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  • Strengthening Public Television … The Tide Has Turned: More About Nova and Downton Abbey

    Churchill's Secret Masterpiece

    State legislators’ support for public television is strengthening after nearly a decade of deep spending cuts and sharp ideological opposition from some lawmakers to the very idea of taxpayer-supported TV.

    Masterpiece’s Churchill’s Secret; Credit: Matthew Macfadyen as Randolph Churchill and Tara Fitzgerald as Diana Churchill. Courtesy of Robert Viglasky/Daybreak Pictures and Masterpiece

    In winning the additional money, boosters have successfully argued that public television is about more than NOVA and Downton Abbey. Public television stations produce programs and school materials that delve into state history and culture. They shed light on state and local political issues, sponsor debates between candidates, and are the backbone of the Emergency Alert System.

    “In most of the states that we do business with … local networks and stations have convinced the legislatures that they provide essential services,” said Patrick Butler, the president of America’s Public Television Stations (APTS), which represents stations around the country. “The tide has turned considerably.”

    Public television is a tiny share of state budgets, usually no more than 1 percent.

    In the current budget year, according to APTS, 13 states increased spending on their public TV networks and radio stations, 10 kept spending level and seven cut spending. (The budget numbers for the remaining states were not available.)

    Of the seven states that reduced spending, only three enacted cuts greater than 3 percent. Public television wasn’t specifically targeted in any of the seven states, but took its share of cuts as lawmakers struggled with budget shortfalls, APTS said.

    There also are signs at the federal level that public TV is no longer a top target of budgeters and small-government advocates: The Senate Appropriations Committee in June voted 29-1 to approve the Obama administration’s $445 million request for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which distributes money to state TV and radio stations.

    One stunning example of a legislative change of heart was in Alabama, where lawmakers approved a whopping 35 percent increase to the Alabama Public TV (APTV) network — the largest boost in the country for fiscal 2017.

    That increase was in sharp contrast to the beating APTV took during the recession and as the network dealt with a management scandal caused by what critics regarded as lavish and careless spending.

    When Executive Director Roy Clem took over in late 2012, APTV’s budget had decreased 61 percent since fiscal 2008 and 54 percent of the staff had been laid off.

    The Durrells in CorfuMASTERPIECE: The Durrells in Corfu; Sundays, October 16-November 19, 2016, 8:00 -9:00 p.m. ET. Credit: Courtesy of John Rogers/Sid Gentle Films & Masterpiece. Pictured: Callum Woodhouse as Leslie, Keeley Hawes as Louisa, Milo Parker as Gerry, Daisy Waterstone as Margo and Josh O’Connor as Larry

  • Reissuing Ferida’s Wolff’s Backyard: Home Farm Produce; Hibiscus Beauty and Wouldn’t That Be Peachy?

    Home produce

    Editor’s Note: We’ve received a note from an interested reader who brought to our attention another site to add to Ferida Wolff’s post:

     
    “I recently wrote a detailed, yet simple guide to starting a healthy vegetable garden! how to start a veggie garden
     
    “I’d love for you to check it out here: https://yardandgardenguru.com/vegetable-gardening-for-beginners/
     
    “If you think it’s good, perhaps you could link to it from your site?! : D”
     Tim Graham
    Yard and Garden Guru
     
    And now, back to Ferida Wolff’s original post:

    How to Start a Vegetable Garden for Beginners

    Do you have space that is going to waste, and you have decided to put it to good use and have a veggie garden? If so, you have made a smart choice. Not only will it save you money, help you to eat healthier, but it is also good for the environment.

    You should know beforehand; it is not possible to grow everything even for the yard and garden guru. And also some vegetables are easier to buy as they need too much attention to make it worthwhile.

    Home Farm Produce

    We have a small home farm, well, that’s how we think of it. It is more of a teeny tiny carved out section of our suburban yard.

    Each year we plant tomatoes not only because we like them but also we know that they will grow for us. We planted potatoes because some of our store-bought ones started to sprout and we figured we might as well give them a chance. We planted the bottom of a red-leaf lettuce when I read somewhere that it would grow*, and it has; we’ve been enjoying the crispy new leaves in our nightly salads. The zucchini plants have grown high and with the bright yellow flowers, we expect some yummy veggies soon.

    Last year we bought a small, thornless blackberry bush. It produced a few berries but most of them went to the birds before they ripened. This year the bush spread out, sending shoots in a wide circle. I haphazardly tossed some netting around them to see if we would get any berries for ourselves this season. Boy, are we getting fruit!

