Doris O'Brien is a retired college Speech teacher and banker. She has published two books of humor (Up or Down With Women's Liberation and Humor Me a Little) and for many years contributed light verse to the Pepper 'n Salt column of the Wall Street Journal. She is an avid writer of letters to the editors.
Doris celebrated her 50th wedding anniversary in the same year she welcomed her first grandchild. She now lives in Pasadena with a great view of the San Gabriel mountains — and the annual Tournament of Roses Parade.
She can be reached by e-mail: witsendob at (@) gmail.com
Weekly Legislative Update, June 24th: Reauthorizing Health Programs, Human Trafficking and Migration, Universal Child Care, Coast Guard Gender Diversity, Mammography Coverage, Campus Sexual Violence
Bills Introduced: A bill to increase transparency and reporting on campus sexual violence; House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure is scheduled to mark up H.R. 3362, the Small Airports Mothers’ Room Act; Reauthorizing Vital Health Programs for American Families; A bill to require the comptroller general ... to conduct a study on ways to increase reporting of missing Indians and the effects of substance abuse, including the use of methamphetamine, on violent crime in Tribal communities; “Unprecedented Migration at the US Southern Border: The Exploitation of Migrants through Smuggling, Trafficking, and Involuntary Servitude;” A bill to provide coverage for wigs as durable medical equipment under the Medicare program. more »
Zen and the Rescue Dog: Journeying with Your Dog on the Path to Enlightenment, an Excerpt from KJ Fallon's New Book
K. J. Fallon writes in her new book, From Zen and the Rescue Dog: Journeying with Your Dog on the Path to Enlightenment©: Making some time to remember your pets, or the animals in need at an area shelter or rescue organization if you don’t have a pet, is a way to refuel your energy. When you switch gears and devote your time and attention to something very different from what you spend most of your time doing, it can recharge you so that you experience a fresh start and gain a new perspective on your everyday life. Giving some time in some way, whether donating some needed supplies (most animal shelters have a wish list) or your time not only helps these shelters, it helps you. more »
Biden, Klobuchar Rankings by the Lugar Center Highest Among Presidential Candidates Who Built Bipartisan Collaboration in the Senate
The lifetime Senate scores show a wide variance among current Democratic presidential candidates, ranging from former Vice President Joe Biden, who placed in the top quartile of the rankings, to Senator Bernie Sanders who placed 247th out of the 250 Senators covered by the Index. “The new data provides historical context for the challenges to bipartisan collaboration in the Senate over the last twenty-six years,” said Lugar Center Executive Director John Lugar. “But it also shows that legislators can work to build consensus with members of the opposite party regardless of where they fall on the political spectrum.” more »
Developing an Artificial Intelligence Tool to Help Detect Brain Aneurysms at Stanford
This tool, which is built around an algorithm called HeadXNet, improved clinicians’ ability to correctly identify aneurysms at a level equivalent to finding six more aneurysms in 100 scans that contain aneurysms. It also improved consensus among the interpreting clinicians. The team of researchers cautions that further investigation is needed to evaluate generalizability of the AI tool prior to real-time clinical deployment given differences in scanner hardware and imaging protocols across different hospital centers. more »
