Strokes May Lead to Epilepsy

"What Is a Stroke?

A stroke happens when a clot blocks the blood supply to the brain or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts.¹ About 795,000 people in the United States have a stroke each year.¹ It is a major cause of disability and the fifth leading cause of death in the United States.¹ Signs that someone is having a stroke are:

• Sudden numbness or weakness in the face, arm, or leg, especially on one side of the body.
• Sudden confusion, trouble speaking, or problems understanding speech.
• Sudden trouble seeing in one or both eyes.
• Sudden trouble walking, dizziness, loss of balance, or lack of coordination.
• Sudden severe headache with no known cause.¹

Strokes Can Cause Seizures and Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a broad term used for a brain disorder that causes repeated seizures. There are many types of epilepsy, and there are also many different kinds of seizures..."
Strokes and Epilepsy

Federal Trae Comission Cigarette Report 2016

"1. INTRODUCTION
 This report is the latest in a series on cigarette sales, advertising, and promotion that the Federal Trade Commission (“Commission”) has prepared since 1967.

The tables appended to this report provide information on domestic cigarette sales and advertising and promotional activity by the largest manufacturers.
The 2016 sales and expenditure information in the tables was compiled from data contained in special reports submitted to the Commission pursuant to compulsory process by the parent companies of the major manufacturers of cigarettes sold in the United States: Altria Group, Inc.; ITG Holdings USA Inc.; Reynolds American, Inc.; and Vector Group Ltd.2

II. TOTAL SALES AND ADVERTISING AND PROMOTIONAL EXPENDITURES
The total number of cigarettes reported sold by the major manufacturers, 240.5 billion in 2016, decreased by 3.7 billion units (1.5 percent) from 2015. Advertising and promotional expenditures increased during that same period, from $8.304 billion to $8.706 billion. The largest single category of these expenditures in 2016 was price discounts paid to cigarette retailers in order to reduce the price of cigarettes to consumers, which accounted for $5.806 billion (66.7 percent of total advertising and promotional expenditures.."
Cigarette report

We did it! CRS reports will be public

[via ALA District Dispatch, March 28, 2018]
"After 20 years of advocacy by ALA, the public will soon have access to reports by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). A provision requiring public access to CRS reports was included in the omnibus appropriations law signed by the President on March 23.

Library supporters can celebrate this long-sought victory. ALA has advocated for online public access to CRS reports since Council adopted a resolution on the topic in 1998.
CRS is an agency, housed within the Library of Congress, that prepares public policy research for members of Congress, including nonconfidential reports about a range of policy topics. These reports have not been routinely published – meaning that taxpayers funded these reports, but were not generally able to read them.

However, soon this will change. The newly-enacted appropriations law for fiscal year 2018 includes a provision directing the Library of Congress to establish a public website for free access to CRS reports within 90 days.

ALA appreciates the leadership of the bipartisan group of champions who secured the inclusion of this important provision, including Reps. Kevin Yoder (R-KS), Tim Ryan (D-OH), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Leonard Lance (R-NJ), and Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and John McCain (R-AZ). This will enable libraries to provide their users with free, authentic copies of these useful public policy reports..."
Congressional Research Reports

Congressional Pictorial Directory, 115th Congress

Here you may find pictures on Presient Trump, Vice-President Pence, Speaker Ryan, House and Senate leaders and other members of the House and Senate.
Congressional Directory

US Adults Drink 17 Billion Binge Drinks a Year

"Don’t binge drink. Drinking less reduces the chance you’ll harm yourself or others.

Binge drinking is defined as consuming 4 or more drinks on an occasion (2-3 hours) for women and 5 or more drinks on an occasion for men.

Binge drinking is responsible for over half of the 88,000 alcohol-attributable deaths and three quarters of the $249 billion economic costs of excessive drinking each year in the United States.

Binge drinking can result in dangerous driving, risky sexual behavior, and violent behavior. Over time, binge drinking also increases the risk of other serious health problems, including cancer, heart disease, and liver failure.

