Supreme Court weighs religious discrimination claim against Abercrombie &.... WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court is considering the employment discrimination claim of a Muslim woman who was turned down for a job by clothing retailer Abercrombie & Fitch after she showed up at her job interview wearing a black headscarf that.... More

Health Secretary says there's no backup plan if Supreme Court rules.... Next week, the Supreme Court hears arguments in a case that could upend Obamacare insurance coverage for millions of people. Tuesday, the Secretary of Health and Human Services said there was little the administration could do to limit the.... More

As Vermont tackles heroin addiction, progress is measured in baby steps BERLIN, Vt. — It was a long way down for Michael Kenney. As he neared the depths of heroin addiction, he stole prescription painkillers from his dying father, replacing them with Tylenol and leaving his father writhing in pain. But when Mr..... More

Despite the promise of technology, sleep mysteries remain unsolved Few of us are satisfied with how we sleep; we all want more sleep and better sleep in the hopes of improving our minds and bodies during our waking hours. Technology holds out the promise of perfection. What happens when you’re out for the.... More

Internships abroad: unpaid, with a $10,000 price tag Picture this: A summer behind the scenes at the Edinburgh Art Festival, helping set up a show and banquet, managing a guest list and communicating with artists and agents, plus an excursion to London and a tour of a Scotch distillery and.... More

A university recognizes a third gender: neutral Rocko Gieselman looked like any other undergraduate at the University of Vermont but perhaps a little prettier, with pale freckles dancing across porcelain skin and bright blue eyes amplifying a broad smile. Black bra straps poked out from a.... More

Is your first-grader college-ready? What is college? To Madison Comer, a confident 6-year-old, it is a very big place. “It’s tall,” she explained, outlining the head of Tuffy, the North Carolina State mascot, with a gray crayon. “It’s like high school but it’s higher.... More

St. Louis shelter resists order to stop helping all it can ST. LOUIS — The thermometer is barely reaching the driving age on this late February evening, bringing the type of arctic bite to the air here that numbs fingers and toes within minutes, and a grim procession takes place downtown. One by one.... More

As office space shrinks, so does privacy for workers Dafna Sarnoff worked her way up to vice president at American Express and what she remembers as “a desirable office.” Later she was hired by a financial services company — bigger salary, bigger office. Then, in 2012, she was recruited by.... More

White House: higher wages needed to make up for past paycheck stagnation WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama's top economists say that even as the U.S. has managed to kick start a lasting and growing recovery, modest wage gains are far from making up for decades of paycheck stagnation for middle-class workers. The.... More

We're sorry, applicants; we accepted you in error Acceptance to a world-class graduate school, in a highly competitive field, offers a path to credentials that open doors throughout a career, a stamp of validation to last a lifetime. Or maybe a few hours. Carnegie Mellon University this week.... More

To jump-start your exercise routine, be mindful By now, many of us, beset by bad weather and declining motivation, are struggling to maintain our New Year’s exercise resolutions. But a timely new study offers encouragement, suggesting that by paying more attention to the experience of.... More

New approach to blocking H.I.V. raises hope for an AIDS vaccine A new compound has blocked H.I.V. infection so well in monkeys that it may be able to function as a vaccine against AIDS, the scientists who designed it reported Wednesday. H.I.V. has defied more than 30 years of conventional efforts to fashion.... More

As snow, cold blast Boston, 'people just want this to end' BOSTON – Leaden skies tested the patience and sanity of winter-weary New Englanders once again over the weekend, unleashing more than 2 feet of new snow on parts of the region. It was the latest installment in a relentless string of storms.... More

Federal judge halts Obama's action on immigration HOUSTON — A federal judge in South Texas has temporarily blocked President Barack Obama's executive action on immigration, giving a coalition of 26 states time to pursue a lawsuit that aims to permanently stop the orders. U.S. District Judge.... More

Up to 14 years of hot flashes found in menopause study Conventional wisdom has it that hot flashes, which afflict up to 80 percent of middle-aged women, usually persist for just a few years. But hot flashes can continue for as long as 14 years, and the earlier they begin the longer a woman is.... More

New prosthetics give children hands of a superhero Dawson Riverman’s parents tried to help him make the best of it. Born without fingers on his left hand, Dawson struggled to perform even the simplest tasks, like tying his shoes or holding a ball. “God made you special in this way,” his.... More

Inequality in incomes has not risen since the financial crisis The notion that income inequality has continued to rise over the past decade is part of the conventional wisdom. You’ve no doubt heard versions: The rich just keep getting richer. Inequality is higher than ever. Nearly all of the gains from.... More

U.S. teens getting less sleep, risking damage to health, grades CHICAGO — U.S. teens are getting sleepier: Many lack even seven hours of shut-eye each night and the problem has worsened over two decades, a study found. More than half of kids aged 15 and older would need to sleep at least two hours more.... More

Slow to rise wages undercut workers, U.S. economic recovery Don Holzschuh backed a white semitrailer up behind the hardware store in Isanti, Minn., on a gray January morning, slid open the back door with a clatter and got to work unloading pipe, Quikrete, dog food and charcoal. The 59-year-old earns.... More

Retirees find meaning serving the needs of their communities DESPITE what F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Wolfe said, you can go home again and you can have a second act — or a third. And you can even find meaning, purpose and social justice along the way. Volunteering to do difficult and meaningful.... More

In New York City, jobs come back without Wall Street New York City has created more jobs over the past five years than during any five-year period in the last half century. But the city is not pulsing with the same boomtown swagger it radiated in past growth spurts. What’s missing? Wall Street..... More

Canada high court rules doctors can assist patients to die TORONTO — Canada's highest court struck down a ban on doctor-assisted suicide for mentally competent patients with terminal illnesses Friday, declaring that outlawing that option deprives dying people of their dignity and autonomy. The.... More

Vaccination rates for California kindergartens More than a quarter of schools in California have measles-immunization rates for kindergarteners that are below the 92 to 94 percent the C.D.C. says is needed to maintain so-called herd immunity. Part of this is driven by parents who have opted.... More

Falling marriage rates reveal economic fault lines Will Valentine’s Day, always a popular moment for popping the question, see fewer marriage proposals this year than in generations past? The age-old lesson about marriage that has been communicated by parents everywhere (two are stronger than.... More

Amid gains in jobs and pay, Americans rejoin the workforce The economy cruised into the new year with a burst of fresh momentum, adding jobs at the fastest pace since the boom of the late 1990s and lifting employment and wage prospects for millions of Americans left behind in a long but mostly.... More

Hackers breached data of millions, says Anthem health insurer Anthem, one of the nation’s largest health insurers, said late Wednesday that the personal information of tens of millions of its customers and employees, including its chief executive, was the subject of a “very sophisticated external.... More

More college freshmen report having felt depressed High numbers of students are beginning college having felt depressed and overwhelmed during the previous year, according to an annual survey released on Thursday, reinforcing some experts’ concern about the emotional health of college.... More

Internships abroad, unpaid, with a $10,000 price tag Picture this: A summer behind the scenes at the Edinburgh Art Festival, helping set up a show and banquet, managing a guest list and communicating with artists and agents, plus an excursion to London and a tour of a Scotch distillery and.... More

Despite recalls, G.M. pays workers a big bonus DETROIT — To cope with the gravest safety crisis in its history, General Motors has spent freely — almost $3 billion — to compensate accident victims and recall nearly 30 million vehicles. But when the company closed the books this week.... More

The new health care: how to measure a medical treatment's potential for.... As we wrote last week, many fewer people benefit from medical therapies than we tend to think. This fact is quantified in a therapy’s Number Needed to Treat, or N.N.T., which tells you the number of people who would need to receive a medical.... More

Payday loan usage rates, by state, as officials plan rules to shield.... The share of people in each state who reported taking out a payday loan in the past five years, which ranged from 1 percent to 13 percent, according to a 2012 survey by Pew Charitable Trusts. Because the Pew survey was only conducted in the.... More

Despite technology advances, space heaters still cause fires The pet cat was dead and the cabin on Grand Lake was filled with smoke by the time its resident, Jim Weber, returned from work. The culprit, authorities found, was one of seven space heaters Weber left running to warm the summer home. A cord.... More

Piling on work to escape gap in health law AUSTIN, Tex. — Alma Ramos, a soft-spoken prep cook at a Tex-Mex restaurant, was eager to sign up for health insurance through the new HealthCare.gov marketplace last year. But Ms. Ramos, a single mother of three, quickly hit a baffling hurdle.... More

Obama unveils initiative to tailor medical treatments WASHINGTON — President Obama on Friday announced a major biomedical research initiative, including plans to collect genetic data on one million Americans so that scientists can develop drugs and treatments tailored to individual patients’.... More

Are vitamin drinks a bad idea? Companies are increasingly adding vitamins and minerals to juices, sports drinks and bottled water, responding to a growing consumer demand for these products. Even though the amounts of added nutrients in these drinks are typically small, some.... More

For athletes, the time of an event can affect performance Athletes have long sought ways to gain even a small edge that can make the difference between getting a medal and finishing in the middle of the pack, like altitude training or even performance-enhancing drugs. Now British researchers are.... More

Doctors as advocates for family leave Birdlike and in his 80s, the patient had come to the hospital complaining of a new cough. But it was not he whom my colleagues and I found most disquieting. It was his middle-aged daughter. With a practiced dexterity, she had managed to wheel.... More

Vanderbilt rape convictions stir dismay and denial NASHVILLE — The crime was horrific and the verdict stunningly swift. Two former Vanderbilt University football players are facing the possibility of decades in prison after it took a jury less than four hours to convict them for their roles.... More

States renew fight to stop same-sex marriage COLUMBIA, S.C. — As the nation waits for the Supreme Court to decide whether same-sex marriages should be legal nationwide, another, more mundane front has opened in the wedding wars: the offices of the state and local officials who perform.... More

In response to student misconduct, Dartmouth to ban hard liquor After a spate of student misbehavior that has tarnished the reputation of Dartmouth College, its president on Thursday announced a ban on hard liquor on campus, and threatened to do away with fraternities or other groups that fail “to elevate.... More

The operation before the operation OSTON — The surgeon held a translucent white plastic eye socket in each hand. Gently moving them away from each other, Dr. John Meara showed the distance between Violet Pietrok’s eyes at birth. He slid the sockets closer to demonstrate.... More

Investment riches built on sub-prime loans to poor The loans were for used Dodges, Nissans and Chevrolets, many with tens of thousands of miles on the odometer, some more than a decade old. They were also one of the hottest investments around. So many asset managers clamored for a piece of a.... More

Helena Morrissey, aiming at Britain's glass ceiling, gets results LONDON — Suggest to Helena Morrissey that she is Britain’s version of Sheryl Sandberg, and she smiles politely. “I think I am meant to be flattered,” Ms. Morrissey, a 48-year-old money manager, said recently in her office in the City,.... More

FDA mulls releasing genetically modified mosquitoes to fight growing.... KEY WEST, Fla. — Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes could be released in the Florida Keys if British researchers win approval to use the bugs against two extremely painful viral diseases. Never before have insects with modified DNA.... More

Will a hug a day keep the doctor away? You’ll get no argument from most people — especially on a cold winter’s night — that hugs make you feel warm inside. But can that good feeling protect your health? Increasingly, scientists are thinking that the answer is yes. Over the.... More

Salt may not affect heart risk A new study suggests that dietary salt may have little or no effect on the risk for heart disease in older adults. The study, in JAMA Internal Medicine, included 2,642 people, average age 74. Half the participants were women, 62 percent were.... More

To collect debts, nursing homes are seizing control over patients Lillian Palermo tried to prepare for the worst possibilities of aging. An insurance executive with a Ph.D. in psychology and a love of ballroom dancing, she arranged for her power of attorney and health care proxy to go to her husband, Dino,.... More

Middle class shrinks further as more fall out instead of climbing up The middle class that President Obama identified in his State of the Union speech last week as the foundation of the American economy has been shrinking for almost half a century. In the late 1960s, more than half of the households in the.... More

White House proposals on 529 college plans would reduce benefits President Obama is proposing a radical change to the 529 college savings plans held by millions of families, which would require those who use them to rethink their approach to college savings. As part of his plan to simplify the tax code and.... More

High rates of opioid prescriptions among women raise birth defect fears The federal health authorities reported Thursday that nearly one-third of women of reproductive age had had an opioid painkiller prescription filled every year from 2008 to 2012. Experts said the practice carried considerable risks for birth.... More

Objections by women open rift in G.O.P. WASHINGTON — House Republicans struggled on Thursday to mend another unwelcome rift that threatens to tarnish their party’s image with women and younger voters, shelving a contentious bill to outlaw most abortions after 20 weeks of.... More

The best time of day to exercise to lose weight You might try setting your wake-up alarm earlier and exercising before breakfast. There is some evidence that working out on a completely empty stomach — or, as scientists call this woozy, wee-hours condition, “in a fasted state” —.... More

Stressed at work? Try a lunchtime walk To combat afternoon slumps in enthusiasm and focus, take a walk during the lunch hour, according to a helpful new study. It finds that even gentle lunchtime strolls can perceptibly — and immediately — buoy people’s moods and ability to.... More

Cheaper fuel will help airlines pad profits; passengers unlikely to share.... DALLAS — Airlines will save billions this year thanks to cheaper jet fuel, but they aren't likely to share the bounty with passengers — not while so many flights are already full. Instead, the airlines will use their windfall to pay down.... More

The new old age: complexities of choosing an end game for dementia DEDHAM, Mass. — Jerome Medalie keeps his advance directive hanging in a plastic sleeve in his front hall closet, as his retirement community recommends. That’s where the paramedics will look if someone calls 911. Like many such documents,.... More

Obama says family leave is a necessity, not just a women's issue When the Labor Department recently gave states grants to expand paid family leave, the money came from the department’s Women’s Bureau. But in the State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama argued that paid leave is not just a.... More

Clinic offers a new way to treat children's pain A trippy new patient room at Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis is capable of producing an orange scent, or piping musical vibrations to a comfy chair, as part of the hospital’s movement away from conventional drugs and toward alternatives.... More

Recipient of artificial heart is well enough to head home PARIS — A patient who received an artificial heart in August has recovered sufficiently to return home, the French company that makes the device said on Monday, signaling a milestone toward the possible commercialization of the device..... More

Gay marriage case offers G.O.P. political cover WASHINGTON — The news Friday that the Supreme Court will rule on same-sex marriage brought elation from gays and lesbians who are hopeful the justices will grant them the constitutional protections they have long sought. But another group.... More

At Boy's Town, sharpening minds and skills BOYS TOWN, Neb. — Juan Lopez, 17, lives in this home for wayward and neglected youths because he “got in trouble back in school, skipping and taking drugs.” Here he got the nickname Guns, because of a sudden affinity for carrying a piece.... More

The 25 best places to retire Retirement is a new phase of life, and, for many, a chance to consider new surroundings. Here is our new list of 25 top U.S. cities for retirement. Data we sifted included housing and living costs, taxes, weather and air quality, crime rates,.... More

Restroom ordinance is just one more sign of a city's acceptance WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — This city was one of the first in the nation to pass a same-sex marriage law. It was one of the first communities viewed as a haven for gay people: When the city was incorporated in 1984, a majority of the City.... More

Taking up gay marriage, but on their own terms WASH­ING­TON — The first page of a pe­ti­tion seek­ing Supreme Court re­view is the most im­por­tant. It sets out the “ques­tion pre­sent­ed,” the one the court will an­swer if it takes the case. The jus­tices do not.... More

Technology has made life different, not necessarily more stressful Among New Year’s resolutions shared on Twitter, unplugging digitally came right after losing weight and quitting smoking. People are flocking to digital detoxes, screen-free bedrooms and apps that nudge you off your phone. It is all in.... More

Republicans resist Obama's move to dismantle immigration DENVER — For four years Arturo Hernández García, an immigrant from Mexico, tried every legal move to stop his deportation. As a last resort, he camped out in the basement of a church here, seeking sanctuary from federal agents trying to.... More

Ocean life faces mass extinction, scientists say A team of scientists, in a groundbreaking analysis of data from hundreds of sources, has concluded that humans are on the verge of causing unprecedented damage to the oceans and the animals living in them. “We may be sitting on a precipice of.... More

Least economically diverse college seeks to change The leaders of Washington University in St. Louis have decided that it has a distinction they no longer want: the nation’s least economically diverse top college. Only 6 percent of undergraduates at Wash. U., as it’s known, receive federal.... More

Trying to solve the great wage slow-down After almost 15 years of a disappointing economy, it’s easy to get pessimistic. Incomes for the middle class and poor have now been stagnating over a two-term Republican presidency and well into a two-term Democratic one. The great wage.... More

Tiny cokes: less guilt means more money for makers Americans want to cut back on soda, and they're willing to pay more to do it. With people drinking less soda amid health concerns, Coke and Pepsi are pushing smaller cans and bottles that contain fewer calories and, they say, induce less guilt..... More

Reviewing federal education law, senator seeks more control Ahead of hearings to discuss an overhaul of No Child Left Behind, the signature education law from the George W. Bush administration, Senator Lamar Alexander, Republican of Tennessee and chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and.... More

Study finds local taxes hit lower wage earners harder When it comes to the taxes closest to home, the less you earn, the harder you’re hit. That is the conclusion of an analysis by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy that evaluates the local tax burden in every state, from Washington,.... More

Three signs pointing to bigger raises in 2015 All eyes are on wages. For workers who have faced six years of stagnant pay, Federal Reserve officials trying to decide when they can safely raise interest rates, or anyone who wants the United States economy to experience a truly robust.... More

Former official vouched for accused priest New documents released in a clergy sexual abuse lawsuit show that a former high-ranking church official intervened to help a prominent University of St. Thomas priest accused of sexual misconduct perform a wedding out of state. The Rev..... More

After enterovirus 68 outbreak, a paralysis mystery A nationwide outbreak of a respiratory virus last fall sent droves of children to emergency departments. The infections have now subsided, as researchers knew they would, but they have left behind a frightening mystery. Since August, 103.... More

Parents challenge President to dig deeper on ed tech Education technology companies that have pledged not to exploit student data they collect for marketing purposes welcomed President Obama’s endorsement on Monday of the industry’s effort to limit its use of classroom data. But the.... More

Doing more for patients often does no good Given the remarkable advances that have been made in the last 50 or so years in pharmaceuticals, medical devices and surgical procedures, it’s not a surprise that people want more, and more invasive, care than they have had in the past. Just.... More

Indoor tanning poses cancer risk, teenagers learn TEQUESTA, Fla. — On their way home from an SAT tutoring session, the Van Dresser twins, Alexandra and Samantha, 17, popped into Tan Fever & Spa, a small family-owned salon tucked into a strip mall between a bar and a supermarket. They wanted.... More

Obama to call for laws covering data hacking and student privacy WASHINGTON — President Obama on Monday will call for federal legislation intended to force American companies to be more forthcoming when credit card data and other consumer information are lost in an online breach like the kind that hit Sony.... More

New rules to limit tactics on hospitals' fee collections WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has adopted sweeping new rules to discourage nonprofit hospitals from using aggressive tactics to collect payments from low-income patients. Under the rules, nonprofit hospitals must now offer discounts,.... More

Silicon Valley turns its eye to education The education technology business is chock-full of fledgling companies whose innovative ideas have not yet proved effective — or profitable. But that is not slowing investors, who are pouring money into ventures as diverse as free.... More

Fight the flu with your smartphone The flu has officially gone viral. Not content to invade just our bodies, influenza is taking over our smartphones with a slew of apps. Now you can look up symptoms, check the spread of the disease and even book a doctor’s visit, all at your.... More

Fight the flu with your smartphone The flu has officially gone viral. Not content to invade just our bodies, influenza is taking over our smartphones with a slew of apps. Now you can look up symptoms, check the spread of the disease and even book a doctor’s visit, all at your.... More

Leg pain? New study says walk it off, avoid stent surgery Mike McKee was walking up to 10 miles a day in 2008 when his heart abruptly stopped and he collapsed between his home and downtown Minneapolis office. Quick-reacting bystanders and paramedics got him to the hospital in time. A defibrillator and.... More

When outside factors dictate retirement age FOR many, deciding to retire can be as straightforward as reaching Social Security eligibility age or amassing a solid nest egg. But for others mulling over when to stop work, there are other powerful, if less measurable, considerations like.... More

Job growth fails to help paychecks of workers The nation’s economy is entering 2015 in its best shape since the recession, but the improving job market has so far failed to help most Americans earn significantly more at work. On Friday, the Labor Department reported that employers added.... More

Americans use more online social networks Teenagers may be spending more time on messaging services like Snapchat, but American adults are still increasing their use of social networks, according to a new survey released Friday by the Pew Research Center. The Pew survey, conducted in.... More

Obama plan would help many go to college free WASHINGTON — President Obama said Thursday that he would propose a government program to make community college tuition-free for millions of students, an ambitious plan that would expand educational opportunities across the United States. The.... More

To treat depression: drugs or therapy? You’re feeling down, and your doctor or therapist has confirmed it: You have depression. Now what? Until recently, many experts thought that your clinician could literally pick any antidepressant or type of psychotherapy at random because,.... More

December caps a strong year for jobs, but wages dip Capping the best year for job growth since 1999, employers added 252,000 jobs in December, the Labor Department reported Friday, and unemployment fell to 5.6 percent. The number of new people put on payrolls last month was above what economists.... More

From a pile of dirt, hope for a powerful new antibiotic An unusual method for producing antibiotics may help solve an urgent global problem: the rise in infections that resist treatment with commonly used drugs, and the lack of new antibiotics to replace ones that no longer work. The method, which.... More

Texas abortion case will test rules NEW ORLEANS — Lawyers for abortion clinics squared off with Texas state attorneys in a federal appeals court here on Wednesday, arguing over the constitutionality of stringent abortion clinic rules that would force more than half the.... More

Obama will outline proposals to bolster housing sector WASHINGTON — The job market is stirring, gas prices are plunging and stocks are near record levels, but a housing sector that dragged the nation into the worst recession since the Depression remains the black spot in an otherwise resurgent.... More

Study finds more reasons to get and stay married A new economics paper has some old-fashioned advice for people navigating the stresses of life: Find a spouse who is also your best friend. Social scientists have long known that married people tend to be happier, but they debate whether that.... More

Jury selection gets underway in marathon bombing attacks BOSTON — Potential jurors stared intently at Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as jury selection in his federal death penalty trial began Monday under tight security. Tsarnaev, flanked by his attorneys, sat at a table in the.... More

Stop sharing germs at work: "presenteeism" is making us sick Who among us hasn’t stumbled into the office with red eyes and a runny nose? And who among us hasn’t done some outright scorning of others who bring their coughing, sneezing, germy selves to work? This may be just the year to put an end to.... More

As seen on TV, novelizations sustain fans In “Bratva,” a new crime novel by Christopher Golden, a grizzled motorcycle gang vice president named Jax Teller and his loyal sidekicks Opie and Chibs take on Russian mobsters to rescue Jax’s half sister. Some 200 pages of gun battles,.... More

Home schooling: more pupils, less regulation FREEPORT, Pa. — Until recently, Pennsylvania had one of the strictest home-school laws in the nation. Families keeping their children out of traditional classrooms were required to register each year with their local school district,.... More

Limiting rest is found to help young concussion patients Experts recommend that young people who have suffered a concussion get one or two days of rest at home, until symptoms start resolving, before gradually returning to school and physical activity. But scientific evidence to support this.... More

Limiting rest is found to help young concussion patients Experts recommend that young people who have suffered a concussion get one or two days of rest at home, until symptoms start resolving, before gradually returning to school and physical activity. But scientific evidence to support this.... More

School lunches healthier than those packed at home Many parents undoubtedly think they are doing the best for their children by having them bring lunch from home instead of eating the lunches served in school. But recent studies clearly prove them wrong. Home-packed lunches, the research showed.... More

Just don't call me old: baby boomers waging a war on words Ecumen CEO Kathryn Roberts has a peculiar habit when she calls a staff meeting. She sets a jar in the middle of the table, and anyone who says the “F-word” has to pony up a quarter. “Oh, we’ve had lots of quarters,” she said. “Lots.... More

New York City requiring flu shots for preschoolers New York City preschoolers will be heading back to class next week with memories of new holiday toys, vacation adventures, and, health officials hope, a flu shot. In fact, because of a new city requirement, young children can, for the first.... More

After a spa day, looking years younger (o.k., they're only seven) AURORA, Colo. — It was a day out at the spa for Paige Ehresman and her closest friends. Manicures. Hairdos. Makeup. And some gossip — about second grade. The spa industry has begun to target children in a big way, going way beyond.... More

Tougher penalties for drunk drivers might help, says task force A state DWI task force is proposing tougher penalties for Minnesota’s drunken drivers with hopes that they will encourage more offenders to install ignition interlock devices before getting back behind the wheel. With less than a week before.... More

Inside a Chinese test-prep factory The main street of Maotanchang, a secluded town in the furrowed hills of eastern China’s Anhui province, was nearly deserted. A man dozed on a motorized rickshaw, while two old women with hoes shuffled toward the rice paddies outside town. It.... More

Web freedom is seen as a growing global issue SAN FRANCISCO — Government censorship of the Internet is a cat-and-mouse game. And despite more aggressive tactics in recent months, the cats have been largely frustrated while the mice wriggle away. But this year, the challenges for Silicon.... More

Vacation hoarders struggle to take earned time off A three-week trip to Guatemala last year should have been the ultimate opportunity for Brett Mathiowetz to unwind. Instead, the construction company owner was stressed out, with work on his mind. “It was a bittersweet kind of deal,” he said.... More

Almost time to fill out college financial aid forms for Fall, 2015 Students who plan to attend or continue college next fall should get ready to start the application for financial aid. The new Free Application for Federal Student Aid, known as the Fafsa, will become available online on Jan. 1. The form is the.... More

A look back at the year in business Dinner is about to begin. Please, take your seats. Welcome to our annual DealBook “Closing Dinner,” where we toast — and more important, roast — the corporate world and finance industry. It’s been quite a year, punctuated by an.... More

Victims of G.M. deadly defect fall through legal cracks The law firm was unequivocal. It refused to take the case against General Motors involving a car crash that killed 18-year-old Natasha Weigel, saying that the value of her life in a lawsuit was too small to justify the expense and risk of.... More

A brand new world in which men ruled PALO ALTO, CALIF. — In the history of American higher education, it is hard to top the luck and timing of the Stanford class of 1994, whose members arrived on campus barely aware of what an email was, and yet grew up to help teach the rest of.... More

Exercise to lose weight? Stay warm If you’re hoping that exercise might keep you from gaining weight this holiday season, you may want to dial up the thermostat and do your workout indoors. According to a surprising new study, exercising in chilly temperatures could undermine.... More

F.D.A. easing ban on gays, to let some give blood WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration announced Tuesday that it would scrap a decades-old lifetime prohibition on blood donation by gay and bisexual men, a major stride toward ending what many had seen as a national policy of.... More

Degrees of education: sizing up the college rating system Last year, President Obama announced that his administration would, by the beginning of the 2015 academic year, rate America’s colleges “on who’s offering the best value, so students and taxpayers get a bigger bang for their buck.” Then.... More

For family sued by nanny, a vacation becomes legal limbo The family vacation in Italy began in August and lasted three weeks. A family photo tells the story, all smiling faces, four children and their parents perched at the prow of a boat in the Marina di Portofino. The vacation ended Sept. 6, but.... More

School finds music is the food of learning The principal, unsmiling in his jacket and tie, launched himself into the air, jumping up and down at the back of the gymnasium, waving frantically at more than 100 first graders as they rehearsed for their holiday concert. Franklin Headley,.... More

