HIS AND HER’S CAREERS: With first lady Hillary Clinton moving to New York to pursue her own political career, the Los Angeles Times considered the broader issue of dual-home and dual-career couples. UW sociologist Pepper Schwartz told the Times that most two-career couples “want to make sure the family corporation prospers.” Changing times have led couples to sacrifice the comfort of living under the same roof, according to Schwartz. “They don’t know which career to bet on. It always used to be the man’s. Now they say, ‘We’ll bet on us both.’ ”

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN: The wide array of protestors who disrupted the World Trade Organization proceedings last month in Seattle were upset, in part, about the organization’s lack of any open democratic process, according to one UW professor. Phil Bereano, a professor in the department of technical communication, spoke with CBS News about protestors’ lack of access. “(The WTO) is not a democracy,” he said. Bereano monitors governmental policies on genetically modified organisms. “I can’t participate. I can’t get credentials to go into one of their meetings. There’s no public participation or notice as to what’s happening.”

THE TRUTH ABOUT SANTA: Experts are divided on how parents should deal with children’s belief or disbelief in Santa Claus. Some caution against prolonging a belief in Santa. Some warn against promoting the idea of Santa Claus at all. But Nancy Robinson, a UW professor of psychiatry and behavioral science and director of the Halbert Robinson Center for the Study of Capable Youth, isn’t one of them. “I guess my overall feeling is that Santa Claus is very much a part of our culture,” she recently told ABC News. “He does embody a very nice message that adults would like to get across about children all over the world sharing an experience.” Robinson added that it’s oftentimes more difficult for parents than their children to give up the concept of Santa Claus. “Parents are re-creating the joy they had as children in these beliefs for their own children.” ¶