Health, Fitness and Style: In States, Some Resistance to New Opioid Limits But Adopting Addiction Services and Limiting Prescription Pills
To keep even more people from becoming addicted to medicines such as Percocet, OxyContin and Vicodin, lawmakers in five states set limits on the number of pills a physician can prescribe to a patient for the first time. Twenty-nine states beefed up monitoring of filled prescriptions to prevent addicts from "doctor shopping" for more pills. Roughly 2.5 million Americans are addicted to opioids, and more than 28,000 people died of overdoses of painkillers or heroin in 2014, the highest toll ever.
Moving and Retirement: Aging in Place, Co-Housing, Villages, Alternative Housing for Seniors: Grocery Stores, Grab Bars and 'Golden Girls'
Suburban seniors with less money will need more affordable housing within walking distance of grocery stores and doctors. Local governments may have to help boomers maintain or repair their homes, or else contend with declining property values and tax revenue.
Health, Fitness and Style: Who and What Is Funding Zika Prevention and Response Legislation?
"This conference report is an effective, responsible approach to addressing the Zika crisis. It will get money out the door immediately to help stop the spread of the virus and respond to the ever-growing number of cases within our borders and around the globe." Offsets include $107 million from leftover funding from the 2014 Ebola outbreak, $100 million in unused funding within HHS, and $543 million in unspent ObamaCare funding intended for territories to set up health care exchanges.
Culture and Arts: Challenge: How Do Open Minds Find the Means to Overpower the Closed Ones?
Joan L. Cannon writes: When the first brilliant leaps of credibility struck the known universe, from ancient civilizations that modern Man has unearthed and learned to interpret, to the 21st Century comprehension of such things as the 'God particle' and the elasticity of gravity, nuclear physics, genetics, brain imaging — the minute human place in what's out there becomes ever smaller.
Relationships and Going Places: Martha's Vineyard, a Seafood Heaven, 'Sea to Table'
Sonya Zalubowski writes: Seafood, seafood, seafood. As if you'd need another reason to want to visit Martha's Vineyard, the small, picturesque island off Massachusetts' Cape Cod. It is nearly inundated by tourists come summer with a population that swells by more than six times to over 100,000. I had the good fortune to visit in mid-May, right before the crowds, to tour the awakening island with chef Christopher Gianfreda who had returned for his seventh season of cooking here.
News and Issues: Democratic House Sit-In: No Bill, No Break
"We are calling on the leadership of the House to bring common-sense gun control legislation to the House Floor. Give us a vote. Let us vote. We came here to do our jobs. We came here to work. The American people are demanding action."
News and Issues: Brexit, To Stay or To Go: An Exit from the European Union
A British exit from the European Union would slow economic growth, reduce Europe’s impact in world politics, and strengthen regimes such as Russia's that prefer a weaker, less united Europe, Stanford expert Christophe Crombez says.
Art and Museums: Inspiring Artists, Musicians, Novelists, Poets, and Filmmakers: Coney Island, Visions of an American Dreamland
What these artists saw from 1861 to 2008 at Coney Island and how they chose to portray it varied widely in style and mood over time, mirroring the aspirations and disappointments of the era and of the country. Taken together, these tableaux of wonder and menace, hope and despair, dreams and nightmares, become metaphors for the collective soul of a nation.
