Shhh! America's most common workplace injury is hearing loss Eight years ago, Jeff Ammon, now 55, began noticing a feeling of pressure in his ears every day after work. Over the next months, when his symptoms progressed into a slight loss of hearing and sensitivity to noise, he became worried. Ammon, a.... More

Third-party keyboard gives mobile users more options BEFORE the iPhone arrived in 2007, no one really thought typing on touch-screen keyboards was a good idea. Since then we have become expert at tapping on the glass of our phones and tablets. While the built-in keyboards from Apple, Google and.... More

A student loan program where even death is no reprieve Amid a haze of grief after her son’s murder last year, Marcia DeOliveira-Longinetti faced an endless list of tasks — helping the police gain access to Kevin’s phone and email; canceling his subscriptions, credit cards and bank accounts;.... More

4 things women don't do at work Recently, Facebook COO and LeanIn.org founder Sheryl Sandberg co-wrote an op-ed in The New York Times to break down a harmful stereotype: women don't, or won't, help other women in the workplace. A double standard as old as time, an aggressive.... More

Burnout in the family business, and how throttling back improved everything At social gatherings (the very few I actually attended), I would usually site my 120-hour workweeks as my excuse for failing to keep up with my friends’ lives. The growing pains of scaling an entrepreneurial effort are what I attributed those.... More

How one company revolutionized their workplace culture Corporate America has undergone a serious upheaval in the last two decades. Gone are the days of slogging away from 9 to 5 in a cubicle. Nearly a third of employees now work remotely or telecommute, according to a recent Gallup poll..... More

SHRM: 20-year employee benefits trends in the United States - now and then Over the past 20 years, employers have increased and decreased benefits strategically in response to the needs of the workplace and employees as well as to economic and technological changes, according to the Society for Human Resource.... More

How I revolutionized my work-life balance - and you can too As much as the modern workplace might like to shout about its dedication to flexibility and family, the reality remains quite different. The fact is, whether we’re working in marketing or medicine, we’re still judged on how early we arrive.... More

Which countries have the best work-life balance and why? Achieving a healthy work-life balance seems to be a constant struggle for most of us. In the U.S, we generally work very long hours, many of them in high-stress environments. Those of us who are lucky enough to get paid vacation time aren’t.... More

Study: Men need work-life policies as much as women Have you seen the T-shirt slogan: Dads don’t babysit (it’s called “parenting”)? This slogan calls out the gendered language we often still use to talk about fathers. Babysitters are temporary caregivers who step in to help out the.... More

Who can afford time off? The real cost of a vacation. The travel industry is very lucrative. So, how much does a vacation really cost a traveler? The travel site Hipmunk put together a handy infographic that gives us a pretty good idea by examining the cost involved for a family of four visiting.... More

French ban on after-hours e-mail is first step in right direction The French government has taken a bold step to limit time spent looking at work e-mails by giving employees the “right to disconnect.” Organizations with more than 50 employees will be obliged to draw up a charter of good conduct, setting.... More

10 iPhone, Android apps to master work-life balance Technology makes it easier for you to take your work anywhere, but it can also help you balance your personal and professional lives. Here are 10 iPhone and Android apps that fit the bill. More

The key to having it all Creating a life that reflects your values and satisfies your soul is a rare achievement. Most of us want it all, but many women struggle with the idea of having it all and often find themselves having to choose between having a happy fulfilled.... More

Children of heroin crisis find refuge in grandparents’ arms Cindi and Todd Colburn have had guardianship of their granddaughter, Maleigha, since Maleigha was a year old because their daughter could not stay away from heroin. Maleigha is now 5. In February, on the advice of a counselor, the Colburns.... More

In Sweden, an experiment turns shorter workdays into bigger gains GOTHENBURG, Sweden — Arturo Perez used to come home frazzled from his job as a caregiver at the Svartedalens nursing home. Eight-hour stretches of tending to residents with senility or Alzheimer’s would leave him sapped with little time to.... More

Political rifts over Bill Clinton's welfare law resurface, as aid shrinks PHOENIX — With little debate, Arizona last year became the only state to impose a one-year limit on cash assistance to needy families, cutting the maximum duration of benefits for the third time since 2010. The newest limit has begun to hit.... More

Small businesses worry about adjusting for overtime rules The Obama administration on Wednesday announced the final details of new labor rules to increase the salary cutoff for overtime pay. Although the plan was outlined a year ago and employers have several months to comply, many say the change will.... More

Dogs test drug aimed at slowing aging process Ever since last summer, when Lynn Gemmell’s dog, Bela, was inducted into the trial of a drug that has been shown to significantly lengthen the lives of laboratory mice, she has been the object of intense scrutiny among dog park regulars. To.... More

Hiring hurdle: finding workers who can pass a drug test SAVANNAH, Ga. — A few years back, the heavy-equipment manufacturer JCB held a job fair in the glass foyer of its sprawling headquarters near here, but when a throng of prospective employees learned the next step would be drug testing, an.... More

TSA to add staff, but O'Hare tells passengers to arrive 3 hours before.... With marathon security lines causing thousands of U.S. airline passengers to miss flights, the Transportation Security Administration plans to hire nearly 800 new officers this month and pay for more part-time workers and overtime. But the.... More

A labor watchdog who's not all bite On a recent Wednesday at lunchtime, Secretary of Labor Thomas E. Perez strolled through the clattering kitchen of the Modern, the haute eatery at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. As sous-chefs finished plates of poached salmon and foie.... More

France considers outlawing after-hours work e-mails After-hours and weekend work emails may soon become illegal in France. A bill that prevents companies of 50 or more employees from sending emails after typical work hours passed the French lower parliamentary house earlier this week. The case.... More

Rethinking justice for 17-year-olds NEW ORLEANS — When Chené Marshall got into a fight in high school, she assumed she might get suspended. Instead, the police arrested her. Then a 17-year-old junior with no criminal record, she did not realize that Louisiana was one of the.... More

A refusal to lower the bar at a Minnesota law school MINNEAPOLIS — On a recent rainy spring day, students and professors at the University of Minnesota Law School looked ahead to year-end exams and May 14 graduation as they bustled between classes. But behind the academic routine, Minnesota’s.... More

U.S. directs public schools to allow transgender access to restrooms WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is planning to issue a sweeping directive telling every public school district in the country to allow transgender students to use the bathrooms that match their gender identity. A letter to school.... More

Millennials place work/life balance before career progress A new report from Deloitte has found that the world’s Millennials express little loyalty to their employers and feel that the majority of businesses have little motivation beyond profit. It also found that many Millennials are planning.... More

Midwest leads the nation in number of working mothers Nationally, 73 percent of women who have children under age 18 at home are in the labor force, working full-time, part-time or actively looking for work. Midwestern states lead the nation. South Dakota has the most working moms (84 percent),.... More

North Carolina leaders show no sign of surrender on LGBT law. RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina's Republican leaders are showing no signs of backing down from their new bathroom rules despite the U.S. Justice Department's declaration that they violate federal civil rights laws and could cost the state.... More

Students at fake University say they were collateral damage in sting.... For foreign-born students desperate to stay in the United States, the University of Northern New Jersey seemed like the perfect solution: They did not have to go to class, but they could get coveted student visas and still work at their dream.... More

An auto engineer returns to work after 24 years raising children Stepping out of the workforce for two decades is enough to kill any career in technology or engineering. After spending 24 years out raising her four children and teaching at a home-schooling co-op, 54-year-old Wendy MacLennan scaled a Mount.... More

Savvy moms find way to achieve work-life balance Sometimes all it takes is an idea to change your life. For Shiva Kashalkar, that idea took shape shortly after she gave birth to her daughter. Though deep into her career as a senior project manager with her MBA from Babson, the arrival of her.... More

What ails Detroit schools? Teacher 'sickout' is only a start An organized teacher “sickout” forced nearly all of Detroit’s public schools to stay closed on Monday and Tuesday after the system’s chief manager said that without more money from the state, he would be unable to pay teachers the.... More

Thousands held wrongly in nursing homes, says Justice Department WASHINGTON — When patients in South Dakota seek help for serious but manageable disabilities such as severe diabetes, blindness or mental illness, the answer is often the same: With few alternatives available, they end up in nursing homes or.... More

He gives his business an edge by keeping his employees sharp Tom Salonek, frustrated in his first job as an IT professional at the former West Publishing, started the software and training firm Intertech in his house in 1991. Guided by core values he learned working on his family’s dairy farm, he has.... More

Can Spain take a European approach to work-life balance? No matter who ends up in power, whether in coalition or alone, the next Spanish government looks set to roll out work-family policies promising a shorter, more flexible working week along European and US lines. What is needed now, says Nuria.... More

5 steps toward better work-life balance Have you more than once considered how nice it would be to work 9 to 5, as did our parents and grandparents? And how nice it would be to not check your smartphone 24/7 for work-related texts and messages? It’s a given that some business.... More

Working overtime to fill jobs Spiraling retirements and shrinking unemployment in rural Minnesota are driving worried factory owners to get creative so that current workers stay and future workers come. After years of chronic worker shortages, plants statewide are taking.... More

Coca-Cola to give new dads paid time off Coca-Cola on Tuesday became one of a small but growing number of companies offering paid leave for new fathers as well as mothers — a step advocates say brings modernity to benefits packages stuck in the “Mad Men” era. The Atlanta.... More

Rejected by colleges, SAT and ACT gain high school acceptance The SAT and the ACT, bugaboos of generations of college applicants, were supposed to shrink in significance as more colleges and universities moved away from requiring standardized test scores for admission. Instead, the companies behind them.... More

Foes of Indiana abortion bill launch Facebook protest, 'Periods For Pence' As she read through bill HEA 1337, which places new restrictions on abortion in Indiana, the woman who would later create the Facebook page, "Periods for Pence," (named for Gov. Mike Pence) found it hard to understand, and she became concerned.... More

Will you sprint, stroll or stumble into a career? At the age of 18, G. Stanley Hall left his home in the tiny village of Ashfield, Mass., for Williams College, just 35 miles away, with a goal to “do something and be something in the world.” His mother wanted him to become a minister, but.... More

San Francisco is first city to require fully-paid parental leave San Francisco has become the first city to pass a law guaranteeing new parents time off that's fully-paid pay to care for a new child. The city board of supervisors, its city council, unanimously passed a measure Tuesday night granting new.... More

FDA eases requirements on abortion pill label The Food and Drug Administration stepped into the politics of abortion on Wednesday, relaxing the requirements for taking a medication that induces abortion, a move that is expected to expand access to the procedure. The move was a victory for.... More

University settles locker room case with transgender student The University of Pittsburgh has settled a lawsuit brought by a transgender student who said he was wrongfully expelled from its Johnstown campus after a dispute over his use of a men's locker room. Television station WJAC (http://bit.... More

Not a typical picket line at Tesla's battery factor in Nevada On Monday, hundreds of workers walked off their jobs at the giant battery factory that Tesla Motors is building in the desert outside Reno, Nev. It wasn’t your typical picket: They weren’t protesting bad working conditions, or making a show.... More

Deeply split Supreme Court wrestles with abortion case WASHINGTON — A Supreme Court deeply split over abortion wrestled Wednesday with widely replicated Texas regulations that could drastically cut the number of abortion clinics in the state. As ever, Justice Anthony Kennedy appeared to hold the.... More

Apple gets tech industry backing in iPhone dispute, despite misgivings It is a remarkable moment for the technology industry, with many different companies and organizations rallying around a single company — Apple — in a major legal case against the United States government over privacy and security. Yet.... More

Living in an S.U.V., seen as a menace, then as a neighbor The time had come for Gene to leave the ground-floor apartment, as he knew it would. The owner who let him stay there rent-free had been dead for more than a year, and the estate wanted it back. With the marshal at the door, Gene delivered his.... More

Getting pregnant after a miscarriage A woman who miscarries early in pregnancy is often told to wait at least three months before trying to get pregnant again. But a new study suggests it can be fine to try again as soon as possible. Researchers studied 998 pregnancies lost at 20.... More

Texas abortion case on justice's docket may have effects beyond state lines MONTGOMERY, Ala. — About 20 women came to the abortion clinic here on a recent morning, hurrying past the shouting protesters as volunteer escorts held up umbrellas to shield their faces. Inside the Reproductive Health Services clinic was Dr..... More

Seize the morning: the case for breakfast I used to work nights. You can draw that card at a newspaper, same as you might in a hospital or police station, in a factory or a financial house doing business in markets that hum while the rest of America sleeps. I did not cook dinner much.... More

Kentucky Senate approves bill creating separate marriage license forms FRANKFORT, Ky. – Kentucky's state Senate approved a bill Thursday that creates different marriage license forms for gay and straight couples, with one Republican senator saying any form that does not include the words "bride" and "groom" is.... More

McDonald's top executives to get super-sized raises McDonald's is planning some big raises for its top brass, according to a filing late Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Steve Easterbrook, CEO of the world's largest burger chain, is set to receive an 18.2 percent raise in.... More

Unions wield limited weapon: the 24-hour strike The janitors who walked off the job in the Twin Cities Wednesday night and Thursday morning were forced by economics and the evolution of American labor to resort to what appears to be a weak weapon: a strike that lasted just one day. The.... More

How meditation changes the brain and the body The benefits of mindfulness meditation, increasingly popular in recent years, are supposed to be many: reduced stress and risk for various diseases, improved well-being, a rewired brain. But the experimental bases to support these claims have.... More

