealth and taste. Napoleon, Louis XVI, Marie-Antoinette, and the daughters of Louis XV were just some of the many rich and famous people who coveted them.
We admit, with all apologies, this NYC exhibit that closed earlier this month, but hope to make it up by some history and images:
The Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology (MFIT) preseneds Shoe Obsession, an exhibition that examined our cult…
Some state legislators continue to push laws that would make it harder for eligible American citizens to vote. But there’s good news, too. More and more states are pressing measures to improve elections. Since the beginning of 2013, at least 80 restrictive bills were introduced in 31 states. Of those, 62 restrictive bills are still pending in 25 states.
Maggie Clark of Stateline writes: In recent years, federal funding for state homeland security efforts to respond to emergencies has been gutted.Federal grant spending on state and local homeland security is at an all-time low. In Massachusetts, funding from the state homeland security grant program is down 76 percent in the last five years, to $4 million in fiscal 2012, according to Federal Funds Information for States. The state ranked 34th in per capita spending in homeland security grant funding, at $1.20 per person.
Joan L. Cannon writes: Parthenia gave us a small library of quotable quotes over the year we knew her: "time come, baby come" for when awaiting a foaling or any other anticipated event; "if everybody hung their troubles on the line, you’d take your own off first;" and other turn-of-the-century aphorisms. She showed us how to put the best finishing polish on a groomed animal with her bare hand. She could explain what to do on horseback in ten words that someone else would take ten minutes to teach.
It is not easy to describe the brilliance with which Erdrich balances humor and anxiety and terrible truths, but somehow she manages to make us smile in the midst of all the angst. The truth of the rape of his mother eventually does come out, and Joe’s mother is somewhat restored to her old life. That truth, however, brings with it an accompanying, new tragedy, one which marks Joe deeply, and changes forever the child’s relationship to his world.
"Women should not have to compromise their health because a private company controls their own genetic information," said Sandra Park, staff attorney with the ACLU Women's Rights Project. "Patients deserve the best available care, including access to testing and options for second opinions before making serious decisions about their health. These patents prevent them from getting that."
We make way too many trips to some of our local favorite nurseries for plants; it's usually, "Oh, I just need another tarragon ... lobelia ... thunbergia ... scabiosa ... " and, in no time, the car back-back is laden with new purchases. But tools are more of an investment and we choose carefully and, in some cases, for a lifetime of use. Here are some favorites.
I’m here at the White House today because I want to make a difference and I hope you will join me. My name is Francine Wheeler. My husband David is with me. We live in Sandy Hook, Connecticut. David and I have two sons. Our older son Nate, soon to be 10 years old, is a fourth grader at Sandy Hook Elementary School. Our younger son, Ben, age six, was murdered in his first-grade classroom on December 14th, exactly 4 months ago this weekend.
Some of the most striking surrealist drawings were exquisite corpses, a game that involved collaboration and chance. In the game — the name of which derives from a sentence created when the surrealists first used the process to write poetry: The exquisite corpse will drink the new wine — each participant made a drawing on a section of a folded sheet of paper without seeing the others’ drawings. The resulting hybrid creatures generated by the game influenced surrealist imagery, reappearing in artists’ individual works.
"People who pursue Death with Dignity tend to be individuals who want to be independent and want to have control over the conditions and timing of their final moments of life," said Elizabeth Trice Loggers, M.D., Ph.D., corresponding author and medical director of SCCA’s Supportive and Palliative Care Service.
Ferida writes: Lavender has a long history of medicinal use and is a staple in aromatherapy. Some is proven, some not, but it is used in a variety of applications for many conditions. One of its uses is for its calming effect. The oil embraces the whole body in the bath. Inhaled, it seems to relax tension and may help with insomnia. I don’t want to neglect something that has been blooming all through the winter — my African Violet. I don’t take my it for granted. I know it needs proper tending.
British crime and thriller writers are being bumped off by their American counterparts, according to the latest tabulation of the Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Titles in UK libraries. No less than 17 novels by US-based crime and thriller writers appear in the Top 20 Most Borrowed Adult Fiction Titles list.
Mark Twain writes in 1865: "You ought never to take your little brother's 'chewing-gum' away from him by main force; it is better to rope him in with the promise of the first two dollars and a half you find floating down the river on a grindstone. In the artless simplicity natural to this time of life, he will regard it as a perfectly fair transaction. In all ages of the world this eminently plausible fiction has lured the obtuse infant to financial ruin and disaster."
Hernando J. Ortega, Jr. editorializes: "The pilots of Remotely piloted aircraft (RPA), also referred to as unmanned aerial vehicles or 'drones', face unique stressors related to the impact of fighting a war at the office and going home to a family at night. Last, the continually increasing demand for RPA support has lead to manning issues; RPA pilots are faced with rotating shifts and long hours which contribute to stress, sleep issues, and other negative consequences."
Roberta McReynolds writes: The truth of the matter is that I’d hit an awkward point I hadn’t foreseen. The lights over my bathroom mirror still reflected the shine and sparkle I loved. (They don’t call them ‘vanity lights’ without a reason.) But when I caught my image in a window, a store dressing room mirror, or worse yet, in a photograph, I was shocked by reality. The white had become more dispersed through the brown making it appear ... no big surprise here ... drab gray.
The exhibit presents new international scholarship about an artist who was considered among the most prolific and talented artists living around 1900. Although highly esteemed by his contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, Zorn is little known to the general public in the US today. "Anders Zorn is one of the most significant artists of the Belle Époque."
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Touring a State Capitol 'Dungeon' and Other Renovation Stories
CDC: Among Women in Their Early '60s, Suicide Rates Increased By Nearly 60 Percent
