May 11 to May 16 is National Police Week. It’s an opportunity to show our gratitude and appreciation to the men and women who put their lives on the line to keep our people and communities safe.

Over the course of my career, I have performed countless pelvic exams on women of all ages from all walks of life. There are two common patient behaviors that I have observed. First, most women leave their socks on. This could be the fact that most stirrups are cold, but it also seems like one feels just a little less exposed when wearing at least one item of their own clothing. The other thing that almost every woman does in the exam room is hide her undergarments under her pile of clothes. It is interesting that almost everyone, me included, feels the need to cover and hide their “unmentionables” when they are about to bare the very areas normally covered by these garments.

I know I have been absent from these for a while and thank you to all seven that read these each time for pointing out that I need to get back to it. It has been an incredibly hectic six weeks.

It’s an exciting time of year. The robes, mortar boards, and tassels are on display as Nebraska’s graduates are celebrating with their friends and loved ones. I am always so encouraged to see our state’s young people succeed and pursue new opportunities.

Grit and determination. Readiness to help at a moment’s notice. Willingness to work long and hard. Steadfastness in the face of difficulty. These are the qualities that define us as Nebraskans. And we saw them on full display last month as our state battled the worst fires in a decade.

From Babe Ruth to John Wayne, Americans have seen chewing tobacco in popular culture for over a century. Spitting chew has been a trademark of cowboys and professional athletes alike and chewing tobacco use continues at high rates in the United States. In 2018 a survey showed 2.4 percent of American adults used smokeless tobacco, with snuff or snus pouch use on the rise and chewing tobacco on the decline.

The final gavel and the adjournment of the second session of the 107 Nebraska Legislature occurred last Wednesday, April 20 . The last day of a session is referred to as “Sine Die”, Latin for “without a day.” This was a sixty-day session, but it was packed full of issues, chief among them the allocation of the federal ARPA funds.

The 2022 Legislative Session will go down in history as one of the Nebraska Unicameral’s finest. In just 60 days, the Legislature passed record tax relief, made critical public safety enhancements, and invested in generational water resource projects. As if this wasn’t enough, Senators also allocated $1.04 billion of federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding.

Skin is the largest organ in the human body, but it’s easy to take it for granted. Unless we notice pain or itching or funny spots, most people don’t give it much thought. However, the skin is critically important. It helps regulate our body temperature and fluid and electrolyte balance. It provides us critical information about our environment, and it protects us from invasion by the sea of germs we encounter every day. Some of the sickest patients doctors ever treat are those who have had significant skin loss, whether due to illness like toxic epidermal necrolysis, or injury like burns. This important organ can give

We completed the second session of the 107th legislature this past Wednesday, the 60th day which is the final day we could meet. The last day provided an opportunity to finish the business of the legislature, with some procedural things that we need to finalize. For example, in order to close the books on this session and start the next biennium session with a clean slate, all the bills from the first and second session of this 107th legislature were indefinitely postponed (killed).