U.S. adults consume more than 17 billion binge drinks, or about 470 binge drinks per binge drinker annually.¹ While binge drinking is more common among young adults aged 18-34 years, more than half of the binge drinks consumed each year are by adults aged 35 years or older. Adult binge drinkers binge frequently, about once a week, and at high intensity, averaging seven drinks per binge, significantly increasing the risk of harm to themselves and others..."
Binge drinkers

Brain Health Is Connected to Heart Health

"Did you know that the health of your brain and your heart are connected? By keeping your heart healthy, you also lower your risk for brain problems such as stroke and dementia. Learn more about the connection between the heart and brain and steps to take to keep both healthy.

Your heart pumps blood through vessels to every part of your body, including your brain. Damage to blood vessels can lead to serious health conditions such as heart disease, stroke, and dementia. Keeping your blood vessels healthy can help you have a strong heart and brain.

Unhealthy Heart, Unhealthy Brain

Some health conditions and unhealthy habits can damage blood vessels, putting your heart and your brain at risk for serious problems.

• • A heart attack happens when plaque buildup or a blood clot blocks blood flow to the heart.
  • A stroke, sometimes called a “brain attack,” happens when a clot or a plaque blocks a blood vessel in the brain or when a blood vessel in the brain bursts. When this happens, brain tissue dies, which can lead to memory loss and disability.
  • A type of dementia called vascular dementia can happen as a result of a series of small, “silent” strokes, sometimes called “mini-strokes.”¹Dementia can cause memory loss, slowed thinking, and personality changes..."

Brain health

Hepatitis B Vaccine Saves Lives

"Learn more about how the hepatitis B vaccine prevents infection and keeps children and adults from getting hepatitis B.

Hepatitis B is a significant public health threat, with up to 2.2 million in the United States infected. Many people with chronic hepatitis B were infected at birth or during early childhood, which increases the chance of a chronic, or lifelong, illness. Over time, chronic hepatitis B can cause serious health problems including liver cancer and liver failure. Recently, CDC published updated vaccination recommendations for the hepatitis B virus.

Learn more about how the vaccine keeps children and adults from being infected with the hepatitis B virus.."
Hepatitis B Vaccine

11 Things to Know about Cerebral Palsy

"

Cerebral palsy (CP) is the most common motor disability in childhood, and children with CP and their families need support. Learn more about CP and what signs to look for in young children.

1. Cerebral palsy (CP) is a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture.
2. CP is the most common motor disability of childhood. About 1 in 323 children has been identified with CP according to estimates from CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring (ADDM) Network.
3. CP is more common among boys than girls, and more common among black children than among white children.
4. Most (about 75%-85%) children with CP have spastic CP. This means that their muscles are stiff, and as a result, their movements can be awkward.
5. Over half (about 50%-60%) of children with CP can walk independently.
6. 
   
   Many children with CP have one or more additional conditions or diseases along with their CP, known as co-occurring conditions. For example, about 4 in 10 children with CP also have epilepsy and about 1 in 10 have autism spectrum disorder..."
   Cerebal Palsy

Historical Supreme Court Cases Now Online

"More than 225 years of Supreme Court decisions acquired by the Library of Congress are now publicly available online – free to access in a page image format for the first time. The Library has made available more than 35,000 cases that were published in the printed bound editions of United States Reports (U.S. Reports).

United States Reports is a series of bound case reporters that are the official reports of decisions for the United States Supreme Court dating to the court’s first decision in 1791 and to earlier courts that preceded the Supreme Court in the colonial era. The Library’s new online collection offers access to individual cases published in volumes 1-542 of the bound edition. This collection of Supreme Court cases is fully searchable. Filters allow users to narrow their searches by date, name of the justice authoring the opinion, subject and by the main legal concepts at issue in each case. PDF versions of individual cases can be viewed and downloaded.

The collection is online at loc.gov/collections/united-states-reports/.

Landmark cases such as Marbury v. Madison, Brown v. Board of Education and Miranda v. Arizona are all part of the collection, in addition to thousands of other cases that have an impact on the lives of U.S. citizens..."
Supreme Court Cases

Demonstration of protest and mourning for Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of March 25, 1911

"On March 25, 1911, fire swept through the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City, killing 146 employees, most of them women.

