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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Amid backlash, IRS delays new tax rules for social welfare groups U.S. Republicans claimed victory on Thursday after the Internal Revenue Service said it will delay and rewrite proposed rules for tax-exempt, social welfare groups that were at the heart of the agency's a political controversy last year. "This.... More

Need scholarship? Join Scrum Last year, Brianna Danner, 17, had never even held a rugby ball. Fourteen months later, she is weighing scholarship offers from two colleges with premiere rugby teams. “It was a great lift to know the progress I’d made meant I could go to.... More

The politics of breastfeeding Some parents swear by it, while others feel defeated by it. But breastfeeding is always creating controversy, whether it’s dividing passengers on airplanes, attracting male fans, or bringing a community together. That said, a recent report.... More

For fitness, 2,000 calories a week? Q: Is there any basis for the idea that burning 2,000 calories a week helps to optimize health? A: That idea seems to have originated in data gathered decades ago as part of the Harvard Alumni Study. That study followed male Harvard graduates.... More

Jobless claims rise; still close to pre-recession level The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose last week but stayed close to a seven-year low and pointed to ongoing healing in the labor market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits rose 28,000 to 326,000.... More

Legal fights over gay marriage spread to 29 states across U.S. HELENA, Mont. — A federal lawsuit filed by four gay couples in Montana leaves just two states — North Dakota and South Dakota — with gay marriage bans and no legal challenges aiming to overturn them. But that's likely to change as.... More

Study sees bigger role for placenta in newborn's health The placenta, once thought sterile, actually harbors a world of bacteria that may influence the course of pregnancy and help shape an infant’s health and the bacterial makeup of its gut, a new study has found. The research is part of a.... More

Pushing climate change, with an eye on 2016 WASHINGTON — Tom Steyer, a billionaire environmental activist from California, wants to blast the issue of climate change to the front lines of American politics. His “super PAC,” NextGen Climate, will spend about $100 million this year.... More

New bills may force Southern abortion clinics to close BATON ROUGE, La. — The Louisiana State Legislature on Wednesday passed a bill that could force three of the state’s five abortion clinics to close, echoing rules passed in Alabama, Mississippi and Texas and raising the possibility of.... More

When to say 'I do' to marriage counseling Many couples wait too long before seeking professional help, a therapist says. And that only makes things worse. It’s the rare marriage that doesn’t go through rough patches now and then. Sometimes the rough spots are so big or so.... More

For schools, long road to a level playing field In the American national mythology, there are few more revered ideas than the belief in education’s power to provide every child a shot at success and to overcome entrenched inequality. In developing its system of public education, the United.... More

Study gives e-cigarettes edge in helping smokers quit A large study in England has found that smokers trying to quit were substantially more likely to succeed if they used electronic cigarettes than over-the-counter therapies such as nicotine patches or gum. These results offered encouraging but.... More

Uncovered papers show past government efforts to drive gays from jobs WASHINGTON — Days after President Lyndon B. Johnson’s election to his first full term, an administration official asked a subordinate to explain the policy on firing gays. In particular, he wondered whether someone with a history of gay.... More

For workers, less flexible companies He calls it one of the bright spots of his week: Before Jared Dalton, 32, starts his workday as a manager at Ernst & Young, the big accounting firm, he dresses his 5-month-old daughter, Olivia, and then places her on her tummy to play..... More

Federal judge strikes down Oregon's ban on same-sex marriage PORTLAND, Ore. — The cheers erupted at exactly 12:08 p.m. as word filtered through the line of couples, friends and family members, some of whom had been on the sidewalk outside the Multnomah County building here since 5:30 a.m. on Monday. More

Most stressful caregiving is for spouse, not parent; few plan for it WASHINGTON — More Americans may wind up helping Mom as she gets older, but a new poll shows the most stressful kind of caregiving is for a frail spouse. The population is rapidly aging, but people aren't doing much to get ready even though.... More

The big melt accelerates Centuries from now, a large swath of the West Antarctic ice sheet is likely to be gone, its hundreds of trillions of tons of ice melted, causing a four-foot rise in already swollen seas. Scientists reported last week that the scenario may be.... More

A math app that offers an unusual human touch Tabtor is an expensive iPad math-teaching app for kindergartners through sixth graders. Although free to download and try for two weeks, thereafter it costs $50 a month per child. At first glance, Tabtor — the name is “tablet tutor”.... More

In California, climate issues moved to fore by governor Portraying California as the front line of climate change, Gov. Jerry Brown said Monday that the effects of man-made global warming were devastating the state, drawing a direct link between climate change and both the record-setting drought.... More

As more baby boomers retire, temporary and "contract workers" are gaining.... WASHINGTON — While the U.S. economy has improved since the Great Recession ended five years ago, part-time and "contract" workers are filling many of the new jobs. Contract workers made up less than half of one percent of all U.S. employment.... More

Nine months later, still working to find a job Every night, Sharon Cabelly power-pedals on the exercise bicycle in her bedroom, clearing her head of any angst or anxiety. Then, before bed, she recites her favorite psalms, praying first for others in need and finally for her own peace of.... More

Drugs found to aid breathing in fatal lung disease For the first time, researchers have found drugs that can slow the decline of people with a fatal lung disease, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis. Studies of two experimental drugs were published in The New England Journal of Medicine and presented.... More

Study links student debt to pay in universities At the 25 public universities with the highest-paid presidents, both student debt and the use of part-time adjunct faculty grew far faster than at the average state university from 2005 to 2012, according to anew study by the Institute for.... More

Glass ceilings in statehouses in the Northeast PHILADELPHIA — The industrial Northeast enjoys a reputation as a cradle of liberalism, a region that voted overwhelmingly for America’s first black president, started the push on same-sex marriage rights and can reliably be found at the.... More

Surgeon re-engineers way to rebuild babies' skulls Most medical breakthroughs come after years, or even decades, of experiments in high-tech laboratories or academic research centers. But every so often, they are born at the hands of experienced physicians simply rethinking how they do things. More

Air bags are safer than ever - except when they don't deploy When Ford recalled 600,000 sport-utility vehicles last week, it became the fourth car-maker this year to acknowledge an issue with malfunctioning air bags. So far in 2014, automakers in the United States have recalled about 6.6 million cars and.... More

Med School numbers foretell a doctor shortage Kiera Berger has a major in genetics and cell biology, a solid GPA and a score on the Medical College Admission Test that’s about average for science undergraduates. She applied to 10 medical schools, and every one turned her down. The.... More

Poorer health of surgery patients on Medicaid may alter law's bottom line Surgery patients covered by Medicaid arrive at the hospital in worse health, experience more complications, stay longer and cost more than patients with private insurance, a new study has found. The study, by researchers at the University of.... More

Alzheimer's, a neglected epidemic Research shows that Alzheimer’s was the underlying cause in 500,000 deaths in the United States in 2010, a figure close to six times the estimate from the Centers for Disease Control. This means that in a single year, Alzheimer’s claimed.... More

Genetically modified foods confuse consumers WASHINGTON (AP) -- Genetically modified foods have been around for years, but most people in the United States have no idea if they are eating them. The Food and Drug Administration says such foods don't need to be labeled, so some states are.... More

After 1st gay marriages, 'joy spread' CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) -- Newlyweds and couples celebrated Friday along with the lead lawyer in the landmark case behind the first same-sex marriages in Massachusetts and the nation 10 years ago. Lawyer Mary Bonauto said at the Cambridge City.... More

Recycling the leftovers Every week, some 14,000 households in Austin, Tex., dutifully roll not just one, or two, but three garbage bins to the curb. One bin is for recyclable materials and one for trash. The third bin is filled with food scraps that will be taken away.... More

Michelle Obama cites view of growing segregation TOPEKA, Kan. — Sixty years after the Supreme Court outlawed “separate but equal” schools for blacks and whites, civil rights advocates say American schools are becoming increasingly segregated, while the first lady, Michelle Obama,.... More

A beginners' guide to repaying student loans Too many people, including plenty of brand-new college graduates, fall far behind on their student loan payments for no good reason. How many? The Department of Education does not supply much data on late payments. But the student loan expert.... More

