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The United States is considering a $1 trillion budget proposal to update infrastructure, including its crumbling bridges. An obstacle to spending the money wisely is that the current means of assessing bridges may underestimate their vulnerability. Case in point is a bridge along California's iconic Big Sur coast, which collapsed in March, isolating communities and costing local businesses millions of dollars. Although California's recent unprecedented rains were likely to damage infrastructure, standard risk assessments made it hard to identify which bridges were most vulnerable. more »

The tradition of Arbor Day began in Nebraska in 1872. Raising awareness of the importance of trees, people continue to use the day to plant saplings and improve the health of forests. Trees help clean the air, provide habitat for wildlife, help conserve soil and water, and are the source of an entire industry that support jobs and the economy. Land management agencies like the Bureau of Land Management, the National Park Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and the US Forest Service oversee hundreds of millions of acres of forests across the country. more »

When patients are too sick to go home but not sick enough to be admitted, observation care gives doctors time to figure out what’s wrong. It is considered an outpatient service, like a doctor’s visit. Unless their care falls under a new Medicare bundled payment category, observation patients pay a share of the cost of each test, treatment or other services. And if they need nursing home care to recover their strength, Medicare won't pay for it because that coverage requires a prior hospital admission of at least three consecutive days. Observation time doesn’t count. more »

Joan L. Cannon writes: Should we not be reviewing ancient philosophical and religious traditions on the premises where they agree? While eastern prescriptions aim to remove mankind from life as we live it here, the western ones by and large seem to advocate a faith that whatever follows this life may mirror it. The older I get, the more it seems to me that the rift grows ever larger as each approach becomes more and more insistent. more »