Researchers are seeing a surge in long-term, two-home relationships. Dr. Scott Haltzman, a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at Brown University and the author of ''The Secrets of Happily Married Men,” says that living apart may impair the ability to form long-term relationships. ''By living apart, you are losing the opportunity to gain that level of intimacy and cooperation,” he notes.

Wendy Schiller, associate professor of political science and public policy, was awarded $212,000 by the National Science Foundation to establish the U.S. Election Database for the years 1871-1913. At a hearing May 2 on the NSF budget, Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation’s Subcommittee on Science and Space, ridiculed Schiller’s project and other social science projects funded by the NSF. Schiller, who will make all the data publicly available when she’s done, noted that, aside from the NSF, there are few funding sources for data collection.

In a memo to the campus community, the University announces that its bookstore on Thayer Street will remain independent – dropping a proposal to lease the store to a national chain.

A review of the new book “Sons of Providence” notes that author Charles Rappleye conducted some of his research at Brown University, and that the University is preparing a report on its ties to the slave trade. This review was distributed to the wire service’s member media and appeared in dozens of publications and Web sites around the world, including the Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, Washington Post, and Forbes.com,

On “News and Notes with Ed Gordon,” Economics Professor Glenn Loury is part of a roundtable discussion about affirmative action, the plans for evacuation prepared by New Orleans’ mayor, and how states are spending Homeland Security funds.

A new study by U.S. researchers from several U.S. universities shows outpatient or primary-care alcoholism treatment settings are more effective in reducing the disease and costs. Robert Swift and Richard Longabaugh, professors of psychiatry and human behavior who were involved in the study, were interviewed for this wire service article which was distributed to media outlets throughout the world.