| | Who needs fraud? There are lots of legal ways that wealthy families get a leg up in the college admissions process. The college admissions scandal, in which wealthy parents paid bribes to get their unqualified kids into top colleges through "side doors," appalled many. But with high-dollar donations, legacy admissions and more subtle advantages of privilege, the process has never been purely merit-based.
Air pollution: Is it really that bad for you? That's the question apparently being asked by Trump administration appointees to an Environmental Protection Agency science panel challenging the link between soot and premature death. The group's decision could weaken regulations.
Bruce Springsteen's "Born In The U.S.A." might be America's least-understood anthem. Listen just to the chorus, and it's fist-pumping patriotism. Listen just to the verses, and it's a damning indictment of how the country treats its veterans. "Really, it's a defiant song about 'I was born in the USA, and I deserve better than what I'm getting,' " says former New Jersey governor and noted Boss superfan Chris Christie.
Proponents of "abortion pill reversal" say it can stop a medication-based abortion in the first trimester. But that's "based on no science — absolutely zero science," obstetrician Dr. Mitchell Creinin says. Still, abortion rights opponents have had it written into state laws, so Creinin is ramping up to do a full scientific study of the procedure.
Good: There's a lot of high-quality streaming entertainment available right now, with great scripts and A-list actors. Bad: It's spread out across oodles of different subscription services. Worse: Some stuff, like older movies, floats in and out of platforms all the time. What's a consumer to do?
Strong relationships can prime a student to learn, help mitigate the effects of trauma and provide other benefits, so more schools are looking to create quality teacher-student bonds, San Francisco's KQED reports. "A child can become a productive and engaged learner from any starting point, as long as we intentionally build those skills," one adviser says. |
Podcasts You May Have Missed |
Klaus Vedfelt/Getty Images |
Everybody sleeps, but not everybody sleeps well. If you find yourself constantly sleep-deprived or just dealing with the occasional night of tossing and turning, these tips are for you. Setting yourself up to get a good rest can start as soon as you wake up in the morning. Experts provide tips for adjustments to your daytime routine, methods for easing yourself into slumber and tactics to defeat insomnia.
Actress Natasha Lyonne's most recent parts include an addict struggling to stay clean in a women's prison in Orange Is The New Black and a woman who finds herself dying over and over again in Russian Doll. Lyonne sits down with Fresh Air's Terry Gross to talk about the substance abuse problems and the resulting near-death experience that informed her performances. "For a long time, I think I thought being a tough guy meant being tough at oneself. Like, how much can I take? And now I think I see it quite differently," she says.
Scientists have been experimenting with using electricity to treat mental health conditions for nearly a century. A relatively new method called deep brain stimulation raises ethical questions the medical community is only just beginning to explore. For instance: If you can twist a dial to change your mood, should you? How much? How often? |
| Trapped in solitary confinement for a made-up crime, Somalian Mohamed Barud could feel his thoughts fraying. "I was frightened of going to a certain area in my mind where I would commit suicide without knowing, without wanting to," he said. Then he and the man in the next cell found a way to communicate, and his neighbor managed to get a hold of the Tolstoy novel Anna Karenina. Despite vastly different lives, the Russian woman's story helped him survive eight years in prison. |
The following item from last week's newsletter contained an incorrect link, which is fixed below:
Prosecuted six times for the same crime, Curtis Flowers' conviction got thrown out three times because of a Mississippi county prosecutor's rejection of black jurors. Supreme Court justices across the political spectrum were skeptical to say the least of the most recent conviction.
-- by Christopher Dean Hopkins |
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