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George W. Bush explains his fondness for Michelle Obama

George W. Bush explains his fondness for Michelle Obama

By Deena Zaru, CNN

Washington (CNN)Former President George W. Bush and Michelle Obama are surprisingly close considering their political differences, and the 43rd president credits the former first lady's appreciation for his sense of humor as a key reason.

The unlikely pair have often been photographed together during formal events. When Obama embraced Bush at the opening ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture last September, the photo of their warm interaction went viral.

George Bush returns to the political scene

"When I saw her, it was a genuine expression of affection," Bush told People magazine as he reflected on the moment. The interview was posted on Wednesday.

Former first lady Laura Bush, former President George W. Bush, first lady Michelle Obama and President Barack Obama attend the opening ceremony for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture on September 24, 2016, in Washington.

The former President is back in the public eye to promote his new book, "Portraits of Courage," a volume of his paintings of military veterans.

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"She kind of likes my sense of humor. Anybody who likes my sense of humor, I immediately like," Bush said.

The pair are often seated next to each other during events, including the interfaith memorial service for the victims of the Dallas police shooting in July, last year's funeral for former first lady Nancy Reagan and the 2015 commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the historic civil rights march in Selma, Alabama.

Former President George W. Bush speaks with first lady Michelle Obama during an event marking the 50th anniversary of the Selma to Montgomery civil rights marches at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 7, 2015.

"I can't remember where else I've sat next to her, but I probably have a few wisecracks and she seemed to like it OK," Bush said. "I needle her a little bit and around her, I'm fairly lighthearted. (The Obamas) are around serious people all the time and we just took to each other."

         

New Study Links Head Lice Treatments to Abnormal Behavior in Children

New Study Links Head Lice Treatments to Abnormal Behavior in Children

qThe treatment of head lice might be worse than the actual lice. (Photo: Getty Images)

A disturbing new study has linked a common chemical found in head lice treatments to behavioral difficulties in children.

The research, which was published in the journal Occupational & Environmental Medicine, found that children who had higher levels of certain pyrethroids — which are synthetic chemicals used in insecticides like head lice treatments and some mosquito repellents — in their system were mqore likely to display abnormal behaviors at age 6 than those who didn’t.

Pyrethroids work by damaging the nerves of insects, killing them in the process, and scientists wanted to see if they had a negative impact on children as well. (Permethrin, an active ingredient in the most popular drugstore lice treatments, is a pyrethroid.) For the study, the researchers measured levels of five pyrethroid metabolites in the urine of women in the early stages of pregnancy and, later, in their 6-year-olds to see if there was a link between being exposed to the chemical in utero and childhood, and behavior that could suggest neurodevelopmental damage.

Nearly 300 women filled out a questionnaire about socioeconomic factors, lifestyle, their child’s behavior, and various things their child had been exposed to. Psychologists visited the families at home to do behavioral assessments of the children, and also took urine and dust samples.

Behavior was rated using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, a validated behavioral screening test for children, with a focus on altruism (how social children are), internalizing disorders (the inability to share problems and ask for help), and externalizing disorders (being defiant and disruptive).

Three of the pyrethroid metabolites showed up most often in the urine of mothers and their children: trans-DCCA, cis-DBCA, and cis-DCCA.

Here’s what researchers determined: Mothers with higher levels of cis-DCCA in their urine during pregnancy were more likely to have children with a higher risk of internalizing behaviors. Higher levels of another metabolite, 3-PBA, in the children’s urine was linked with a higher risk of externalizing behaviors. Overall, children with the highest levels of metabolites in their urine were three times more likely to have abnormal behavior than those with lower levels. As a result, the researchers concluded that pyrethroids might alter neurochemical signaling in the brain.

The news is understandably disturbing for parents who have treated their children with pyrethroids for lice — and there are a lot of them. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that up to 12 million head lice infestations happen each year among children aged 3 to 11. Lice are parasites that live in human hair, eyelashes, and eyebrows and feed on the blood of their host, and they’re not easy pests to get rid of. Hence, the common use of chemical shampoos and treatments for lice infestations — many of which contain pyrethroids.

Before you panic, know this: The study found that there was a correlation between pyrethroids and behavioral issues in children — not a causation. That means they determined that children who have behavioral issues also have high levels of certain pyrethroids in their system, but didn’t actually find that using pyrethroids causes behavioral problems in children.

“The findings should be considered preliminary and prompt more rigorous studies,” Amesh A. Adalja, MD, a board-certified infectious disease physician and affiliated scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, tells Yahoo Beauty.

Shahrouz Ganjian, MD, a board certified pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif., tells Yahoo Beauty that he’s not shocked by the findings. “In the past 15 years, there’s been a lot more research that has found pesticide exposure is linked to ADHD in boys and pediatric cancer,” he says. The study that found a link between ADHD and pesticides was published in the journal Environmental Health. It found a link between pyrethroid pesticide exposure and ADHD, particularly in the areas of hyperactivity and impulsivity. While girls were affected, the link was stronger in boys. However, this was also a correlational study.

Pyrethroids are among the most common treatments for lice, but other compounds can be used, like alcohol-based treatments and an anti-parasitic drug called ivermectin, Adalja says. However, pyrethroids are “the main recommended treatments for lice,” he adds. Ganjian also recommends Sklice lice treatment, which doesn’t contain pyrethroids and Licefreee, which he calls “more natural.”

Pyrethroids also show up in some mosquito repellents, but Adalja says they’re typically of the type applied to clothes or boots, and not the ones that go on your skin.