    We wrapped screening around the plantings to keep out the squirrels. We (mostly my husband) fertilize the plants with natural products and water them but otherwise we kind of leave them alone. Yes, I talk to them, telling each how much I appreciate its providing us with such beautiful, edible products.

    We are delighted with it all, considering we really know not much about farming; we are more improvisers than farmers. But our home farm produce connects us with something larger than ourselves. Each time we bite into a tomato that has come from our own garden, we pay attention — to its flavor, its value. When we pick the berries, we know exactly where they have come from. We are all part of nature. What a joyful thing to experience.

    Two sites to help you make your own vegetable garden:

    http://www.vegetable-gardening-online.com/making-a-vegetable-garden.html

    http://www.gardeners.com/how-to/vegetable-gardening/5069.html?SC=XNET9465

    *Editor’s Note: We can confirm the replanting lettuces theory ourselves as after we read this growing tip, we’ve been growing new heads of lettuces. We now plan to plant garlic this fall; here are some tips from the Farmer’s Almanac:

    Garlic: Planting, Growing and Harvesting Garlic | The Old Farmer’s …

    www.almanac.com/plant/garlic

     
    Old Farmer’s Almanac:  Garlic can be planted in the spring as soon as the ground can be worked, but fall planting is recommended for most gardeners. In areas that get a hard frost, plant garlic 6 to 8 weeks before that frost. Break apart cloves from bulb a few days before planting, but keep the papery husk on each individual clove …

  • Abstract Painter Alma Thomas Work Resonates With Vibrant Color, Dense Paint and Energetic Pattern

    Scarlet Sage Dancing a Whirling Dervish

    Alma Thomas, Scarlet Sage Dancing a Whirling Dervish, 1976. Acrylic on canvas, 72 × 52 in Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

    A trailblazer in both her art and her career, the distinguished African-American abstract painter Alma Thomas (1891–1978) is the subject of a major exhibition at The Studio Museum in Harlem, on view to October 30, 2016. Featuring more than fifty paintings and works on paper spanning all phases of the artist’s evolving practice, Alma Thomas will offer the first comprehensive overview in almost two decades of this singular artist’s achievement.

    Thelma Golden, Director and Chief Curator of The Studio Museum in Harlem, said, “Alma Thomas’s distinctive fusions of vibrant color, dense paint and energetic pattern remain as influential with artists, and as resonant with audiences, as they were in her remarkable lifetime. For many years a teacher by profession, she continues to teach us through her example about the possibilities of art and of African-American life. We are extraordinarily proud that the Studio Museum can now introduce a new generation of viewers to her work.”

    Alma Thomas is organized by Lauren Haynes, Associate Curator, Permanent Collection, at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and Ian Berry, Dayton Director of the Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, where the exhibition debuted in February 2016.

    The first graduate in fine arts from Howard University, the first African-American woman to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the first African-American woman to be represented in the White House art collection, Alma Thomas was born in Columbus, Georgia, in 1891. In 1907, she moved with her family to Washington, DC to escape growing racial tensions in Georgia and to pursue better educational opportunities. She graduated from Howard University in 1924 and in 1934 received an M.A. in arts education from Columbia University.

    Through most of her adult life, when she earned a living as an art teacher at Washington’s Shaw Junior High School, she was able to pursue her art only intermittently. But she participated in the late 1940s in Lois Mailou Jones’s salons for artists, was instrumental in forming the Barnett-Aden Gallery (at the time one of the country’s few private galleries presenting the works of AfricanAmerican artists), took studio classes at American University (from which she received an MFA in 1960) and circulated with noted Color Field painters including Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland. After retiring from Shaw Junior High School in 1960, she at last began to paint full time, at age sixty-nine. Alma Thomas charts the full course of the artist’s career from the late 1950s to her death in 1978.

    March On Washington, 1964

    Alma Thomas, March on Washington, 1964. Courtesy Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York, NY

  • Liz Shuler, AFL-CIO’s Secretary-Treasurer: Women and Work

    Liz Shuler Speech

     

    Women make up more than half of the US electorate, and we vote at higher rates than men. From now until November, the AFL-CIO will be talking to women voters about the issues that impact them the most. We will have conversations with our friends and family on the doors, on the phone, at work and in our communities to ensure that the women’s agenda remains at the forefront.

    The AFL-CIO Executive Council reinforced its commitment to advancing the rights of all working women and men — union or non-union — with the adoption of the Economic Agenda for Working Women and Our Families. The labor movement will continue to fight for equal pay, family friendly policies, high-quality education and the right to negotiate better working conditions.

