At a meeting of the Elder Justice Coordinating Council (EJCC) on Wednesday, June 12, 17 federal agencies including the Justice Department and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will look back on a decade in which the federal government has significantly expanded efforts to combat elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation — including in the areas of enforcement, public education, training, interagency collaboration, research, and support for older adults who experience or are at risk of experiencing abuse.
“We know that the vast majority of elder abuse cases go unreported. And that too many victims remain unseen,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland (above). “That is why the Department of Justice has aggressively targeted perpetrators of elder fraud and abuse, while providing victims with the support they need. In the last five years, the Department has pursued more than 1,500 criminal and civil cases involving conduct that targeted or disproportionately affected older adults. We have provided services to more than 1.5 million older victims. And we have returned hundreds of millions of dollars to elder fraud victims. The Elder Justice Coordinating Council has played a key role in our work.”
“The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting the health, well-being, and independence of older adults and to advancing equity for all Americans. Elder justice is a crucial element of both,” said HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra. “Today, we celebrate the progress we have made advancing elder justice. But we will not rest until every older person lives with dignity and without fear of abuse or neglect.”
“We know that it will take an all-of-government approach to make our shared vision of elder justice and community inclusion a reality, and in the last decade, the federal response to elder abuse has become more robust and coordinated,” said Alison Barkoff, who leads the Administration for Community Living. “It is incredible to reflect on the progress we have made in the years since the EJCC first convened. We have a lot of progress to build upon and so many opportunities to do more. The work of advancing elder justice has never been more important, or more urgent.”
The EJCC was established by the 2010 Elder Justice Act to coordinate federal activities related to elder abuse, neglect, and exploitation across the federal government. Today’s meeting looked back on accomplishments in the decade since the EJCC adopted Eight Recommendations for Increased Federal Involvement in Addressing Elder Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation as a common set of priorities to guide federal efforts. Highlights include:
Jo Freeman Writes: The 2024 Libertarian National Convention as Seen Through Feminist Eyes
Jo Freeman Writes: Kennedy vs. Trump at the Libertarian National Convention
Pub Med: Traversing the Menopause: Changes in Energy Expenditure and Body Composition
Comment in
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Findings of scientific misconduct.NIH Guide Grants Contracts. 2005 Mar 25:NOT-OD-05-040.PMID: 15791736 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
Traversing the menopause: changes in energy expenditure and body composition
- PMID: 9894924
Abstract
The menopause transition is associated with several physiological changes that may impact women’s health outcome. Among the changes associated with the loss of ovarian function is an increased risk of metabolic and cardiovascular disease. The present review focuses on changes in energy expenditure, body composition and body fat distribution during the postmenopausal transition. Previous work indicates that the most important component of total daily expenditure, resting metabolic rate, may be reduced by the menopause, independently of the effects of the normal aging process. This effect is mainly attributable to a decrease in fat-free mass. The energy expenditure associated with physical activity is the most variable component of total daily energy expenditure. However, small changes in this component may have a substantial impact on body composition. Longitudinal data from our laboratory indicate that the menopause transition also leads to significant decreases in physical activity energy expenditure. The changes in body composition that accompany the menopause transition have been studied by several groups and, although some studies suggested increases in body mass index or total body fat mass with the menopause, currently available cross-sectional data preclude a firm conclusion. Nevertheless, results from our longitudinal study showed significant increases in fat mass with the menopause. The accumulation of abdominal fat, which may be a better correlate of the comorbidities associated with obesity, has also been shown to be accelerated by the menopause transition. In this regard, it has been shown that treatment with hormone replacement therapy prevents the increase in the rate of abdominal adipose tissue accumulation that was noted with the menopause. Thus, it appears that the loss of ovarian function induces a reduction in resting metabolic rate, physical activity energy expenditure, fat-free mass, and an increase in fat mass and abdominal adipose tissue accumulation. These modifications probably contribute to the increased risk of cardiovascular disease of postmenopausal women.
Comment in
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Findings of scientific misconduct.NIH Guide Grants Contracts. 2005 Mar 25:NOT-OD-05-040.PMID: 15791736 Free PMC article. No abstract available.
Tribute to Madeline Albright: The Highest – Ranking Woman in the Country at the Time She Served In the Administration
Madeleine
Albright
Madeleine Jana Korbel Albright[1] (born Marie Jana Körbelová, later Korbelová; May 15, 1937 – March 23, 2022)[2][3] was an American diplomat and political scientist who served as the 64th United States secretary of state from 1997 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party, she was the first woman to hold that post.[4]
Born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, Albright immigrated to the United States after the 1948 communist coup d’état when she was eleven years old. Her father, diplomat Josef Korbel, settled the family in Denver, Colorado, and she became a U.S. citizen in 1957.[5][6] Albright graduated from Wellesley College in 1959 and earned a PhD from Columbia University in 1975, writing her thesis on the Prague Spring.[7] She worked as an aide to Senator Edmund Muskie from 1976 to 1978, before serving as a staff member on the National Security Council under Zbigniew Brzezinski. She served in that position until 1981 when President Jimmy Carter left office.[8]
After leaving the National Security Council, Albright joined the academic faculty of Georgetown University in 1982 and advised Democratic candidates regarding foreign policy. Following the 1992 presidential election, Albright helped assemble President Bill Clinton‘s National Security Council. She was appointed United States ambassador to the United Nations from 1993 to 1997, a position she held until her elevation as secretary of state. Secretary Albright served in that capacity until President Clinton left office in 2001.