Judge in Maryland locks up youths and rules their lives UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — “Judge Dawson, he don’t play,” a parent once said about Herman C. Dawson, the main juvenile court judge in Prince George’s County. And on this Tuesday morning, Judge Dawson was definitely not in a playing mood..... More

Death penalty use steadily falls in U.S. WASHINGTON – The death penalty continued its slow and steady two-decade decline this year, as fewer convicted murderers were sentenced to die and most executions were limited to just three states, according to a report scheduled for release.... More

In an after-school program, juggling and plate-spinning are serious.... Nasir Ideraabdullah was clowning around after school — again — but this time, he was nervous. He watched the people filling the folding chairs on Wednesday afternoon in the gym at the Union Settlement on 104th Street, between Second and.... More

Weight gain during pregnancy is especially good for boys The less weight a woman gains during pregnancy, the less likely she is to have a boy, an analysis of data on more than 68 million births over 23 years has found. Over all, 51 percent of babies born are boys. But Kristen J. Navara, an.... More

U.S. unveils rating plan for colleges In a report due out on Friday, the Obama administration will offer its first public glimpse of a planned system for rating how well colleges perform, saying it plans to group schools into just three broad categories — good, bad and somewhere.... More

A steep slide in law school enrollment accelerates The bottom of the law school market just keeps on dropping. Enrollment numbers of first-year law students have sunk to levels not seen since 1973, when there were 53 fewer law schools in the United States, according to the figures just released.... More

For first time, treatment helps patients with worst kind of strokes, study.... After three decades of failure, researchers have found a treatment that greatly improves the prognosis for people having the most severe and disabling strokes. By directly removing large blood clots blocking blood vessels in the brain, they can.... More

In Miami, astonishment over action and disagreement over Cuba news MIAMI — From the raucous cafecito counter at Versailles Restaurant, the city’s Cuban touchstone, to the noisy streets in and beyond Little Havana, Miami’s Cuban exiles and immigrants expressed astonishment over the seismic news that the.... More

For that door-to-treadmill service When it comes to fitness, Vanessa Martin will do everything except actually sweat for you. Ms. Martin’s two-year-old fitness-concierge business, SIN Workouts, recommends and books group fitness classes such as SoulCycle for clients. (Cost:.... More

How the high cost of medical care is affecting Americans A bill of over $40,000 for the 20 minutes it took a doctor to stitch a cut. An ambulance ride of only 200 feet that cost $3,421. A healthy, insured couple “slowly going under” because their premiums, co-pays and deductibles are now twice.... More

Wellness programs at work may not be as private as you think NEW YORK – Wendy Schobert got a sinking feeling in her stomach the day a local health clinic showed up at her office to collect detailed medical information on her and her co-workers as part of the company’s new wellness program. If she.... More

Microchips, Facebook are making pet licenses obsolete Dog owners in Victoria are about to join a growing number in the Twin Cities no longer required to get licenses — a change set in motion by social media and implantable microchips that now help people find lost pets. “It’s been in our.... More

Questioning the idea of good carbs, bad carbs The idea that all carbohydrates are not created equal has become the foundation of many popular diets. Some argue that foods like white bread and potatoes, which have a high so-called glycemic index because they spike blood sugar and insulin,.... More

E-cigarettes top smoking among youths, study says WASHINGTON — A new federal survey has found that e-cigarette use among teenagers has surpassed the use of traditional cigarettes as smoking has continued to decline. Health advocates say the trend for e-cigarette use is dangerous because it.... More

'A great moment': Rover finds clue that Mars may harbor life SAN FRANCISCO — Life on Mars? Today? The notion may not be so far-fetched after all. A year after reporting that NASA’s Curiosity rover had found no evidence of methane gas on Mars, all but dashing hopes that organisms might be living there.... More

American chases Delta with $2 billion in onboard amenities DALLAS – American Airlines is chasing rivals led by Delta Air Lines in updating passenger amenities with a plan to spend $2 billion on new seats, in-flight entertainment and onboard power outlets. A year into the US Airways merger, American.... More

Mayo seeks to dominate with data ROCHESTER – The patients arrive at the Mayo Clinic from all over the world, thousands a day, each presenting a different medical challenge. Some have illnesses so rare that even medical journals don’t offer a time-tested treatment plan..... More

Curiosity Rover's quest for clues on Mars More than 3.5 billion years ago, a meteor slammed into Mars near its equator, carving a 96-mile depression now known as Gale Crater. That was unremarkable. Back then, Mars, Earth and other bodies in the inner solar system were regularly.... More

E-sports at college, with stars and scholarships Loc Tran is a big man on campus at San Jose State University in Northern California. “A lot of people stop me when I’m walking,” said Mr. Tran, a 19-year-old sophomore, who speaks in quick and confident bursts. “They congratulate me.”.... More

Copenhagen lighting the way to greener, more efficient cities COPENHAGEN — On a busy road in the center of town here, a string of green lights embedded in the bike path — the “Green Wave” — flashes on, helping cyclists avoid red traffic lights. On a main artery into the city, truck drivers can.... More

Scientific team sounds the alarm on sugar as a source of disease Is sugar making us sick? A team of scientists at the University of California in San Francisco believes so, and they're doing something about it. They launched an initiative to bring information on food and drink and added sugar to the public.... More

Big job gains in rising pay and rising pay in labor data Ever since the recovery from the Great Recession began more than five years ago, the most crucial missing pieces of the economic puzzle were the lack of consistently strong gains in hiring and better wages for most working Americans struggling.... More

Brighter economy raises odds of action in Congress WASHINGTON — A strikingly improving labor market, coupled with broad economic growth and a falling federal budget deficit, is improving the prospects of bipartisan cooperation next year — if Republicans and Democrats can seize on easing.... More

U.S. to continue racial, ethnic profiling in border policy WASHINGTON — The Obama administration will soon issue new rules curtailing the use of profiling, but federal agents will still be allowed to consider race and ethnicity when stopping people at airports, border crossings and immigration.... More

Minnesota high school league overwhelmingly approves transgender policy Capping months of emotional debate that brought tens of thousands of e-mails, the board overseeing high school athletics in Minnesota overwhelmingly said yes Thursday to opening up girls’ sports to transgender student-athletes. The decision.... More

Deadlier flu season is possible, C.D.C. says This year’s flu season may be deadlier than usual, and this year’s flu vaccine is a relatively poor match to a new virus that is now circulating, federal health officials warned on Thursday. “Flu is unpredictable, but what we’ve seen.... More

Barnes and Noble and Microsoft end Nook partnership When Microsoft invested $300 million in Barnes & Noble’s Nook division in 2012, it appeared that the last big brick-and-mortar bookstore chain had found its savior. The deal valued the Nook business at $1.7 billion — more than the market.... More

Starbucks, facing a saturated market, looks to the high end SEATTLE — It’s hard to believe that this coffee-crazed city would get excited about yet another coffee shop, particularly another Starbucks. For over a year, the Seattle coffeecenti has been buzzing with speculation about the opening of the.... More

U.S. added 321,000 jobs last month in sign of positive growth Employers added 321,000 jobs in November, a very healthy showing that echoes other positive economic data recently and bodes well for the crucial holiday retail season underway. The unemployment rate remained unchanged from last month at 5.8.... More

Study finds violations of wage law in New York and California The United States Labor Department says that a new study shows that between 3.5 and 6.5 percent of all the wage and salary workers in California and New York are paid less than the minimum wage. The study, which examined work force data for the.... More

TV watching time is shrinking while smartphone use, streaming increases,.... NEW YORK — Americans are turning away from live TV on the tube and tuning in to streaming services, a Nielsen report says. That's bad news for cable and satellite TV providers. Americans are increasingly watching TV shows and movies on.... More

Reports of sexual assaults in military on the rise WASHINGTON — A new military study says that reports of rapes and sexual assaults in the military increased 8 percent in the fiscal year ending September 2014, Obama administration officials said. The results are bound to draw attention,.... More

'Superbugs' kill India's babies and pose an overseas threat AMRAVATI, India — A deadly epidemic that could have global implications is quietly sweeping India, and among its many victims are tens of thousands of newborns dying because once-miraculous cures no longer work. These infants are born with.... More

Good news inside the health care spending numbers Inside the continuing slowdown in the growth in health spending is evidence that the American health care system may be changing in ways that could make it more affordable in the years to come. As my colleague Robert Pear reported, health.... More

Women who work If Peggy Young, who was a driver for United Parcel Service, had had an accident that limited her ability to lift heavy packages, or even lost her license because of driving while intoxicated, U.P.S. would have allowed her to go on “light.... More

Old tactic gets new use: public schools separate girls and boys POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — In one third-grade classroom, the walls are bordered by cheetah and zebra prints, bright pink caddies hold pencils and glue sticks, and a poster at the front lists rules, including “Act pretty at all times!” Next.... More

Un-golden years: Gay baby boomer retirees face worse financial hurdles.... NEW YORK — For Kathy Murphy, the difference between being gay or straight is $583 a month. Retirement should have been a "slam dunk," the 62-year-old Texas widow says. She saved, bought a house with her spouse and has a pension through her.... More

Autographs are being replaced by the quick and easy selfie Wherever Andrew Zimmern goes, someone approaches him, wanting a picture. “I’ve been asked for selfies in the Kalahari and the Congo, in the remote hill country of Thailand,” said Zimmern. “In Africa, more people have cellphones than.... More

FDA could ease ban on gay blood donations WASHINGTON – The federal government is on the brink of lifting restrictions put in place more than 30 years ago when regulators, alarmed by the spread of the virus that causes AIDS, forbade men who had sex with other men from donating blood..... More

Case seeking job protections for pregnant women heads to Supreme Court WASHINGTON — Peggy Young used to drive for United Parcel Service, delivering envelopes and small packages early in the morning. “I was a dependable, honorable worker,” she said. “I worked when I was supposed to. I did what I was.... More

Alcohol produces big bucks for states LAWRENCEBURG, KY. – Alcohol may not be single-handedly saving state and local budgets from the red, but it is helping. Consider Kentucky. Coal mines in parts of the state are struggling to stay open, but here among the rolling hills of horse.... More

Ex-UPS driver, denied light duty while pregnant, presses discrimination.... WASHINGTON — Peggy Young only has to look at her younger daughter to be reminded how long she has fought United Parcel Service over its treatment of pregnant employees, and why. Young was pregnant with Triniti, who's now 7 years old, when UPS.... More

Protect yourself while shopping on Black Friday and beyond Over the past year, so many data breaches at retail chains and restaurants have come to light that it’s hard to keep track. So what does that mean for shoppers, as the holiday season gets underway? Although it’s unnerving to have any sort.... More

In first week, more than a million apply for health insurance on federal.... WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials said Wednesday that more than one million people had submitted applications for health insurance in the first week of this fall’s open enrollment period under the Affordable Care Act, and 45.... More

Budget problems? Answer may be found in a bottle LAWRENCEBURG, Ky. — Alcohol may not be single-handedly saving state and local budgets from the red, but it is certainly helping. Consider Kentucky. Coal mines in parts of the state are struggling to stay open, but here among the gently.... More

Long, slow holiday lines put the snail in mail Merle Minda walked into the main downtown Minneapolis post office with a package one day last week and got in line behind nine other people. Fifteen minutes later, she advanced one place. Fifteen minutes after that, her husband came in from the.... More

Activists help pay for patients travel to shrinking number of abortion.... AUSTIN, Tex. — The young woman lived in Dallas, 650 miles from Albuquerque, but that was where she would have to go for an abortion, she was told. New state regulations had forced several of Dallas’s six abortion clinics to close, creating.... More

Black Friday sales are brisk, retailers say, bolstered by online deals Parking lots at some shopping malls filled up around the country on Friday, as shoppers kept up the tradition of scouring stores for holiday deals even though some retailers had been open on Thanksgiving and even overnight. In Michigan City,.... More

Amid turmoil, Michigan seeks to balance athletics and academics ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Michigan football has had unsuccessful seasons in its storied history, but maybe none have been as disastrous as this one. A quarterback who appeared to have sustained a concussion was allowed to play on. A star defensive.... More

U.S. wants teacher training programs to track how well students perform The federal Department of Education announced preliminary rules on Tuesday requiring states to develop rating systems for teacher preparation programs that would track a range of measures, including the job placement and retention rates of.... More

Why antioxidents don't belong in your workout Antioxidant vitamins are enormously popular with people who exercise. The supplements are thought to alleviate muscle damage and amplify the effects of exercise. But recent studies have raised questions about whether antioxidants might be.... More

Study finds most with H.I.V. don't take medicine Just 30 percent of Americans with H.I.V. have the virus in check, putting others at risk of infection, health officials said Tuesday. A report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 840,000 of the 1.2 million people.... More

University of Virginia officials vow to combat campus rape problem CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — Shocked, tearful and at times defensive, members of the board that oversees the University of Virginia insisted that they would combat the problem of sexual assault on campus after a magazine article reported a gang.... More

Bringing education to African girls THE HAGUE — Two decades ago, when Ann Cotton, a British educator and philanthropist, started examining the problem of low school enrollment among girls in rural Zimbabwe, she was struck by the crushing poverty, which to her presented an even.... More

Radiologists are reducing the pain of uncertainty When Dr. Jennifer Kemp’s husband got advanced rectal cancer, she got an unexpected patient’s-eye view of her profession. Her husband was having scans every three months, terrified each time that they might reveal bad news. Dr. Kemp, a.... More

Lawmakers hope to offset rising costs of generic drugs With the prices for some common generic medicines soaring over the past 18 months, state and federal lawmakers are trying to find relief for patients struggling to pay. On Thursday, a Senate panel convened to investigate price increases for.... More

F.D.A. plans broad rules for calories in restaurants WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will announce sweeping rules on Tuesday that will require chain restaurants, movie theaters and pizza parlors across the country to post calorie counts on their menus. Health experts said the new.... More

When their workday ends, more fathers are heading into the kitchen Sometimes, Joe Kreisberg ponders the question during his morning commute. Sometimes, he considers it at his desk at an advertising agency in Manhattan or on his afternoon stroll for a caffeinated pick-me-up. “It’s kind of in the back of my.... More

Texas approves disputed history texts for schools AUSTIN, Tex. — Texas’ State Board of Education has approved new history textbooks, but only after defeating six and seeing a top publisher withdraw a seventh — capping months of outcry over lessons that some academics say exaggerate the.... More

Settlement in Apple case over e-books is approved A federal judge on Friday approved a settlement in which Apple could begin paying $400 million to as many as 23 million consumers related to charges that it violated antitrust law by conspiring with publishers to raise e-book prices and thwart.... More

How a coalition pushed for a hotel worker's minimum wage Most Sunday mornings last summer, Julia Gould set up a table at the Hollywood Farmers Market. Alongside stalls selling shiitake mushrooms, free-range poultry and orange-blossom honey, she was selling an idea: a $15.37-an-hour minimum wage for.... More

For decades, California has known turmoil of immigration LOS ANGELES — There may be no better place than California to measure the contradictions, crosswinds and confusion that come with trying to change immigration law. For 30 years, California has been the epicenter of the churn of immigration.... More

Comparing college costs the easy way If you’re a shoestring start-up trying to get noticed in an enormous industry, there’s nothing that helps more than having big players try to ban you. But from financial services to airlines, the pattern repeats itself again and again, as.... More

Obama launches sales mission for immigration measures LAS VEGAS — Mounting an offensive behind his immigration directives, President Barack Obama on Friday insisted House Republicans must take up a comprehensive immigration overhaul but said the system is so unfair that it needs the type of.... More

Living with cancer: gravy days When I was diagnosed in November 2008, I began counting forward, assuming I would die by November 2013, at the latest. Prognosis for late-stage ovarian cancer is three to five years, even with state-of-the-art treatment. November, which happens.... More

How to arrive at the best health policies When the 48-year-old man from Oregon didn’t have insurance, he felt he had no place to go but the emergency room. The man, who has diabetes, went to the emergency room often when he suffered from kidney stones. “Emergency rooms, from what I.... More

A push for legal aid in civil cases finds its advocates LOS ANGELES — Lorenza and German Artiga raised six children in a rent-controlled bungalow here, their only home since they moved from El Salvador 29 years ago. So they were stunned this past summer when their landlord served them with.... More

Use of cholesterol drug in middle age lowers heart risk for decades later,.... CHICAGO — Taking a cholesterol-lowering drug for five years in middle age can lower heart and death risks for decades afterward, and the benefits seem to grow over time, a landmark study finds. Doctors say it's the first evidence that early.... More

Malicious software said to spread on Android phones For years security researchers have warned that it was only a matter of time before nasty digital scourges like malicious software and spam would hit smartphones. Now they say it is has finally happened. A particularly nasty mobile malware.... More

Falling wages at factories squeeze the middle class For nearly 20 years, Darrell Eberhardt worked in an Ohio factory putting together wheelchairs, earning $18.50 an hour, enough to gain a toehold in the middle class and feel respected at work. He is still working with his hands, assembling seats.... More

Most heavy drinkers are not alcoholics Most people who drink to get drunk are not alcoholics, suggesting that more can be done to help heavy drinkers cut back, a new government report concludes. The finding, from a government survey of 138,100 adults, counters the conventional.... More

Undocumented immigrants watch and wait as Obama makes pledge HYATTSVILLE, Md. — She was not going to believe it until she saw it with her own eyes: President Obama speaking on the big television screen, saying he would give protection from deportation to millions of immigrants in the country illegally..... More

New factor in campus sexual assault cases: counsel for the accused As the Columbia University student tells it, the encounter was harmless fun: A female freshman invited him into her suite bathroom, got a condom, took off her clothes and had sex with him. But as that young woman later described it to.... More

University of California is set to raise tuition SAN FRANCISCO — Over the protests of hundreds of angry and chanting students, a panel of the University of California Board of Regents gave preliminary approval Wednesday to a plan to raise tuition 27.6 percent over five years, turning aside.... More

Deportation reprieve may exclude parents of young children WASHINGTON — Every time Berzabeth Valdez heads out to work from her mobile home on the outskirts of Houston, it crosses her mind that she might not come back. Ms. Valdez, 48, is a Mexican immigrant who has been living in Texas for 11 years.... More

Your team lost every game? Hey, better luck in the postseason LOGANSPORT, La. — The Louisiana high school football playoffs opened last Friday, but it hardly felt encouraging as the East Iberville Tigers boarded a bus for a five-hour ride north toward certain defeat. The team was 0-10 for a second.... More

Parties push to sway public before Obama's immigration speech WASHINGTON — The fight to sway public opinion about President Obama’s soon-to-be-announced executive action on immigration was intensifying before the president’s scheduled address to the nation on Thursday evening from the East Room of.... More

Snow blankets parts of New York as U.S. feels chill BUFFALO, N.Y. — A ferocious storm dumped massive piles of snow on parts of upstate New York, trapping residents in their homes and stranding motorists on roadways, as temperatures in all 50 states fell to freezing or below. Even hardened.... More

New push for changes to ATV design Nearly a decade ago, doctors in Nova Scotia thought they had found a way to protect children from being injured or killed on all-terrain vehicles. The Canadian province banned children younger than 14 from operating any kind of ATV almost.... More

Honda to replace airbags throughout the U.S. Honda will replace potentially defective airbag inflaters in cars nationwide, according to statements the automaker gave federal safety regulators earlier this month. In doing so, it bows to pressure from lawmakers and auto safety experts who.... More

Class Dojo adopts deletion policy for student data The maker of ClassDojo, a popular behavioral tracking app used in schools across the United States, announced revisions on Tuesday in the way it retains student information. Starting in January, the company intends to keep students’.... More

Sexting is 'new norm' for teens, research finds Texting and “sexting,” sending sexually explicit messages via mobile phone, are firmly entrenched in the high school dating scene these days, but until now little solid data has existed on to what extent these social media connections have.... More

Health care law recasts insurers as Obama allies WASHINGTON — As Americans shop in the health insurance marketplace for a second year, President Obama is depending more than ever on the insurance companies that five years ago he accused of padding profits and canceling coverage for the sick.... More

Road tests of alternative fuel visions LOS ANGELES — Remember the hydrogen car? A decade ago, President George W. Bush espoused the environmental promise of cars running on hydrogen, the universe’s most abundant element. “The first car driven by a child born today,” he said.... More

Coal rush in India could tip balance on climate change DHANBAD, India — Decades of strip mining have left this town in the heart of India’s coal fields a fiery moonscape, with mountains of black slag, sulfurous air and sickened residents. But rather than reclaim these hills or rethink their.... More

At Brigham Young, students push to lift ban on beards PROVO, Utah — The dark pants, tightly knotted ties and crisp white shirts that once defined the Mormon man are nearly absent at Brigham Young University, the Mormon school that dominates this city. Instead, the young men crisscrossing this.... More

Target to offer primary care services in new clinic model Target is testing a new model for its in-store health clinics in a partnership with Kaiser Permanente, a prominent health care provider. The Minneapolis-based retailer will offer a wider array of medical services including primary and.... More

States ignore Federal ATV age limits For years, federal regulators, doctors and the all-terrain vehicle industry have agreed: Children should not ride ATVs designed for adults.But in most states, the practice is legal. In Minnesota, lawmakers even dropped the age limit from 16 to.... More

Deadline extended for G.M. accident claims The families of people killed or injured in crashes involving General Motors cars that had a deadly ignition switch defect will have an extra month to submit claims for payment under G.M.’s victim compensation program. Kenneth R. Feinberg,.... More

Avian flu detected in the Netherlands and Britain LONDON — Health officials moved to combat outbreaks of bird flu at poultry farms in Britain and the Netherlands on Monday, culling thousands of chickens and ducks to avert the spread of infection. On Sunday, the Dutch authorities blocked the.... More

Privacy concerns for Class Dojo and other tracking apps for schoolchildren HUNTER, N.Y. — For better or for worse, the third graders in Greg Fletcher’s class at Hunter Elementary School always know where they stand. One morning in mid-October, Mr. Fletcher walked to the front of the classroom where an interactive.... More

ATV thrills drive child injuries, deaths Ryan Anderson is not yet 2, but he is already a veteran of the Luck Area ATV Club. As his family prepares for its weekly trail ride through the woods of western Wisconsin, Ryan is strapped in to the Polaris Ranger, his helmet secured to the.... More

Some new frustrations as Health Exchange opens WASHINGTON — The health insurance marketplace opened for business on Saturday and performed much better than last year, but some consumers reported long, frustrating delays in trying to buy insurance and gain access to their own accounts at.... More

The brotherhood of the stay-at-home dad DENVER — “Choo-choo-wa! Choo-choo-wa! Choo-choo-wa-wa-wah!” The words — the theme song of a children’s cartoon — were being bellowed by six grown men huddled on a makeshift stage in a hotel banquet room. The song leader, an.... More

Obama's immigration plan could grant papers to millions, at least for now Changes to the immigration enforcement system that President Obama is expected to announce as early as this week could offer legal documents to as many as five million immigrants in the country illegally, nearly double the number who received.... More

Same-sex couples petition Supreme Court on right to marriage WASHINGTON – Gay and lesbian couples filed a petition on Friday asking the Supreme Court to decide whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. It arrived eight days after the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, in.... More

Do multiple relationships before marriage damage it? Now 31, Rodney Jordan said his brief marriage at age 22 was doomed before it started. When he wed, he said, he had had many failed relationships. Jordan, a sixth-grade teacher in Manassas, Va., said he was “insecure and running from a bad.... More

Some retailers promote decision to remain closed on Thanksgiving This Thanksgiving, the open vs. shut debate has grown even louder. Walmart, Kmart, Macy’s, Target, RadioShack and many other major retailers are proclaiming that they will be open on Thanksgiving Day to make shoppers happy. But Costco,.... More

To help language skills of children, a study finds, text their parents.... With research showing language gaps between the children of affluent parents and those from low-income families emerging at an early age, educators have puzzled over how best to reach parents and guide them to do things like read to their.... More

Health Care Act faces major test: getting users to re-enroll The Obama administration is aiming to re-enroll the 7 million people who are covered and to attract more uninsured Americans as a three-month enrollment period begins. Officials running the revamped online insurance exchanges are promising a.... More

Study finds warmer, wetter world means more lightning WASHINGTON — Lightning strikes in the United States will likely increase by nearly 50 percent by the end of the century as the world gets warmer and wetter, a new study says. While those conditions were already known to promote thunderstorms.... More

Schools on reservations cry out for repairs BENA, Minn. — When temperatures drop and snow falls, students bundle themselves in heavy coats inside Marlene Stately’s classroom. Winter comes early and bites hard on this Indian reservation in northern Minnesota, and the pole barn that.... More

President's plan may allow millions of immigrants to stay WASHINGTON — President Obama will ignore angry protests from Republicans and announce as soon as next week a broad overhaul of the nation’s immigration enforcement system that will protect up to five million unauthorized immigrants from the.... More

On elite campuses, an arts race CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Closed for six years, the Harvard Art Museums reopen here Sunday after a radical overhaul by the architect Renzo Piano. He saved only the shell of the chaste, red-brick Fogg Museum and its interior courtyard, extending it.... More

Average debt load for college grads: $30,894 The problem of high debt discourages low-income high school students from applying to college because they do not realize they may be eligible for financial aid and scholarships, said Brooke Hanson, manager of college program curriculum and.... More

Why are there so few new drugs invented today? In the fall of 1999, a young chemical engineer named Todd Zion left his job at Eastman Kodak to enroll in the Ph.D. program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. While looking for a subject to research, Zion noticed a grant proposal,.... More

Exercising but gaining weight Exercise has innumerable health benefits, but losing weight may not be among them. A provocative new study shows that a substantial number of people who take up an exercise regimen wind up heavier afterward than they were at the start, with the.... More

Cuts in military mean job losses for career staff FAYETTEVILLE, N.C. — For all the insecurities of war, Capt. Elder Saintjuste always figured the one thing he could count on from the Army was job security. A Haitian immigrant who enlisted as a teenager, he deployed three times to Iraq,.... More

Obama calls for tougher Internet regulations, tipping off angry debate.... WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama on Monday embraced a radical change in how the government treats Internet service, coming down on the side of consumer activists who fear slower download speeds and higher costs but angering Republicans and.... More

Researchers say iPhone, iPad security flaw opens door to malicious apps SAN FRANCISCO — Security researchers say they've discovered a vulnerability in Apple's software that hackers could use to steal sensitive information from iPhones or iPads, by tricking device owners into downloading a malicious app. Hackers.... More

U.S. to focus on equity in assigning of teachers The Obama administration is directing states to show how they will ensure that all students have equal access to high-quality teachers, with a sharp focus on schools with a high proportion of the poor and racial minorities. In a letter to.... More

Concerns in criminal justice system as New York City eases marijuana policy Mayor Bill de Blasio, who took office promising to reform the Police Department and repair relations with black and Latino communities, on Monday unveiled his plan to change the way the police enforce the law on marijuana possession. Arrests.... More

Coalition challenges selection of judges in same-sex marriage case WASHINGTON — When a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in California struck down bans last month on same-sex marriage in Idaho and Nevada, it was no surprise. The panel included two of the court’s leading liberals. A group.... More

The drive: texting drivers put us all at risk The family of a 15-month-old toddler who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a head-on car crash last summer in Eagan is cautiously optimistic that he will make a full recovery. Henry Knoof underwent emergency surgery to remove a blood clot in.... More

Communities fight state laws that can divide broadband access WILSON, N.C. — Jason Bissette could throw a sweet potato from his office here in eastern North Carolina, where he and his family oversee nearly 3,000 acres, to their newest barn. But despite his wishes, Mr. Bissette cannot extend the.... More

States listen as parents give rampant testing an F ROYAL PALM BEACH, Fla. — Florida embraced the school accountability movement early and enthusiastically, but that was hard to remember at a parent meeting in a high school auditorium here not long ago. Parents railed at a system that they.... More

