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Supreme Court’s questions about First Amendment cases show support for ‘free trade in ideas’

Current News / News & Features /

This term, the U.S. Supreme Court has heard oral arguments in a total of five cases involving questions about whether and how the First Amendment to the Constitution applies to social media platforms and their users. These cases are parts of a larger effort by conservative activists to block what they claim is government censorship of people ...Read more

How ghost streams and redlining’s legacy lead to unfairness in flood risk, in Detroit and elsewhere

Current News / News & Features /

In 2021, metro Detroit was hit with a rainstorm so severe that President Joe Biden issued a major disaster declaration at state officials’ request.

Nearly 8 inches of rain fell within 24 hours, closing every major freeway and causing massive damage to homes and businesses. The storm was of a severity historically seen in Detroit ...Read more

Female mosquitoes rely on one another to choose the best breeding sites − and with the arrival of spring, they’re already on the hunt

Current News / News & Features /

Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, one of the most common species in the U.S., love everything about humans. They love our body heat and odors, which enable them to find us. They love to feed on our blood to make their eggs mature. They even love all the standing water that we create. Uncovered containers, old tires and junk piles collect water and ...Read more

What the Buddhist text Therigatha teaches about women’s enlightenment

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Images of Buddha’s enlightenment often portray him sitting alone under the bodhi tree, his body emaciated from fasting. Some depictions show the Buddha’s right hand pointing down, asking the earth goddess to bear witness to his enlightenment.

Demonic armies or dangerous temptresses can be shown on both sides of the Buddha, ...Read more

How much stress is too much? A psychiatrist explains the links between toxic stress and poor health − and how to get help

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COVID-19 taught most people that the line between tolerable and toxic stress – defined as persistent demands that lead to disease – varies widely. But some people will age faster and die younger from toxic stressors than others.

So how much stress is too much, and what can you do about it?

I’m a psychiatrist specializing...Read more

US democracy’s unaddressed flaws undermine Biden’s stand as democracy’s defender − but Trump keeps favoring political violence

Current News / News & Features /

President Joe Biden argues that “democracy is on the ballot” in the 2024 election.

We believe there are potential threats to U.S. democracy posed by the choices voters make in this election. But the benefits of American democracy have for centuries been unequally available, and any discussion of the current threats needs to happen...Read more

Haiti is in crisis, but foreign intervention comes with an ugly past

Current News / News & Features /

Haiti is fast becoming a failed state.

Armed gangs control most of the capital, Port-au-Prince, and have forced the shutdown of the capital’s international airport and gasoline refinery. Most businesses are closed or are being extorted by the gangs.

Ordinary Haitians fear for their safety without the umbrella of law and ...Read more

Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group/TNS

Haunted by legacy of police misconduct, Oakland grapples for answers to street crime surge

Current News / News & Features /

OAKLAND, Calif. — Along gracious, leafy College Avenue, you can luxuriate with a traditional Thai massage, slip into an artisanal cocktail at an Italian spot or claim a grain-free treat for your canine companion at a charming Mediterranean cafe.

Privileged Rockridge hardly seems the sort of neighborhood that would generate grist for the crime...Read more

Orcas covered in scars left by 'cookiecutter sharks' may be new population, study says

Current News / News & Features /

A group of killer whales spotted hunting off the coast of California and Oregon over two decades may actually be their own unique population of animals, a new study says.

When the notorious black fin of an orca emerges from the waves, it is almost always followed by another, and then another.

The social, family-oriented animals travel in pods,...Read more

Los Angeles Times/TNS

A California politician was charged with voter fraud. Right-wing conspiracies took over

Current News / News & Features /

STOCKTON, Calif. — As the polls closed in California on Super Tuesday, Jim Hicks stood watch in the parking lot of a community center while election officials wearing red vests retrieved ballots from a drop-off box.

He jiggled the handle of the metal container when they were done to ensure it was locked and peeked his head into the white ...Read more

Joshua Boucher/The State/TNS

Have South Carolina's abortion numbers changed after heartbeat bill? Here's what the data says

Current News / News & Features /

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A state representative claimed during last week’s budget debate that South Carolina hasn’t seen a “significant change” in abortions since the heartbeat bill was upheld by the state’s Supreme Court.