With death of Antonin Scalia, an already volatile campaign erupts In the hours after she learned about the death of Justice Antonin Scalia on Saturday, Hillary Clinton intended to confine her response to a 79-word statement extending thoughts and prayers to his family and praising his “energy and passion”.... More

Zika virus has phones ringing at pest control, travel firms Some small U.S. companies are getting an influx in calls — and in some cases, unexpected business — because of fears about the Zika virus. The virus often produces either no symptoms or mild ones like fever in adults, but an outbreak in.... More

Can health care providers afford to be ready for disaster? MORE than 200 people died in hospitals and nursing homes in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, leading to widespread agreement that health care preparedness in the United States needed dramatic improvement. One hospital, Memorial.... More

Science teachers grasp of climate change is found lacking Most science teachers in the United States spend some time on climate change in their courses, but their insufficient grasp of the science as well as political factors “may hinder effective teaching,” according to a nationwide survey of the.... More

East Coast, emerging from blizzard, faces difficult commute NEW YORK — After a weekend of sledding, snowboarding and staying put, the blizzard-blanketed Eastern U.S. will confront a Monday commute slowed by slick roads, damaged transit lines and endless mounds of snow. Authorities cautioned against.... More

Lawsuits claim Disney colluded to replace U.S. workers with immigrants Even after Leo Perrero was laid off a year ago from his technology job at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Fla. — and spent his final months there training a temporary immigrant from India to do his work — he still hoped to find a new position.... More

How to make home birth a safer option Many medical students are taught this adage: “When you hear hoofbeats, think of horses, not zebras.” It means that we, as physicians, need to remember that common things are common, and that we shouldn’t immediately focus on the rare or.... More

Most Americans live paycheck to paycheck Most Americans don’t have the money to handle common emergencies like a car breakdown. In a national survey by Bankrate.com, 63 percent of people said they don’t have the savings to cover a $500 car repair. Only four in 10 Americans would.... More

New guidelines nudge doctors on giving patients access to medical records WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is tearing down barriers that make it difficult for patients to get access to their own medical records, telling doctors and hospitals that in most cases they must provide copies of these records within.... More

On paper, Italy allows abortions, but few doctors will perform them ASCOLI PICENO, Italy — After Benedetta, 35, found out 11 weeks into her pregnancy that the baby she wanted “with all myself” had extremely serious genetic problems, she made a painful decision, and asked her longtime gynecologist for an.... More

Drug overdoses drive up death rates of young, white adults Drug overdoses are driving up the death rate of young, white adults in the U.S. to levels not seen since the end of the AIDS epidemic more than two decades ago — a turn of fortune that stands in sharp contrast to falling death rates for young.... More

New guidelines nudge doctors to give patients easier access to medical.... WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is tearing down barriers that make it difficult for patients to get access to their own medical records, telling doctors and hospitals that in most cases they must provide copies of these records within.... More

College debt relief could be the next big workplace perk A growing number of companies are dangling a recruitment perk that is tailor-made for the millennial generation: debt relief. Free snacks and gym memberships don’t hold the allure they once did for young people entering the working world..... More

Worker salaries appear ready to rise Washington — American workers are poised in 2016 to finally get what they've been missing for years: higher salaries. Even as the recovery from the Great Recession brought booming corporate profits, most workers' salaries have barely kept up.... More

Appeal filed in case of woman who wrote anti-gay essay for class at.... ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — A judge dismissed a former University of New Mexico student's lawsuit alleging she was ostracized by professors for anti-gay remarks made in a paper, federal court documents revealed. Monica Pompeo and her attorney, Bob.... More

Jet.com's strategy: low prices, fast delivery, happy workers You can't accuse Jet.com of timidity. The start-up is making an audacious bet to establish itself as a major force in the $350 billion United States e-commerce market. To succeed, Jet must offer good selection, low prices and fast delivery —.... More

Simple rules for healthy eating Over the past few months I've written a number of times on how nutrition recommendations are seldom supported by science. I've argued that what many people are telling you may be inaccurate. In response, many of you have asked me what nutrition.... More

The marriages of power couples reinforce income inequality The notion of “making a good match,” a staple of the writings of Jane Austen and Henry James, continues in contemporary romance novels. At the same time, income inequality commands increasing attention from economists. Lately we’ve been.... More

Planned Parenthood thrives amid the war over abortion For an organization that has been under assault all year — accused of selling fetal tissue and terrorized by a gunman in Colorado — Planned Parenthood’s current marketing has a certain bravado. “We are here for good,” said Sarah.... More

Women's hockey grows bigger, faster, dire The gold medal game at the Sochi Olympics last year represented the pinnacle of women’s hockey: a captivating 3-2 overtime victory by Canada over the United States that drew almost five million viewers on NBC. But Amanda Kessel, a leading.... More

The one question you should ask about every new job Two years ago, a student of mine was torn on where to start her career. While applying for jobs in finance, technology, consulting and marketing, she realized that her biggest concern wasn't what she did, but where she worked. When it comes to.... More

Rate hike from the Fed is likely to be a tiny one WASHINGTON – Federal Reserve policymakers are expected to end months of speculation Wednesday and raise a key interest rate for the first time in nearly a decade. But for average Americans hoping for noticeably higher returns on their savings.... More

Report finds less misuse of painkillers by teenagers A new federal report suggests that misuse of prescription painkillers among teenagers is decreasing, news that heartened officials who remained concerned at the steady numbers regarding marijuana and e-cigarette use. The percentage of 12th.... More

Curing Hepatitis C, in an experiment the size of Egypt HABAS EL SHUHADA, Egypt — Abdel Gawad Ellabbad knows exactly how he was infected with hepatitis C. As a schoolboy in this Nile Delta rice-farming village, his class marched to the local clinic every month for injections against.... More

How to handle your finances after a Fed interest rate increase It’s one of the most anticipated economic events in years. After keeping its interest rate barometer close to zero since December 2008, the Federal Reserve is universally expected to raise rates at the end of its two-day meeting Wednesday.... More

High-tech gifts don't have to be high-priced You don't have to spend a lot of money to give a fantastic technology gift. Here are 10 products under $100 that are sure to bring a smile to the recipient, while delivering lasting performance and value. ( Careful -- you might find something.... More

How a boy's concussion death changed sports in Britain MIDLOTHIAN, Scotland — At the end of a nearly three-year investigation filled with his frustration and suspicion toward headmasters, coaches and the police, Peter Robinson finally heard the verdict that he feared: His 14-year-old son,.... More

Why very low interest rates may stick around The Federal Reserve will most likely raise interest rates this week for the first time in nearly a decade. To understand what it means — and doesn’t mean — consider a previous year in which interest rates were on the rise. In 1920,.... More

Court dilemma: Is Planned Parenthood shooting an act of political zealotry.... DENVER — The man who launched a deadly attack on a Planned Parenthood clinic could push a Colorado court into a tricky decision: Was it was an act of political zealotry or mental illness?In only his second court appearance, Robert Lewis Dear.... More

Still in a crib, yet being given antipsychotics Andrew Rios’s seizures began when he was 5 months old and only got worse. At 18 months, when an epilepsy medication resulted in violent behavior, he was prescribed the antipsychotic Risperdal, a drug typically used to treat schizophrenia and.... More

Dow Chemical and DuPont set merger and plans to split DuPont and Dow Chemical, with more than three centuries of history between them, said on Friday they had agreed to merge, in one of the biggest deals of the year. The combined company, which would be known as DowDuPont, would result from an.... More

Chasing a climate deal in Paris LE BOURGET, France – Thursday night’s draft text of a new climate change accord skates on the edge of historical significance, and we won’t see the next version of it until Saturday. As I wrote earlier tonight, the ultimate measure of.... More

US employers added 211,000 jobs in November; unemployment rate remained 5.... WASHINGTON — The U.S. economy generated another month of solid hiring in November, making it highly likely that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates from record lows this month. The Labor Department said Friday that employers added.... More

As aging population grows, so do robotic health aides SAN FRANCISCO — The ranks of older and frail adults are growing rapidly in the developed world, raising alarms about how society is going to help them take care of themselves in their own homes. Naira Hovakimyan has an idea: drones. The.... More

Robust jobs report all but guarantees Feds will raise rates The American economy created 211,000 jobs in November, the government reported Friday, a robust showing that all but guarantees policy makers at the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates for the first time in nearly a decade when they meet.... More

FDA says sugar total should be less than a coke's worth Health experts have been nudging Americans to kick the sugar habit for years, and now it’s official: The Food and Drug Administration is recommending a daily cap on sugar for the first time. The goal is for Americans to limit added sugar to.... More

Yale college dean torn by racial protests NEW HAVEN — His cellphone started humming at 11:20 p.m. on Thursday. An urgent voice jolted Jonathan Holloway from his slumber. Students protesting against racism on campus were streaming toward the home of the university’s president, the.... More

Mormon resignations put support for gays over fealty to faith SALT LAKE CITY — Ever since she was an infant being blessed during a church naming ceremony, Lindsay Matson had been on the books of the Mormon Church. As it has done with millions of other members, the church kept note of her spiritual life.... More

In presidential campaign, it's now terrorism, not taxes WASHINGTON — Bernie Sanders dispensed with the threat from the Islamic State in two sentences at the start of the Democratic debate before abruptly pivoting to the dangers of a “rigged economy.” Ben Carson struggled to answer a simple.... More

IBM's design-centered strategy to set free the squares Phil Gilbert is a tall man with a shaved head and wire-rimmed glasses. He typically wears cowboy boots and bluejeans to work — hardly unusual these days, except he’s an executive at IBM, a company that still has a button-down suit-and-tie.... More

A.D.H.D. rates rise around the globe, but sympathy often lags Last year, Sinan Sonmezler of Istanbul refused to keep going to school. His eighth-grade classmates called him “weird” and “stupid,” and his teachers rebuked him for his tendency to stare out the window during class. The school director.... More

Many say high deductibles make their health law insurance all but useless WASHINGTON — Obama administration officials, urging people to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, have trumpeted the low premiums available on the law’s new marketplaces. But for many consumers, the sticker shock is.... More

Seattle puts mandatory sick time to healthy test SEATTLE – At restaurants and coffee shops, construction sites and tourist-packed fish markets, the workers and business owners of this city are testing a future that some Minneapolis leaders envision here. Nearly all Seattle workers are now.... More

The SAD epidemic In a 1981, a researcher at the National Institutes of Mental Health put out a call looking for people suffering from depression that emerged in the fall as the days got shorter, cooler and gloomier. Norman Rosenthal was studying the effect of.... More

Bridging opportunity gap, one turnaround at a time Ronnie Baker and Willie Minor have turned it around in recent years. The men have taken control of their lives through attitude improvement, training and employment, and bettered their families. And, in their own way, they are addressing the.... More

Should you treat muscle pain with ice or heat? Q. What determines whether one should use heat or ice to treat muscle or joint pain? A. Cold therapy, or cryotherapy, is usually recommended in the immediate aftermath of an acute injury, like a severe bruise or sprain, not mere soreness. The.... More

Prisons and jails put transgender inmates at risk During the many months she spent in immigration detention centers and a county jail, Estrella Sánchez, who is seeking asylum, became used to mockery from guards, taunts from fellow inmates and a deep sense of isolation. Ms. Sánchez, a.... More

Top prosecutors from across the nation meet in Portland to find ways to.... More than 30 prosecutors from across the country gathered in Portland the last two days to generate ideas on how to get guns out of the hands of domestic violence abusers. New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said he believes top.... More

Virtual reality marketing goal is to build stronger ties to consumer Instead of looking at a picture of a dress online, the new age of marketing would have a woman step into a virtual world to see how it looks on her, how it flows — and even meet the designer who made it. Virtual reality marketing is.... More

15 companies' profits exceed wildest dreams Investors have a very good picture of how companies' profits shaped up during the third quarter. It's just that some were much prettier than others. There are 15 companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 index, including real-estate firm Prologis.... More

Invest in your human capital As a young adult, your developing skills, education and sociability determine your ability to earn an income. Here's how. First, recognize that your human capital represents the present value of all your future wages. It matters most for Gen.... More

As heroin use by whites soars, parents urge gentler drug war NEWTON, N.H. — When Courtney Griffin was using heroin, she lied, disappeared and stole constantly from her parents to support her $400-a-day habit. Her family paid her debts, never filed a police report and kept her addiction secret — until.... More

‘Redlining’ home loan discrimination re-emerges as concern for.... NEWARK — The green welcome sign hangs in the front door of the downtown branch of Hudson City Savings Bank, New Jersey’s largest savings bank. But for years, federal regulators said, its executives did what they could to keep certain.... More

Minnesota's governor calls for test reductions after Obama.... Gov. Mark Dayton is renewing his push to dramatically scale back the amount of time students spend taking tests after President Obama announced that he wants to cap standardized exams at 2 percent of annual class time. “I’ve been urging.... More

Online personal shopping services are exploding What if you could celebrate your birthday every month? More and more, shoppers are coming home to find the glee that comes from opening a box full of surprises, thanks to subscription-based personal shopping services. Personal shoppers have.... More

Does exercise slow the aging process? Almost any amount and type of physical activity may slow aging deep within our cells, a new study finds. And middle age may be a critical time to get the process rolling, at least by one common measure of cell aging. Dating a cell’s age is.... More

