Beginning in the late 1970s, Sendak embarked on a second career as a designer for opera and ballet. Drawing the Curtain brings together nearly one hundred and fifty drawings from more than 900 by Sendak in the Morgan’s collection. This is the first museum exhibition dedicated to Sendak’s set and costume designs, offering new insights into the artist’s inspirations and creative process. The exhibit presents a wide selection of works from five of his most important productions: Mozart’s Magic Flute, Janáček's Cunning Little Vixen, Prokofiev’s Love for Three Oranges, Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, and an opera based on Where the Wild Things Are.

Human Trafficking — On Thursday, the Senate Committee on the Judiciary is scheduled to mark up S. 1494, the Secure and Protect Act of 2019; a Legislative Fix to the Crisis at the Southwest Border, a bill to amend the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act of 2008. On Thursday, the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology is scheduled to mark up several bills, including H.R. 36, the Combating Sexual Harassment in Science Act; H.R. 2528, the STEM Opportunities Act;

Researchers estimate that as many as 1 in 10 older US adults are abused each year. This includes physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, financial scams, and neglect. It can occur at the hands of family, guardians, caregivers, or others. The Department of Justice has investigated and prosecuted cases of elder abuse, provided training and grants, and taken other actions to combat it. However, DOJ has not developed goals that could help guide these efforts. The GAO recommended that DOJ develop and document elder justice goals and outcome measures to better guide its elder justice efforts. Examples of Scams Commonly Committed Against Older Adults in the US are included.

These pocket-sized buildings are at once a reminder of travel, and a record of popular architecture. Included in the collection are iconic tourist destinations, like the Tower of Pisa; Empire State Building; the Parthenon; the Space Needle; the Alamo; the Eiffel Tower; and the Temple of Heaven. Also included are more modest buildings, like dozens of suburban American banks, grain silos, and football stadiums, as well as souvenirs from places with less architectural, but nonetheless popular, pedigrees: Lincoln’s log cabin; Elvis’ Graceland; and the Disneyland Castle. After decades of display in museums and private residences, the entire collection was donated to the Museum in 2019.

Before a baby is born, expectant mothers in Sweden get prenatal care through free or subsidised courses that help them prepare for the delivery, with breathing techniques, coaching sessions and group support. Women who work typically strenuous jobs that require heavy lifting or in risky work environments such as construction sites are entitled to additional pregnancy benefits by taking time off work earlier during their pregnancy. Benefits can be paid as early as 60 days into the pregnancy and continue up to 11 days before the due date. The amount received is roughly 80 per cent of the mother’s daily pay and is paid by the Swedish Social Insurance Agency. Many Swedish hospitals have adjoining ‘hotels’ where new mothers and their partners may stay for two or three days (with all meals included) after a birth so nurses can monitor the mothers and provide postnatal care for newborns.

On March 27, 2019, the Committee held a hearing on the pardon power. On April 19, the Committee subpoenaed the Mueller report and underlying documents. On May 2, Attorney General Barr refused to appear for a scheduled hearing before the Committee. On May 15, the Committee held a hearing on executive privilege. On May 20, the White House blocked former White House Counsel McGahn from appearing for a scheduled hearing. On May 21, the Committee issued subpoenas for Annie Donaldson, former chief of staff for former White House counsel McGahn and for Hope Hicks, former White House Communications Director. Hicks and Donaldson were sent document requests as part of the investigation on March 4.

Jo Freeman writes: With everyone talking about the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising and the 30th anniversary of the Tian’anmen Square massacre, few noticed that June 4 was also the beginning of the 100 anniversary of the 19 Amendment.

We are greeted by the most amazing azalea bushes in our front yard! Big puffs of pink remind us of the beauty of Spring. The warmer weather is not just about the brilliance of a flowering bush. I get yelled at each time I pass by the Smoke Tree in our backyard. The yeller is a robin trying to get me away from her nest and the four beautiful blue eggs inside. She, or he because both male and female robins are very protective of the nest, zooms out of the Smoke Tree and onto an extended peach tree branch, all the while watching me with intense eyes. When I move out of the immediate nest area, the robin flies back to the nest, no doubt content that the immediate danger has passed. I understand her/his need to protect the potential babies.

Nothing captures my heart more firmly than endearing but flawed characters with whom I can identify, an improbable but somehow still believable story, and — especially — a clever punch line. A writer who can make me laugh gets my vote every time. Sure, occasionally I enjoy curling up with one of the Bronte sisters, Hemingway, Du Maurier, or Fitzgerald. And sometimes I try to match wits with James Patterson, David Baldacci, or John Grisham — or even allow myself to be terrorized by a Stephen King horror tale. But for the most part, I love a writer who tickles my funny bone.

"As set forth in our report, after thatinvestigation, if we had confidence that the President clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that. We did not, however, make a determination as to whether the President did commit a crime. The introduction to volume two of our report explains that decision.... I will close by reiterating the central allegation of our indictments — that there were multiple, systematic efforts to interfere in our election. That allegation deserves the attention of every American. Thank you.

Participants at the Worldwide #MeToo Movement conference reached several conclusions from those sessions, including the need to: find better ways to prevent harassment and to support women who report it; combat how defamation law is being used to silence women, particularly outside the United States; seek more effective legal remedies; and connect harassment to pay equity and economic equality.

