Dr. Kilmer McCully takes another look at the cholesterol theory of heart disease in his new book, "The Heart Revolution: The B Vitamin Breakthrough that Lowers Homocysteine, Cuts Your Risk of Heart Disease, and Protects Your Health" (HarperCollins). McCully writes that the real culprit in heart disease is the amino acid homocysteine which is found in the blood. Too much of it can lead to damaged arteries, leaving them susceptible to cholesterol and fat deposits. McCully writes that vitamin B deficiency leads to too much homocysteine.
New York Times journalist Jeremy Peters explains Dominion Voting Systems' $1.6 billion lawsuit against the network. "Legal experts tell me that rarely have they seen a case this strong," he says.
Brad Bird's new sci-fi adventure film features George Clooney, Britt Robertson and an endless sense of possibilities. David Edelstein says the film makes a "near-hysterical case" against pessimism.
Historian and author Douglas Brinkley teaches at Tulane University and was displaced by Hurricane Katrina. He has since returned to New Orleans and begun to document the catastrophe by gathering oral histories -- he hopes to collect as many as 20,000 -- for a book, tentatively titled The Great Deluge.
While some reviewers think River's Edge could become the Blue Valentine of 1987, film critic Stephen Schiff says the film suffers from a weak message and poor casting.
Rock historian Ed Ward profiles songwriter Doc Pomus, the Brooklyn-born blues singer and songwriter who died in 1991. Born Jerome Solon Felder, he survived a childhood case of polio and went on to write hits for Ray Charles and Elvis Presley, among others. His songs include "Lonely Avenue," "Viva Las Vegas" and "Save the Last Dance for Me."
Ronstadt's new memoir, Feels Like Home, is an exploration of the food and culture of her Mexican roots. In 2013, she spoke about the health concerns that caused her to end her musical career early.
Gambian attorney Fatou Bensouda is the deputy prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), which deals with genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. The court's first case concerns crimes involving child soldiers. She has served as Attorney General, Secretary of State and Minister of Justice for The Gambia. She is also an authority on gender and violent crimes against women.
Eric Dolphy's creativity was exploding early in 1964, and he was finding more players who could keep up. Out to Lunch is free and focused, dissonant and catchy, wide open and swinging all at once.
Repression in Vladimir Putin's Russia, journalist Edward Lucas writes, is matched by a new aggression abroad. It amounts to what Lucas calls "a new Cold War" fought with cash, natural resources, diplomacy and propaganda.
Jazz saxophonist Coleman, who is almost 85, rarely makes records any more. In New Vocabulary, he joins up trumpet and drums — and peppers his solos with his signature catchy and earthy pet phrases.
Jonathan Cohn traveled the country in search of ordinary Americans who had been affected by America's health care crisis. The stories he found — of heart attack victims becoming casualties of overcrowded emergency rooms and diabetes patients going blind because they can't afford treatment — earned him the Harry Chapin Media Award for coverage of poverty-related issues, as well as praise from both journalism and health care professionals. They also became the core of his book Sick: The Untold Story of America's Health Care Crisis — and the People Who Pay the Price.
Critic Milo Miles reviews a pair of what he considers rarities — all-instrumental albums that don't belong to a clear school or style of music. But in the case of the band Massacre and the Claudia Quintet, he says that's a good thing.
Decades after Parker's death, a new album compiles previously unknown performances by the alto sax legend. Critic Kevin Whitehead says the record will please both jazz experts and casual listeners.
Jazz singer Sylvia Syms. During the 40s and 50s, she perfected her stage style and voice in New York's jazz clubs, including The Village Vanguard and The Latin Casino where she became friends and collaborators with Erol Garner, Billy Holiday and Frank Sinatra. She appeared on stage as well, originating the role of Bloody Mary in "South Pacific," and still sings the musical's centerpiece "Bali Hai" in her cabaret show. Syms teaches voice and song interpretation at Texas' Northwood Institute.
In a profile of Ginsburg for this week's New Yorker, Jeffrey Toobin describes how the incremental philosophy of litigation that helped her win many precedent-setting women's rights cases as a lawyer is reflected in her career as a Supreme Court justice.
Professor of English Joan DelFattore at the University of Delaware wrote the book "What Johnny Shouldn't Read," in which she examines several of the more publicized Federal court cases of the 1980s involving attempts to censor schoolbooks, looking at the resulting impact on publishers and on state education officials. She looks at efforts of both the right and the left to influence curricula.
Steve Chapman, whose twice-weekly column for The Chicago Tribune is syndicated to about 50 newspapers, says reporters should give details on their sources to investigators in the case of the leak of a CIA officer's name. In Chapman's Feb. 20, 2005, column on the Miller and Cooper case, he sides with the court, stating, "in this case, principle should yield to the need to protect agents who are serving their country."
Since the 1973 release of his first album, Closing Time, Tom Waits has won fans over with his original songwriting and distinctive, gravelly vocal style. Musicians including Johnny Cash, Bruce Springsteen and Rod Stewart have recorded covers of his songs. He has also acted in films, including Sylvester Stallone's Paradise Alley, Jim Jarmusch's Down By Law and Robert Altman's Short Cuts. Waits has two new CDs out this month: Alice and Blood Money.
Novelist Robert Stone. His new novel "Damascus Gate" is about the Middle East. Unlike most writers who write about the region, Stone is not Jewish; he's a lapsed Catholic. One reviewer writes of the book that it is "so comprehending of Israel's convoluted workings and its bifurcated culture--where the Biblical fervor of Jerusalem coexists with the disco fever of Tel Aviv--that he makes other writers on the subject seem like the breeziness of literary tourists." Stone is also the author of "Outerbridge Reach" and "Dog Soldiers."