Albright served as chair of the Albright Stonebridge Group, a consulting firm, and was the Michael and Virginia Mortara Endowed Distinguished Professor in the Practice of Diplomacy at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.[9] She was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack Obama in May 2012.[10] Albright served on the board of the Council on Foreign Relations.[11]
Early life and career
National Portrait Gallery Presents “Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939″
On View April 26–Feb. 23, 2025
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is presenting “Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939,” highlighting the myriad ways that American women contributed to the city’s vibrant modernist milieu. This is the first exhibition to focus on the impact of American women on Paris — and of Paris on American women — from the turn of the 20th century until the outbreak of World War II.
Through portraiture and biography, the exhibition illuminates the accomplishments of more than 60 convention-defying women who crossed the Atlantic to pursue professional goals and lead authentic lives. “Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939” is curated by Robyn Asleson, curator of prints and drawings at the National Portrait Gallery, and will be on view from until Feb. 23, 2025. A press preview with the curator will be held Thursday, April 25, at 10 a.m. RSVP to obusekge@si.edu.
Featured in the exhibition of nearly 80 artworks are portraits of cultural influencers, such as Sylvia Beach, Josephine Baker, Natalie Clifford Barney, Elsie de Wolfe, Isadora Duncan, Jessie Redmon Fauset, Zelda Fitzgerald, Janet Flanner, Peggy Guggenheim, Theresa Helburn, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Florence Mills, Anaïs Nin, Rose O’Neill, Gertrude Stein, Sarah Samuels Stein, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney and Anna May Wong. As foreigners in a cosmopolitan city, these “exiles” escaped the constraints that limited them at home as a result of prejudices based on gender, class, race, and sexual orientation. Many used their newfound freedom to pursue culture-shifting experiments in a variety of fields, including art, literature, design, publishing, music, fashion, journalism, theater and dance. An impressive number rose to preeminence as cultural arbiters, not merely participating in important modernist initiatives but leading them. The progressive ventures they undertook while living abroad profoundly influenced American culture and opened up new possibilities for women.
“By bringing the experiences of American women to the fore, ‘Brilliant Exiles’ provides a counternarrative to conventional histories of Americans in Paris that focus on the interwar period and the ‘Lost Generation’ of men such as Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald,” Asleson said. “The exhibition will highlight alternative approaches to modernism developed by women, as well as the enterprises through which they catalyzed creativity and forged interconnected communities.”
The exhibition reveals the dynamic role of portraiture in articulating the new identities that American women were at liberty to develop in Paris, with works by artists including Berenice Abbott, Alice Pike Barney, Romaine Brooks, Anne Goldthwaite, Loïs Mailou Jones, Henri Matisse, Isamu Noguchi, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Anne Estelle Rice, Augusta Savage, Edward Steichen, Alfred Stieglitz, Laura Wheeler Waring and Marguerite Zorach.
The richly illustrated 288-page catalog, published by the National Portrait Gallery and Yale University Press, will feature essays by Asleson and scholars Zakiya R. Adair, Samuel N. Dorf, Tirza True Latimer and T. Denean Sharpley-Whiting, as well as a foreword by Kim Sajet, director of the National Portrait Gallery. The book will officially be released May 28. A series of public programs inspired by the exhibition will take place at the Portrait Gallery through winter 2025. For more on related events, visit npg.si.edu/events.
The exhibition will travel to the Speed Art Museum in Louisville, Kentucky (March 29, 2025 to June 22, 2025) and the Georgia Museum of Art at the University of Georgia, Athens (July 19, 2025 to Nov. 2, 2025).
“Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939” is presented by Chanel, Inc. and the Terra Foundation for American Art. This project received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum.
National Portrait Gallery
The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery tells the multifaceted story of the United States through the individuals who have shaped American culture. Spanning the visual arts, performing arts and new media, the Portrait Gallery portrays poets and presidents, visionaries and villains, actors and activists whose lives tell the nation’s story.
The National Portrait Gallery is located at Eighth and G streets N.W., Washington, D.C. Smithsonian Information: (202) 633-1000. Connect with the museum at npg.si.edu and on Facebook, Instagram, X and YouTube.
Jo Freeman On Silent Cavalry: How Union Soldiers from Alabama Helped Sherman Burn Atlanta and Then Got Written Out of History by Howell Raines
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco Deliver Remarks at ATF’s Inaugural Gun Violence Survivors’ Summit
Remarks as Prepared for Delivery
I’m honored to be joining all of you today to help open ATF’s Inaugural Gun Violence Survivors’ Summit.
