If you’re working this week, the schedule looks a little goofy with good ol’ Independence Day in the middle. Here are a few options of interesting articles and an NPR broadcast to consider. We’ll keep the list short this week so you can find ways to honor our freedoms and country. Happy 242nd birthday, USA!

A road trip to visit family with several hours in the car consumed part of my weekend. I came across National Public Radio’s show “Hidden Brain” and an episode that focused on personal power. It covered scenarios in personal relationships and at work. The researchers brought up that money is the obvious answer as to why someone has power, but their studies have revealed that people with strong empathy and listening skills gain influence as a form of power. (Abraham Lincoln was cited as a strong historical example.) The interesting part was that as subjects gained power through finances, position or influence, they often began to lose their empathy and listening skill. You can find “Who gets power — and why it can corrupt even the best of us” here.

Among the most interesting stories I came across was one about paper straws. The country’s largest producer of them is in Indiana. The Indianapolis Star writes: “[Changing from plastic straws] is a potentially big problem for restaurants, coffee shops, zoos, theme parks and others. And, for many, their solution has been found in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Indiana’s second-largest city is home to Aardvark Straws – the nation’s only producer of paper straws.” Here’s a related plastic utensil story from Fox News: “Seattle bans plastic straws, utensils, becoming first major U.S. city to do so.”

The Des Moines Register continues today to offer thorough coverage of the weekend’s flash flooding that claimed a man’s life and left many with water in their homes.