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
Election Wrap Up by Women's Policy, Inc: Eleven Women Retired, Lost Their Primaries, or Left the House to Pursue Another Office
A highly contentious presidential campaign, coupled with questions about the control of Congress, made the 2016 election cycle one of the most closely followed in recent history. In addition to incumbent Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Patty Murray (D-WA), who won their reelection bids, three newly elected Senators will serve in the next Congress: Sens.-elect Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV). more »
Pew Research Asks: Just How Does the General Election Exit Poll Work?
The exit poll is a major operation. Edison Research expects to survey about 16,000 early and absentee voters by phone, Joe Lenski said, and another 85,000 or so voters in person. "Between exit-poll interviewers, vote-count reporters, supervisors driving around checking on sites, and the two very large phone rooms we'll be operating on Election Day to take in those results, we have close to 3,000 people working for us on Election Day," he said. It also is conducting a phone survey of early and absentee/mail voters, a process that began earlier this week. more »
The Brennan Center for Justice* Voting Issues to Watch Election Day 2016: 14 States Have Voting Restrictions for the First Time in a Presidential Election - Arizona, Ohio, Virginia and Wisconsin
Voter Fraud: "Rigged" is the buzzword if this election, with Donald Trump saying there is "large scale voter fraud." Every major study, investigation, and court decision has found voter fraud is vanishingly rare. See the Brennan Center’s briefing memo debunking the myth of fraud. Cuts to polling locations, confusion over new voting requirements, faulty machines, and other factors have led to long lines in North Carolina and Texas during early voting this year, and in Arizona during the primaries. In 2012, between 500,000 and 700,000 eligible voters did not cast a ballot due to excessive wait times.
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Ever Wonder Why We Change Our Clocks? The Process of Adjusting to the Disruption in Circadian Rhythms
Sometimes credited with inventing Daylight Saving Time, Benjamin Franklin — the man who is known for the saying "Early to bed and early to rise …" — did not actually suggest a change in time. Benjamin Franklin's connection to Daylight Saving Time comes from his 1784 satirical letter to the editor in the Journal de Paris in which he proposed that Parisians could save money on candles by waking up before their normal time of noon. more »
