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After the devastating bomb blast in Afghanistan that left Army Staff Sgt. Alex Dillmann paralyzed from the abdomen down, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) was there to help with his long recovery. They paid to retrofit Dillman’s Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck so he could drive it, and even bought him a handcycle that would allow him to continue exercising.

While the former squad leader and his wife, Holly, were grateful for the assistance and support, they were also disappointed that the VA wouldn’t help pay for what they wanted the most: a family of their own.

The agency designed to care for former soldiers covers part or all of the cost of treatment for many ailments and conditions veterans may suffer from, but infertility isn’t one of them. The VA does not provide any financial assistance for in vitro fertilization (IVF), which fertility specialists agree offers those with traumatic genital and spinal cord injuries the best chance of having a biological child.

In fact, the VA is legally prohibited from covering IVF costs, under a 23-year-old law. Congress adopted the ban following growing conservative opposition over the ethics surrounding assisted reproductive technology (ART), due to concerns that unused fertilized embryos may be discarded.

Now, however, a bipartisan effort from both veterans and lawmakers is seeking to overturn the ban, which many feel is outdated considering the global acceptance and popularity of IVF. The law predates both wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where widespread use of deadly improvised explosive devices (IEDs) against U.S. forces has resulted in far more reproductive injuries than previous conflicts.

The Dillmans are now just one of thousands of young post-combat couples who struggle to start a family after blast injuries left them unable to conceive via natural methods.

IVF treatments can cost tens of thousands of dollars and often require multiple attempts before a viable pregnancy is produced. The combination of the emotional toll and the financial burden can be utterly overwhelming for many combat-wounded veterans and their significant others, especially if they are learning to live without a limb or adapting to life in a wheelchair.

Some combat-wounded veterans and their families have taken on debt to cover the cost of IVF treatments, while others have put off an education provided to them under the GI Bill so they jump back into the job market and start earning a salary right away. Others have rethought their plans to start a family altogether.

“At the end of the day, I’m so lucky to be alive. Part of that is this dream to be a parent,” said Dillmann, whose dirty-blond hair is still kept neatly cut high and tight. “But this is a big pill to swallow for all veterans facing combat injuries, which have hurt their chances to have children.”

After two failed rounds of IVF, the Dillmanns are ready for their upcoming round, which will cost $25,000 and wipe out years of careful saving. Regardless, they remain dedicated in pursuing their goal.

Congressional efforts to overturn the ban that prohibits the VA from covering IVF costs for combat-wounded veterans were met with resistance last year over how to pay for it. Though a new push is underway, it would only provide wounded military members with a small window of time between when their injury was sustained and the time of their discharge from the military. Yet many veterans are concerned that small time frame will only make matters even more difficult.

“The timing was just all wrong. It’s the time when you are trying to learn to shower and get your mind around the fact that you will never walk again. I wasn’t in the position to think about starting a family at that moment,” Alex explained.

It would be a shocking spectacle for any other graduation ceremony, but for Sulkowicz and her classmates, it was just another day.

Since the school year began in September 2014, Sulkowicz began carrying her mattress to protest the school’s values — or lack thereof — regarding sexual assault. Sulkowicz herself is a rape survivor, and she began speaking out about the lack of protection in American colleges for rape survivors after she discovered that the school took no actions against her rapist, who was also a student at Columbia and who was allowed to finish out his education, graduating on the same stage as Sulkowicz.

As her senior thesis performance art project, Sulkowicz decided to carry her mattress everywhere she went on campus — for as long as her rapist was allowed to attend classes, which ended up being the entire year.

The project, titled “Mattress Performance” (and alternatively “Carry That Weight”) quickly grabbed the attention of major media outlets and it also brought new light to the health concerns of young women, particularly college students, across the country.

As nymag.com recently wrote, it’s difficult for researchers to determine concrete numbers regarding sexual violence and sexual health on college campuses. In some cases, as in Sulkowicz’s case, university administrations simply don’t provide resources for students who are recovering from traumatic events.

In other cases, resources are available, but the fear of stigmatization and judgment from peers causes students to avoid seeking help.

STDs and STIs, for example, are fairly common among young adults today — but only 40% of sexually active young women are tested for common and treatable infections like chlamydia.

And on-campus rape, researchers are finding out, is happening more often than previously estimated. According to a new study conducted at an unnamed university in Upstate New York, published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, approximately one in every five women have been the victims of attempted or committed rape — during their freshman year of college alone.

It’s because of brave women, like Sulkowicz, that more women and men have finally begun to speak out about sexual violence and health concerns. The results are far higher — and more worrisome — than researchers predicted just a few years ago, but the recent findings make it clear that these issues are too widespread to be ignored any longer.

