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Margaret Cullison writes: I met one of my most memorable friends at a time when I needed a good friend. I’d just moved to the San Francisco Bay area and, while still unpacking the moving boxes, my husband told me he wanted a divorce. After thirteen years of marriage and four children, we’d drifted apart but still his announcement knocked me off balance. Since my teenage years I’d made fleeting attempts to write fiction and poetry, so I decided to nurture that interest by taking a creative writing class. When we’d finished writing, we took turns reading our character sketches aloud. That’s how I learned that the woman I’d written about had also chosen me as her subject. At the break, she and I talked about the coincidence, as yet unaware that a meaningful friendship would grow out of that synchronicity. more »

For the last 33 years, it has been my great honor to serve the American people as a Foreign Service Officer, over six Administrations — four Republican, and two Democratic. I have served in seven different countries, five of them hardship posts, and was appointed to serve as an ambassador three times — twice by a Republican President,and once by a Democrat. Throughout my career, I have stayed true to the oath that Foreign Service Officers take and observe every day: “that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic;” and “that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same.” more »

"Before I conclude, I'd like to address two challenges currently facing the housing sector. The first relates to the difficulties that some employers face, including homebuilders, in finding and retaining qualified and skilled workers. To provide some context, the national data show that the unemployment rate in the private construction industry is now well below the rate we observed in the early 2000s, a time when the housing market was booming. In addition, the ratio of job vacancies to unemployment in the construction industry — a measure of labor market strength — shot up to historic highs at the end of 2018, and it has remained near those levels." more »

Bills Introduced: A bill to amend the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act to provide for better protections for children raised in kinship families outside of the foster care system; A bill to amend the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998; A bill to improve the effectiveness of tribal child support enforcement agencies; A bill to require the Federal Communications Commission to incorporate data on maternal health outcomes into its broadband health maps; A bill to direct the Secretary of Health and Human Services to conduct a study to assess the unintended impacts on the health and safety of people engaged in transactional sex; A bill to direct the secretary of Veterans Affairs to provide abortion counseling to a veteran who has an unwanted pregnanc; A bill to amend the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998   more »