Up to Date

He served 12 years as a district attorney and 12 years as a member of Congress. Now, former U.S. Representative Dennis Moore is focusing his energies on another battle close to home: Alzheimer’s. Earlier this month, Moore announced he is one of the more than 5 million Americans who are living with the disease. Wednesday on Up to Date, the former Congressman and his wife Stephene Moore talk with us about the signs, his diagnosis and what it means for them.

Democratic U.S. Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri is no stranger to the rough and tumble world of politics. After all, she’s been at it for three decades in a state that is traditionally tough on Democrats. Now she is facing another campaign, this time to keep her seat in the U.S. Senate.

Barbara Jordan was a lawyer and educator who was a congresswoman from 1972 to 1978 , the first African American congresswoman from the deep south and the first woman ever elected to the Texas Senate. Although she acquired a reputation as an effective legislator, Jordan did not become a national figure until 1974, when her participation in the hearings held by the House Judiciary Committee on the impeachment of Pres. Richard M. Nixon was televised nationwide. Jordan's keynote address at the 1976 Democratic National Convention confirmed her reputation as one of the most commanding and articulate public speakers of her era.

Ann Wright by her own admission spent virtually her entire adult life working for the U.S. federal government. First as a soldier, achieving the rank of colonel by the time she retired, then as a diplomat at embassies in Nicaragua, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Somalia and elsewhere. So, it was astonishing when in March of 2003 Wright became one of three diplomats to resign over America's impending invasion of Iraq and take up a third career as an ant-war activist .

Barack Obama isn't the first President in conflict with a Congress run by the opposing party. However, being in that position doesn't mean nothing gets accomplished. Take it from Historian of the U.S. Senate Donald Richie.

Looking for something to do this weekend? Up to Date's Brian McTavish offers up a few options in his Weekend To-Do List for February 17-19, 2012.

LoCash Cowboys with Burford and Lucas Cook Country music: 8 p.m. Friday, Beaumont Club, 4750 Pennsylvania. Admission: $13.

Stuffed & Unstrung Henson Alternative Puppet Theatre: 8 p.m. Saturday, Yardley Hall at Carlsen Center, Johnson Community College. Admission: $35, $45 (pre-show dinner on campus before the show – $25– through box office).

We’re not all economical geniuses, and we’ve all probably made less than sterling financial choices along the way. Is there a reason for these lapses in judgment? Dr. Laurie Santos is here to tell us about her research on the origins of our irrational decisions. The Yale University psychologist draws on an evolutionary cousin’s propensity for theft, hoarding and competitiveness to explain our own fiscal behavior. Yep, today we’re talking monkey economics and why it means we humans might not be as unique as we once thought.

With March creeping up on us, it’s time to start stocking up on those spring break reads. Should you go for a bestseller or a lesser known work? Fiction or non-? Mystery or biography? The Book Doctors are here to help you find some titles worthy of your bookshelf.

From the Scopes trial of the 1920s to intelligent design today,  teaching evolution remains a most divisive issue in America.   Across the battlegrounds of pulpits, classrooms and courtrooms, opposing forces have struggled with what the curriculum should include.

Young love. Even before Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet, teenagers were searching for it and parents were dreading it.