Cubicles rise in a brave new world of publishing Michael Pietsch was given his first private office when he became an editor at Charles Scribner’s Sons 30 years ago. He got his first corner office when he was named publisher of Little, Brown and Company in 2001. He moved into an even bigger.... More

Ebola's mystery: one boy lives, another dies SUAKOKO, Liberia — Soon after he lost his parents to Ebola, Junior Samuel, 8, slumped in a plastic chair inside a treatment center here, listless, feverish and racked with aches. Within a day, he began bleeding from his gums, a particularly.... More

Massachusetts town weighs tobacco ban WESTMINSTER, Mass. — The cartons of Marlboros, cans of Skoal and packs of Swisher Sweets are hard to miss stacked near the entrance of Vincent's Country Store, but maybe not for much longer: All tobacco products could become contraband if.... More

Our 'mommy' problem WHEN I hear someone telling an expectant mother that having a baby will turn her into a new person, I can’t help but imagine a pathologically optimistic weather forecaster brightly warning that an oncoming tornado is about to give a town.... More

The leave seldom taken Five months after Todd Bedrick’s daughter was born, he took some time off from his job as an accountant. The company he works for, Ernst & Young, offered paid paternity leave, and he decided to take six weeks — the maximum amount — when.... More

Justices to hear new challenge to health law WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a new challenge to the Affordable Care Act, potentially imperiling President Obama’s signature legislative achievement two years after it survived a different Supreme Court challenge.... More

With Republican Senate, many eye a device tax repeal Tuesday’s Republican victories in Washington inspired strong optimism among medical device companies in Minnesota and nationwide for a repeal of the 2.3 percent sales tax on their products. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, incoming Senate.... More

Princeton mishandled sexual misconduct and discrimination cases, inquiry.... A federal investigation into Princeton University’s sexual misconduct and discrimination policies has found that the university violated the law and failed to respond quickly and fairly to students’ complaints. The Education Department’s.... More

The second act in his unlikely pursuit: A college degree Born and raised in the Queensbridge Houses in Long Island City, Queens, the largest public housing development in the country, Derrick Lawson dreamed of a life outside the projects. Perhaps one day his interest in computers would earn him a.... More

Personal tech: augmenting your password-protected world USERNAME and password combination has long been the standard security mechanism for online accounts. But that method just isn’t cutting it anymore. Huge data breaches, in which hackers gain access to personal information, have risen sharply.... More

Women in both parties disappointed by modest gains WASHINGTON — When Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a New Hampshire Democrat, beat Scott Brown to win re-election on Tuesday, her supporters saw history being made — although not by Ms. Shaheen. “Scott Brown made feminist history,” crowed an.... More

Three charged with feeding the homeless in Fort Lauderdale FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Police in Florida arrested two pastors and a 90-year-old man who were feeding the homeless, saying they violated a new ordinance in Fort Lauderdale that essentially bans public food sharing. South Florida television.... More

Oklahoma Supreme Court blocks two abortion laws The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Tuesday blocked two new laws that critics say may have made it difficult for women to obtain abortions in the state. The measures, approved by the State Legislature and signed into law by Gov. Mary Fallin, took.... More

Researchers seek crucial tool: a fast, finger-prick Ebola test Searching for a new way to attack Ebola, companies and academic researchers are now racing to develop faster and easier tests for determining whether someone has the disease. Such tests might require only a few drops of blood rather than a test.... More

Higher minimum wages pass in four states; Florida defeats marijuana measure Voters in four states on Tuesday supported measures to raise their minimum wages, bringing the number of states that have passed such laws to 29 and reflecting widespread dissatisfaction with Congress’s failure to increase the federal minimum.... More

Hotels use smartphones as room keys to speed up check-in process NEW YORK — Hotels don't want guests to have to linger at the front desk — or even stop by at all. New programs are helping speed up the check-in process for busy travelers, or in at least one case, letting them go straight to their rooms by.... More

Allina study finds alternate therapies ease cancer pain Acupuncture, medical massage and other alternative therapies provide cancer patients significant relief from pain and anxiety, according to physicians at Allina Health in Minneapolis, raising the prospect that they could someday begin to.... More

A debatable fix for young eyes BERKELEY, CALIF. — Lilith Sadil, 12, climbs into an examination chair here at the Myopia Control Center at the University of California. “Do you know why you are here?” asks Dr. Maria Liu, an optometrist. “Because my eyes are changing.... More

Little opposition seen in some votes to raise state minimum wages In state after state, labor unions and community groups have pushed lawmakers to raise the minimum wage, but those efforts have faltered in many places where Republicans control the legislature. Frustrated by this, workers’ advocates have.... More

Not just money-counters Known primarily as number crunchers and tax collectors, treasurers for state and local governments traditionally were limited to activities like processing payrolls, managing budgets, safeguarding pensions and being the target of accountant.... More

Small business divided over minimum wage votes Workers in five states could get a raise after Election Day. Some small-business owners say raising the minimum wage will pressure their companies, forcing them to cut employees’ hours or jobs. Others say it’s the right thing to do for.... More

Evangelical college in uproar after president's stand on gay rights and.... WENHAM, Mass. — D. Michael Lindsay thought he was on safe political ground when he signed the letter. President Barack Obama was about to expand job protection for gays employed by federal contractors. Under the proposed changes, faith-based.... More

Bracing for the falls of an aging nation SAN FRANCISCO — Eleanor Hammer, 92, executes a tightly choreographed, slow-motion pas de deux with her walker during meal times at The Sequoias, a retirement community here. She makes her way to the buffet, places her food on the walker’s.... More

College family weekend isn't just for parents any more When Diane LaPointe went off to Wesleyan University in 1975, her parents dropped her off freshman year and didn’t return until graduation. “I put my stuff in storage and took the bus home during breaks,” she said. Now that her daughter,.... More

Microsoft's new fitness tracking device is a welcome surprise Microsoft surprised the tech world last week by introducing a new fitness tracking wristband, along with an app and cloud-computing technology for tracking health and fitness data. The bigger surprise is that the new Microsoft Band is pretty.... More

Legally high at a Colorado campus In an apartment complex just outside the western edge of the University of Colorado’s flagship campus, a 22-year-old psychology major named Zach has just leaned over an expensive oil rig — a twisting glass tube that he will use to smoke.... More

A heart risk in drinking water Ana Navas-Acien can’t quite recall the moment when she began to worry about arsenic in drinking water and its potential role in heart disease. Perhaps it was when she read a study suggesting a link among people in Bangladesh. And a similar.... More

The pot talk: just say no, yes or maybe Ever since smoking pot became ubiquitous among American teenagers in the 1960s, parents have struggled with how to talk to their children about it and how to protect them from its negative effects. Now, in an era of broader acceptance — two.... More

Apple chief coming out: "This will resonate." Tim Cook’s declaration on Thursday that “I’m proud to be gay” made him the first publicly gay chief executive of a Fortune 500 company. But Mr. Cook isn’t just any chief executive. And Apple isn’t any company. It’s one of the most.... More

Michigan couple with 12 sons awaits baby #13, wondering if it's a boy or.... ROCKFORD, Mich. — A western Michigan couple with 12 sons is expecting baby No. 13, and even though they're sticking to their tradition of not finding out in advance whether they're having a boy or girl, they said they'd be shocked if their.... More

Greek letters at a price Imagine finding a bill for $200 in your mailbox because your daughter was late to a couple of sorority events. Imagine, too, that those who snitched were her new best friends. This is one of the unwelcome surprises of sorority membership..... More

Cause of children's paralysis remains unclear More than 50 children in 23 states have had mysterious episodes of paralysis to their arms or legs, according to data gathered by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The cause is not known, although some doctors suspect the cases.... More

Report reveals wider tracking of mail in U.S. WASHINGTON — In a rare public accounting of its mass surveillance program, the United States Postal Service reported that it approved nearly 50,000 requests last year from law enforcement agencies and its own internal inspection unit to.... More

More retirees are turning to migrant work EAST GRAND FORKS, MINN. – Dusk settled over the campground by the Red River, and inside her spacious motor home, 64-year-old Theresa Delikat was just waking up. It was time to have dinner with her husband, Tom, back from driving a truck in.... More

Happily going nowhere fast Just 325 feet from a SoulCycle studio on East Fourth Street in Manhattan, the door to a former plant store leads to a hall of mirrors bathed in the colors of a Colorado sunset. Inside, 30 treadmills sit on a spring-loaded, black AstroTurf floor.... More

Law lets I.R.S. seize accounts on suspicion, no crime required ARNOLDS PARK, Iowa — For almost 40 years, Carole Hinders has dished out Mexican specialties at her modest cash-only restaurant. For just as long, she deposited the earnings at a small bank branch a block away — until last year, when two tax.... More

The advanced 7-minute workout Ever since the magazine published the Scientific 7-Minute Workout in May last year, readers have been writing and tweeting their requests for an updated, more advanced version. For them, the workout became too easy or humdrum, as tends to.... More

AIDS from towels? Kenyans angered by Pat Robertson's comments about travel.... NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenyans are expressing anger and shock on social media and radio stations over comments made by popular American evangelist Pat Robertson in a recent TV broadcast in which he warned that towels in Kenya could transmit AIDS..... More

Paintings found on rocks in national parks spark fury; probe underway SALT LAKE CITY — A series of colorful, eerie faces painted on rocks in some of the West's most famously picturesque landscapes has sparked an investigation by the National Park Service and a furor online. Agents so far have confirmed the.... More

Cheaper to buy than to rent a home New research from the real estate website Trulia finds that homeownership is less expensive than renting in all of the country’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. The advantage narrows considerably, however, when the home buyer uses a.... More

K-9 agents lift spirits of Secret Service at White House WASHINGTON — Jordan took a kick to his snout. Hurricane was slammed to the ground and repeatedly punched. Both were rushed to a veterinarian for treatment. But by stopping a fence jumper from getting into the White House on Wednesday night,.... More

Your big box vacation Amid the three-pound tubs of peanut butter, the 36-roll packs of toilet paper and the discounted Calvin Klein underwear is a large poster of a beach, a palm tree and a question: “Wish you were here?” The poster is positioned beside the.... More

Applications for U.S. jobless aid rise to 283,000, but remain near 14-year.... WASHINGTON — The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week after falling to a 14-year low the previous week. Despite the increase, weekly applications remain at historically low levels that suggest hiring is.... More

Online harassment is routine among adults The vitriol from strangers on Twitter is worst when Kate O’Reilly tweets about politics. People call her stupid, lob harsh insults and make lewd references to female anatomy. O’Reilly, a longtime Twitter enthusiast from Minneapolis who has.... More

Pregnant, with no plans to have another baby and no ready options From a neighborhood message board (shared with permission of the writer): I am a longtime poster, but am here now under a different identity as it is much easier to ask for OB/GYN recommendations for having babies rather than terminating a.... More

More boot camp than spa: health spas teach stressed executives to unwind The irony did not escape Paula Thompson. As a regional vice president of a firm helping scores of companies administer wellness programs for their employees, the 58-year-old Ohio executive was not practicing what she preached. Years of job.... More

No picket fence: younger adults opting to rent VIENNA, Va. — On a recent sunny afternoon, a half-dozen grinding and spinning cement trucks helped lay the foundation for what many real estate developers see as the most promising housing opportunity in post-recession America: apartment.... More

Target to offer free shipping for online orders through holidays Two months into the job, Target’s new chief executive has already given the go-ahead to one of the retailer’s key holiday strategies: free shipping. Starting Wednesday, Target will offer free shipping on any online purchase — no matter.... More

The meaning of 'organic' can be fuzzy for personal care items, cleaners.... WASHINGTON — There's a strict set of standards for organic foods. But the rules are looser for household cleaners, textiles, cosmetics and the organic dry cleaners down the street. Wander through the grocery store and check out the shelves.... More

How music can boost a high-intensity workout Intense, highly demanding exercise has many health benefits and one signal drawback. It can be physically unpleasant, which deters many people from beginning or sticking with an intense exercise program. An encouraging new study, however,.... More

What if age is nothing but a mind-set? One day in the fall of 1981, eight men in their 70s stepped out of a van in front of a converted monastery in New Hampshire. They shuffled forward, a few of them arthritically stooped, a couple with canes. Then they passed through the door and.... More

States ease laws that protected poor borrowers Lenders have come under fire in Washington in recent years. Yet one corner of the financial industry — lending to people with poor credit scores — has found sympathetic audiences in many state capitals. Over the last two years, lawmakers.... More

Breast cancer survivors find new strength in exercise In her work as a certified lymphedema specialist, Kim Schminkey had helped scores of breast cancer survivors manage the painful, frustrating side effect of breast cancer surgery. At 36, the Wyoming, Minn., mother of two developed it herself in.... More

Wyoming prepares to legalize same-sex marriage CHEYENNE, Wyo. — Wyoming stood poised Tuesday to become the latest state to allow gay marriage, bringing the national wave of expanded rights for same-sex couples to a state where the 1998 beating death of Matthew Shepard still influences.... More

For children with autism, opening a door to dental care Like many parents of children with autism, Nicole Brown feared she might never find a dentist willing and able to care for her daughter, Camryn Cunningham, now a lanky 13-year-old who uses words sparingly. Finishing a basic cleaning was a.... More

Genetic variant may shield Latinas from breast cancer A genetic variant that is particularly common in some Hispanic women with indigenous American ancestry appears to drastically lower the risk of breast cancer, a new study found. About one in five Latinas in the United States carry one copy of.... More

As Apple Pay arrives, witnessing the next step in money. Maybe. David Donohue has a tough relationship with his wallet and the items inside it. He has lost his wallet twice in the past year. He has fallen victim to credit card theft three times. On one occasion, a thief plucked a credit card replacement.... More

Robotic device helps paralyzed groom walk the aisle with his bride DEWITT, N.Y. — New York resident Matt Ficarra has been paralyzed from the chest down since an accident three years ago, but that didn't stop him from walking down the aisle. Ficarra was able to stand and walk during the wedding ceremony in.... More

Hugging-averse try to put squeeze on rampant embraces It’s getting huggy out there. It requires ever less and less acquaintance with someone to be the recipient of an embrace. Among young people and certain gregarious and gestural adults, a hug has replaced the handshake as the new default.... More

Doctor says no overtime; pregnant worker's boss says no job Angelica Valencia put the doctor’s note in her pocketbook and stepped out of her apartment in the early morning darkness. Then she started praying. She prayed on the crowded buses and on the subway train that carried her from Queens into the.... More

Girl Scouts debate their place in a changing world SALT LAKE CITY — For more than 100 years, the Girl Scouts have been largely known for three core attributes: camping, crafts and cookies. Changing times and fashion are unlikely to alter the appeal of the Thin Mint, but that may not be as.... More

Where young college graduates are choosing to live When young college graduates decide where to move, they are not just looking at the usual suspects, like New York, Washington and San Francisco. Other cities are increasing their share of these valuable residents at an even higher rate and have.... More

Scare up your Halloween party skills If you’ve got school-age ghosts and goblins in your home, you should know these basics. • Edible fake blood: Mix together light corn syrup with enough red food dye to get the color you want. Sprinkle in a little unsweetened cocoa powder to.... More

School district is told it must teach immigrants HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. — Responding to complaints from dozens of Hispanic children who said they had been barred from public school classes on Long Island, the state on Friday issued new legal guidance regarding enrollment procedures, exhorting.... More

How one boy with autism became B.F.F.s with Apple's Siri Just how bad a mother am I? I wondered, as I watched my 13-year-old son deep in conversation with Siri. Gus has autism, and Siri, Apple’s “intelligent personal assistant” on the iPhone, is currently his B.F.F. Obsessed with weather.... More

Trying to live in the moment (and not on the phone) There’s a scene in the movie “Her,” a love story between a lonely writer and an artificially intelligent software program, that shows dozens of people riding the subway, deeply absorbed in their smartphones, oblivious to the world around.... More

Mental issues land 34,500 on New York's no-guns list A newly created database of New Yorkers deemed too mentally unstable to carry firearms has grown to roughly 34,500 names, a previously undisclosed figure that has raised concerns among some mental health advocates that too many people have been.... More

High school mountain bike racing rises in popularity At the squeal of an air horn, the bik­ers charged out of a start­ing gate, banked a right-hand turn and — legs churn­ing and tires claw­ing at a grav­el path — pedaled up the face of an alp­ine run. The rau­cous, el­bow-to-el­bow.... More

Rapid weight loss as effective as shedding pounds slowly LOS ANGELES – When it comes to dieting, the conventional wisdom holds that losing weight gradually is more sustainable in the long run than losing weight quickly. But new results from a long-term clinical trial show that this is just another.... More

Analysts ask what's next for Google SAN FRANCISCO — Google is still pulling in money hand over fist, but Wall Street is hungry for the company’s next act. On a conference call with analysts on Thursday, after Google reported its third-quarter earnings, the questions came.... More

Quality of words, not quantity, is crucial to language skills, study finds It has been nearly 20 years since a landmark education study found that by age 3, children from low-income families have heard 30 million fewer words than more affluent children, putting them at an educational disadvantage before they even.... More

Kansas City diocese to pay $10 million to settle 30 priest abuse cases KANSAS CITY, Mo. — An 11-day trial in a former altar boy's lawsuit against the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-St. Joseph ended abruptly with a nearly $10 million settlement that covers his case and 29 others alleging sexual abuse by.... More

Some Harvard professors oppose policy on assaults CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — Dozens of Harvard Law School faculty members are asking the university to withdraw its new sexual misconduct policy, saying that it violates basic principles of fairness and would do more harm than good. “Harvard has.... More

When women become men at Wellesley Hundreds of young women streamed into Wellesley College on the last Monday of August, many of them trailed by parents lugging suitcases and bins filled with folded towels, decorative pillows and Costco-size jugs of laundry detergent. The banner.... More

Gas prices will fall another 15-20 cents a gallon NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Gas prices have fallen below $3 a gallon at 43,000 U.S. gas stations, according to GasBuddy.com, or one-third of the stations it tracks. And prices at the pump, already the lowest in four years, should continue to.... More

2nd health worker who tested positive for Ebola isolated within 90 minutes DALLAS — A second health care worker at a Dallas hospital who provided care for the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. has tested positive for the disease, the Texas Department of State Health Services said Wednesday. The worker at.... More

What's your fitness age? You already know your chronological age, but do you know your fitness age? A new study of fitness and lifespan suggests that a person’s so-called fitness age – determined primarily by a measure of cardiovascular endurance – is a better.... More

Supreme Court allows Texas abortion clinics to stay open WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday allowed more than a dozen Texas abortion clinics to reopen, blocking a state law that had imposed strict requirements on abortion providers. Had the law been allowed to stand, it would have caused.... More

Egg freezing as a work benefit? Tech companies are famous for their lavish benefits, like in-office haircuts, dry cleaning and massages. Now some of those companies are setting off a debate about women and work with a new benefit — paying for women on the payroll to freeze.... More

Philadelphia teachers hit by latest cuts PHILADELPHIA — Money is so short at Feltonville School of Arts and Sciences, a public middle school here, that a nurse works only three afternoons a week, leaving the principal to oversee the daily medication of 10 children, including a.... More

Can't sleep? Twin Cities doctor handles bizarre cases With its bank of oversized computer screens, the Minneapolis sleep clinic’s control room looks like a military command center. Dr. Michael Howell stands in the glare of the monitors analyzing video of a sleeping patient. At first, the.... More

At the Vatican, a shift in tone toward gays and divorce VATICAN CITY — In a marked shift in tone likely to be discussed in parishes around the world, an assembly of Roman Catholic bishops convened by Pope Francis at the Vatican released a preliminary document on Monday calling for the church to.... More

Web-era trade schools, feeding a need for code SAN FRANCISCO — A new educational institution, the coding boot camp, is quietly emerging as the vocational school for the digital age, devoted to creating software developers. These boot camps reflect the start-up ethic: small for-profit.... More

Why are Americans so fascinated with extreme fitness? A blond woman in a hot pink spandex tank hoists a sledgehammer over her shoulders, then slams it down with a dull thud onto the big tire in front of her. Beside her, another woman swings her sledgehammer even higher, grimacing and groaning with.... More

Federal judge strikes down Alaska's first-in-the-nation gay marriage ban ANCHORAGE, Alaska — A federal judge on Sunday struck down Alaska's first-in-the-nation ban on gay marriages, the latest court decision in a busy week for the issue. The state of Alaska will begin accepting those applications first thing.... More

Health insurance premium spikes catch up with small businesses Debbie Avery was both startled and dismayed when she learned how much the cost of her group health insurance could jump later this year. To stick with the current plan, Stone & Johnson Dental Group in Edina, MN faces a premium increase of.... More

Study cites risk to babies sleeping on sofas Many cases of so-called crib death, about one in eight, occur among infants who have been placed on sofas, researchers reported on Monday. Dr. Jeffrey Colvin, a pediatrician at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, Mo., and his colleagues.... More

How school lunch became the latest political battleground The lunch ladies loved Marshall Matz. For more than 30 years, he worked the halls and back rooms of Washington for the 55,000 dues-paying members of the School Nutrition Association, the men and still mostly women who run America’s.... More

Microsoft CEO's remark reveals paradox on women's wages When Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief executive, told a conference of women in tech on Thursday that they should not ask for a raise, but trust “faith” and “karma” to reward them appropriately, he not only caused an immediate stir at.... More

Supreme Court allows same-sex marriage in Idaho WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Friday allowed same-sex marriages to proceed in Idaho, lifting a temporary stay issued two days earlier by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. The developments capped a busy week for gay rights. It started with the.... More

As apprentices in classroom, teachers learn what works OAKLAND, Calif. — Monica DeSantiago wondered how in the world she would get the students to respect her. It was the beginning of her yearlong apprenticeship as a math teacher at Berkley Maynard Academy, a charter school in this diverse city.... More

Fear of vaccines goes viral Last month The Hollywood Reporter published an illuminating investigation on immunization trends in Los Angeles County, which revealed that vaccination rates on the city’s wealthy west side, in neighborhoods like Beverly Hills and Santa.... More

U.S. Supreme Court blocks Wisconsin's voter ID law MADISON, Wis. — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday blocked Wisconsin from implementing a law requiring voters to present photo IDs, overturning a lower court decision that would have put the law in place for the November election. The 7th U.S.... More

Job vacancies rise in Minnesota but median wage offers fall The number of job openings in Minnesota is rising, but the wages offered by employers are not. The number of vacancies in Minnesota rose 16.7 percent over 12 months to 84,696 at the end of the second quarter, according to the state’s.... More

Heart-rending test in Ebola zone: a baby SUAKOKO, Liberia — Peering inside a red Nissan hatchback that had pulled up to the gate of an Ebola treatment center here, a guard saw an older woman holding a tiny newborn, a young woman sprawled in the back seat and a man in his 60s.... More

"Street Books" is a book delivery service for Portland's homeless PORTLAND, Ore. — A homeless man named Daniel was engrossed in a Barbara Kingsolver novel when his backpack was stolen recently, and Laura Moulton was determined to set things to right. Ms. Moulton, 44, an artist, writer and adjunct professor.... More

Nobel Peace Prize for two children's rights activists Reaching across gulfs of age, gender, faith, nationality and even international celebrity, the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the 2014 peace prize on Friday to Malala Yousafzai of Pakistan and Kailash Satyarthi of India, joining a teenage.... More

The food issue: how school lunch became the latest political battleground The lunch ladies loved Marshall Matz. For more than 30 years, he worked the halls and back rooms of Washington for the 55,000 dues-paying members of the School Nutrition Association, the men and still mostly women who run America’s.... More

Dealt a victory in court, gay rights advocates focus on a new frontier FLORENCE, Ala. — There are countless churches but not much openly gay life in this city by the banks of the Tennessee River. So when Benjamin Newbern, a onetime field organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union, convened gay residents.... More

Sanitizing and simplifying fiction for young readers Of all the horrors Louis Zamperini endured during World War II — a plane crash into the Pacific, 47 days stranded at sea, two years in a prisoner-of-war camp — the one experience that truly haunted him was when a Japanese guard tortured.... More

Minimum wage, overtime protections, delayed for home-care workers With numerous states pushing for a delay, the Obama administration announced Tuesday that it would put off enforcement of its plan to extend minimum-wage and overtime protections to the nation’s nearly two million home-care workers. A year.... More

Health law drug plans are given a checkup When the new health insurance exchanges opened for business one year ago, whether they would succeed was a matter of fervent debate. Who would sign up? Would they know how to use their insurance? And would a flood of seriously ill patients.... More

Wal-Mart cuts health benefits for most part-timers NEW YORK — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. plans to eliminate health insurance coverage for most of its part-time U.S. employees in a move aimed at controlling rising health care costs of the nation's largest private employer. Starting Jan. 1, Wal-Mart.... More

Ebola infects Spanish nurse; a first in the Wes BARCELONA, Spain — A nurse in Spain has become the first health worker to be infected with the Ebola virus outside of West Africa, raising serious concerns about how prepared Western nations are to safely treat people with the deadly illness. More

Fighting for the body she was born with Dutee Chand loves her body just the way it is. She loves her long, dark hair, which is often pulled back into a tight ponytail, and the toned biceps she likes to show off with tank tops. As a young teenager, she was dismayed that her body.... More

Supreme Court delivers tacit win to gay marriage WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday let stand appeals court rulings allowing same-sex marriage in five states, a major surprise that could signal the inevitability of the right of same-sex marriage nationwide. More

When 13-year-olds went missing, case was cracked with digital forensics In the world of law enforcement, it’s a game changer nearly as profound as the advent of DNA testing. When two 13-year-old Andover girls went missing last week, the first place detectives looked was for the digital clues in their iPods and.... More

Veterans at for-profit colleges often find diplomas come up short BYRON, Minn. — After more than seven years in the military, John Moen decided the Minnesota State Patrol could offer a secure career: a place where skills he picked up in the Navy and Air Force might be put to good use. He thought the.... More

In Washington State, political stand puts schools in a bind SEATTLE — Three years ago, Lakeridge Elementary School, where most pupils come from lower-income families, was totally remade. A new principal arrived and replaced half the staff, and she lengthened the school day and year. Working with a $3.... More

As U.S. Ebola fears widen, reports of possible cases grow DALLAS — In Washington, a patient who had traveled to Nigeria and who was suspected of having Ebola was placed in isolation at Howard University Hospital on Thursday. In New Haven, two Yale University graduate students plan to sequester.... More

This land: a couple gaining independence, and finding a bond EAST PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Sunday wedding that was months away, then weeks away, then days away, is now hours away, and there is so much still to do. The bride is panicking, and the groom is trying to calm her between anxious puffs of his.... More

Cameraman's Ebola infection has news organizations assessing risks of.... NEW YORK — For media covering the spread of Ebola in West Africa, the infection of a cameraman who works for NBC offers both a reason to emphasize precaution and to continue to bear witness. The New York Times' approach is emblematic of many.... More

Community college students face a very long road to graduation On a Friday afternoon last spring, Dennis D’Amelio, an artist and teacher in late middle age was presiding over a class in color theory at LaGuardia Community College, whose location in the immigrant hub of western Queens makes it one of the.... More

Child thought to be rid of H.I.V. suffers relapse A child in Milan treated early and aggressively with AIDS drugs after being born with H.I.V. suffered a rebound of the virus soon after stopping the drugs, according to a new study in The Lancet. Italian doctors had originally hoped the child.... More

Justices weighing wages for after-work screenings After his 12-hour shifts at an Amazon warehouse in Las Vegas, Jesse Busk says, he and 200 other workers typically waited in line for 25 minutes to undergo a security check to see whether they had stolen any goods. Upset that the temp agency.... More

Cyberattack against J.P. Morgan Chase affects 76 million households A cyberattack this summer on J.P. Morgan Chase compromised the accounts of 76 million households and seven million small businesses, a tally that dwarfs previous estimates by the bank and puts the intrusion among the largest ever. The details.... More

