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Dr. Anthony Fauci notes that the emergence of HIV/AIDS in 1981 led to a sharp increase in interest in infectious diseases among people entering the field of medicine. Since then, infectious disease specialists have faced numerous medical challenges, including the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic, Ebola, Zika, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19, he writes. Dr. Fauci notes that one success of the response was the rapid development, testing and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines thanks to years of research and investment in new and highly adaptable vaccine platforms and structural biology tools to design vaccine immunogens.
Rose Madeline Mula Writes: "Don’t be misled by the title. Brad Pitt is not my new boy toy.
Our connection is that I recently learned that he and I have something in common. Unfortunately, it’s not fame, fortune, talent or good looks. It’s a malady called Prosopagnosia. No, wait! You don’t have to move six feet away. It’s not contagious. And it’s not terminal. Unless one can actually die of embarrassment."
A bill to establish a task force on child and family economic security and stability for economic growth; A concurrent resolution expressing support for the Geneva Consensus Declaration on Promoting Women's Health and Strengthening the Family and urging that the United States be added as a signatory; A bill to extend, and provide additional support for the activities of the Department of the Interior and the Department of Justice Joint Commission on Reducing Violent Crime Against Indians; A bill to provide for the reissuance to households Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits to replace benefits stolen by identity theft or typical skimming practices.
"When I think of Nancy Pelosi, I think of dignity. History will note she is the most consequential Speaker of the House of Representatives in our history. There are countless examples of how she embodies the obligation of elected officials to uphold their oath to God and country to ensure our democracy delivers and remains a beacon to the world. In everything she does, she reflects a dignity in her actions and a dignity she sees in the lives of the people of this nation."
Jo Freeman Reviews: "The ones who bowed the furthest and fastest were the ones who wanted most to see and be seen with Trump; to call and be called, to hear their names in the media coupled with his. The fact that the masses loved DJT didn’t make it any easier for those who wanted his approval to hold onto a modicum of self-respect. Disagreement with Trump would lead to disparagement, and that could lead to defeat. That’s why so many Republican MCs decided it was time to retire. Two years after Trump took office, almost half of House Republicans were gone or going. A lot, but not all, were defeated in the 2018 election. By then most of Trump’s initial appointments were also gone. Sycophancy was insufficient for survival."
"GAO examined 49 aircraft and found that only four met their annual mission capable goal in a majority of the years from fiscal years 2011 through 2021. As shown below, 26 aircraft did not meet their annual mission capable goal in any fiscal year. The mission capable rate — the percentage of total time when the aircraft can fly and perform at least one mission — is used to assess the health and readiness of an aircraft fleet."
Honoring Our Veterans:"November 11 marks the annual observance of Veterans Day, a day on which we honor the courageous women and men who have served in the United States military. The National Archives is proud to have in its holdings a variety of military records, from photos to documents to searchable databases, which are available on National Archives News. NARA’s holdings regarding veterans and military records include: Veterans’ Service Records, Genealogy Research in Military Records, American Revolution, Civil War Records, World War I and World War II Records; (Note from Seniorwomen.com Editor Tam Martinides Gray:) Vietnam War | National Archives,
https://www.archives.gov/research/vietnam-war
"The CFPB has found that consumer reporting companies and some furnishers have failed to conduct reasonable investigations of consumer disputes and to spend the time necessary to get to the bottom of inaccuracies. These failures can affect, among other things, people’s eligibility for loans and interest rates, for insurance, and for rental housing and employment. “One wrong piece of information on a person’s credit report can have destructive consequences that follow a consumer for years,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra. “Companies that fail to properly address consumer disputes in accordance with the law may face serious consequences.”
"These ten large U.S. airlines and their regional operating partners, which operate flights for them but do not sell tickets, account for approximately 96 percent of the domestic scheduled passenger air traffic. Use the ... dashboard to learn about the amenities that the U.S. airline that you are flying on has promised to provide should there be a controllable flight cancellation or delay. You can also use the dashboard to compare amenities that the airlines commit to provide in the event of a controllable flight cancellation or delay when deciding which airline to fly."
Office of Public Affairs » News: Individuals with questions or complaints related to the ADA may call the department’s toll-free ADA information line at 800-514-0301 or 833-610-1264 (TTY) or submit a complaint through a link on the department’s ADA website, at https://www.ada.gov/.
