Ellen Leopold writes: It's easy to forget that women’s writing about breast cancer is of relatively recent vintage. The first women to portray the patient's perspective, to write about their own experience, were established writers and public figures before they took up the disease, with credentials persuasive enough to overcome their publishers' reluctance. Today's widespread use of breast-conserving surgery, for example, is at least partially attributable to the refusal by some of them to undergo radical mastectomies.

Thousands of people joined the farmers, ranchers, and tribal leaders of the Cowboy and Indian Alliance for a ceremonial procession along the National Mall to protest the Keystone XL pipeline. The procession was the largest event yet of the five-day Reject and Protect encampment. "Today, boots and moccasins showed President Obama an unlikely alliance has his back to reject Keystone XL to protect our land and water," said Jane Kleeb, Executive Director of Bold Nebraska.

Garden as Concept: Philadelphia’s Magic Gardens is not about botanical nature but more the nature of the spirit. It was created by mosaic mural artist Isaiah Zagar ... A Golden Time of Year: Amid the sporadic raindrops, despite the temperature shifts from cold to warm to cool to hot, even with the uncertainty about the future climate, this time of year is golden. It is filled with promise and hope. And goldfinches to remind us to appreciate nature.

Products that would be 'deemed' to be subject to FDA regulation are those that meet the statutory definition of a tobacco product, including currently unregulated marketed products, such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes), cigars, pipe tobacco, nicotine gels, waterpipe (or hookah) tobacco, and dissolvables not already under the FDA's authority.

Joan L. Cannon writes: POETRY is a big word, in both denotation and connotation. Hours of classroom time and reams of thesis papers have been wasted in the attempt to analyze, categorize, classify, and define it. Rhyme, rhythm, diction, subject ... since before written language, from nonsense through ritual and history, folk songs, epics, in all languages, the list of schools and variations in form is too long to contemplate. However many attempts are made, full agreement is not likely.

Julia Sneden reviews: Author Armstrong notes that "The new wave of change isn't about giving the 'little woman'" a fair shake or even about pushing reluctant regimes to adhere to hard-won international laws relating to women. "Together men and women are the two wings of a bird – both wings have to be not wounded, not broken, in order to push the bird forward." Cannon's new book of poetry, My Mind is Made of Crumbs, while dealing with pain and loss, others express the deep connection of their long and happy marriage.

The exhibit at the Legion of Honor featuring the work of 19th century avant-garde painters such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Vincent van Gogh. The exhibition includes nearly 70 paintings from the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, and features a selection of intimately scaled impressionist and post-impressionist still lifes, portraits and landscapes, whose charm and fluency invite close scrutiny.heir intimate effect also extends to the paintings’ themes — many are studies of the artists' favorite places and depictions of people familiar to them, and the works often became gifts shared among friends.

Even when the interviewees had the chance to tell the employers about how well they expected to do on an upcoming arithmetic test, the economists found that the bias remained in place because men tend to boast and to inflate their abilities, which the hirers were willing to believe. The findings also suggest that both sexes discriminate against women without realizing that they do so.

Editor's Note: We have, for decades, watched Consuelo Mack's informative business programs on Public Television, helping investors to build and protect wealth over the long-term. During her tenure hosting the Wall Street Journal Report it won the Overseas Press Club award, the Gracie award and was nominated for a News and Documentary Emmy award for excellence in background and analysis. These series of videos may aid you in future tax years prepare for both planning and investing.

Rose Mula writes: I usually start my day with isometrics, or tensing of the muscles — in my case, the calf muscles. Actually this tensing is completely involuntary. I guess a more accurate term is leg cramps. They propel me out of bed, whereupon I jump up and down and shake my legs vigorously to relieve the cramping. This often results in floor exercises, or falling down and trying to get up — which involves straining of every muscle in the body to pull myself upright.

There is no single explanation for the rise in inequality and the decline in the share of jobs that provide a middle-class standard of living. Economists generally agree that technological change and globalization have played a role. Both of these forces have reduced the demand for workers whose jobs had involved routine work that can easily be mechanized or offshored while, at the same time, increasing the productivity of higher-skilled workers. However, it is less clear whether technology and globalization are sufficient explanations for the increased share of income going to those at the very top of the income distribution.

