Untreated Depression Linked to Telomeres, Aging, and Disease

Untreated depression creates biological changes that accelerate aging and increase the risk of life-threatening diseases.

Telomeres are tiny units of DNA-protein that seal off and protect the ends of chromosomes and act as a biological clock to control a cell's life. Over time, untreated depression can shorten telomeres and make people prone to diseases typically associated with advanced age such as heart disease, diabetes, osteoporosis, and stroke.

Wife With Clinton Ties Is Force in Return

By MICHAEL M. GRYNBAUM, MICHAEL BARBARO and AMY CHOZICK

Huma Abedin, left, has helped shape Anthony Weiner’s comeback as he vies to become New York’s next mayor, drawing on her close connection with the Clinton family.

As Mr. Weiner, a Democrat, seeks an improbable return to politics, announcing this week that he is running for mayor of New York City, some have wondered how a politician who exchanged sexually explicit messages with strangers could persuade his wife to undergo another excruciating period in the spotlight. But the reality, it turns out, is just the opposite: Those close to the couple say that Ms. Abedin, a seasoned operative well versed in the politics of redemption, has been a main architect of her husband’s rehabilitative journey, shaping his calculated comeback and drawing on her close ties with one of the country’s most powerful families to lay the groundwork for his return.

What is the economic responsibility of corporate America?

Brain Changer

Speaking about our feelings—and our memories—changes the brain. Permanently. It took me twenty-five years of listening to people for my living to figure this out.

Boehner: House won’t pass Senate immigration bill

By Stephen Dinan - The Washington Times

House Speaker John A. Boehner on Thursday flatly ruled out chances of the House passing the Senate’s immigration bill, saying his chamber will debate its own bill instead.

“The House remains committed to fixing our broken immigration system, but we will not simply take up and accept the bill that is emerging in the Senate if it passes. Rather, through regular order, the House will work its will and produce its own legislation.”

President has regrets but wants anti-terror powers

Scott Wilson

Obama shows an unusual ambivalence over his policies’ morality.

"After four years of alarming intelligence reports and attacks that were prevented and those that were not, Obama sounded like a former constitutional law lecturer who sees the nation and its security challenges in more shades of gray than he once did. The speech was a mix of defensiveness and contrition over the choices he has made — all of which, he argued, have been preferable to the alternatives."

Three reasons Congress is broken

Robert G. Kaiser

Why Capitol Hill is so helpless and so hopeless.

Congress is a human institution with a distinct culture, and the modern version of that culture is hostile to creative problem-solving. If we have a mediocre Congress — even when it manages to accomplish something — it is because of the people in it and the culture they have created. The men and women who now run for Congress have special features. Most of them are much wealthier than their constituents. Surprisingly few have strong policy interests or experience. Most are willing to spend a day or two or three each week asking strangers for money on the telephone, a demeaning but obligatory exercise. Most have internalized an ethical code that allows them to solicit campaign contributions from people directly affected by legislation they vote on. This is not rare or even unusual — it’s standard.

States' Rift on Taxes Widens

Minnesota's move to raise $2.1 billion in new taxes, largely from the wealthy, to fund government programs puts it among a handful of states controlled by Democrats that are adopting more liberal fiscal policies at a time when many Republican-dominated statehouses are pushing to cut taxes.

The measure was backed by the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party, which holds control of both legislative chambers and the governor's office in Minnesota for the first time in more than two decades.

The First Apple, Fetching Prices That May Crash the System

By STEVE LOHR 

Apple-1 computers, built in Steve Jobs’s family garage, have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in recent auctions, a run-up reflecting the company’s mystique.

The auction market for the vintage machines, experts say, is thin and uncertain. For example, a nonworking Apple-1 failed to attract its reserve price of just over $75,000 at an auction last year in London. The record-setting auctions last year were of working originals, as is the Apple-1 going under the gavel on Saturday. 

Todashev's Widow Details FBI Interview

The wife of a Chechen man killed Wednesday during an FBI interrogation in Florida says federal authorities also questioned her at a separate location on the same day but never asked about a 2011 triple murder that U.S. law-enforcement agents now suggest involved her late husband.

The early indications point to both sets of killers being second generation immigrants, who either through their social networks or online media came to militant Al Qaeda-style Islam later in life.

US moves toward full Iran trade embargo

AsiaTimes - Jim Lobe

The United States Congress has stepped closer to a full trade embargo on Iran with legislation intended to increase support for Israel. If it is passed into law, President Barack Obama would lose his waiver rights that ensure countries with historic trade and financial relations with Tehran continue cooperating with Western efforts to pressure Iran over its nuclear program.

The House bill, it noted with approval, would impose a de facto commercial embargo against Iran and would "maximize the effectiveness of American economic and diplomatic efforts as Iran nears a nuclear weapons capability." 

Doomed to Be Single? 5 Reasons Millennials Worry

Fewer Americans are married today than ever before, and the age at which people do marry is steadily increasing. Millennials don't appear to look to marriage as part of their definition of self, nor do they rank a good marriage as one of their top priorities. What does that mean for them, and the culture as a whole?