But a review of provisional data from the Department of Health and Environmental Control, which keeps track of abortion...Read more

STAFF/Getty Images of North America/TNS

How explorers found Amelia Earhart's watery grave. Or did they?

Current News / News & Features /

After nearly 100 days at sea, the crew had given up. Since early September, they had logged nearly 12,000 miles aboard the Offshore Surveyor, crisscrossing the equator near the 180th meridian. Now a few days past Thanksgiving, the time had come to move on.

They had worked hard under a tropical sun, days becoming weeks, a familiar routine ...Read more

Mark Farley/Oregon State University/TNS

Blobby creatures washed up on West Coast beaches during marine warming, sucking up energy

Current News / News & Features /

During recent marine heat waves, millions of gelatinous, pickle-like filter feeders washed up on West Coast beaches.

Little has been understood about how the population explosion of the seemingly alien creatures, called pyrosomes, affected life in the Pacific Ocean.

But a new study shows the proliferation of the animals might have sucked up ...Read more

Alejandro Tamayo/The San Diego Union-Tribune/TNS

For a year, San Diego parents pushed to rename Henry Clay Elementary. But the new name, some say, is 'insulting'

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SAN DIEGO — For more than a year, parents at Henry Clay Elementary in San Diego's Rolando neighborhood have been asking San Diego Unified to rename their children's school.

They don't want their school named after Henry Clay, the U.S. statesman during the decades leading up to the Civil War who kept at least 122 enslaved people and ...Read more

Taylor Sisk/KFF Health News/TNS

West Virginia city once battered by opioid overdoses confronts 'fourth wave'

Current News / News & Features /

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — From 2006 through 2014, more than 81 million painkiller pills were shipped to this city and surrounding rural Cabell County.

The arrival of prescription opioids onto seemingly every block of Huntington, a city of about 46,000 people, augured the first wave of an overdose crisis. Heroin followed, then fentanyl.

Residents ...Read more

Mirko Vitali/Dreamstime/TNS

If schools won't ban kids' cellphones, some lawmakers say, they will

Current News / News & Features /

At David H. Hickman High School in Columbia, Missouri, the rule is that students must keep their cellphones out of sight during class. In reality, the teachers tasked with enforcing the rule are no match for teenagers’ “almost compulsive” need to be on their phones all the time, said science teacher Noelle Gilzow.

Gilzow confiscates ...Read more

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump rules out Vivek Ramaswamy as running mate as he eyes new team

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump has ruled out Vivek Ramaswamy as his running mate and is instead eyeing the entrepreneur for a Cabinet job, according to people familiar with the matter, as the Republican presidential nominee sizes up a possible administration.

Trump personally told Ramaswamy he won’t be his vice presidential pick, according to ...Read more

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Illinois Supreme Court makes changes amid 'staggering' increase in pretrial appeals over detention

Current News / News & Features /

The Illinois Supreme Court has changed rules for appealing pretrial detention decisions after appellate courts saw an “unprecedented and unsustainable” influx of such appeals following implementation of the Pretrial Fairness Act.

The changes, which take effect April 15, were recommended by a task force that prepared a report after ...Read more

JIM WATSON/Getty Images North America/TNS

Alaska lawmakers fail to override Gov. Mike Dunleavy's education bill veto

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JUNEAU, Alaska — Alaska lawmakers were one vote short Monday of overriding Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s veto of $200 million in education funding.

Dunleavy vetoed the bill Thursday night, two weeks after lawmakers passed it with 56 out 60 lawmakers voting in favor of the package, which was broadly seen as a compromise.

The bill included $175 ...Read more

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images North America/TNS

Hunter Biden refuses to appear at public House hearing this week

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — Hunter Biden has rejected an invitation to testify at a public congressional hearing into business activities that are the focus of a faltering GOP impeachment inquiry of his father, President Joe Biden.

The younger Biden’s decision not to appear as one of four invited witnesses before the Oversight and Accountability Committee...Read more