Olympians are super fit, but have 'garbage' teeth MONACO — Faster, higher, stronger they may be, but Olympians wouldn't win many medals in a contest of dental health. Behind their buffed physiques lurks a dentist's nightmare. "They have bodies of Adonis and a garbage mouth," says Paul.... More

U.S. mines personal health data to find the vulnerable in emergencies The phone calls were part Big Brother, part benevolent parent. When a rare ice storm threatened New Orleans in January, some residents heard from a city official who had gained access to their private medical information. Kidney.... More

At last, recovery heads where the Fed wants it. The Federal Reserve finally seems to be getting what it wants. Two indicators of economic health that the Fed and its chairwoman, Janet L. Yellen, have identified as keys to a stronger recovery — modestly higher inflation and a more robust.... More

To campuses without a compass The last thing a dad gets to really teach his daughter is how to drive a car. When I say teach, I’m talking the moment that begins with the instructor knowing nearly everything, while the pupil knows almost nothing. By the day a kid earns a.... More

A decision that helped shape Michelle Obama WASHINGTON — She was born into the segregated Chicago of the 1960s, when public schools actively resisted integration. But in 1975, the city, under pressure to comply with the landmark Supreme Court decision desegregating public schools,.... More

Laboratories are told to start including a neglected variable: females For decades, scientists have embarked on the long journey toward a medical breakthrough by first experimenting on laboratory animals. Mice or rats, pigs or dogs, they were usually male: Researchers avoided using female animals for fear that.... More

Advocating pill, U.S. signals shift to prevent AIDS Federal health officials recommended Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk for AIDS take a daily pill that has been shown to prevent infection with the virus that causes it. If broadly followed, the advice could transform.... More

The age premium: retaining older workers At a time when digital skills are prized and businesses place a premium on youth, some employers subtly seek to push out older workers. They deny them raises once awarded routinely, reduce their responsibilities or give evaluations that are.... More

Fast food protests over pay spread overseas Even though fast food workers have staged several one-day strikes in the last 18 months, the protests have not swayed McDonald’s or other major restaurant chains to significantly raise their employees’ pay. So on Thursday, the fast food.... More

Who gets to graduate? For as long as she could remember, Vanessa Brewer had her mind set on going to college. The image of herself as a college student appealed to her — independent, intelligent, a young woman full of potential — but it was more than that; it.... More

New scrutiny for caregivers, including fingerprints Spurred by concern that criminals are landing jobs working with frail and elderly residents, Minnesota is poised to begin requiring fingerprint background checks for tens of thousands of workers who care for the state’s most vulnerable.... More

Mayo Clinic: massive blast of measles vaccine wipes out cancer Stacy Erholtz was out of conventional treatment options for blood cancer last June when she underwent an experimental trial at the Mayo Clinic that injected her with enough measles vaccine to inoculate 10 million people. The 50-year-old Pequot.... More

Doubts raised about off-label use of Subsys, a strong painkiller Almost overnight, a powerful new painkiller has become a $100 million business and a hot Wall Street story. But nearly as quickly, questions are emerging about how the drug is being sold, and to whom. The drug, Subsys, is a form of fentanyl, a.... More

Drugs to aid alcoholics see little use, study finds Two medications could help tens of thousands of alcoholics quit drinking, yet the drugs are rarely prescribed to patients, researchers reported on Tuesday. The medications, naltrexone and acamprosate, reduce cravings for alcohol by fine-tuning.... More

How to turn renters into savers Some people didn’t like my post on housing-as-food, which illustrated how pro-home ownership policies distorted behavior and the economy. The best pro-housing response I’ve seen (from Megan McArdle, among others) was that homeownership.... More

After-hours work e-mailing sends unsettling message Many nights, the e-mails from his boss arrived between 2:30 and 4:30 a.m. — “no man’s land,” in Michael Bodnar’s words. “I wouldn’t know if he was starting his workday wicked early, or if he hadn’t gone to sleep yet — or if he.... More

Scientists warn of rising oceans from polar melt A large section of the mighty West Antarctica ice sheet has begun falling apart and its continued melting now appears to be unstoppable, two groups of scientists reported on Monday. If the findings hold up, they suggest that the melting could.... More

Looks like rain again. And again. The acid test of a scientific theory is whether it makes predictions that eventually come true. So consider this old prediction, from a pair of researchers in Australia and New Zealand. They were summarizing the results of then-primitive.... More

Marijuana: now 20% more heady! There are many things that bother Jon Cooper about the market for marijuana. “It’s nearly impossible to find a consistent product,” said Cooper, one of the legion of tech start-up guys and M.B.A.s plunging into the world of pot. “You.... More

More insured, but choices are narrowing In the midst of all the turmoil in health care these days, one thing is becoming clear: No matter what kind of health plan consumers choose, they will find fewer doctors and hospitals in their network — or pay much more for the privilege of.... More

Health law gives pregnant women new options WASHINGTON — The health care law has opened up an unusual opportunity for some mothers-to-be to save on medical bills for childbirth. Lower-income women who signed up for a private policy in the new insurance exchanges will have access to.... More

As organic goes mainstream, consumers can expect price breaks For many consumers, the obstacle to buying organic food has always been the price.“I would buy a lot more organic if it were cheaper,” said Eden Prairie resident Brandi Erlendsson. “Now I buy organic fruits and vegetables just for my.... More

A lesson in farming, classroom to cafeteria HAGERSTOWN, Ind. — Beyond a stack of hay bales, past the site of Indiana’s first soil-judging contest, high school students in this tiny eastern town stroll down a grassy slope to reach their newest classroom: a fenced-in field of.... More

The drawbacks of puppy love A few years ago, I came across a sign in the window of a New York City pet store near two bars. I don’t recall the exact wording, but it was something like: “Do not buy a puppy when drunk.” Most people are not drunk when they decide to.... More

Charters, public schools, and a chasm between When Neil J. McNeill Jr., principal of the Middle School for Art and Philosophy in Brooklyn, learned that fewer than 4 percent of his students had passed state exams in math last year, he was frustrated. It so happened that he shared a.... More

Deadly illness in Nicaragua baffles experts CHICHIGALPA, Nicaragua — During the harvest season, when exhausted workers spend seven days a week cutting sugar cane, the signs of illness were hard to spot at first. It was in the off-season, out on the baseball field, that some residents.... More

Professors are prejudiced too IN the world of higher education, we professors like to believe that we are free from the racial and gender biases that afflict so many other people in society. But is this self-conception accurate? To find out, we conducted an experiment. A.... More

British gay couples may have coat of arms LONDON — First, same-sex couples in Britain won the right to civil partnerships, then to full marriage. Now, they can have their own coats of arms. The College of Arms, guardian of noble titles and insignia here since the 15th century, has.... More

Hardship makes a new home in the suburbs MORENO VALLEY, Calif. — The freeway exits around here are dotted with people asking for money, holding cardboard signs to tell their stories. The details vary only slightly and almost invariably include: Laid off. Need food. Young children..... More

Districts told not to deny students over immigration Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. and Education Secretary Arne Duncan issued a strong warning on Thursday to public school districts nationwide not to deny enrollment to immigrant students in the country illegally. The Justice and Education.... More

Patient's cells deployed to attack aggressive cancer Doctors have taken an important step toward a long-sought goal: harnessing a person’s own immune system to fight cancer. An article published Thursday in the journal Science describes the treatment of a 43-year-old woman with an advanced and.... More

Living with cancer: careless care When I consider what happened to an esteemed friend and colleague, I fume at the mayhem that ovarian cancer wreaks and at the deficient care she received at a university hospital in another town. Do instances of medical negligence sometimes go.... More

Compromise on gays pleases no one, scouts are learning Pascal Tessier is a 17-year-old Eagle Scout in suburban Maryland who says scouting made him who he is today, with its lessons about morality, leadership and responsibility. And those very strengths, this openly gay high school senior said, are.... More

Scientists report creating organism with artificial DNA Scientists reported Wednesday that they had taken a significant step toward altering the fundamental alphabet of life — creating for the first time an organism with artificial building blocks in its genetic code. The accomplishment might.... More

