Patients who got most of their care from women doctors were more likely to leave the hospital alive than those treated by men. The differences were small. But the all-male research team estimated that there would be about 32,000 fewer deaths each year in the U.S. if male physicians performed at the same level as their female peers. Women doctors were found more likely than men to follow treatment guidelines, provide preventive care more often and communicate more with patients.   read more

The costs to whistleblowers are high; they often face retaliation and are unable to find work because they are blackballed. These very real perils underscore the significance of new research that found a sharp and lasting drop in financial wrongdoing at companies that were subject to whistleblower investigations. “Following the allegations,” said the study, “whistleblower firms are significantly more likely to experience a decrease in the incidence of accounting irregularities."   read more

The Times Union of Albany reports that a caller told police there was an elderly woman "frozen to death" in a parked car. Officers rushed to the scene and found what appeared to be a woman sitting in a car's front passenger seat wearing an oxygen mask. A sergeant busted a rear window, opened the door and discovered that the woman was a realistic mannequin.   read more

"I found the numbers astounding, the sheer volume of technology used by parents," Steyer said. "There's really a big disconnect between their own behavior and their self-perception, as well as their perception of their kids." "Yet 78% of all parents believe they are good media and technology role models for their children," said the survey. The activities include TV/video viewing; video gaming; social networking or website browsing, and any other task on a computer, smartphone or tablet.   read more

"This was a criminal, fraud operation masquerading as a fake U.S. embassy," said the U.S. State Dept. It was not clear how many people were defrauded by the fake embassy, which charged $6,000 for its services. Those running the operation were able to bribe corrupt officials "to look the other way," the State Dept said. The fake embassy featured an American flag and photo of President Barack Obama. The fake consular officers were Turkish.   read more

When interest rates go up, crime goes up. When interest rates go down, crime goes down. This has been so at least since 1953. Rarely does social science research yield such a high statistical association and strong relationship between two phenomena, particularly when they are not intuitively related. Nobody would suggest that high interest rates directly cause crime. But there is a wealth of evidence on the causes of crime that demystifies this seemingly baffling relationship.   read more

The normally secretive federal agency, in a bizarre series of oddly informal postings on its Twitter account, revealed that officials apparently concluded, erroneously, that Trump had committed on his own Twitter account to divesting his assets. “As we discussed with your counsel, divestiture is the way to resolve these conflicts,” they wrote on Twitter, later adding: “Bravo! Only way to resolve these conflicts of interest is to divest. Good call!” In fact, Trump had made no such commitment.   read more

The rate of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias in adults aged 65 and up dropped to about 9% in 2012 from nearly 12% in 2000. NIA's John Haaga said dementia rates would have to decline much more sharply than they have to counteract that trend. Dementia was most common in the oldest adults. The Alzheimer's Association estimates that about 5 million people aged 65 and older have Alzheimer's, and that is expected to rise to almost 14 million by 2050.   read more

Was it a hidden racist vote? Could more than 1 million people in Colorado really be in favor of keeping a slavery loophole? “It just shouldn’t be a Colorado value,” said activist William Dickerson. “It shouldn’t be in the bedrock of our founding document, both on the state level and on the national level.” Those bewildered by the vote say the explanation may be simple: Voters say they were disoriented by a mouthful of a ballot question, leaving them unsure what “yes” and “no” actually meant.   read more

Eight children asked a judge to find Washington in contempt. "The most concerning thing to me is that our planet will be destroyed and I would have done nothing about it," said Aji Piper, 16. "We're bringing this case because we need to have a stronger voice and right now that's through the legal system." Gabe Mandell, 14, added: "This is the world I'm going to have to grow up in. Ecology has a mandate to protect our future and they're not doing it. They're not doing their job..."   read more

The rule requires hybrid and electric vehicles to make audible noise when traveling in reverse or forward at speeds up to about 19 mph. The sound alert isn't required at higher speeds because other factors, such as tire and wind noise, provide warning. The new rule could help prevent about 2,400 pedestrian injuries a year once all hybrids on the road are equipped to make noise, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.   read more

It's a term sometimes used to describe the current political climate. Oxford Dictionaries said Wednesday that use of the term rose 2,000 percent between 2015 and 2016, often in discussions of Britain's decision to leave the European Union and the campaign of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. It's often used in the phrase "post-truth politics" and is defined as belonging to a time in which truth has become irrelevant.   read more

The cancellation was aimed at preserving the Badger-Two Medicine area, a largely-undeveloped, 130,000-acre wilderness that is the site of the creation story for members of Montana's Blackfeet Nation and the Blackfoot tribes of Canada. "It should not have been leased to begin with," Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in announcing the cancellations at her agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C. "This sets the right tone for how business should be done in the future."   read more

Just like college freshmen, newly elected members of the House descended on Washington Monday for a week of orientation, a class photo and a lottery to determine their offices for the next two years. The new Congress includes the first Latina senator, three House members moving across the Capitol to the Senate and a few former lawmakers who seized their old jobs back. While Congress will include a record number of minority women, Congress will remain overwhelmingly white, male and middle-aged.   read more

A number of Facebook users reported that their profile page on the social network was topped with a message that referred to them by name — as if they were gone — while linking to a feature that "memorializes" the page of someone who has died. The message said Facebook hoped the users' loved ones would find comfort in seeing posts that others shared about them. Even Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's page had the death notice for a short time on Friday.   read more

Republican state Rep. Dick Marple was sitting outside a polling place with his campaign signs on Election Day when an officer recognized him. Marple was charged with driving without a valid license in December 2014. Authorities had issued a bench warrant for his arrest after he failed to show up for a court hearing in October. Police say Marple drove himself to the police station and was arrested. He also was re-elected to a fifth term.   read more