Adalja stresses that follow-up studies are needed to determine how much of a connection exists between pyrethroid exposure and behavioral issues. “It’s an interesting finding, but it’s not definite,” he says. “If people are very worried about this, then there are other alternatives that are effective against lice besides pyrethroids … it’s not like this is their only option.”

Trump hotel may be political capital of the nation's capital

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Trump hotel may be political capital of the nation's capital

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A few days later, major Republican donors Doug Deason and Doug Manchester, in town for the president's address to Congress, sipped coffee at the hotel with Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif.

After Trump's speech, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin returned to his Washington residence — the hotel — and strode past the gigantic American flag in the soaring lobby. With his tiny terrier tucked under an arm, Mnuchin stepped into an elevator with reality TV star and hotel guest Dog the Bounty Hunter, who particularly enjoyed the Trump-stamped chocolates in his room.

It's just another week at the new political capital of the nation's capital.

The $200 million hotel inside the federally owned Old Post Office building has become the place to see, be seen, drink, network — even live — for the still-emerging Trump set. It's a rich environment for lobbyists and anyone hoping to rub elbows with Trump-related politicos — despite a veil of ethics questions that hangs overhead.

"I've never come through this lobby and not seen someone I know," says Deason, a Dallas-based fundraiser for Trump's election campaign.

For Republican Party players, it's the only place to stay.

"I can tell you this hotel will be the most successful hotel in Washington, D.C.," says Manchester, adding that he would know because he has developed the second-largest Marriott and second-largest Hyatt in the world. Manchester says Trump's hotel will attract people based on its location near the White House and Congress, the quality renovation and the management team.

Then there's also the access.

Although Trump says he is not involved in the day-to-day operations of his businesses, he retains a financial interest in them. A stay at the hotel gives someone trying to win over Trump on a policy issue or political decision a potential chit.

That's what concerns ethics lawyers who had wanted Trump to sell off his companies as previous presidents have done.

"President Trump is in effect inviting people and companies and countries to channel money to him through the hotel," said Kathleen Clark, a former ethics lawyer for the District of Columbia and a law professor at Washington University in St. Louis.

She said the "pay to play" danger is even greater than it would be if people wanted to donate to a campaign to influence a politician's thinking. Spending money at a Trump property "is about personally enriching Donald Trump, who happens to be the president of the United States."

The White House strongly disputes there's any ethical danger in Trump's business arrangements.

Trump can see his hotel from the White House. When a Fox News interviewer mentioned that to him recently, Trump responded, "Isn't that beautiful?" But while the interviewer pointed out that he can see the property from his desk in the Oval Office, Trump said, "I'm so focused on what I'm doing here that I don't even think about it."

Still, Trump couldn't resist the short trip over there for dinner on his only weekend night out in Washington since becoming president.

A reporter for the website Independent Journal Review was tipped off about Trump's dining plans and sat at a table near him. He noted the president's dinner fare and companions, who also included daughter Ivanka Trump and her husband, Trump adviser Jared Kushner.

On other nights, the posh hotel is the kind of place where on a mid-February evening, you could bump into Trump television personality Katrina Pierson having cocktails with Lynne Patton, a former Trump Organization executive who's now working at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Trump campaign and inauguration hands Tom Barrack, Boris Epshteyn, Nick Ayers and Rick Gates are among the many who have stayed there in recent weeks.

Rooms start at above $500 most nights, according to the hotel's website and a receptionist. That's up hundreds of dollars from when the hotel first opened, not long before Election Day. Patricia Tang, the hotel's director of sales and marketing, declined to answer questions about how business is going.

The hotel has become a staging area for big political events.

Eric and Donald Trump Jr. posed for dozens of selfies with admirers the hotel that bears their name before attending their father's White House ceremony in late January to announce Judge Neil Gorsuch as the president's pick for the Supreme Court.

Deason ran into the Trumps and fellow Texas donor Gentry Beach while at a meeting at the hotel that day with Trump's campaign adviser Rudy Giuliani. During inauguration week, when Trump himself repeatedly visited, the hotel was "literally the center of the universe," Deason said.

Last Tuesday, as Trump gave his first address to Congress, lobbyists and politicos watched the four large flat-screens above the bar, two tuned to Fox news and two to CNN. In what hotel staff said was an effort to avoid some of the obvious politics of the place, the TVs were muted, so people followed along on their own devices.

As Trump wrapped up, applause rose through the lobby and bar. Mnuchin waved to admirers gathered in the bar as he strolled through after Trump's speech.

Mnuchin is one of the New Yorkers working in Washington who call it home during the week. White House economic adviser Gary Cohn is another. Linda McMahon, who heads the Small Business Administration, also has been staying there.

Administration officials "have been personally paying a fair market rate" for their accommodations, White House spokeswoman Lindsay Walters said.

Even Trump's closest friends pay to stay.

Billionaire Phil Ruffin, Trump's partner for his Las Vegas residential tower, said he shelled out $18,000 per night while he was in town for the inauguration, which he said surprised him since he'd given $1 million to Trump's inauguration committee. Ruffin says he lightly complained about the high rate to the president.

"He said, 'Well, I'm kind of out of it.' So I didn't get anywhere, didn't get my discount," Ruffin recalled.

Trump's continued ownership of his hotel and other businesses has spawned lawsuits and ethics complaints, but so far no action on any of them. One accommodation Trump says he is making on the ethics front is to donate profits from foreign governments that spend money at his hotels.

Last week, Kuwait's ambassador, Salem Al-Sabah, and his wife hosted a reception in the hotel's presidential ballroom, in what was one of the first known instances of foreign money changing hands with the hotel division of the Trump Organization since he became president. A spokeswoman for the Trump Organization did not respond to questions about whether the money from the Kuwait Embassy has been or will be donated