Hearings: Health ? On Tuesday, the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health will hold a hearing, ?Caring for America: Legislation to Support Patients, Caregivers, and Providers,? to discuss several bills, including H.R. 1474, the Alzheimer?s Caregiver Support Act. Human Trafficking ? On Wednesday, the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights will hold a hearing, ?Combatting Global Human Trafficking.? Small Business ? On Wednesday, the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee will hold a hearing, ?Women Entrepreneurs: An Economic Growth Engine for America.? Veterans ? On Tuesday, the House Veterans? Affairs Subcommittee on Economic Opportunity will hold a hearing, ?A Whole of Government Approach in Support of Servicewomen.?

"Extinction is also not new on our planet. We estimate that more than 99% of species that ever existed on the planet have gone extinct. So extinction is a natural process on planet earth but what?s different about the dynamics of extinction today are the pace, extinctions are happening much more quickly than they have in the past, and the cause. Extinctions have never before been caused by a single species. So species have always caused each others? extinction because of species interactions. But the fact that we have a single species, our species, that?s having a global impact on extinction patterns around the world is new. This is something that we think has never happened before on the history of our planet. And so extinction is a natural process, but extinction is being accelerated because of human impacts on the planet."

THE ART MANUALS UNWRAPPED PODCAST: Art Manuals Unwrapped is a podcast that currently features 8 episodes recorded during 2020. Hosts Iyabo Oba and Priscilla Wrightson "unpack the ideas and thoughts of different art manual creators and their unique contributions to the Western European art scene," concentrating on the methods artists and art instructors have used to teach people how to draw and paint. WEATHER PUPPY, SCIENCE: www.weatherpuppy.com: Readers who find their typical weather forecasts overly dry and insufficiently cute should check out the Weather Puppy smartphone app, which pairs forecasts from Weather Underground with weather-themed background pictures of puppies and dogs. The weather data presented include current conditions, hourly forecasts, and 10-day forecasts.

Jo Freeman Reviews: This book features a selection of Ginsburg?s legal writing. In the first section, there is one appeals court brief and two transcripts of oral arguments before the Supreme Court. All on gender equality, they illustrate Ginsburg?s strategy of arguing cases where men were the legal losers in the belief that the court would be more sympathetic. Moritz concerned a section of the IRS code that allowed women, widowers and divorced men to take a tax deduction for the care of dependants. The plaintiff was a never-married man who was caring for his mother. Frontiero v. Richardson concerned the different standards for servicemen and women to get benefits for their dependent spouses. Weinberger v. Wiesenfeld challenged a portion of the social security law which permitted widows but not widowers to collect special benefits to care for minor children.

?The COVID-19 pandemic has heightened the risk for abuse directed towards seniors who are socially isolated and vulnerable to exploitation,? said Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. ?As this Annual Report demonstrates, the department has marshalled a wide array of tools ? enforcement actions, research, public education and outreach, training and victim services ? to combat elder abuse and to ensure that our seniors have the support and protections that they deserve.? ?While technology has brought the world together in many ways, it has also opened the door to a myriad of fraud schemes that prey upon older adults,? said Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco. Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta. The FBI?s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) released the first 2020 Elder Fraud Report providing information useful for targeting interventions. For example, the report found that over 100,000 persons over the age of 60 filed a complaint, with a resulting loss of nearly $1 billion, although the greatest financial losses were associated with confidence fraud/romance scams.

?These individual guilty pleas, which follow the sentencing of G4S NV, demonstrate the division?s commitment to the vigorous enforcement of antitrust laws,? said Acting Assistant Attorney General Richard A. Powers of the Department of Justice?s Antitrust Division. ?The division and its Procurement Collusion Strike Force partners will continue to investigate and prosecute both individual and corporate wrongdoers who seek to exploit the government procurement process...? In November 2019, the Department of Justice created the Procurement Collusion Strike Force (PCSF), a joint law enforcement effort to combat antitrust crimes and related fraudulent schemes that impact government procurement, grant, and program funding at the federal, state, and local levels.

