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The Alaska Legislature scheduled adjournment date was Sunday, April 17, 2016, but it continues meeting. During the end of each session, bills that have been held for the end of session negotiations start to break loose. The daily calendar for both the House and Senate can be found here: http://w3.legis.state.ak.us/#tab3. After looking at the bills voted on for the past week, HCR 21 is not on any calendar. It still sits in the House Finance Committee, but could be released at any time since...

Physicians have known for years that racial minorities, especially African Americans, experience shorter lives because of a higher-than-average prevalence of maladies like kidney disease, heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and hypertension. My own family is a picture of poor health: my sister and I have experienced diagnoses of obesity, diabetes, multiple sclerosis, hypertension, breast cancer, kidney cancer, and stroke due to anesthesia. All of these happened before the age of 50. There are...

As white women between 25 and 55 die at spiking rates, a close look at one tragedy. They had been expecting a full processional with a limousine and a police escort, but the limousine never came and the police officer was called away to a suspected drug overdose at the last minute. That left 40 friends and relatives of Anna Marrie Jones stranded outside the funeral home, waiting for instruction from the mortician about what to do next. An uncle of Anna’s went to his truck and changed from...

Denise Johnson works two jobs, but neither of them offers health insurance to part-timers like her. She signed up for a marketplace plan this year, but for routine medical care Johnson still goes to the free clinic near her home in Charlottesville, Va. The problem is her plan's deductible of at least $1,000. She can't recall the precise figure, but it doesn't really matter. "It's absolutely high," said Johnson, 58. "Who can afford that?" She struggles to pay her $28 monthly premium. By...

Third-grader Victor Reza was watching CNN in the living room in Houston with his family when Donald Trump was announced as the winner of the Florida Republican primary. Victor teared up, his older sister, Maria, said in a telephone interview. "I don't want him to win," he announced. "If he wins, I'm never going to see any of you again." Victor, 10, is a U.S. citizen, but members of his immediate family are not. And, says 21-year-old Maria, "I'm pretty sure he's heard hateful rhetoric from...

The border was right here, says Juan Villamizar as he firmly plants his shovel into the soil. This was a border that no one saw, but everyone knew was there. Villamizar shows a scar on his hand—a reminder of a blow he received from a machete when he crossed this border without permission, entering the territory of a rival gang. He was lucky; countless others from his neighborhood didn’t come back from such excursions at all. Villamizar lives in La Sierra, a neighborhood in Comuna 8, high up...

The advertisements on public transportation don’t usually warrant a second glance, let alone a conversation. But on the New York subway last week, a new series of banners went up, asking people to start talking. “Depression doesn’t define me,” one reads. Another one: “Addiction can affect anyone and is treatable.” At the bottom of all of them is this line: “Let’s talk openly about mental health issues. Together we can heal.” These notices come not from a special-interest group or a medical...

Since 2013, the federal reserve board has conducted a survey to “monitor the financial and economic status of American consumers.” Most of the data in the latest survey, frankly, are less than earth-shattering: 49 percent of part-time workers would prefer to work more hours at their current wage; 29 percent of Americans expect to earn a higher income in the coming year; 43 percent of homeowners who have owned their home for at least a year believe its value has increased. But the answer to...

A mother leaves her son in the car while popping into a store at a strip mall. She is charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. A high school senior complains to her Facebook friends about a teacher and is suspended for “cyberbullying.” Students at Wellesley start a petition calling for the removal of a statue of a man in his underwear, claiming that the art piece caused them emotional trauma. So many residents of Santa Monica, California, claim to need emotional support...

Robert J. Wicks, psychologist and bestselling author ofRiding the Dragon, recently told me a story about impermanence. A psychiatrist (Epstein) went to Thailand with some colleagues to meet a well-known Buddhist sage. As they were about to leave they asked if he had a final message for them. He was drinking a glass of water at the time so he held it up and said, “You see this glass. I love this glass. It holds water so I can drink from it.” He then held it up to the light and said, “When the...

In 1942, at the height of the Second World War, the British academic and former civil servant William Beveridge issued a report titled Social Insurance and Allied Services (1942). Already preparing for peace, Beveridge identified “Five Giant Evils” that needed to be confronted and defeated once the war was won. These five evils were “squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease.” Beveridge believed that all five had to be addressed through concerted government action, with improved...

It’s not news to moms that kids who are struggling socially or who feel unsafe are unlikely to enjoy and thrive in school. But there is increasing evidence that children who lack social and emotional skills are less likely to thrive as adults too. A recent 20-year study found that children who were more likely to “share” or “be helpful” in kindergarten were also more likely to obtain higher education and hold full-time jobs nearly two decades later. In contrast, students who lacked these...