Rough student arrest puts spotlight on school police A deputy’s rough takedown and arrest of an uncooperative 16-year-old girl in a high school classroom adds fuel to a debate over the proliferation and proper role of the police in schools, where officers are often called on to deal with.... More

China to end one-child policy, allowing all families to have two BEIJING — China will allow all couples to have two children, a Communist Party leadership meeting decided on Thursday, bringing an end to decades of restrictive policies that limited most urban families to one child. The announcement came.... More

Drug-makers sidestep barriers on pricing The pain reliever Duexis is a combination of two old drugs, the generic equivalents of Motrin and Pepcid. If prescribed separately, the two drugs together would cost no more than $20 or $40 a month. By contrast, Duexis, which contains both in a.... More

How innovation is helping seniors live longer, healthier at home A century ago, few folks lived past the age of 50. Most reached the milestones of young adulthood — new jobs, marriage or kids — absent their mom, dad or both. Today’s millennials are more likely than not to have both parents as well as.... More

For offenders who can't pay, it's a pint of blood or jail time MARION, Ala. — Judge Marvin Wiggins’s courtroom was packed on a September morning. The docket listed hundreds of offenders who owed fines or fees for a wide variety of crimes — hunting after dark, assault, drug possession and passing bad.... More

Talk therapy found to ease schizophrenia More than two million people in the United States have a diagnosis of schizophrenia, and the treatment for most of them mainly involves strong doses of antipsychotic drugs that blunt hallucinations and delusions but can come with unbearable.... More

WeWork ends combative dispute with janitorial workers WeWork, a New York start-up valued at $10 billion with the mission “to create a world where people work to make a life, not just a living,” is seeking to put a contentious labor dispute behind it. On Tuesday, WeWork, which offers temporary.... More

UC Berkeley defends action against professor accused of sexual harassment UC Berkeley officials are defending the disciplinary action taken in the wake of sexual harassment allegations against a well-known astronomer, as faculty and others call for harsher consequences for the professor. The university has faced.... More

Where have all the tomboys gone? Last year Zest Books and Houghton Mifflin published “Tomboy,” a graphic memoir for young adults by Liz Prince, 33, about her experience growing up preferring rough-and-tumble games and the jeans and sweatshirts that enable them. “If.... More

Work barriers persist for breast-feeding, U of M study finds More than half of working mothers lack proper breaks and facilities to pump breast milk at work — even though it’s required by federal law for large employers — according to the first national look at breast-feeding support in the.... More

Millions die of malnutrition each year, but there is hope for the hungry,.... Around the world, a lack of food is a debilitating, often fatal problem. Nearly one in nine people worldwide are chronically undernourished, and 3.1 million children die of malnutrition each year. As terrible as that problem is, there are.... More

Compulsive texting takes toll on teenagers Teenagers use text messaging more than any other mode of communication, so it may be hard to tell. But youngsters who check their phones continually, snap if you interrupt them and are so preoccupied with texting that they skip sleep and.... More

How to talk to your kids about social media and bullying My daughter is 10 and just asked if she could get an Instagram account. The most surprising part of this is not that she wants one but that most of her classmates already have one, which shows how ubiquitous social media has become. I am not.... More

Researchers, food company look to serve consumers beef with a side of.... WICHITA, Kan. — Health-conscious consumers might be persuaded to eat more beef if it was fortified with heart-healthy omega-3 fatty acids naturally found in salmon and walnuts, according to researchers and some ranchers who are feeding cattle.... More

Obama says 'it's about the families' after meeting victims of deadly.... ROSEBURG, Ore. — President Barack Obama, faced with protests over his meeting Friday with victims of an Oregon shooting, held to his view that something must be done about deadly gun crimes. But given the freshness of the week-old tragedy, he.... More

Microsoft's mission to reignite PC sector may be taking hold Shipments of personal computers fell nearly 11 percent last quarter, to the shock of almost no one. Sales have been declining for so long — 14 consecutive quarters — that it is becoming harder to remember a time when PCs ruled the tech.... More

New worry for home buyers: a party house next door AUSTIN, TEX. — The houses are often among the nicest on the block, or at least the biggest. They may be new construction where a smaller structure once stood, or an extensively renovated home with cheery paint in shades of yellow or blue. But.... More

In 'Steve Jobs,' tolerating tech's unpleasant visionaries Not long ago, Larry Page watched the Disney film “Tomorrowland.” He didn’t like it. Mr. Page, the co-founder of Google and the chief executive of its parent company, Alphabet, told shareholders in June that he wanted to see a positive.... More

New kids on campus: those with intellectual disabilities Billy Hillman knew all about getting ready for college. He’d helped his five older siblings pack their bags and move out of their home in Duluth. It never occurred to him — or his parents — that Billy, a lanky sports fan who has an.... More

East Coast rainstorm brings misery to S. Carolina; dozens rescued and.... COLUMBIA, S.C. — A dangerous rainstorm drenching the East Coast brought more misery Sunday to South Carolina — cutting power to thousands, forcing hundreds of water rescues and closing "too many roads to name" because of floodwaters. Early.... More

Minneapolis weighs sweeping new rules for sick time, work schedules Minneapolis officials are proposing that every business in the city be required for the first time to give all of their workers paid sick leave and set all of their work schedules at least 28 days in advance. Under the emerging plan, which.... More

Does Pre-K make any difference? Does preschool work? Although early education has been widely praised as the magic bullet that can transport poor kids into the education mainstream, a major new study raises serious doubts. Since 2004, Tennessee has offered state-subsidized.... More

The art of aging: ArtSage teaches seniors how to engage in music,.... One big room was full of people banging on inverted buckets on chairs, simulating the experience of playing the taiko drum, a large traditional Japanese instrument that engages the player’s whole body in movement and rhythm. In another room,.... More

Madison, Wisc. to outlaw sleeping of homeless at its 'front porch' Madison, Wis. – After months of debate, Madison and Dane County are ready to ban homeless people from sleeping on the City-County Building’s “front porch” starting Thursday. The move came as a relief to those raising concerns about.... More

Which is better for my health: long walk or short stairs? Every morning I have a choice: climb 60 stairs to get to my office, or walk down the hall, take the elevator to the third floor, and walk back – about 200 steps total. So which is better for my health, steps or stairs? In the broadest terms,.... More

Google unveils new devices to connect Smartphone and TV SAN FRANCISCO — Apple used a flashy stage show this month to lay out a vision for how it wants to take over your living room. Now it is Google’s turn. Google on Tuesday revealed two new Chromecast streaming devices — one for televisions,.... More

A culture of silence on sex assault Women undergraduates are more than four times more likely to be sexually assaulted than men while in college, but are less likely to believe they’ll be taken seriously if they report an assault. On Monday, the Association of American.... More

A culture of silence on sex assault Women undergraduates are more than four times more likely to be sexually assaulted than men while in college, but are less likely to believe they’ll be taken seriously if they report an assault. On Monday, the Association of American.... More

iPhone's hands-free Siri is omen of the future The headline feature in Apple’s latest smartphones, the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus, is something called 3D Touch, which lets you activate shortcuts on the phone by pressing a bit harder on the screen. For now, though, I found a less novel, but far.... More

Who is likely to find true love on the job? You’ve probably heard of the big dating sites like OKCupid, Match.com and Tindr. But unless you are a love-hungry lawyer, teacher or farmer, you may not be aware of smaller dating websites that aim to fix up people of a similar profession..... More

Kentucky clerk may be back in court over marriage fight, says she's.... FRANKFORT, Ky. — She's already spent five days in jail, and now a Kentucky clerk could be back in court soon for altering marriage license forms issued to same-sex couples. On Monday, lawyers for two gay couples and two straight couples.... More

A sprained ankle may have lifelong consequences Tens of thousands of Americans sprain an ankle every year. But ankle sprains get little respect, with most of us shrugging off the injury as inconsequential and soon returning to normal activities. Several new studies in people and animals,.... More

Defiant pledge fought back during hazing, report says POCONO SUMMIT, Pa. — The fraternity brothers decided that Chun Hsien Deng had a bad attitude. Like three other Pi Delta Psi fraternity pledges who went before him on a cold December morning in 2013, Mr. Deng was forced to run across a frozen.... More

Body image impacts youth weight gain Self-perception among overweight girls can affect their weight gain over time, according to a new University of Minnesota study — but not necessarily in the way some scientists thought. While one school of thought surmised that overweight.... More

Attitudes shift on paid leave: dads sue too WASHINGTON — For decades, women who believed their employers had punished them with lower wages and missed promotions after they had become mothers have been filing gender discrimination complaints and bringing lawsuits. More

Bones in South African cave reveal new human species MAGALIESBURG, South Africa — Scientists say they've discovered a new member of the human family tree, revealed by a huge trove of bones in a barely accessible, pitch-dark chamber of a cave in South Africa. The creature shows a surprising mix.... More

Fires in the West have residents gasping FRESNO, Calif. — The air in the San Joaquin Valley hangs thick with gray-brown dust, a result of the state’s largest fire, which has burned through more than 160 square miles in the nearby hills. The fire has so far spared lives and homes..... More

Eight years after the first iPhone, Apple keeps going its own way You will hear some carping, in the coming days, about a lack of revolutionary upgrades in the new iPhone. At its media event in San Francisco on Wednesday, Apple added just a handful of features to its latest smartphones, the 6S and 6S Plus,.... More

Justice Department sets sights on Wall Street executives WASHINGTON — Stung by years of criticism that it has coddled Wall Street criminals, the Justice Department issued new policies on Wednesday that prioritize the prosecution of individual employees — not just their companies — and put.... More

Beer at work? Companies entice employees to the office with plenty of perks Collin Kaas handed out mugs of frothy beer to employees at his architecture firm last Monday afternoon, then loaded up the Nerf guns for war. Foam bullets whizzed through the air, hitting computer screens, landing on tables covered in design.... More

Apple aims higher with upgraded Apple TV SAN FRANCISCO – Apple is finally getting serious about pushing into our living rooms. That ambition will be underlined at an Apple event in San Francisco on Wednesday, when the company plans to unveil an upgraded Apple TV, a device similar to.... More

Obama to require federal contractors to provide paid leave President Obama plans to sign an executive order on Monday requiring federal contractors to provide up to seven days of paid sick leave a year, his latest use of executive power to change the rules of the American workplace, the White House.... More

Ousted as gay, aging veterans battle again COLUMBUS, Ohio — When the Army discharged Pvt. Donald Hallman in 1955 for being what it called a “Class II homosexual,” the 21-year-old was so scared of being an outcast that he burned all his military records, save for a single dog tag.... More

Workers organize, but don't unionize, to get protection under labor law SANTA FE, N.M. — Jorge Porras used to report to his carwash job here most mornings at 8:15 a.m., but he said that his boss often did not let him clock in until 11, when customers frequently began streaming in. Many days he was paid for just.... More

The art of aging: ArtSage teaches older people how to engage in music,.... One big room was full of people banging on inverted buckets on chairs, simulating the experience of playing the taiko drum, a large traditional Japanese instrument that engages the player’s whole body in movement and rhythm. In another room,.... More

As work becomes more mobile, office designs change and buildings adapt Kristi McKinney bounces around her company’s office like a pinball. She meets with a co-worker at a long worktable in the kitchen area to discuss a project. She takes a call from her insurance agent to discuss hail damage at McKinney’s home.... More

When to tell a prospective employer that you're pregnant Last December, I applied for a position at a big technology firm. The description indicated that the job was based at its California headquarters. I live in another state, but the company also has a large campus nearby. Initially, while.... More

Friends at work? Not so much ONCE, work was a major source of friendships. We took our families to company picnics and invited our colleagues over for dinner. Now, work is a more transactional place. We go to the office to be efficient, not to form bonds. We have plenty of.... More

Maiden names are making a comeback When Donna Suh married last fall, she decided to keep her last name. “I’m Asian and he’s not, so it’s less confusing for me to not have a white name,” she said. “And on social media I thought it might be harder to find me” with a.... More

Tools for tailored learning may expose students' personal details If the efforts by state legislators to restrict the use of student data are any guide, the email addresses and search queries of the nation’s schoolchildren are a hot commodity. In May, Georgia adopted a law barring online services designed.... More

The right response to youth concussions As the number of youngsters who participate in organized sports grows and reports of concussions rise, it’s vital for parents, athletes and coaches to know how these injuries are properly diagnosed and treated to avoid long-lasting.... More

As his term wanes, Obama restores workers' rights WASHINGTON — With little fanfare, the Obama administration has been pursuing an aggressive campaign to restore protections for workers that have been eroded by business activism, conservative governance and the evolution of the economy in.... More

Drought-plagued California communities ready for nature's next challenge:.... SANTA ANA, Calif. — While drought-plagued California is eager for rain, the forecast of a potentially Godzilla-like El Nino event has communities clearing out debris basins, urging residents to stock up on emergency supplies and even talking.... More

Protest seeks to block Medicare policy changes on prosthetics payments WASHINGTON – Ann Morris stood outside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on Wednesday on artificial legs. The 47-year-old St. Louis Park resident who lost limbs to diabetes had traveled to Washington for the first time in her.... More

Mayo Clinic doctor has your prescription for happiness A doctor at Rochester’s Mayo Clinic believes that he has the prescription for happiness. He isn’t arguing that we can buy happiness, but that we can achieve it. We can train our brains to feel less stressed and increase our inner bliss,.... More