Ferida Wolff writes: Now, traveling by local farms reminds me that Autumn is here. The cornstalks, so plentiful during growing season, are turning brown and wilting. Farmers are cutting them down, leaving the fields covered with the remains of summer?s corn crop. It?s nature?s reminder that all things flourish for a time and then release their energy. What we need now is a new way to look at our environment. Perhaps by changing our interference with nature we can modify the strength and number of storms in the future. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, a part of the U.S. Department of Commerce posted a recent article: US Hit By 18-Billion Dollar Disasters So Far This Year    

"I want to highlight two of the proposals that the Federal Reserve Board (the Board) sought feedback on in the September 2020 Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking to strengthen CRA regulations. Recognizing that many places in Indian Country have few bank branches and are located outside of branch-based assessment areas, the Board proposed that a bank in any part of the country could receive credit for eligible CRA activities in Indian Country, even when there is not a branch nearby. Banks need to be confident about receiving CRA credit to seek out activities and investments in these areas." "Here in Oklahoma, when looking at how the economic activity of tribes compares with different industries in the state, tribes would rank 9th in output, at over $7 billion, and 11th in job creation ? greater than either the construction or utilities industries." October 13, 2021 Financial Inclusion and Economic Challenges in the Shadow of the Pandemic: A Conversation with Tribal Leaders Governor Lael Brainard At Fed Listens: Roundtable with Oklahoma Tribal Leaders, Oklahoma City…

"As fully transparent medical records proliferate, many questions remain unanswered. Such uncertainties create anxiety and apprehension among doctors at a time when many already feel overwhelmed. In an effort to ease the transition to what we believe will be a widespread and ultimately beneficial practice, we draw on over 5 years of the authors' clinical experience and conversations with clinicians around the country to offer suggestions for creating notes that can work for all concerned. Patients have unprecedented online access to their medical records. More than 6 million Americans can now read their doctors' notes via patient portals, and continued rapid growth is likely."

"Jonathan and Diana Toebbe, both of Annapolis, Maryland, were arrested in Jefferson County, West Virginia, by the FBI and the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS) on Saturday, Oct. 9. They will have their initial appearances on Tuesday, Oct. 12, in federal court in Martinsburg, West Virginia. For almost a year, Jonathan Toebbe, 42, aided by his wife, Diana, 45, sold information known as Restricted Data concerning the design of nuclear-powered warships to a person they believed was a representative of a foreign power. In actuality, that person was an undercover FBI agent. The Toebbes have been charged in a criminal complaint alleging violations of the Atomic Energy Act." Department of Justice Public Affairs, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)National Security Division (NSD)

In January 2021, following a report from The New York Times that detailed a plot between Trump and Clark to use DOJ to further Trump?s efforts to subvert the results of the 2020 presidential election, Durbin led the Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee in a letter to then-Acting Attorney General Monty Wilkinson calling on him to preserve and produce all relevant materials in the DOJ?s possession, custody, or control related to this plot. This kicked off the Committee?s eight-month investigation. The Committee continues to seek records requested from the National Archives and Records Administration, which have not yet been supplied, and continues to pursue interviews with relevant individuals as part of this ongoing investigation.

One US child loses a parent or caregiver for every four COVID-19 deaths, a new modeling study published in Pediatrics reveals. The findings illustrate orphanhood as a hidden and ongoing secondary tragedy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and emphasizes that identifying and caring for these children throughout their development is a necessary and urgent part of the pandemic response ? both for as long as the pandemic continues, as well as in the post-pandemic era ... In the closing words of the paper, ?Effective action to reduce health disparities and protect children from direct and secondary harms from COVID-19 is a public health and moral imperative.?

Deputy Attorney General Lisa O. Monaco: "...the original passage of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) in 1994, as you have noted Mr. Chairman, had a major impact on my own life. At the time I was a young staff member on this Committee, working for then-Chairman Biden, and one of my responsibilities included responding to letters from people who wrote to the Committee. Time and again, I read firsthand accounts not only about the violence that too many people ? mostly women ? suffered at the hands of their intimate partners, but also about the lack of accountability for these crimes. Statistics the Committee reported during that period painted a very grim picture: 98% of rape victims never saw their attacker caught, tried and imprisoned ? meaning almost all perpetrators of rape walked free. Fewer than half of people arrested for rape were convicted, and almost half of convicted rapists could expect to serve a year or less in jail."

Science Based Medicine features blog-style posts offering the latest evidence about medical claims, news about recent scientific discoveries, and commentary on issues of contemporary and perennial interest. Readers can scroll through the latest posts or find those organized by popular topics such as Chiropractic, Energy Medicine, Nutrition, Health Fraud, and even Veterinary Medicine. Second, in the Reference drop-down menu, SBM offers materials on major topics and issues such as Homeopathy, Vaccines & Autism, and Acupuncture.

Adrienne Cannon Writes: "I sit down and try to understand what my life will be for the next few days. I can swim in an outdoor pool. No! too risky for fellow swimmers. I can take a walk outside. No! Not in a community of older friends and neighbors. I see I have a special date on the calendar ? the first rehearsal of the concert band that has been shut down for a year. I play a woodwind instrument and I calculate immediately that I will have to miss that event ? I play a ?wind? instrument that I translate into ?aerosol droplet spread.? I have to accept that I am quarantined within my walls for the duration."