    It is time that our nation’s policies reflect our values and lift up working women, and all working people. Women are change-makers and this year we are going to elect pro-worker, pro-woman and pro-family candidates. Hillary Clinton’s historic nomination for president shattered the glass ceiling, and we stand behind her. She shares our values and has put forth a plan that will help working women achieve equal rights along with the respect and dignity we deserve.

    As a graduate of the University of Oregon with a degree in journalism, Elizabeth (Liz) Shuler, like many young people today, pieced together part-time jobs, lived at home and struggled to find her way into the world of work. That was in 1992. Since then, Liz has used every job as an opportunity to stand up for the underdog. Today, as secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, the second-highest position in the labor movement, Shuler serves as the chief financial officer of the federation and oversees six administrative departments. Shuler not only is the first woman elected as the federation’s secretary-treasurer, she also holds the distinction of being the youngest officer ever to sit on the federation’s Executive Council. Shuler was re-elected in 2013 at the AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles.

    Shuler experienced the difference a union makes in her own home — her father, Lance, was a longtime member of IBEW Local 125 at Portland General Electric and her late mother, Joyce, was a nonunion clerical worker. A summer job in the payroll department at PGE during college had shown Shuler how the nonunion clerical workers were disadvantaged compared with their unionized counterparts. In 1993, Shuler took a staff job at Local 125, where she was thrust into a full-fledged campaign to help the clerical workers organize. The organizers on staff at the local were all men, so Liz was assigned to house-calling, since most of the clerical employees were women. “Those were challenging times,” she recalls. “The company was holding captive-audience meetings and people were scared, so it was really tough to even get invited into their homes to talk.”

    Although the union did not prevail in the campaign, that organizing experience showed Liz how important it was to build mobilizing capacity within the local union. She traveled across the local’s multistate jurisdiction conducting Construction Organizing Membership Education and Training (COMET) and Membership Education and Mobilization for Organizing (MEMO) courses for the 5,000-member local’s 36 different bargaining units. She developed a political education course; formed local networks to bolster the union’s political action committee (PAC); built a chain of activists throughout the local’s five-state territory; and engaged the PAC board in a formal candidate endorsement process for the first time. She then worked to translate the local unions political dexterity into legislative action at the state capitol in Salem.

    Between her earliest years at IBEW and today, Shuler honed her mobilizing, political and leadership skills. Shuler had served as IBEW Local 125’s legislative and political director for nearly five years when she found herself in a battle with energy giant Enron, as it tried to muscle electricity deregulation through the Oregon state legislature. Many of the young people she speaks with today may not remember this scandal-ridden and now bankrupt corporate giant, which became one of the earliest national icons for corporate fraud and abuse. Shuler worked with a broad-based coalition of labor, community and environmental activists to challenge and, ultimately, overcome Enron’s powerhouse lobbying campaign, a victory that she says, “sparked my passion for advocating for people through political and legislative activism — especially in the energy fights.”

    It was a particularly poignant victory: Shuler’s parents lost their pensions because of Enron’s reckless behavior.

    Shuler’s outstanding work made the IBEW take notice. In 1998, then-Secretary-Treasurer Edwin Hill temporarily assigned her to California, where she mobilized IBEW members to help defeat Proposition 226, the so-called “Paycheck Protection” proposition that threatened the lifeblood of union political fundraising.

    Shuler next served for six years in Washington, D.C., as an international representative in the union’s Political/Legislative Affairs Department, lobbying Congress on such issues as energy and electricity, telecommunications, Davis-Bacon, health care, transportation, apprenticeship and training, pension reform, unemployment and telecommunications. She then became executive assistant to IBEW International President Ed Hill, overseeing the work and budgeting of 11 departments, from Utility and Manufacturing to Telecommunications and Government, and promoting the IBEW green jobs initiatives.

    She is especially proud of the IBEW’s Code of Excellence, a program adopted by Hill in 2005 to renew union members’ pride in workmanship and guarantee to employers that workers were committed to a hard day’s work for a full day’s pay.

    “If we’re going to rebuild the labor movement, we need to start with a commitment to quality work, to show that union labor makes a difference not only for the workers and their families, but also for our employers,” she says. “Unions add value, and the IBEW is demonstrating how this added value translates to new jobs and new members.”

    Shuler is active with many women’s causes. She is a member of the boards of the Women’s Campaign Fund, a bipartisan fundraising organization that aims to boost the number of women holding public office; Women’s Policy Inc., the caucus organization for women members of Congress; and the National Women’s Law Center. She also volunteered for many years with the International Women’s Democracy Center, an organization that sponsors mentoring programs encouraging women to run for office and seek change in countries overseas.

