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The first shot in Mexico’s drug war was fired in December 2006, when Mexican President Felipe Calderon sent 6,500 security forces to reclaim Michoacan state from feuding cartels. “The battle against organized crime has just begun,” Calderon’s interior minister declared , “and the fight will take time.” He wasn’t kidding. That fight has now taken nearly 10 years, and tens of thousands of lives . And Mexico has little to show for it , besides death and destruction. In fact, the battle is as...

Growing up in York County, I was fortunate to have opportunities many children lack, including the opportunity to receive a quality education that prepared me for my career in pediatric medicine. Today, as a pediatric resident at Penn State Hershey Children’s Hospital, I have experienced first-hand how challenges in a child’s growth and development – if left unaddressed – can limit opportunities, including the opportunity to learn. That is why I want to see the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania...

New federal data show a continuing deep gulf between the educational experiences of traditionally disadvantaged student groups and their peers on a broad range of indicators, findings that follow years of efforts by government and advocacy groups to level the playing field in U.S. public schools. Black and Latino students are still more likely to be suspended, more likely to attend schools with high concentrations of inexperienced teachers, and less likely to have access to rigorous and...

"White privilege. It’s the phrase bigots hate to hear and progressives love to denounce. If you are white and clicked on this blog to be congratulated for naming your privilege, you can stop reading in a few characters. Thank you for naming your privilege. It’s a good starting point of solidarity with people of color (POC) to name that your privilege exists. But naming your privilege is not the same thing as taking actions to reject it and dismantle white supremacy. White allies are quick to...

It’s not every day I get to bring an entire pizza party to 30 kids, but a few weeks ago, that’s exactly what I got to do. I went to visit the youth leaders at Cherokee Point Elementary School , San Diego’s first trauma-informed elementary school. We were celebrating a major accomplishment. A few months ago, I wrote about my visit to Cherokee Point to visit youth leaders and talk about Child Abuse Prevention (CAP) Month, which occurs every April. During my initial visit in March, youth...

It doesn't matter if you're an 18-year-old fresh out of high school, or a 32-year-old parent going to community college to earn an associate degree in nursing – college is stressful for most students. Struggling with depression and anxiety while trying to balance academics, work and life can make a challenging academic experience even more difficult. Results from a study released earlier this year found that half of the 4,000-plus community college students surveyed have a current or recent...

Patricia Becerril comes to Bethesda Health Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, every other week. And it’s a slog. “It takes her two hours to get here,” said Katherine Wilkin, a University of North Carolina at Charlotte master’s student, translating for Becerril. “She takes two buses, so coming here, she’s definitely devoted to getting this treatment. She comes every time.” Wilkin is also Becerril’s mental health counselor, and Becerril says Wilkin has helped her deal with depression. “With...

This spring, a group of British scientists threw what was surely the world’s weirdest birthday bash. Roughly 3,000 British men and women, all of them turning 70, all of them strangers to one another, celebrated their special day at two enormous parties in London and Manchester. [For more of this story, written by Kay Hymowitz, go to http://www.wsj.com/articles/the-haves-and-the-have-nots-1465254202]

Excerpt from a great article by Tori Utley: "To end rape culture, offenders must be held accountable. To ensure this happens, society needs to put a serious and diligent foot forward about the consequences that follow sexually assaulting a victim. No one should be immune or above the law for the psychological damage and hurtful trauma that victims experience as a result of the crime of sexual assault – it is a violation of a human right, a destroyer of dignity and an offense that can take...

At 4 p.m., when Veronica Marentes gets off work, she rushes to pick up her 4-year-old from daycare and her 12-year-old from school. If she’s late for the little one, she risks being charged a dollar for every minute she’s tardy. If she’s slow to pick up the older one, who waits for her in his school’s library, his homework will suffer because there’s no one there to make sure he completes his assignments. Still, Marentes is often late to pick up her sons, because her manager sometimes asks...

In spite of some signs of improvement, fundamental disparities persist in youth incarceration. The number of youngsters in U.S. correctional facilities has been cut in half—a dramatic drop of 53 percent from 2001 to 2013—according to a Pew analysis of federal data. Still, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a child-advocacy group, found “in every year for which data are available, the overwhelming majority of confined youth are held for nonviolent offenses.” And children of color bear the brunt...

In the days after a 20-year-old former Stanford University student received his jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on the school’s campus, two letters related to the case and made public have been widely read: one by the victim, and one by the offender’s father. The victim’s letter was published in full by BuzzFeed on Friday, a day after the 23-year-old woman, who has chosen to stay anonymous, read it aloud to Brock Allen Turner during his sentencing hearing. In the...