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On Monday, Kansas became the latest state to overhaul its juvenile justice system, with a set of reforms projected to reduce the number of juveniles in custody by more than half and save tens of millions of dollars. Gov. Sam Brownback, a conservative Republican, signed the sweeping legislation, SB 367 , after it cleared the Republican-controlled legislature earlier this year with only a handful of dissenting votes during a tough budget season. [For more of this story, written by Sarah Barr,...

Here is a quote from psychcentral == Depressive disorders often cause acutely uncomfortable feelings such as overwhelming sadness, hopelessness, numbness, isolation... == Hang on? Does this say that depression causes sadness, hopelessnes, feeling alone? Or does extreme sadness, lots of loss, feeling powerless, hopeless and alone cause depression? In other words, which comes first? The chicken or the egg? In my experience, and in my observations, the painful feelings I listed above, along...

For years, women’s pay has slowly increased relative to men’s, but, strangely, in 2015 that trend seemed to stall (or even reverse course). This apparent stagnation is discouraging for lots of reasons: More women are working and many are the primary, if not sole, earners in their households. And young women are more likely than young men to hold a college degree. This is clearly bad for women. It’s also bad for men. And the economy as a whole. A new report from the McKinsey Global Institute...

Editor’s Note: MAPP, Mobilizing for Action through Planning & Partnerships, is a local coalition that aims to use and build upon our strengths to improve our individual, family and community health. Health is defined broadly to include cultural, economic, educational, environmental, mental, physical and spiritual health. Role models are truly vital to a healthy and resilient community. I’m not just saying that, that is science. Luckily, this community has so many wonderful people with...

Central Community Unit School District 301 teachers, principals, school board members and administrators met to watch and learn from the film "Paper Tigers." According to Dr. Kim Paulus, Central Education Association president and seventh grade science teacher at Prairie Knolls Middle School in Elgin , the Friday presentation in the Burlington Central High School auditorium was "a collaborative effort with the CEA, the District Leadership Team, the Illinois Education Association, and the...

For thousands of Detroit families, the daily trek begins in darkness, before dawn. Myesha Williams, a mother of eight on Detroit’s west side, sets out at 7 a.m. to deliver her three school-aged sons to three different schools on opposite ends of the city—and she considers herself lucky. She has a car and a large family that can help share the driving. Total daily journey: up to 93.5 miles, 3 hours. Monique Johnson starts her trek even earlier, just after 6 a.m. when she and her son Shownn, a...

Tara is a working mother of two, with a son just shy of two and a daughter, Baby C, born in late January 2016. I met Tara on Facebook when she contacted me after watching my TED talk on parental leave in the United States. She is one of the many American parents who have no access to parental leave, paid or unpaid. Tara’s time off with her new baby consisted of her 13 days of accumulated vacation time; she was back at work 20 days after giving birth. [For more of this story, written by...

Have you ever admired a co-worker who’s able to navigate challenging situations with ease and professionalism, no matter the politics and difficult personalities involved? You know the type: She has a Teflon-like ability to deflect anger and frustration in the problem-solving process and doesn’t settle for an outcome that would sacrifice her self-respect or clout among colleagues. What she’s exhibiting is a key personality attribute that’s important in both business and life: assertiveness .

As the death toll from opioids and heroin rises, people are looking for answers, and also, someone to blame. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Tom Frieden, thinks he’s found both, in light of recently calling the epidemic of overdoses “doctor-driven,” where it’s urged that prescribers reign in the number of patients—particularly those with chronic pain—prescribed to opioid pain relievers. He believes that the epidemic “can be reversed in part by doctors'...

Sick children from rural areas in the United States have more complex medical problems and cost more to treat than urban or suburban kids, a new hospital study finds. Researchers who analyzed admissions at 41 children's hospitals found significant differences between city kids and their country counterparts. Rural children, for instance, were more likely to require readmission, tended to be from poorer homes and traveled five times as far, on average, for specialized health care. "Children's...

Most states don't provide students with enough physical education, a new report finds. Just 19 states require elementary school students to take physical education classes for a set amount of time, and only 15 set minimum rules for middle school students. Only Oregon and the District of Columbia require the amount of physical education time recommended by national experts. That's 150 minutes a week for elementary students, and 225 minutes for older kids. In 62 percent of states, students are...

DeAngelo Cortijo remembers the fear he felt as a young boy on the day his mother was lifted unconscious into an ambulance. He thought he would never see her again. It was a moment that set off a yearslong struggle as he bounced between family and foster placements and eventually into the juvenile justice system. Along the way, he grew frustrated by the inability of the child welfare and juvenile justice systems to help him cope with the trauma he had experienced. “I became angry, confused...