U.S. jobless rate falls to 6-year low WASHINGTON — U.S. employers added 248,000 jobs last month, a burst of hiring that drove down the unemployment rate to 5.9 percent, the lowest since July 2008. The mostly positive government report also showed that employers added 69,000 more.... More

Financial ties between doctors and health care firms are detailed For some doctors, treating patients isn’t the only way to make money. A Michigan plastic surgeon was paid more than $300,000 to travel the world teaching doctors about new cosmetic products like a breast implant. The retired chief executive.... More

13 abortion clinics to close in Texas after court ruling DALLAS — Thirteen abortion clinics in Texas were forced to close immediately after a federal appellate court on Thursday sided with Texas in its yearlong legal battle over its sweeping abortion law and allowed the state to enforce one of the.... More

Understanding the risks of Ebola, and what 'direct contact' means Can you catch Ebola on a crowded bus or train if you are standing next to someone who is infected? What if that person sneezes or coughs on you? If the person has symptoms, the answer could be yes. Questions that may have seemed theoretical a.... More

Ohio woman sues after receiving sperm from black donor instead of white.... CLEVELAND — An Ohio woman has sued a Chicago-area sperm bank after she became pregnant with sperm donated by a black man instead of a white man as she and her partner had intended. The woman is seeking damages and wants to ensure the sperm.... More

At Berkeley, free (though subdued) speech, 50 years later BERKELEY, Calif. — Fifty years ago Wednesday, Jack Weinberg sat in the back of a police car on the University of California campus here for 32 hours while thousands of students blocked the vehicle’s exit, protesting Mr. Weinberg’s arrest.... More

U.S. patient aided Ebola victim in liberia DALLAS — The man who has become the first Ebola patient to develop symptoms in the United States told officials at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital last Friday that he had just arrived from West Africa but was not admitted that day because.... More

Helping kids take criticism constructively (even when it isn't.... Parents and teachers spend an enormous amount of time thinking about how to frame feedback for kids. We’re torn between the desire to teach and the urge to protect children from pain. In an attempt to make feedback palatable, we dress it up.... More

Would marriage ruin our happiness? We wrote our vows the day before our wedding, sitting on a rock. I was pregnant, and beside me, shuddering in the wind, was my little plastic grocery bag of Ritz crackers, cereal bars and ginger ale. The bag went everywhere with me, even to the.... More

Would marriage ruin our happiness? We wrote our vows the day before our wedding, sitting on a rock. I was pregnant, and beside me, shuddering in the wind, was my little plastic grocery bag of Ritz crackers, cereal bars and ginger ale. The bag went everywhere with me, even to the.... More

New federal guidelines aim to rid schools of racial inequity With racial minorities still less likely than white students to have access to rigorous academic classes or experienced and qualified teachers, the Obama administration will announce guidelines on Wednesday to ensure that strong teachers,.... More

How exercise may protect against depression Exercise may help to safeguard the mind against depression through previously unknown effects on working muscles, according to a new study involving mice. The findings may have broad implications for anyone whose stress levels threaten to.... More

Heirloom Popcorn helps a snack reinvent itself SHELLSBURG, Iowa — Corn confronts you at every turn in Iowa. It blurs past the car window for hours. Stop for gas and you’re likely to find a patch growing out back. Much of it will fuel cars, feed cattle and sweeten food. But a.... More

Apple Pay signals new era at cash register Not a single purchase has been made with Apple’s new payment system, Apple Pay, which will allow people to pay for everyday goods with their smartphone. But the service, expected in the coming weeks, already has the technology industry.... More

A cross-fit workout for a new demographic: preschoolers On a recent afternoon at the CrossFit gym in Long Island City, Queens, 3-year-old Ella Reznik bounded toward an array of hoops and candy-colored bouncy balls, her ponytail and her mother trailing behind her. Ella’s brother Adam, 4, padded.... More

Some heart patients improve enough to have implants removed The world didn’t end on Dec. 21, 2012 — doomsday, according to some predictions — but Blake Brunner wondered for a moment if it had. His vision went black, then returned and then he collapsed. “I was freaking out,” the Forest Lake.... More

Minnesota high school league to vote on guidelines for transgender athletes The Minnesota State High School League is poised to vote Thursday on a proposal that would establish first-ever guidelines in the state for transgender students to take part in high school sports. The proposal spells out medical documentation.... More

After surgery, predicting a speedy recovery After surgery, some patients rebound quickly, and some endure weeks of fatigue or pain. What if a blood test could predict which path recovery will take? Surgery could be planned better, and recuperation strategies could be made more effective.... More

DeBlasio's executive order will expand living wage law to thousands more Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to sign an executive order on Tuesday significantly expanding New York City’s living wage law, covering thousands of previously exempt workers and raising the hourly wage itself, to $13.13 from $11.90, for workers.... More

California law on sexual consent pleases many but leaves some doubters Facing what many regard as an epidemic of campus sexual assault, some colleges have cracked down on binge drinking, others have reined in fraternities, while still others are training incoming students not to be passive bystanders when they see.... More

The drive: reducing risk is key to safe driving Standing on a freeway overpass with a camera in hand, AAA driving instructor Mike Torkelson videotaped a few minutes of traffic to see how many motorists allowed proper following distance. Not surprisingly, the video showed that few drivers did.... More

For a worker with little time between 3 jobs, a nap has fatal consequences “She would give anyone anything she could.” — Glen Carter, 33. Maybe she poured you a cup of hot coffee, right before you rushed off to catch your afternoon train. Maybe you noticed her huddled over an empty table in the station, dozing.... More

Dire warnings by big tobacco on e-smoking Tobacco companies, long considered public health enemy No. 1, have suddenly positioned themselves as protectors of consumer well-being in the digital age. They are putting out among the strongest health warnings in the fledgling e-cigarette.... More

Mostly black cities, mostly white city halls CONYERS, Ga. — Since moving to this small city on the eastern flank of Atlanta’s suburban sprawl, Lorna Francis, a hairdresser and a single mother, has found a handsome brick house to rent on a well-groomed cul-de-sac. She has found a good.... More

Money talks: Obamacare initiative makes headway in Republican states President Barack Obama’s plan to extend health coverage to millions of poor Americans remains highly contentious, yet it is gaining momentum among several initially reluctant states where financial pragmatism is trumping ideology. Up to a.... More

U.S. consumer sentiment ends at 14-month high in September U.S. consumer sentiment finished September at its strongest in more than a year on growing optimism about the economyand more favorable outlook on future income, a survey released on Friday showed. Michigan's final September reading on the.... More

Respiratory illness escalates among children and mystifies scientists An outbreak of respiratory illness first observed in the Midwest has spread to 38 states, sending children to hospitals and baffling scientists trying to understand its virulent resurgence. As of Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and.... More

Fighting for one last wish: to die at home Joseph Andrey was 5 years old in 1927 when his impoverished mother sold him to the manager of a popular vaudeville act. He was 91 last year when he told the story again, propped in a wheelchair in the rehabilitation unit of a nursing home where.... More

Finding humane care at the end of life As the story of Joseph Andrey's last monthsshows, many Americans will end their lives in surroundings that only add to their misery. Those who hoped to die in their own beds are often forced into nursing homes, some of which mistreat patients..... More

Not just for smores, campfires may have helped early societies develop Don’t underestimate the value of sitting around a campfire, listening to stories, singing songs and letting yourself stare mesmerized into the flickering flames. These activities may have played an essential role in early societies. A new.... More

For high school football coaches and fans, a new digital blitz SAN ANTONIO — Time for some Texas high school football, heavily assisted by modern technology. On a recent 90-degree Saturday night at Heroes Stadium here, with the lights flickering on at sunset, the Knights of Byron P. Steele II High School.... More

Marriage rates keep falling as money concerns rise Of all the milestones on the road to adulthood, Americans are increasingly forgoing one of the biggest: marriage. Twenty percent of adults older than 25, about 42 million people, have never married, up from 9 percent in 1960, according to data.... More

Companies are taking the baton in climate change efforts With political efforts to slow global warming moving at a tortuous pace, some of the world’s largest companies are stepping into the void, pledging more support for renewable energy, greener supply chains and fresh efforts to stop the.... More

In Colorado, a student counter-protest to an anti-protest curriculum ARVADA, Colo. — A new conservative school board majority here in the Denver suburbs recently proposed a curriculum-review committee to promote patriotism, respect for authority and free enterprise and to guard against educational materials.... More

FDA warns doctors nationwide about bogus drugs U.S. health regulators are trying to help doctors spot counterfeit and unapproved drugs by raising awareness of illegal operations that peddle bogus drugs to health professionals. Federal prosecutors have recently uncovered rogue companies.... More

Fraternities at Wesleyan are ordered to become coed After a series of high-profile episodes and calls from its student government for change, Wesleyan University has announced that its residential fraternities must all admit women as members and residents. “The trustees and administration.... More

Health researchers will get $10.1 million to counter gender bias in studies In an effort to begin addressing persistent gender bias in laboratory research, the National Institutes of Health announced Tuesday that it will distribute $10.1 million in grants to more than 80 scientists studying a diverse array of subjects,.... More

Finding risks, not answers, in gene tests Jennifer was 39 and perfectly healthy, but her grandmother had died young from breast cancer, so she decided to be tested for mutations in two genes known to increase risk for the disease. When a genetic counselor offered additional tests for.... More

In context, health premium increases don't actually look like increases In the Affordable Care Act marketplaces, which now serve 7.3 million Americans, some premiums are going up while others are going down. Based on data available so far, we reported last week that the average premiums for last year’s most.... More

College recreation now includes pool parties and river rides When Louisiana State University surveyed students in 2009 to find out what they most wanted in their new recreation complex, one feature beat out even massage therapy: a lazy river. But with dozens of schools (including some of its Southeastern.... More

A capstone in a career spent fighting for the rights of domestic workers Ai-jen Poo jumped into a taxi after her flight from Chicago touched down at La Guardia Airport last week, hurtling straight into Manhattan for four days of back-to-back meetings devoted to improving the lives of domestic workers. Soon, she was.... More

Taking a call for climate change to the streets Legions of demonstrators frustrated by international inaction on global warming descended on New York City on Sunday, marching through the heart of Manhattan with a message of alarm for world leaders set to gather this week at the United.... More

The expanding American waistline Average waist circumference — but not body mass index— increased significantly in the United States between 1999 and 2012, a new study reports. Abdominal obesity — a “beer belly” or “beer gut” — is caused by fat around the.... More

U.S. aims to curb peril of antibiotic resistance WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Thursday announced measures to tackle the growing threat of antibiotic resistance, outlining a national strategy that includes incentives for the development of new drugs, tighter stewardship of.... More

Biden: Young men need to stand against violence WASHINGTON — Vice President Joe Biden says it is time for young men to "stand up" against domestic violence. Biden is speaking to the Democratic National Committee's women's leadership forum. He says the recent 20th anniversary of the.... More

Obama to announce campaign to prevent campus sexual assaults WASHINGTON — President Obama has tried to use the power of his office to combat sexual assaults on college campuses. On Friday, he is getting some help. The president is scheduled to announce a nationwide public service campaign aimed at.... More

Beating back the risk of diabetes This year, nearly two million American adults and more than 5,000 children and adolescents will learn they have a potentially devastating, life-shortening, yet largely preventable disease: Type 2 diabetes. They will join 29.1 million.... More

Artificial sweeteners may disrupt body's blood sugar controls Artificial sweeteners may disrupt the body’s ability to regulate blood sugar, causing metabolic changes that can be a precursor to diabetes, researchers are reporting. That is “the very same condition that we often aim to prevent” by.... More

Women's views on N.F.L. dim in wake of domestic violence cases This time of year, families throughout the Chicago area schedule their weekends around the Bears. Nearly half the city’s televisions tune in to Bears games when they play, and an empty seat is rarely seen at Soldier Field. Nicole Larvick, a.... More

Leaving home, but not the folks A few weeks ago, boarding school students in the Northeast began moving into their dorm rooms armed with all the usual clatter. The Indian print tapestries, the athletic gear, the odd beanbag chair. But a few of them arrived with some extra.... More

Pregnancy for Pay: Surrogates and couples face a maze of laws, state by.... When Crystal Kelley, a Connecticut woman who had signed a contract to bear a baby for a couple in her state, was five months pregnant, a routine ultrasound showed that the fetus had a cleft palate, a brain cyst and heart defects. The couple for.... More

Multinational companies court lower-income consumers BANGALORE, India — When General Electric engineers here wanted to develop a more affordable baby warmer for India’s small, private hospitals, they initially replaced the fat, rubberized wheels standard on high-end models with smaller metal.... More

Working longer; not the best retirement savings plan Thirteen percent of working adults think they will never be able to afford to retire, according to a new survey. What' more, on average, most of us figure we’ll work until age 68. That’s not just depressing. It’s scary. Because it’s.... More

Fate of children's insurance program is called into question at Senate.... WASHINGTON — A Senate hearing on Tuesday set the stage for a coming debate over whether the federal government should continue financing a popular health insurance program for lower-income children who are now eligible for new coverage.... More

In Kentucky, health law helps voters but saps votes LOUISVILLE, Ky. — The Affordable Care Act allowed Robin Evans, an eBay warehouse packer earning $9 an hour, to sign up for Medicaid this year. She is being treated for high blood pressure and Graves’ disease, an autoimmune disorder, after.... More

Hospitals and insurer join forces in California In a partnership that appears to be the first of its kind, Anthem Blue Cross, a large California health insurance company, is teaming up with seven fiercely competitive hospital groups to create a new health system in the Los Angeles area. The.... More

Coverage under health care law to end for thousands WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said on Monday that it planned to terminate health insurance for 115,000 people on Oct. 1 because they had failed to prove that they were United States citizens or legal immigrants eligible for coverage.... More

Child mortality rate falling, U.N. says, but not fast enough The global mortality rate for children younger than 5 has dropped by nearly half since 1990, the United Nations said Tuesday in an annual report on progress aimed at ensuring child survival, but the decline still falls short of meeting the.... More

Fixing climate change may add no costs, report says In decades of public debate about global warming, one assumption has been accepted by virtually all factions: that tackling it would necessarily be costly. But a new report casts doubt on that idea, declaring that the necessary fixes could.... More

The trials of stem cell therapy Edgar Irastorza was just 31 when his heart stopped beating in October 2008. A Miami property manager, break-dancer and former high school wrestler, Mr. Irastorza had recently gained weight as his wife’s third pregnancy progressed. “I kind.... More

New Minnesota law pushes mental health system to a crisis point Hundreds of people with severe mental illnesses are languishing for weeks or even months without proper medical treatment, in part because of a law that requires state psychiatric facilities to admit some jail inmates ahead of hospital patients.... More

Health law has caveat on renewal of coverage WASHINGTON — Millions of consumers will soon receive notices from health insurance companies stating that their coverage is being automatically renewed for 2015, along with the financial assistance they received this year from the federal.... More

In Florida student assaults, an added burden on accusers After downing a double dose of NyQuil to fight a cold, the young woman woke in a man’s dormitory room with a vague memory of someone being on top of her, but no recollection of sexual contact. Three days later she found a condom in her vagina.... More

Limiting choice to control health spending: a caution To what extent will the recent moderation in the growth of health care prices and spending continue? This is a big question, and the answer relies on many factors. But for plans offered in the new health insurance exchanges as well as a.... More

A simple equation: more education = more income Imagine if the United States government taxed the nation’s one-percenters so that their post-tax share of the nation’s income remained at 10 percent, roughly where it was in 1979. If the excess money were distributed equally among the rest.... More

Drink soda? Take 12,000 steps People who consume the sweetener fructose — which is most people nowadays — risk developing a variety of health problems. But the risk drops substantially if those people get up and move around, even if they don’t formally exercise, two.... More

Training dogs to sniff out cancer PHILADELPHIA — McBaine, a bouncy black and white springer spaniel, perks up and begins his hunt at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center. His nose skims 12 tiny arms that protrude from the edges of a table-size wheel, each holding samples of blood.... More

Applications for U.S. unemployment rise to 315K WASHINGTON — More people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, though the trend in benefit applications in the past month remained low. The Labor Department says that weekly applications for unemployment aid rose 11,000 to a seasonally.... More

Foundation sends kin of 9/11 victims to college Sean Booker was a Xerox technician on the 93rd floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower. The Newark resident was at work when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building on Sept. 11, 2001. The oldest of his three children,.... More

Narrow health networks: maybe they're not so bad Lots of people shopping in the new health care marketplaces this year picked health plans that limited their choice of doctors and hospitals. The plans were popular because they tended to cost less than more conventional plans that covered.... More

Invitation to a dialogue: working for non-profits Several million college seniors are back to school and staring the transition to the working world in the face. Nearly half of those in career-oriented programs like business and engineering say they’ll pursue corporate gigs, presumably the.... More

Apple goes big with iPhone 6, and small with a smartwatch CUPERTINO, Calif. — After three years as chief executive of Apple, Timothy D. Cook is starting to crystallize his vision for the company. Apple on Tuesday introduced a highly anticipated smartwatch, which combines health and fitness.... More

D.E.A. to allow return of unused pills to pharmacies Concerned by rising rates of prescription drug abuse, the Drug Enforcement Administration announced Monday that it would permit consumers to return unused prescription medications like opioid painkillers to pharmacies. The move is intended to.... More

The problem with airplane seat design: What airlines are doing to give you.... To recline or not to recline? That is the question now being hotly debated among air travelers after three flights were forced to land after passengers on board began fighting about reclining seats. But are passengers really the problem? The.... More

Representation of female characters in movies is improving Girls grow up on big and little screens, and sometimes the thinking about girls and girlhood grows, too. Inspired by Richard Linklater’s "Boyhood" — a magnificent film that tells the story of a boy’s life from 6 to 18 — we are taking a.... More

Top colleges that enroll rich, middle-class and poor Vassar has taken steps to hold down spending on faculty and staff. Amherst and the University of Florida have raised new money specifically to spend on financial aid for low-income students. American University reallocated scholarships from.... More

So Bill Gates has this idea for a history class . . . In 2008, shortly after Bill Gates stepped down from his executive role at Microsoft, he often awoke in his 66,000-square-foot home on the eastern bank of Lake Washington and walked downstairs to his private gym in a baggy T-shirt, shorts,.... More

Legal use of marijuana clashes with work rules DENVER — Brandon Coats knew he was going to fail his drug test. Paralyzed in a car crash when he was 16, he had been using medical marijuana since 2009 to relieve the painful spasms that jolted his body. But he smoked mostly at night, and.... More

New service offers taxis exclusively for women New Yorkers can already choose from yellow taxis, green cabs or black livery cars. They can tap a smartphone app for a ride, or simply stick out an arm. They can pay with cash or credit. Now there is one more option: a female driver. A new.... More

Success of Apple's iWatch may rely on health care partnerships SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is trying to have another iPod experience. The company was not the first to create a digital music player when it introduced the iPod 13 years ago. But the device, with its click wheel and slick integration with the.... More

A retirement home with a 3-star chef EVANSTON, Ill. — Some of the toughest reservations to get in this affluent suburb of Chicago are for the early tables at the Mather, a senior community of $1 million condominiums near Lake Michigan. Citrus-dressed duck breasts and.... More

More ban smoking at home, even if smoker lives there, says CDC study Smoking is banned in more than eight out of 10 U.S. homes — nearly twice as many as two decades ago, according to a new government study. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found smoking is even forbidden in nearly half of homes.... More

School district bans suspensions of youngest students Minneapolis public schools Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson has banned the suspension of the district’s youngest learners, a unilateral move aimed at keeping children in class and forcing teachers to dole out discipline in school. “We.... More

Is horseback riding good exercise? It’s very good exercise for the horse and, depending on how you ride, can be moderate or even strenuous exercise for you, too. According to a comprehensive and periodically updated scientific compilation of the energy costs of various.... More

F.D.A. allows first use of a novel cancer drug The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday approved the first of an eagerly awaited new class of cancer drugs that unleashes the body’s immune system to fight tumors. The drug, which Merck will sell under the name Keytruda, was approved for.... More

U.S. job growth slips in August, after months of bigger gains American employers hired at a surprisingly weak pace in August, even as the unemployment rate fell slightly, the Labor Department said Friday. With an increase in payrolls last month of 142,000, August is the first month since January that.... More

The new healthcare: per capita Medicare spending is actually falling Medicare spending isn’t just lower than experts predicted a few years ago. On a per-person basis, Medicare spending is actually falling. If the pattern continues, as the Congressional Budget Office forecasts, it will be a rarity in the.... More

Take note of these back-to-school aids ALL around the world, students in colleges and schools are getting back to work. And alongside traditional textbooks and notepads, millions of smartphones and tablets — which spent the vacation taking photos, making selfies and messaging.... More

The race gap in America's police departments In hundreds of police departments across the country, the percentage of whites on the force is more than 30 percentage points higher than in the communities they serve, according to an analysis of a government survey of police departments..... More

Grading teachers, with data from class Halfway through the last school year, Leila Campbell, a young humanities teacher at a charter high school in Oakland, Calif., received the results from a recent survey of her students. On most measures, Ms. Campbell and her fellow teachers at.... More

Active role in class helps Black and first-generation college students,.... The trend away from classes based on reading and listening passively to lectures, and toward a more active role for students, has its most profound effects on black students and those whose parents did not go to college, a new study of college.... More

The economic price of colleges' failures Four years ago, the sociologists Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa dropped a bomb on American higher education. Their groundbreaking book, “Academically Adrift,” found that many students experience “limited or no learning” in college. Today.... More

Can exercise cause A.L.S.? Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis has been all over the news lately because of the ubiquitous A.L.S. ice bucket challenge. That attention has also reinvigorated a long-simmering scientific debate about whether participating in contact sports or.... More

U.S. colleges advised to tighten Ebola precautions The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has advised American colleges and universities, and any students or staff arriving from nations hit by the Ebola virus, to take precautions against spreading the disease that go beyond what most.... More

Bracing for new challenges in year two of health care law The first year of enrollment under the federal health care law was marred by the troubled start of HealthCare.gov, rampant confusion among consumers and a steep learning curve for insurers and government officials alike. But insurance.... More

Civil disobedience, arrests planned in fast-food protests for $15 an hour,.... NEW YORK — McDonald's, Wendy's and other fast-food restaurants are expected to be targeted with acts of civil disobedience that could lead to arrests Thursday as labor organizers escalate their campaign to unionize the industry's workers..... More

Free all-day kindergarten rolls out across Minnesota Avery Bastian’s pink tennis shoes matched her backpack perfectly. Her Cinderella Thermos was filled. She’d memorized the all-important personal identification number she would need to get breakfast at Hale School in south Minneapolis. And.... More

Obama calls for minimum wage rise and equal pay as elections approach MILWAUKEE — President Obama on Monday renewed his call to raise the federal minimum wage and to protect the right to equal pay for women as the midterm elections come into sight. In spite of opposition from Republicans, Mr. Obama said,.... More

Obama calls for minimum wage rise and equal pay as elections approach MILWAUKEE — President Obama on Monday renewed his call to raise the federal minimum wage and to protect the right to equal pay for women as the midterm elections come into sight. In spite of opposition from Republicans, Mr. Obama said, addressing a crowd of about 6,000 people gathered in Milwaukee at.... More

A call for a low-carb diet People who avoid carbohydrates and eat more fat, even saturated fat, lose more body fat and have fewer cardiovascular risks than people who follow the low-fat diet that health authorities have favored for decades, a major new study shows. The.... More

Childhood diet habits set in infancy, studies suggest Efforts to improve what children eat should begin before they even learn to walk, a series of nutritional studies published on Tuesday has found. Taken together, the data indicate that infant feeding patterns persist far longer than has been.... More

California governor appeals court ruling overturning protections for.... LOS ANGELES — Wading into an intense national battle that has pitted teacher unions against a movement to weaken tenure protections, Gov. Jerry Brown has appealed a California judge’s sweeping ruling that threw out teacher job protection.... More

New Novartis drug effective in treating heart failure An experimental drug has shown a striking efficacy in prolonging the lives of people with heart failure and could replace what has been the bedrock treatment for more than 20 years, researchers said on Saturday. The drug, which is being.... More

Coverage for end of life talks gaining ground DUNDEE, N.Y. — Five years after it exploded into a political conflagration over “death panels,” the issue of paying doctors to talk to patients about end-of-life care is making a comeback, and such sessions may be covered for the 50.... More

The changing face of temporary employment Temps aren’t just employees who sort mail and answer the boss’s phone. The work of temping has changed vastly — today 42 percent of temporary workers labor in light industry or warehouses. And there are more of them. The number of workers.... More

Using gambling to entice low-income families to save While building up savings offers the best route out of poverty, the glamourless grind of socking away a dollar here and there has a tough time competing with the heady fantasy of a Mega Millions jackpot. But instead of attacking lotteries, a.... More

In first year of pre-k expansion, a rush to beat the school bell Shanté Jones walks around central Brooklyn for hours every day, visiting playgrounds, lingering outside public pools, trolling the cereal aisles in supermarkets — anywhere she thinks she might find small children and their parents. “Good.... More

Fixes: what doctors can't do Mary White makes house calls. She’s a senior community health worker in Philadelphia in the IMPaCT program at the Penn Center for Community Health Workers. She has 25 of the University of Pennsylvania Health System’s toughest patients..... More

Evictions soar in hot market; renters suffer MILWAUKEE — Just after 7 a.m., sheriff’s deputies knocked on the door of the duplex apartment, holding a fluorescent orange eviction notice. The process was quick and efficient. A moving crew began to carry out the family’s possessions.... More

Exorcising a phobia, one stroke at a time On the morning before he was to report to the pool, Attis Clopton sat in a storefront breakfast spot near his Brooklyn apartment munching a glazed doughnut. He was worrying. It was a glorious day, blue sky and hot. The kind when they say the.... More

Samsung unveils smartwatch that can make calls Samsung Electronics Co Ltd on Thursday unveiled what it said was the first smartwatch capable of making and receiving calls without a mobile phone nearby, in the South Korean firm's latest effort to find a new growth driver. The world's.... More

U.S. second quarter growth strengthens; jobless claims fall again (Reuters) - The U.S. economy rebounded more strongly than initially thought in the second quarter with more of the growth being driven by domestic demand and less by restocking by businesses. Gross domestic product expanded at a 4.2 percent.... More

Plugged in over preppy: teenagers favor tech over clothes For some teenagers, wearing last season’s jeans will always be unthinkable. But a growing number consider texting on a dated smartphone even worse. For teenage apparel retailers, that screen-obsessed teenager poses a big threat in the.... More

Student-built apps teach colleges a thing or two Vaibhav Verma was frustrated that he could not get into the most popular courses at Rutgers University, so he decided to try a new approach. He didn’t sleep outside classrooms to be first in line when the door opened, or send professors a.... More

Mental health care's growth hits obstacles LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Terri Hall’s anxiety was back, making her hands shake as she tried to light a cigarette on the stoop of her faded apartment building. She had no appetite, and her mind galloped as she grasped for an answer to her latest.... More

Tom Hanks new app pays homage to manual typewriters (Reuters) - A new app for the iPad aims to recreate the nostalgic sense of typing on a manual typewriter, but ramped up to meet the demands of digital-age word processing. The brainchild of Oscar-winning actor and collector of vintage.... More

California wine country quake losses seen in the billions (Reuters) - A strong earthquake that jolted residents of California's Napa Valley wine country from their beds on Sunday caused insured property damage likely in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but the region's total economic losses will.... More

No proof that delays in care caused VA veterans to die, say investigators WASHINGTON — The Veterans Affairs Department says investigators have found no proof that delays in care caused any deaths at a VA hospital in Phoenix, deflating an explosive allegation that helped expose a troubled health care system in which.... More