    Shuler also represents the AFL-CIO on various boards and committees, such as the AFL-CIO Housing Investment Trust; the Alliance for Retired Americans; the Solidarity Center; and the Women’s Committee of the International Trade Union Confederation.

    Shuler’s commitment to and energy for reaching out to young people, engaging them in their unions and communities and opening leadership opportunities for them has resulted in the AFL-CIO’s important Next Up Young Workers Initiative.

    Today’s young workers are part of the largest generation to enter the workforce since the baby boomers, and the most diverse and technologically savvy generation in America’s history. Although they suffer the nation’s highest unemployment — about twice the national average — and the fewest job opportunities in today’s economy, this generation of young people is engaged and ready to reverse economic and social injustice. In new young worker councils forming across the country and inspiring AFL-CIO Next Up Young Workers Summits, young union members are coming together in a powerful progressive force with students, civil and human rights advocates, LGBTQ activists and many others.

    Shuler’s efforts to broaden the union movement to engage young people and community allies in new ways and work to improve the economy for all working people defies many negative — and incorrect — stereotypes the public has about unions. Shuler is committed to eliminating those myths and helping unions show their true face to the public — their diversity, their innovative approaches to labor-management relations and America’s energy crisis, their role in the workplace of the future and the quality improvement in products and services a union voice on the job can bring.

    As unions and union members are under attack across the world, Shuler says it’s time to reconnect with the public on the basis of shared values and the importance and pride we all feel in our work.

    “After all,” she says, “work is what connects us all.”

    Shuler lives with her husband, David Herbst, in Washington, D.C.

  • What Do You Know About Capturing End-of-Life Preferences in Electronic Health Records?

    doctor and patient with electronic medical records Photo by Jerry Berger;  Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Boston, MA site of photograph. Wikimedia Commons

    Although electronic health records have been widely adopted, there is no common place for medical staff to note patients’ end-of-life wishes.

    Electronic health records (EHRs) have the potential to dramatically increase physicians’ ability to provide the right care at the right time by making sure they know a patient’s treatment preferences and values. Unfortunately, the poor design of some EHRs may thwart the efforts by patients to document their wishes. The story of Beth Bedell, as reported recently by the Star Tribune, demonstrates this problem. Bedell, a Minnesotan with an inoperable brain tumor, has a do-not-resuscitate (DNR) order as part of her advance directive. But when she visited the emergency room this year, the medical staff couldn’t find her advance care planning documents and provided treatment that she specifically sought to avoid.

    Although EHRs have been widely adopted — thanks in large part to financial incentives from the federal government — there is no common place for medical staff to note patients’ end-of-life wishes. In an emergency, physicians or nurses may not notice that an advance care plan has been made; they may not have time to search through the various tabs of the EHR. Virginia health care lawyer Nathan Kottkamp has described the lack of advance directive accessibility as “a perpetual problem.” For example, a 2014 case study of a hospital in Texas revealed that advance directives could be stored in any one of seven different places in an EHR.   In an emergency, a doctor may not have time to check all the options.

    The Pew Charitable Trusts* is working to improve end-of-life care by advocating for policies that will improve the ability of clinicians to identify end-of-life wishes in EHRs, such as selection of a designated location for advance care planning notes. This would allow physicians to access, understand, and respond to their patients’ wishes, especially in emergent situations where the patient has been incapacitated. Pew commented on this issue as part of new regulations governing the EHR Incentive Program, asking the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to ensure that doctors are aware of patients’ advance care plans and can easily locate them. Pew also endorsed the recently introduced Personalize Your Care Act 2.0, which includes a provision requiring the secretary of health and human services to establish standards for advance care planning documentation in EHRs. Pew also has encouraged Congress to pass legislation to make sure that advance directives follow patients discharged from the hospital to another provider setting.

    Although Bedell describes herself as “happy to be alive,” she also expresses concerns that her DNR might not be followed in the future. “If I have chest pains again, I’m not sure that I would go back to the hospital,” she told the Star Tribune. Pew urges policymakers to take steps to ensure that health professionals can quickly locate advance care planning documents in an emergency and that these documents are available wherever patients may receive care.  

    *Goals of the Pew Charitable Trusts: 

    • Improve public policy by conducting rigorous analysis, linking diverse interests to pursue common cause and insisting on tangible results;
    • Inform the public by providing useful data that illuminate the issues and trends shaping our world;
    • Invigorate civic life by encouraging democratic participation and strong communities. In our hometown of Philadelphia, we support arts and culture organizations as well as institutions that enhance the well-being of the region’s neediest citizens.

