Stress

In the state's first decision involving juries and social media, the Massachusetts Appeals Court has called on judges to better police jurors' use of the Internet to make sure they do not discuss cases online, and thus risk a mistrial. The court said judges need to do more to explain to jurors that refraining from conversations about a case also means not posting anything about it on Facebook or Twitter, common practice in today's technology-driven world. "Jurors must separate and insulate their jury service from their digital lives," the court said in a ruling involving a Plymouth Superior Court...

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama and other leaders of wealthy nations underscored an increasing consensus that their countries need to adopt growth measures alongside relentless budget cutbacks to work their way out of their debt troubles. It's a juggle that's much harder in real life than it is on paper. Their eight-paragraph statement from the presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., on Saturday seamlessly bridged both sides of the austerity versus growth debate and let each decide exactly what the new growth emphasis is going to mean.

Consumers who purchased Skechers Shape-ups or other toning shoes made by the company will be eligible for a partial refund from a $40 million settlement that the company made with the Federal Trade Commission and 42 states with class action lawsuits. The settlement is being finalized Wednesday in a federal court in the Northern District of Ohio, according to the FTC. "Skechers put its foot in its mouth by making unwarranted claims," said David Vladeck, director of the FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection.

A senior lawmaker with Chancellor Angela Merkel's party said Tuesday that Germany is willing to discuss growth-promoting measures with France — so long as a European budget-discipline pact stands. Peter Altmaier, chief parliamentary whip of Merkel's conservative bloc, spoke shortly after new French President Francois Hollande took office. Hollande, who has criticized Germany's austerity-led crisis management, is to meet Merkel in Berlin later in the day. Altmaier stressed the importance of sticking to the so-called fiscal compact championed by Merkel.

I assumed I had seen it all with Liberty Mutual. Once you learn about the chief executive's $50 million-a-year compensation package, the fleet of corporate jets, the $90,000 flights to Hawaii, the tens of millions of dollars for senior managers, the board of directors that doesn't feel the need to utter one public word of explanation, what more can there be? But as we've seen, there's always more, a fact that was never more apparent than when I was flipping through a mound of permit applications, building records, and engineering drawings on file in the Boston Inspectional Services...

Ask Sarah Scholes what a yearlong tour in Afghanistan feels like. "It was awful," she said - and she was not even there. Her angst gave way to joy yesterday in Boston as she was among the families celebrating the homecoming of 20 Army medics and support soldiers who gave front-line psychological counseling and combat stress support to troops in forward operating bases throughout Afghanistan. One of those returning was Sergeant Michael Scholes of Albany, N.Y., who had flown home to see his daughter's birth 11 months ago, but after a 10-day paternity leave, he had to return to...

Tips for reducing stress from Dr. Herbert Benson and psychiatry professor Elissa Epel: ■ Having a supportive social network of friends and family can counter emotional stress. ■ Exercising and eating a healthy diet (lots of fruits and vegetables, healthy fats, including fish oils, and limited sugar) can reduce inflammation, improve levels of antioxidants - which promote cellular repair - and reduce the free radicals that damage cells. ■ Early research suggests that mindfulness meditation may help extend cells' ability to replicate themselves, thereby...

"Race to Nowhere," a documentary delving into the pressure to perform in American schools, will be screened Tuesday at 7 p.m. in the Horace Mann Middle School auditorium. Hosted by the school district in conjunction with the town's parent councils, the film is aimed at helping families, educators, and policy makers examine current assumptions on how best to prepare today's youths for life after school. A panel discussion will follow the screening. The event is free, but registration is required; visit www.rtnfranklinpublicschools.eventbrite.com for tickets.

NEW YORK -- Concerned by rising stress levels in the ranks, the Defense Department has started an online self-screening program in hope that anonymity will help service members and their spouses overcome reluctance to confront possible mental health problems. "It's an excellent tool -- available 24/7 so you can do it at night when nobody's watching," said Deborah Manning, who coordinates Army substance abuse programs at Fort Benning, Ga. "The anonymity can make a big difference to a soldier who's been trained to think, 'I'm macho.