On climate, Republicans and Democrats are from different continents Americans are less worried about climate change than the residents of any other high-income country, as my colleague Megan Thee-Brennan wrote Tuesday. When you look at the details of these polls, you see that American exceptionalism on the.... More

Florida finds itself in center of debate on climate change MIAMI BEACH — The sunny-day flooding was happening again. During high tide one recent afternoon, Eliseo Toussaint looked out the window of his Alton Road laundromat and watched bottle-green saltwater seep from the gutters, fill the street and.... More

Philadelphia's success in helping the homeless gets a philanthropic boost PHILADELPHIA — There’s a straight line that goes from David Drap to David Brown, but you cannot find it in most other cities. Mr. Drap, 43, could be seen recently assembling pieces of plywood around a twin mattress under a highway overpass,.... More

Mortality drop seen to follow '06 health law BOSTON — The death rate in Massachusetts dropped significantly after it adopted mandatory health care coverage in 2006, a study released Monday found, offering evidence that the country’s first experiment with universal coverage — and the.... More

At one school, veteran teachers make a difference Trickling in from their buses, the students in Marcia Wyatt’s class stop and check the easel where she’s posted her daily greeting. As they enter without chatter to head to their seats, she reminds one or two to straighten a collar on their.... More

Boy Scouts settle sex abuse lawsuit Attorneys for a sexual abuse victim reached a settlement with the Boy Scouts of America in connection with a Burnsville scoutmaster convicted of molesting four boys in his troop. Peter Stibal, who headed Troop 650 in Burnsville from about.... More

Polio's return after near eradication prompts a global health warning Alarmed by the spread of polio to several fragile countries, the World Health Organization declared a global health emergency on Monday for only the second time since regulations permitting it to do so were adopted in 2007. Just two years ago.... More

Office Depot plans to close at least 400 stores BOCA RATON, Fla. — Office Depot is planning to close at least 400 U.S. stores, as its merger with OfficeMax resulted in an overlap of retail locations that can be consolidated.Office Depot Inc. expects to close 150 stores this year, mostly in.... More

High-tech push has board games rolling again MERCER ISLAND, Wash. — Dan Shapiro sold a company to Google and worked at Microsoft. His name is on nearly a dozen technology-related patents. But when it came time for his latest venture, Mr. Shapiro turned to technology to produce something.... More

New studies show blood from young mice reverses aging in older mice The rodent fountain of youth may not be filled with water, but with blood. A trio of new studies has discovered that the blood of young mice appears to reverse some of the effects of aging when put into the circulatory systems of elderly mice..... More

New findings on brain damage in babies It was long assumed that brain injuries in newborns resulted from insufficient oxygen during labor or delivery. Distressed parents often blamed doctors, a belief that spawned countless malpractice suits and prompted many.... More

Wage growth indicates a not-so-healthy economy The single best gauge of the economic recovery — better than the headline unemployment rate — may be wage growth. So ignore April’s sharp drop in unemployment. Pay no attention to the creation of 288,000 jobs announced on Friday. The most.... More

Polio spreading at alarming rates, World Health Organization declares Alarmed by the spread of polio from conflict zones in three continents, the World Health Organization declared an international health emergency on Monday in an effort to contain the disease, a paralyzing virus that was once thought to be.... More

St. Louis trial highlights gender bias in pay ST. LOUIS — From male-only corporate jets to guys' golf outings and hunting trips, Francine Katz says her time in the Anheuser-Busch executive suite was rife with exclusion, intentional slights and outright discrimination. But it wasn't until.... More

The upshot: how not to be misled by the jobs report Think about it this way: It’s the first Friday of the month, and the Labor Department has bad news. The economy has added a mere 64,000 jobs last month, a steep slowdown from 220,000 the month before. From Wall Street to Twitter, the reaction.... More

Triglycerides and heart disease High levels of triglycerides — a type of fat that circulates in your bloodstream — can signal an increased risk of heart disease, but not always. It depends on why they are elevated in the first place, said Dr. James A. Underberg, a.... More

U.S. payrolls gained 288,000; jobless rate falls to 6.3% The American economy gained steam in April, adding 288,000 jobs, while the unemployment rate fell to 6.3 percent, the lowest rate since September 2008. After a sharp slowdown in December and January, and a modest improvement since then,.... More

Once more, economy exhibits weakness As has happened so many times since the recovery began nearly five years ago, the economy turned in another disappointing quarterly performance, surprising even the most pessimistic observers as growth in the first three months of 2014 slowed.... More

Crunching the numbers to find the best airfare You may have heard that the best day to buy an airline ticket is a Tuesday. Other things you may have heard: Polaroid cameras now let you see photographs shortly after you take them, and bloodletting is no longer an accepted cure for fever. In.... More

Implications for employers in new health care law The days of Americans getting health insurance through their employers may be numbered — and the change could be just as profound as the shift of employers forcing employees to manage their own retirement savings. As the Affordable Care Act.... More

Changed life of the poor: better off, but far behind WASHINGTON — Is a family with a car in the driveway, a flat-screen television and a computer with an Internet connection poor? Americans — even many of the poorest — enjoy a level of material abundance unthinkable just a generation or two.... More

Bigger iPhone screens expected this year Many consumers have developed an appetite for smartphones with larger screens, and expectations are growing that Apple will try to satisfy them this year. Paul Semenza, an analyst for the research firm NPD DisplaySearch, said he believed that.... More

iRules help parents set tech boundaries for kids Janell Burley Hofmann was trying to set some ground rules when she drew up a contract before giving her son a smartphone for Christmas. She was candid and caring, yet clear, writing, "You are a good and responsible 13-year-old boy and you.... More

Virginia Attorney General opens in-state tuition to students brought to U.... Attorney General Mark R. Herring of Virginia told the state’s public colleges and universities on Tuesday that children brought to the United States illegally and raised here, the so-called Dreamers, qualified for in-state tuition. More

Behind focus on assaults, a steady drumbeat by students WASHINGTON — In March, two women who were sexually assaulted when they were students at the University of North Carolina arrived unannounced at the office of Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand with a request: Help us stop sexual assault on college.... More

Microsoft warns of major Internet Explorer bug; no fix for Windows XP Windows XP users are getting their first taste of life without security updates after the discovery of a major flaw within the Internet Explorer Web browser. Microsoft Corp. issued a warning regarding the flaw this weekend, saying it affects.... More

Never too late to learn how to swim My father-in-law had been fishing from rowboats without incident since early childhood. But in August 1970, at age 66, alone on a Minnesota lake, he apparently fell out of the boat and drowned. He couldn’t swim a stroke, yet never wore a life.... More

White House to press colleges to do more to fight rape WASHINGTON — Reacting to a series of highly publicized rapes on college campuses, the White House on Monday released guidelines that increase the pressure on universities to more aggressively combat sexual assaults on campus. More

A link between fidgety boys and a sputtering economy The behavior gap between rich and poor children, starting at very early ages, is now a well-known piece of social science. Entering kindergarten, high-income children not only know more words and can read better than poorer children but they.... More

A deadly fungus and questions at a hospital NEW ORLEANS — The first victim was a premature boy in the intensive care unit whose mother noticed a mysterious irritation in his groin; it grew into an open wound burrowing into the baby’s abdomen. The last patient to die was a 10-year-old.... More

Superhyped superfoods aren't found to prevent cancer SAN DIEGO – A trip to almost any bookstore or a cruise around the Internet might leave the impression that avoiding cancer is mostly a matter of watching what you eat. One source after another promotes the protective powers of superfoods,.... More

For drugs that save lives, a steep cost This month, amid great fanfare, the Food and Drug Administration approved a portable pocket-size device that injects a drug called naloxone to rescue people who become unconscious from overdoses of heroin and other opiates. Wider dissemination.... More

In California, a fevered rush for gun permits SANTA ANA, Calif. — Pete Alexander celebrated the news that a federal court in California had thrown out this state’s strict requirements for obtaining a concealed-handgun permit — among the toughest in the nation — by calling the.... More

In poorest states, political stigma is depressing participation in health.... HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Inside the sleek hillside headquarters of Valley Health Systems, built with a grant from the health care law, two employees played an advertisement they had helped produce to promote the law’s insurance coverage for.... More