Today’s discussions and dedication of the Faces of Gun Violence Exhibit this afternoon reflect a deep and abiding commitment by the women and men of the ATF to victims and survivors of gun violence.
I’m grateful to the ATF and to all of you for being here — especially those who have lost loved ones to gun violence. Your presence honors their memory and fuels our fight for a better, safer future.
The community gathered today shares a powerful bond.
You are survivors. You are advocates. You are members of law enforcement. You call different places home and you come from different walks of life.
But together, you’re bound by extraordinary courage.
Your lives have been transformed by gun violence – but you are not defined by it.
You share a commitment — to turn your pain into purposeful action — doing everything you can to prevent another family from enduring the same loss.
I just spent some time in the Faces of Gun Violence Exhibit.
These beautiful photos pay tribute to 118 lives cut short by gun violence. 118 individuals. 118 smiles and stories.
They represent a fraction of the vast toll gun violence takes on our country every year.
They are 118 souls who aren’t with us today but who live on in those who loved them most and knew them best.
We stand together in recognition of that profound loss, alongside all those who have been touched by the tragedy of gun violence.
We stand together, in common cause, to end gun violence and its devastation.
And we stand together, undaunted, with resolve and hope for the future.
Now, when it comes to this issue, hope can be hard to hold onto.
Because every day, gun violence continues to devastate families and communities across our nation.
It’s the leading cause of death for American children and teenagers.
And it’s responsible for more than 100 deaths of law enforcement officers in the line of duty over the past two years.
But there are reasons for hope.
Just look around this room.
Survivors are here today to listen, learn, and tell their stories. Members of law enforcement are also here, as fellow survivors to listen, learn, and tell their stories.
We must come together — we must pull together — as we’re doing today to stop gun violence.
US Food and Drug Administration, DA: Counterfeit Version of Botox Found in Multiple States
Counterfeit Version of Botox Found in Multiple States
Counterfeit Package
[4-16-2024] FDA is alerting health care professionals and consumers that unsafe counterfeit versions of Botox (botulinum toxin) have been found in multiple states and administered to consumers for cosmetic purposes.
FDA is aware of adverse events, including hospitalizations, linked to the counterfeit Botox. Symptoms included blurred or double vision, difficulty swallowing, dry mouth, constipation, incontinence, shortness of breath, weakness and difficulty lifting one’s head following injection of these products. These symptoms are similar to those seen when botulinum toxin spreads to other parts of the body.
FDA takes reports of counterfeit products seriously and is working closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), state health departments and manufacturers to help protect the nation’s drug supply. FDA’s investigation is ongoing, and the agency is currently working with AbbVie (the Botox manufacturer) to identify, investigate and remove suspected counterfeit Botox products found in the U.S.
These incidents have occurred when counterfeit Botox is injected by licensed and unlicensed individuals and/or in non-medical or unlicensed settings. The products appear to have been purchased from unlicensed sources. Medications purchased from unlicensed sources may be misbranded, adulterated, counterfeit, contaminated, improperly stored and transported, ineffective and/or unsafe.
Information for Health Care Professionals
- Purchasing and administering counterfeit products puts your patients at risk.
- Check the product for any signs of counterfeiting before using it.
- Federal law requires that all health care providers who dispense or administer prescription drugs purchase those products only from authorized sources.
- Visit FDA’s website for information about how to safely purchase prescription drugs for your patients: Know Your Source: Protecting Patients from Unsafe Drugs.
Information for Consumers
- If you are experiencing any of the symptoms listed above, following an injection of botulinum toxin products, contact a health care professional or go to the emergency room.
- Confirm with your health care professional that you are receiving a product from an authorized source.
- Ask your health care professional if they are licensed and trained to administer the product.
Signs of Counterfeit Versions of Botox
There are some similarities between the counterfeit Botox products and the FDA-approved Botox.
AbbVie manufactures the authentic Botox products in 50-, 100- and 200-unit dose forms. The product descriptions on the outer cartons are either “BOTOX® COSMETIC / onabotulinumtoxinA / for Injection” or “OnabotulinumtoxinA / BOTOX® / for injection.” The manufacturer identified on the outer carton is either “Allergan Aesthetics / An AbbVie Company” or “abbvie.” FDA-approved Botox displays the active ingredient as “OnabotulinumtoxinA” on the outer carton and vial.
Currently, there is no indication that the reported events were linked to AbbVie’s FDA-approved Botox, and the genuine product should be considered safe and effective for its intended and approved uses.
The counterfeit product includes counterfeiting of the outer carton and vial. The counterfeit product may be identified by one or more of the following:
- the outer carton and vial contain lot number C3709C3
- the outer carton displays the active ingredient as “Botulinum Toxin Type A” instead of “OnabotulinumtoxinA”
- the outer carton and vial indicates 150-unit doses, which is not a unit made by AbbVie or Allergan
- the outer carton contains language that is not English
Counterfeit Vial
Women’s Congressional Policy Institute: Ensuring Equity for Women Veterans at the VA, Missing Children’s Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2023
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