For athletes, the risk of too much water Are we, with the best of intentions, putting young athletes at risk when we urge them to drink lots of fluids during steamy sports practices and games? A new report about overhydration in sports suggests that under certain circumstances the.... More

Suicide on campus and the pressure of perfection Kathryn DeWitt conquered high school like a gold-medal decathlete. She ran track, represented her school at a statewide girls’ leadership program and took eight Advanced Placement tests, including one for which she independently prepared,.... More

Square root of kids' math anxiety: their parents' help A common impairment with lifelong consequences turns out to be highly contagious between parent and child, a new study shows. The impairment? Math anxiety. Means of transmission? Homework help. Children of highly math-anxious parents learned.... More

Wider reach is sought for new hepatitis c treatments WASHINGTON — Federal and state Medicaid officials should widen access to prescription drugs that could cure tens of thousands of people with hepatitis C, including medications that can cost up to $1,000 a pill, health care experts have told.... More

A racial gap in attitudes about hospice care BUFFALO — Twice already, Narseary and Vernal Harris have watched a son die. The first time — Paul, at 26 — was agonizing and frenzied, his body tethered to a machine meant to keep him alive as his sickle cell disease progressed. When the.... More

School suspensions lead to legal challenge CHOCOWINITY, N.C. — As school let out one day in January 2008, students from rival towns faced off. Two girls flailed away for several seconds and clusters of boys pummeled each other until teachers pulled them apart. The fistfights at.... More

Alongside a doctor's care, a dose of traditional healing SANTIAGO, Chile — The first thing Manuel Lincovil does is take a look at the urine. A machi, or spiritual leader and healer of the indigenous Mapuche people, he watches the liquid settle as he shakes the glass jar, learning of his patient’s.... More

Study links stroke risk and length of workweek People who work 55 hours or more per week have a 33 percent greater risk of stroke and a 13 percent greater risk of coronary heart disease than those working standard hours, researchers reported on Wednesday in the Lancet. The new analysis.... More

Book ban in Venice invites a gay rights battle VENICE — As subversive books go, many of the 49 children’s tales hardly seem seditious. There is the story of the male dog who aspired to be a ballerina. The one about the little boy who wanted to be a princess, and a princess who wanted to.... More

Poll finds most back healthy school meals A majority of Americans support providing schoolchildren with healthy meals that consist of more fruits and vegetables and fewer foods high in calories and sodium, according to a national poll released on Tuesday by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation.... More

F.D.A. approves Addyi, a libido pill for women The first prescription drug to enhance women’s sexual drive won regulatory approval on Tuesday, clinching a victory for a lobbying campaign that had accused the Food and Drug Administration of gender bias for ignoring the sexual needs of.... More

Julian Bond, long-time civil rights activist, is dead at 75 ATLANTA — Julian Bond, a leading figure from the 1960s civil rights movement who served as chairman of the NAACP after a long career in politics, died Saturday, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. He was 75. Bond died in Fort Walton.... More

Airbnb horror story points to need for precautions Early in the evening of July 4, Micaela Giles’s mobile phone started sounding alerts, and a series of messages straight out of a horror movie began scrolling down her screen. Her 19-year-old son told her that his Airbnb host in Madrid had.... More

Inside Amazon: wrestling big ideas in a bruising workplace SEATTLE — On Monday mornings, fresh recruits line up for an orientation intended to catapult them into Amazon’s singular way of working. They are told to forget the “poor habits” they learned at previous jobs, one employee recalled..... More

Exclusion of blacks from juries raises renewed scrutiny SHREVEPORT, La. — Here are some reasons prosecutors have offered for excluding blacks from juries: They were young or old, single or divorced, religious or not, failed to make eye contact, lived in a poor part of town, had served in the.... More

States trying to defund Planned Parenthood may be breaking federal law WASHINGTON, Aug 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. government has warned states moving to defund women's health group Planned Parenthood that they may be in conflict with federal law, officials said on Wednesday. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.... More

Kentucky: Clerk ordered to issue wedding licenses to same-sex couples A federal judge has ordered the Rowan County clerk, Kim Davis, to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Ms. Davis was one of a handful of local elected officials nationwide who stopped issuing marriage licenses after the United States.... More

For vaccines needed in an epidemic, timing is everything Last year, scientists launched a trial of an experimental vaccine against Ebola in Guinea. On Friday, they reported great news: The vaccine works well, providing remarkable protection just 10 days after injection. “We have to stop and.... More

What a $15 minimum wage would mean for your city As the campaign for a $15 minimum wage has gained strength this year, even supporters of large minimum-wage increases have wondered how high the wage floor can rise before it reduces employment and hurts the economy. The recent recommendation.... More

Facial recognition software moves from overseas wars to local police SAN DIEGO — Facial recognition software, which American military and intelligence agencies used for years in Iraq and Afghanistan to identify potential terrorists, is being eagerly adopted by dozens of police departments around the country to.... More

Mississippi ban on adoptions by same-sex couples is challenged When Mississippi adopted a one-sentence law forbidding adoptions by same-sex couples in 2000, it was not so surprising: For decades, gays and lesbians in several states had run into roadblocks when they sought to adopt or foster children. So it.... More

Fear that debate could hurt G.O.P. in women's eyes After Senator Marco Rubio of Florida insisted at the Republican presidential debate that rape and incest victims should carry pregnancies to term, aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton could barely contain their delight at his unyielding stance,.... More

Six strategies to extend savings without working longer Karen Arndt, 60, has tinkered with several retirement calculators, and they all generate the same finger-wagging advice: Keep working, they seem to warn. You’re not even close. She would have saved more had she not quit a well-paying.... More

Solid jobs report gives Fed one more signal to raise rates The American economy delivered pretty much what was expected last month in terms of hiring, giving the Federal Reserve one more piece of evidence that conditions are strong enough to support an increase in the interest rate. The pace of.... More

Paid leave for fathers. Any takers? This week, two companies joined in an unfolding race to provide ever more generous paid parental leave. Netflix said it planned to offer unlimited leave in the first year after a child’s arrival to many (though not all) of its employees,.... More

How much is a CEO worth? America's confused approach to pay Do corporate chief executives make too much money, or too little? At first glance, it seems like an outlandish question. After all, the ratio of what the C.E.O.s of America’s largest companies are paid to that of average workers has soared.... More

Racial attitudes shift in U.S. WASHINGTON – After a year of high-profile police shootings of black Americans, many captured on video, racial attitudes among Americans — particularly whites — have undergone a significant shift. A majority of whites now say the country.... More

Gay teens have higher pregnancy rates than their straight peers At a time when teen pregnancy rates across the state are at historic lows, the numbers for gay teens are surprisingly high. In Minnesota, these young people are far more likely than their straight peers to become pregnant or have gotten someone.... More

Obama drafts order on paid sick leave for Federal contractors WASHINGTON — Stymied by Republicans in Congress, President Obama has drafted an executive order to force any company that contracts with the federal government to issue paid leave to employees who are sick, are seeking medical attention or.... More

Interim archbishop: Clergy abuse claims are 'staggering.' A day after the deadline for filing clergy abuse claims against the St. Paul and Minneapolis archdiocese, interim Archbishop Bernard Hebda described the number of victims who stepped forward as “staggering.” “It’s helped me to realize.... More

For PTSD, key might be inner peace Meditation and mindfulness exercises proved more successful than standard group therapy in treating symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in veterans at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center — a finding that could reshape the.... More

Blame a male-based algorithm for the temperature in your office? Readers.... An article about office air conditioning set off a fierce gender debate among Times readers — and not just about thermostat settings. The article, by Pam Belluck, a Times science reporter, cited a study published Monday by two Dutch.... More

Netflix offers expanded maternity and paternity leave Netflix announced on Tuesday that it was starting an unlimited leave policy for new mothers and fathers for the first year after the birth or adoption of a child. As part of the new maternity and paternity policy, employees will receive their.... More

Republicans alter script on abortion, seeking to shift debate WASHINGTON — Rick Perry’s voice softens when he talks about the joy he gets from looking at his iPad and seeing “that 20-week picture of my first grandbaby.” Marco Rubio says ultrasounds of his sons and daughters reinforced how “they.... More

Raising floor for minimum wage pushes economy into the unknown WASHINGTON — The fight for a $15 minimum wage has gained momentum in New York, California and other places around the country in recent months. But as a national strategy to raise incomes at the bottom of the pay scale, it faces major.... More

Campus suicide and the pressure of perfection Kathryn DeWitt conquered high school like a gold-medal decathlete. She ran track, represented her school at a statewide girls’ leadership program and took eight Advanced Placement tests, including one for which she independently prepared,.... More

For transgender Americans, legal battles over restrooms (editorial) Gavin Grimm sat quietly in the audience last November as dozens of parents at a school board meeting in Gloucester County, Va., demanded that he be barred from using the boys’ restrooms at school. They discussed the transgender boy’s.... More

A better treatment for Alzheimer's: exercise Exercise can prevent Alzheimer's disease, and now research shows it works as a great therapy, as well. Vigorous exercise not only makes Alzheimer's patients feel better, but it makes changes in the brain that could indicate improvements,.... More

Costly to treat, Hepatitis C gains quietly in the U.S. EDGEWOOD, Ky. — Zach Wayman says he first contracted hepatitis C several years ago by sharing needles with other heroin addicts. He went into rehab and was successfully treated for the virus. But he relapsed into addiction and reinfected.... More

Poll finds most in U.S. hold dim view of race relations Seven years ago, in the gauzy afterglow of a stirring election night in Chicago, commentators dared ask whether the United States had finally begun to heal its divisions over race and atone for the original sin of slavery by electing its first.... More

Poll finds most in U.S. hold dim view of race relations Seven years ago, in the gauzy afterglow of a stirring election night in Chicago, commentators dared ask whether the United States had finally begun to heal its divisions over race and atone for the original sin of slavery by electing its first.... More

Push to lift hourly wage is now serious business It started in New York City as what seemed a quixotic drive confined to fast-food workers. But the movement to raise the hourly minimum wage took root in other parts of the country, and is emerging as a significant, and divisive, element in the.... More

Important steps toward replacing "No Child Left Behind" (editorial) After years of delays, Congress has come closer than ever to rewriting the much-criticized No Child Left Behind (NCLB) federal education law. Last week, the Senate approved a bill that shares some common goals with the House measure. While.... More

New data on two Alzheimer's drugs alters hope and expectation New data released Wednesday raised hopes somewhat that an experimental Alzheimer’s drug from Eli Lilly and Company might be effective. At the same time, other data was released on Wednesday that could dampen expectations a bit for a similar.... More

With Planned Parenthood videos, activist ignites abortion issue WASHINGTON — David Daleiden would only reluctantly talk about himself: “I don’t think I’m the story,” he said by phone on Tuesday. But he is the man behind the story and the hidden camera — the anti-abortion activist who has.... More

Republicans setting sights on same-sex marriage law WASHINGTON — Days after a showdown over the Confederate battle flag, House Republicans are barreling toward a new confrontation on another contentious issue: How should Congress respond to the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize same-sex.... More

A new cadre of experts helps women navigate their divorces The women are architects, film industry executives, skin care consultants, product managers at tech companies, psychologists. They have worked in finance, publishing and television, though some had scaled back or left the work force when their.... More

Judges question rule that erects a high hurdle to erasing student loans On a typical day in her last job, Janet Roth left home at 4 a.m. each day and drove 40 miles to a tax preparation office in Glendale, Ariz. When she finally got back home, she had less than an hour before starting her 6 p.m. shift decorating.... More

U.S. agency rules for gays in workplace discrimination WASHINGTON — The United States Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has ruled that workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is illegal under federal law, setting the stage for litigation aimed at striking down such.... More

Planned Parenthood chief apologizes for video WASHINGTON — The president of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America, Cecile Richards, apologized Thursday for what she called the lack of compassion shown by a staff member who was secretly recorded describing how affiliates provide.... More

Lives grow longer and health care challenges change If you’re living with multiple ailments, you’re not alone. According to an analysis published last month in the British medical journal The Lancet, 2.3 billion people, almost one-third of humanity, suffered from five or more health problems.... More

Senate approves a bill to revamp "No Child Left Behind" WASHINGTON — For the first time in 14 years, the Senate on Thursday approved a revised version of No Child Left Behind, the signature Bush-era education law that ushered in an era of broadly reviled, high-stakes standardized testing. But the.... More

HIPPA privacy law is often misunderstood How do people use, misuse or abuse Hipaa, the federal regulations protecting patients’ confidential health information? Let us count the ways: Last month, in a continuing care retirement community in Ithaca, N.Y., Helen Wyvill, 72, noticed.... More

At Zappos, pushing shoes and a vision On a sizzling June morning in Las Vegas, 10 Zappos.com employees sat in an air-conditioned conference room decorated with “Star Wars” memorabilia and a mural of Darth Vader. They had gathered for a weekly meeting to discuss new internal.... More

M.B.A. programs that get you where you want to go With some 13,000 graduate schools of business across the globe, the M.B.A. degree has clearly become a commodity. Even among elite schools, courses and case studies are pretty much water from the same well (i.e., finance, operations, marketing,.... More

Heading ban for youth soccer won't end injuries Would soccer be safer if young players were not allowed to head the ball? According to a new study of heading and concussions in youth soccer, the answer to that question is not the simple yes that many of us might have hoped. Soccer parents.... More

Specialty pharmacies proliferate, along with questions SINKING SPRING, Pa. — As the end of each month nears, Megan Short frets. Her 1-year-old daughter, Willow, cannot afford to miss even a single dose of a drug she takes daily to prevent her body from rejecting her transplanted heart. Because of.... More

