Anxiety

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Everything is relative, perhaps heat most of all. That's why some Midwesterners are feeling grateful for Sunday's temperature downgrade from “lava-hot” to “merely baking.” Those are not official meteorological terms, by the way, but the drop from Saturday's high of roughly 105 degrees here in the nation's heartland - after a grueling week of similar heat - to more sensible July highs of 96 and 94 and 92 on Sunday...

Jerome Williams believes the breathing problems that forced him to be hospitalized after Monday night's 31/3-inning start against the San Francisco Giants were caused by "a mixture of asthma and anxiety. " The right-hander rejoined the Angels on Wednesday but was put on the 15-day disabled list to clear a roster spot for Jered Weaver , who returned from a lower-back strain to start against the Giants. Williams, who passed out in the clubhouse Monday night and was taken by ambulance to UCI Medical Center in Orange, was released Tuesday and returned to the hospital for more tests Wednesday.

As Father's Day approaches, I find myself thinking a lot about the anguished cries of 37-year-old Kelly Thomas in his last moments of consciousness. "Dad! Dad!" he screamed as police fired Tasers at him and beat him with their flashlights on a Fullerton street. The first time I heard that plaintive cry for help on my car radio, I had to pull over to compose myself. As a former emergency room physician, I'm not particularly squeamish. But as a father of two and a pediatrician who has cared for innumerable children with "developmental issues," I found that Thomas' pleas for help from his father (who was nowhere nearby)

CHICAGO — Batteries made in America for America and backed by America. That's how politicians hailed Ener1. The company tapped the country's top scientists at Argonne National Lab in Illinois, and U.S. taxpayers pledged up to $118 million in federal stimulus funds and $80 million in state and local incentives to help Ener1 produce cutting-edge battery technology for electric cars and the U.S. military. "This is about the future. And the question is which nation is going to seize the future.

"Once Upon a Time in Anatolia," the exquisite sixth feature by Nuri Bilge Ceylan, is a police procedural as existential inquiry, set in a remote dreamscape of mystery and foreboding. In the search for a murder victim's body, a caravan of cars makes its fitful way over the rolling Turkish steppes, carrying men of law and science and the confessed killer. The journey begins in darkness and moves into the clear light of day, by which point many things are revealed and nothing is as it seems.

Anyone who's had a bad day, then flipped the car radio on and caught the first notes of a favorite song knows how quickly music can lift the spirits. But can that momentary burst of musical power be tapped more strategically to make you a better, happier, more productive person? All that and more, say the psychologist-entrepreneur authors of the new book "Your Playlist Can Change Your Life. " Like sex, drugs or really good food, music causes the brain to release dopamine, a brain chemical key to addiction and motivation.

In the fading evening light, Jeff Snider played catch in the middle of the street with his 14-year-old son, the baseball thwacking their mitts. They stepped out of the way and waved when cars passed. The friendly neighborhoods in hilly Oakwood, a picture-perfect suburb nestled against Dayton, belong in a brochure for the American Dream. But the tranquillity hides a churning discontent. A lanky high school math teacher, Snider worries about the mortgage and the cost of sending four children to college.

The $25-billion settlement of the foreclosure mess is good for homeowners and good for the housing market. But it's better for banks. Not that this means homeowners are getting a raw deal. The settlement money will be used to lower people's debt and interest rates, and provide a little cash to those who lost their homes to funky foreclosure proceedings. All that's welcome. As U.S. Atty. Gen. Eric H. Holder Jr. put it, the settlement "holds mortgage servicers accountable for abusive practices" and "requires substantial changes in how servicers do business.

Question: For several years I have been undergoing psychotherapy for a nervous illness, which has now been diagnosed as a general anxiety disorder. I live at an apartment complex that does not allow pets, but my psychiatrist has recently urged me to get a companion animal, which she thinks would give me a positive relationship that would alleviate my anxiety. A friend helped me find a very nice cocker spaniel puppy that was up for adoption. I asked my community manager to allow me to adopt this dog and bring him to live with me. The manager refused, telling me that he was only obligated to allow a service animal such as a guide dog. He said he did not have to accommodate a pet that merely kept me company.

Even as anxiety-ridden individuals play it safe in low-yielding bank accounts, professional investors are showing renewed confidence in the stock market. Bullishness among institutional investors has reached its highest level since last summer, and their buying has been powering the stock market's surprising early-year advance, according to a new analysis by TrimTabs Investment Research. The Dow Jones industrial average is up almost 4% in the first three weeks of January. It should be noted that such bullishness isn't necessarily positive.