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Over the centuries, many powerful monarchs, eccentric aristocrats and fabulously wealthy burghers have commissioned portraits of themselves, arrayed in all their finery, from the best painters in the world. Preferably standing, life-size and full-length. The young Marten Soolmans and Oopjen Coppit are the only couple that Rembrandt ever painted life-size, standing and full-length (1634). This prestigious format was primarily reserved for monarchs and members of the aristocracy. It was not until some time later that it was used for high society in general. more »

"I strongly oppose the proposed rule, Short-Term, Limited-Duration Insurance (proposed Rule), because it further erodes the protections provided under the ACA, poses significant risk to health insurance markets in California and the nation, and offers consumers skimpy health insurance policies that cannot be relied upon to cover necessary health services when they need them most." SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Today Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones sent a letter to the Centers for Medicare and Med… more »

A bill to require a study of federal agencies to determine which federal agencies have the greatest impact on women’s participation in the workforce; A bill to require that Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits for children be calculated with reference to the cost of the low-cost food plan, as determined by the Secretary of Agriculture; A hearing included testimony from a panel of experts who are working to prevent robocall scams throughout the United States. Also from last week: "The Improving Oversight of Women Veterans’ Care Act of 2017 requires VA to practice oversight not only on its VA facilities, but also on the community care providers it contracts with in order to provide gender-specific health care to women when its facilities do not have the equipment or specialist necessary to care for these veterans. We need to do a better job tracking the quality of care provided to women veterans and conduct effective oversight to ensure they are well served no matter where they get their care. I am also excited to lend my support for Congressman Coffman’s legislation to require VA to ensure that the veterans peer counseling program includes enough peer counselors for women veterans." more »

The trend is part of what drove the overall slight growth of the rural population in the United States from 2016 to 2017, for the first time since 2010, according to a Stateline analysis of census data. (Rural counties are those defined by the US Office of Management and Budget as outside cities and their suburbs.) The population in rural counties grew by only about 33,000 during that time, to about 46 million. While counties with large mining and farming industries shrank, counties with large recreation industries grew the most, by about 42,000, to about 6.3 million. more »