LAPD Officer Deon Joseph patrols one of the toughest places in America: Skid Row, a 50-block concentration of drug dealers, gangs, chronically homeless and the mentally ill — and the shelters and clinics in downtown Los Angeles that serve them....
The third week of the semester at Kennesaw State University, while many students were concerned about parking or trying to avoid long lines to get their books, Jalyn was trying to find a place to live. Nineteen and from Indiana, she was living...
We all know that exercise is good for our bodies, but current research is revealing that it is also good for our brains. Exercise has been shown to boost executive functions such as planning, working memory and multi-tasking. In a study...
In the first two posts in this series, I discussed how I see humankind's needs for significance and security as central to the Creation story of Genesis, chapters 1 and 2. (1) In this third post, I hope to further...
To truly understand Malala Yousafzai, the youngest person ever to be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize, we need to understand the place she comes from. Ms. Yousafzai is from Pakistan. The day Taliban terrorists shot her in the head she was on...
For most of New York, Rikers Island is out of sight and out of mind. It's in the middle of the East River between Queens and the Bronx. There's only one unmarked bridge that leads on and off. But a recent report on violence by correction...
Just having a feminine voice means you're probably not as capable at your job. At least, studies suggest, that's what many people in the United States think. There's a gender bias in how Americans perceive feminine voices: as insecure, less...
Troy and Alana Pack had spent the day at their neighborhood Halloween party in Danville, a suburb of San Francisco. Ten-year-old Troy went as a baseball player, and 7-year-old Alana was a good witch. In the afternoon, they changed out of their...
In the 1997 film “As Good As It Gets,” Jack Nicholson portrays Melvin Udall, a middle-aged man with obsessive-compulsive disorder who avoids stepping on cracks, locks doors and flips light switches exactly five times, and washes his...
In an Op-Ed essay last Monday, Margo Kaplan set out to correct what she said were misconceptions about pedophilia, writing that pedophiles aren’t all child molesters and that an attraction to children is not itself a crime, but rather a...
Clifford the Big Red Dog looks fabulous on an iPad. He sounds good, too — tap the screen and hear him pant as a blue truck roars into the frame. “Go, truck, go!” cheers the narrator. But does this count as story time? Or is it...
Even when police interrogators left the room, cameras kept recording the teenage suspects. Some paced. Several curled up and slept. One sobbed loudly, hitting his head against the wall, berating himself. Two boys, left alone together, discussed...
While other kids enjoyed summer break, a teenager with more on her mind slipped into her only dressy jacket and traveled south to Anaheim, to a nondescript building housing the local office of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. Lithe...
The John Howard Association of Illinois, an independent prison watchdog and justice reform advocate, recently published a report introducing ways to reform the criminal justice system for youth prosecuted for serious offenses. This report takes...
In the parts of the world that we cover in our blog, many people live in villages. Villages have their problems, to be sure. There may not be a doctor or clinic nearby. Girls may not be able to go to school. Clean water might be a long walk...