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The partial U.S. government shutdown is now in its third week, due largely to President Trump’s insistence that Congress give him more than $5 billion for a border wall he says will keep criminals from entering the country through Mexico. Meanwhile, the federal employees tasked with keeping the nation safe from people convicted of crimes—prison guards—are laboring without pay. Because the federal Bureau of Prisons is operating without funding, it has furloughed up to half of its...

As the costs of college have climbed, some students have gone hungry. When they’ve voiced frustration , they’ve often been ridiculed : “Ramen is cheap,” or “Just eat cereal.” But the blight of food insecurity among college students is real, and a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO), a nonpartisan congressional watchdog, highlights the breadth of those affected. There are potentially millions of students at risk of being food insecure, which means they do not have...

You may not be ready to hear this, but if you are, the message is sure to be healing: Sooner or later you will have to lose all hope in gaining any real or lasting happiness, fulfillment and satisfaction from any worldly condition. When this level of loss happens we plunge into depression, not realizing that this loss heralds the greatest gain of all. For, just because you finally realize that you cannot gain any lasting happiness from any worldly condition, that does not mean that you...

Cyntoia Brown was sitting in the visiting room at the Tennessee Prison for Women on Monday morning when her lawyers walked in with the life-changing news. "You're getting out in August," Charles Bone said as soon as he saw her. Her reaction was immediate. [For more on this story by Adam Tamburin and Anita Wadhwani, go to https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2019/01/07/cyntoia-brown-clemency-case-facts-story-bill-haslam/2267025002/ ]

You can measure Cheryl Camany’s success by how high the stacks of pink paper are piled around her office. Each slip of paper is a residency questionnaire parents fill out for their kids at the beginning of the school year, and each offers a clue to just how many homeless students there are in this Salinas school district. In the last four years, the number of homeless students in California has increased by more than 20 percent. As that rate rises, some school districts are doing a better...

In one Pittsburgh elementary school classroom, students started the day in a circle, explaining how they were feeling as others listened intently. Some were happy, but others were sleepy or sad. “Let’s remember those who said they’re tired or frustrated so we can help them out today,” the teacher said in closing. A similar ritual for a group of sixth-graders in another class didn’t go as well. Asked to share their week’s high and low points, students talked over each other. When the teacher...

Free webinar on using creative expression to empower elementary students to name and process their emotions, develop strategies for coping, and build resilience.

ACEs, Adversity's Impact Women traumatized following birth are more likely to become depressed and unhappy in their relationships Can changing how we talk about childhood toxic stress influence policy? 30 people can end ACEs in your county. Why aren't they? Researchers warn mental impact of incarceration and border separation on kids How housing affects children's outcomes Trauma in early childhood boosts the risk of teen obesity, study finds How does trauma affect sleep? Sleep and grief...

Opportunities for recreation and physical activity are essential for personal and community health. Yet many communities across the country do not have enough safe, affordable, high quality spaces for play, exercise, and recreation. Shared use agreements—also known as joint use agreements, memoranda of understanding, and contracts—allow public and private property owners to broaden access to their underutilized facilities for community use. Shared use agreements can be used in a wide range...

At page 32 of the Law Society Gazette published in October 2018, you will find my short piece which makes the case for a constitutional right to rehabilitation and reintegration in Ireland by invoking the "unenumerated rights" doctrine, applying the ACEs evidence to the criminal justice context. https://www.lawsociety.ie/globalassets/documents/gazette/gazette-pdfs/gazette-2018/october-2018-gazette.pdf For those who are interested in reading a longer, more in-depth exposition of these...

I am humbly honored to have been featured in “ Slandering the Unborn ” (“A Woman’s Rights” editorial series, nytimes.com, Dec. 28). As one of the mothers who suffered during the 1990s crack epidemic, I want to thank The New York Times for its apology for how it demonized mothers like me and for its brilliant journalism. The apology is welcomed, and it gives me hope. I want to apologize as well — to society, the media, my family and my children. My child welfare case happened because of my...

More states plan to count state prisoners as residents of their home communities, rather than residents of the places where they are incarcerated — a change that would shift political power away from conservative rural areas to more liberal cities during legislative redistricting. Many inmates hail from neighborhoods in or near cities, but most are incarcerated in small towns and rural areas. Counting prisoners as residents of their hometowns would, for the most part, boost the legislative...