What’s the best way to care for patients and their families? Our two organizations have been working to answer that question for 140 years. Now, we’ll be doing it together. And the people who will benefit most will be the patients and their families who we serve every day. more

This is now the standard line from Wall Street lobbyists: Don’t worry about “too big to fail” financial institutions because the Dodd-Frank Act fixed the problem. more

Thirty years ago, Wallace Kaufman and Orrin Pilkey published the landmark book on coastal erosion, “The Beaches Are Moving; The Drowning of America’s Shoreline.” One of their many keen observations is simply that shorelines retreat. more

For most of the past century, the United States and continental Europe have followed different paths. Social Democrats often ran European governments, which typically taxed and spent a greater share of their national incomes on social programs, such as public health care. more

The “fiscal cliff,” a combination of tax increases and severe spending cuts scheduled to kick in next year, is a product of multiple deceptions. Both the expiration date on the Bush-era tax cuts and the trillion-dollar “sequesters” that were enacted as part of last year’s debt-ceiling deal were designed to cover up an overarching problem: the country’s out-of-control debt. more

Although they can’t cast their ballots in this year’s presidential election, teens ages 14-17 are paying attention to what the candidates are saying – and aren’t saying. A new national survey finds the presidential election is top-of-mind for today’s youth, and domestic issues top their list of concerns. more

Next week Rhode Island voters will be asked – through a ballot referendum - to support the state’s first public institution of higher education. By voting yes on Question 3, you will be improving higher education for thousands of Rhode Islanders, making them more effective and competitive as employees. In addition, you will be creating hundreds of badly needed jobs for Rhode Islanders. more

In a challenging economy, nothing seems more important for employers than productivity during the workday. The focus is on meeting your goals, serving the needs of your customers, managing major issues and/or creating innovative new products or services. While these are critical priorities, it’s also important to consider how your big picture could be positively impacted by other things, such as serving the community. more

Morpheaus, the mysterious leader of the human resistance in the iconic movie “The Matrix,” holds out his hands to Neo, the young seeker of truth, offering him two pills. The red one holds the truth of the world, and the blue an escape back to the carefully constructed world of the Matrix. We learn fairly quickly that the “real” world is a nightmare compared to the dream of the Matrix. You don’t need to see this movie to grasp the meaning of choosing one pill over the other. more

The Obama administration tried last week to convince the U.S. Supreme Court that the federal government can deny landowners the use of their property for years – decades if need be – without ever paying compensation. more