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."

The liar must first of all decide not to assert the truth, and then must assert an alternative statement that is plausible and appears informative to the listener, all the while concealing any outward signs of nervousness ... If a person needs to monitor plausibility of a lie then this will be more difficult for more complex lies. Studies investigating the effects of making lies more complex have found that they are easier to detect.

You may have heard about the uproar regarding The New York Times obituary for Ms. Brill initially beginning with lauding her beef stroganoff skills rather than her Dual Thrust Level Monopropellant Spacecraft Propulsion System (Patent #3,807,657). This video of her lecture (MIT TechTV) may refocus that strange emphasis on cooking to her genius.

Beekeepers and public interest Groups have sued the EPA over bee-toxic pesticides. The coalition seeks suspension of the registrations of insecticides that have repeatedly been identified as highly toxic to honey bees. Total losses of managed honey bee colonies were 21.9 percent for the 2011/2012 winter according to a survey. Did you know that native bees do not live in hives? Prepare a place for them in your garden.

This is the day of the week I cede responsibility for Tommy to the group I call the Three Musketeers. I fancy Barry, Hal, and Marshall as characters from the Dumas novel because the way they care for my husband; while my love for the Musketeers could be considered self-serving because they give me a day off, Tommy enjoys their personalities. But this would be the last golf season that my husband and his companions would enjoy together.  

Starting in January 2014, employers with at least 50 workers must offer affordable coverage or pay a penalty. Some are considering outsourcing jobs to specialists such as Kelly, Manpower, Robert Half and Randstad to stay under this limit. "We are already getting inquiries from our client base for companies in and around 50, asking us to help them understand this legislation. .. Our response is that we can legally help them remain under 50," says Keith Waddell, Robert Half's president.

Val Castronovo writes:“The sporting girls” category of cards that are the main focus of this show was distinct from the more popular female series of the time, such as those depicting actresses and beautiful, alluring women, and bearing names such as Parasol Drills and The World’s Beauties. Nonetheless, sportif females were a “viable, even lucrative category,” we learn here. Now at the end of Women's History month 2013, athletes Lindsey Vonn and Maria Sharapova have become marketing gold.

Wednesday the Supreme Court Justices heard challenges to the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act. On Tuesday, the court considered California’s Proposition 8. On this question the justices could rule broadly or narrowly: The court could reaffirm a lower court decision striking down the ban, a decision that would legalize same-sex marriages only in California. Or the justices could find Proposition 8 unconstitutional, potentially declaring all similar state bans are as well.

Imagine filing your income taxes in five minutes — and for free. You'd open up a pre-filled return, see what the government thinks you owe, make any needed changes and be done. The miserable annual IRS shuffle, gone. It's already a reality in Denmark, Sweden and Spain. The government-prepared return would estimate your taxes using information your employer and bank already send it.