News & Views of Phillips Since 1976
Monday December 15th 2025
A Simple Test Could Save Your Life: Get Screened for Colon Cancer
By Dr. LAN LUU, Co-Medical Director of Community-University Health Care Center (CUHCC)
Colon cancer happens when abnormal cells grow in your colon or rectum (the lower parts of the belly). Colon cancer is rising among people younger than 50 years-old. Luckily, if it is caught early, colon cancer is treatable. For these reasons, it is recommended that everyone starts screening for colon cancer at 45 years-old. There are generally three options offered to patients:
The FIT test (fecal immunochemical test) detects blood in a small sample of stool (poop). Healthcare clinics give patients a test kit and instructions. YouTube has videos in many languages to help. Patients then mail the kit back to their clinic. This test should be taken every year.
Cologuard is also a stool test. It detects abnormal cells through DNA. Medical providers order a kit that is mailed to your home. After collecting the stool, you return the kit in a pre-paid box. This test should be taken every three years.
A colonoscopy is a screening that lets a doctor look inside your colon with a long tube with a tiny camera on the end. It helps find problems like bleeding, swelling, or polyps (abnormal growths) and other signs of cancer so they can be treated right away.… Read the rest “A Simple Test Could Save Your Life: Get Screened for Colon Cancer”
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Open in new tab Now You See Them, Now You Don’t (But You Should)
from the series Peace House Community – A Place to Belong
By MARTI MALTBY
I think everyone is familiar with the magic trick where a coin disappears from the magician’s hand and then reappears out of someone’s ear. When we were little, we believed the coin really had disappeared. As we got older, we knew the magician had simply used a sleight of hand, and they were still holding the coin, but if the magician did the trick well, we were still willing to be fooled.
Many of the “solutions” to homelessness and similar problems are just variations of the coin trick.
Unfortunately, I find many of the “solutions” to homelessness and similar problems are just variations of the coin trick. The solutions don’t really solve homelessness. Instead, they try to make the homeless “disappear”, and if the solution looks appealing enough, everyone is supposed to applaud. On some level, everyone knows the homeless still walk the streets, trying to find safe places to sleep and keep their belongings. The folks working their magic just hope no one points that out too loudly.
Mayor Frey’s approach to homeless encampments is one example of this approach. With the City dismembering encampments as quickly as they are set up, he can plausibly argue that he has ended encampment homelessness, and (less plausibly) that the homeless have accepted the housing that they were offered.… Read the rest “Now You See Them, Now You Don’t (But You Should)”
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