Almost blind Michigan man 'seeing something new every day' thanks to new.... ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A degenerative eye disease slowly robbed Roger Pontz of his vision. Diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a teenager, Pontz has been almost completely blind for years. Now, thanks to a high-tech procedure that involved the.... More

Allina Health halts all water births, upsetting expectant moms Water births were a celebrated feature of Allina Health’s Mother Baby Center when the $50 million Minneapolis facility opened last year and Allina’s chief medical officer hailed it as a place to “support every mother” and birthing.... More

Study linking illness and salt leaves researchers doubtful The former commissioner of health for New York City, Dr. Thomas A. Farley, has raised anew questions about the health risks posed by salt in the American diet, citing a new study from Britain showing significant declines in heart attack and.... More

F.C.C., in a shift, backs fast lanes for Web traffic WASHINGTON — The principle that all Internet content should be treated equally as it flows through cables and pipes to consumers looks all but dead. The Federal Communications Commission said on Wednesday that it would propose new rules that.... More

F.D.A. will propose new regulations for e-cigarettes WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration will propose sweeping new rules on Thursday that for the first time would extend its regulatory authority from cigarettes to electronic cigarettes, popular nicotine delivery devices that have.... More

U.S. weighs curbing deportations of people without serious criminal records WASHINGTON — Tens of thousands of immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally but don't have serious criminal records could be shielded from deportation under a policy change being weighed by Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson. The change,.... More

Netflix poised to raise prices for new subscribers SAN FRANCISCO — Netflix is preparing a sequel unlikely to be a hit with its subscribers. The Internet video service is about to raise its prices for the first time in three years to help pay for more Internet video programming such as its.... More

Brain control in a flash of light AN DIEGO — Dr. Karl Deisseroth is having a very early breakfast before the day gets going at the annual meeting of theSociety for Neuroscience. Thirty thousand people who study the brain are here at the Convention Center, a small city’s.... More

Student loans can suddenly come due when co-signers die, a report finds For students who borrow on the private market to pay for school, the death of a parent can come with an unexpected, added blow, a federal watchdog warns. Even borrowers who have good payment records can face sudden demands for full, early.... More

Citing costs and risks, many skip health insurance LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Steve Huber, an affable salesman who is still paying off an unexpected medical bill, was not among the millions of Americans who signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act during the enrollment period that.... More

Fifty years into the war on poverty, hardship hits back TWIN BRANCH, W.Va. — When people visit with friends and neighbors in southern West Virginia, where paved roads give way to dirt before winding steeply up wooded hollows, the talk is often of lives that never got off the ground. More

House calls are making a comeback. A relic from the medical past — the house call — is returning to favor as part of some hospitals’ palliative care programs, which are sending teams of physicians, nurses, social workers, chaplains and other workers to patients’ homes.... More

To quash depression, some brain cells must push through the stress The nature of psychological resilience has, in recent years, been a subject of enormous interest to researchers, who have wondered how some people endure and even thrive under a certain amount of stress, and others crumble and fall prey to.... More

Salmonella cases drop NEW YORK — The government's latest report card on food poisoning shows a dip in salmonella cases but an increase in illnesses from bacteria in raw shellfish. The report counts cases in only 10 states for some of the most common causes of.... More

Are exercise cool-downs necessary? A lot of cardiovascular exercise routines call for a cool-down at the end. Is this necessary? “For a long time, the theory was that cooling down by continuing to exercise at a lower intensity would help the legs flush out lactate” and avoid.... More

Young enrollees help health act exceed Obama's goal President Obama announced Thursday that eight million people have signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act, including what the White House said were a sufficient number of young, healthy adults, a critical milestone that.... More

Treatment costs may influence doctors' advice to patients Saying they can no longer ignore the rising prices of health care, some of the most influential medical groups in the nation are recommending that doctors weigh the costs, not just the effectiveness of treatments, as they make decisions about.... More

Competing views of teacher tenure are on display in California case These are two vastly different portraits of California’s education system. In one, poor and minority students are frequently placed in front of incompetent teachers whose blackboards are filled with basic misspellings and who play irrelevant.... More

For diabetics, health risks fall sharply Federal researchers on Wednesday reported the first broad national picture of progress against some of the most devastating complications of diabetes, which affects millions of Americans, finding that rates of heart attacks, strokes, kidney.... More

The antidepressant generation “I think our experiment failed,” the young graduate student told me, referring to our attempt to take her off the antidepressant she’d been on for seven years. She was back in my campus office after a difficult summer break, and as she.... More

Pensioners in Detroit rejoice, though deal is far from done DETROIT — The relief was palpable. “My pension is my life,” Thomas Berry, a retired police detective, said on Wednesday, reacting to tentative deals that were struck between Detroit, the city’s pension funds and a retirees’ group that.... More

Court deportations drop 43% in past five years New deportation cases brought by the Obama administration in the nation’s immigration courts have been declining steadily since 2009, and judges have increasingly ruled against deportations, leading to a 43 percent drop in the number of.... More

Mayo Clinic reaches out to consumers with a mobile app Back in the day, the Mayo Clinic relied on its reputation to draw patients in need of its rarefied expertise to Rochester or its other campuses in Arizona and Florida. But in the changing world of health care reimbursement, where Mayo faces.... More

Nasal spray holds hope in fighting flu epidemic Scottish and American scientists have found a new way to prevent flu infections that could, in theory, be used to fight an epidemic long before a vaccine is ready. The method, successfully tested only in mice thus far, is a nasal spray of.... More

Younger skin through exercise Exercise not only appears to keep skin younger, it may also even reverse skin aging in people who start exercising late in life, according to surprising new research. As many of us know from woeful experience, our skin changes as the years.... More

Revised SAT won't include obscure vocabulary words The College Board on Wednesday will release many details of its revised SAT, including sample questions and explanations of the research, goals and specifications behind them.“We are committed to a clear and open SAT, and today is the first.... More

New CBO report predicts costs of health care program to dip slightly WASHINGTON — The Affordable Care Act's health insurance subsidies will cost a little less than previously thought, according to a new report released Monday. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that health insurance subsidies under.... More

Minnesota makes history with largest minimum wage hike Gov. Mark Dayton signed into law the largest minimum wage increase in state history Monday, giving raises to more than 325,000 Minnesotans and making good on a signature Democratic pledge during an election year. The move to a $9.50 base.... More

Political rifts slow U.S. effort on climate laws WASHINGTON — The United States needs to enact a major climate change law, such as a tax on carbon pollution, by the end of this decade to stave off the most catastrophic impacts of global warming, according to the authors of a report released.... More

Food, rental costs, bump up U.S. consumer inflation WASHINGTON — U.S. consumer prices rose in March, but inflation pressures remained generally benign, which should give the Federal Reserve ample scope to keep interest rates low. The Labor Department said on Tuesday its Consumer Price.... More

Prices soaring for specialty drugs, researchers find Even as the cost of prescription drugs has plummeted for many Americans, a small slice of the population is being asked to shoulder more and more of the cost of expensive treatments for diseases like cancer and hepatitis C, according to a.... More

North Dakota hopes to lure workers with promises of the 'good life.' North Dakota’s oil boom has lured thousands of new workers to the state, but it still needs more. A lot more. Minnesota’s  neighbor to the northwest is on the verge of a new national advertising  campaign that it’s calling “Find the.... More

Heartbleed flaw could reach to digital devices, experts say When the Heartbleed bug was disclosed on Monday, the attention focused on the fallout for major Internet companies like Yahoo and Amazon. But security experts said the potential for harm could extend much further, to the guts of the Internet.... More

Executive pay: invasion of the supersalaries Corporate America’s well-oiled compensation machine is running like a dream. Browse the proxy statements of the nation’s largest corporations and you’ll find the instruction manuals for this apparatus explaining how to finely calibrate.... More

Thought secure, pooled pensions teeter and fall The pensions of millions of Americans are being threatened because of trouble in a part of the retirement world long considered so safe that no one gave it a second thought. The pensions belong to people in multiemployer plans — big pooled.... More

