Doris O'Brien writes: I never dreamed I'd be spending my retirement in a mall. Don’t get me wrong. I haven'’t become a shopaholic willing to squander my 401K distribution in the pursuit of materialism. To be more precise, I live above a mall, in a sixth floor, two-bedroom aerie with a panoramic view of Southern California’s San Gabriel mountains.

New Mexico is the only state with a 24/7 registered nurse call center that is free to all residents, whether insured or not. In operation since 2006, it has kept tens of thousands of New Mexicans out of emergency rooms and saved the state more than $68 million in health care expenses. In April, the CDC will recommend New Mexico's advice line as a national model that other states adopt during an Atlanta emergency preparedness summit.

"The exhibition reminds visitors that the key themes of Benton's mural — the heroic proletariat and modern industry — were greatly significant for artists in a contemporary international context, not only in the United States, but also in Mexico, and in France between the world wars." An array of pre-Depression types — flappers, farmers, steel workers, stock market tycoons, and others representing a cross section of American life surrounds visitors in the mural space.

Drawing from her research into the growth of asexual communities and queer studies, Stanford lecturer Karli Cerankowski is shedding light on an under-studied and misunderstood facet of human sexuality: asexuality. However, much as homosexuality was once consistently pathologized by the public, the asexual community faces similar contention.

The study results, based on a large survey of American adults matched with their death records, were not explained by income, education, geography, happiness, or how religious they feel. The researchers controlled for these factors, all known to affect health. Liberals may have stronger community ties; and social cohesion is known to be a factor in health and the two groups may have different parenting styles.

Julia Sneden imparts her own tips in addition to a JAMA Internal Medicine Study: One of my friends who quit her Hormone Replacement Therapy because of its possible links to cancer decided to go back onto her medication a couple of months ago. Her reason? In addition to feeling old and creaky, she was having hot flashes, six or seven a day and two or three a night.

In the nearly 50 years that Arthur and Elaine Aron have studied love, they have developed three dozen questions to create closeness in a lab setting. Such as: Given the choice of anyone in the world, whom would you want as a dinner guest? Would you like to be famous? In what way? Before making a telephone call, do you ever rehearse what you are going to say? Why? What would constitute a "perfect" day for you? When did you last sing to yourself? To someone else?

Joan L. Cannon writes: For what seemed at the time, and still seems, a perfectly logical reason I decided to grit my teeth (both literally and figuratively) and move. Not just down the block, or even just to another street — but to another state. More accurately, to move back to a state where I'd spent most of my adult life. Unfortunately, this meant leaving "the Deep South" and returning to southern New England. Right about now it feels like the southern Arctic.

Rose Madeline Mula writes: We do both enjoy travel and have taken many trips together. I prefer a fixed itinerary. Not Sally, of course. She abhors being tied to a particular schedule. And while I much prefer to fly to a destination more than a few hundred miles away, Sally would rather drive — again, the schedule phobia, and also because her car has a huge trunk which she can pack with every article of clothing she has owned since college and still have room for all the treasures she'll buy along the way.

"Women, children, and men alike are subjected to involuntary labor or sexual exploitation. According to a leading nongovernmental organization, forced labor accounts for 74 percent of victims and forced sexual servitude accounts for 26 percent of victims. Women and girls are especially vulnerable, accounting for 54 percent of victims. Children under the age of 18 account for 26 percent of victims."

If the US Supreme Court strikes down tax credits for people buying health insurance on the federal exchange, about 8.2 million Americans in 34 states could lose their coverage under the Affordable Care Act. Most of the people likely to be affected are white, employed, and low- to middle-class. They also are concentrated in a single region of the country: the South.      

"Colleges and universities still aren't taking the safety of their students from sexual assault seriously," says one law professor. "The study shows that many universities continue to view rape and sexual assault as a public relations issue rather than a safety issue. They don’t want to be seen as a school with really high sexual assault numbers, and they don't want to go out of their way to report that information to students or the media."

It is the hydrangea bush, though, that is speaking to me now. I know some hydrangeas need shelter but mine have had an unsheltered life and still bloom. It reminds me that we all have things in life that are challenging and yet there is the hidden drive to blossom when we can, to let our inner selves support us until the right time comes to let the world see our beauty; a New Jersey Museum commemorates the 100th anniversary of the death of Martha, the very last passenger pigeon.

Individuals who may have been impacted by the cyber attack against Anthem, should be aware of scam email campaigns targeting current and former Anthem members. These scams, designed to capture personal information (known as 'phishing') are designed to appear as if they are from Anthem and the emails include a 'click here' link for credit monitoring. These emails are NOT from Anthem.