California governor signs law requiring a 'kill switch' on smartphones. Governor Jerry Brown of California on Monday signed into law a measure that requires smartphones sold in California to include smarter antitheft technology, a feature that lawmakers hope will help reduce phone theft. The bill, introduced by.... More

A generation later, poor are still rare at elite colleges As the shaded quadrangles of the nation’s elite campuses stir to life for the start of the academic year, they remain bastions of privilege. Amid promises to admit more poor students, top colleges educate roughly the same percentage of them.... More

Heart group: E-cigarettes need tighter control but may be a 'last resort'.... The American Heart Association's first policy statement on electronic cigarettes backs them as a last resort to help smokers quit. The American Cancer Society has no formal policy but quietly took a similar stance in May. Both groups express.... More

Bill to expand medical marijuana business faces federal hurdles WRAY, Colo. — Behind a tall curtain of corn that hides their real cash crop from prying eyes, the Stanley family is undertaking an audacious effort to expand their medical marijuana business to a national market. For years, the five Stanley.... More

No harm from a dash of salt; extremes are the enemies For years, we have known that diets high in salt can be bad for people with high blood pressure. A study published recentlyin The New England Journal of Medicine confirmed this fact. It monitored more than 100,000 people in 18 countries and.... More

Medicare ratings let nursing homes game the system CARMICHAEL, Calif. — The lobby of Rosewood Post-Acute Rehab, a nursing home in this Sacramento suburb, bears all the touches of a luxury hotel, including high ceilings, leather club chairs and paintings of bucolic landscapes. What really.... More

Daycare squeeze hurts rural families Eight months before her due date, Angie Steinbach started calling day cares to reserve a spot for her baby. Nobody had an opening as far as Marshall or Willmar — both a 45-minute drive away. Steinbach got on waiting lists “behind people who.... More

Florida: Federal judge strikes down ban on same-sex marriage A federal judge on Thursday declared Florida's ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, joining judges across the country who have sided with gay couples wishing to tie the knot. U.S. District Judge Robert L. Hinkle in Tallahassee ruled that.... More

Vegas offering all but marriage to LGBT tourists LAS VEGAS — While gay couples still can't get married in the marriage capital of the world, Las Vegas wants to let them know they — and their money — are more than welcome to the buffet of other activities Sin City has to offer. The.... More

State takes a gentler approach to pregnant women behind bars Minnesota has joined a number of states that ban the use of restraints while inmates are giving birth and guarantees that incarcerated moms-to-be have access to a birthing coach during delivery. The change makes Minnesota part of a larger.... More

Study finds that brains with autism fail to trim synapses as they develop As a baby’s brain develops, there is an explosion of synapses, the connections that allow neurons to send and receive signals. But during childhood and adolescence, the brain needs to start pruning those synapses, limiting their number so.... More

Women venture capitalists underperform men, say Harvard academics SAN FRANCISCO — Women venture capitalists underperform their male counterparts by some 15 percent, according to a new Harvard University study, but the performance differences have narrowed over time and in firms that employ more than a.... More

In redesigned room, hospital patients may feel better already PLAINSBORO, N.J. — Can good design help heal the sick? The University Medical Center of Princeton realized several years ago that it had outgrown its old home and needed a new one. So the management decided to design a mock patient room.... More

A new era in safety when cars talk to one another ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A driver moves along in traffic, the forward view blocked by a truck or a bend in the road. Suddenly, up ahead, someone slams on the brake. Tires screech. There is little time to react. Researchers here are working to add.... More

Teen birthrates are dwindling New evidence from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wednesday points to the ongoing and significant drop in the U.S. teen birthrate over the past 20-plus years. The birthrate for teenagers ages 15-19 was 26.6 births per 1,000 in.... More

California bill would let birth certificates reflect same-sex parents Birth certificates in California would be changed to more accurately reflect families in which parents are of the same gender under a bill passed by the legislature on Wednesday. The bill, which now goes to Democratic Governor Jerry Brown,.... More

U.S. jobless claims fall, bolster labor market outlook (Reuters) - The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell slightly more than expected last week, pointing to a sustained improvement in labor market conditions. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits declined.... More

How a part-time pay penalty hits working mothers Women get paid less than men in almost all jobs, but when women in low-wage jobs need to take time off work to care for children, they are at an even greater disadvantage. If all employees got paid the same hourly amount (assuming they’re.... More

Watch out, cyber-bullies; kids have new tools to fight back For 13-year-old Samantha Milan, the worst part about being bullied was the fact that it happened in front of a huge audience. "This kid started threatening me, and then it went online to Instagram," she said. "The caption said something like,.... More

Despite lip service, Silicon Valley venture capital still a man's world When she started her child-support tracking business SupportPay, Sheri Atwood expected all kinds of suggestions - but not the tip she got from a female investor who suggested she dye her blonde hair darker to be taken more seriously by venture.... More

Why more, not fewer people might start getting health insurance through.... In an earnings call last week, Walmart announced that its workers were signing up for health insurance en masse. The news was bad for the company’s shareholders, since the added $500 million it will cost to cover them will eat into expected.... More

Radio Shack in need of rewiring In 1971, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak hawked tiny machines called Blue Boxes that allowed long-distance phone calls to be made free by mimicking certain tones. “If it hadn’t been for the Blue Boxes, there wouldn’t have been an Apple,”.... More

Notre Dame is rocked by charges of academic cheating SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A celebration was planned Tuesday for the once and future king of college football. As Notre Dame embarked on its 127th season, it unveiled new uniforms provided by the relatively young outfitter Under Armour as part of.... More

Scans show kids brains reorganize when learning math, suggests practicing.... WASHINGTON — Sometime in elementary school, you quit counting your fingers and just know the answer. Now scientists have put youngsters into brain scanners to find out why, and watched how the brain reorganizes itself as kids learn math. The.... More

Generation Next pushes ambitious plan to reduce achievement gap A sweeping plan to tackle the achievement gap between white and minority students calls for expanding early childhood screenings to cover all 3-year-olds, developing common practices and protocols for literacy tutors to boost third-grade.... More

Fight on Common Core is dividing Louisiana A bitter fight over the future of academic standards in Louisiana has generated dueling lawsuits, a standoff between Gov. Bobby Jindal and the state superintendent of education he appointed, and a sense of chaos among educators and parents. More

Legal marijuana for parents, but not their kids When the antidrug educator Tim Ryan talks to students, he often asks them what they know about marijuana. “It’s a plant,” is a common response. But more recently, the answer has changed. Now they reply, “It’s legal in Colorado.” More

Los Angeles to reduce arrest rate in schools LOS ANGELES — After years of arresting students for on-campus fights and damaging school property, Los Angeles school officials are adopting new policies to reduce the number of students who are disciplined in the juvenile court system. More

Cost to raise today's child tops $245,000 WASHINGTON — A child born in 2013 will cost a middle-income American family an average of $245,340 until he or she becomes an adult, with families living in the Northeast taking on a greater burden, according to a report out Monday. Those.... More

Workforce Investment Act leaves many jobless and in debt LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When the financial crisis crippled the construction industry seven years ago, Joe DeGrella’s contracting company failed, leaving him looking for what he hoped would be the last job he would ever need. He took each step in.... More

Personal health: lots of reasons to eat fish I grew up eating fish. My family enjoyed a fish meal at least once a week, usually mackerel, salmon trout (now called steelhead) or flounder. Lox, pickled herring, smoked white fish and sable were occasional treats. In summer, when I caught.... More

'Ice bucket challenge' has raised millions for ALS Association Pete Frates can no longer speak. But in the last two and a half weeks, a video posted on Facebook by Mr. Frates, a 29-year-old former college baseball player, has inspired people like Bill Gates, LeBron James, Chris Christie and Taylor Swift.... More

Children and digital privacy It seems like a young viral star is born every minute, but sometimes in between the admiring online comments, the conversation turns to digital privacy and sharing. Most young parents seem to be doing it, but that hasn’t stopped debate about.... More

Care aids get little to no training for life and death tasks Teri Sernett stood frozen in fear in the living room of the east St. Paul home. Her patient, an elderly quadriplegic man she had just met, gasped for air, his throat blocked and his eyes rolled back. Nothing in Sernett’s one hour of training.... More

Opinion: teaching is not a business TODAY’S education reformers believe that schools are broken and that business can supply the remedy. Some place their faith in the idea of competition. Others embrace disruptive innovation, mainly through online learning. Both camps share.... More

Latinos move up, from picking crops to running farms WATSONVILLE, Calif. — When he was 15, an immigration raid at a Japanese flower nursery turned Arturo Flores’s life around. The owners needed a new group of workers to replace the ones removed by immigration officials, and Mr. Flores landed.... More

Meager pay, long hours and few protections for workers Just after 4 a.m. on a recent Friday, while most of the neighbors in her leafy Boston suburb were still asleep, Jennifer Guidry was in the driveway of her rental apartment, her blond hair pulled back in a tidy French braid, vacuuming the inside.... More

In court, immigrant children are moved to the head of the line Yovany’s first opportunity to face the United States justice system came late on Thursday morning, more than a month after his journey from Guatemala ended in an American detention center near the Southwest border. More

Teen lives at Wal-Mart undetected for two days CORSICANA, Texas — A teenager lived undetected for two days at a 24-hour Wal-Mart in Texas after running away from his aunt's home, police said Wednesday. A store employee in Corsicana, about 50 miles south of Dallas, eventually discovered.... More

Practicing on patients “Who should do this case?” That was the question a senior surgeon posed to me outside a patient’s room in the cardiac care unit. Judging by his expression, he already knew the answer. The patient had a serious infection that had eroded.... More

With profits slipping, Cisco announces job cuts Cisco Systems may be doing a little better than Wall Street expects, considering its technology and sales challenges. But that does not mean the company will avoid layoffs in the coming months. On Wednesday, Cisco released fourth-quarter.... More

U.S. jobless claims up, but trend still points to firming job market The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week, but will probably do little to change views that the labour market was strengthening. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits.... More

Working anything but 9 to 5 In a typical last-minute scramble, Jannette Navarro, a 22-year-old Starbucks barista and single mother, scraped together a plan for surviving the month of July without setting off family or financial disaster. In contrast to the joyless work.... More

Openly gay South Dakota coach will keep job at private Catholic school DELL RAPIDS, S.D. — A volleyball coach at St. Mary High School in Dell Rapids who has publicly announced he's gay says he's being allowed to keep his job. Nate Alfson announced he was gay last week on the website www.outsports.com, and later.... More

Top math prize has its first female winner An Iranian mathematician is the first woman ever to receive a Fields Medal, often considered to be mathematics’ equivalent of the Nobel Prize. The recipient, Maryam Mirzakhani, a professor at Stanford, was one of four winners honored on.... More

As data overflows online, researchers grapple with ethics Scholars are exhilarated by the prospect of tapping into the vast troves of personal data collected by Facebook, Google, Amazon and a host of start-ups, which they say could transform social science research. More

On immigration, G.O.P. starts to embrace Tea Party WASHINGTON — Late last month, as members of Congress were poised to leave for their summer recess, the House Republicans’ top policy experts found themselves in a barren conference room in the Capitol’s basement, negotiating with the.... More

Be careful on Twitter, recruits: college coaches are watching for bad.... At St. Paul's Episcopal School in Mobile, Alabama, the high school that produced Crimson Tide quarterbacks AJ McCarron and Jake Coker, there's a new preseason ritual for football players: the social media talk. It's about more than minding.... More

Preschooler TV shows are more than child's play Talking trucks. Dinosaur trucks. Builders who use elaborate trucks. Then there are space adventurers, animal and alien, as well as genies and fairies. Television networks and their online streaming equivalents are awash in new characters.... More

With 3D printers comes the possibility of medical miracles Using prosthetics made on 3-D printer, a boy in a Sudan refugee camp, whose arms were blown off in the war, can now feed himself. At Mexico’s Teletón Children’s Rehabilitation Center, we are exploring ways to duplicate expensive and badly.... More

Will 3D printers change the world? For the last half-decade, three-dimensional printing has been billed as the next revolution in manufacturing. The Economist and Wired have declared it world-changing technology. Last year, retailers including Staples and Amazon began to sell.... More

Public opposes Obama's vow for speedy deportation of children (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's pledge to fast-track the deportation of migrant children from Central America is out of step with the opinion of a majority of Americans, who say the children should be allowed to stay in the United States,.... More

Teachers who pay for kids' supplies get some help After watching the family bank account shrink, Jesse Maloney’s wife asked him to save receipts for all of the school supplies he was buying for his students at the Hmong College Prep Academy in St. Paul. Maloney estimated his tab for the year.... More

A new ratio for the Japanese cram school TOKYO — Yuuki Takano, an athletic sixth grader, hopes to attend a private junior high school with a strong soccer team after he graduates from his Tokyo public elementary school next year. To help him pass the junior high school’s.... More

How Picasso helps to teach Apple's style CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple may well be the only tech company on the planet that would dare compare itself to Picasso. In a class at the company’s internal training program, the so-called Apple University, the instructor likened the 11.... More

A mother lifts her son from heroin's abyss SPARTA, N.J. — When Gail Morris came home late one night after taking her daughter to college, she saw her teenage son, Alex, asleep on the sofa in the family room. Nothing seemed amiss. An unfinished glass of apple juice sat on the table..... More

University of Minnesota's campaign against Redskins name draws praise The University of Minnesota is pushing Washington’s NFL team to refrain from using the “Redskins” moniker when it plays the Vikings on Nov. 2 at TCF Bank Stadium — a campaign that is drawing praise from American Indians and their.... More

NCAA must allow colleges to pay athletes, court rules In a decision that could drastically reshape the world of college sports, a federal judge ruled on Friday that the N.C.A.A.’s decades-old rules barring payments to college athletes were in violation of antitrust laws. In a 99-page ruling,.... More

Court rejects deal on hiring in Silicon Valley SAN FRANCISCO — There is “ample evidence” that Silicon Valley was engaged in “an overarching conspiracy” against its own employees, a federal judge said on Friday, and it should either pay dearly or have its secrets exposed at trial.... More

90-year-old sex columnist shatters taboos in India MUMBAI, India — EVERY morning, a 90-year-old newspaper columnist named Mahinder Watsa takes a seat in the study of his apartment, where, on a good day, a breeze lofts in from the direction of the Arabian Sea. Before him is a fresh delivery of.... More

Out-of-state clinic is key in Texas abortion fight AUSTIN, Tex. — Of all the clinics and facilities at the center of a federal lawsuit challenging Texas’ sweeping abortion law passed last year, one has stuck out. It is not in Texas, but about a mile across the state line in Santa Teresa, N.... More

Almost 20% of people near retirement age have no retirement savings One in five people who are near retirement age have zero money saved. Yes, you read that correctly. The sobering statistic was one of many released by the Federal Reserve on Thursday as part of its report on the economic well-being of U.S. households, which surveyed more than 4,100 people online last.... More

WHO declares Ebola epidemic an international health emergency (Reuters) - West Africa's Ebola epidemic is an "extraordinary event" and now constitutes an international health risk, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday. The Geneva-based U.N. health agency said the possible consequences of a.... More

Princeton is proposing to end limit on giving As Princeton University may soon end the policy that limited the number of students who received A’s for their course marks, an approach designed to thwart grade inflation but one that many students cited as the worst part of their Princeton.... More

Combat stress among veterans is found to persist since Vietnam Most veterans who had persistent post-traumatic stress a decade or more after serving in the Vietnam War have shown surprisingly little improvement since then, and a large percentage have died, a new study finds, updating landmark research that.... More

A healthy use for tobacco: fighting Ebola Drugmakers' use of the tobacco plant as a fast and cheap way to produce novel biotechnology treatments is gaining global attention because of its role in an experimental Ebola therapy. The treatment, which had been tested only in lab animals.... More

Target signs legal brief backing gay marriage Target Corp. has for the first time come out publicly in support of gay marriage, as a growing number of high-profile businesses take positions on the divisive issue. In revealing Tuesday that it had signed a court brief backing marriage.... More

Open to both sides, Homeland Security chief steps into immigration divide WASHINGTON — Shortly after Jeh Johnson was confirmed as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, he invited the flamboyant antiwar protesters from Code Pink to his new office to chat about national security and immigration. More

As U.S. speeds the path to deportation, distress fills new family.... After declaring the surge of Central American migrants crossing the border a humanitarian crisis, the Obama administration has shifted sharply to a strategy of deterrence, moving families to isolated facilities and placing them on a fast track.... More

Thousands join Austrian student's class action against Facebook Reuters) - More than 17,000 people have signed up to join an Austrian law student's class action against Facebook over the social media group's alleged violations of its users' privacy, the student said on Tuesday. Max Schrems, 26, appealed.... More

Literacy laws challenge third-graders and schools CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Educators like to say that third grade is the year when students go from “learning to read” to “reading to learn.” Yet one afternoon last month, there was Anthony, a 10-year-old whose small frame was highlighted by.... More

Judges rulings advance gays, women less so  When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflects on the Supreme Court’s recent rulings, she sees an inconsistency. In its gay rights rulings, she told a law school audience last week, the court uses the soaring language of “equal dignity” and.... More

Democrats seize on social issues as attitudes shift Facing re-election, Gov. Scott Walker, Republican of Wisconsin, no longer talks about stopping same-sex marriage. “It’s those on the left that are pushing” the issue, he says.Ed Gillespie, the Republican Senate candidate in Virginia,.... More

Volunteer work shapes culture at Orion Volunteering, including helping with disaster relief across the United States and around the world, means as much at Orion Associates as the client work the Golden Valley-based management services company does. Orion Associates offers paid time.... More

Tap water ban for Toledo residents Residents of Toledo, Ohio’s fourth-largest city, spent the weekend under a water advisory after tests revealed toxins in the city’s water supply, likely caused by algae growing in Lake Erie. Tens of thousands of people kept faucets turned.... More

Zeroing in on the female traveler Melissa Braverman, the marketing manager for the Westin New York Grand Central hotel, wanted to create a novel vacation package — a departure from the engagement and babymoon promotions that she helped dream up throughout her career,.... More

Affordable housing draws middle class to inland cities OKLAHOMA CITY — Americans have never hesitated to pack up the U-Haul in search of the big time, a better job or just warmer weather. But these days, domestic migrants are increasingly driven by the quest for cheaper housing. More

Neighbors say barn weddings raise a rumpus Grooms and brides say the barns are part of a cultural shift away from traditional weddings. At a typical barn wedding, formal china and glassware are out, in favor of carefully mismatched plates and Mason jars for sipping cocktails. Guests.... More

Scientists discover more about the battle in your belly Kathleen Pender knew her gut was trying to tell her something. She just wasn’t sure what it was. The 23-year-old Minneapolis woman had recently returned from a stay in Ghana, where she took antibiotics to treat a bout of food poisoning. Back.... More

More rejoin labor force; jobless rate up to 6.2% Little to rave or rant about. That was the view among economists of Friday’s jobs report, in which the Labor Department estimated that the economy added 209,000 jobs in July, continuing a string of sturdy monthly advances above 200,000 but.... More

Summer job? Time to start a Roth IRA When teenagers earn money for the first time, there are so many things they can do with it. In some families, teenagers contribute to basic costs like housing. In others, parents expect summer earnings to replace a weekly allowance. Many.... More

A mound of forgotten money, and even you may have a claim For years, Jerry Seinfeld and Joan Rivers, and as many as 6,914 other customers, have never claimed refunds due them from Bergdorf’s. General Motors has been in hock to Rupert Murdoch for nearly a decade. Russia’s mission to the United.... More

California asks, 'Should doctors face drug tests?' LOS ANGELES — At a time when random drug testing is part of the job for pilots, train operators, police officers and firefighters — to name a few — one high-profile line of work has managed to remain exempt: doctors. That may be about to.... More

Why we're seeing a spike in auto sales The U.S. auto industry hasn’t appeared so healthy for years. Sales hit an eight-year high in June, there appears to be plenty of pent-up demand, and discounting is far from getting out of hand. New plants and production lines are being built,.... More

House immigration bill dies (Reuters) - A bill to fund border security blew up in House Speaker John Boehner's face on Thursday, leaving Republicans in disarray and struggling to reconcile Tea Party demands with the need to deal with a humanitarian crisis on the.... More

U.S. job growth seen slowing, but remaining solid in July (Reuters) - U.S. job growth likely cooled a bit in July, but retained enough momentum to suggest the economy remained on solid ground. Nonfarm payrolls probably increased by 233,000, according to a Reuters survey of economists. That would be a.... More

Justice Ginsburg says Supreme Court won't 'duck' gay marriage WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court won't duck the issue of same-sex marriage the next time a case comes to the court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says. The 81-year-old Ginsburg said in an interview with The Associated Press on Thursday that she.... More

Second chance med school Sitting around an outdoor table at the Red Crab, a restaurant on the tropical island of Grenada festooned with palm trees and fiery bougainvillea, a dozen aspiring doctors bashfully conceded that they had been, at best, near misses when it came.... More

U.S. jobless aid applications rise to 302,000 WASHINGTON — More people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, but jobless claims remain at pre-recession levels. Weekly applications for unemployment aid rose 23,000 to a seasonally adjusted 302,000, the Labor Department said Thursday.... More

Wisconsin Supreme Court upholds law that ended collective bargaining for.... MADISON, Wis. — The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the 2011 law that effectively ended collective bargaining for most public workers, sparked massive protests and led to Republican Gov. Scott Walker's recall election and rise to.... More

Bouncing back; economy grew 4% for quarter The United States economy rebounded strongly in the second quarter of the year, shaking off the negative effects of an unusually harsh winter and stirring hopes that it might finally be establishing a solid enough footing to put the lingering.... More

Checking in from home leaves entry for hackers SAN FRANCISCO — The same tools that help millions of Americans work from home are being exploited by cybercriminals to break into the computer networks of retailers like Target and Neiman Marcus. The Homeland Security Department, in a new.... More

The kids who beat autism At first, everything about L.'s baby boy seemed normal. He met every developmental milestone and delighted in every discovery. But at around 12 months, B. seemed to regress, and by age 2, he had fully retreated into his own world. He no longer.... More

Surgeon General calls for action to reduce skin cancer rate The nation’s top doctor called on Tuesday for immediate action to reduce the rate of skin cancer, the most commonly diagnosed cancer in the country and one that is often preventable. Americans need to do more to reduce their exposure to the.... More

Running 5 minutes a day has long-lasting benefits Running for as little as five minutes a day could significantly lower a person’s risk of dying prematurely, according to a large-scale new study of exercise and mortality. The findings suggest that the benefits of even small amounts of.... More

Delta adds free in-flight entertainment In the in-flight entertainment arms race, Delta Air Lines said it will soon begin offering free movies on seat-back screens in coach class, as well as free TV shows and movies streamed to passengers’ own devices. With that change effective.... More

Looking for love on the Web, as it experiments with you Love is not blind, as it turns out. But opposites attract when people think they are similar. These are two findings about the users of OKCupid, one of the web’s most popular dating sites, that provide a window into how we chase romantic.... More

When the caregivers need healing “This has happened before,” she tells herself. “It’s nowhere near as bad as before, and it will pass.” Robbie Pinter’s 21-year-old son, Nicholas, is upset again. He yells. He obsesses about something that can’t be changed. Even.... More

Advocates shun 'pro-choice' to expand message WASHINGTON — For all the talk about women’s issues in this year’s midterm election campaigns, something is missing. One of the most enduring labels of modern politics — pro-choice — has fallen from favor, a victim of changed times and.... More

House votes to boost child tax credits for high income families, restrict.... More families with higher incomes could claim the popular child tax credit under a bill that won approval Friday in the House. But in a dispute that divides Republicans and Democrats, millions of the poorest low-income families would still lose.... More

Why do Americans stink at math? When Akihiko Takahashi was a junior in college in 1978, he was like most of the other students at his university in suburban Tokyo. He had a vague sense of wanting to accomplish something but no clue what that something should be. But that.... More

The special challenges of retiring from a business you own RETIRING is challenging for almost everyone. But if you’re a small-business owner, preparing to hand your company to your children can create an even bigger knot of anxiety — worries about financial security, the legacy of your life’s.... More

Hold the regret? Fast food seeks virtuous side The numbers were startling: Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill shot up 12 percent on Tuesday after the company reported a nearly 26% spurt in its quarterly profit. For the fast-food industry, this was fresh evidence that the world of Big Macs.... More

Most migrant children entering U.S. are now with relatives, data show LOS ANGELES — The vast majority of unaccompanied migrant children arriving in the United States from Central America this year have been released to relatives in states with large established Central American populations, according to federal.... More

Photography as a balm for mental illness To the casual observer, Danielle Hark was living an enviable life, with a devoted husband, a new baby and work she enjoyed as a freelance photo editor. But she was so immobilized by depression that she could barely get out of bed. Her emotional.... More

Housing dispute puts Quaker University at front of fight over transgender.... NEWBERG, Ore. — A growing number of openly transgender students have forced schools around the country to address questions so basic that they were rarely asked just a few years ago, much less answered: What defines a person’s gender, and.... More

Seeing the child, not the disability It had been several months since I had last seen my patient, and even longer since I’d seen his mother. He was 3 and unable to walk or talk, and when I caught his eye, his face broke open into a huge smile, accompanied by the grunting and.... More

The next big thing in hardware: smart garbage There’s a box on a shelf in my closet stuffed with smart smoke detectors, old smartphones, chargers, battery cases, fitness trackers, a Kindle that I sat on and broke and various sensors that have long ceased to detect anything. This is my.... More

Obama to urge 3 leaders to slow tidal wave of migrants President Obama will urge the presidents of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador to do everything they can to stem the flow of migrant children toward the United States when he meets with them on Friday at the White House, officials said. The.... More

At Geek Squad camp, everyone's a techie The Lego robot was given clear instructions, but West Alspach and Devon Roberts’ contraption had a mind of its own on Wednesday. The wheeled gadget was supposed to stop after hitting the yellow line taped on the floor, but it would turn, at.... More

Insurers to refund $330M in premiums as result of Affordable Care Act Insurers will refund about $330 million in premiums to 6.8 million consumers across the country in the coming weeks as a result of the Affordable Care Act. About $523,000 of that will funnel into Minnesota businesses, according to federal data.... More

Plagiarism raises ethical alarm at military school The news that Senator John Walsh, Democrat of Montana, plagiarized significant portions of his final paper for the United States Army War College took the political community by surprise. But among his fellow graduates from what is a coveted.... More

U.S. religious leaders embrace cause of immigrant children After protesters shouting “Go home” turned back busloads of immigrant mothers and children in Murrieta, Calif., a furious Cardinal Timothy M. Dolan, the Roman Catholic archbishop of New York, sat down at his notepad and drafted a blog.... More

Ruling on health care subsidies puts coverage at risk ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Even with a federal subsidy to help cover the cost, Gloria Spottswood has had to squeeze her household budget to afford the health insurance she bought this year through the Affordable Care Act. Ms. Spottswood, who is 56.... More

It's a guy thing; more young men dig into gardening Garrett Hoffman, 28, doesn’t have a yard. But he was determined to have a garden. “This is my first apartment ever with outdoor space,” said Hoffman, who grows tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, chard and herbs on his St. Paul balcony..... More

New questions on health law, as rulings on subsidies differ WASHINGTON — Two federal appeals court panels issued conflicting rulings Tuesday on whether the government could subsidize health insurance premiums for millions of Americans, raising yet more questions about the future of the health care law.... More

Plan for young migrants at impasse in Congress WASHINGTON — Lawmakers are deadlocked on a plan to deal with the surge in migrant children who are filling detention centers along the Mexican border, with both Democrats and Republicans saying Tuesday that it was increasingly unlikely they.... More