  • Were They “The Good Ol’ Days?” Doing the Math or Not

    By Joan L . Cannon

    sales mailingsOne of the most difficult things about getting old is retaining any sense of proportion.
     
    When we’d been married about three years, I remember my husband saying that if he could make X number of dollars a year, we’d be in fine shape, and he would have been right.
     
    At the time I wasn’t working, our son was a few months old, and we were in a rented house. My husband was being paid by the hour to cut lines, hold a plumb bob, and generally assist a surveyor. About fifteen years later, he was earning about half the amount per month that he had considered adequate for a year, and we were getting by, but just, in part because we didn’t take vacations or eat out, and we lived in a farming community.
     
    Shoes came in widths — in any store that sold shoes. Hats and gloves came in sizes with fractions. Things could be bought that fit.
    The grocer had a delivery boy who would bring your order to your door an hour or two after you’d chosen its contents at the store (at least where I grew up, in the city.).
     
    You could buy a little chicken if you wanted one, and you’d get the feet for broth. Recipes in books as recent as Julia Childs’ called for “broilers, two and a half pounds.” Have you tried to find one of those recently?
     
    Every store that sold meat sold not just steaks and chops and roasts. If you wanted something without bones, you asked the butcher to bone it for you. Now you have to search for meat on the bone. Then all meat counters included various innards, fresh as the other meats: liver (beef and veal), kidneys (both beef and lamb), smoked tongue, and often sweetbreads and even brains.
     
    My husband’s suits were 40 Regulars, inseam 33½ inches, his collar size 15. I can’t remember his sleeve or hat measurements, but his gloves were 8 cadet. Shoe size was 9½ D.
     
    Nowadays I shop for Petites because I’m short and short-waisted. Then I wore a Junior size 9 or 11. Now I wear a size 8 shoe in narrow if I can find it. Then, it was 7½ AA. Today almost all my shoes are only marginally comfortable.
     
    I can scarcely believe what I recall as the prices of things — like stamps for a first-class letter at three cents. I sometimes wish I were a statistician with the ability to research and do the sums that would tell me whether the prices were the same proportion of ordinary wages as today’s prices are to today’s ordinary wages. What is ‘ordinary?’ Something over the equivalent of today’s minimum wage?
     
    There was Social Security but no Medicare, dentists were feared as much as torturers, there were few antibiotics and precious little doctoring unless one were dangerously ill. Our first health insurance came with my husband’s job, and that lasted for over thirty years, until the company revised its policy, and we had to pay the group rate.
     
    I’ve had a shot to prevent shingles (expensive, but since I’ve had it twice, my doctor all but insisted), I get a flu shot annually, I’ve had the pneumonia vaccine, several tetanus shots as precautions, several surgeries paid for by insurance (for which we paid the premiums, but we budgeted for them), a couple of ER adventures — also covered. To tell the truth, if I’d been born fifty years sooner, it’s unlikely that I’d be here now. 
     
    I remember as a child listening to silence in the country within a day’s drive of a city. No highway speeds, no air traffic, no power mowers. Even in the then biggest city in the country, it was nearly silent in the small hours of the morning except for wild noises like katydids in the churchyard trees and alley cats arguing. Now I live a mile from a village of a few thousand, and always I can hear cars on secondary roads half a mile away. Last night I woke and heard an owl.
     
    It was thrilling.
     
    ©2016 Joan L. Cannon for SeniorWomen.com

  • Advancing Potential Zika Treatments; a Collaborative Effort with Johns Hopkins University and Florida State University

    NCATS researcherThe National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) recently identified compounds that potentially can be used to inhibit Zika virus replication and reduce its ability to kill brain cells. These compounds now can be studied by the broader research community to help combat the Zika public health crisis. NCATS is part of the National Institutes of Health.

    NCATS researcher dispenses zika virus into trays for compound screening. NCATS

    Using NCATS’ drug repurposing screening robots, researchers identified two classes of compounds effective against Zika: one is antiviral, and the other prevents Zika-related brain cell death. The compounds include emricasan, an investigational drug currently being evaluated in a clinical trial to reduce liver injury and fibrosis, and niclosamide, a US Food and Drug Administration-approved drug for use in humans to treat worm infections. In addition, the researchers identified nine cyclin-dependent kinase (CDK) inhibitors. CDK usually is involved in regulation of cellular processes as well as normal brain development, but the Zika virus can negatively affect this process.

