Congo is in the news again this week as rebels advanced to the outskirts of Goma, the eastern regional capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (the "Congo"), before unilaterally declaring a ceasefire and halting their advance.

This evening Nobel Prize Winner and former Vice President Al Gore gave a live webcast organized by Power Vote. Power Vote is a nation-wide non-partisan campaign the Energy Action Coalition has put together to try to motivate a million young voters who will pledge to vote for a clean and just energy solution and to hold political figures accountable for moving to reach that goal.

A little thrift is good, but not too much. Thrift stores are doing booming business these days. I happen to think that there are some positive aspects to the resurgence of thrift stores in our economy. It helps groups like the Salvation Army make more money for their charitable endeavors.

I read several interesting articles recently regarding assistance given for a school for the blind in Iraq. http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2008/09/perkins_school.html

There was an interesting article in the New York Times this past Thursday regarding the struggle of one Native American tribe to preserve its language from becoming extinct.

It is a shame that we women cannot be supportive enough of each other to be able to claim that we have been able to elect a women to the highest or at least to the second highest office of government in the United States. Shelly Mandell the president of the Los Angeles NOW chapter, introduced Sarah Palin at a political activity in California.

I probably would have not known anything about Elkhart, Indiana but for the terrible economic crisis that is affecting the nation.  Most of what we hear is in terms of bailouts of major financial institutions, losses for the mutual funds industry with repercussions to the pension fund holdings of many workers, but I had never envisioned that

I read an interesting article in today's Washington Post by Michelle Boorstein, "Survey: Culture War Truce on the Horizon" http://voices.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/10/08/culture_wars.html?hpid=topnews as to whether current trends indicate a reversal in some of the trends among peo

The Bailout legislation that passed the Senate last week had one good surprise for the country and its citizens,  it had attached to it the Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008.

Although the AIDS virus initially flew under the radar screen and did not enter into the public consciousness to any great extent until the 1970's, a new study suggests that HIV likely began spreading to humans around 1900 in sub-Saharan Africa near what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo.