Columnists

Four months before the presidential election, Hillary Clinton is ahead of Donald Trump. Three factors will determine the November 8th outcome.

As of July 8th, Hillary has a 5.8 percentage lead in the Huffington Post poll of polls; of the last 10 major polls, only one showed Trump ahead. The respected Cook Report projects Clinton with 304 electoral votes, Trump with 190, and 44 contested (Iowa, New Hampshire, North Carolina, and Ohio). The esteemed statistician, Nate Silver, says that Trump has only a 20 percent chance to win.

Nonetheless, it’s possible for Trump to prevail in November. Three factors will determine the ultimate outcome. -more-

On the surface, the June 23 Brexit and the June 26 Spanish elections don’t look comparable. After a nasty campaign filled with racism and Islamophobia, the British—or rather, the English and the Welsh—took a leap into darkness and voted to leave the European Union (EU). Spanish voters, on the other hand, rejected change and backed a rightwing party that embodies the policies of the Brussels-based trade organization. -more-

Attorney General Loretta Lynch made it official saying that Hillary Clinton will not be charged for using a personal email server during her tenure as secretary of state. She is relying on the FBI's recommendation that no charges be filed. -more-

This week's column does not specifically cover all possible medication side effects of the drugs prescribed for psychiatric problems; there are too many to list here, and many are quite common. Instead, I am focusing on some of the things that shorten the lifespans of persons with mental illness.

The average lifespan of people with chronic mental illness is approximately 25 years less than that of the general population. This is partly due to being medicated, since the medications have side effects that are bad for physical health. It is partly due to smoking, much more common among persons with mental illness than non-afflicted people. It is due to poor self-care. In addition, physicians do less to address the health problems of persons with psych disabilities. -more-