Caitlin Jenner says she'll push for transgender tolerance Caitlyn Jenner said on Wednesday that she planned to use the attention that had come with her public transition to being a woman to push for tolerance of transgender people across the world. In an acceptance speech for the Arthur Ashe Courage.... More

There's a gender gap when it comes to children's health costs The cost of children’s health care is growing quickly — especially for baby boys. In 2013, per capita spending on health care for babies, infants and toddlers between the ages of 0 and 3 was $4,813, according to a study of health insurance.... More

Voting rights legacy of the '60s heads to court as North Carolina law is.... Days after South Carolina confronted its past and lowered the Confederate battle flag, North Carolina will grapple with its present-day rules that determine access to the voting booth. A federal trial opening in Winston-Salem on Monday is meant.... More

Modern doctor's house calls: Skype chat and quick diagnosis TACOMA, Wash. — One night, when her face turned puffy and painful from what she thought was a sinus infection, Jessica DeVisser briefly considered going to an urgent care clinic, but then decided to try something “kind of sci-fi.” She sat.... More

Why investing is so complicated, and how to simplify it I finally faced up to something I had been dreading. After years of procrastinating, I logged on to my retirement account. Just working my way through the rigmarole of retrieving lost passwords and locating my investments was bad enough. But once I started to examine my portfolio, I began to feel.... More

Some find nuance in a bigoted Atticus Finch With all the debate brewing over the origins of Harper Lee’s novel “Go Set a Watchman,” the biggest bombshell turned out to be an explosive plot twist that no one saw coming. Atticus Finch — the crusading lawyer of “To Kill a.... More

To fight income inequality, lifting the poor isn't enough Just about every high-profile politician in the country today says income inequality is a problem. And while those from the center-left to the far right differ on how they would reduce inequality, they tend to agree on one thing: We can do it.... More

Evolution of coral could help keep warming threat away Warming ocean waters due to climate change have been ravaging coral reefs over the past few decades, but researchers have discovered that, with the help of some breeding, the threat may be kept at bay. Some corals already have the genes needed.... More

Most Alzheimer's patients are women; scientists are now asking why Nearly two-thirds of Americans with Alzheimer’s disease are women, and now some scientists are questioning the long-held assumption that it’s just because they tend to live longer than men. What else may put women at extra risk? Could it be.... More

White House solar plan aims at low- and middle-income people WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Tuesday will announce an initiative to help low- and middle-income Americans gain access to solar energy, part of a series of steps President Obama is taking to tackle climate change, according to.... More

Colorado finds startling success in effort to curb teenage births WALSENBURG, Colo. — Over the past six years, Colorado has conducted one of the largest experiments with long-acting birth control. If teenagers and poor women were offered free intrauterine devices and implants that prevent pregnancy for.... More

Top-selling diet drug Phentermine is cheap and easy to get The Food and Drug Administration has approved several new weight-loss drugs in recent years, but the best-selling diet pill in America isn’t among them. That title belongs to phentermine, a generic drug that has been around for decades and.... More

In health law, a boon for diet clinics Dr. Michael Kaplan looked across his desk at a woman who had sought out his Long Island Weight Loss Institute and asked the question he often poses to new patients: “Where do you think you go wrong with food?” The 38-year-old patient was.... More

After same-sex ruling, employers weigh domestic partner programs The Supreme Court’s landmark ruling allowing same-sex marriage has raised a question for employers: Should they maintain domestic partner benefits? Two of Minnesota’s largest employers, Mayo Clinic and the University of Minnesota, have.... More

Health insurance companies seek big raises for 2016 WASHINGTON — Health insurance companies around the country are seeking rate increases of 20 percent to 40 percent or more, saying their new customers under the Affordable Care Act turned out to be sicker than expected. Federal officials say.... More

Effective concussion treatment remains frustratingly elusive, despite a.... In a small brick building across the street from a Taco Bell in Marrero, La., patients enter a clear plastic capsule and breathe pure oxygen. The procedure, known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy, uses a pressurized chamber to help scuba divers.... More

The new old age: more caregivers are no spring chickens themselves Gail Schwartz wants to keep her 85-year-old husband out of a nursing home as long as she can, but it isn’t easy. Because David Schwartz, a retired lawyer, has vascular dementia and can no longer stay alone in their home in Chevy Chase, Md.,.... More

Overtime plan is latest battle in debate over economic fairness Ryan Rosenthal opened a healthy-choice sandwich and snack shop in a Minneapolis skyway last fall and now works 60 hours a week with nobody guaranteeing his paycheck but himself. The shop, called Simpls, has no manager, but Rosenthal hopes to.... More

U.S. economy adds 223,000 jobs; unemployment at 5.3% The American economy entered the summer powered by a decent head of steam, as employers added 223,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3 percent. After bottoming out in March as the overall economy stalled, hiring has rebounded.... More

Exxon lumbers along to catch up with gay rights A day after the United States Supreme Court affirmed same-sex marriage as a right, more than 125 Exxon Mobil employees marched in the Houston L.G.B.T. Pride Celebration for the first time. They carried an Exxon banner and wore rainbow-hued.... More

Colleges brace for Supreme Court review of race-based admissions The Supreme Court’s decision to reconsider a challenge to affirmative action at the University of Texas at Austin has universities around the country fearing that they will be forced to abandon what remains of race-based admission preferences.... More

Report shows widespread mistreatment by health workers during childbirth They are slapped and pinched during labor, yelled at, denied pain medicine, neglected and forced to share beds with other women who just gave birth. And that is just a partial list of the abuses and humiliations inflicted on women around the.... More

Obama overtime rule scratches the surface in helping the middle class WASHINGTON — For all the ambition of President Obama’s plan to significantly expand the number of Americans eligible for overtime pay, the proposal falls well short of helping substantially increase middle-class wages, its chief advertised.... More

Older athletes have a strikingly young fitness age Older athletes can be much younger, physically, than they are in real life, according to a new study of participants in the coming Senior Olympics. The study found that the athletes’ fitness age is typically 20 years or more younger than.... More

Birth month has connection to disease For much of history, astronomy and astrology were a big part of medicine. Nearly 2,500 years ago, Hippocrates, the father of Western medicine, observed a connection between the movements of the stars and disease, writing that “the.... More

A promising medical plan, if only health care organizations would stick.... Two recent studies of Medicare’s new way to pay for health care show that it’s reducing spending and improving quality. The problem is, health care organizations don’t always stick with the program. Both studies examined Medicare’s 32.... More

Supreme Court will reconsider affirmative action case WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to take a second look at a challenge to the use of race in admissions decisions by the University of Texas at Austin, reviving a potent challenge to affirmative action in higher education. When.... More

With same-sex decision, evangelical churches address new reality WEST CHICAGO, Ill. — The tone of the worship service was set at the start. An opening prayer declared it “a dark day.” The sermon focused on a psalm of lament. In between, a pastor read a statement proclaiming the church’s elders and.... More

Search for Confederate symbols finds plenty of them in WASHINGTON — Just outside a dining room where senators gather for lunch hangs a large painting of John C. Calhoun, the 19th-century South Carolina statesman who once called slavery “indispensable to the peace and "happiness of Americans." More

Supreme Court hands Obama second major health care win The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the nationwide tax subsidies under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, in a ruling that preserves health insurance for millions of Americans. The justices said in a 6-3 ruling that the subsidies.... More

At Charleston newspaper, covering the news and choking back tears CHARLESTON, S.C. — Glenn Smith, the projects editor for The Post and Courier here, was with friends last Wednesday night when a colleague called. “He said: ‘I’ve just heard that people have been shot at the church near your house. You.... More

Middle-class black families, in low-income neighborhoods Many of the nation’s racial disparities stem from the simple economic fact that white families make more money than black families on average, a gap that has remained stubbornly large in recent decades. Yet neither this income gap nor blatant.... More

New momentum on paid leave Oregon this month became the fourth state to pass a bill requiring that companies give workers paid sick days to care for themselves or family members. Chipotle said this month that it would begin offering hourly workers paid sick days and.... More

Medical marijuana unproven to help many illnesses its used for, major.... CHICAGO — Medical marijuana has not been proven to work for many illnesses that state laws have approved it for, according to the first comprehensive analysis of research on its potential benefits. The strongest evidence is for chronic pain.... More

Blood pressure, the mystery number Almost half a century after rigorous studies showed medicines that lower blood pressure prevent heart attacks, strokes and deaths, researchers still do not know just how low blood pressure should go. More than 58 million Americans take these.... More

Fidgeting may benefit children with A.D.H.D. Instead of telling children with hyperactivity and attention problems to sit still, perhaps we should encourage them to wriggle at will, according to a new study of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or A.D.H.D. The study,.... More

More Americans are renting, and paying more, as home ownership falls WESTFIELD, N.J. — To Johnnie McDowell, the house on Livingston Street seems to taunt him every time he walks by. It’s nothing special: The two-story home is a bit shabby, and it’s been on and off the market in recent months without.... More

Medical insurance is good for financial health, too People who have health insurance have less health-related financial stress. That’s a not-so surprising finding from a recent survey from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. There’s good reason to expect the Affordable Care Act.... More

Seeking efficient paths to slimmer children Pardon the cliché, but it happens to be particularly apt in this case: In trying to tame the nation’s obesity epidemic, an ounce of prevention is decidedly worth a pound of cure — considerably more than a pound, in fact, according to the.... More

U.S. 'not cured' of racism, says Obama, citing slavery's legacy WASHINGTON — Just days after nine black parishioners were killed in a South Carolina church, President Obama said the legacy of slavery still “casts a long shadow” on American life, and he said that choosing not to say the word.... More

Justice's tolerance seen in his Sacramento roots SACRAMENTO — In the fall of 1987, a package arrived on the desk of Laurence H. Tribe, a Harvard law professor who had just lost a Supreme Court case on gay rights. It contained the legal opinions of Anthony M. Kennedy, a strait-laced,.... More

Wait lists grow as more vets seek care One year after outrage about long waiting lists for health care shook the Department of Veterans Affairs, the agency is facing a new crisis: The number of veterans on waiting lists of one month or more is now 50 percent higher than it was.... More

The cost of letting young people drift President Obama spotlighted a national crisis last year when he launched My Brother’s Keeper, an initiative that encourages communities, nonprofits and the private sector to focus on ways to improve the lives of some of the nation’s most.... More

Building a better valve With his smooth, fleshy face and twinkly eyes, Herbert Auspitz, 93, had an air of vigor, but he was fading fast. He had a fatal disease with a prognosis worse than that of most cancers: severe aortic valve stenosis. It is a narrowing of the.... More

Death rates plummet with faster, better care after heart attacks CAMDEN, N.J. – Yvette Samuels was listening to jazz late one night when she felt a stabbing pain down her left shoulder. She suspected a heart attack — she had heard about the symptoms from watching a Rosie O’Donnell stand-up routine on.... More

Tough tests for teachers, with questions of bias Students are not the only ones struggling to pass new standardized tests being rolled out around the country. So are those who want to be teachers. Concerned that education schools were turning out too many middling graduates, states have been.... More

To cut teen smoking, raise tobacco sales age A new study has found a simple way to significantly reduce teenage smoking: raise the tobacco sales age to 21. In 2005, Needham, Mass., did just that, while surrounding communities kept their age limit at 18. Researchers surveyed 16,000 high.... More

Science weighs in on high heels Many commentators have pointed out that the new movie “Jurassic World” is scientifically suspect, if not fantastical. But they have overlooked one of the more prominent ways in which the blockbuster diverges from established research. The.... More

European Union fails to reach agreement on sharing migrant burden LUXEMBOURG – European Union nations failed to bridge differences Tuesday over an emergency plan to share the burden of the thousands of refugees crossing the Mediterranean, while on the French-Italian border, police in riot gear forcibly.... More

How Rachel Dolezal came to identify as black SPOKANE, Wash. — When she moved into her uncle’s basement in the largely white town of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in 2004, Rachel A. Dolezal was still blond and pale-skinned and identified herself as a white woman — one who had left a black.... More

In turnabout, Disney cancels tech worker layoffs In late May, about 35 technology employees at Disney/ABC Television in New York and Burbank, Calif., received jarring news. Managers told them that they would all be laid off, and that during their final weeks they would have to train.... More

G.O.P. is wary that health care win could have its own risks. WASHINGTON — Republicans who have been hoping that the Supreme Court will upend President Obama’s health care law are now confronting an urgent and uncomfortable question: What if they win? Republicans in Congress would face an enormously.... More

Target selling its pharmacies to CVS for $1.9 billion Target Corp.'s 1,660 pharmacies and 80 clinics inside its stores are being acquired by CVS Health Corp. in a $1.9 billion deal. Those pharmacies and clinics will be rebranded and operated by CVS, the companies announced this morning. The.... More

Virtual reality headsets raise very real concerns Every Friday, a dozen or so people strap on virtual reality headsets, log on to the Internet and do something that would normally require driving to a local multiplex: watch a movie with a bunch of strangers. Their avatars all sit in the seats.... More

With little fanfare the Mexican Supreme Court legalizes same-sex marriage MEXICO CITY — His church turned him away, his family discouraged him from a public fight and the government of the state where he lives vowed it would never happen. But it did. Hiram Gonzalez married his boyfriend, Severiano Chavez, last year.... More

