Flint,
Water Crisis
"When
Bruno Mars announced at a Michigan concert on Saturday that he’d donated
proceeds from the sold-out show to support the victims of the Flint water crisis, the cheers and applause from
the crowd were deafening.
“You guys showed me this much love and
support tonight, I want to do something special,” the singer
said, interrupting a performance of his hit song “Just the Way You Are.” “Tonight
I’m going to donate $1 million to our brothers and sisters in Flint,
Michigan.”
According to Rolling Stone, Mars donated the funds to the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, an
organization that continues to assist victims and community members as Flint’s
water crisis, which began in 2014, drags on. Flint Mayor Karen Weaver said
in March that it could be years before the water in the city is safe to
drink again."
Rural
America, Healthcare
"The problems of insuring rural Americans
were exacerbated by the Great Recession, the sequester that affected Medicare
in 2013, the declining and aging population of rural areas, and the decision of
some Republican-led states not to expand Medicaid. The challenges of
offering affordable health insurance to rural residents were not caused by the
ACA, but they made its implementation more difficult. It’s also important to
note that the rural challenge is not limited to ACA exchanges: Medicare
Advantage, often cited as an example of a robust insurance market, has
148 “bare” counties without any insurer, nearly eight times the
number of counties that may not have a marketplace plan in 2018.
There are a variety of potential solutions to
the ACA’s rural issue which would maintain the free market approach of the law
without sacrificing its consumer protections. One obvious one would be
expanding Medicaid in the 19 holdout states, many of which are predominantly
rural. Doing so would cause an influx of funds for rural health care providers.
This increased funding could incentivize more health providers to enter rural
markets, or at least keep rural hospitals and doctors from leaving rural
counties, as has been the trend of late. As discussed above, increased provider
participation allows for better competition among insurers. Moreover, while
expanded Medicaid would reduce the potential market size of rural counties, it
would also provide coverage for lower income individuals who are typically more
expensive, making marketplace pools healthier and lowering costs for insurers. A recent HHS study estimated that expanding Medicaid lowered marketplace premiums by about 7 percent."
Inspiration,
Science, Technology
"The inspiration for this arrangement came from a school
project. Thomassen and his classmates were required to research a real-world
problem of their choosing, and he chose e-waste. After conducting interviews
and reading countless articles, Thomassen realized just how big of a problem
e-waste is and was compelled to find a creative way to repurpose technology.
When he shared his idea to refurbish used laptops to give
to underserved teens, his teacher suggested he reach out to CASA about working
with teens in foster care.
Refurbishing the laptops proved to be no
problem for Thomassen. He had been helping his friends update software on their
computers for years, reading online forums, googling questions and watching
YouTube videos whenever he hit a roadblock. Thomassen said part of his
motivation to teach himself these skills stemmed from curiosity, but most of it
was fueled by frustration.
"I just got annoyed that stuff didn't work, so I
figured out how to fix it," he said."
Engineering, Infrastructure
"We are moving
rapidly down the road toward the age of self-driving cars. But as the cars
change, the roads will have to change with them, and it will likely mean some
adjustments, such as different signage and narrower lanes.
Five years ago, when Governor Jerry Brown appointed Malcolm Dougherty to head Caltrans, autonomous cars
seemed a lot farther off than they do now. With ridesharing and even car rental
companies getting into the game — and more than a dozen regulatory bills before
Congress — things are accelerating.
As the car technology races toward him, Dougherty is keeping his eyes on the
road KQED Science Editor Craig Miller spoke with
the top man at Caltrans about the future of California’s highways."
Read the interview.
Well-being, Stress, Kids
"Man’s best friend can also help
a kid out in trying times. A study published in Social Development found that kids coped with stressful situations
better when they had their pet dogs with them.
Researchers from the University of Florida
recruited about 100 dog-owning families with kids between the ages of 7 and 12
years old to come to their lab. The kids were put through public speaking and
math tasks (situations known to stress out any kid — or adult for that matter)
with either their parent or dog present or no social support at all. The
researchers asked the kids about their stress levels before and after the task
and took pre- and post-task saliva samples to measure the their cortisol
levels.
“Children who had their
pet dog with them reported feeling less stressed compared to having a parent
for social support or having no social support,” lead study author Darlene
Kertes, PhD, an assistant professor of psychology at UF, said in a press release about the findings."
Read
more about the findings here.
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