During his first week as a new Atlanta police officer, Officer Che Milton answered a call for shoplift at the nearby Family Dollar store. When he arrived, Milton found a 12-year-old girl in tears over trying to steal a $2 pair of shoes. Crying, she told Milton that the shoes were supposed to surprise her 5-year-old sister.

    Milton, instead of arresting the girl, asked her to take him to her home instead. When he arrived, Milton's heart sank. He found a house nearly empty, with only a sofa and sheets on the floor instead of beds. There was no food in the kitchen and the kids were there. The girl's mother told the officer that her husband worked but didn't make much money and that she couldn't afford to do the same with several children to take care of and no daycare money to spare.

    Moved, the officer drove to a restaurant and bought four pizzas for them and he called the Division of Family and Children Services and asked if there was a social worker who could help.

    When the police department found out about Milton's trips, instead of punishing him, the department decided to share his story on Facebook and added that “not only is he here to enforce(实施) the law but also to go the extra mile and be a bigger part of the community he is policing.”

    Hundreds of citizens liked the post, asking how they could help. The department followed with posts including the six children's sizes and mother's clothing sizes. It also called for blanket and furniture donations. Visit the posts to learn how you can help and find more useful ways to donate your old things.

    Rainy days don't have to get you down, a happiness expert has reported.

    Paul Dolan, Professor of Behavioral Science at the London School of Economics, said that people only feel miserable in bad weather because they think about it too much. Studies have shown that people who live in warm, sunny climates are no happier than those in chilly, wet climates, he says. So the British talking about the weather may be making us gloomier（沮丧的） than the weather itself.

    He said: “A study was done that measured the happiness levels of people in California compared to the North West. “They expected that people in California would be happier because it is more sunny, but they found that levels of happiness were exactly the same. If it is sunny every day you get used to it and the sunshine doesn't make you any happier. Most of the time the weather doesn't influence our well-being at all. But when we think about it, and think that it does, that's when we get miserable.”

    In his new book, Happiness By Design, Dolan argues that we can think ourselves happy by taking our attention away from what makes us sad.

    “Most of our anxieties come from what might be,” he argues. “If you want to be happier, pay attention to the things that make you feel good.”

    He also claimed that a problem shared was not always a problem halved(减半). He believed that humans are actually very good at being able to get over tragedy(悲剧) and loss.

    Professor Dolan also admitted for the first time that he had a stammer（口吃）, which had made his early life miserable. He added it only got better when he learned not to pay attention to his speech problem.

    “Things are never as bad as you imagine them being,” he said.

    The United States Congress is responsible for making and approving federal laws—rules that everyone in the country must follow. But exactly how do those laws get made? The process is not easy, and it takes a long time.

    A law begins when someone puts forward an idea. The idea can come from anyone, but it has to get to a U. S. lawmaker who wants it to become legislation. In time, the idea is further developed into a written proposal, called a bill.

    Then, a member of Congress officially proposes the bill. After the bill is introduced, it is sent to a small group of lawmakers, called a "committee". Sometimes committee members seek more information about the proposal by holding hearings. Sometimes the committee changes the bill. Sometimes it decides not to take any action. In that case, we say lawmakers "table" the bill, or let it "die in committee".

    But now and then, the bill is offered to lawmakers not on the committee. Those lawmakers debate the bill further. They might change the bill again. Finally, the full House or Senate votes on the bill. If it does not earn the majority of votes, the bill does not advance.

    Finally, the agreed-upon bill is sent to the president. If the president signs it, the bill becomes a law. If the president does nothing and Congress is officially meeting, the bill becomes a law. But if the president does nothing and Congress is not in session, the bill does not pass. Or the president can officially reject the bill. If that happens, the bill is not stopped. Instead, it is returned to both the Senate and the House. If two-thirds of the senators and two-thirds of the House members approve the bill once again, even with the president objecting, they turn the bill into a law.

    Grey clouds move as low as smoke over the treetops at Lolo Pass. The ground is white. The day is June 10. It has been snowing for the past four days in the Bitterroot Mountains. Wayne Fairchild is getting worried about our trek over the Lolo Trail—95 miles from Lolo Montana to Weippe in Idaho, across the roughest country in the West. Lewis and Clark were nearly defeated 200 years ago by snowstorms on the Lolo. Today Fairchild is nervously checking the weather reports. He has agreed to take me across the toughest, middle section of the trail.

    When Lewis climbed on top of Lemhi Pass, 140 miles south of Missoula, on August 12, 1805, he was astonished by what was in front of him; "high mountain chains still to the West of us with their tops partially covered with snow." Nobody in what was then the US knew the Rocky Mountains existed, with peaks twice as high as anything in the Appalachians back East.

    Today their pathway through those mountains holds more attraction than any other ground over which they traveled, for its raw wilderness is an evidence to the character of two cultures: the explorers who braved its hardships and the Native Americans who prize and conserve the path as a sacred (神圣的) gift. It remains today the same condition as when Lewis and Clark walked it.

    The Lolo is passable only from July to mid-September. Our luck is holding with the weather, although the snow keeps getting deeper. As we climb to Indian Post Office, the highest point on the trail at 7, 033 ft, we have covered 13 miles in soft snow, and we hardly have enough energy to make dinner. After a meal of chicken, I sit on a rock on top of the ridge (山脊). There is no light visible in any direction, not even another campfire. For four days we do not see another human being. We are occupied with the things that mix fear with joy. In our imagination we have finally caught up with Lewis and Clark.

    Just ask any new parent: Adding a baby to a household can also add stress to a career. Now, a new study backs that up with some astonishing numbers: After science, technology, engineering, and mathematics(STEM)professionals become parents, 43%of women and 23% of men switch fields, transition(转变)to part-time work, or leave the workforce entirely.

    Many researchers and parents already knew that STEM can be unwelcoming to parents, particularly mothers. But" the considerable departure was astonishing, "says Erin Cech, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and lead author of the study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. For both genders, "the proportions were higher than we expected."

    The surprisingly high reduction rate for men also highlights that" parenthood in STEM is not just a mothers' issue; it's a worker issue, "Cech says. She hopes that the findings" might motivate changes, "such as more paid parental leave from both government and employers and policies that better support flexible work time without a tight routine. "We are not suggesting that people who want families should avoid STEM; that's not the solution," she emphasizes.

    By 2018, 78% of new fathers were still working in STEM, the vast majority full time. For new mothers, 68% were still in STEM, but only 57% worked full time. For professionals without children, on the other hand, 84% of men and 76% of women were predicted to still be working in STEM full time in 2018. For the new parents across all fields, 16% of women were working part-time and 15% had left the workforce, as compared with just 2% and 3%, respectively, for men. These sharp differences make clear that, even though the reduction rate for fathers is higher than expected, mothers still face particular career challenges.

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