The Justice Department announced today its plans to monitor compliance with federal voting rights laws in 64 jurisdictions in 24 states for the Nov. 8, 2022 general election. Since the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Civil Rights Division has regularly monitored elections in the field in jurisdictions around the country to protect the rights of voters. The Civil Rights Division will also take complaints from the public nationwide regarding possible violations of the federal voting rights laws through its call center. The Civil Rights Division enforces the federal voting rights laws that protect the rights of all citizens to access the ballot.
At our house a few weeks ago, four of us sat at our kitchen table and addressed envelopes to the voters that we wanted to reach with a message from candidates! Here were some instructions: "If you want to do a VBM Chase program and win on Election Day you must get message early. A mail program accompanied with a digital campaign targeting early voters and absentee voters will give you a leg up over your competitors. When you get your mail out early to mail-in voters you can start the hard work of identifying them. But you must get your mail out or there will be nobody to identify – because they won’t know who you are. So get your mail into the early absentee voters as early as possible and target them with your emails, Facebook ads, and text messaging."
How to Win an Election by Chasing Vote by Mail Ballots
by Con…
Julia Sneden Wrote: "I think about Leonardo da Vinci, whose mirror writing is well-known. Somehow, I doubt that whoever taught him to write said to him: “You are writing backward, stupid boy! Do it like this!” It’s quite possible that that teacher said something like: “Wow! That mirror writing is amazing! Show me how you do it.” What a foxy teacher that would have been! In helping young Leonardo to understand why others would have difficulty reading the backwards writing, he would lead the child to discover what needed to be changed so that others could read it. (Lest we grow too fond of my little fantasy, I should note that I believe that Leonardo was left handed, in which case he may have been writing from right to left simply so that his hand wouldn’t smear the ink, and cover what he’d just written. We’ll never know.)"
"When presenting popular vote results, context will matter more than ever — the percentage of the statewide vote reflected in the count, the rough percentage of outstanding ballots that are mail-in ballots and when they will be tabulated, the locations within the state that have reported returns, the tendency of these locations to vote Republican or Democratic, and so on. Attention to these factors would signal that there are many more votes yet to come and could dissuade viewers from hasty conclusions or from believing a party’s premature claim to have won control of the Senate."
"Education outcomes, including learning losses and achievements, take time to measure, aggregate, and analyze. As we enter the fourth academic year affected by the pandemic, data on student performance are becoming more available. Much of this early data confirms our initial concerns. For example, early test scores show that throughout the country nine-year-olds suffered a decline in learning outcomes during the pandemic. But other data also indicate that learning losses were unequal and disproportionately affected low-performing students and low-income students. It is likely that the sudden shift to online classes contributed to the learning declines. According to the Board's 2020 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (the SHED), only 22 percent of parents with children attending virtual classes agreed that their children learned as much as they would have attending classes in person at school."
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CraftTexas 2022 is the eleventh in a series of juried exhibitions showcasing the best in Texas-made contemporary craft. Juried by Andres Payan Estrada, the curator of public engagement at Craft Contemporary in Los Angeles, CA, this year’s show includes 40 pieces by nearly 30 artists, highlighting works that speak to personal stories of struggle and resilience, while challenging expectations of contemporary craft. Filling both the main and front gallery spaces at HCCC, the exhibition includes a wide variety of artworks and installations, with a particularly strong showing of work created from fiber, metal, and mixed media.
Grandparents, foster parents or people caring for siblings or other relatives should check their eligibility to receive the 2021 child tax credit. People who claim at least one child as their dependent may not realize they could be eligible to benefit from the child tax credit. Eligible taxpayers who received advance child tax credit payments last year should file a 2021 tax return to receive the second half of the credit. Eligible taxpayers who did not receive advance child tax credit payments last year can claim the full credit by filing a 2021 tax return. COVID Tax Tip 2022-165: Grandparents and others with eligible dependents shouldn’t miss out on the 2021 child tax credit. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) sent this bulletin at 10/27/2022 10:39 AM EDT
IRS Tax Tips
October 27, 2022…
"Academic research and agency experience suggest the following fees and fee practices fall within this category: Mandatory fees that often hide the full price. Some sellers publish a low price and then add mandatory fees later, at the “back-end” of the buying process or when a consumer tries to terminate the service... As the research shows, by hiding the full price, this practice can lead consumers to pay more than they would otherwise, and it also makes it hard for consumers to comparison shop... An example is the “service fees” added to the cost of a ticket to a concert or sporting event.