America's seniors find middle class 'sweet spot' WAXAHACHIE, Tex. — Most Americans suffered serious losses during and after the recession, knocked off balance by layoffs, stagnant pay and the collapse of home values. But apart from the superrich, one group’s fortunes appear to have held.... More

How Randi Zuckerberg finally found work-life balance The phrase "work-life balance" is surprisingly controversial, sparking heated debates among dedicated employees, hard-working parents and people who fall into both camps. Is it a goal worth striving for, an unrealistic and unattainable idea, or.... More

Windshield devices bring distracted driving debate to eye level In a widely watched YouTube video, a man is driving around Los Angeles when his phone rings. On a small screen mounted on the dashboard, an image of the caller, the man’s mother, appears. But there’s an optical twist: The image actually.... More

New class of drugs shows more promise in treating cancer A new drug that unleashes the body’s immune system to attack tumors can prolong the lives of people with the most common form of lung cancer, doctors reported on Friday, the latest example of the significant results being achieved by this new.... More

Doctors seek test for deploying new life-extending cancer drugs New drugs that boost the immune system’s ability to fight tumors may be one of the greatest medical advances in years, cancer doctors say, pulling some patients from death’s door and keeping them in remission for years. But the truth is.... More

Supreme Court agrees to hear redistricting case based on voters, not.... WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court has agreed to consider a major shift in how political districts are drawn nationwide by counting only citizens who can vote, not the total population. If the justices eventually rule for the conservative group.... More

The ergonomic sofa You’ve found a home that suits you in terms of price, location and design, and you’ve decorated it in a style that reflects your personal aesthetic. All should be good, right? Well, not if your furniture is a pain in the neck, back, hips or.... More

One-time bonuses and perks muscle out pay raises for workers Yacht-size bonuses for Wall Street big shots and employee-of-the-month plaques for supermarket standouts are nothing new, but companies’ continued efforts to keep costs down have pushed employers to increasingly turn to one-off bonuses and.... More

Four words that imperil health care law were all a mistake, writers now say WASHINGTON — They are only four words in a 900-page law: “established by the state.” But it is in the ambiguity of those four words in the Affordable Care Act that opponents found a path to challenge the law, all the way to the Supreme.... More

When family-friendly policies backfire In Chile, a law requires employers to provide working mothers with child care. One result? Women are paid less. In Spain, a policy to give parents of young children the right to work part-time has led to a decline in full-time, stable jobs.... More

Maligned study on gay unions is shaking trust He was a graduate student who seemingly had it all: drive, a big idea and the financial backing to pay for a sprawling study to test it. In 2012, as same-sex marriage advocates were working to build support in California, Michael LaCour, a.... More

Four cancer charities accused of fraud There were subscriptions to dating websites, meals at Hooters and purchases at Victoria’s Secret — not to mention jet ski joy rides and couples’ cruises to the Caribbean. All of it was paid for with the nearly $200 million donated to.... More

Los Angeles lifts its minimum wage to $15 per hour LOS ANGELES — The nation’s second-largest city voted Tuesday to increase its minimum wage from $9 an hour to $15 an hour by 2020, in what is perhaps the most significant victory so far for labor groups and their allies who are engaged in a.... More

Lack of exercise can disrupt the body's rhythms Exercise may affect how and when we move, even when we aren’t exercising, according to a fascinating new study in mice. The findings suggest that, by influencing our built-in body clocks, exercise may help our bodies to recognize the optimal.... More

Low U.S. rail spending leads to poor safety, experts say PARIS — Across Europe and East Asia, hundreds of millions of train passengers a year are routinely whisked, at speeds that often exceed 200 miles an hour, over extensive rail networks that, for many, present a more reliable and affordable.... More

Utah pegged as sweet tooth capital of the U.S. A push by Hershey Co. to gather data on the nation’s candy-eating habits has uncovered the sweet-tooth capital of America: Utah. The state buys confections at the highest rate in the nation, almost double the U.S. average, Hershey researchers.... More

Dairy Queen to remove soda pop from kids' menu Dairy Queen is removing soda pop from its kids’ menu, bowing to pressure from interest groups and following similar steps at other fast-food chains. The change will be made at all of its approximately 4,300 franchise locations by Sept. 1, the.... More

B vitamin is found to help people prone to some kinds of skin cancer An inexpensive vitamin can help reduce the occurrence of common skin cancers in people prone to that disease, researchers reported on Wednesday. In a clinical trial, people who took two pills a day of nicotinamide, a form of vitamin B3.... More

Study asks if carrot or stick can better help smokers stop WASHINGTON — What would make a smoker more likely to quit, a big reward for succeeding or a little penalty for failing? That is what researchers wanted to know when they assigned a large group of CVS employees, their relatives and friends to.... More

For the love of animals Linda and Gary Childs go almost everywhere with their “little girl.” The retirees, from West Boylston, Mass., love to parade 3-year-old Chino down busy streets in her stroller. They take her to restaurants dressed in her fur-lined vest or.... More

Water flowing from toilet to tap may be hard to swallow FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif. — Water spilled out of a spigot, sparklingly clear, into a plastic cup. Just 45 minutes earlier, it was effluent, piped over from Orange County’s wastewater treatment plant next door. At a specialized plant, it then.... More

The importance of getting sick in the right place An unholy racket was coming from our clinic waiting room. It is never what you would call serene out there, but this degree of noise immediately penetrated everyone’s primal brain: Something was definitely wrong. Staff members ran toward the.... More

Some schools embrace demands for education data MENOMONEE FALLS, Wis. — In this small suburb outside Milwaukee, no one in the Menomonee Falls School District escapes the rigorous demands of data. Custodians monitor dirt under bathroom sinks, while the high school cafeteria supervisor.... More

A.C.L.U., citing bias against women, wants inquiry into Hollywood's hiring.... Grumblings that Hollywood is a man’s world have percolated for decades and are borne out in studies that show how few women are hired to direct top-grossing films: only 4 percent over the last dozen years. Now this apparent truism is being.... More

What your cat is telling you with its blinking LOS ANGELES – When it comes to cats, those meows mean … well, a lot of things. With each purr, yowl or even blink, felines are saying, “Hello,” “Let’s snuggle” or “Beat it, Mom.” For the increasing number of pet owners who.... More

As middle class fades, so does use of term on campaign trail Hillary Rodham Clinton calls them “everyday Americans.” Scott Walker prefers “hardworking taxpayers.” Rand Paul says he speaks for “people who work for the people who own businesses.” Bernie Sanders talks about “ordinary Americans.... More

How to eat healthy meals at restaurants Most meals at American restaurants aren’t healthy. They’re packed with processed food and enough calories to cover two or three sensible meals. Yet it’s entirely possible to eat both healthy and tasty restaurant meals. And because eating.... More

Cuomo orders emergency measures to protect workers at nail salons Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo ordered emergency measures on Sunday to combat the wage theft and health hazards faced by the thousands of people who work in New York State’s nail salon industry. Effective immediately, he said in a statement, a new,.... More

Inquiry to examine racial bias in San Francisco police First came disclosures of racist and homophobic text messages exchanged by officers of the San Francisco Police Department. That was followed by the discovery that sheriff’s deputies had been gambling on forced fighting matches between.... More

April jobs: not good news. Not bad news. Relieving news. The latest jobs numbers are a classic glass half-empty/glass half-full report on the state of the economy. Are you a temperamental pessimist? The 223,000 jobs the nation added in April don’t seem so bad at first glance, but that number is a.... More

States put up flurry of roadblocks to abortion MIAMI — Oklahoma’s governor this week approved a law extending to 72 hours the mandatory waiting period before a woman can have an abortion. Here in Florida, lawmakers enacted a 24-hour waiting period that requires two separate appointments.... More

Premature babies may survive at 22 weeks if treated A new study of thousands of premature births found that a small minority of babies born a week or two before what is now generally considered the point of viability can be treated and survive, in some cases with relatively few health problems..... More

Tornadoes rake southern Plains, overturning cars, destroying homes; 12.... OKLAHOMA CITY — Tornadoes raked the southern Plains Wednesday, overturning cars on an Oklahoma City interstate and destroying dozens of homes. No deaths were immediately reported from the twisters that hit Oklahoma and rural parts of Kansas.... More

U.S. airports are better, but not best As major airports around the world scramble to brand themselves as luxury entities rather than mere transportation centers, some have adopted a star-ranking system, like hotels. It was inevitable. Munich Airport, calling itself “Bavaria’s.... More

Jobless claims in U.S. hover near lowest levels in 15 years Fewer Americans than forecast filed applications for unemployment benefits last week, dropping the average over the past month to the lowest in 15 years, indicating companies are holding on to workers. Jobless claims increased by 3,000 to 265.... More

Apple watch: a test-run for travelers Should Apple Watch, the latest smartwatch to hit the streets, be as much a part of your travels as your passport and toothbrush? The Internet is awash in reviews for technophiles but not travelers. And so I donned a stainless steel model and.... More

Campus sex crime stats double over five-year period, says education.... WASHINGTON — Reports of sex offenses on college campuses provided to the Education Department have nearly doubled over a five-year period. In a letter to Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., released Tuesday by her office, department officials said.... More

Air ambulances offer a lifeline, then a sky-high bill Clarence W. Kendall, a rancher in Pearce, Ariz., was moving bales on top of a haystack when he fell eight feet and struck his head on the corner of a truck below. His health insurance covered most of the cost of treating the head trauma caused.... More

Treadmill may be riskiest machine, but injuries from it still rare WASHINGTON — The death of David Goldberg on a treadmill at a resort in Mexico was tragic, untimely and a shock to those who knew him. It was also very rare. There were just 30 reported deaths related to use of treadmills from 2003 to 2012,.... More

With rescue near, Boko Haram stones girls to death YOLA, Nigeria — Even with the crackle of gunfire signaling rescuers were near, the horrors did not end: Boko Haram fighters stoned captives to death, some girls and women were crushed by an armored car and three died when a land mine exploded.... More

As Congress decries income inequality, some of their waitresses and cooks.... WASHINGTON — Income inequality is more than a political sound bite to workers in the Capitol. It's their life. Many of the Capitol's food servers, who make the meals, bus the tables and run the cash registers in the restaurants and carryouts.... More

Black mothers who were told babies had died at St. Louis hospital now.... ST. LOUIS — Eighteen black women who were told decades ago that their babies had died soon after birth at a St. Louis hospital now wonder if the infants were taken away by hospital officials to be raised by other families. The suspicions.... More

More than 1 in 4 US renters must use at least half their family income to.... WASHINGTON — More than one in four U.S. renters have to use at least half their family income to pay for housing and utilities. That's the finding of an analysis of Census data by Enterprise Community Partners, a nonprofit that helps finance.... More

How doing nothing became the ultimate family vacation Before having a child, my wife and I had always prided ourselves on being travelers and not tourists. We liked out-of-the-way places; my research often took us to absurd locations like the Democratic Republic of Congo near rebel-held territory.... More

Six officers charged in Freddie Gray's death BALTIMORE — Baltimore’s chief prosecutor charged six police officers on Friday with a range of crimes including murder and manslaughter in the arrest and fatal injury of Freddie Gray, a striking and surprisingly swift turn in a case that.... More

For the uber-wealthy, a new threshold for luxury-priced homes: $100.... WASHINGTON — The poshest of luxury homes are acquiring the cachet of a masterwork by Picasso or Matisse. Rather than settle for garages of antique cars or a museum's worth of paintings, billionaires are increasingly willing to pay $100.... More

Ford expands recall to nearly 546,000 cars; door latches could open while.... DETROIT — Under pressure from U.S. safety regulators, Ford is expanding a recall of small and midsize cars to fix door latches that may not stay closed. The recall now covers almost 546,000 Ford Fusions and Lincoln MKZs from the 2013 and.... More

Delta Air Lines CEO gets 22% more compensation, to $17.6 million Airlines are making big profits, and CEOs are cashing in. Delta Air Lines Inc. disclosed Thursday that CEO Richard Anderson got a 22 percent increase in compensation last year, to nearly $17.6 million. That put Anderson ahead of the CEOs of.... More

St. Paul middle school builds relationships, calms disruptions The school day was less than an hour old, but already a fidgety Aydyrus Abdirahman found it impossible to sit still. So Marcus Freeman, a first-year assistant principal at Ramsey Middle School, met the seventh-grader at a stairwell for an.... More

Search for lost letters could shed light on nation's first president WASHINGTON – When her husband died, Martha Washington destroyed almost all the letters the couple had exchanged during decades of married life, an era that included the Revolutionary War, the formation of the country and his presidency. Only.... More

French school deems teenager's skirt an "illegal display of religion." PARIS — A secondary school in northeastern France has sent a 15-year-old student home twice in the last two weeks for wearing a long skirt that the principal judged was “an ostentatious sign” of the girl’s Muslim faith. The case has lit.... More

Hospitals provide a pulse in struggling rural towns BEATRICE, Neb. — “This real estate to be auctioned,” reads a banner stretched across the abandoned warehouse of a store-shelving manufacturer that once employed generations living in and around this town of about 12,000. This isolated.... More

Want a steady income? There's an app for that Heather Jacobs, a chain-­spa masseuse in Simi Valley, Calif., never knows how much money is coming her way. When her spa charges $99 for a 55-­minute massage, she makes $18. But if she books just two massages in a six-­hour workday, the spa.... More