"We are on the cusp of another potentially transformational moment. A new redistricting cycle has commenced. 2020 Census numbers show the U.S. has become an increasingly diverse nation, with population growth attributable to increases in the number of people of color. Absent congressional action, this redistricting cycle would be the first in half a century without the full protections of the Voting Rights Act and jurisdictions may be poised to dilute the increased minority voting strength that has resulted from these natural demographic changes. Without preclearance, the Justice Department will have limited tools to obtain documents and assess where voting rights are being restricted ? thereby hampering enforcement efforts."

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security has convened a hearing titled ?Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower?. Recent Wall Street Journal investigations have revealed troubling insights regarding how Instagram affects teenagers, how it handles children onto the platform, and other consumer protection matters related to Facebook. The hearing will provide an opportunity for a Facebook whistleblower to discuss their perspective and experience with the Subcommittee, including how to update children?s privacy regulations and other laws to protect consumers online.

"How often do students and employees claim vaccine mandates conflict with their religious beliefs? What are schools doing to discourage exemptions to required childhood vaccines? Even as national surveys show Americans drawing away from religion, a growing share of American children have sought religious exemptions to required school vaccinations. Even before some California school districts ordered students in certain age groups to get immunized against COVID-19, research showed the percentage of kindergarteners whose parents claim vaccines conflict with their religious beliefs was on the rise."

Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the New York Historical Society, the city's oldest museum: "These are Judge Hand?s words: Just what is this sacred liberty that must lie in the hearts of men and women? It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not freedom to do as one likes. What then is the spirit of liberty? I cannot define it; I can only tell you my own faith. The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure it is right; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which seeks to understand the mind of other men and women; the spirit of liberty is the spirit which weighs their interests alongside its own without bias. May the spirit of liberty, as Judge Hand explained, be your beacon. May you have the conscience and the courage to act in accord with that ideal as you play your part in helping to achieve a more perfect union."

"I?ll end my remarks there except to say this: It is imperative that Congress address the debt limit. If not, our current estimate is that Treasury will likely exhaust its extraordinary measures by October 18. At that point, we expect Treasury would be left with very limited resources that would be depleted quickly. America would default for the first time in history. The full faith and credit of the United States would be impaired, and our country would likely face a financial crisis and economic recession as a result. We must address this issue to honor commitments made by this ? and prior ? Congresses, including those made to address the health and economic impact of the pandemic. It?s necessary to avert a catastrophic event for our economy."

The fierce wildfires that broke out across much of the western United States this summer, spreading smoke across hundreds of miles, continue to pose a serious health hazard to millions. That?s a major health concern because microscopic particles in wildfire smoke, carried by the wind, can penetrate deep into your lungs and travel into your bloodstream. One study linked wildfire smoke exposure to a twofold increase in the rate of asthma and a 40% rise in strokes and heart attacks. But the smoke can get into your house or apartment. So you might want to consider investing in equipment to clean the air inside your home, especially with climate change likely to continue escalating the scope and intensity of the fires.

Today, CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D., M.P.H., endorsed the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices? (ACIP) recommendation for a booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine in certain populations and also recommended a booster dose for those in high risk occupational and institutional settings. The Food and Drug Administration?s (FDA) authorization and CDC?s guidance for use are important steps forward as we work to stay ahead of the virus and keep Americans safe. This updated interim guidance from CDC allows for millions of Americans who are at highest risk for COVID-19 to receive a Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 booster shot to help increase their protection.

Carrie Hull is now a consultant for police departments, and part of her work involves advocating for the adoption of a technique known as Forensic Experiential Trauma Interviewing, or FETI. The training can help law enforcement learn how to ask questions differently: with empathy, patience and an informed understanding of how a traumatized brain makes memories and recalls them. Training in the technique is available through an online course, but it?s not a mandatory requirement for most police departments. People who take Hull?s course learn specific strategies for helping someone resurface a relevant memory that he or she may not have had access to when they first walked into the interview room. Hull said FETI discourages counterproductive practices such as paraphrasing, changing the victim?s words, interrupting or giving advice. Hull said the overarching goal of trauma interviewing is to first ?collect the dots, then connect the dots.? In other words, simply interview the victim about what happened.

"With progress on vaccinations and strong policy support, indicators of economic activity and employment have continued to strengthen. The sectors most adversely affected by the pandemic have improved in recent months, but the rise in COVID-19 cases has slowed their recovery. Inflation is elevated, largely reflecting transitory factors. Overall financial conditions remain accommodative, in part reflecting policy measures to support the economy and the flow of credit to U.S. households and businesses... The path of the economy continues to depend on the course of the virus. Progress on vaccinations will likely continue to reduce the effects of the public health crisis on the economy, but risks to the economic outlook remain."