An array of products — from mattresses and sensors to sleep trackers and apps — are catching consumers’ attention. But privacy experts are concerned about what becomes of all the personal information these products collect. Sleep Number, one company that makes beds that can track heart rate, respiration and movement, said it collects more than 8 billion biometric data points every night, gathered each second and sent via an app through the internet to the company’s servers.

Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter’s suit alleges Johnson & Johnson, the nation’s largest drugmaker, helped ignite a public health crisis that has killed thousands of state residents. With just two days to go before the trial, one of the remaining defendants, Teva Pharmaceutical Industries of Jerusalem, announced an $85 million settlement with the state on Sunday. The money will be used for litigation costs and an undisclosed amount will be allocated “to abate the opioid crisis in Oklahoma,” according to Hunter’s office. In its own statement, Teva said the settlement does not establish any wrongdoing on the part of the company, adding Teva “has not contributed to the abuse of opioids in Oklahoma in any way.” This leaves Johnson & Johnson as the sole defendant.

James Tissot (1836–1902) was one of the most celebrated French artists during the 19th century, yet he is less known than many of his contemporaries today. Presenting new scholarship on the artist’s oeuvre, technique, and remarkable life, James Tissot: Fashion & Faith provides a critical reassessment of Tissot through a 21st-century lens. The exhibition will include approximately 60 paintings in addition to drawings, prints, photographs, and cloisonné enamels, demonstrating the breadth of the artist’s skills and the first major international exhibition on Tissot in two decades and the first ever on the West Coast of the United States.

"Every type of stitch has a different elasticity, and if we figure out everything possible then we could create things that are rigid in a certain place using a certain type of stitch, and use a different type of stitch in another place to get different functionality" said Elisabetta Matsumoto." Knitting is a periodic structure of slip knots. Textiles with intricate patterns are knit by combining slipknots in specific combinations. Members of the Matsumoto group are beginning to delve through the complex math which encodes mechanical properties within the interlocking series of slip knots of a material.

"America is the only industrialized nation in the world that fails to guarantee our workers any type of paid family and medical leave. Harris believes that needs to change. That’s why, as president, Harris will fight for the FAMILY Act to provide workers with up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave. Fines collected under our plan will help build on the FAMILY Act, increasing the percentage of wages workers receive when taking time to care for themselves or a loved one."

Rose Madeline Mula writes: These days I hear those three little words often. No, not “I love you,” but “for your age” — as in “You look wonderful for your age” and “You’re so sharp for your age.” Unfortunately, I can’t say that about my memory which is becoming unreliable. But that, too has a benefit — I can reread a favorite book and it will be brand new to me and just as enjoyable the second time. Ditto favorite movies. There’s really not much need to kick bad habits any more. At a certain point, none of us is going to live long enough for excess smoking, drinking, eating, or inactivity to catch up with us.

A bill to direct the Federal Trade Commission to prescribe rules prohibiting deceptive advertising of abortion services; “Racial Disparities and Social Determinants in the Maternal Mortality Crisis;” reporting of incidents of child abuse or neglect; Improve Data on Sexual Violence Act; A bill to improve the care provided by the secretary of Veterans Affairs to newborn children; A resolution recognizing the fifth anniversary of the Chibok girls kidnapping by the Boko Haram Terrorist Organization; improving the capacity of military criminal investigative organizations to prevent child sexual exploitation; A bill to improve Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program for low-income mothers.  

In terms of what sort of policies are needed for inclusive prosperity, Rivlin was optimistic that the US economy remains strong and that enacting or strengthening a few “sensible centric economic policies” would help the country see continued growth while expanding the pool of those benefiting from the growth. The issue, said Rivlin, who was the founding director of the Congressional Budget Office, was whether these policies could ever be translated into law and action.

Jo Freeman writes: Reparations for slavery has been in the air this year. It comes with lots of questions. In this book, Woodley answers them for one group who suffered directly from white supremacy. In 1959 the Prince Edward County school board closed its public schools rather than integrate them. Most white students were able to attend private academies for whites only. Black students had to leave the county or go without an education. Not until 1964 did the Supreme Court rule that the county had violated the students constitutional rights and ordered the public schools to reopen. Forty years later a Virginia professor calculated that these five years without public schools resulted in 2,202 black and 258 white youths receiving no formal education in their lifetimes.

We subscribe to a newsletter called Science Smooze. Here is part of their current message as well as the video: Watch any show about science now and you will see many women in key positions. Imagine how many more are in the trenches doing the work of scientists. "When I see weird behavior [from male colleagues], my first inclination is not to think, 'What's wrong with me. It's, 'What the heck is wrong with these guys?'" - Lene Vestergaard Hau (physicist, known for her work with cold atoms and light)  

“We’re facing a perfect storm of a highly contagious infection introduced into pockets of unvaccinated children,” says Melissa Stockwell, an associate professor of population and family health at Columbia Mailman and of pediatrics at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. While most cases of the measles are mild, one in twenty infected children in the US is hospitalized with pneumonia, and some infections can cause deafness. In 2017, the illness killed 110,000 people worldwide, nearly all young children in low-income countries.

Since 2000, the number of people age 25 and over whose highest degree was a master’s has doubled to 21 million. The number of doctoral degree holders has more than doubled to 4.5 million. Now, about 13.1 percent of US adults have an advanced degree, up from 8.6 percent in 2000The tables show, among other things, that women make up a smaller share of high school dropouts than men, the share of Asians with advanced degrees is growing and that recent immigrants are more likely to go to college than earlier immigrants or native-born.