January 2018

“When did the opioid crisis pop up?” We hear this often. This epidemic begins with seeking relief from a physical and/or emotional pain that won’t go away. Prescription drugs, heroin, fentanyl, etc. can take away the pain momentarily, only to bring greater suffering with addiction, damaged relationships, overdose and death. Thank you for the comprehensive article focused on raising awareness around the opioid crisis and the work being done to address this individual, family, community and...

It’s been well documented that people with names like LaKeisha or DeShawn, which became popular among African Americans during the civil rights era , can face disadvantages in the job market. But that’s not the only place they are likely to bump up against conscious or unconscious biases. A recent study finds that a LaKeisha is much less likely to get a response when they contact public librarians or school district officials than, say, a Becky. And when they do, it’s less likely to be...

For 10 years, Tina has been cleaning rooms at a hotel in downtown Chicago. Her shift usually goes from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., but, occasionally, she'll work overtime late into the night. "There's nobody around," she told me. "If something happened and you screamed, I don't think anybody would be able to hear you." And things have happened. From time to time, male guests have opened the doors without clothes on. But because they're guests, Tina has been unable to express that she is uncomfortable...

When mothers arrive at Ruth Slocum’s parenting classes, she encourages them to sit on the floor and play with their babies as they talk about first foods or coping with sleep deprivation. She and her co-instructor offer bubbles to blow, and they snap pictures that the women can later turn into scrapbooks with materials they provide. During mothers-only sessions, the women talk about how to recognize and respond to a baby’s cues and how to manage “big feelings” of their own. Slocum’s...

Read "The Promise of Post-Traumatic Growth Part I" here . What do you imagine post-traumatic growth looks like? Feeling stronger in the face of a new challenge, knowing we’ve already overcome the worst that life can throw at us? Being more grateful for the little things? More connected to our friends and family? Finding new perspective and priorities? Or maybe having a deeper sense of the mystery and sanctity of life? The answer is all of the above. In the first part of our article “ The...

Pennsylvania has a very high opioid (especially heroin/fentanyl) overdose rate. Yesterday Governor Tom Wolf declared a state of emergency around the crisis, similar to what is done with weather emergencies. Wow--I am hopeful this may bring some resources to the problem that have not yet been corralled. Thank you Governor Wolf.

Over the past few months, medical professionals on Chicago’s South Side have been trying a new tactic to bring down the area’s infant mortality rate: find women of childbearing age and ask them about everything. Really, everything. “In the last 12 months, have you had any problems with any bug infestations, rodents or mold?” Dr. Kathy Tossas-Milligan, an epidemiologist, asked Yolanda Flowers during a recent visit to her home, in Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. “Have you ever had teeth...

For New York’s Administration of Children Services (ACS), retired law enforcement officers have been working in-house since 2007 to advise their roughly 1,700 caseworkers. Today, the ACS will announce that these former cops are getting a broader child welfare beat that includes assessing the risk brought on by new adults moving into households served by the agency. According to a new draft protocol shared with The Chronicle, ACS will now share guidance from so-called Investigative...

State Senate Republican leaders wasted no time addressing the pressing issue of upcoming campaigns during a caucus meeting Wednesday, saying that a humanizing message and data-driven campaigns are essential to continued success. Republican Caucus Chairman Bill Ketron, R-Murfreesboro, told fellow Republicans that Sen. Mark Pody's narrow defeat of a Democratic challenger in the District 17 Senate special election to replace Mae Beavers was "too close" and shouldn't happen again. He said...

A new study has found that children in the United States are less likely to live into adulthood than children in other wealthy nations . Meanwhile, funding for the Childrens Health Insurance Program (CHIP) has run out, and has not yet been replenished . And for kids born into poverty, getting out of it isn’t easy . [To listen to this story, go to https://the1a.org/shows/2018-01-10/who-is-looking-out-for-americas-children ]

In 1970, former United States Census Bureau director Richard Scammon and electoral demographer Ben Watternberg coined the phrase "demography is destiny." Writing in their book The Real Majority: An Extraordinary Examination of the American Electorate , Scammon and Watternberg argued that a real governing coalition in American political life "is the one that holds the center ground on an attitudinal belief." The crux of their argument, which came in the aftermath of a turbulent 1968...

When Camden, New Jersey’s Chief of Police J. Scott Thomson joined the Camden police force as an officer 25 years ago, there were 175 open-air drug markets lining just nine square miles of streets. The murder rates in this city of 75,000 just across the Delaware River from Philadelphia regularly climbed to more than six times the national average. “Criminals operated with impunity,” Thomson said. After a particularly deadly year in 1995, Camden’s Cathedral of Immaculate Conception began...