The Daily Populous

Monday November 20th, 2017 night edition

image for State gives Alternatives to Abortion program $20 million more in funding

The Texas Legislature's budget for the next two years includes $20 million more in funding for a controversial program that seeks to discourage women from getting abortions in the state.

The extra money puts the program's total operating budget at over $38 million, the highest it's been since it began in 2006.

State law requires the Health and Human Services Commission to report funding needs to the governor and Legislature.

The 2018-2019 period's $20 million increase is the largest in the program's history — four times its starting budget in 2006.

Joe Pojman, executive director Texas Alliance for Life, said he was "ecstatic" to hear about the funding increases, saying it demonstrates the state's priority in limiting abortion.

Rather, she said the state should establish better worker protections to help low-income families earn a living wage.

"Clearly the state is prioritizing ideology over public health because a true alternative to abortion would be ensuring access to health care, especially family planning," she said. »

Researchers identify first brain training exercise positively linked to dementia prevention : Newscenter : School of Medicine

Authored by news.medicine.iu.edu

Aging research specialists have identified, for the first time, a form of mental exercise that can reduce the risk of dementia.

The persistence – the durability of the effect was impressive," said Dr. Unverzagt, who explains more in a Q&A blog post.

While the memory and reasoning training also showed benefits for reducing dementia risk, the results were not statistically significant. »

The Bonkers Real-Life Plan to Drain the Mediterranean and Merge Africa and Europe

Authored by atlasobscura.com

But somehow, the most farfetched of this complicated plot is the one closest to reality: the part about emptying the Mediterranean.

Lower sea levels would create vast stretches of new farm land along the current coastline, offering Europe’s nations space to expand.

And Gene Roddenberry’s book version of Star Trek depicts Captain Kirk standing on a huge dam in the Straits of Gibraltar. »

Trump calls elephant hunting a ‘horror show’ and suggests he’ll enforce a ban on trophy imports

Authored by washingtonpost.com

An African elephant is pictured in Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe in this file photo taken on Nov. 17, 2012.

President Trump called elephant hunting a “horror show” Sunday and strongly suggested he will permanently block imports of elephant trophies from two African nations despite his administration’s earlier approval of the practice.

He suggested that he does not buy the argument advanced by pro-hunting advocates within his Interior Department that the imports help protect endangered African elephants. »

Petitions to legalize recreational marijuana in Michigan to be submitted

Authored by clickondetroit.com
image for

LANSING, Mich. - The organization behind an effort to legalize recreational marijuana in Michigan says it has collected enough signatures and will hand over the petitions to Lansing on Monday.

The Coalition to Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol says it will turn in more than 360,000 signatures, surpassing the needed 252,523.

Adults can posses up to 2.5 ounces of marijuana in public, 10 ounces at home (anything more than 2.5 ounces must be stored and locked). »