Gender differences in employment
A record 67.5 million women in the U.S. are currently employed, which means women have recovered all the jobs they lost during the 2008 recession, the U.S. Labor Department reported. About 69 million men hold jobs, which is still down 2 million from 2007. The difference: Male-dominated professions like construction and manufacturing have not fully recovered.
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Thanksgiving and Hanukkah, together this year
Next week, Thanksgiving will fall on the first day of Hanukkah. Physicists calculate that the next “Thanksgivukkah” will not occur until A.D. 79,811.
The Jewish Daily Forward
How the NSA handles open-records requests
Leaks about the National Security Agency’s aggressive surveillance practices have sparked an 888 percent increase in open-records requests by Americans demanding to know whether their phone calls and Internet activity have been spied on. The NSA responds with a letter saying it can neither confirm nor deny that any information has been gathered.
USA Today
The gayest place in America
Washington, D.C., has become the gayest place in America. Some 10 percent of people in the nation’s capital identify as gay, according to Gallup. That’s double the percentage in Hawaii, the country’s gayest state, and almost triple the national average of 3.5 percent.
The New York Times
The Army's lost supplies
Between 2003 and 2011, the U.S. Army lost track of $5.8 billion worth of supplies. The Pentagon is the only federal agency that still does not produce complete audits of its spending and assets.
Reuters
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Very rich and very poor in California, and morefeature California is home to 111 billionaires, yet it also suffers the highest poverty rate in the country.
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Arctic cold kills tree insects, and more
feature This winter’s arctic temperatures have had at least one beneficial impact: They’ve killed ash borers, gypsy moths, and other tree-eating insects.
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Congress's poor record, and more
feature The 113th Congress is on course to pass less legislation than any Congress in history.
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A first for West Point, and more
feature For the first time, two male graduates of West Point were married at the military academy’s chapel.
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A God given land?, and more
feature More white evangelical Protestants than U.S Jews believe that Israel was “given to the Jewish people by God.”
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Jailing the mentally ill, and more
feature American prisons have replaced state mental hospitals as a place to warehouse the mentally ill.
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Treating Internet addiction, and more
feature Treating Internet addiction; Freshman virgins at Harvard; A salary handicap for lefties; Prices for vintage automobiles soar; Gun permits for blind people
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Congress's war record, and more
feature Congress has not formally declared war on any country since June 5, 1942.