Judge says flashing headlights to warn drivers of police presence is free.... GRANTS PASS, Ore. — Hauling a truckload of logs to a Southern Oregon mill last fall, Chris Hill noticed a sheriff's deputy behind him and flashed his lights to warn a UPS driver coming the other way. The deputy pulled over Hill on U.S..... More

Norovirus cases aboard California ship passes 100; most have recovered. SAN DIEGO — More than 100 passengers have contracted the highly contagious norovirus on a ship that is touring the California coast. But the cruise line says it has no plans to end the voyage early. Some 104 passengers and 25 crew members on.... More

Healthy vows: big study finds married folks have fewer heart problems Love can sometimes break a heart but marriage seems to do it a lot of good. A study of more than 3.5 million Americans finds that married people are less likely than singles, divorced or widowed folks to suffer any type of heart or blood vessel.... More

Hoping for asylum, migrants strain U.S. border HIDALGO, Tex. — Border Patrol agents in olive uniforms stood in broad daylight on the banks of the Rio Grande, while on the Mexican side smugglers pulled up in vans and unloaded illegal migrants. The agents were clearly visible on that recent.... More

Does it have heart? Scientists trying to build functional human heart with.... LOUISVILLE, Ky. — It may sound far-fetched, but scientists are attempting to build a human heart with a 3-D printer. Ultimately, the goal is to create a new heart for a patient with their own cells that could be transplanted. It is an.... More

Education life: 10 courses with a twist Why are so many nonmajors taking “Introduction to Computer Science” at Harvard or “Introductory Oceanography” at Cornell? Why is Temple Grandin’s livestock course at Colorado State always filled, and not just with students at home on.... More

Education life: what you don't know about financial aid, but should Marilyn Ferreira has solved her share of financial puzzles — running a business, buying a home and arranging a mortgage, raising six children as a single mother. But none of that compared to the challenge of understanding the cost of sending.... More

Banks ease hours for junior staff, but hours stay the same The biggest investment banks recently signaled a sea change in their corporate culture, telling their most junior employees to ease up a bit on their hard-charging work schedules. Like other practices on Wall Street, however, the more things.... More

Coding flaw calls for altering passwords, experts say A programming mistake from two years ago has forced countless websites to make fixes to protect the sensitive personal information of consumers. What consumers should do to protect their own information isn’t quite as clear, because security.... More

More moms are staying home NEW YORK — The rising cost of child care is among likely reasons for a rise in the number of women staying home full-time with their children, according to a new Pew Research Center report released Tuesday. Other factors cited by Pew to.... More

Study finds sicklier enrollees in earliest stages of health law People who signed up early for insurance through the new marketplaces were more likely to be prescribed drugs to treat pain, depression and H.I.V. and were less likely to need contraceptives, according to a new study that provides a.... More

Are you programmed to enjoy exercise? It’s possible that some of us are born not to run. According to an eye-opening new genetics study of lab rats, published in The Journal of Physiology, the motivation to exercise — or not — may be at least partly inherited. For years,.... More

Two moms, a baby, and a legal first for U.S. gay marriage KNOXVILLE, Tennessee — Last month a baby in Tennessee made history: Emilia Maria Jesty was the first child born in the state to have a woman listed on the birth certificate as her "father." The marital status of the baby's parents was the.... More

Small number of Medicare doctors get big share of payouts A tiny fraction of the 880,000 doctors and other health care providers who take Medicare accounted for nearly a quarter of the roughly $77 billion paid out to them under the federal program, receiving millions of dollars each in some cases in a.... More

U.S. schools get grants for 'in-demand' jobs BLADENSBURG, MD. – President Obama on Monday announced more than $100 million in grants for two dozen schools across the country that are helping students gain work experience for what he called the “in-demand jobs of the future.” The.... More

Sidestepping the biopsy with new tools to spot cancer For people with cancer or suspected cancer, the biopsy is a necessary evil — an uncomfortable and somewhat risky procedure to extract tissue for diagnosis or analysis. Lynn Lewis, a breast cancer patient in Brooklyn, has had her cancer.... More

Fearing punishment for bad genes About 700,000 Americans have had their DNA sequenced, in full or in part, and the number is rising rapidly as costs plummet — to $1,000 or less for a full genome, down from more than $1 million less than a decade ago. But many people are.... More

At Google, bid to put its glasses to work SAN FRANCISCO — At the 500 Club bar in the heart of the Mission district here, patrons are banned from wearing Google Glass. Two miles up the hill at the hospital at the University of California, San Francisco, a lung surgeon wears Glass to.... More

Look for cancer, and find it Mammography has become a fighting word in recent years, with some researchers questioning its value and others staunchly defending it. One especially disturbing criticism is that screening mammography may lead to “over-treatment,” in which.... More

Single parents work to hold on A bitter January wind whipped down the street in downtown Minneapolis where Veronica Perkins and her 4-year-old daughter, Nari, waited for the bus. Nari’s asthma kicked up, but there was no shelter. “The wind was just scorching, and it was.... More

Experts decode germ's DNA to fight food poisoning WASHINGTON — Chances are you've heard of mapping genes to diagnose rare diseases, predict your risk of cancer and tell your ancestry. But to uncover food poisonings? The nation's disease detectives are beginning a program to try to outsmart.... More

Technology's man problem Elissa Shevinsky can pinpoint the moment when she felt that she no longer belonged. She was at a friend’s house last Sept. 8, watching the live stream of the TechCrunch Disrupt hackathon on her laptop and iPhone. Entrepreneurs were showing.... More

Going back to school, without the pressure ARLENE AND LARRY DUNN, both music aficionados, had always been fans of two ensembles at the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music. So, the Dunns put the retirement community Kendal at Oberlin on the top of their list after they began looking.... More

Small advances can mean big increases in medical bills MEMPHIS — Catherine Hayley is saving up for an important purchase: an updated version of the tiny digital pump at her waist that delivers lifesaving insulin under her skin. Such devices, which tailor insulin dosing more precisely to the.... More

Applications fall and admission rate rises, as Cooper Union charges tuition The results are in for the first big test of Cooper Union’s new era — the era in which students actually pay to attend — and the university appears to have scored about 80 percent. The school, which announced last April that it would.... More

Law lifts enrollment in Medicaid by millions WASHINGTON — Enrollment in Medicaid has increased by three million people, to a total of 62 million, largely because of the Affordable Care Act, the Obama administration said Friday.As expected, the increases have been much greater in states.... More

Sign of Spring on pay - real wage growth Jeff Dworkin, a Dallas builder, was surprised to find someone he didn’t recognize inside a half-finished house this winter where crews were about to texture the home’s drywall.And that’s how Mr. Dworkin, the president of JLD Custom Homes,.... More

A vote to change healthcare law's work rules Eighteen House Democrats voted with Republicans Thursday to change the definition of full-time work as it relates to the Affordable Care Act, signaling that for some members of President Obama’s party the law remains a difficult political.... More

In a more rigorous test, Consumer Reports looks at infant seats Ratings of 34 child safety seats in frontal-impact crash tests, announced on Thursday by Consumer Reports, awarded the top ranking of Best to just 13 of the seats. A new testing procedure, said by the magazine to represent an investment of more.... More

Treatment for drug overdoses is approved Federal health regulators approved a drug overdose treatment device on Thursday that experts say will provide a powerful lifesaving tool in the midst of a surging epidemic of prescription drug abuse. More

U.S. added 192,000 jobs in March; jobless rate holds The economy added 192,000 jobs in March, as the end of winter and better weather in many parts of the country encouraged employers to begin hiring workers slightly more aggressively. The new data, released by the Labor Department on Friday.... More

A water heater that knows when you're about to shower Two Illinois men are doing to the water heater what Nest did to the thermostat: Make it smart. Intellihot is a tankless water heater that analyzes water usage patterns and then automates the system to reduce the amount of water and heat used..... More

Miserable winter was good news for the great lakes CHICAGO – Most years, the Coast Guard’s vessels start spending their nights in Calumet Harbor around the end of February. This year, they remained in heated garages until recent weeks, safely away from the shrinking but still formidable.... More

Report says blacks and Latinos losing ground in employment and income.... WASHINGTON — African-Americans and Latinos are losing economic ground when compared with whites in the areas of employment and income as the United States pulls itself out of the Great Recession, the latest State of Black America report from.... More

Out of work, out of benefits, and running out of options BOSTON — Abe Gorelick has decades of marketing experience, an extensive contact list, an Ivy League undergraduate degree, a master’s in business from the University of Chicago, ideas about how to reach consumers young and old, experience.... More

Fake meats, finally, taste like chicken Last May, Whole Foods recalled two types of curried chicken salad that had been sold in some of its stores in the Northeast. The retailer’s kitchens had accidentally confused a batch of “chick’n” salad made with a plant protein.... More

'5-a-day' might not be enough to ward off disease, scientists say Not that most people are eating even five servings of fruit and vegetables every day — but that might not be enough to get the best protection from disease and early death, said researchers who also found that vegetables do more good than.... More

Latest affliction caused by digital devices: 'tech neck' Three years ago, Jennifer Stricker struggled with constant neck ache. It got so bad that she sought relief from a chiropractor. But despite the adjustments and stretching exercises, the tightness in her neck came back. Then, one day, she had a.... More

Diet's link to longevity; after two studies diverge, a search for consensus Two rival research groups set out in 1987 to answer a tantalizing question: Could a diet kept meager in calories pay off in longevity? Both teams, one at a National Institute on Aging laboratory in Baltimore and the other at the University of.... More

A revolution in money Imagine it’s 2040. You go to the grocery store, and when you look for the checkout counter there is none. There’s no place to pay for your groceries because you already did. When you walked into the store, a sensor identified you, perhaps.... More

Police confront rising number of mentally ill suspects ALBUQUERQUE — James Boyd, a homeless man camping in the Sandia Foothills here, could hear the commands of the police officers who were trying to move him out. The problem was that Mr. Boyd, 38, had a history of mental illness, and so was.... More

Soda sales continued to slide in 2013; diet sodas falling at faster pace NEW YORK — Americans cut back on soda at an accelerated pace last year, extending a slow retreat from the category that began nearly a decade ago. U.S. sales volume of carbonated soft drinks fell 3 percent in 2013, according to a report.... More

Global airline group says missing Malaysian plane illustrates need for.... PERTH, Australia — The Malaysian airliner's disappearance underscores the need for improvements in security, both in tracking aircraft and in screening passengers, the International Air Transport Association said Tuesday. Investigators,.... More

At Mozilla, a chief's support of gay marriage ban causes conflict People who once debated the benefits of different web browsers are now embroiled in a heated discussion about gay marriage, and Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, is at the center of that debate. The troubles began when Brendan Eich, a programmer.... More

With the thrills come extreme risks Despite several well-publicized accidents, like the death last year of the snowmobiler Caleb Moore, just 25, the popularity of extreme sports has soared in recent years. Participants in the X Games and other sporting events regularly perform.... More

U.S. students strong at problem solving, but trail other nations Fifteen-year-olds in the United States scored above the average of those in the developed world on exams assessing problem-solving skills, but they trailed several countries in Asia and Europe as well as Canada, according to international.... More

Internet piano may change the way students learn to play, audition In what may be a revolution in experiencing music, 19-year-old Russian pianist Osip Nikiforov is recording Chopin’s Etude Op. 10, No. 1 without capturing any of its sound. Instead, a sensor-equipped piano is recording the “data” of his.... More

Health care website stumbles on last day; official cites 'technical.... The Obama administration's health care website stumbled on deadline day for new sign-ups. Visitors to HealthCare.gov on Monday morning saw messages that the site was down for maintenance. At times the visitors were also directed to a virtual.... More

Older and out of work, but not out of contention On Thursday, the 10 graduates celebrated over spoonfuls of yellow cake with chocolate icing. They hugged, cheered and promised to stay connected, fortifying themselves for the rough road ahead. This was no ordinary graduation: The youngest to.... More

Panel's warning on climate change: the worst is yet to come YOKOHAMA, Japan — Climate change is already having sweeping effects on every continent and throughout the world’s oceans, scientists reported on Monday, and they warned that the problem was likely to grow substantially worse unless.... More

In new health care era, blessings and hurdles persist LOUISVILLE, Ky. — In a plain brown health clinic on a busy boulevard here, the growing pains of the Affordable Care Act are already being felt — almost too sharply for the harried staff trying to keep up with the flow of patients. Tamekia.... More

Study: married folks have fewer heart problems Love can sometimes break a heart but marriage seems to do it a lot of good. A study of more than 3.5 million Americans finds that married people are less likely than singles, divorced or widowed folks to suffer any type of heart or blood vessel.... More

Less invasive aortic valve replacement proves superior in Medtronic study To experts and analysts, the only thing keeping trancatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) from eventually replacing open heart surgery — even for low-risk, younger patients — is whether the valves last as long and perform as well as.... More

Project to improve poor children's intellect led to better health, data.... In 1972, researchers in North Carolina started following two groups of babies from poor families. In the first group, the children were given full-time day care up to age 5 that included most of their daily meals, talking, games and other.... More

Matchmakers help those over 60 handle dating AFTER Judith Himber’s husband died in 2010, she didn’t know what to do with herself. “It was a stunning loss,” said Ms. Himber, 73, who works full time as a clinical psychologist in Cambridge, Mass. She was not sure if she would ever.... More

Standing up to testing In the coming weeks, children in New York City and across the state will begin taking annual standardized tests in math and language that will run over the course of many hours and days, assuming a kind of onerousness once exclusive to the bar.... More

Infections at hospitals are falling, says CDC The number of infections Americans acquire during hospital stays every year has declined substantially over the last decade, federal health officials said in a report on Wednesday, as hospitals have worked to improve their practices.... More

Enlisting a computer to battle cancers, one by one When Robert B. Darnell was a graduate student in the early 1980s, he spent a year sequencing a tiny fragment of DNA. Now Dr. Darnell is an oncologist and the president of the New York Genome Center, where the DNA-sequencing machines can decode.... More

Microsoft's Office Suite, finally coming to iPad, may be too late One of the most lucrative software franchises in history, Microsoft Office, is finally coming to the most influential computing device of the last few years, the iPad. Microsoft’s decision to bring Office to the Apple device comes after.... More

Giving up on 4-year-olds (editorial) A new report released by the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, examining the disciplinary practices of the country’s 97,000 public schools, shows that excessively punitive policies are being used at every level of the.... More

A victory for athletes as university employees In a groundbreaking decision that acknowledges the special status of the college scholarship athlete, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board confirmed Wednesday what many of us already know: Athletes running and jumping.... More

Pollution killed 7 million people in 2012, report finds BEIJING — From taxi tailpipes in Paris to dung-fired stoves in New Delhi, air pollution claimed seven million lives around the world in 2012, according to figures released Tuesday by the World Health Organization. More than one-third of those.... More

Nitroglycerin, a staple of emergency rooms, is in short supply The drug nitroglycerin has long been an emergency room staple, a front-line drug that is often the first thing doctors try when a patient shows up with a heart attack. So when Baxter International, the country’s only manufacturer of.... More

Trying to close a knowledge gap, word by word PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Amid a political push for government-funded preschool for 4-year-olds, a growing number of experts fear that such programs actually start too late for the children most at risk. That is why Deisy Ixcuna-González, the.... More

U.S. to give some more time to sign up for health insurance WASHINGTON — With less than a week left for people to sign up for health insurance, the Obama administration said Tuesday that it would allow more time for those who had tried to apply but were blocked by technical problems with the federal.... More

Los Angeles hospital doctors practice communication skills in 'operating.... WEST HOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Before the car-wreck victim reached the emergency room, doctors, residents and nurses at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center knew what to expect by glancing at their smartphones. The details came in the staccato of text.... More

Amid wave of pro-gun legislation, Georgia proposes sweeping law ATLANTA — Pro- and anti-gun forces do not agree on much, but they do agree on the breathtaking sweep of the Georgia legislation allowing guns in bars, schools, restaurants, churches and airports that is now awaiting the signature of Gov..... More

Who needs a boss? If you happen to be looking for your morning coffee near Golden Gate Park and the bright red storefront of the Arizmendi Bakery attracts your attention, congratulations. You have found what the readers of The San Francisco Bay Guardian, a local.... More

Smoking proves hard to shake among the poor MANCHESTER, Ky. — When smoking first swept the United States in the early decades of the 20th century, it took hold among the well-to-do. Cigarettes were high-society symbols of elegance and class, puffed by doctors and movie stars. By the.... More

Insurers push to enroll people as health care deadline It’s last call for health insurance. A new insurance company in Colorado dispatched a throng of models dressed as cocktail waitresses onto the streets in recent days, offering nonalcoholic shots of juice to lunch-hour crowds in Denver. The.... More

Wind companies going higher for power The wind industry has gone to great lengths over the years to snap up the best properties for its farms, often looking to remote swaths of prairie or distant mountain ridges to maximize energy production and minimize community opposition. Now,.... More

It's not polar bears but humans who are at most risk from global warming If you think of climate change as a hazard for some far-off polar bears years from now, you're mistaken. That's the message from top climate scientists gathering in Japan this week to assess the impact of global warming. In fact, they will say,.... More

G.M. uses social media to manage customers and its reputation SAN FRANCISCO — If you glance at the Facebook page of General Motors, it seems like business as usual at the Detroit automaker, even though the company is struggling to cope with the recalls of 1.6 million cars that it has linked to 12.... More

Selling poison by the barrel: liquid nicotine for e-cigarettes A dangerous new form of a powerful stimulant is hitting markets nationwide, for sale by the vial, the gallon and even the barrel. The drug is nicotine, in its potent, liquid form — extracted from tobacco and tinctured with a cocktail of.... More

Contraception ruling could reach far beyond women's rights WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear arguments in a case that pits religious liberty against women’s rights. That issue is momentous enough. But it only begins to touch on the potential consequences of the court’s ruling in.... More

Administration plays to young in health push WASHINGTON — Russian troops were rolling through Crimea when Denis R. McDonough, the White House chief of staff and a foreign policy expert, was deployed on a mission to do media outreach. But the focus of Mr. McDonough’s calls to local.... More

Turning a tablet into an interactive TV MY son has been having conversations with imaginary characters. I know, because I can listen to some of them, and even see pictures. The children’s entertainment publisher ToyTalk created an interactive program, the Winston Show, and as my.... More

Paying price, 16 years later, for illegal entry KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The cellblock intercom awoke Josue Noe Sandoval-Perez at 1 o’clock on a frigid January morning at a detention center in northwest Missouri: Get your things, get ready to go. Immigration officials were preparing to whisk.... More

Running as therapy I started distance running in 2007 because, in the short space of six months, the person I was dating left me for another woman, I bought a house (a rash decision) and my grandfather died. I did not handle this well. As I was helping my mother.... More

Google develops Android for wearables you actually may want to wear Google announced Tuesday that it has developed a version of its Android mobile operating system specifically for wearable devices, doubling down on the early efforts in the space that it's already made with its Google Glass headset. More

Why people really leave their jobs There's an old career adage that says people don't leave companies, they leave managers. While that conventional wisdom may be true in some cases, people actually do leave companies — especially if they aren't given opportunities to.... More

Health care law causes concerns among cancer centers WASHINGTON — Some of America's best cancer hospitals are off-limits to many of the people now signing up for coverage under the nation's new health care program. Doctors and administrators say they're concerned. So are some state insurance.... More

How a warm-up routine can save your knees Rupturing an anterior cruciate ligament in the knee is a nightmare. As the parent of a teenage son who is seven months out from A.C.L. reconstruction surgery, I can attest to the physical and psychological toll it can take, not to mention the.... More

Study doubts saturated fat link to heart disease Many of us have long been told that saturated fat, the type found in meat, butter and cheese, causes heart disease. But a large and exhaustive new analysis by a team of international scientists found no evidence that eating saturated fat.... More

Big study will test chocolate for heart health It won't be nearly as much fun as eating candy bars, but a big study is being launched to see if pills containing the nutrients in dark chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and strokes. The pills are so packed with nutrients that you'd have.... More

The unworried unwell She is an organized, punctual patient who makes appointments and keeps them. He drops in whenever he feels like it. Her visits are short and organized; his seem to drag on forever. The two have nothing in common — except that they both leave.... More

Helping women get back in the game Andrea Chermayeff planned to go back to work when the youngest of her four children enrolled in school last fall. With a Harvard M.B.A. and experience at a private equity firm, she had the credentials to return to Wall Street. The only.... More

Reading, writing and renewal (the urban kind) BALTIMORE — In many ways, public schools are gated communities, dead zones. They’re shuttered after dark and during the summer, open to parents and students while in session but not to the larger community. A new public school in one of the.... More

St. Patrick's Day festivities kick off amid tension over gays in U.S. NEW YORK — St. Patrick's Day festivities were in full swing Sunday with the usual merriment of bagpipes and beer, but political tensions lingered in the northeastern U.S., where city leaders will be conspicuously absent from parades over gay.... More

St. Patrick's Day festivities kick off amid tension over gays in U.S. NEW YORK — St. Patrick's Day festivities were in full swing Sunday with the usual merriment of bagpipes and beer, but political tensions lingered in the northeastern U.S., where city leaders will be conspicuously absent from parades over gay.... More

St. Patrick's Day festivities kick off amid tension over gays in U.S. NEW YORK — St. Patrick's Day festivities were in full swing Sunday with the usual merriment of bagpipes and beer, but political tensions lingered in the northeastern U.S., where city leaders will be conspicuously absent from parades over gay.... More

A surgical procedure's risks, unmentioned Many patients assume that, like prescription drugs, surgical procedures and instruments undergo extensive testing and must be government-approved. It’s not necessarily so.Developers, of course, do test new instruments, and practitioners often.... More

TV reports on school security raise ethical questions. The three news reports followed the same format: Television reporters walked into schools with hidden cameras, under the premise of testing the security measures. Each time, the anchors provided a sobering assessment of the findings. “One of.... More

Low-wage workers are finding poverty harder to escape. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — At 7 in the morning, they are already lined up — poultry plant workers, housekeepers, discount store clerks — to ask for help paying their heating bills or feeding their families. And once Metropolitan Ministries.... More

West Coast prepares for monster quake LOS ANGELES – If a magnitude-9.0 earthquake were to strike along California’s sparsely populated North Coast, it would have a catastrophic ripple effect. A giant tsunami created by the quake would wash away coastal towns, destroy U.S. 101.... More

Quick test could spot Alzheimer's, dementia earlier Dr. Michael Rosenbloom says primary-care physicians have a lousy track record of diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. Now he and his colleagues at the HealthPartners Center for Memory and Aging want to give them a tool.... More

Fewer U.S. consumers drinking milk Got almond milk? More and more consumers do. They’ve also got soy milk, coconut milk, flax milk and all sorts of trendy juices and bottled waters. But good old milk — the moo kind — keeps fading from grocery lists. Milk’s rate of.... More

Billionaires with big ideas are privatizing American science. Last April, President Obama assembled some of the nation’s most august scientific dignitaries in the East Room of the White House. Joking that his grades in physics made him a dubious candidate for “scientist in chief,” he spoke of using.... More

Income gap, meet the longevity gap Fairfax County, Va., and McDowell County, W.Va., are separated by 350 miles, about a half-day’s drive. Traveling west from Fairfax County, the gated communities and bland architecture of military contractors give way to exurbs, then to.... More

303 vehicle deaths tied to General Motors air bag failure As lawmakers press General Motors and regulators over their decade-long failure to correct a defective ignition switch, a new accounting of federal crash data shows that 303 people died after the air bags failed to deploy on two of the models.... More

Emergency rooms are no place for the elderly The elderly man lived alone in an apartment complex not far from the hospital. A younger neighbor, who’d watched him hobble down the building’s stairwell for nearly a week, insisted on taking him to the emergency room. Doctors there.... More

Senate reaches a deal on restoring jobless aid WASHINGTON — The Senate on Thursday reached an agreement to pay for an extension of an unemployment assistance program that expired in December, leaving more than a million Americans who have been out of work for a half-year or longer without.... More