This second series follows Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean, ordinary women with an extraordinary ability to break codes, a skill honed during World War II when they worked undercover at Bletchley Park, site of the United Kingdom's main decryption establishment. Now, in 1952, the four have returned to civilian life, keeping their intelligence work secret from all, including family and friends. Season Two continues their stories. This 3-hour series follows Susan, Millie, Lucy and Jean, ordinary women with extraordinary ability to break codes, a skill honed during World War II when they worked undercover…

Marsha Mercer writes: "From World War II to the early 1960s, men 20 to 64 were very, very heavily relied upon" by women and families, Gary Burtless at Brookings said. Men without a high school diploma were able to hold a stable career and support a family by working in construction and heavy manufacturing. Over the last few decades, many of those jobs have disappeared, and women have become more equal in the workplace. When manufacturers of cardboard boxes, wire bagel baskets and other products said they needed workers with technological expertise and strong social skills, Maryland officials agreed to set up manufa…

Roberta McReynolds writes: The breeze lifting the hair off my face didn’t originate from any meteorological conditions. It occurred when my wheelchair broke free of my white-knuckled grip at the top of a long ramp, consequently launching me across the parking lot. It felt like I was about to execute an imitation of one of those metal balls in a pinball machine, poised to ricochet off all obstacles in my path, but without the bells and lights.

Judge Donna Quigley Groman on the need to treat children who have been trafficked as victims. "It is important to understand that these youth are not criminals. They are children who are being abused by sex traffickers, and they deserve the same protections and resources to which other child victims of sexual or physical abuse and neglect are entitled. Child victims of sexual abuse are comforted by assurances that they are not responsible for the abuse. Child victims of commercial sexual exploitation deserve the same assurances."

GM CEO Mary Barra is testifying in front of the Senate's Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee on the company's previous knowledge of the ignition switches' faulty technology that has been blamed for 13 vehicle deaths. A live feed of the hearing is on the Committee's website today, Wednesday, April 2.

Ever since President Obama made securing nuclear weapons assets a top priority for his global arms control agenda, guarding and disposing of these holdings have become an international security preoccupation. Yet, in all of this, the urgent task of securing and disposing of known nuclear weapons assets has all but sidelined what to do about nuclear weapons-usable plutonium and highly enriched uranium that we have lost track of. This is understandable. It also is worrisome.

Joan L. Cannon writes: When I was in my thirties, I used to think that one day, somehow, I'd get to go to Ireland or England and go cubbing. For those to whom that's a new term, it refers to the practice of taking novice hounds out to learn how to be fox hunters in the autumn, when the fox cubs are still denned with their mothers. I thought of this as an ideal time to have an experienced hunter under me in an undemanding cross country ride in an ancient and romantic tradition.

Representatives for UnitedHealthcare and Humana, the two leading Medicare Advantage insurers, declined to answer questions or provide copies of their comments to CMS related to the proposals. UnitedHealthcare said earlier the cancellations were partly the result of cuts in federal reimbursements required by the Affordable Care Act and also part of an effort to improve quality and reduce costs.

Women have made great progress in many occupations and professions, but lag in others. In my own profession, there has been a gradual increase in the share of women in economics, but women still remain underrepresented at the highest levels in academia, in government and in business. There are doubtless numerous reasons for this, and in fact economists themselves are among those engaged in trying to understand the factors that explain why more women aren't rising to higher levels.

The following are quotes from Hylton’s fascinating and riveting mystery of the whereabouts of the WWII bomber and its crew, known as the Big Stoop. We cannot help but compare it to the present search for the Malaysia Boeing 370 that has been missing since the March 8th departure from Kuala Lumpur on a flight to Beijing. The quotes from Vanished are reactions from family members after the B-24 crew are classified as MIAs.

Chris Payne writes: I pay tribute to the undervalued segment of Americans workers who labor in this manufacturing sector. They are a cross section of young and old, skilled and unskilled, recent immigrants and veteran employees, some of whom have spent their entire working lives in a single factory. Together, they share a quiet pride and dignity, and are proof that manual labor and craftsmanship still have value in the 21st century US economy.

"There is a lot of theoretical work on the maritime economy of the Roman Empire, but I am interested in the close details of sea travel and how archeological finds can shed light on the history of consumption and connectivity around the Mediterranean," says Justin Leidwanger, a maritime archeologist.   Stanford scholar Justin Leidwanger spends a lot of time underwater. An assistant professor of classics,…