The chair has been established with a $2.2 million donation from Louis Appignani, a retired businessman. “I’m trying to eliminate discrimination against atheists,” he said. "This is a step in that direction." With atheists still often stigmatized and disparaged in this country, it took some persuading for the university to agree to create a chair with the word “atheism” in the title. "That was a deal-breaker for Lou,” Siegel said. “He wasn’t going to do it unless it had the word atheism in it.”   read more

The U.S. is rescinding a decades-old ban on sales of lethal military equipment to Vietnam, President Obama announced on Monday. He insisted it should not be seen as carte blanche for weapons sales. Human rights advocates, who had asked Obama to hold off on lifting the ban until Vietnam had released some political prisoners and promised to stop the police beatings of protesters, condemned the decision. “President Obama just gave Vietnam a reward that they don’t deserve,” said Human Rights Watch.   read more

In 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that generic drugmakers could not be held liable for failing to warn patients about the risks of their products. People harmed by generics would be unable to sue even as those who had taken the brand-name of the same product won million-dollar judgments. Those people included the family of Kira Gilbert, who died at 22 of a heart attack after taking a generic of painkiller Darvon. Her family’s lawsuit was dismissed in 2012 because of the Supreme Court ruling.   read more

"Segregation in public K-12 schools isn't getting better. It's getting worse, and getting worse quickly," said Rep. Scott. "More than 20 million students of color [are] now attending racially and socioeconomically isolated public schools." There are fewer math, biology, chemistry and physics courses in these schools than their more affluent counterparts with fewer minority students. In public schools, low-income and minority students were far less likely to enroll in these more rigorous courses.   read more

Dr. Doolittle is only in the movies. A recent episode in which a bison calf at Yellowstone Park was euthanized after being placed in the back of an SUV is one example of the dire consequences of a widespread and common occurrence: humans interacting inappropriately with wild animals. Such encounters are fueled by the culture of selfies and an ignorance about nature, and they lead to encounters that are dangerous to both people and animals, say officials.   read more

Gov. Fallin, who has signed several anti-abortion bills that were later blocked by the courts, will not comment on the new bill “until she and her staff have had a chance to review it,” said her office. But some legislators called the measure an ill-considered diversion. “I’m pro-life and a Roman Catholic, but I don’t think we should waste our time on legislation that someone will declare unconstitutional,” said Sen. Yen, an anesthesiologist and one of the few Republicans to oppose the bill.   read more

“For the sake of the families, I want to make clear beyond the shadow of a doubt that every entity, including foreign states, will be held accountable if they are found to be sponsors of the heinous act of 9/11,” said Sen Schumer. “If the Saudis did not participate in this terrorism, they have nothing to fear about going to court. If they did, they should be held accountable.” Schumer said he believed Democrats would override a veto from President Obama.   read more

Efforts to diversify America’s corporate boards with more minorities and women are still lagging. Overall, 399 new directors were selected for the top company boards last year. Hispanics claimed only 16 of those seats. The U.S. has the second-largest Spanish-speaking population in the world, second only to Mexico. “Companies need to do more to recruit Latinos into the boardroom if they are to compete successfully for the growing Latino consumers and future talent,” said HACR's Cid Wilson.   read more

"I consider air pollution and climate change to be serious, long-term threats to the forests," said Gary Lovett, senior scientist at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in the Hudson Valley. "But neither of those is changing the forest the way the pests are." There are more than 400 forest pests in the country with every state affected. Imported tree pests long ago wiped out eastern chestnuts and elms. Now under siege are hemlocks, ash, beech, oaks, maples and dogwood.   read more

When he accepted the Nobel in 2009, he declared that humanity needed to reconcile “two seemingly irreconcilable truths — that war is sometimes necessary, and war at some level is an expression of human folly.” The president has tried to reconcile these truths by approaching his wars in narrow terms, as a chronic but manageable security challenge rather than as an all-consuming national campaign. The longevity of his war record, historians say, also reflects the changing definition of war.   read more

Women have never been required to register and have never been part of a large-scale draft. Any justification for barring women from draft registration was erased last year, when the Pentagon announced that all military jobs would be open to women. The committee noted that the top officers in each of the military branches expressed support for including women in a potential draft. A provocative debate is expected when legislation is considered in the full Senate and House.   read more

Public schools must permit transgender students to use bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity, according to an Obama administration directive issued amid a court fight between the federal government and North Carolina. The guidance from leaders at the departments of Education and Justice says public schools are obligated to treat transgender students in a way that matches their gender identity.   read more

Remember how scathing Republicans were about President Obama’s handling of Ebola? Yet Obama’s approach was spectacularly successful. Republicans are now again trying to block a sensible effort to address a public health crisis, this time a Zika virus outbreak that is steadily moving to the continental U.S., bringing with it calamitous birth defects. In February, Obama urgently requested more than $1.8 billion to address Zika, and Congress since then has done nothing but talk.   read more

As Obama prepares to leave office, a group of lawyers is calling on Obama to revoke the Bush legal memo, which they argue has been used by religious groups to refuse services, including contraception for trafficking victims, that conflict with their beliefs. As a presidential candidate in 2008, Obama criticized the Bush Justice Dept. for drafting it, but as president failed to follow through. “Leaving it in place tarnishes the civil rights record of the Obama administration,” Garrett said.   read more

"This is an epidemic by any definition," said Dr. Gary Smith. Most cases involve swallowing liquid nicotine. Monthly calls about young kids' swallowing, inhaling or touching e-cigarettes climbed from 14 early on to 223 by the study's end. Calls totaled 4,128 during the study. Most children were age 2 or younger. The cases represent 14% of the nearly 30,000 calls about kids' exposure to tobacco products during that time. Dr. Joan Shook called the poisonings "a huge public health issue."   read more

The study showed that physicians who receive industry money tend to prescribe higher rates of brand-name drugs — and thus, lower rates of similarly effective, more affordable generic drugs. An aim of the study was to determine and reduce any industry influence that could produce bad behavior. “You want your doctors to be objective rather than doing something because there is a financial gain, be it subconscious or conscious,” Yeh said. “That’s not the way we should be doing medicine.”   read more