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A trip to some of the U.S.’s top national parks doesn’t come cheap. Once you factor in travel costs, food, lodging, and gear, the dollar amount can easily reach into the hundreds. So when the National Park Service on Tuesday proposed raising the entrance fee per vehicle to $70—more than double the current rate—critics responded that the agency risks pricing even more people, particularly low-income families, out of what is supposed to be public land. In doing so, NPS may be running counter...

Despite a string of uncommonly violent months earlier in 2017, Chattanooga has now gone more than 60 days without a homicide. It's impossible to predict how much longer the stretch will continue, but such a respite has been rare in recent years — since 2013, Chattanooga has gone through only eight periods of 30 or more days without a homicide. Authorities with the Chattanooga Police Department hope the streak is a sign that the tide of violence is beginning to recede a little, and they...

New research from Duke University has found that about one-quarter of adults whose marijuana use is problematic in early adulthood had anxiety disorders in childhood and late adolescence. The findings, published in the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, also shed light on an estimated four percent of adults who endured childhood maltreatment and peer bullying without resorting to chronic marijuana abuse, only to develop problems with the drug between the ages...

The article was published in collaboration with Vice . I love my daughter. That goes without saying for most parents, but I am truly crazy about mine. She literally came out of the womb with a smile on her face — no crying, just a big smile, shocking the doctor and all the nurses in the room. As I stood on the sidelines of her 6th-grade soccer game two years ago, I suddenly decided I should coach her next team. I mean, why not? I’d always watched her soccer games, trying to keep myself from...

Most people can acknowledge that discrimination has an insidious effect on the lives of minorities, even when it's unintentional. Those effects can include being passed over for jobs for which they are qualified or shut out of housing they can afford. And most people are painfully aware of the tensions between African-Americans and police. But discrimination can also lead to a less obvious result: tangible, measurable negative effects on health. A new survey conducted by NPR, the Robert Wood...

Abused and neglected State Ward children have already suffered enough when they enter *foster care. To be removed from a birth home by a judge means that the child’s life has been in imminent danger of serious harm. Most of the children I’ve worked with as a volunteer CASA guardian ad Litem have stories that still make me shudder twenty years later.

The pesticide, which belongs to a class of chemicals developed as a nerve gas made by Nazi Germany, is now found in food, air and drinking water. Human and animal studies show that it damages the brain and reduces I.Q.s while causing tremors among children. It has also been linked to lung cancer and Parkinson’s disease in adults. The colored parts of the image above, prepared by Columbia University scientists, indicate where a child’s brain is physically altered after exposure to this...

For many years, our drug-abuse prevention and dropout prevention efforts have focused on high school students. But as educators and health professionals dig deeper into these complex issues, they are learning that many of the problems that lead to substance abuse and academic failure often start much earlier than high school or even middle school. Research also is showing that difficult experiences in a child's life outside the classroom can have a greater impact than we realize. [For more...

The Weinstein Effect strikes again. Following The New York Times and The New Yorker ’s revelations about the film executive and alleged serial sexual harasser Harvey Weinstein, Lockhart Steele of Vox Media, the screenwriter James Toback , the critic Leon Wieseltier, and, on Thursday, Mark Halperin of MSNBC have found themselves outed and, in some cases, fired for alleged past behavior. Preceding Weinstein were reports about alleged harassment at Tinder and Uber , and the alleged predatory...

When Monica Palmquist moved to Cortez, Colorado, in 2010, she was shocked to find that the Hispanic population in a town with a Spanish name had almost no presence in the community’s civic life. Born in Mexico, Palmquist had spent most of her life in the United States, in cities where the Hispanic community was visible and active. In Cortez, where she worked as a community organizer, they were rarely ever seen. “We were called ‘The Invisible Community,’” Palmquist says. “We don’t get...

Good Morning All, Our registration is open for our 2018 Conference. Please consider joining us, learning something new, and adding to the impact we can make as a community. NM is a great place to visit and the location is utterly gorgeous. If you have questions email me directly at ekawam.naswnm@gmail.com. Please spread the word with others too who might be interested. My humble appreciation in advance for your time and consideration. Register here today:...

Scotland has one of the highest prison populations per capita in Western Europe, but it has been dropping in the past few years from a high in 2011-12. Initiatives such as ‘No Knives, Better Lives’ and the work of the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU) have been successful in tackling violent crime in Scotland and the crime rate has continually fallen. And although the Scottish Government could rarely be accused of making changes to the justice system too quickly, often taking years to consult,...