Prosecutors are reading emails from inmates to lawyers The extortion case against Thomas DiFiore, a reputed boss in the Bonanno crime family, encompassed thousands of pages of evidence, including surveillance photographs, cellphone and property records, and hundreds of hours of audio recordings..... More

Banks cater to low-income customers with low fees One woman kept her savings — a $100 bill — in the freezer. Another, a single mother in Texas, said she had only enough extra cash each week to buy one wooden letter, for $3, to spell out her daughter’s name on her bedroom wall. A third, a.... More

Target introduces a vision recognition app Picture this: an app that lets you shop with the snap of a camera. That’s the idea behind “In a Snap,” a new app launched this month by Target Corp. that lets customers purchase items by taking pictures of store items in magazines and.... More

A sleep apnea test without a night in the hospital Where was I? Sorry — must have nodded off for a decade. Ten years ago, I spent two nights in a sleep lab at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, taking the test for sleep apnea, and wrote about it for Science Times. Back then, “sleep.... More

Probiotic logic vs. gut feelings The label on my bottle of Nature’s Bounty Advanced Probiotic 10 says it contains 10 probiotic strains and 20 billion live cultures in each two-capsule dose. The supplement provides “advanced support for digestive and intestinal health”.... More

Obama calls for a ban on anti-gay job bias WASHINGTON — President Obama, declaring himself on “the right side of history,” called on Congress on Monday to ban job discrimination against gay Americans as he signed an executive order doing so for workers of federal contractors. In.... More

Businesses need to spend more; the future of the economy depends on it Five years into the economic recovery, businesses still aren’t plowing much money into big-ticket investments for the future. Nonresidential fixed investment — what businesses spend on equipment, software, buildings and intellectual.... More

A parent answering a call for pre-k teachers goes back to work Long before her campers tumble out of bed for breakfast, Lisa Martino is huddled over her kitchen table, poring over her graduate school textbooks and clack-clack-clacking on her laptop as she absorbs lessons on literacy and curriculum.... More

Obama to report widening of initiative for Black and Latino boys President Obama will announce on Monday that 60 of the nation’s largest school districts are joining his initiative to improve the educational futures of young African-American and Hispanic boys, beginning in preschool and extending through.... More

Missouri is alone in resisting prescription drug database SIKESTON, Mo. — On his office phone at L & S Pharmacy, Richard Logan listened as a doctor’s office detailed how a patient had just left with her third prescription for painkillers in only nine days — and was quite possibly getting.... More

A tough corporate job asks one question: Can you hack it? Pity the poor chief information security officer. The profession barely existed a generation ago. But to combat the growing threat of online breaches, companies and governments are hiring executives whose main responsibility is to make sure.... More

New Toyota minivan lets parents use mike to scream at kids in back seat DETROIT — Toyota wants to help you scream at your unruly kids. The latest version of the company's Sienna minivan has a feature called "Driver Easy Speak." It uses a built-in microphone to amplify a parent's voice through speakers in the back.... More

Some universities crack code in drawing women to computer science One of the reasons so few women work in tech is that few choose to study computer science or engineering. Only 18 percent of computer science graduates in the United States are women, down from 37 percent in 1985. At a few top college programs.... More

Next gold rush: legal marijuana feeds entrepreneurs dreams DENVER — Like the glint of gold or rumors of oil in ages past, the advent of legal, recreational marijuana is beginning to reshape economies in Colorado and Washington State. Marijuana is beckoning thousands of entrepreneurs and workers,.... More

Obama to issue order barring anti-gay bias by contractors WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to sign an executive order on Monday that protects gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender employees from discrimination by companies that do federal government work, fulfilling a promise to a crucial.... More

Part-time schedules, full-time headaches A worker at an apparel store at Woodbury Common, an outlet mall north of New York City, said that even though some part-time employees clamored for more hours, the store had hired more part-timers and cut many workers’ hours to 10 a week from.... More

New York forms task force to aid migrant children New York City officials have formed a task force in response to the surging population of unaccompanied migrant children from Central America who have arrived in the city in recent months and swamped community-based groups in search of help.... More

Stroke-related illness is on the decline Stroke is not killing as many people in the United States as it has in the past. A report in the Journal of the American Medical Association shows a decline in stroke rates for people older than 65. The study showed stroke-related rates and.... More

White House announces climate change initiatives MISSOULA, Mont. — President Obama announced a series of climate change initiatives on Wednesday aimed at guarding the electricity supply; improving local planning for flooding, coastal erosion and storm surges; and better predicting landslide.... More

The global slowdown in medical costs We tend to think of health care as a local good. Most people use the doctor or hospital in their neighborhood. China does not export medical care. Health and life spans differ from country to country, even county to county. More

Microsoft to cut up to 18,000 jobs Microsoft announced on Thursday that it would eliminate up to 18,000 jobs over the next year as part of a major restructuring. Previously, the largest layoffs at the company were in 2009, when about 5,800 people were affected. The company’s.... More

Towns fight to avoid taking in migrant minors OYSTER CREEK, Tex. — A shelter for Central American children who crossed the border illegally opened behind Gregg Griffith’s house here a few months ago. The children are quiet. No one has hopped over the fence that separates his backyard.... More

Nordstrom's ads feature models with disabilities NEW YORK — It's not easy to find models with disabilities in ads for the fashion and beauty industry — unless you look in the Nordstrom catalog. The company has been using models with disabilities since 1997 and continues the tradition in.... More

House hearing to focus on Affordable Care Act WASHINGTON — To help stoke attention for their long-shot lawsuit against President Obama for what they call his abuse of power, House Republicans on Wednesday will showcase a law professor’s dispassionate case for why the lawsuit could.... More

White House unveils climate change initiatives MISSOULA, Mont. — President Obama will announce a series of climate change initiatives on Wednesday aimed at guarding the electricity supply; improving local planning for flooding, coastal erosion and storm surges; and better predicting.... More

e-Cigarette makers race to add exotic flavors Twista Lime, Kauai Kolada, Caribbean Chill, Mintrigue. Exotic cigarette flavors like those were banned in 2009 out of concern they might tempt young people. But the flavors tobacco companies once sold look like plain vanilla compared with the.... More

A push to give steadier shifts to part-timers As more workers find their lives upended and their paychecks reduced by ever-changing, on-call schedules, government officials are trying to put limits on the harshest of those scheduling practices. The actions reflect a growing national.... More

Residents of Arizona town plan to block bus carrying immigrant children TUCSON, Ariz. — Protesters in a small town near Tucson want to send a message about the immigration debate Tuesday, when they plan to block a bus they believe will be transporting about 40 immigrant children to an academy for troubled youths.... More

Novartis to test Alzheimer's drugs in patients without symptoms Novartis said it would test two experimental Alzheimer's drugs on people with a genetic risk of developing dementia, aiming to gauge whether the treatments can prevent or delay symptoms of the memory-robbing disease. In collaboration with the.... More

Google's Nest launches network technology for connected home Google Inc's Nest Labs on Tuesday unveiled an industry group to encourage makers of smart home gadgets like locks and light bulbs to use Thread, a new standard for devices to communicate on a network. The attempt by Nest, a smart thermostat.... More

Nickel in early iPad likely triggered allergy in boy: study Nickel in a first-generation iPad likely triggered an allergic skin reaction in an 11-year-old boy, a case that highlights an increasingly common condition linked to the rapid adoption of consumer electronics, according to a study published by.... More

Yahoo seeks to bring the concert to your couch The Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, Fla., where the Dave Matthews Band is playing Tuesday night, can hold up to 15,000 people. But as Yahoo and Live Nation see it, the potential audience is limitless. Tuesday’s show is.... More

United Health, doctors study way to lower cancer treatment costs The costs of cancer care fell 34 percent in a study in which United­Health Group Inc. paid doctors a lump sum to treat each patient rather than for each drug or service the doctors provided. The study was designed to test the theory that.... More

Job recovery? Yes. Shorter commutes? Reverse commuters struggle. It didn’t take long for Alisha Anderson to realize there wasn’t a bus to take her home from work. After she’d grown used to driving from her Minneapolis Uptown apartment to her Maple Grove restaurant job, a car accident forced her to.... More

A tale of "too big to fail" in education: City College of San Francisco.... For the last two years, the City College of San Francisco has operated in the shadow of imminent death. It is the city’s main community college, with 77,000 students, and in June 2012 its accreditor warned that chronic financial and.... More

Why improving access to health care does not save money One of the oft-repeated arguments in favor of the Affordable Care Act is that it will reduce people’s need for more intensive care by increasing their access to preventive care. For example, people will use the emergency room less often.... More

Companies that offer help with student loans are often predatory,.... Student loan debt hovers at more than $1 trillion, a threefold surge from a decade ago, and a record number of college students who graduated as the financial system nearly imploded have an average debt load of more than $20,000. More than half.... More

In speeches, Republican governors back away from gay marriage bans as.... Deep in the nation's Bible Belt, new signs emerged this weekend of an evolution among Republican governors on gay marriage, an explosive social issue that has divided America's families and politics for years. While the Republican Party's.... More

Education gap creates a new divide in wages, class and place Census data suggests that in 1980 a college graduate could expect to earn about 38 percent more than a worker with only a high-school diploma. Since then, the difference in their wages has only widened as our economy has shifted to bestow.... More

Fertility clinics scan for the strongest embryo Annika Levitt initially resisted the fertility clinic’s suggestion that only one embryo — rather than the usual two or more — be transferred to her uterus because she was too small to risk carrying more than one baby. “You go through.... More

Study finds lower level of pesticides in organic crops Adding fuel to the debates over the merits of organic food, a comprehensive review of earlier studies found substantially higher levels of antioxidants and lower levels of pesticides in organic fruits, vegetables and grains compared with.... More

Asian families travel a long way for summer camp After hours spent performing cartwheels, American show tunes and a series of jazzy dance routines in a cramped studio on West 28th Street in Manhattan, 8-year-old Futaba Kawakami left TADA Youth Theater camp earlier this week, clammy and.... More

Obscure rule restricts health law's expansion of care for addicts EAST HAZEL CREST, Ill. — On its surface, the Affordable Care Act seems like a boon for addiction treatment centers like the South Suburban Council on Alcoholism and Substance Abuse, housed in a no-frills former hotel outside Chicago. The law.... More

Despite a pledge by Samsung, child labor proves resilient DONGGUAN, China — After work, the three teenage girls giggle and pull at one another’s hair. But when questioned, they admit their common secret: They use false papers to work illegally here at the factory that makes mobile phone components.... More

Signs of H.I.V. seen in child said to be cured A child in Mississippi who was thought to have been cured of H.I.V. with aggressive drug treatment immediately after birth is now showing signs of infection with the virus, federal health officials announced Thursday — a serious setback to.... More

U.S. jobless claims fall, point to healing in job market The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell last week to one of its lowest levels since before the 2007-09 recession, a sign of increasing health in the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits.... More

The physical exam as refuge There are few situations in which where we expect to disrobe and have our bodies touched by relative strangers. The physical exam is one of the unique characteristics of the doctor-patient encounter; a visit to a doctor doesn’t seem the same.... More

Race is on to profit from urgent care NORWALK, Conn. — Start in Room 4, just beyond the reception area: A man is having blood drained from a bruised finger. Over in Room 1, a woman is being treated for eye trouble. Next door, in Room 2, a boy is having his throat swabbed. All of.... More

Americans continue to discontinue home land lines The number of Americans living in households without traditional land-line telephones continues to grow, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the second half of 2013, 41 percent of U.S. households relied.... More

No, contraception coverage does not usually pay for itself The Supreme Court took two actions on contraceptive coverage last week that have, appropriately, received considerable attention. But there’s a health economics question in the background that warrants some attention as well: Does.... More

Probing brain's depth, trying to add memory PHILADELPHIA — The man in the hospital bed was playing video games on a laptop, absorbed and relaxed despite the bustle of scientists on all sides and the electrodes threaded through his skull and deep into his brain. “O.K., that’s enough.... More

Faith groups seek to opt out of bias rule WASHINGTON — After a setback in the Supreme Court in the Hobby Lobby case, President Obama is facing mounting pressure from religious groups demanding to be excluded from his long-promised executive order that would bar discrimination against.... More

Nation's largest teachers' union calls for Education Secretary Duncan to.... WASHINGTON — The nation's largest teachers' union wants Education Secretary Arne Duncan to quit. Delegates of the National Education Association adopted a business item July 4 at its annual convention in Denver that called for his resignation.... More

Marijuana hits the shelves as Washington readies to start legal sales SEATTLE — As Washington state readied to become only the second state to allow people to buy marijuana legally without a doctor's note, lines were already forming in front of the lucky few stores that got last-minute approval to sell. At.... More

College students claim voter ID laws discriminate based on age WASHINGTON — Civil rights groups have spent a decade fighting requirements that voters show photo identification, arguing that this discriminates against African-Americans, Hispanics and the poor. This week in a North Carolina courtroom,.... More

Alcohol remains a leading killer Excessive alcohol consumption, including binge drinking, is responsible for 10 percent of deaths among working-age adults in the United States, according to a recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More

Foreign couples head to America for surrogate pregnancies At home in Lisbon, a gay couple invited friends over to a birthday celebration, and at the end of the evening shared a surprise — an ultrasound image of their baby, moving around in the belly of a woman in Pennsylvania being paid to carry.... More

College students joining battle to upend voter ID laws WASHINGTON — Civil rights groups have spent a decade fighting requirements that voters show photo identification, arguing that this discriminates against African-Americans, Hispanics and the poor. This week in a North Carolina courtroom,.... More

The health care waiting game ONE small consolation of our high-priced health care system — our $2.7 trillion collective medical bill — has been the notion that at least we get medical attention quickly. Americans look down on national health systems like Canada’s and.... More

Washington readies for recreational marijuana sales VANCOUVER, Wash. — John Larson, a recently retired high school science and math teacher, hopes to be in the first wave of legal recreational marijuana salespeople opening shop here in Washington State this week. Mr. Larson, 67, who was.... More

Paying till it hurts; vaccine costs are soaring SAN ANTONIO — There is little that Dr. Lindsay Irvin has not done for the children’s vaccines in her office refrigerator: She remortgaged her home to afford their rising prices. She packed them in ice chests and moved them when her office.... More

Birth control order deepens divide among justices WASHINGTON — In a decision that drew an unusually fierce dissent from the three female justices, the Supreme Court sided Thursday with religiously affiliated nonprofit groups in a clash between religious freedom and women’s rights. The.... More

At gun-friendly restaurant, even waitresses carry guns RIFLE, Colo. — Many stores and restaurants are telling people not to bring their guns inside, but one western Colorado restaurant not only embraces the practice of packing heat, it encourages its customers to carry openly — and its.... More

V.A. says patient service is improving The Department of Veterans Affairs says it has reached out to nearly 140,000 veterans in the past two months to get them off waiting lists and into clinics for medical appointments. Acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson revealed the number Thursday.... More

Dow tops 17,000 for first time after government says hiring picked up.... The Dow Jones industrial average topped 17,000 for the first time Thursday, another in a string of records for the index that has lifted portfolios in a five-year bull market for stocks. The gain pushed the 118-year-old Dow, the oldest gauge.... More

Chicago fights street violence with yoga CHICAGO — With their brightly colored mats spread along a sidewalk, Tameka Lawson's yoga students try to follow her instructions: concentrate on their breathing and focus on the beauty of their surroundings. But this is Englewood, one of.... More

Young, active amputees push limitations of medical science The blood is not the most jarring part of the photograph taken shortly after the bomb blew off Marine Gunnery Sgt. Brian Meyer's leg and hand. It's his smile. The bomb technician had asked a team member to take the picture. He knew his defiance.... More

To hold Senate, Democrats rely on single women The decline of marriage over the last generation has helped create an emerging voting bloc of unmarried women that is profoundly reshaping the American electorate to the advantage, recent elections suggest, of the Democratic Party. What is far.... More

The price of prevention: vaccine costs soar SAN ANTONIO — There is little that Dr. Lindsay Irvin has not done for the children’s vaccines in her office refrigerator: She remortgaged her home to afford their rising prices. She packed them in ice chests and moved them when her office.... More

Faster pace of hiring in June signals growth is rebounding The economy accelerated in June, with employers adding 288,000 jobs, well above the rate of hiring recorded in the first five months of 2014 and another sign that growth is finally rebounding. The Labor Department also said on Thursday that the.... More

Private job gains in June largest in 1-1/2 years U.S. private payrolls recorded their largest gain in 1-1/2 years in June as businesses stepped up hiring, reinforcing views the economy has rebounded from its first-quarter slump. Private employers added 281,000 workers to payrolls, up from 179.... More

The illogic of employer-sponsored health insurance Imagine yourself in a bar where a pickpocket takes money out of your wallet and with it buys you a glass of chardonnay. Although you would have preferred a pinot noir, you decide not to look that gift horse in the mouth and thank the stranger.... More

Can exercise reduce Alzheimer's risk? Exercise may help to keep the brain robust in people who have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease, according to an inspiring new study. The findings suggests that even moderate amounts of physical activity may help to slow the.... More

How I learned to build and appreciate a good board When I started Posse, I knew nothing about company boards or their value. The family lawyer who helped establish our companies suggested that I create a board before I raised our first investment round and that I try to find some high profile.... More

Supreme Court will hear case of UPS driver denied light duty while pregnant WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will take up the pregnancy discrimination claims of a package delivery driver for UPS who was refused a light duty assignment so she could continue working while pregnant. UPS driver Peggy Young lost her health.... More

European Rights Court upholds France's ban on full-face veils LONDON — The European Court of Human Rights on Tuesday upheld a ban imposed by France on the wearing of full-face veils in public, rejecting arguments that the measure violated religious freedoms and bolstering opponents of strict Islamic.... More

Keeping your cool Last year, New York’s first documented heat-related death occurred on July 8, after three consecutive days with temperatures at 90 degrees or above. The victim was a 57-year-old man on Staten Island. The summer before, a record-breaking.... More

Supreme Court rejects contraceptives mandate for some corporations WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court ruled on Monday that requiring family-owned corporations to pay for insurance coverage for contraception under the Affordable Care Act violated a federal law protecting religious freedom. It was, a dissent said,.... More

Drugs don't save lives of mothers, studies show LONDON – In the past decade, billions of dollars have been spent trying to save the lives of mothers in developing countries using strategies — usually inexpensive drugs — deemed essential by the U.N. health agency. Yet two large.... More

Web-based startups help small businesses compete MOUNT KISCO, N.Y. — Operators at KES Dispatch keep track of the company’s taxis on a yellow legal pad. They communicate with cars using a two-way radio. Drivers navigate their journeys largely by memory. In the age of Uber and Lyft, the.... More

With rainbow neckerchiefs, Boy Scouts make a statement at Gay Pride parade The color guard leading the annual Gay Pride March down Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on Sunday carried flags of sky blue, navy blue, red-white-and-blue and rainbow. But, for these marchers, the colors that mattered most were the ones they wore.... More

You're the boss: when a 20-year employee becomes a problem A misbehaving employee is, in my experience, the most difficult challenge that I face as a boss. When I have one of these situations, it inhabits my head in a way that other problems do not. I know that I have to do something, although I always.... More

Math under Common Core has even parents stumbling GREENWELL SPRINGS, La. — Rebekah and Kevin Nelams moved to their modest brick home in this suburb of Baton Rouge seven years ago because it has one of the top-performing public school districts in the state. But starting this fall, Ms. Nelams.... More

Plane capacity, new fees, sending summer airfares sky-high For the procrastinators still hoping to score a great deal on summer airfares, things aren’t looking good. The average ticket price between Memorial Day and Labor Day from the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport is $518. And nationwide.... More

Forced to hand over data, Facebook files appeal Facebook and the Manhattan district attorney’s office are in a bitter fight over the government’s demand for the contents of hundreds of Facebook accounts. In confidential legal documents unsealed on Wednesday, Facebook argues that.... More

In Florida, here comes the judge in handcuffs MIAMI — Lawyers gawked from office windows last month when a BMW S.U.V. swiped a parked police cruiser in the parking lot of a courthouse in Fort Lauderdale, then slammed into a gate over and over again. A judge was at the wheel. As lawyers.... More

A milestone for same-sex marriage (editorial) The battle to legalize same-sex marriage saw a historic victory this week when the United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver became the first federal appeals court in the nation to declare that same-sex couples have a.... More

Tying up a deal on the proverbial shoestring After two years of touring the country with traveling shows and “making $200 or $300 a week, plus free housing,” Matt Payne had had enough. So, around four years ago, Mr. Payne, who is from Lexington, Ky., and studied musical theater at.... More

New York's ban on big sodas is rejected by courts The Bloomberg big-soda ban is officially dead. The state’s highest court on Thursday refused to reinstate New York City’s controversial limits on sales of jumbo sugary drinks, exhausting the city’s final appeal and dashing the hopes of.... More

Living with cancer: the new medicine In his 2010 book “The Emperor of All Maladies,” Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee lamented the gap between “the new science” going on in research laboratories and “the old medicine” most cancer patients receive. Yet for almost two years, I.... More

Where are the hardest places to live in the U.S.? Annie Lowrey writes in the Times Magazine this week about the troubles of Clay County, Ky., which by several measures is the hardest place in America to live. The Upshot came to this conclusion by looking at six data points for each county in.... More

U.S. consumer spending up modestly, jobless claims fall (Reuters) - U.S. consumer spending rose less than expected in May, likely held back by weak healthcare spending, which could prompt economists to temper their second-quarter growth estimates. The Commerce Department said on Thursday consumer.... More

Ruling pushes gay marriage closer to Supreme Court DENVER — The first ruling by a federal appeals court that states cannot prevent gay couples from marrying makes it more likely the Supreme Court will ultimately have to make a decision it has so far avoided — do states have the ability to.... More

Longer heart monitoring backed for stroke patients More than a half-million Americans every year have an ischemic stroke, the most common form, which disrupts blood flow to the brain. And at least a quarter of these cases have no apparent underlying cause. Now two major studies suggest that.... More

Health: Putting us all at risk for measles One of my 11-year-old twin daughters recently came home from school distraught. When I asked why, she lifted her foot. There was dog poop on her sneakers. She watched as I flicked away the doggy detritus with a twig, then scrubbed the sole of.... More

Ikea to increase minimum hourly pay Ikea plans to adopt a wage structure that it says will raise the average hourly minimum wage at its 38 stores in the United States to $10.76 an hour — a 17 percent increase. Ikea, which will be announcing its new wage policy on Thursday, said.... More

Trying for a job? Scrub your social media clean Before a college graduate goes job hunting, he or she will probably do a few things: prepare a good résumé, be ready to answer some key questions about his or her skills and qualifications, buy some nice clothes. There’s another task you.... More

Doctors to parents: start reading every day to children in infancy to.... CHICAGO — The nation's largest pediatricians' group says parents should read aloud to their children every day starting in infancy. Doing so can enhance child development and prepare young minds for early language and reading ability. That's.... More

U.S. high court bucks pro-business trend this term With only days remaining in its term, the U.S. Supreme Court is on track to at least partly dispel the impression that it's pro-business. In cases brought by business interests over the last nine months, including an effort to curb shareholder.... More

Google to unveil new television set-top box on Wednesday: WSJ (Reuters) - Google Inc is expected to unveil at least one small set-top box that resembles products like the Roku, Amazon's Fire TV, and Apple Inc's Apple TV, the Wall Street Journal reported citing sources who have seen the device..... More

Judge rules U.S. no-fly list violates constitution The U.S. government's no-fly list banning people accused of links to terrorism from commercial flights violates their constitutional rights because it gives them no meaningful way to contest that decision, a federal judge ruled on Tuesday. More

White House dilutes proposed tobacco rules (Reuters) - White House changes to proposed rules for tobacco products significantly weakened language detailing health risks from cigars and deleted restrictions that might have prevented online sales of e-cigarettes, published documents show. More

Mayors put focus on how to raise wages for lowest-paid workers in cities About one in five people in Hallandale Beach, Fla., live below the poverty line. Though it is a small city — 37,000 people, a horse track and a greyhound track — its mayor, Joy Cooper, bellied up to the table during a jobs committee.... More

Sick, frail and abandoned by home care firms Jerry Parson lay motionless on the bedroom floor, pain shooting through his back. The screams of his companion, Joyce, pierced the morning silence of their Bloomington apartment. They were helpless. A personal care attendant they had hired to.... More

Massachusetts mayor: Stop sending my city Somali refugees SPRINGFIELD, Mass. — A Massachusetts mayor is calling for an end to refugee resettlement in his city, saying Somali families are putting pressure on already strained services in Springfield, a onetime industrial center where nearly a third of.... More

The multimillion dollar minds of 5 mathematical masters Mathematics has turned into an unusually lucrative profession for Maxim Kontsevich. First, Dr. Kontsevich, 49, who works at the Institute of Advanced Scientific Studies outside Paris, won the 2012 Shaw Prize in Mathematical Sciences, an honor.... More

Early results arrive on weight-loss pills that expand in the stomach It is a tantalizingly simple idea for losing weight: Before meals, swallow a capsule that temporarily swells up in the stomach, making you feel full. Now, some early results for such a pill are in. And they are only partly fulfilling. People.... More

Judge upholds policy barring unvaccinated students during illnesses In a case weighing the government’s ability to require vaccination against the individual right to refuse it, a federal judge has upheld a New York City policy that bars un-immunized children from public school when another student has a.... More

A swarm of earthquakes hits Oklahoma PRAGUE, OKLA. – When Austin Holland was being considered for his job as the sole seismologist at the Oklahoma Geological Survey in 2009, his interviewer posed a wry question: “Are you going to be able to entertain yourself as a.... More

As opiod deaths surge, a push to get antidotes into the right hands TEWKSBURY, Mass. — The training session began just after 8 p.m. in an empty high school science classroom. Amid the microscopes and anatomy charts, Roselyn Heath wore the weary look of a worried mother. Her 21-year-old daughter had tried.... More

Health insurers pressing down on drug prices In dealing with health plans, drug companies are facing a new imperative — bargain or be banned. Determined to slow the rapid rise in drug prices, more health plans are refusing to cover certain drugs unless the companies charge less for them.... More

Smartphones embracing 'kill switches' as theft defense By next summer, most new smartphones may no longer be quite so attractive to thieves. Microsoft and Google said Thursday that phones using their operating systems — including handsets produced by big names like Samsung, Nokia and Motorola.... More

Most Latino workers born in U.S., study says Immigrants no longer make up the majority of Latino workers in the United States, according to a report released Thursday by the Pew Research Center. Immigrants, which includes Latinos who have come to this country legally or illegally, made up.... More

Gay G.O.P. candidates feature partners in ads WASHINGTON — Richard Tisei’s new campaign ad offers a scene of domestic bliss. The ad, set to appear in a glossy color brochure on Saturday, features a smiling Mr. Tisei with his arm around his beaming spouse at their wedding reception this.... More

New proposal would make same-sex partners eligible under Family and.... The Labor Department will issue a proposed rule Friday stating that any employee is eligible for leave to care for a same-sex spouse under the Family and Medical Leave Act, according to White House officials, regardless of whether they live in.... More

Health Exchange enrollees had mostly been uninsured WASHINGTON — Four in 10 people enrolling in health plans through the new insurance exchanges already had insurance, but six in 10 were previously uninsured, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation Survey released Thursday. Most of the.... More

First Lady says immigration system is broken WASHINGTON – First Lady Michelle Obama urged overhauling the nation’s immigration laws Wednesday while presiding over a naturalization ceremony for 50 new U.S. citizens at the National Archives. “Folks are still debating whether or not.... More

Machine learning: fitness devices that (just) a little bit more WEARABLE technology is having an identity crisis. Take the LG Lifeband Touch and the Samsung Gear Fit. These new devices, both released this spring, combine smartwatch features like providing the time, fitness tracking and notifications of.... More