Morning brings wail of fire engines after night of riots in Baltimore BALTIMORE — Engines raced across this city early Tuesday as the Fire Department strained to extinguish blazes, even as the police said some firefighters were reportedly having cinder blocks heaved at them as they responded to emergencies. As.... More

Twitter brings change, but the right mix remain elusive SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter’s chief executive, Dick Costolo, has begun to follow through on his promise to reboot the company after the executive turmoil and product paralysis that dominated 2014. In the last few months, Twitter has unveiled a.... More

Nepal villages wait for aid as death toll passes 4,000 SAURPANI, Nepal — Five hours by car from Katmandu, then by foot for several miles past the spot where the road is blocked by boulders and mud, people from the villages near the epicenter of Nepal’s powerful earthquake are burying their dead.... More

Justices to hear arguments on same-sex marriage WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments on whether there is a constitutional right to same-sex marriage. The session, scheduled to last two and a half hours, is the last public step before a decision, expected in June,.... More

Chipotle to stop serving genetically altered food In a first for a major restaurant chain, Chipotle Mexican Grill on Monday will begin serving only food that is free of genetically engineered ingredients. “This is another step toward the visions we have of changing the way people think.... More

Small business: Visa quotas hinder finding skilled help Some small business owners say government quotas are keeping them from finding the highly skilled help they need. H-1B visas allow foreigners with college degrees to work in the U.S. for up to six years. There’s such high demand for employees.... More

Burdened with debt, law school graduates struggle in job market Jonathan Wang has not practiced law since he graduated from Columbia Law School in 2010, but he did not plan it that way. When he entered law school, the economy was flourishing, and he had every reason to think that with a prestigious degree.... More

Even if in new ways, to stay a step ahead of arthritis, keep moving I was a fanatical tennis player for decades until my increasingly painful arthritic knees forced me to stop playing. The knees were replaced two years later, but by then, I had filled in my life with other activities, including a daily.... More

Lawyers seek sea change on gay rights at Supreme Court WASHINGTON — In the months leading up to Tuesday’s Supreme Court arguments on same-sex marriage, teams of gay rights lawyers and their allies have held countless strategy sessions, drafted scores of briefs and participated in intense moot.... More

Scenes of chaos in Baltimore as thousands protest Freddie Gray's death BALTIMORE — A largely peaceful protest over the death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man who suffered a spinal cord injury in police custody, gave way to scattered scenes of chaos here on Saturday night, as demonstrators smashed a.... More

Quake's death toll passes 2,200 as aftershocks terrorize Nepal's capital KATMANDU, Nepal — Powerful aftershocks continued to convulse Nepal on Sunday, sending residents of Katmandu screaming into the streets again and again a day after a devastating quake killed more than 2,200 people and injured about 5,800..... More

College for the masses Growing up in the '90s, Carlos Escanilla was a lot more interested in hanging out with friends and playing music than in school. The son of immigrants from Chile, he slogged through high school with a C+ average and scored about 900 out of 1.... More

Comcast drops $45B Time Warner cable deal that would have created giant NEW YORK — What killed Comcast's $45 billion bid for Time Warner Cable? Regulators' desire to protect the Internet video industry that is reshaping TV. A combination of the No. 1 and No. 2 U.S. cable companies would have put nearly 30 percent.... More

PepsiCo to drop aspartame to try and keep customers from dropping diet soda NEW YORK — PepsiCo says it's dropping aspartame from Diet Pepsi in response to customer feedback and replacing it with sucralose, another artificial sweetener commonly known as Splenda. The decision to swap sweeteners comes as Americans keep.... More

With Amazon atop the cloud, big tech rivals are giving chase Amazon unveiled the financial performance of its powerful growth engine for the first time on Thursday, and the numbers sure looked pretty — especially compared with big companies like Microsoft and Google that are chasing it. While Amazon is.... More

In battle between strong dollar and cheap gas, strong dollar is winning There were two big shifts in global markets in the second half of 2014 that looked likely to shape how the American economy would perform in 2015. Oil prices plummeted last year, leading to cheaper gasoline — good news for American consumers.... More

Surge in hospital visits linked to a drug called spice A sharp rise in visits to emergency rooms and calls to poison control centers nationwide has some health officials fearing that more potent and dangerous variations of a popular drug known as spice have reached the nation’s streets, resulting.... More

Pope okays resignation of U.S. bishop who failed to report suspected abuser VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis on Tuesday accepted the resignation of a U.S. bishop who pleaded guilty to failing to report a suspected child abuser, answering calls by victims to take action against bishops who cover up for pedophile priests..... More

Target's hasty exit from Canada leaves anger behind TORONTO — Target’s exodus from Canada has left gaping holes at some of the most prominent shopping centers across the country, the biggest symbol of an exceptional period of retailing turmoil. As Target Canada closed the last of its 133.... More

Blue Bell Creameries recalls all products after Listeria outbreak Blue Bell Creameries, which distributes frozen desserts to about half of the United States, said that it was voluntarily recalling all of its products after the bacteria listeria was found in two cartons of ice cream last month. The Centers for.... More

New genetic tests for breast cancer hold promise A Silicon Valley start-up with some big-name backers is threatening to upend genetic screening for breast and ovarian cancer by offering a test on a sample of saliva that is so inexpensive that most women could get it. At the same time, the.... More

Couple sues sperm bank after learning donor is schizophrenic dropout ATLANTA — He was good on paper: Eloquent, mature, healthy and smart to boot. That's why Angela Collins and Margaret Elizabeth Hanson say they chose Donor 9623 to be the biological father of their child. Then last June, almost seven years.... More

Service members are left in the dark on health errors FORT WAYNE, Ind. — Lt. Col. Chad Gallagher was T. J. Moore’s squadron leader when the 19-year-old recruit arrived for basic training last spring at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio. He was watching at the quarter-mile track nine days.... More

New law to strip Social Security card numbers from Medicare cards WASHINGTON — Concerned about the rising prevalence and sophistication of identity theft, most private health insurance companies have abandoned the use of Social Security numbers to identify individuals. The federal government even forbids.... More

Skip child support. Go to jail. Lose job. Repeat NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — By his own telling, the first time Walter L. Scott went to jail for failure to pay child support, it sent his life into a tailspin. He lost what he called “the best job I ever had” when he spent two weeks in jail..... More

Study of laughter is no joke Why do we laugh? The obvious answer is that something is funny. But if we look closer at when and how laughter occurs in social situations, we see that it’s not so simple. Depending on the context, laughter can mean all sorts of things,.... More

California parents opposing state-mandated vaccinations of children delay.... SACRAMENTO — Several hundred Californians swarmed the State Capitol on Wednesday to oppose a bill that would eliminate their right not to vaccinate their children against contagious diseases like measles. They were able to help stall a.... More

Nationwide protest on pay poses a test The protest by tens of thousands of low-wage workers, students and activists in more than 200 American cities on Wednesday is the most striking effort to date in a two-and-a-half-year-old labor-backed movement that is testing the ability of.... More

They're not afraid to say it: 'Fat Yoga' The telemarketers and bottled-water vendors who call Anna Ipox’s yoga studio in Portland, Ore., often ask, “Is this the yoga place?” Ms. Ipox does not answer yes. Instead, she said, “I make them say it: Say, ‘Is this Fat Yoga?’.... More

Should students sit on sexual assault panels? It was a bland bit of guidance from the Department of Education, cast in legal language and tucked into a footnote two-thirds of the way through a 46-page document about how colleges and universities should address sexual assault on campus. But.... More

When work and sleep conflict, work wins There are a lot of advantages to earning more money but getting a good night's sleep may not be one of them. It turns out that, in general, the more money people make, the less they sleep. That’s been true for decades in the United States,.... More

For mentally ill inmates, a cycle of jail and hospitals It was not a particularly violent crime that sent Michael Megginson to Rikers Island. He was arrested for stealing a cellphone. But in jail, Mr. Megginson, who is 25 and has been in and out of psychiatric hospitals since the age of 6, quickly.... More

New York City woman accused of marrying ten times with no divorces. NEW YORK, NY -- A Bronx woman is facing felony charges after authorities say she got married 10 times without a divorce in an apparent marriage scam. Liana Barrientos, 39, is set to be arraigned on Friday. Police believe she was marrying men to.... More

Johns Hopkins begins using high-tech equipment on pets Unconscious and with furry yellow paws in the air, Otter was guided into the MRI machine. The 4-year-old Lab had been having increasingly severe episodes of back pain over months and a neurosurgeon wanted to confirm his suspicions about the.... More

As water runs dry, Californians brace for a new way of life His lawn was thick, healthy and gorgeous, and Mike Duran was in love. "It was so green. It was so lush," he said. But the relationship had financial issues. Watering the grass cost about $1,200 every other month in this drought-stricken state..... More

Why a UVA potential lawsuit could succeed In the wake of a damning report detailing the journalistic failures of Rolling Stone on a story that claimed fraternity members brutally gang raped a University of Virginia student, the fraternity's campus chapter announced it plans to pursue.... More

Regulators consider legal question: can phone companies block robocalls? WASHINGTON — Tired of those annoying, sometimes costly, robocalls favored by scammers? The Federal Communications Commission is being asked to consider whether more can be done to block the automated phone calls, but the options appear to be.... More

Focusing the brain on better vision As adults age, vision deteriorates. One common type of decline is in contrast sensitivity, the ability to distinguish gradations of light to dark, making it possible to discern where one object ends and another begins. When an older adult.... More

Even for New York's Mayor, college costs are a burden. He lives rent-free in an Upper East Side mansion, owns two homes in a prime Brooklyn neighborhood and earns a six-figure salary supervising hundreds of thousands of employees. But Mayor Bill de Blasio is now facing a hurdle familiar to many of.... More

New prize rewards economic diversity at colleges Top colleges have many reasons to avoid enrolling a lot of low-income students. The students need financial aid, which can strain a university’s budget. Although many of the students have stellar grades, they often have somewhat lower SAT.... More

M.B.A. programs that get you where you want to go With some 13,000 graduate schools of business across the globe, the M.B.A. degree has clearly become a commodity. Even among elite schools, courses and case studies are pretty much water from the same well (i.e., finance, operations, marketing,.... More

Small employers drop health insurance at faster clip In 25 years running a flower shop, Steve McCulloch always felt like he should provide health insurance to his employees. But finding affordable coverage was a struggle, and ultimately forced McCulloch to make a tough decision in late 2013..... More

From the Hmong, other immigrant groups get important lessons and help When Yusuf Ali hosted a dinner to launch a new Somali community nonprofit, he brought in a Hmong attorney as the keynote speaker. When Ehtaw Dwee needed advice on keeping his kids connected to their Karen heritage, he turned to a Hmong elder..... More

Gay marriage state by state: a trickle became a torrent The Supreme Court is expected to decide this summer whether all 50 states must allow gay and lesbian couples to marry. If the court decides to allow such unions, then the 13 states where same-sex marriage is still prohibited will be forced to.... More

Private eyes in the grocery aisles Mansour Samadpour makes his way through the supermarket like a detective working a crime scene, slow, watchful, up one aisle and down the next. A clerk mistakenly assumes that he needs help, but Mr. Samadpour brushes him off. He knows exactly.... More

Modern love: a forbidden relationship for the other side of the world On the day she and I met in a Chicago bar, her father had been threatened by terrorists and rescued by commandos in the Mumbai attacks halfway around the world. It was so loud at the bar that I didn’t catch any of this. We talked about Lady.... 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

Statins and your sex life The science on statins and sexual function is inconclusive, but it does appear that taking a statin may sometimes affect a person’s sex life. On the plus side, some men report improved erections when their high cholesterol was treated with.... More

How to feed a family of four for less than $7 Feeding your family a good meal is easy. Just go to the grocery store and empty out your pocketbook. But what if you aren’t so flush? What if your wallet is looking a little lean? What if times are hard and money is short?Everybody has to eat.... More

South Dakota speed limits rise to 80 mph. The drive to Mount Rushmore can go a little faster now. South Dakota became the latest state to raise the speed limit Wednesday, allowing interstate drivers to travel up to 80 miles per hour. States across the country have been raising their.... More

Walmart emerges as unlikely social force Walmart, which has deployed its financial might to squeeze extra gallons of gas out of its trucks and shave pennies off the price of laundry detergent, did something unexpected this week: It muscled its way into a divisive social debate. In an.... More

Atlanta educators convicted in school cheating scandal ATLANTA — In a dramatic conclusion to what has been described as the largest cheating scandal in the nation’s history, a jury here on Wednesday convicted 11 educators for their roles in a standardized test cheating scandal that tarnished a.... More

Job vacancies in Minnesota rise to highest level since 2001 The Twin Cities area now has one job vacancy for every unemployed worker, new state data show, and Minnesota has only slightly fewer openings than unemployed people. The number of vacancies in the state rose to 88,900 at the end of 2014, a 47.... More

Female-run venture capital firms alter the status quo Step into the offices on Sand Hill Road, the heart of Silicon Valley venture capital, and one thing is immediately striking — the almost all-male cast of leading characters. But there is another corner of the venture capital industry that.... More

Female-run venture capital firms alter the status quo Step into the offices on Sand Hill Road, the heart of Silicon Valley venture capital, and one thing is immediately striking — the almost all-male cast of leading characters. But there is another corner of the venture capital industry that.... More

