Since I did not take a camera with me to Honduras this time, I’m still waiting for photos to come in before posting a report of my trip. Meanwhile, the following is from a neighborhood website, posted before my trip to Honduras, for items probably still needed:

Busloads of migrants have arrived at Union station with nothing but the clothes on their backs and perhaps what they can carry in a backpack. They are in need of basically everything. Following is a list of items most needed which can be dropped off in the Shalom Room at the Church of the Reformation (212 E Capitol, call first) or on any Sunday at the Church of the Brethren at the corner of 4th & N. Carolina from 7am-8PM. Men’s underwear and socks, mainly small and medium sizes (prefer new to ‘gently-used’); same for women, plus bras, footwear, shoes, and socks (some have walked miles in flip-flops). Shirts, trousers, dresses, and other apparel for adults (again, small and medium sizes). Shirts, shorts, pants, underwear, and socks for babies and children of all ages. Backpacks and duffle bags. Travel size toiletry items, menstrual sanitary items, diapers, and baby wipes. Powdered infant cereal, baby formula, and toddler snacks and pouches.

An old friend, “old” in terms of how long I’ve known him and also his chronological age (even more than my own), sent me a poem in Spanish dedicated to me called A BÁRBARA (“To Barbara”).

After my return from Honduras, I was surprised at how many “erectile disfunction” ads showed up in my Yahoo feed. Advertisers must spew those out willy-nilly, hoping one lands on a receptive consumer.

Just when employers need more workers, Americans are becoming less open to increased immigration.

Daily Mail, Americans' views harden AGAINST immigration -10% more in U.S. want to cut people flows
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11091819/Americans-views-harden-AGAINST-immigration-10-U-S-want-cut-people-flows.html

NY Times, After Indiana Mall Shooting, One Hero but No Lasting Solution A loosening of gun restrictions like the Indiana law, passed this year...allowed the bystander, Elisjsha Dicken, 22, to carry his 9-mm handgun in the first place. Proponents of expanded gun rights were quick to praise Dicken’s actions. “We will say it again: The only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” the National Rifle Association wrote in a tweet Monday morning.

But Dicken’s act, though heroic, was also a statistical unicorn. An examination of 433 active shooter attacks in the United States between 2000 and 2021 showed that only 22 ended with a bystander shooting an attacker, according to data from the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training Center at Texas State University. In 10 of those cases, the armed bystander was a security guard or off-duty law enforcement officer. In other encounters, civilians attempting to step in and stop an assailant were themselves shot to death by police.

“It is exceedingly rare, the exception rather than the rule,” Adam Skaggs, chief counsel and policy director at the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said... “The reality is that more people carrying guns means more conflicts escalating into deadly violence and more people being shot and killed.” (The assailant here was, like many such shooters, a 20-year-old man.)

Wash. Post, As Haiti sinks into pandemonium, the international community is silent

Telegraph, Trans prisoners ‘will not be housed with other women’

In both US and UK, trans prisoners who self-identify as female but still possess male genitalia have often been found to have raped or impregnated female prisoners. Is their self-identification as trans merely a ploy by some to have sexual access to female inmates? At least in the UK, now they will be housed separately from both other female and male inmates.

Many folks now consider it a right to be able to have sex with whomever they want whenever the fancy strikes with no consequences. An effective vaccine strategy for Monkeypox is still under review.

CDC: Consider fewer sexual partners to avoid monkeypox

No consequences for sex also apply to pregnancy risk.

NYTimes, Some Students Want Colleges to Provide the Abortion Pill. Schools Are Resisting. Many colleges pride themselves on providing a range of sexual and reproductive health services for their students, including birth control, screenings for sexually transmitted diseases and even insurance coverage to terminate a pregnancy. What they do not tend to provide is abortion, either by pill or through a procedure. For that, they refer students to other clinics or doctors’ offices.

Women can now take the morning-after pill and, if they become pregnant, then take at-home abortifacients. Does the abortion pill make young women more careless about having sex knowing they can reverse a pregnancy, should that be the outcome?

Where does contraception end and abortion begin?

Red states are now making their own adjustments.

NY Times, Georgia Abortion Law Says a Fetus Is Tax Deductible

Wash. Post, Post Roe, some in GOP wage uphill battle to offer families more support

Quite obviously, it costs much more to raise a child to adulthood than to provide an abortion. Every person now on earth began as a baby (and, before that, as a fetus). Those early years can tough for young families, especially for single mothers, so any assistance would be helpful. However, once that child has grown up, he or she can become a contributor to society and to the economy. Bravo to those Republicans who now recognize this universal timeline, but not enough of them are getting behind the effort to help out in the early years.

Even after the Supreme Court struck down Roe vs. Wade, anti-abortion demonstrations have continued.