April 2016

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...

Last week I stood in my swivel-based office chair attempting to hang a picture. It had been bothering me all week and surely using this approach would be successful and quick. Just as I stretched as far as I could and began to loop the latch on the back of the frame to the nail, the chair I was standing on shot out from under me. Sprawled in the middle of my office with every part of my body in pain, I began to contemplate my ability for complex decision-making. Here I am, with a couple...

This is the second of what will be an ongoing communication from me, as your president commissioner, to our York County citizens. My intention is to inform and raise awareness regarding the operation of your county government. In doing so, I will recognize efforts by our county workforce and encourage your participation in making the delivery of services by us even more effective and efficient. You are invited to email me at SPByrnes@YorkCountyPA.gov with your ideas that might serve to...

Mississippi’s governor signed into law a bill this week that allows people and organizations to refuse services, goods, and housing to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people based on “sincerely held religious beliefs or moral convictions” that same-sex marriage is wrong, or that gender is “immutable.” The spirit of the law is at odds with Americans’ steadily growing, stated support for marriage equality. But Mississippi isn’t the only state to have considered or passed anti-LGBT laws...

If there’s one thing that the candidacies of Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders have made clear, it’s that people in America are not happy with the status quo. They’re not happy with the economy, they’re not happy with the rising cost of health care and college, and they’re not happy with a modern world in which previously well-paying jobs can now be performed by computers or workers overseas. Trump supporters are overwhelmingly white, lack college degrees, and are drawn from exactly the kinds...

Several of my female friends working in various industries have recently expressed a similar disheartening sentiment: “It’s not that I prefer male bosses, but they’re the only ones who give me opportunities and successfully fight for me.” The first time I heard this, I was outraged, but soon I started to worry if this is a belief that actually undermines female leadership. It’s troubling in a couple of ways, but most of all, how can female managers succeed if those who report to them don’t...

In early 2015, a team of 56 volunteers knocked on the doors of conservative voters in Miami, Florida to talk about transgender rights. Local officials had recently passed a law that protected transgender people from discrimination, but LGBT organizations were concerned about backlash, repeals, and counter-legislation (of the kind recently seen in North Carolina ). So volunteers from the Los Angeles LGBT Center and SAVE , a Florida LGBT organization asked voters what they thought about the...

Millions of Americans recharge their phones, screens and laptops before they go to bed at night, but do they recharge themselves? Arianna Huffington, co-founder and editor in chief of The Huffington Post, says we are in the midst of a sleep-deprivation crisis that creates anxiety, as well as exhaustion, depression, a higher risk of motor vehicle accidents — and overall sleep-deprived stupidity. NPR's Scott Simon talked with her about her new book, The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your...

Susan Neufeld, Vice President of Resident Programs and Services for BRIDGE Housing Corporation (BRIDGE), describes the existing 606-unit Potrero Terrace and Annex housing projects as “an island of poverty in a sea of wealth.” Unlike many distressed public housing complexes that are surrounded by other disadvantaged neighborhoods, residents of Potrero Terrace and Annex, with a median annual income of $14,000, are surrounded by Potrero Hill neighbors making ten times that much. In addition to...