    NCATS’ work was a collaborative effort with Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, (JHU) and Florida State University, Tallahassee, (FSU), and the study results were published in the August 29 issue of Nature Medicine. The NCATS screening effort builds on the initial research by JHU and FSU scientists, who discovered that the Zika virus infects brain cells early in development. Infection by the Zika virus may be related to fetal microcephaly, an abnormally small head resulting from an underdeveloped and/or damaged brain.

    The Zika virus has been reported in 60 countries and territories worldwide; currently, there are no vaccines or effective drug treatments. The virus is spread primarily through bites from infected Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, and in addition, can be transmitted from mother to child and through sexual contact. It also is associated with neurological diseases such as Guillain-Barré syndrome in infected adults.

    “The Zika virus poses a global health threat,” said Anton Simeonov, Ph.D., NCATS scientific director. “While we await the development of effective vaccines, which can take a significant amount of time, our identification of repurposed small molecule compounds may accelerate the translational process of finding a potential therapy.”

    NCATS researcher Wei Zheng, Ph.D., and his team led the drug repurposing screen to test three strains of Zika: Asian, African and Puerto Rican. The scientists first developed an assay (test) using caspase 3, a protein that causes brain cell death when infected by the virus. The next step was screening 6,000 FDA-approved and investigational compounds, which resulted in the identification of more than 100 promising compounds. The team then evaluated the protective effect of these compounds in brain cells after Zika virus infection. Three lead compounds, emiracsan, niclosamide and a CDK inhibitor known as PHA-690509, were identified as reducing neuronal cell death caused by Zika virus infection.

    These compounds were effective either in inhibiting the replication of Zika or in preventing the virus from killing brain cells. For example, emricasan prevents cell death, and niclosamide and the nine CDK inhibitors stop the virus’ replication. The team also found that emricasan, when combined with one of the CDK inhibitors, prevented both cell death and virus replication. In addition, the team noted that the CDK inhibitors may be useful in treating non-pregnant patients who face an increased risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome and other conditions sparked by Zika infection.

    The researchers cautioned, however, that the use of emricasan and niclosamide during pregnancy for Zika infection will need to be evaluated in pre-clinical toxicology studies and clinical trials.

    “Using the NCATS drug repurposing platform for emerging infectious diseases can help rapidly identify potential treatments for urgent needs such as the Zika virus,” Zheng said. “While identifying promising compounds is a first step, our goal at NCATS is to facilitate the translation of these findings for evaluation in the clinic. The release of all the compound screening data in this publication and in the public PubChem database opens the door to the research community to do just that.”

    NCATS’ screening effort enabled the broader research team to quickly translate their earlier discoveries toward work to develop treatments for Zika virus infection. JHU is working on a mouse model to study the neuroprotective effects of the compounds identified from the screen and studying the mechanism of action of the lead compounds. FSU is testing the efficacy of these compounds in a Zika virus mouse model and is also studying the mechanism of action of the lead compounds.

    About the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS): To get more treatments to more patients more quickly, NCATS incorporates the power of data, new technologies and strategic collaborations to develop, demonstrate and disseminate innovations in translational science. Rather than targeting a particular disease or fundamental science, NCATS focuses on what is common across all diseases and the translational process. For more information, visit https://ncats.nih.gov.

    Reference: Xu et al. Identification of small molecule inhibitors of Zika virus infection and induced neural cell death via a drug repurposing screen. Nature Medicine. August 29, 2016. http://www.nature.com/nm/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/nm.4184.html(link is external).

  • Julia Sneden’s Magic Moments at the End of Summer

    by Julia SnedenAntique quilt from collection

    This early American wholecloth quilt was made in the Colonial period. The blue resist fabric includes bold, fanciful botanical motifs. Collection of Bill Volckening; Wikipedia

    For my family (and I suspect for many others), summer’s end seems to be fraught with ambivalent feelings about the seasonal changes. We say a lingering, regretful farewell to quiet days, but because we are a family of teachers, we also feel a surge of energy and excitement in anticipation of the new school term. We swelter in the dog days, but then a hint of cooler weather brings the first stirrings of anxiety over what winter will bring. We say sad farewells to visiting family members, but as soon as they are out the door, we begin looking forward to the holiday visits that are not too far away. It’s not exactly a sad time, this folding in of summer’s story, but any change is unsettling, and change is definitely in the air. 

    There are a number of small ceremonies we perform as we see summer out. We put away hot weather clothing and dig out sweaters. We fold up the light blankets for storage, and hang the quilts out to air. After a summer of serving simple salads, we try to recall recipes for warm and warming suppers. We clean and put away the lawn mower, and pull up plants that have already shriveled in the garden.

