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For more than a decade, Guy Shoemaker pitched military service to potential new recruits with one key promise: healthcare for life. “You’re going to have medical and dental for the rest of your life,” said Shoemaker, a retired Army sergeant first class and recruiter who spent a year in Afghanistan. “I used that phrase too many times.” (Lovelace Jr., Miller, Kane and McLaughlin, 5/6)

Against expert advice, people are using new and unpredictable synthetic drugs to experiment on themselves in hopes of becoming free of addiction. (Richtel, 5/6)

On a spring weekend in Boise, Idaho, more than 100 people gathered at Ember Maucere’s home for a three-day party filled with live music, dancing, food and art. They weren’t there for a wedding or birthday. They were there because Maucere, 56, was dying — and she had invited them to celebrate her life with her. People showed up in colorful outfits, ready to take part in a silent disco, performances from local artists and group meditations. (Page, 5/8)

With cutting-edge sports medicine and sci-fi gadgetry, more and more athletes are figuring out how to extend their careers. (Gordon, 5/6)

More than 12 million people now have Parkinson’s disease, nearly double from just six years ago. From kids who pedaled behind mosquito trucks in the 1950s and '60s to veterans exposed to Agent Orange to landscapers and farmers who attribute their Parkinson’s to pesticides, a generation of elders — and increasing numbers of young-onset patients — now suffer from what we didn’t know about chemicals in the 20th century. (5/5)