Who can speak for the patient? Our patient was never going to wake up. He had an unrecoverable brain injury. The prognosis had become clear over time. As the patient’s attending physician in the intensive care unit, I arranged a meeting with his sister, the only visitor.... More

Fewer Americans applying for jobless aid WASHINGTON — Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, as the number of people collecting jobless aid fell to its lowest level in more than six years. The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell.... More

In single gene, a path to fight heart attacks Two major studies by leading research groups published on Wednesday independently identified mutations in a single gene that protect against heart attacks by keeping levels of triglycerides — a kind of fat in the blood — very low for a.... More

Governments seek new workers to offset retirements After President John F. Kennedy’s call to “ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country,” young people flocked to government service. These days, not so much. Only 7 percent of all public-sector workers.... More

Social Security closes record number of offices, as baby boomers age WASHINGTON — Even as millions of baby boomers approach retirement, the Social Security Administration has been closing dozens of field offices, forcing more and more seniors to seek help online instead of in person, according to a.... More

Efforts to inspire students have borne little fruit Five years ago, President Obama began the Educate to Innovate initiative, a series of private-public partnerships with companies and nonprofits that was intended to get more students fascinated by science, technology, engineering and math —.... More

A smart way to skip college in pursuit of a job Could an online degree earned in six to 12 months bring a revolution to higher education?This week, AT&T and Udacity, the online education company founded by the Stanford professor and former Google engineering whiz Sebastian Thrun,.... More

Gluten-free eating appears to be here to stay In the luxe dining room of Del Posto, one of New York’s most heralded and expensive Italian restaurants, one-third of the tables on any given night will have at least one gluten-free diner. Mark Ladner, the restaurant’s chef and widely.... More

Rising consumer prices point to uptick in inflation pressures (Reuters) - U.S. consumer prices recorded their largest increase in more than a year in May as costs for a range of goods and services rose, pointing to a steady firming of inflation pressures. The Labor Department said on Tuesday its Consumer.... More

Despite risks, truckers resist rules on sleep The tractor-trailer set off at 2:30 a.m. from Springfield, Mo., the usual time and place. Nearly 11 hours later, along the Will Rogers Turnpike in Oklahoma, fatigue caught up.At mile marker 321.5, near the town of Miami, the semi plowed into a.... More

If affirmative action is doomed, what's next? Affirmative action as we know it is probably doomed. When you ask top Obama administration officials and people in the federal court system about the issue, you often hear a version of that prediction. Five of the Supreme Court’s nine.... More

A bolder effort by big tobacco on e-cigarettes Electronic cigarettes, promoted as a healthier alternative to tobacco, are getting powerful new backers with an unhealthy reputation: big tobacco companies. The development points to ways Big Tobacco is moving to turn the young e-cigarette.... More

The mother who jumped Cindy Wachenheim was someone people didn’t think they had to worry about. She was a levelheaded lawyer working for the State Supreme Court, a favorite aunt who got down on the floor to play with her nieces and nephews, and, finally, in her.... More

VA punished critics on staff, doctors assert WASHINGTON — Staff members at dozens of Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals across the country have objected for years to falsified patient appointment schedules and other improper practices, only to be rebuffed, disciplined or even.... More

New findings on timing and range of mental illness Postpartum depression isn’t always postpartum. It isn’t even always depression. A fast-growing body of research is changing the very definition of maternal mental illness, showing that it is more common and varied than previously thought. More

Thousands to be questioned on eligibility for health insurance subsidies WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is contacting hundreds of thousands of people with subsidized health insurance to resolve questions about their eligibility, as consumer advocates express concern that many will be required to repay some.... More

With an Amazon smartphone, the retailer seeks a tether to customers Hold the phone: Amazon wants to burrow even deeper into your life. The retailer is expected to introduce a smartphone on Wednesday at an event in Seattle, a long-rumored project that aims to close any remaining gap between the impulse to buy.... More

Artificial pancreas shows promise in diabetes test A portable artificial pancreas built with a modified iPhone successfully regulated blood sugar levels in a trial with people who have Type 1 diabetes, researchers reported Sunday. Type 1 diabetes, which usually starts in childhood or young.... More

Top workplaces first-timers: having fun with the job The 27 companies that made the list of Top 100 Workplaces for the first time this year have their own ideas for employee satisfaction and success. A quick survey of a handful of them turned up some common themes: a shared mission, respect for.... More

What makes a company a "best place to work"? By all rights, Noran Neurological Clinic in Minneapolis should be a terrible place to work. Just ask its president. “This is a highly charged, highly stressful environment,” said Dr. Steve Janousek. “It has all the potential to be one of.... More

Why that phone charger took two years to arrive I first heard about the JuiceTank, a slim iPhone case that doubles as a wall charger, when my friends started raving about it two years ago on Twitter. There was one catch, though it didn’t bother them: The JuiceTank didn’t yet exist. It.... More

Home schooling parents rally against Common Core WASHINGTON — Home-schooling mom Jenni White gave some of the loudest cheers when Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin signed legislation to repeal the Common Core education standards. White, president of Restore Oklahoma Public Education, helped.... More

Graduates cautioned: don't shut out opposing views Commencement speakers made news this year mostly by their absence. Protesters on the left assailed speakers who had been invited by colleges and universities, and in some cases, they got their wish, driving away the intended guests. Brandeis.... More

Federal judge to hold hearings on status of gay marriages in Wisconsin MADISON, Wis. — Both sides of the fight over same-sex marriages in Wisconsin are headed back to federal court for a hearing that could determine whether the weddings can continue. U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb scheduled the hearing for 1.... More

Report: FAA controllers still working astonishing schedules, 3 years after.... WASHINGTON — Air traffic controllers are still working schedules known as "rattlers" that make it likely they'll get little or no sleep before overnight shifts, more than three years after a series of incidents involving controllers sleeping.... More

House delays vote on easing school meal standards WASHINGTON — A House vote on an Agriculture Department spending bill containing a provision that would allow schools to opt out of the Obama administration’s nutrition standards for school meals has been delayed until sometime next week, a.... More

Anti-overdose drugs becoming an everyday part of police work Amid the weeknight bustle of a Walmart parking lot in Centereach, N.Y., a young woman in a pickup truck had lost consciousness and was turning blue. Her companion called 911. Possible drug overdose; come fast. A Suffolk County police officer,.... More

Efforts by colleges to curb assaults focus on fraternities EVANSTON, Ill. — At the University of Tennessee this year, some fraternity pledges had hot sauce poured on their genitals. At Emory in Atlanta, pledges were required to consume items “not typical for eating” and to engage in fistfights..... More

Wisconsin's same-sex marriage ruling sets off rush to the altar ETTRICK, WIS. – Wisconsin’s marriage laws changed so fast, the paperwork didn’t have time to catch up. Candace Herbert and Mary Beth Doherty filled out their marriage license this week, working around the lines that designated one of.... More

Research is key to Minnesota's budding medical pot program Minnesota is not the first state to legalize marijuana, but it is the first to include medical research as a key requirement on its complicated and uncharted path to turning an illegal recreational drug into a treatment for illness. Now that.... More

Delay urged on actions tied to tests by schools The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, one of the country’s largest donors to educational causes and a strong backer of the academic guidelines known as the Common Core, has called for a two-year moratorium on states or school districts.... More

Health officials call for more fish in diets of children and pregnant women Federal officials on Tuesday announced that they would recommend for the first time that women who are pregnant or breast-feeding and young children eat a minimum of two servings of low-mercury seafood every week for their health. More

To aid the blind, an assist from cameras In two labs some 50 miles apart in Israel, computer scientists and engineers are refining devices that employ tiny cameras as translators of sorts. For both teams, the goal is to give blind people a form of sight — or at least an experience.... More

Where have all the American workers gone? WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate has been on a slow downward trajectory since the recession ended nearly five years ago. While the overall jobless level has dropped to non-recession levels, the number of the working-age people with jobs is.... More

Degree? Check. Enthusiasm? Check. Job? Not so fast. He pulled the maroon robes over his shoulders and straightened his cap, his body tingling with that nothing-can-kill-this-day kind of vibe. Then he heard his mother calling his name — Jelani! Jelani! — and suddenly he was standing, then.... More

Judge voids expansion of discount drug program WASHINGTON — A federal judge has struck down a new rule requiring drug companies to offer certain drugs at discounted prices, saying the Obama administration had no authority to issue the rule. Federal officials said the decision could.... More

Noncompete clauses increasingly pop up in array of jobs BOSTON — Colette Buser couldn’t understand why a summer camp withdrew its offer for her to work there this year. After all, the 19-year-old college student had worked as a counselor the three previous summers at a nearby Linx-branded camp.... More

In Texarcana, uninsured, and on the wrong side of a state line TEXARKANA, Tex. — On a hazy, hot evening here, Janice Marks ate a dinner of turkey and stuffing at a homeless shelter filled with plastic cots before crossing a few blocks to the Arkansas side of town to start her night shift restocking the.... More

Coke ad reminds people it takes 23 minutes of cycling to burn off a can of.... NEW YORK — Coca-Cola is taking on obesity, this time with an online video showing how fun it could be to burn off the 140 calories in a can of its soda. In the ad, the world's biggest beverage maker asks what would happen if people paid for a.... More

Hershey sues Colorado pot company DENVER — The Hershey Co. has sued a Colorado marijuana edibles maker, claiming it makes four pot-infused candies that too closely resemble iconic products of the chocolate maker. The trademark infringement lawsuit was filed in U.S. District.... More

Minneapolis falters in first use of 'focused instruction' technique It’s been a rough first year for Superintendent Bernadeia Johnson's main tool for raising the achievement of Minneapolis schoolkids. Students who were introduced to “focused instruction” — an attempt to match classroom teaching to.... More

Judge allows gay marriage in Wisconsin MADISON, WIS. – Same-sex couples began getting married in Wisconsin on Friday after a federal judge struck down the state’s gay marriage ban and despite confusion over the effect of the ruling. Clerks in Madison and Milwaukee began issuing.... More

In Britain, child's weight leads to parents' arrest LONDON — The parents of an 11-year-old boy were arrested in Britain on suspicion of neglect and child cruelty after authorities grew alarmed about the child’s weight. The boy, who like his parents was not identified, weighed 210 pounds..... More

More Dads at home by choice Otis Johnson said he never fathomed becoming a stay-at-home father. But soon after he was laid off from his factory job in 2009, his first of two children arrived. And even when his job prospects improved, he made the calculation that millions.... More

Health officials confirm Texas death as 4th US case of mad cow-related.... DALLAS — Health officials say a Texas patient is the fourth person in the United States to die of a rare brain disorder that is believed to be caused by consumption of beef products contaminated with mad cow disease. The Centers for Disease.... More

The workout; becoming Rocky Balboa Not many Broadway stars have to dodge punches on stage. But for Andy Karl, it is all in a night’s work. Mr. Karl, 39, plays the title character in the musical “Rocky,” a high adrenaline show based on the original 1976 film written by and.... More

For some retirees, a second act is easier than expected Never in a million years did Cheryl Delaney expect to spend her retirement working with the elderly. Her entire career had been in the financial sector — as a bank officer and loan administrator, in collections and finally as an office.... More

U.S. added 217,000 jobs in May; unemployment rate remains 6.3% American employers added 217,000 workers in May, a bit more than the average monthly gain over the last six months and another sign that the economy may finally be gaining momentum after a weak start to the year. The unemployment rate was flat.... More

Welcome back dropouts: data suggests Americans rejoining workforce For the first time in six years, the share of people who either have a job or are looking for one is on the rise in a majority of U.S. states, a sign one of the deepest scars of the economic crisis could be healing. Most states have experienced.... More

Parents' dilemma: what to share on social media Fitzgerald Swanson is barely 6 months old, yet he has his own private Twitter and Instagram accounts. Even before he was born, he was the main topic of conversation in a Facebook group dedicated to him. Parents who came of age with Facebook,.... More

In a first, test of DNA finds root of illness Joshua Osborn, 14, lay in a coma at American Family Children’s Hospital in Madison, Wis. For weeks his brain had been swelling with fluid, and a battery of tests had failed to reveal the cause. The doctors told his parents, Clark and Julie,.... More

Losing weight may require some serious fun If you are aiming to lose weight by revving up your exercise routine, it may be wise to think of your workouts not as exercise, but as playtime. An unconventional new study suggests that people’s attitudes toward physical activity can.... More

What's lost as handwriting fades Does handwriting matter? Not very much, according to many educators. The Common Core standards, which have been adopted in most states, call for teaching legible writing, but only in kindergarten and first grade. After that, the emphasis.... More

Apple allows 'approved' virtual currencies in apps Apple Inc. will let software developers include virtual-currency transactions in their applications, paving the way for new forms of money to appear on iPhones and iPads. "Apps may facilitate transmission of approved virtual.... More

Study: Hurricanes with male names taken more seriously Which scares you more: Hurricane Victor or Hurricane Victoria? People are slightly less likely to flee an oncoming storm with a feminine name than a masculine one, a new study finds. But here is Victoria's secret: Hurricanes with feminine names.... More

New therapies for a debilitating condition Decades ago, I met a surprisingly quiet, withdrawn young man. Surprising because I knew his bright, vibrant wife and wondered what had attracted her to him. He barely participated in conversations even at friendly family gatherings. Some years.... More

Health experts see benefits in push to cut pollution The Obama administration contends that its new plan to cut carbon pollution from power plants will not just fight climate change, but will also quickly improve public health, preventing up to 100,000 asthma attacks and 2,100 heart attacks in.... More

Hospital charges surge for common ailments Charges for some of the most common inpatient procedures surged at hospitals across the country in 2012 from a year earlier, some at more than four times the national rate of inflation, according to data released by Medicare officials on Monday. More

Pace of U.S. manufacturing slows unexpectedly Reuters) - The pace of growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector unexpectedly slowed in May, an industry report released on Monday showed. The Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said its index of national factory activity fell to 53.2 last.... More

At WWDC, Apple is set to make push into monitoring health and home SAN FRANCISCO — Apple is unlikely to introduce new devices this week, the things that most excite customers and investors these days. But the company is expected to dive deeper into two new areas: connected health and the so-called smart home.... More

Cancer researchers report longer survival rates with immunotherapy CHICAGO — Drugs that unleash the body’s immune system to combat tumors could allow patients with advanced melanoma to live far longer than ever before, say researchers gathered at the nation’s largest cancer conference. More

For Minnesota's littlest learners, a new push to close the achievement gap Demarco Campbell flips through magazines in hot pursuit of the letter “E.” It doesn’t take the 5-year-old long to find the letter, cut it out and glue it on a sheet of paper where he’s spelling out his name. For good measure, he also.... More

Many veterans praise care, but all hate the wait Marc Schenker, an Air Force veteran in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., is having surgery this month to remove a golf-ball-size hernia — but not at a veterans hospital. Mr. Schenker, 67, said he had given up on the Veterans Affairs hospital in Miami.... More

Early chemotherapy aids prostate cancer patients, study says Chicago — Many men with prostate cancer put off using chemotherapy as long as possible, fearing its side effects. But a new study has found that men given chemotherapy early in their treatment for advanced disease lived a median of nearly 14.... More

After five months of sales, Colorado sees the downside of a legal high DENVER — Five months after Colorado became the first state to allow recreational marijuana sales, the battle over legalization is still raging. Law enforcement officers in Colorado and neighboring states, emergency room doctors and.... More

At Rasmussen College, a game attempt to cut tuition costs Business students at one for-profit college soon will have a new way to earn credits: by playing computer games. Rasmussen College in Bloomington, MN announced Thursday that beginning in July it will offer game-based courses — with no.... More

Drug saves fertility for women with cancer CHICAGO — A commonly used drug can help young women with breast cancer retain the ability to have babies, apparently protecting their ovaries from the damage caused by chemotherapy, researchers reported here on Friday. The treatment could.... More

Grilled cheese for grownups Every so often even I am too busy or tired – or both – to cook. But I’m also too busy or tired to go out. This usually happens when I’ve been cooking all day, as I’ve been doing a lot lately because I’m not only testing recipes for.... More

The evolving world of gay travel In the 1970s gay tours took men rafting in the Grand Canyon and to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival. Gay hotels began opening in Key West, Fla. And destinations like Provincetown, Mass., were creating some of the first marketing to gay and lesbian.... More

Rethinking the traditional retirement community WHEN Rikki Selby began shopping for a retirement home, the 66-year-old sought a community where she could make friends with people her own age. But Ms. Selby had no interest in the kind of sprawling Sun Belt development that offers thousands of.... More

U.S. consumer spending down in May; wages a concern A monthly gauge of U.S. consumer sentiment fell in May as a gloomy view on income growth clouded an otherwise positive economic outlook, a survey released on Friday showed. The Thomson Reuters/University of Michigan's final May reading on the.... More

U.S. consumer spending dips; inflation creeps up U.S. consumer spending fell for the first time in a year in April after two months of solid gains, but the decline probably will not change expectations for a sharp rebound in economic growth this quarter. While demand cooled last month, there.... More

Minnesota's new tool shows which college degrees pay off It’s official: Only education majors have slimmer job prospects than theology majors in Minnesota. Only 13 percent of those who earned a 2011 bachelor’s degree in education, and only 14 percent with degrees in theology and religion had a.... More

Measles cases in U.S. reach a 20-year high Largely because of resistance to vaccination, cases of measles have reached a 20-year high in the United States, federal health officials said on Thursday. As of May 23, there were 288 confirmed cases in the United States — more than in all.... More

Doctor shortage cited in delays at vet hospitals Dr. Phyllis Hollenbeck, a primary care physician, took a job at the Veterans Affairs medical center in Jackson, Miss., in 2008 expecting fulfilling work and a lighter patient load than she had had in private practice. What she found was quite.... More

Number of U.S. births rose slightly last year, the first increase in five.... NEW YORK — The baby recession may be at an end: After a five-year span in which the number of children born in the United States dropped each year, 2013 saw a minute increase. According to a new government report, the number of babies born.... More

With special clinics, hospitals vie for hesitant patients: men From the gleaming limestone lobby to the chocolate and oxblood exam room walls to the percussive address, 555 Madison Avenue, a new clinic in Midtown Manhattan exudes masculinity, and that is no accident. Still smelling of fresh paint, it is.... More

Severe report finds V.A. hid waiting lists at hospitals In the first confirmation that Department of Veterans Affairs administrators manipulated medical waiting lists at one and possibly more hospitals, the department’s inspector general reported on Wednesday that 1,700 patients at the veterans.... More

Michigan passes $9.25 minimum wage hike It took all day to reach a compromise on raising the minimum wage to $9.25 per hour. But once a deal was reached, it passed both the House and the Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Rick Snyder in less than one hour. Michigan’s low-wage.... More

Can diet drinks aid weight loss? Several observational studies have suggested that drinking diet soda may encourage weight gain, but a new randomized trial finds that it is not so. The study, published in the June issue of Obesity and paid for by the American Beverage.... More

Your CEO just got a huge raise. You didn't. Here's why. WASHINGTON — Pay for globe-trotting CEOs has soared to new heights, even as most workers remain grounded by paychecks that are barely budging. While pay for the typical CEO of a company in the Standard & Poor's 500 stock index surged 8.8.... More

Obama meets scientists, one age six WASHINGTON — A teenage girl was inspired after dropping her cellphone to create concussion-reducing cushions for football helmets. A team of Girl Scout Brownies designed a bridge that could withstand flooding. And an adolescent boy in a suit.... More

Home prices start easing, to the relief of experts A steep gain in home prices in many markets that helped lift millions of Americans out of the red on their mortgages is now markedly slowing, with new data from the Standard & Poor's/Case-Shiller national home price index on Tuesday.... More

To age well, walk Regular exercise, including walking, significantly reduces the chance that a frail older person will become physically disabled, according to one of the largest and longest-running studies of its kind to date. More

Rebelling against abuse, Afghan women see signs of change PUL-I-KUMRI, Afghanistan — Zahra said a neighbor raped her in her home on Friday. It was the most humiliating event in her unremittingly painful life, and the next day she begged her husband, Najibullah, to move their family so the man could.... More

Is wine really good for you? “Wine is good for you” proclamations go way back. Further than the 1991 “60 Minutes” report that the wine-loving French live longer than Americans despite a higher-fat diet, more smoking and less exercise. Even further than Thomas.... More

Information not on the label If you want to know whether the bread you’re about to buy was sweetened with corn syrup, you can check the label. The same is true if you’re concerned about preservatives, caramel coloring or artificial flavoring. By law, all of these.... More

Unlikely allies uniting to fight school changes SMYRNA, Tenn. — She is a fan of MSNBC, supports abortion rights and increased government spending in schools, and believes unions should have the right to strike. He watches Fox News, opposes abortion and is a fiscal conservative who voted.... More

Is college worth it? Clearly, new data say Some newly minted college graduates struggle to find work. Others accept jobs for which they feel overqualified. Student debt, meanwhile, has topped $1 trillion. It’s enough to create a wave of questions about whether a college education is.... More

Campus killings set off anguished conversations about treatment of women ISLA VISTA, Calif. — A deadly attack by a gunman obsessed by grievances toward women near the campus of the University of California, Santa Barbara, has touched off an anguished conversation here and on social media about the ways women are.... More

A platform and blogging tool, medium charms writers SAN FRANCISCO — Evan Williams is at it again. Mr. Williams is sitting in an office here a mile up the road from Twitter, where he is a founder and is still a board member, working on Medium, an amorphous-sounding company that could be one.... More

Colleges rattled as Obama seeks rating system WASHINGTON — The college presidents were appalled. Not only had President Obama called for a government rating system for their schools, but now one of his top education officials was actually suggesting it would be as easy as evaluating a.... More

Hospitals look to health law, cut charity Hospital systems around the country have started scaling back financial assistance for lower- and middle-income people without health insurance, hoping to push them into signing up for coverage through the new online marketplaces created under.... More

A revolutionary approach to treating PTSD Bessel van der Kolk sat cross-legged on an oversize pillow in the center of a smallish room overlooking the Pacific Ocean in Big Sur. He wore khaki pants, a blue fleece zip-up and square wire-rimmed glasses. His feet were bare. It was the third.... More

As summer driving beckons, gas prices are all over the map HOUSTON — With the Memorial Day weekend representing the beginning of the summer driving season, it might be a good time to plan a trip to the Gulf Coast or the Rocky Mountains. Gasoline prices in the nation’s midsection should be 10 to 50.... More

Phone swindlers tap into fear, and a sense of duty BEFORE Betty Bell, 88, even got out of bed, the telephone jolted her awake at 7 a.m. The male voice on the line said that a police officer was coming to arrest her for shirking her civic duty. “He told me he was from the courthouse and I had.... More

Boy Scouts president Gates supports gay adults inclusion, opposes new.... DALLAS — Robert Gates, the new president of the Boy Scouts of America, said Friday that he would have moved last year to allow openly gay adults in the organization but said he opposes any further attempts to address the  policy now. More

D.C. adoption law finds lesbians flocking there to give birth Twin daughters were born last week to Desiree Bryan and her wife, Stephanie, but the path they’ve chosen to motherhood is not yet complete. The lesbian couple live in Midlothian, Va., near Richmond. The commonwealth does not recognize either.... More

Amid backlash, IRS delays new tax rules for social welfare groups U.S. Republicans claimed victory on Thursday after the Internal Revenue Service said it will delay and rewrite proposed rules for tax-exempt, social welfare groups that were at the heart of the agency's a political controversy last year. "This.... More

Need scholarship? Join Scrum Last year, Brianna Danner, 17, had never even held a rugby ball. Fourteen months later, she is weighing scholarship offers from two colleges with premiere rugby teams. “It was a great lift to know the progress I’d made meant I could go to.... More

The politics of breastfeeding Some parents swear by it, while others feel defeated by it. But breastfeeding is always creating controversy, whether it’s dividing passengers on airplanes, attracting male fans, or bringing a community together. That said, a recent report.... More

For fitness, 2,000 calories a week? Q: Is there any basis for the idea that burning 2,000 calories a week helps to optimize health? A: That idea seems to have originated in data gathered decades ago as part of the Harvard Alumni Study. That study followed male Harvard graduates.... More

Jobless claims rise; still close to pre-recession level The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week but stayed close to a seven-year low and pointed to ongoing healing in the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 28,000 to 326,000.... More

Legal fights over gay marriage spread to 29 states across U.S. HELENA, Mont. — A federal lawsuit filed by four gay couples in Montana leaves just two states — North Dakota and South Dakota — with gay marriage bans and no legal challenges aiming to overturn them. But that's likely to change as.... More

Study sees bigger role for placenta in newborn's health The placenta, once thought sterile, actually harbors a world of bacteria that may influence the course of pregnancy and help shape an infant’s health and the bacterial makeup of its gut, a new study has found. The research is part of a.... More

Pushing climate change, with an eye on 2016 WASHINGTON — Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist from California, wants to blast the issue of climate change to the front lines of American politics. His “super PAC,” NextGen Climate, will spend about $100 million this year.... More

New bills may force Southern abortion clinics to close BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana State Legislature on Wednesday passed a bill that could force three of the state’s five abortion clinics to close, echoing rules passed in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas and raising the possibility of.... More

When to say 'I do' to marriage counseling Many couples wait too long before seeking professional help, a therapist says. And that only makes things worse. It’s the rare marriage that doesn’t go through rough patches now and then. Sometimes the rough spots are so big or so.... More

For schools, long road to a level playing field In the American national mythology, there are few more revered ideas than the belief in education’s power to provide every child a shot at success and to overcome entrenched inequality. In developing its system of public education, the United.... More

Study gives e-cigarettes edge in helping smokers quit A large study in England has found that smokers trying to quit were substantially more likely to succeed if they used electronic cigarettes than over-the-counter therapies such as nicotine patches or gum. These results offered encouraging but.... More

Uncovered papers show past government efforts to drive gays from jobs WASHINGTON — Days after President Lyndon B. Johnson’s election to his first full term, an administration official asked a subordinate to explain the policy on firing gays. In particular, he wondered whether someone with a history of gay.... More

For workers, less flexible companies He calls it one of the bright spots of his week: Before Jared Dalton, 32, starts his workday as a manager at Ernst & Young, the big accounting firm, he dresses his 5-month-old daughter, Olivia, and then places her on her tummy to play..... More

Federal judge strikes down Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage PORTLAND, Ore. — The cheers erupted at exactly 12:08 p.m. as word filtered through the line of couples, friends and family members, some of whom had been on the sidewalk outside the Multnomah County building here since 5:30 a.m. on Monday. More

Most stressful caregiving is for spouse, not parent; few plan for it WASHINGTON — More Americans may wind up helping Mom as she gets older, but a new poll shows the most stressful kind of caregiving is for a frail spouse. The population is rapidly aging, but people aren't doing much to get ready even though.... More

The big melt accelerates Centuries from now, a large swath of the West Antarctic ice sheet is likely to be gone, its hundreds of trillions of tons of ice melted, causing a four-foot rise in already swollen seas. Scientists reported last week that the scenario may be.... More

A math app that offers an unusual human touch Tabtor is an expensive iPad math-teaching app for kindergartners through sixth graders. Although free to download and try for two weeks, thereafter it costs $50 a month per child. At first glance, Tabtor — the name is “tablet tutor”.... More

In California, climate issues moved to fore by governor Portraying California as the front line of climate change, Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that the effects of man-made global warming were devastating the state, drawing a direct link between climate change and both the record-setting drought.... More

As more baby boomers retire, temporary and "contract workers" are gaining.... WASHINGTON — While the U.S. economy has improved since the Great Recession ended five years ago, part-time and "contract" workers are filling many of the new jobs. Contract workers made up less than half of one percent of all U.S. employment.... More