    These little observances are fairly universal, but most of us also have a few small, idiosyncratic gestures to mark the end of summer.  One of my children, for instance, always jumped back into the lake at the end of his last vacation swim, and took one small pebble from the bottom to carry home for remembrance, his “souvenir of the trail,” we called it.  

    My own favorite activity to mark summer’s end is one that I discovered during my years as a classroom teacher:  finding the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies, bringing them indoors to observe their metamorphoses, and seeing them off on their annual trip south to Mexico for the winter. It’s not an expensive or complicated enterprise. Anyone who can identify milkweed growing in a nearby field will probably be able to find Monarch caterpillars in late August or early September. All you need is a jar of  water, a pair of scissors, and a bit of patience. This is a great activity to share with your favorite child, but it’s also a rewarding experience if the only person involved in it is yourself.  

  • Presidential Proclamation — Women’s Equality Day, 2016

    suffrage parade 1912

    Nearly one century ago, with boundless courage and relentless commitment, dedicated women who had marched, advocated, and organized for the right to cast a vote finally saw their efforts rewarded on August 26, 1920, when the 19th Amendment was certified and the right to vote was secured. In the decades that followed, that precious right has bolstered generations of women and empowered them to stand up, speak out, and steer the country they love in a more equal direction. Today, as we celebrate the anniversary of this hard-won achievement and pay tribute to the trailblazers and suffragists who moved us closer to a more just and prosperous future, we resolve to protect this constitutional right and pledge to continue fighting for equality for women and girls.

    Above, Suffrage parade, New York City, May 6, 1912; Originally copyright by American Press Association, published 1912. Source: US Library of Congress

    At every level of society, women are leaders at the forefront of progress. Serving as judges and Members of Congress, setting world records in sports, founding groundbreaking companies, and fighting on the front lines of combat, women continue to tear down barriers and shatter glass ceilings — just as they have done since the founding of our Nation. Yet such progress is not inevitable, and we must keep moving forward on our journey toward equality. In one of my first acts as President, I established the White House Council on Women and Girls to provide a coordinated response to challenges confronted by women and girls, ensuring their concerns and insights are taken into account in our policies and programs. And this year, my Administration hosted the first-ever United State of Women Summit to continue our efforts to underscore the passion, success, and ongoing commitment of advocates dedicated to advancing gender equality and realizing a brighter future for women of all ages.

    No woman should earn less than a man for doing the same job — equal pay for equal work should be a fundamental principle of our economy and our democracy. That is why the first bill I signed into law as President was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, and why I continue to call on the Congress to pass the Paycheck Fairness Act. Women make up roughly half of our workforce, and we need to invest more in affordable, high-quality childcare. We must strengthen paid sick, maternity, and family leave — too many families are forced to make difficult choices between caring for a newborn and receiving a paycheck, or staying home to help a sick child or parent and keeping their job. And we must continue striving for fairness and opportunity when it comes to improving workplace policies, because we know that when women succeed, our economy and our country succeed.

    Ensuring all young women can live full and healthy lives is vital to their pursuit of personal and professional goals. Because of the Affordable Care Act, individuals can no longer be charged higher premiums simply for being a woman. But there is still more we can do to reduce discrimination when it comes to women’s health — such as protecting a woman’s right to choose and safeguarding access to sexual and reproductive health services, including abortion. Every person should be able to live and reach for their dreams free from fear of violence: In America, nearly one in four women has suffered physical domestic violence, a cruelty which deprives its victims of their autonomy, liberty, and security, and inhibits them from reaching their full potential. Approximately one in five women is sexually assaulted while in college. Through the It’s On Us campaign and the White House Task Force to Protect Students From Sexual Assault, we have called on individuals, communities, and institutions of higher education to recognize what they can do to stop sexual assault and change our culture for the better. We have striven to support survivors and focused on making sure our schools are safe places where all students can learn, grow, and thrive. Transgender women often face escalated levels of discrimination and violence, and we have taken a number of steps to secure their civil rights, including providing guidance to educators that can help rid school environments of discrimination. The Department of Justice has also urged law enforcement agencies to address any form of gender bias that exists in responding to domestic violence and sexual assault and ensure that such bias does not undermine efforts to keep victims safe.

    Underrepresented in management positions, underfunded as entrepreneurs, under-encouraged in STEM fields, and confronted with higher levels of unemployment, women and girls of color still face very real challenges, significant opportunity gaps, and structural barriers. That is why we have hosted forums to discuss ways to increase programming and promote opportunities for women and girls of color so they can achieve success at school, at work, and in their communities. To continue building these ladders of opportunity for women — not just in communities across our country, but also around the world — I have made advancing gender equality a foreign policy priority. My Administration has sought to end gender-based violence across the globe, promote the role of women in ending conflict and building lasting peace and security, and empower the next generation by investing in adolescent girls and breaking down barriers to get 62 million girls into schools through the Let Girls Learn initiative.

