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
Same-Sex Marriage Bans Struck Down Nationwide: Clear Protections From Discrimination Still Needed
Today the Supreme Court has affirmed what Americans already believe; that same-sex couples deserve the right to marry and marriage equality should be the law of the land. Since the introduction of the Equality Act in 1974, only 17 states plus the District of Columbia have passed laws protecting all LGBT residents in employment, housing, and public accommodations — meaning that a majority of the states and the federal government still lack the basic protections for LGBT Americans that are afforded other populations. more »
High Court Upholds Health Law Subsidies
Eighty-five percent of those who bought insurance through healthcare.gov qualified for subsidies averaging $272 per month. The Department of Health and Human Services predicted 6.4 million people would have lost subsidies if the court ruled for the plaintiffs. The health law faces other legal cases, including objections from religious institutions to their role in providing birth control coverage and a suit by the House of Representatives contending that Obama's delay in requiring employers to offer coverage was illegal. more »
House of Buckets: Adapting to the Drought Crisis in California and ... Cats Don't Count But Showering Together Does
Roberta McReynolds writes: What every citizen of California does to conserve even a drop of water that can be allocated where it is needed most benefits everyone in the country. I'm certain you'll be pleased to know that many of us currently live in houses with buckets tucked under every faucet, and it's making a difference. It's given an entirely new meaning to having a 'bucket list', but I'll get back to that shortly. more »
Frontline's Rape on the Night Shift: As Most of Us Head Home, Janitors, Many of Them Women, Begin Their Work
Following up on the award-winning collaboration that produced Rape in the Fields/Violación de un Sueño in 2013, FRONTLINE (PBS), Univision, the Investigative Reporting Program (IRP) at UC Berkeley, Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting (CIR) and KQED are teaming up to uncover the sexual abuse of immigrant women, often undocumented, who clean the malls where you shop, the banks where you do business, and the offices where you work. more »