Nine months later, still working to find a job Every night, Sharon Cabelly power-pedals on the exercise bicycle in her bedroom, clearing her head of any angst or anxiety. Then, before bed, she recites her favorite psalms, praying first for others in need and finally for her own peace of.... More

Drugs found to aid breathing in fatal lung disease For the first time, researchers have found drugs that can slow the decline of people with a fatal lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Studies of two experimental drugs were published in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented.... More

Study links student debt to pay in universities At the 25 public universities with the highest-paid presidents, both student debt and the use of part-time adjunct faculty grew far faster than at the average state university from 2005 to 2012, according to anew study by the Institute for.... More

Glass ceilings in statehouses in the Northeast PHILADELPHIA — The industrial Northeast enjoys a reputation as a cradle of liberalism, a region that voted overwhelmingly for America’s first black president, started the push on same-sex marriage rights and can reliably be found at the.... More

Surgeon re-engineers way to rebuild babies' skulls Most medical breakthroughs come after years, or even decades, of experiments in high-tech laboratories or academic research centers. But every so often, they are born at the hands of experienced physicians simply rethinking how they do things. More

Air bags are safer than ever - except when they don't deploy When Ford recalled 600,000 sport-utility vehicles last week, it became the fourth car-maker this year to acknowledge an issue with malfunctioning air bags. So far in 2014, automakers in the United States have recalled about 6.6 million cars and.... More

Med School numbers foretell a doctor shortage Kiera Berger has a major in genetics and cell biology, a solid GPA and a score on the Medical College Admission Test that’s about average for science undergraduates. She applied to 10 medical schools, and every one turned her down. The.... More

Poorer health of surgery patients on Medicaid may alter law's bottom line Surgery patients covered by Medicaid arrive at the hospital in worse health, experience more complications, stay longer and cost more than patients with private insurance, a new study has found. The study, by researchers at the University of.... More

Alzheimer's, a neglected epidemic Research shows that Alzheimer’s was the underlying cause in 500,000 deaths in the United States in 2010, a figure close to six times the estimate from the Centers for Disease Control. This means that in a single year, Alzheimer’s claimed.... More

Genetically modified foods confuse consumers WASHINGTON (AP) -- Genetically modified foods have been around for years, but most people in the United States have no idea if they are eating them. The Food and Drug Administration says such foods don't need to be labeled, so some states are.... More

After 1st gay marriages, 'joy spread' CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Newlyweds and couples celebrated Friday along with the lead lawyer in the landmark case behind the first same-sex marriages in Massachusetts and the nation 10 years ago. Lawyer Mary Bonauto said at the Cambridge City.... More

Recycling the leftovers Every week, some 14,000 households in Austin, Tex., dutifully roll not just one, or two, but three garbage bins to the curb. One bin is for recyclable materials and one for trash. The third bin is filled with food scraps that will be taken away.... More

Michelle Obama cites view of growing segregation TOPEKA, Kan. — Sixty years after the Supreme Court outlawed “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites, civil rights advocates say American schools are becoming increasingly segregated, while the first lady, Michelle Obama,.... More

A beginners' guide to repaying student loans Too many people, including plenty of brand-new college graduates, fall far behind on their student loan payments for no good reason. How many? The Department of Education does not supply much data on late payments. But the student loan expert.... More

Olympians are super fit, but have 'garbage' teeth MONACO — Faster, higher, stronger they may be, but Olympians wouldn't win many medals in a contest of dental health. Behind their buffed physiques lurks a dentist's nightmare. "They have bodies of Adonis and a garbage mouth," says Paul.... More

U.S. mines personal health data to find the vulnerable in emergencies The phone calls were part Big Brother, part benevolent parent. When a rare ice storm threatened New Orleans in January, some residents heard from a city official who had gained access to their private medical information. Kidney.... More

At last, recovery heads where the Fed wants it. The Federal Reserve finally seems to be getting what it wants. Two indicators of economic health that the Fed and its chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, have identified as keys to a stronger recovery — modestly higher inflation and a more robust.... More

To campuses without a compass The last thing a dad gets to really teach his daughter is how to drive a car. When I say teach, I’m talking the moment that begins with the instructor knowing nearly everything, while the pupil knows almost nothing. By the day a kid earns a.... More

A decision that helped shape Michelle Obama WASHINGTON — She was born into the segregated Chicago of the 1960s, when public schools actively resisted integration. But in 1975, the city, under pressure to comply with the landmark Supreme Court decision desegregating public schools,.... More

Laboratories are told to start including a neglected variable: females For decades, scientists have embarked on the long journey toward a medical breakthrough by first experimenting on laboratory animals. Mice or rats, pigs or dogs, they were usually male: Researchers avoided using female animals for fear that.... More

Advocating pill, U.S. signals shift to prevent AIDS Federal health officials recommended Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk for AIDS take a daily pill that has been shown to prevent infection with the virus that causes it. If broadly followed, the advice could transform.... More

The age premium: retaining older workers At a time when digital skills are prized and businesses place a premium on youth, some employers subtly seek to push out older workers. They deny them raises once awarded routinely, reduce their responsibilities or give evaluations that are.... More

Fast food protests over pay spread overseas Even though fast food workers have staged several one-day strikes in the last 18 months, the protests have not swayed McDonald’s or other major restaurant chains to significantly raise their employees’ pay. So on Thursday, the fast food.... More

Who gets to graduate? For as long as she could remember, Vanessa Brewer had her mind set on going to college. The image of herself as a college student appealed to her — independent, intelligent, a young woman full of potential — but it was more than that; it.... More

New scrutiny for caregivers, including fingerprints Spurred by concern that criminals are landing jobs working with frail and elderly residents, Minnesota is poised to begin requiring fingerprint background checks for tens of thousands of workers who care for the state’s most vulnerable.... More

Mayo Clinic: massive blast of measles vaccine wipes out cancer Stacy Erholtz was out of conventional treatment options for blood cancer last June when she underwent an experimental trial at the Mayo Clinic that injected her with enough measles vaccine to inoculate 10 million people. The 50-year-old Pequot.... More

Doubts raised about off-label use of Subsys, a strong painkiller Almost overnight, a powerful new painkiller has become a $100 million business and a hot Wall Street story. But nearly as quickly, questions are emerging about how the drug is being sold, and to whom. The drug, Subsys, is a form of fentanyl, a.... More

Drugs to aid alcoholics see little use, study finds Two medications could help tens of thousands of alcoholics quit drinking, yet the drugs are rarely prescribed to patients, researchers reported on Tuesday. The medications, naltrexone and acamprosate, reduce cravings for alcohol by fine-tuning.... More

How to turn renters into savers Some people didn’t like my post on housing-as-food, which illustrated how pro-home ownership policies distorted behavior and the economy. The best pro-housing response I’ve seen (from Megan McArdle, among others) was that homeownership.... More

After-hours work e-mailing sends unsettling message Many nights, the e-mails from his boss arrived between 2:30 and 4:30 a.m. — “no man’s land,” in Michael Bodnar’s words. “I wouldn’t know if he was starting his workday wicked early, or if he hadn’t gone to sleep yet — or if he.... More

Scientists warn of rising oceans from polar melt A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could.... More

Looks like rain again. And again. The acid test of a scientific theory is whether it makes predictions that eventually come true. So consider this old prediction, from a pair of researchers in Australia and New Zealand. They were summarizing the results of then-primitive.... More

Marijuana: now 20% more heady! There are many things that bother Jon Cooper about the market for marijuana. “It’s nearly impossible to find a consistent product,” said Cooper, one of the legion of tech start-up guys and M.B.A.s plunging into the world of pot. “You.... More

More insured, but choices are narrowing In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of.... More

Health law gives pregnant women new options WASHINGTON — The health care law has opened up an unusual opportunity for some mothers-to-be to save on medical bills for childbirth. Lower-income women who signed up for a private policy in the new insurance exchanges will have access to.... More

As organic goes mainstream, consumers can expect price breaks For many consumers, the obstacle to buying organic food has always been the price.“I would buy a lot more organic if it were cheaper,” said Eden Prairie resident Brandi Erlendsson. “Now I buy organic fruits and vegetables just for my.... More

A lesson in farming, classroom to cafeteria HAGERSTOWN, Ind. — Beyond a stack of hay bales, past the site of Indiana’s first soil-judging contest, high school students in this tiny eastern town stroll down a grassy slope to reach their newest classroom: a fenced-in field of.... More

The drawbacks of puppy love A few years ago, I came across a sign in the window of a New York City pet store near two bars. I don’t recall the exact wording, but it was something like: “Do not buy a puppy when drunk.” Most people are not drunk when they decide to.... More

Charters, public schools, and a chasm between When Neil J. McNeill Jr., principal of the Middle School for Art and Philosophy in Brooklyn, learned that fewer than 4 percent of his students had passed state exams in math last year, he was frustrated. It so happened that he shared a.... More

Deadly illness in Nicaragua baffles experts CHICHIGALPA, Nicaragua — During the harvest season, when exhausted workers spend seven days a week cutting sugar cane, the signs of illness were hard to spot at first. It was in the off-season, out on the baseball field, that some residents.... More

Professors are prejudiced too IN the world of higher education, we professors like to believe that we are free from the racial and gender biases that afflict so many other people in society. But is this self-conception accurate? To find out, we conducted an experiment. A.... More

British gay couples may have coat of arms LONDON — First, same-sex couples in Britain won the right to civil partnerships, then to full marriage. Now, they can have their own coats of arms. The College of Arms, guardian of noble titles and insignia here since the 15th century, has.... More

Hardship makes a new home in the suburbs MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The freeway exits around here are dotted with people asking for money, holding cardboard signs to tell their stories. The details vary only slightly and almost invariably include: Laid off. Need food. Young children..... More

Districts told not to deny students over immigration Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued a strong warning on Thursday to public school districts nationwide not to deny enrollment to immigrant students in the country illegally. The Justice and Education.... More

Patient's cells deployed to attack aggressive cancer Doctors have taken an important step toward a long-sought goal: harnessing a person’s own immune system to fight cancer. An article published Thursday in the journal Science describes the treatment of a 43-year-old woman with an advanced and.... More

Living with cancer: careless care When I consider what happened to an esteemed friend and colleague, I fume at the mayhem that ovarian cancer wreaks and at the deficient care she received at a university hospital in another town. Do instances of medical negligence sometimes go.... More

Compromise on gays pleases no one, scouts are learning Pascal Tessier is a 17-year-old Eagle Scout in suburban Maryland who says scouting made him who he is today, with its lessons about morality, leadership and responsibility. And those very strengths, this openly gay high school senior said, are.... More

Scientists report creating organism with artificial DNA Scientists reported Wednesday that they had taken a significant step toward altering the fundamental alphabet of life — creating for the first time an organism with artificial building blocks in its genetic code. The accomplishment might.... More

On climate, Republicans and Democrats are from different continents Americans are less worried about climate change than the residents of any other high-income country, as my colleague Megan Thee-Brennan wrote Tuesday. When you look at the details of these polls, you see that American exceptionalism on the.... More

Florida finds itself in center of debate on climate change MIAMI BEACH — The sunny-day flooding was happening again. During high tide one recent afternoon, Eliseo Toussaint looked out the window of his Alton Road laundromat and watched bottle-green saltwater seep from the gutters, fill the street and.... More

Philadelphia's success in helping the homeless gets a philanthropic boost PHILADELPHIA — There’s a straight line that goes from David Drap to David Brown, but you cannot find it in most other cities. Mr. Drap, 43, could be seen recently assembling pieces of plywood around a twin mattress under a highway overpass,.... More

Mortality drop seen to follow '06 health law BOSTON — The death rate in Massachusetts dropped significantly after it adopted mandatory health care coverage in 2006, a study released Monday found, offering evidence that the country’s first experiment with universal coverage — and the.... More

At one school, veteran teachers make a difference Trickling in from their buses, the students in Marcia Wyatt’s class stop and check the easel where she’s posted her daily greeting. As they enter without chatter to head to their seats, she reminds one or two to straighten a collar on their.... More

Boy Scouts settle sex abuse lawsuit Attorneys for a sexual abuse victim reached a settlement with the Boy Scouts of America in connection with a Burnsville scoutmaster convicted of molesting four boys in his troop. Peter Stibal, who headed Troop 650 in Burnsville from about.... More

Polio's return after near eradication prompts a global health warning Alarmed by the spread of polio to several fragile countries, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on Monday for only the second time since regulations permitting it to do so were adopted in 2007. Just two years ago.... More

Office Depot plans to close at least 400 stores BOCA RATON, Fla. — Office Depot is planning to close at least 400 U.S. stores, as its merger with OfficeMax resulted in an overlap of retail locations that can be consolidated.Office Depot Inc. expects to close 150 stores this year, mostly in.... More

High-tech push has board games rolling again MERCER ISLAND, Wash. — Dan Shapiro sold a company to Google and worked at Microsoft. His name is on nearly a dozen technology-related patents. But when it came time for his latest venture, Mr. Shapiro turned to technology to produce something.... More

New studies show blood from young mice reverses aging in older mice The rodent fountain of youth may not be filled with water, but with blood. A trio of new studies has discovered that the blood of young mice appears to reverse some of the effects of aging when put into the circulatory systems of elderly mice..... More

New findings on brain damage in babies It was long assumed that brain injuries in newborns resulted from insufficient oxygen during labor or delivery. Distressed parents often blamed doctors, a belief that spawned countless malpractice suits and prompted many.... More

Wage growth indicates a not-so-healthy economy The single best gauge of the economic recovery — better than the headline unemployment rate — may be wage growth. So ignore April’s sharp drop in unemployment. Pay no attention to the creation of 288,000 jobs announced on Friday. The most.... More

Polio spreading at alarming rates, World Health Organization declares Alarmed by the spread of polio from conflict zones in three continents, the World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Monday in an effort to contain the disease, a paralyzing virus that was once thought to be.... More

St. Louis trial highlights gender bias in pay ST. LOUIS — From male-only corporate jets to guys' golf outings and hunting trips, Francine Katz says her time in the Anheuser-Busch executive suite was rife with exclusion, intentional slights and outright discrimination. But it wasn't until.... More

The upshot: how not to be misled by the jobs report Think about it this way: It’s the first Friday of the month, and the Labor Department has bad news. The economy has added a mere 64,000 jobs last month, a steep slowdown from 220,000 the month before. From Wall Street to Twitter, the reaction.... More

Triglycerides and heart disease High levels of triglycerides — a type of fat that circulates in your bloodstream — can signal an increased risk of heart disease, but not always. It depends on why they are elevated in the first place, said Dr. James A. Underberg, a.... More

U.S. payrolls gained 288,000; jobless rate falls to 6.3% The American economy gained steam in April, adding 288,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, the lowest rate since September 2008. After a sharp slowdown in December and January, and a modest improvement since then,.... More

Once more, economy exhibits weakness As has happened so many times since the recovery began nearly five years ago, the economy turned in another disappointing quarterly performance, surprising even the most pessimistic observers as growth in the first three months of 2014 slowed.... More

Crunching the numbers to find the best airfare You may have heard that the best day to buy an airline ticket is a Tuesday. Other things you may have heard: Polaroid cameras now let you see photographs shortly after you take them, and bloodletting is no longer an accepted cure for fever. In.... More

Implications for employers in new health care law The days of Americans getting health insurance through their employers may be numbered — and the change could be just as profound as the shift of employers forcing employees to manage their own retirement savings. As the Affordable Care Act.... More

Changed life of the poor: better off, but far behind WASHINGTON — Is a family with a car in the driveway, a flat-screen television and a computer with an Internet connection poor? Americans — even many of the poorest — enjoy a level of material abundance unthinkable just a generation or two.... More

Bigger iPhone screens expected this year Many consumers have developed an appetite for smartphones with larger screens, and expectations are growing that Apple will try to satisfy them this year. Paul Semenza, an analyst for the research firm NPD DisplaySearch, said he believed that.... More

iRules help parents set tech boundaries for kids Janell Burley Hofmann was trying to set some ground rules when she drew up a contract before giving her son a smartphone for Christmas. She was candid and caring, yet clear, writing, "You are a good and responsible 13-year-old boy and you.... More

Virginia Attorney General opens in-state tuition to students brought to U.... Attorney General Mark R. Herring of Virginia told the state’s public colleges and universities on Tuesday that children brought to the United States illegally and raised here, the so-called Dreamers, qualified for in-state tuition. More

Behind focus on assaults, a steady drumbeat by students WASHINGTON — In March, two women who were sexually assaulted when they were students at the University of North Carolina arrived unannounced at the office of Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand with a request: Help us stop sexual assault on college.... More

Microsoft warns of major Internet Explorer bug; no fix for Windows XP Windows XP users are getting their first taste of life without security updates after the discovery of a major flaw within the Internet Explorer Web browser. Microsoft Corp. issued a warning regarding the flaw this weekend, saying it affects.... More

Never too late to learn how to swim My father-in-law had been fishing from rowboats without incident since early childhood. But in August 1970, at age 66, alone on a Minnesota lake, he apparently fell out of the boat and drowned. He couldn’t swim a stroke, yet never wore a life.... More

White House to press colleges to do more to fight rape WASHINGTON — Reacting to a series of highly publicized rapes on college campuses, the White House on Monday released guidelines that increase the pressure on universities to more aggressively combat sexual assaults on campus. More

A link between fidgety boys and a sputtering economy The behavior gap between rich and poor children, starting at very early ages, is now a well-known piece of social science. Entering kindergarten, high-income children not only know more words and can read better than poorer children but they.... More

A deadly fungus and questions at a hospital NEW ORLEANS — The first victim was a premature boy in the intensive care unit whose mother noticed a mysterious irritation in his groin; it grew into an open wound burrowing into the baby’s abdomen. The last patient to die was a 10-year-old.... More

Superhyped superfoods aren't found to prevent cancer SAN DIEGO – A trip to almost any bookstore or a cruise around the Internet might leave the impression that avoiding cancer is mostly a matter of watching what you eat. One source after another promotes the protective powers of superfoods,.... More

For drugs that save lives, a steep cost This month, amid great fanfare, the Food and Drug Administration approved a portable pocket-size device that injects a drug called naloxone to rescue people who become unconscious from overdoses of heroin and other opiates. Wider dissemination.... More

In California, a fevered rush for gun permits SANTA ANA, Calif. — Pete Alexander celebrated the news that a federal court in California had thrown out this state’s strict requirements for obtaining a concealed-handgun permit — among the toughest in the nation — by calling the.... More

In poorest states, political stigma is depressing participation in health.... HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Inside the sleek hillside headquarters of Valley Health Systems, built with a grant from the health care law, two employees played an advertisement they had helped produce to promote the law’s insurance coverage for.... More

Almost blind Michigan man 'seeing something new every day' thanks to new.... ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A degenerative eye disease slowly robbed Roger Pontz of his vision. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a teenager, Pontz has been almost completely blind for years. Now, thanks to a high-tech procedure that involved the.... More

Allina Health halts all water births, upsetting expectant moms Water births were a celebrated feature of Allina Health’s Mother Baby Center when the $50 million Minneapolis facility opened last year and Allina’s chief medical officer hailed it as a place to “support every mother” and birthing.... More

Study linking illness and salt leaves researchers doubtful The former commissioner of health for New York City, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, has raised anew questions about the health risks posed by salt in the American diet, citing a new study from Britain showing significant declines in heart attack and.... More

F.C.C., in a shift, backs fast lanes for Web traffic WASHINGTON — The principle that all Internet content should be treated equally as it flows through cables and pipes to consumers looks all but dead. The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that it would propose new rules that.... More

F.D.A. will propose new regulations for e-cigarettes WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will propose sweeping new rules on Thursday that for the first time would extend its regulatory authority from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, popular nicotine delivery devices that have.... More

U.S. weighs curbing deportations of people without serious criminal records WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but don't have serious criminal records could be shielded from deportation under a policy change being weighed by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. The change,.... More

Netflix poised to raise prices for new subscribers SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix is preparing a sequel unlikely to be a hit with its subscribers. The Internet video service is about to raise its prices for the first time in three years to help pay for more Internet video programming such as its.... More

Brain control in a flash of light AN DIEGO — Dr. Karl Deisseroth is having a very early breakfast before the day gets going at the annual meeting of theSociety for Neuroscience. Thirty thousand people who study the brain are here at the Convention Center, a small city’s.... More

Student loans can suddenly come due when co-signers die, a report finds For students who borrow on the private market to pay for school, the death of a parent can come with an unexpected, added blow, a federal watchdog warns. Even borrowers who have good payment records can face sudden demands for full, early.... More

Citing costs and risks, many skip health insurance LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Steve Huber, an affable salesman who is still paying off an unexpected medical bill, was not among the millions of Americans who signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act during the enrollment period that.... More

Fifty years into the war on poverty, hardship hits back TWIN BRANCH, W.Va. — When people visit with friends and neighbors in southern West Virginia, where paved roads give way to dirt before winding steeply up wooded hollows, the talk is often of lives that never got off the ground. More

House calls are making a comeback. A relic from the medical past — the house call — is returning to favor as part of some hospitals’ palliative care programs, which are sending teams of physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and other workers to patients’ homes.... More

To quash depression, some brain cells must push through the stress The nature of psychological resilience has, in recent years, been a subject of enormous interest to researchers, who have wondered how some people endure and even thrive under a certain amount of stress, and others crumble and fall prey to.... More

Salmonella cases drop NEW YORK — The government's latest report card on food poisoning shows a dip in salmonella cases but an increase in illnesses from bacteria in raw shellfish. The report counts cases in only 10 states for some of the most common causes of.... More

Are exercise cool-downs necessary? A lot of cardiovascular exercise routines call for a cool-down at the end. Is this necessary? “For a long time, the theory was that cooling down by continuing to exercise at a lower intensity would help the legs flush out lactate” and avoid.... More

Young enrollees help health act exceed Obama's goal President Obama announced Thursday that eight million people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, including what the White House said were a sufficient number of young, healthy adults, a critical milestone that.... More

Treatment costs may influence doctors' advice to patients Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about.... More

Competing views of teacher tenure are on display in California case These are two vastly different portraits of California’s education system. In one, poor and minority students are frequently placed in front of incompetent teachers whose blackboards are filled with basic misspellings and who play irrelevant.... More

For diabetics, health risks fall sharply Federal researchers on Wednesday reported the first broad national picture of progress against some of the most devastating complications of diabetes, which affects millions of Americans, finding that rates of heart attacks, strokes, kidney.... More

The antidepressant generation “I think our experiment failed,” the young graduate student told me, referring to our attempt to take her off the antidepressant she’d been on for seven years. She was back in my campus office after a difficult summer break, and as she.... More

Pensioners in Detroit rejoice, though deal is far from done DETROIT — The relief was palpable. “My pension is my life,” Thomas Berry, a retired police detective, said on Wednesday, reacting to tentative deals that were struck between Detroit, the city’s pension funds and a retirees’ group that.... More

Court deportations drop 43% in past five years New deportation cases brought by the Obama administration in the nation’s immigration courts have been declining steadily since 2009, and judges have increasingly ruled against deportations, leading to a 43 percent drop in the number of.... More

Mayo Clinic reaches out to consumers with a mobile app Back in the day, the Mayo Clinic relied on its reputation to draw patients in need of its rarefied expertise to Rochester or its other campuses in Arizona and Florida. But in the changing world of health care reimbursement, where Mayo faces.... More

Nasal spray holds hope in fighting flu epidemic Scottish and American scientists have found a new way to prevent flu infections that could, in theory, be used to fight an epidemic long before a vaccine is ready. The method, successfully tested only in mice thus far, is a nasal spray of.... More

Younger skin through exercise Exercise not only appears to keep skin younger, it may also even reverse skin aging in people who start exercising late in life, according to surprising new research. As many of us know from woeful experience, our skin changes as the years.... More

Revised SAT won't include obscure vocabulary words The College Board on Wednesday will release many details of its revised SAT, including sample questions and explanations of the research, goals and specifications behind them.“We are committed to a clear and open SAT, and today is the first.... More

New CBO report predicts costs of health care program to dip slightly WASHINGTON — The Affordable Care Act's health insurance subsidies will cost a little less than previously thought, according to a new report released Monday. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that health insurance subsidies under.... More

Minnesota makes history with largest minimum wage hike Gov. Mark Dayton signed into law the largest minimum wage increase in state history Monday, giving raises to more than 325,000 Minnesotans and making good on a signature Democratic pledge during an election year. The move to a $9.50 base.... More

Political rifts slow U.S. effort on climate laws WASHINGTON — The United States needs to enact a major climate change law, such as a tax on carbon pollution, by the end of this decade to stave off the most catastrophic impacts of global warming, according to the authors of a report released.... More

Food, rental costs, bump up U.S. consumer inflation WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer prices rose in March, but inflation pressures remained generally benign, which should give the Federal Reserve ample scope to keep interest rates low. The Labor Department said on Tuesday its Consumer Price.... More

Prices soaring for specialty drugs, researchers find Even as the cost of prescription drugs has plummeted for many Americans, a small slice of the population is being asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of expensive treatments for diseases like cancer and hepatitis C, according to a.... More

North Dakota hopes to lure workers with promises of the 'good life.' North Dakota’s oil boom has lured thousands of new workers to the state, but it still needs more. A lot more. Minnesota’s  neighbor to the northwest is on the verge of a new national advertising  campaign that it’s calling “Find the.... More

Heartbleed flaw could reach to digital devices, experts say When the Heartbleed bug was disclosed on Monday, the attention focused on the fallout for major Internet companies like Yahoo and Amazon. But security experts said the potential for harm could extend much further, to the guts of the Internet.... More

Executive pay: invasion of the supersalaries Corporate America’s well-oiled compensation machine is running like a dream. Browse the proxy statements of the nation’s largest corporations and you’ll find the instruction manuals for this apparatus explaining how to finely calibrate.... More

Thought secure, pooled pensions teeter and fall The pensions of millions of Americans are being threatened because of trouble in a part of the retirement world long considered so safe that no one gave it a second thought. The pensions belong to people in multiemployer plans — big pooled.... More

Judge says flashing headlights to warn drivers of police presence is free.... GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Hauling a truckload of logs to a Southern Oregon mill last fall, Chris Hill noticed a sheriff's deputy behind him and flashed his lights to warn a UPS driver coming the other way. The deputy pulled over Hill on U.S..... More

Norovirus cases aboard California ship passes 100; most have recovered. SAN DIEGO — More than 100 passengers have contracted the highly contagious norovirus on a ship that is touring the California coast. But the cruise line says it has no plans to end the voyage early. Some 104 passengers and 25 crew members on.... More

Healthy vows: big study finds married folks have fewer heart problems Love can sometimes break a heart but marriage seems to do it a lot of good. A study of more than 3.5 million Americans finds that married people are less likely than singles, divorced or widowed folks to suffer any type of heart or blood vessel.... More

Hoping for asylum, migrants strain U.S. border HIDALGO, Tex. — Border Patrol agents in olive uniforms stood in broad daylight on the banks of the Rio Grande, while on the Mexican side smugglers pulled up in vans and unloaded illegal migrants. The agents were clearly visible on that recent.... More

Does it have heart? Scientists trying to build functional human heart with.... LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It may sound far-fetched, but scientists are attempting to build a human heart with a 3-D printer. Ultimately, the goal is to create a new heart for a patient with their own cells that could be transplanted. It is an.... More

Education life: 10 courses with a twist Why are so many nonmajors taking “Introduction to Computer Science” at Harvard or “Introductory Oceanography” at Cornell? Why is Temple Grandin’s livestock course at Colorado State always filled, and not just with students at home on.... More

Education life: what you don't know about financial aid, but should Marilyn Ferreira has solved her share of financial puzzles — running a business, buying a home and arranging a mortgage, raising six children as a single mother. But none of that compared to the challenge of understanding the cost of sending.... More