News and Issues
Against All Odds, Rita Levi-Montalcini’s Story: “No food, no husband, and no regrets”
Rita’s first big hurdle was persuading her father to let her go to college. Mr. Levi, an electrical engineer and mathematician, believed that a career interferes with the duties of a wife and mother. When the Germans invaded Italy in 1943, she moved to Florence, where she lived under ground with another makeshift lab until the end of the war. more »
A Pair From Ferida's Backyard: The Nuthatch and the Thrush
Ferida Wolff writes: The Nuthatch is the only bird that regularly starts at the top of the tree (or birdfeeder) and works its way down as it seeks its food. There is an advantage to going downward; the bird is able to see food overlooked by the usual upward direction of other birds. more »
Off the Table for Now: Using the Chained CPI to Reduce Social Security Payment Calculations
"The chained CPI grows more slowly than the traditional CPI does: by an average of 0.3 percentage points per year over the past decade. As a result, using that measure to index benefit programs and tax provisions would reduce federal spending (especially on Social Security and federal pensions) and increase revenues." more »
Aging America: The Cities That Are Graying The Fastest
Joel Kotkin writes:In 2000 only three U.S. metro areas had more elderly than children under the age of 15 (Pittsburgh, Miami and Tampa-St. Petersburg, Fla.). The 2010 Census showed we now have 10, with the addition of Buffalo, Boston, Cleveland, Hartford, Providence, Rochester and San Francisco to the first three. The elderly population is overtaking the younger population not only in Florida’s retirement havens, but in a number of Rust Belt and Northeastern cities. more »
