In April 2001, a U.S. government wildlife trapper named Carter Niemeyer choppered into the mountains of central Idaho to slaughter a pack of wolves whose alpha female was famed for her whiteness. He hung from the open door of the craft with a semiautomatic shotgun, the helicopter racing over the treetops. Then, in a clearing, Niemeyer caught a glimpse of her platinum fur. Among wolf lovers in Idaho, she was called Alabaster, and she was considered a marvel—most wolves are brown or black or gray. People all over the world had praised Alabaster, had written about her, had longed to see her in the flesh. Livestock ranchers in central Idaho, whose sheep and cows graze in wolf country, felt otherwise.

In 2010, Rebecca Skloot published The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a New York Times bestseller about a poor black woman in the late stages of cancer in 1950s Baltimore whose doctor removed cervical tissue from her without her knowledge. By remaining viable outside of Lacks’s body, the cells became “immortal” and thus quite valuable; scientists using them have been able to pursue research that would have been unimaginable beforehand, leading to achievements such as the polio vaccine and advances against cancer and Parkinson’s disease.

I talk Rick Perry, civil liberties, and the genius of Louie CK with Conor Friedersdorf:

A coda on our discussion on Perry's decision to mandate the HPV vaccine, from Amanda Hess:

Near the end of 2010, the Interior Department tried to revive the idea that keeping public lands wild might serve the public interest. But House Republicans have made quick work of that idea. They defunded the policy in April, and although the Obama administration could have picked it back up again once the next fiscal year started, Interior announced yesterday that it had given up on its wild lands policy.

After Republicans took back the House in November, I predicted three ways in which the new majority would try to interfere with the District, based largely on what Republican majorities did in the 1990s: prohibiting local funding for abortion services and needle-exchange programs, and bringing back a school-voucher system. This weekend, Republicans were able to secure two of these goals as rider amendments to the budget deal that avoided a shutdown late Friday night. The third is still on the table.

Today at the Prospect: Nancy Goldstein says drastic cuts to health funding won't touch the deficit, but women will suffer most.

When it comes to women's health, a little political cowardice goes a long way. House Republicans, in their zeal to balance the budget in any way possible other than asking rich people and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, have proposed putting the one-quarter of 1 percent of the U.S. budget for global health on the chopping block. The Democratic leadership won't oppose these cuts or call them what they are: crowd-pleasing maneuvers that won't dent the deficit. And ultimately, it's HIV-positive women and children who will pay a disproportionate share of the price.