51% on WAMC

Spring is here and if you live in the Northeast and Midwest, it means the ticks are back – and so is the 

  threat of Lyme Disease. According to the Center for Disease Control, Lyme disease is the most common vectorborne disease reported in the US. But most cases are from just 13 states.

Modern science has given us a vaccine to protect against Lyme disease, but we don't use it. Reporter Curt Nickish explains.

Political pundits say the austerity cuts that kicked in in April are likely to be permanent – with  just a few band aid fixes like the quick Congressional response to outrage over flight delays after cuts to the FAA. Meals on Wheels, Head Start, unemployment, food safety – they're all facing similar cuts. Terry O'Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women – NOW – argues many of those cuts target women and 

My mom's been gone since 2001 – and I never suspected that I'd still miss her every day. It's an inevitability we just don't like to think about – some day, our parents will be gone. For a man in Maine, it's a particularly big issue.  Maine artist Jon Joyce has Downs Syndrome – and he's lived with, and depended on his mother his entire life. She's 94 – and he's her caretaker now. Producer Colleen Udis has more.

That story comes to us courtesy of the Salt Institute for Documentary Studies.

What is keeping American girls out of laboratories? 

A study by the US Chamber of Commerce in 2011 found that women are vastly underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and math – the fields known as STEM.  Women make up half the workforce, yet they hold less than a quarter of STEM jobs – and women with a STEM degree are more likely to work in education and healthcare – not research.  Yet women in STEM earned 33 percent more than comparable women in jobs outside the science and math fields.  

State by state, the Supreme Court's forty year old ruling on abortion is being challenged.

With federal, state and local governments cutting funding for social services, many important programs are being pinched – or shut down altogether.  The Rockefeller Foundation believes social impact bonds may be the answer.  Investors pay for services, service providers do their job, and government pays the investors back if and only if the outcome meets expectations. I spoke with Kippy Joseph, Associate Director, Innovation at the Rockefeller Foundation of why social impact bonds might be the right idea at the right time.