"While school districts often cite safety as the reason for having a dress code, many dress codes include elements that may make the school environment less equitable and safe for students. For example, an estimated 60 percent of dress codes have rules involving measuring students' bodies and clothing—which may involve adults touching students. Consequently, students, particularly girls, may feel less safe at school, according to a range of stakeholders GAO interviewed. According to GAO's nationally generalizable review of public school dress codes, districts more frequently restrict items typically worn by girls—such as skirts, tank tops, and leggings—than those typically worn by boys—such as muscle shirts. Most dress codes also contain rules about students' hair, hair styles, and head coverings, which may disproportionately impact Black students and those of certain religions and cultures, according to researchers and district officials."
With less than three weeks to go until the midterm elections, registered voters’ preferences are nearly evenly divided: 41% say they favor the Democratic candidates in their districts, while a nearly identical percentage (40%) support Republican candidates; 18% are not sure how they will vote or favor candidates other than Republicans or Democrats. And those supporting GOP candidates are somewhat more engaged this election than their Democratic counterparts: They are more likely to have thought “a lot” about the election and to say the outcome “really matters.” As has been the case all year, the economy is clearly the top issue for voters; fully 79% say it will be very important to their voting decisions – the highest share among 18 issues included on the survey. The public continues to take a dim view of current economic conditions. Just 17% of U.S. adults say the economy is in excellent or good shape, little changed from the 13% who said this in July.
The 25-year follow-up of the Whitehall II cohort study: "In this study, we observed short sleep duration to be associated with risk of chronic disease and subsequent multimorbidity but not with progression to death. There was no robust evidence of an increased risk of chronic disease among those with long sleep duration at age 50. Our findings suggest an association between short sleep duration and multimorbidity. The prevalence of multimorbidity is on the rise as reflected in over half of older adults having at least 2 chronic diseases in high-income countries, making multimorbidity a major challenge for public health."
Conclusions
In this study, we observed short sleep duration to be associated with risk of chronic disease and subsequ…
"Recent emergencies have highlighted the importance of preparedness. One key component of the nation's medical response infrastructure is the SNS. The SNS inventory may be deployed to state, local, territorial, tribal, and international governments when needed. GAO placed HHS's leadership and coordination of public health emergencies on its High Risk List in January 2022 (GAO-22-105291) in part due to deficiencies in HHS's management of countermeasures. The Pandemic and All-Hazards Preparedness and Advancing Innovation Act of 2019 included a provision for GAO to review the SNS. This report examines: (1) the process used to make inventory decisions; (2) non COVID-19 obligations for countermeasures and their alignment with recommendations; and (3) obligations for countermeasures using COVID-19 relief funds, and inventory and operations changes in response to the COVID-19 pandemic."
"In recent decades, income and wealth disparities have been increasing among older Americans and exceed those in Canada, Germany, and the United Kingdom. We found: In 2007, older Americans in a typical low-income household needed to work 12 years to equal what a typical high-income older household earned in 1 year; there were similar gaps in Germany, where they'd need to work 6 years, and 10 years in the U.K. Higher income and wealth were associated with living longer in the U.S. and the U.K. for those under 80 years old."
A bill to establish a cause of action with respect to reproductive health services; A bill to improve benefits and services for surviving spouses; screening initiatives by health care and social service providers; paid emergency leave; A bill to provide for a demonstration program to facilitate the clinical adoption of pregnancy intention screening initiatives by health care and social service providers; A bill to require institutions of higher education to have an independent advocate for campus sexual assault prevention and response; A bill to reauthorize the National Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force Program.
Between looking at a post we had started about Nancy Pelosi and the January 6th Committee, we delved into a weekend show, while watching on our CBS favorite TV program, Henry Ford Innovation Nation: "250 acres of unexpected awe-inspiring experience. At The Henry Ford, you'll discover America — its culture, inventions, people and can-do spirit — and hundreds of hands-on ways to explore it, enjoy it and be inspired by it. Prepare to be astounded by our attractions and resources: Henry Ford Museum of American Innovation, Greenfield Village, Ford Rouge Factory Tour and Giant Screen Experience." An interesting program to share with young people...
“Medicare premiums are going down and Social Security benefits are going up in 2023, which will give seniors more peace of mind and breathing room. This year’s substantial Social Security cost-of-living adjustment is the first time in over a decade that Medicare premiums are not rising and shows that we can provide more support to older Americans who count on the benefits they have earned,” Acting Commissioner Kilolo Kijakazi said. To view a COLA message from Acting Commissioner Kijakazi, please visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vgm5q4YT1AM. The Social Security Act provides for how the COLA is calculated. To read more, please visit www.ssa.gov/cola.
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