“Our findings show that cities continue to be laboratories of innovation when it comes to energy efficiency, with many pushing the envelope for more energy savings in the last few years,” said lead author David Ribeiro in a May 20 news release. “Cities are also improving their approaches when it comes to tracking and communicating their efforts to save energy. By capturing these efforts in the [City Energy Efficiency] Scorecard we hope local leaders from cities of all sizes can learn best practices from each other and deliver the benefits of energy efficiency to their communities, such as a stronger economy and a cleaner environment.”

Energy efficiency refers to doing the same amount of work with less energy — essentially, improving energy usage without sacrificing any function or convenience. With efficiency in mind, Boston has implemented a number of city-wide energy policies as well as focused on energy and water usage in large and medium-sized buildings.

The city has also made efforts to engage residents on a personal level and get them invested in conservation and efficiency efforts. Many of the choices made in the home, particularly when it comes to appliances, can have a large collective effect on overall efficiency; heating and cooling equipment, for example, tends to become less efficient over time, but few people know that HVAC equipment often physically lasts longer than it is economically viable.

Boston was followed in the rankings by New York City, Washington, San Francisco and Seattle. The lowest-ranking city was Oklahoma City, with Birmingham, Raleigh, Detroit and New Orleans rounding out the bottom five.

Several cities near the top of the list have shown marked improvement since last year’s assessment from the ACEEE. Those include Washington (2), Los Angeles (12), Chicago (6), Minneapolis (7) and Seattle (5).

As the report points out, however, there’s still quite a bit of room for improvement even in the most efficient cities. Boston was the only city to earn above 80 points (out of 100), and only 13 cities total scored above a 50%.

Over the Memorial Day weekend in Asheville, NC, a photo of a young couple sharing a tender moment prior to saying their “I Do’s” has already been shared millions of times, appearing all over social media and in tabloid magazines the world over.

The photo shows high school sweethearts Marine Cpl. Caleb Earwood, 21, and his bride-to-be Maggie, 22, holding hands in prayer while standing on opposite sides of a door, so as to not break the tradition of seeing each other before the bride walks down the aisle. Caleb, looking handsome in his uniform, and the beautiful Maggie, sobbing tears of joy, may have just gotten the best candid wedding photo of the year.

Being able to monetize their viral fame might come in handy for the couple, considering the average budget for a wedding and reception is a combined $28,400 in 2015.

When asked what he was praying for, Caleb said, “I prayed to God for my beautiful and intelligent wife that he blessed me with and the amazing family I was marrying into.

The intimate romantic snapshot launched the newlyweds to internet fame overnight, while the unsuspecting couple were preparing for a honeymoon trip to Dolly Parton’s Dollywood theme park.

“When I first grabbed his hand, he was shaking really bad, so I knew he was really nervous,” the blushing bride said.

And in the United Kingdom, another young couple has found unexpected wedding fame over the weekend. English groom Shaun Palmer hired a trained snowy owl, like the famous Hedwig of Harry Potter fame, to fly a pair of rings down the aisle. Video of Bilbo — that’s the owl’s name — and the bride’s stunned reaction has gone viral, too.

“Why play a game,” a promotional trailer for the park asks, “when you can live it?”

At The Void, VR helmets and vests will layer virtual environments over physical ones, creating numerous possibilities, worlds and scenarios for visitors to explore. The rooms will be reconfigurable, and even the surfaces will be customized to individual scenarios. If in your virtual world you are hiding behind a tree, for example, then the room’s surfaces will be made to feel like rough bark under your fingertips; if you’re attempting to open a hatch, the surface will mimic that of cold metal.

Ken Bretschneider, the man behind this vision, says he was inspired by the disappointment he felt at having virtual reality be confined to a stationary experience.

“I wanted to jump out of my chair and go run around,” Bretschneider told the Washington Post May 8. “I wanted to be in there, but I felt like I was separated from that world just sitting down playing a game. So I often would stand up and then I couldn’t do anything.”

VR technology has taken several leaps forward in just the past few years, and the much-anticipated Oculus Rift headsets should be made available to the public next year. But Bretschneider, an experienced techie who sold his cybersecurity business to put more time into his VR ambitions, is making his own.

And in order to amp up the experience even further, The Void will include non-virtual elements that are much lower tech, such as blasts of steam (while high-pressure steam systems are associated with industrial applications, low-pressure systems of 30 psig or less are more akin to steam radiators, being very safe as long as they’re inspected about once a year).

Those types of elements will set the park apart from any experience that can be offered to home gamers, according to Bretschneider. “There isn’t any way to be able to go out and create the full potential of virtual reality in the home market,” he explained to the Post. “It became really apparent to me that we needed to build a facility where people could come to and not have to worry about hooking up virtual reality, making it work and trying to run around inside their house.”

