Longer Looks: Interesting Reads You Might Have Missed

The Washington Post: This Dog Knows 40 Commands And Can Play Cards. A Hospital Hired Him. 
A children’s hospital in Orlando recently recruited candidates for a coveted new position. After rounds of interviews, its pick for the job was Parks, a 2-year-old Labrador retriever with a golden coat and floppy ears — who boasts an impressive catalogue of more than 40 commands. Like many dogs, he knows how to sit, stay and raise his paw on command. But what impressed hospital workers were Parks’s advanced skills, including pushing objects, turning light switches on and off with his snout, pulling ropes to hold drawers and doors open, retrieving items, and assisting with laundry by tugging the hamper to the washing machine. (Page, 4/5)

The Washington Post: For People With Down Syndrome, A Longer Life, But Under A Cloud 
Karen Gaffney is not afraid of challenges. Born with bum hips, she became an accomplished swimmer, crossing Lake Tahoe solo and the English Channel as part of a relay team. She started a foundation to champion people with disabilities, giving motivational speeches. She works for a law firm four days a week. But Gaffney, who has Down syndrome, loses her bravado when she talks about a looming threat to everything she has achieved, a threat to her very life: Up to 90 percent of people with the genetic condition develop Alzheimer’s disease, usually in their early 50s but sometimes in their 40s. Gaffney is 43. (McGinley, 4/7)

North Carolina Health News: Can NC Reduce The Number Of Children In Crisis Who End Up In Limbo? Advocates Hope A New Plan Can Help
Whenever children are removed from their homes as social workers and others try to protect them from abuse, neglect or other dangerous situations, it can be emotionally wrenching for them. Some have been even further traumatized in North Carolina recently by having to sleep in the offices of social service departments, in hospital emergency rooms or local hotel rooms as child welfare workers search for a safe bed and temporary housing. (Blythe, 3/28)

Undark: The Fractious Evolution Of Pediatric Transgender Medicine
Relationships between patients and physicians last a long time at Amsterdam’s Center of Expertise on Gender Dysphoria. Some of today’s adult patients have been visiting the clinic since the age of 5, when their parents first noticed signs of gender dysphoria — the experience of distress that can occur when a person’s gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. For some very young children, the negative feelings subside with the passage of time and they no longer identify as transgender. But for other children, the distress persists into the years leading up to puberty. (Klotz, 4/6)

The Wall Street Journal: Plus-Size Fitness Fans Call For More-Inclusive Sports Gear, Equipment 
Many apparel companies have started selling larger sizes in recent years, but some people who wear plus-size clothes say makers of technical athletic gear and apparel have failed to keep pace. While ordinary shorts and T-shirts above a U.S. size 16 are sold many places, specialized items are more elusive. Archers and fencers say sufficiently large chest guards are hard to find. Horseback and bike riders have to hunt for well-fitting breeches and padded pants. Skiers and snowboarders have trouble getting snow pants and boots, which have to fit around the calf. (Deighton, 4/4)

The New York Times: Cannabis For Better Sex? Here’s What The Science Says
The bottom line: It’s hard to say with certainty that cannabis will increase desire or improve your sex life, but anecdotal evidence suggests that the right dose of cannabis can make a woman’s orgasms more satisfying and increase sex drive. This is in part because cannabis can enhance the senses and also alleviate some of the symptoms that inhibit desire, like anxiety, sleeplessness or pain. It can have positive effects for men, as well, but also several negative ones, and women should be aware of its potential downsides, too. (Caron, 4/1)

USA Today and El Paso Times: US, Mexico Seek New Pandemic Strategies In Wake Of COVID Disaster
Health experts like to warn that "disease knows no borders." It was true for El Paso, Texas, and Juárez at the U.S.-Mexico border, two cities a river's width apart. COVID-19 ripped through families on both sides as if the border didn't exist, changing and ending lives regardless of nationality. The two cities confronted waves of COVID-19 that hit within days or weeks of each other. The virus took a terrible toll on the lives of Borderland residents, overwhelming hospitals, shuttering businesses and isolating previously intertwined communities. More than 3,300 people have died in El Paso; more than 4,500 have perished in Juárez. (Pskowski and Villagran, 3/29)

The New York Times: Inside A Maternity Hospital In Ukraine As War Grinds On 
Before the war, Alina Shynkar’s gynecologist advised her to avoid stress during her pregnancy, suggesting she spend time “just watching cartoons and being silly.” It was simple enough advice, but not so easy to follow after air-raid sirens wailed, artillery booms rattled windows and vicious street fighting broke out a few miles away from her maternity hospital. Then, keeping calm for her baby became Ms. Shynkar’s quiet, personal battle in the Ukraine war. She checked into Maternity Hospital No. 5 in the capital, Kyiv, before the war began in late February for bed rest because of a risk of preterm labor, only to witness the hospital unravel into a chaotic, panicked state weeks later. (Kramer, 4/7)