WASHINGTON - Debating opponents. Negotiating compromises. Raising money. The demands of Congress are great for anyone, much less someone recovering from a gunshot to the head like Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords's first televised interview Monday showed a lively woman making good progress in recovering from a devastating brain injury, yet still struggling mightily to pull out the words she wants. Only 10 months after her injury, brain specialists unconnected with Giffords's care say she will almost certainly continue to improve.

WASHINGTON - It has been called shell shock, battle fatigue, soldier's heart, and, most recently, post-traumatic stress disorder. Now, military officers and psychiatrists are embroiled in a heated debate over whether to change the name of a condition as old as combat. The potential new moniker: post-traumatic stress injury. Military officers and some psychiatrists say that dropping the word disorder in favor of injury will reduce the stigma that stops troops from seeking treatment.

Re "What's for dinner? Don't ask Mom" (G section, May 9): Seriously? My mom cooked for my dad, and what he ate for dinner we ate, or we didn't eat at all. Do you think I liked liver and onions as a 6-year-old? I didn't like them then, and I still don't. But I ate them because my parents didn't coddle me or my siblings. Parents these days cater so much to their kids that the kids are running the family, and the parents are taking a back seat to the kids' whims. Pitiful.

Just down the hall from the reference desk at Emory University's law library in a room housing antique legal texts is Stanley the golden retriever puppy, barking his head off. Stanley rolls around on the floor and chews on a squeaky toy while zombie-like law students wander in, a giant grin breaking out on their weary faces when they see the cuddly boy. Puppy therapy — just in time for finals week. From Kent State University in Ohio to Macalester College in Minnesota, more and more pooches are around campus during exams to help students relax and maybe even crack a smile or two. ...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel gave little ground to those hoping she would temper her demands for austerity, telling the country's Parliament Thursday that the only way Europe can recover from its debt crisis is if it perseveres with structural reforms alongside tough measures to bring borrowing levels down. Merkel dismissed calls to abandon or scale back austerity measures, which involve lower government spending and higher taxes, within the European Union. She insisted that the combination of debt reduction and growth were the "two pillars" of the...

The Minnesota Vikings were running sprints during one of their workouts a couple of weeks ago, and Adrian Peterson was watching off to the side. Salivating like a kid asking his dad if they can stop for ice cream on the drive home, Peterson turned to head athletic trainer Eric Sugarman. "He had a look on his face like, 'I know what you want to do,"' Peterson said. Permission granted, Peterson took the brace off his left knee and jumped in line with the rest of the running backs and wide receivers.

Senator Scott Brown today is starting to air the first television ad of his reelection campaign, and it focuses on a theme the Republican pounded across the state last week: his political independence. In the 30-second spot , which will air in the Boston, Springfield, Providence, R.I., and Albany, N.Y., markets, features clips from his 2010 victory speech, a "60 Minutes" report about him, and Brown addressing students about his up-by-the-bootstraps life. "We have more work to do on getting this economy moving...

The University of New Hampshire has a new way to help students relieve the stress of studying for finals — playing with dogs. The university's Dimond Library is bringing in dogs as part of its "Frenz-Free Finals" series. The study buddies and their trainers will be at the library from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2-9 p.m. on Tuesday and 10-11 a.m. and 1-8 p.m. on Wednesday. The dogs are from ElderPet, an organization launched in 1982 to connect pets with senior citizens and the disabled.

Stress, family medical history or possibly even poison led to the death of Vladimir Lenin, contradicting a popular theory that a sexually transmitted disease debilitated the former Soviet Union leader, a UCLA neurologist said Friday. Dr. Harry Vinters and Russian historian Lev Lurie reviewed Lenin's records Friday for an annual University of Maryland School of Medicine conference that examines the death of famous figures. The conference is held yearly at the school, where researchers in the past have re-examined the diagnoses of figures including King Tut, Christopher Columbus,...

First in a regular series of articles on recreational options south of Boston. LAKEVILLE - Three years after it happened, David Fraley still remembers what came into view as he sped around a curve on the Blackstone River Bikeway. He was new to serious bicycling and had been training for six months. With his first big ride in the Pan Mass Challenge just days away, he was cruising along the bike path at a pretty good clip when he rounded a curve and saw boulders flanking the path.