    In the many decades since suffragists organized and mobilized, countless advocates and leaders have picked up the mantle and moved our Nation and our world forward. Today, young women in America grow up knowing an historic truth — that not only can they cast a vote, but they can also run for office and help shape the very democracy that once left them out. For these women, and for generations of women to come, we must keep building a more equal America — whether through the stories we tell about our Nation’s history or the faces we display on our country’s currency. On Women’s Equality Day, as we recognize the accomplishments that so many women fought so hard to achieve, we rededicate ourselves to tackling the challenges that remain and expanding opportunity for women and girls everywhere.

    NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim August 26, 2016, as Women’s Equality Day. I call upon the people of the United States to celebrate the achievements of women and promote gender equality.

    IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-fifth day of August, in the year of our Lord two thousand sixteen, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and forty-first. 

    BARACK OBAMA

  • Printing a Child’s World at the Met Museum, The Summer of Hamilton at New York Historical Society and Roz Chast at Museum of the City of New York

     

    Golden Locks
















     

    “As a girl reads Goldilocks and the Three Bears to two little boys tucked in bed, her menacing shadow and their wide eyes suggest that she is recounting the story’s most frightening moment. At this time, fairy tales were appreciated for their moral content, and Goldilocks, in particular, for warning children not to wander off on their own. Later interpreters have construed the tale as signaling a girl’s search for identity as she approaches womanhood. Guy’s female subject creates a sense of foreboding even as she exudes calm, foretelling her future success as a mother. Her doll is stashed in the box on the chair, implying that she is ready to put away childhood games and assume an adult role.”  Story of Golden Locks; Seymour Joseph Guy (1824–1910)

    Location:  The Met Fifth Avenue, The American Wing, Mezzanine, Gallery 773,
    The Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art


     

    Printed works for or about children are the focus of the installation Printing a Child’s World, which opened May 27 at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. More than two dozen works from the late 19th and early 20th centuries — primarily children’s books, illustrations, and prints by artists including Randolph Caldecott (for whom the annual award for best children’s illustration is named), George Bellows, Winslow Homer, and Thomas Nast — are being shown. They are rarely displayed because of their sensitivity to light. In addition to works from The Met collection, there are a dozen loans from a private collection and the New-York Historical Society*.  

    Among the highlights on view are nine original watercolors by Caldecott (1887) for the children’s book The House That Jack Built; the familiar illustration of Santa Claus by Nast from A Visit from Saint Nicholas (1872); and one of Homer’s earliest illustrations, which was made for Eventful History of Three Blind Mice (1858). 

    In America at the turn of the 20th century, advertisers understood the enormous appeal of art tailored to a burgeoning commercial marketplace centered on childhood. Illustrators such as Caldecott and Nast, celebrated for their technical skill and visual ingenuity, produced numerous works specifically for this audience. The broad dissemination of illustrations and advertisements secured a legacy for printmakers in both the commercial arena and the fine arts. 

    Children’s pastimes were also a popular theme in paintings of the period. Three examples from The Met collection are included in the installation. An intimate bedtime-story scene, children anticipating the arrival of a circus, and a thoughtful young ballplayer are depicted in Seymour Joseph Guy’s Story of Golden Locks (around 1870); Charles Caleb Ward’s Coming Events Cast Their Shadows Before (1871); and George Luks’s Boy with Baseball (around 1925), respectively. A recently donated Parian porcelain statuette, Catcher (ca. 1875-76), designed by Isaac Broome and manufactured by Ott and Brewer, anchors the installation while complementing the nearby display of baseball cards from the popular Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, which is  held by the Museum’s Department of Drawings and Prints. 

    Organized by Jane Dini, Associate Curator of American Paintings and Sculpture in the American Wing, Printing a Child’s World inaugurates a redesigned display area in the Henry R. Luce Center for the Study of American Art.

    The installation will be listed on The Met  website, as well as on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter via the hashtag #PrintingaChildsWorld.

    *The Summer of Hamilton:

    Summer of Hamilton

    Back By Popular Demand
    Believe it or not, in 2004 the New York Historical Society and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History presented Alexander Hamilton: The Man Who Made Modern America. (It was a landmark exhibit, but you could, in fact, get in — and it didn’t cost several Benjamins.)