Eventually, Bretschneider hopes to build centers in cities across North America, Asia and Europe. Of course, that dream will probably largely depend on how the Utah pilot is received.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Vector Arms Corp. — the self-described “source for the best AK47 and *UZI’s on the market” — faces substantial legal debts due to an ongoing dispute over whether Merrill, the majority owner of Vector’s predecessor, sold Vector’s gun-making equipment and inventory to Jason Maughn, its current owner and president.

The 2011 sale would have taken place after Merrill lost his license to manufacture firearms due to his involvement in an illegal scheme to use China-manufactured bullets to fill a $298 million order for ammunition from the Afghanistan Security Forces. The U.S. Army’s 2006 contract states that none of this ammo could come from China.

There are approximately 8,980 Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings each year; this form of bankruptcy helps businesses and enterprises restructure their debts and gain protection from creditor lawsuits.

Vector’s legal disputes take place at a time when many small arms manufacturers are suffering from slow business; many of its competitors have shuttered their doors in recent years.

“Vector, like most independent small arms manufacturers, has experienced a slowdown in its business over the last year,” Maughn said.

In 2014, Vector brought in just $650,000 in sales, compared to $1.2 million in 2013. Merrill’s lawsuit has made it even more difficult for the company to stay afloat. For example, the lawsuit contains a court order that forbids Vector from moving out of its 9,000-square-foot facility, which is about twice the amount of space the company actually needs.

By seeking Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, Maughn says he intends to get Vector out of its current real estate lease and re-arrange the approximately $165,000 in debt that the company owes to its suppliers.

Vector Arms will remain open throughout its Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings, the Wall Street Journal reports.

“What we discovered was the U.S. yoga market delineated itself not only in the different types of yoga that emerged, but also in the logic behind why people do yoga,” Gokcen Coskuner-Balli, an assistant professor and co-author of the study, explained to Chapman University’s news service. The study shows that the changing meanings of yoga have had to do with the training of yoga gurus or instructors, as well as the distinct branding practices of the many players in the yoga market.

To gather data for the study, the research team dove into a wide variety of popular sources. They searched for all articles in the New York Times and Washington Post archives that were published between 1980 and 2012 and had the word “yoga” in the headline or first paragraph. They also examined published books containing the word yoga, interviewed founders of yoga brands and even participated in multiple types of yoga classes between 2009 and 2012.

This approach allowed the team to identify key moments that positioned yoga as a health and fitness regimen, such as when Berly Bender Birch’s Power Yoga became the best-selling book of 1999.

The full paper, with Burcak Ertimur listed as co-author, is published in the Journal of Marketing.
Yoga and Stress Management
The evolution of yoga into a popular American workout doesn’t mean that it has completely lost its meditative quality for participants however, as probably most of the busy moms who see it as their escape would explain.

According to a newly released study out of Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, mindfulness-based practices including yoga can help decrease overall stress levels and reduce the risk of burnout even in extremely demanding jobs.

“As a yoga practitioner, I have dabbled in various forms of yoga,” said Malek Neman, President of NUX Group, Inc. “While the fitness and flexibility benefits of yoga are difficult to dispute, there is a magical, and often unexpected, experience that brings most practitioners back to the mat. In the process of focusing on the yoga routine and breathing practices, the mind does slow down, and the practitioner experiences a meditative state. I often walk away from the mat with a deep sense of gratitude.”

The obvious solution, according to the U.S. Secret Service and the National Capitol Planning Commission, was to make a plan that involves steel spikes being placed on top of the current black iron fence.

Unlike the other 90% of new fence installations in the U.S. each year, this new addition isn’t intended to increase privacy for the Obamas.

CNN and the Huffington Post report that the U.S. Secret Service presented the proposal to the National Capitol Planning Commission. On Thursday, May 7, the plan was approved.

The new spikes will be slightly over seven inches tall and will have a steel “pencil point” at the top, which protrudes in multiple angular directions (much like layers of spikes) in order to deter people from climbing the fence. Poltico states that these “pencil points” will be placed in between the “decorative spear-shaped finials” that currently adorn the fence.

As explained by Tom Dougherty, the Chief Strategy officer of the Secret Service, “The current fence is a measure that was useful for a bygone era. It has been breached many times.”

Workers will start installing the spikes during July, and it’s estimated that the installation will take about four weeks.

The “pencil points” are a temporary solution, the Secret Service stated, and the U.S. National Park Service is designing a more permanent solution.

The security (or lack thereof) of the White House first came into question during September 2014 when a war veteran climbed the fence and ran into — and through — the White House with a knife. There have been multiple subsequent incidents since then, resulting in the resignation of Julia Pierson, then Secret Service director.

In addition to the spikes, three guard booths surrounding the White House will be rearranged and the current concrete barriers on Pennsylvania Ave. will be replaced with steel plate barriers.