This photo was part of the exhibit The Way We Worked, on display at the National Archives in Washington DC in 2006..." 
Triangle Shirtwaist fire

Modes of Constitutional Interpretation

"When exercising its power to review the constitutionality of governmental action, the Supreme Court has relied on certain “methods” or “modes” of interpretation—that is, ways of figuring out a particular meaning of a provision within the Constitution. This report broadly describes the most common modes of constitutional interpretation; discusses examples of Supreme Court decisions that demonstrate the application of these methods; and provides a general overview of the various arguments in support of, and in opposition to, the use of such methods of constitutional interpretation..."
Constitutional interpretations

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Community on the Move for Equality invite you to March for Justice and Jobs

"In his final campaign before his death, civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. lent his support to a strike by sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee. This flyer was distributed to sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee, asking them to "March for Justice and Jobs" on March 22, 1968. Included are directions for the route to be followed and instructions to the marchers to use "soul-force which is peaceful, loving, courageous, yet militant.".."
ML King March for Justice and Jobs

Where to Write for Vital Records

"The links below are provided for those users who want direct access to individual state and territory information. To use this valuable tool, you must first determine the state or area where the birth, death, marriage, or divorce occurred, then click on that state or area. Please follow the provided Application Guidelines to ensure an accurate response to your request.

The federal government does not distribute certificates, files, or indexes with identifying information for vital records. Applications for passports can be obtained through the U.S. State Department..".
Vital records

Criminal Victimization, 2016

"Presents national data on criminal victimization reported and not reported to police in 2016, including the characteristics of crimes and victims and outcomes of victimization. The report examines violent crimes (rape or sexual assault, robbery, aggravated assault, and simple assault) and property crimes (household burglary, motor vehicle theft, and theft). It also includes data on domestic violence, intimate partner violence, injury to victims, and weapon use. Data are from the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which collects information from a nationally representative sample of U.S. households on nonfatal crimes, reported and not reported to the police, against persons age 12 or older. During 2016, about 134,690 households and 224,520 persons were interviewed for the NCVS. 

Highlights:

• In 2016, U.S. residents age 12 or older experienced 5.7 million violent victimizations—a rate of 21.1 victimizations per 1,000 persons age 12 or older.
• The rate of stranger violence (8.2 per 1,000 persons) was higher than the rate of intimate partner violence (2.2 per 1,000).
• In 2016, U.S. households experienced 15.9 million property crimes—a rate of 119.4 per 1,000 households.
• Motor vehicle thefts (80%) were the most likely of all crime types to be reported to police.
• In 2016, a total of 1.3% of all persons age 12 or older experienced one or more violent victimizations..."

Crime Victimization

March 22nd is National Lynch Syndrome Awareness Day!

"Lynch syndrome is an inherited genetic condition that makes you more likely to get colorectal (colon) and other types of cancer. If you have Lynch syndrome, you can take steps to reduce your chances of getting cancer or find cancer early. To find out if you have Lynch syndrome, collect your family health history, share it with your doctor and have any screenings your doctor recommends. If you have Lynch syndrome, be sure to tell your family members.

What is Lynch Syndrome?

Lynch syndrome is a hereditary cancer syndrome, meaning that it is caused by inherited genetic changes, or mutations. If you have Lynch syndrome, your parents, children, sisters, and brothers have a 50% (1 in 2) chance of having the condition. People with Lynch syndrome are much more likely to develop colorectal and endometrial (uterine) cancer, especially at a young age (before 50). Dave has Lynch syndrome and had colorectal cancer at 28. Amy found out she has Lynch syndrome when she was diagnosed with colorectal cancer days after turning 47.

Why is it Important to Know if You Have Lynch Syndrome?

If you or your family members have Lynch syndrome, your doctor can help you take steps to reduce your chance of getting cancer or find cancer early if you get it. Your doctor may recommend the following:

• Starting screening at a younger age
• Getting screened more frequently
• Using colonoscopy only instead of other tests..."
  Lynch Syndrome