Regina M. Benjamin grew up in the Roman Catholic Church and attended a Catholic elementary school in her home town of Daphne, Ala., nestled along the Gulf Coast. Benjamin, President Obama’s pick to be surgeon general, attends Mass regularly and has received an award from Pope Benedict XVI and another inspired by Mother Teresa. But the Alabama country doctor also backs Obama’s position on reproductive health issues, a position that potentially could put her at odds with the Catholic Church. ‘Like him, she believes that this is an issue where it is important to try and seek common ground and come together to try and reduce the number of unintended pregnancies,’ White House spokesman Reid Cherlin said. ‘As a physician, she is deeply committed to the philosophy of putting her patients’ needs first when it comes to providing care.’ The White House declined to say whether Benjamin supports a woman’s right to an abortion, but sources close to her selection say she does. Benjamin did not return a call to her clinic seeking comment. Rebecca Adelman, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said that Benjamin is prohibited from speaking publicly until she is […]
President Obama sent two of his Cabinet secretaries to China this week to deal with the question of global warming. Both of them are of Chinese descent. That sent a ripple of interest through China’s officialdom. The cabinet secretaries’ mission was to make a case that China and the United States - the world’s largest emitters of carbon - must cooperate for any deal to be struck at the United Nations climate change talks in Copenhagen this December. One of the first stops came Wednesday, when Energy Secretary Steven Chu spoke at Beijing’s prestigious Tsinghua University. He warned that if China’s carbon emissions continue to grow at current rates, the results would be staggering. ‘The amount of carbon that China will have emitted in the next 30 years would be equal to all the carbon that the United States has emitted in the life of its country,’ Chu said. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke was also on the trip. In Beijing, one of their stops was Future House USA, a model residence that uses solar panels and geothermal heat pumps to generate its own electricity. Chu used the house as a backdrop for outlining goals for […]
You’ve seen the ads: ‘Tone your abs in just five minutes a day!’ and ‘Tone your legs with this simple, everyday workout!’ Well, as grating as they may be after repeated viewing, their message is important. When we ‘tone’ our muscles, we nourish them and bolster their strength. Medicinally, when we speak of tonics, we mean herbs and foods that do the conditioning work for us-they nourish, support, or strengthen our energy, blood, and organ function from the inside. So while physical workouts remain important, maybe it’s time to look a little deeper. The heart, for instance, continuously pumps our blood and regulates its circulation. It also affects (and reflects) our emotional state-its rhythm is often mandated by the condition of our nervous system. Daily stress, nervous tension, and heartbreak (among other emotional strains) can interfere with the heart and cause palpitations, lack of sleep, and a racing mind. The best way to prevent acute issues of the heart is to keep it healthy by supporting the physical apparatus of the circulatory system and balancing the emotions that beset us. You can keep the blood flowing clean and without obstruction and your heart at an even and steady rhythm […]
WASHINGTON/DETROIT — For some U.S. Rust Belt cities, the future will be smaller and greener. As communities from Buffalo to Milwaukee struggle with shuttered factories and vacant neighborhoods, some have turned abandoned properties into parks, gardens and other open space, even going so far as to plow under entire neighborhoods. A recognition that the glory days of factory-powered prosperity will not return any time soon, this ‘shrinking cities’ strategy aims to consolidate what remains into denser neighborhoods and more vibrant downtowns. In Flint, Michigan, the birthplace of General Motors, a pioneering program that allows local government to capture profits from tax foreclosures has generated funds to demolish over 1,000 abandoned homes in the past five years. ‘There’s a gravitational pull that we’re a part of and it’s toward a smaller city,’ said Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County surrounding Flint. ‘This is not a plan to shrink Flint, it’s an acknowledgment that we’ve lost half our population.’ Flint’s fortunes — like those of GM — have been on the decline for decades. In the late 1970s, there were more than 80,000 GM workers in Flint centered on a sprawling industrial complex known as Buick City. […]
States close rest areas to save money By Marisol Bello, USA TODAY If you have to go while driving through some states, you’ll have to go a longer distance to find a rest stop. The recession is trickling down to travelers as states cut back on their public facilities to save money. Virginia plans to shutter 19 of its 42 facilities by July 21, four of them along Interstate 95, a main travel corridor along the East Coast. Vermont, Maine, Louisiana and Colorado have closed rest stops in the past year. ‘This was not an easy decision,’ says Jeff Caldwell, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Transportation. ‘But we are facing this massive funding shortfall.’ The department is saving $9 million a year by padlocking the facilities, he says. About 40 million people visited the state’s rest areas last year. ‘You’re going to need a strong back and a strong bladder to get through Virginia now,’ says John Townsend of AAA Mid-Atlantic. AAA is asking Gov. Tim Kaine to reconsider. Roads are safer when tired motorists have somewhere to pull off, Townsend says, and rest stops provide security and sanitation. Other states, […]
Remote Viewing the Year 2060
