PEOPLE   There have been midwives almost as long as there have been babies. In the Biblical story of the exodus, it was the Israelite midwives who spared the newborn sons from Pharaoh’s infanticidal decree. Back in ancient Greece, midwives were key figures among the all-female circle present at childbirth. Several centuries later, midwives continued to accompany births during the medieval period, when they used herbs and bloodletting — state-of-theart medical practice of the day — to bring about a quick and healthy delivery.

Today, midwives are still common throughout Europe, attending around 75 percent of all births. In Germany and England, they also provide valuable postnatal care through follow-up home visits. Read More>>

PEOPLE   Bassem Bejjani was always good in school. And when you’re raised in Lebanon and good in school, the paths forward are pretty clear. “You either become an engineer or a doctor or a lawyer,” Bejjani says.

Bejjani was interested in science as a kid, but better at biology than “the hardcore sciences,” so he became a physician and geneticist, founding a groundbreaking genomics company in Spokane in 2003. Read More>>

PEOPLE  If one has spent the majority of his life donating blood — nearly 40 gallons worth — you’d suspect he’d say he’s done it out of a profound sense of community or some other altruistic motive.

At 83, Eldo Androes wouldn’t fess up to any of those motivations, at least publicly. He did admit that after donating blood he tends to “feel better” physically. Could it be there’s such a thing as a donor’s endorphin rush?

This much is certain: Whether Androes is deliberately downplaying his contributions in an aw-shucks-it’s-no-big-deal manner, his actions speak more profoundly than anything he could ever articulate. Read More>>

PEOPLE   In 1976, an Israeli-born, New Jersey native arrived in Pullman. After a lifetime in tight, urban spaces, a trip across the country and four rejections, Joseph Harari had finally been accepted to study veterinary medicine in this small, rural, middle-of-nowhere, landgrant- university town.

He couldn’t have been happier. Read More>>

PEOPLE  The first time you see one, it may take a minute to figure out just what it is that you’re looking at. It seems like a simple bike. Or is it a trike? But then again, this knobby-tired, colorful little three-wheeler has the pedals on the handlebars. Who would ride this? Who’d want one of these things?

So far, 31,000 people in 94 countries have become the very happy recipients of their very own PETs — short for “personal energy transportation.” And for people who don’t have use of their legs, a PET is the gift of mobility. Read More>>

PEOPLE  Things were looking good for Southern Methodist University. Nearing the end of the second quarter, the Dallas school was ahead of its rival, the University of Houston, in a Conference USA football game.

Yes, it was good to be a Mustang. That is, until SMU quarterback Bo Levi Mitchell, then a sophomore, dove for a fumbled ball and was tackled. After the pile of players dispersed, it was clear that something was wrong with Mitchell’s arm.

Once on the field, the SMU medical staff quickly realized Mitchell’s shoulder was dislocated. After they popped it back into place, Mitchell recalls, his entire arm felt numb. Read More>>

PEOPLE  Wendy Osterling played lacrosse in high school. She ran and skied cross-country as well — going on to ski for Dartmouth College — but lacrosse, for her, was a unique and particular sort of challenge. Osterling is deaf, and team sports tend to rely on sharp hearing. There are whistles and called plays between teammates. There are 20 players and referees to keep track of.

But her team developed a series of hand signals for play-calling, her brain developed excellent peripheral vision, and she learned to infer stoppages of play from the way other players behaved. “I’d stop when they stopped,” she says.

This didn’t always work, though, so she’d ask the ref to tell the other team to just wave at her if play had stopped and she hadn’t. Read More>>

PEOPLE  In November 2009, Stephanie Regalado-Hertel, a Spokane mother and writer, found out she had inherited the BRCA1 gene mutation from her mother, predisposing her to a high risk of ovarian and breast cancer. Here, in her own words, she shares her journey through the last two years since learning the news. Read More>>

PEOPLE  LaDeitrich Jones remembers the sweat, especially on his palms. He remembers the adrenaline, feeling his heart beat hard inside his chest, under his brown camo fatigues. He remembers not knowing if there was a child or an insurgent on the other side of the Iraqi door he was about to break through. He remembers noise and bullets and sand.

He remembers all that, but he doesn’t remember trying to choke his girlfriend, Tosha, in his Spokane apartment a year later. Read More>>