The evidence keeps mounting that depression's toll goes far beyond its cost to a person's mental state. A study published this week in the Archives of Internal Medicine shows that elderly adults who have untreated depression are about 60 percent more likely to develop diabetes than those who aren't depressed. The finding is significant, considering that about 2 million seniors are estimated to suffer from depression.
While last week's Virginia Tech murders are still in the headlines, the administration this week plans to begin a listening tour of major campuses and educational facilities to look into school safety and mental health issues and to tell state and local officials that the feds have a lot of resources they can tap. "This isn't just a four-year-college issue," says an administration official. "It also impacts K-12 and two-year colleges so every educational facility has to be included." The plan to hold education safety roundtables around the country could be announced as soon as Wednesday. President Bush last week announced plans to have three Cabinet officials—Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, and Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt—form his school safety task force. Officials said that tour dates are already being scheduled and one is set for New Mexico on Friday. There, Gov. Bill Richardson has already set up his own school safety task force, as has Virginia's governor, Tim Kaine. While the planned roundtables are the major effort by the administration to address the Virginia Tech shootings, administration officials say that the White House is also looking at forming a broader task force that would include key educators, doctors, and college administrators.
Boris Yeltsin has died in Moscow at age 76. I'm not going to give an assessment of his whole career. For that, you might want to read this nuanced appreciation by Anne Applebaum in the Washington Post and this more critical account by David Satter in the Wall Street Journal.
AP - The House has scheduled a vote today on a bill that would require U.S. troops to begin pulling out of Iraq by Oct. 1. Democratic leaders predict they will have enough votes to pass the legislation and send it on to President Bush for his promised veto.
AP - A massive spring storm plowed toward the Midwest early Wednesday after dumping more than a foot of snow on the Colorado foothills and spawning a tornado that killed nine people along the Texas-Mexico border.
AP - Russia bid a solemn farewell Wednesday to Boris Yeltsin, its first post-Soviet leader, in a funeral presided over by some two dozen white-robed priests and a crowd of dignitaries including President Vladimir Putin and two former U.S. leaders.
The last soldier to see Army Ranger Pat Tillman alive told lawmakers he was warned not to divulge that a U.S. soldier killed the ex-professional football player. Tillman's family and former Pfc. Jessica Lynch earlier gave testimony into how the Pentagon spread false stories about him in Afghanistan and her in Iraq.
A federal agency has launched an extensive investigation into the activities of the White House's political operation and its architect, Karl Rove. It is checking whether Rove or other White House aides broke federal laws by making political presentations to government employees encouraging them to find ways to support Republican candidates. "We will not leave any stone unturned," said Scott Bloch, the lawyer appointed by President Bush to head the agency in 2003.
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