Obama's strategy on climate change, part of global deal, is revealed WASHINGTON — The White House on Tuesday introduced President Obama’s blueprint for cutting greenhouse gas emissions in the United States by nearly a third over the next decade. Mr. Obama’s plan, part of a formal written submission to the United Nations ahead of efforts to forge a global climate.... More

Bills on 'religious freedom' upset capitols in Arkansas and Indiana LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The Arkansas legislature on Tuesday passed its version of a bill described by proponents as a religious freedom law, even as Indiana’s political leaders struggled to gain control over a growing backlash that has led to.... More

Indiana Governor Pence defends religious freedom bill amid criticism Republican Indiana Gov. Mike Pence on Sunday defended the religious freedom bill that he signed last week, saying the growing outrage over the legislation stems from “a tremendous amount of misinformation and misunderstanding.” Critics of.... More

In New York, pay for performance extends to health care For a generation, doctors in New York’s economically depressed neighborhoods have been the ugly ducklings of the medical hierarchy. Many are foreign born and foreign trained, serve mostly minority and immigrant patients, and often run.... More

Income inequality may be bad for your health We know that living in a poor community makes you less likely to live a long life. New evidence suggests that living in a community with high income inequality also seems to be bad for your health. A study from researchers at the University of.... More

Foreclosure to home free, as five-year clock expires MIAMI — In September, Susan Rodolfi celebrated an unusual anniversary: five years of missed mortgage payments. She is like a ghost of the housing market’s painful past, one of thousands of Americans who have skipped years of mortgage.... More

Company thinks it has the answer for lower health care costs: customer.... Virginnia Schock seemed headed for a health crisis. She was 64 years old, had poorly controlled diabetes, a wound on her foot and a cast on her broken wrist. She didn’t drive, so getting to the people who could tend to her ailments was.... More

Are low-salt diets good for most people? As Americans have become more aware over the years of nutrition-related health issues, salt has emerged as a major villain in many people’s minds. So much so that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention describes reducing the U.S..... More

Venture capital firm prevails in bias case riveting Silicon Valley SAN FRANCISCO—A jury here Friday said prominent venture-capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers didn’t sexually discriminate or retaliate against a former female partner, in a closely watched case that raised questions about the.... More

Indiana law denounced as invitation to discriminate against gays An Indiana law that could make it easier for religious conservatives to refuse service to gay couples has touched off storms of protest from the worlds of arts, business and college athletics and opened an emotional new debate in the emerging.... 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

How exercise may aid cancer treatment In a new study involving mice, aerobic exercise slowed the growth of breast cancer tumors and made the cancer more sensitive to chemotherapy. The results raise the possibility that exercise may change the biology of some malignant tumors,.... More

For children's seizures, turning to medical marijuana By the time Grace Brunno was 3, she was suffering 400 epileptic seizures a week. Her parents, desperate to ease her suffering, took a drastic step: They left their home in Missouri and moved to Colorado so their child could start a regimen of.... More

From Microsoft, a novel way to mandate sick leave It is difficult to imagine, at least in the current political climate, that the federal government would require paid sick leave for workers, let alone vacation time. But the White House announced Wednesday that senior officials, including the.... More

Congress to weigh a plan to protect Medicare fees and children's insurance WASHINGTON — Lobbyists will descend on Congress this week as lawmakers near a bipartisan agreement to finance health care for the oldest and youngest Americans, by revamping the payment of doctors under Medicare and by extending the.... More

Bill would limit use of student data Is the digital revolution in the classroom giving the education technology industry carte blanche to exploit student data? That was the question some teacher and parents groups have posed in their public responses to the news last week that.... More

Health care systems try to cut costs by aiding the poor and the troubled MINNEAPOLIS — Jerome Pate, a homeless alcoholic, went to the emergency room when he was cold. He went when he needed a safe place to sleep. He went when he was hungry, or drunk, or suicidal. “I’d go sometimes just to have a place to be.... More

At the box office, it's no longer a man's world LOS ANGELES — Heading into the all-important summer moviegoing season, two converging box-office trends are startling studios: Women are driving ticket sales to a degree rarely, if ever, seen before, while young men — long Hollywood’s.... More

Test of free speech and bias, served on a Texas plate On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear a challenge to that decision in Walker v. Sons of Confederate Veterans, No. 14-144, a case that considers the limits of free expression and the meaning of a charged symbol that many associate with.... More

More teens get jobs as techies Shot through with intricate wires and crimson light, the space-age black box is where the magic happens. It's a homemade computer assembled by teenage tech wizard Andrew Bernstein. "A couple of Korean off-brand screens and an Intel.... More

Fracking: U.S. tightens rules for disclosure WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday it is requiring companies that drill for oil and natural gas on federal lands to disclose chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, the first major federal regulation of the controversial.... More

Alzheimer's drug gives hope in slowing mental declines An experimental drug for Alzheimer’s disease sharply slowed the decline in mental function in a small clinical trial, researchers reported Friday, reviving hopes for an approach to therapy that until now has experienced repeated failures.... More

Breast biopsies leave room for doubt, study says Breast biopsies are good at telling the difference between healthy tissue and cancer, but less reliable for identifying more subtle abnormalities, a new study finds. Because of the uncertainty, women whose results fall into the gray zone.... More

Republicans propose budget with deep cuts to welfare WASHINGTON — House Republicans called it streamlining, empowering states or “achieving sustainability.” They couched deep spending reductions in any number of gauzy euphemisms. What they would not do on Tuesday was call their budget plan,.... More

Fraternity's secret Facebook photos may lead to charges. STATE COLLEGE, Pa. — Within the Kappa Delta Rho fraternity at Pennsylvania State University, the Facebook page and its photographs — of drugs, hazing and nude, unconscious women — were supposed to be among its brotherhood’s secrets. But.... More

Presbyterians give final approval for same-sex marriage After three decades of debate over its stance on homosexuality, members of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) voted on Tuesday to change the definition of marriage in the church’s constitution to include same-sex marriage. The final approval by.... More

G.O.P. budget overhauls Medicare and repeals health law WASHINGTON — House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a proposed budget for 2016 that partly privatizes Medicare, turns Medicaid into block grants to the states, repeals the Affordable Care Act and reaches balance in 10 years, challenging.... More

Federal traffic agency targets drowsy driving Drowsy driving is an insidious threat to safety that anyone who ever stepped inside a vehicle likely has experienced or witnessed. The federal government on Monday announced new efforts to get a handle on the extent of the problem, wake up the.... More

Coke a good snack? Health experts say so NEW YORK — Coca-Cola is working with fitness and nutrition experts who suggest its soda as a treat at a time when the world's biggest beverage maker is being blamed for helping to fuel obesity rates. In February, several of the experts wrote.... More

New class of cholesterol drugs shows promise SAN DIEGO – New research boosts hope that a highly anticipated, experimental class of cholesterol drugs can greatly lower the risk for heart attacks, death and other heart-related problems. The government will decide this summer whether to.... More

Illinois pension law greeted with court skepticism awyer for the state faced skeptical questioning from Illinois Supreme Court justices Wednesday as she defended a landmark pension reform law by arguing that benefit cuts to public workers were a response to a financial emergency tied to the.... More

Democrats stand by Clinton, but with some reservations WASHINGTON — Democrats closed ranks around Hillary Rodham Clinton on Wednesday after her public explanation of her email practices — yet party officials in important election states appeared resigned to the prospect that her all-but-certain.... More

Companies are reaching out to the new ex-Target workers A day after Target Corp. laid off 1,700 staffers at its Minneapolis headquarters, a new scramble began — among companies looking to hire them. SPS Commerce, a fast-growing retail software company a few blocks from Target’s corporate tower,.... More

Target layoffs will hit 1,700 today, with another 1,400 jobs going unfilled Target Corp. cut 1,700 people at its corporate offices in the Twin Cities on Tuesday, the largest downsizing of its headquarters staff ever and the biggest at any Minnesota company since 2002. The retailer’s top managers had set the.... More

A simple flashcard test to detect concussions An easy, two-minute vision test administered on the sidelines after a young athlete has hit his or her head can help to reliably determine whether the athlete has sustained a concussion, according to a new study of student athletes, some as.... More

86 percent of health law enrollees receive subsidies, White House says WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Tuesday that 11.7 million Americans now have private health insurance through federal and state marketplaces, with 86 percent of them receiving financial assistance from the federal government to.... More

Gender gap in education cuts both ways Why do the best-educated girls do worse at math than top-educated boys? Concern about this deficit exploded into public consciousness 35 years ago, when researchers in the department of psychology at Johns Hopkins University published an.... More

New debate swirls around high-fat foods Carolyn Whitson couldn’t believe what the nutritionist was telling her to eat. Butter, mayonnaise, even steak and eggs. “I was like, ‘Oh, you’re insane. I’ll weigh 300 pounds if I do that,’?” said Whitson, 49, of St. Paul..... More

Victim speaks to athletes about violence against women SURPRISE, Ariz. — When the main portion of her presentation on the scourge of athletes’ violence against women was over, when Kathy Redmond opened the floor to the fresh-faced players of the Kansas City Royals organization, a much older man.... More

Prosecutors target safety of herbal supplements A group of attorneys general is expected to announce on Tuesday that they are forming a coalition to crack down on fraud and quality control issues in the herbal supplement industry. The coalition would signal a shift in the way law enforcement.... More

A demand for welders resurges, community colleges offer classes. HOUSTON — Ryan Gassett had already put in a full day, moving heavy boxes and furniture for $15 an hour, when his introductory welding class began at 10 p.m. By the time he arrived at Lone Star College north of Houston, the highway toll.... More

A demand for welders resurges, community colleges offer classes. HOUSTON — Ryan Gassett had already put in a full day, moving heavy boxes and furniture for $15 an hour, when his introductory welding class began at 10 p.m. By the time he arrived at Lone Star College north of Houston, the highway toll.... More

First solar-powered plane takes off for historic, 5-month trip around the.... ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — With its wings stretched wide to catch the sun's energy, a Swiss-made solar-powered aircraft took off from Abu Dhabi just after daybreak Monday in a historic first attempt to fly around the world without a.... More

U.N. finds alarmingly high incidence of attacks on women United Nations — The evidence is ubiquitous. The gang-rape of a young woman on a bus in New Delhi sets off a burst of national outrage in India. American colleges face mounting scrutiny about campus rapes. In South Sudan, women are assaulted.... More

Failure to vaccinate led to California's measles outbreak SAN FRANCISCO – California’s measles outbreak is finally showing signs of abating 10 weeks after it began. The outbreak, sparked by an infected visitor to Disneyland just before Christmas, spread not unlike a wildfire, infectious disease.... More

Despite Federal crackdown, some states are fighting to keep their wood.... JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — Smoke wafting from wood fires has long provided a familiar winter smell in many parts of the country — and, in some cases, a foggy haze that has filled people's lungs with fine particles that can cause coughing and.... More

President Obama marks Selma civil rights milestone America's racial history "still casts its long shadow upon us," President Barack Obama said Saturday as he stood in solidarity and remembrance with civil rights activists whose beatings by police a half-century ago galvanized much of the nation.... More

Study: Americans stiill pray even as religious practices wither WASHINGTON – American religion is on the ropes, but it has a prayer. A record-low share of Americans attend church regularly, affiliate with a religious faith and see themselves as religious, according to a major survey released last week..... More

Poor families struggle to find housing in a tight market Taneisha Terrell is always watching for “leasing” or “rent” signs on apartments. She constantly scans websites and booklets. For five months, she and her 1-year-old daughter have lived in an Eagan homeless shelter and hunted for a home..... More

Americans aren't saving enough for retirement; one change could help Here is something every non-rich American family should know: The odds are that you will run out of money in retirement. On average, a typical working family in the anteroom of retirement — headed by somebody 55 to 64 years old — has only.... More

Debate over "Redskins" as nickname trickles down to Buffalo suburb LANCASTER, N.Y. — Hundreds of people in this Buffalo suburb braved a freezing rain Tuesday night to pack into the Lancaster Central High School cafeteria and debate an issue that has ranged for years over the American sports landscape, from.... More

Solicitor General to try to keep health care law alive WASHINGTON — Three years ago this month, Solicitor General Donald B. Verrilli Jr. stood before the Supreme Court to defend President Obama’s health care law against a constitutional challenge that threatened to destroy its central provision.... More

Justices second look at the health law: what to expect On Wednesday morning, the United States Supreme Court will hear arguments in King v. Burwell, the case that could decide the fate of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the landmark “Obamacare” legislation passed by Congress in.... More

Barnes & Noble to spin off college bookstores unit Barnes & Noble said on Thursday that it would spin off its college bookstores business into a separate publicly traded company, changing up its breakup plans. Originally, the retailer had planned to part with the education division as part of a.... More

Financial aid for undocumented students is losing its stigma For years, it was information shared only in whispers. Undocumented students, bright and educated, wanted to go to college, and a precious few universities were willing, very quietly, to help them pay for it. But as ferocious battles rage in.... More

In France, a visit with the in-laws (finally) becomes a vacation In Montpellier, cypresses grow as high as the bell tower of Eglise Ste.-Thérèse. Whelks, caught that morning from the nearby Mediterranean Sea, are sold by the dozen with a side of aioli at the covered market Halles Castellane. The Musée.... More

Morals clause in Catholic schools roils Bay Area SAN FRANCISCO — It is the issue that is stirring San Francisco: The archbishop has specified that teachers at four Bay Area Catholic high schools cannot publicly challenge the church’s teachings that homosexual acts are “contrary to.... More

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