| Save your life, have a health check
READING about preventing catastrophic illness is as unpleasant as reading the fine print on a will, power of attorney or a life insurance policy. Facing our mortality and learning about preventing heart, lung or kidney failure, strokes, amputations, dementia and hip replacements, is not easy, but we should do it as a necessary part of protecting those we love. As medical technologies keep our ageing population alive longer, the over-50s age group will become a heavy burden on the young. The escalating costs of healthcare and private health insurance; the increasing strain on accident and emergency departments, hospitals and nursing homes and the worsening medical and nursing shortage have been identified by the new federal Labor Government as a first-order economic challenge.
Antigua worth knowing
ENGLISH HARBOUR, ANTIGUA: The island with 365 powdery-sand beaches, one for each day of the year, is one of the least-known Caribbean islands to most Americans. But two Brits, Adm. Horatio Nelson and guitarist Eric Clapton, were and are very familiar with Antigua, a former British colony that is popular with yachters and the the nautical crowd. Nelson commanded the British naval base and shipyard at English Harbour on the island's southern coast in the 1780s. His dockyard no longer caters to naval ships. Instead, it serves sailing ships and yachts. Clapton has built his $8 million house along the rocky southern shore not far from English Harbour, as well as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation center. Antigua has been a second home to Clapton. English Harbour is one of the top tourist hubs on Antigua, along with Dickenson Bay on the north coast.
Cook column: Treating juveniles as adults
What a difference two years and a murder conviction can make. In Post photos, young Christopher Crocker appears to have evolved from defiant teenager at his arrest in 2006 to apologetic adolescent at his day of judgment last Thursday. Which is the real Christopher Crocker? Everyone goes through changes between the ages of 15 and 17. Having spent 16 months in juvenile detention awaiting trial, Crocker may have changed more than most. He could have wised up. Or he might have become more hardened and a better actor. I thought jurors might go soft and choose manslaughter instead of murder after Crocker cried on the stand about the crime he'd committed. But they weren't buying it. A boy who swipes his dad's truck and steals gasoline with enough forethought and savvy to cover the license plate is no stranger to trouble.
GOP VIPs ponder David Iglesias fallout
Damron from the ticket last year in favor of John Dendahl. Dendahl wound up receiving little support from the state party and stumbled to a historic defeat, then left the state with a less-than-generous benediction. "The Republican Party is mortally wounded," Cargo, who sits on the party's central committee, said. "But once Bill (Richardson) leaves and these indictments come down, there may not be much left of the Democratic Party either." For now, at least, Democrats seemed happy to watch the unfolding battle in their opponent's camp. Matt Farrauto, the executive director of the New Mexico Democratic Party, said he had little to add to what had already been reported, but did his best. Brutally parodying an episode last year in which Domenici was seen at his Capital Hill office wearing what were described as pajamas - Domenici said they were actually hunting pants - Farrauto said it was increasingly clear the venerable senator was vulnerable.
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