Obama, citing a concern for families, orders a review of deportations WASHINGTON — President Obama said Thursday that deportations of illegal immigrants should be more humane, and to make that happen, he has ordered a review of his administration’s enforcement efforts. Mr. Obama revealed the effort in an.... More

Extra pay for extra work (editorial) For the first 40 years of its existence, a worker’s right to time-and-a-half for overtime, established by federal law in 1938, operated as intended. It guarded against exploitation and inequality by ensuring that extra hours meant extra pay. More

Research links later school start times to benefits for teens More high schools across Minnesota and the nation are starting later each morning — a move that could help teens not just in the classroom, but also on the road. Findings of a University of Minnesota study released Wednesday are the first.... More

The gray jobs enigma: when retirement comes early In her years as a probation officer north of Dallas, Patricia Lowell reckoned that she would work until age 65, confident that she could then retire halfway comfortably on her pension and Social Security. After retiring, she thought, she would.... More

Health law tied to GOP victory in Florida CLEARWATER, Fla. — For Democrats hoping to claim a prized House seat in a swing district, Alex Sink seemed a shining candidate: a moderate, business-minded banker and former candidate for governor with ample experience in running a big race.... More

Universities try a cultural bridge to lure foreign students CORVALLIS, Oregon — As the anthropology instructor engaged her class, a fault line quickly developed. American students answered and asked questions, even offered opinions, but the foreigners — half the class, most from China — sat in.... More

What running can do for the heart An ingenious new study of marathon runners and their non-running spouses should reassure anyone headed for a spring marathon that prolonged training doesn’t damage the heart, a concern that has been raised in previous research. At the same.... More

Silicon Valley's youth problem The Cisco Meraki office in Mission Bay, San Francisco, is 40 paces from the water, and just as nice as Google’s. On a clear winter day in late December, I sat in one of its conference rooms with a company spokeswoman on my right and Sanjit.... More

Report says medication use is rising for adults with attention disorder The number of young American adults taking medications for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder nearly doubled from 2008 to 2012, according to a report to be released Wednesday by the nation’s largest prescription drug manager. More

Obama will seek broad expansion of overtime pay WASHINGTON — President Obama this week will seek to force American businesses to pay more overtime to millions of workers, the latest move by his administration to confront corporations that have had soaring profits even as wages have.... More

Women missing out on lucrative careers in computer science. The stubbornly low number of female computer science students in the United States has generated a pile of academic studies, ample hand-wringing and a wide-ranging discussion in tech and education circles about what can be done to boost the.... More

New workers are starting behind and can't get ahead. Gabe Ciuraru doesn’t see many good options for people his age. At 23, he’s waited tables, driven tanks for the Israeli army, taken community college classes and taught Hebrew in St. Paul. Lately he’s been selling cosmetics from a kiosk.... More

Gallup finds US uninsured rate keeps dropping toward lowest level since.... WASHINGTON — With just three weeks left to sign up under President Barack Obama's health care law, a major survey tracking the rollout finds that the uninsured rate keeps going down. The Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index, released Monday,.... More

Electronic health records: a hard pill to swallow for some doctors. Justine Mrosak entered the exam room, laptop in hand, and began interviewing her patient about his shoulder injury, systematically checking off questions and entering medical data on the computer. At Entira Family Clinics, where the third-year.... More

Little known Health Act fact: prison inmates are signing up. In a little-noticed outcome of President Obama’s Affordable Care Act, jails and prisons around the country are beginning to sign up inmates for health insurance under the law, taking advantage of the expansion of Medicaid that allows states.... More

iPhone-compatible hearing aids hit market. An Apple-ReSound joint venture puts hearing aid technology on iPhone platform. Using a powerful wireless chip, these hearing aids can be programmed and adjusted with an iPhone, iPad or iPod. They can be speakers for music, TV and telephones..... More

Could solar storm unplug us from all we depend on? When the sun got ornery in 1859, telegraph operators saw sparks fly. A huge solar flare belched a cloud of charged particles into Earth’s path. But other than frying telegraph lines, the electromagnetic collision caused little stir. Nobody.... More

The story behind the SAT overhaul. In July 2012, a few months before he was to officially take over as president of the College Board, David Coleman invited Les Perelman, then a director of writing at M.I.T., to come meet with him in Lower Manhattan. Of the many things the.... More

The youngest technorati Ryan Orbuch, 16 years old, rolled a suitcase to the front door of his family’s house in Boulder, Colo., on a Friday morning a year ago. He was headed for the bus stop, then the airport, then Texas. “I’m going,” he told his mother..... More

Reaching my autistic son through Disney. In our first year in Washington, our son disappeared. Just shy of his 3rd birthday, an engaged, chatty child, full of typical speech — “I love you,” “Where are my Ninja Turtles?” “Let’s get ice cream!” — fell silent. He cried,.... More

El nino predicted, may provide relief for U.S. weather woes. WASHINGTON — Relief may be on the way for a weather-weary United States with the predicted warming of the central Pacific Ocean brewing this year that will likely change weather worldwide. But it won't be for the better everywhere. The.... More

Abortion law pushes Texas clinics to close doors. McALLEN, Tex. — Shortly before a candlelight vigil on the sidewalk outside, employees of the last abortion clinic in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas shut the doors early Thursday evening, making legal abortion unavailable in the poorest.... More

Companies test plans to cut their health care costs. At Walgreen, the giant drugstore chain, employees now have a much broader choice of insurers and plans. Once limited to two options, either from a local Blue Cross plan or UnitedHealthcare, workers can now choose among as many as 25 plans from.... More

U.S. economy adds 175,000 jobs, and unemployment ticks up. The American economy added 175,000 jobs last month, a pace that was better than economists had expected and well above the anemic job gains recorded in December and January. Still, the latest figures for hiring were down from last year’s.... More

Pitfalls seen in turn to privately-run long-term care. NASHVILLE — Even as public attention is focused on the Affordable Care Act, another health care overhaul is underway in many states: an ambitious effort to restrain the ballooning Medicaid cost of long-term care as people live longer and.... More

New report ranks Alzheimer's as third leading cause of death. Alzheimer’s disease likely plays a much larger role in the deaths of older Americans than is currently reported, according to a new study that says the disease may be the third-leading cause of death in the U.S. The Centers for Disease.... More

Early treatment found to clear H.I.V. in second baby. BOSTON — When scientists made the stunning announcement last year that a baby born with H.I.V. had apparently been cured through aggressive drug treatment just 30 hours after birth, there was immediate skepticism that the child had been.... More

Consumers allowed to keep health plans for two more years. WASHINGTON — The Obama administration, grappling with continued political fallout over its health care law, said Wednesday that it would allow consumers to renew health insurance policies that did not comply with the new law for two more.... More

The story behind the SAT overhaul. In July 2012, a few months before he was to officially take over as president of the College Board, David Coleman invited Les Perelman, then a director of writing at M.I.T., to come meet with him in Lower Manhattan. Of the many things the.... More

Medical marijuana bill clears first hurdle at Minnesota legislature. A bill that would legalize medical marijuana in Minnesota cleared its first hurdle at the Legislature on Tuesday night after hours of anguished testimony from parents and patients. In tears, Joni Whiting told legislators the story of the.... More

Injections are providing protection against AIDS in monkeys, studies find. BOSTON — Researchers are reporting that injections of long-lasting AIDS drugs protected monkeys for weeks against infection, a finding that could lead to a major breakthrough in preventing the disease in humans. Two studies by different.... More

California's driver's license program hits an unexpected hurdle. BELL, Calif. — The auditorium was packed. There were single mothers, day laborers, grandparents pushing infants in strollers and teenagers interpreting for parents. All of them faced a potentially life-changing prospect: Within a year,.... More

How fat may harm the brain, and how exercise may help. Obesity may have harmful effects on the brain, and exercise may counteract many of those negative effects, according to sophisticated new neurological experiments with mice, even when the animals do not lose much weight. While it’s impossible.... More

E-cigarettes, by other names, lure young and worry experts. SAN FRANCISCO — Olivia Zacks, 17, recently took a drag of peach-flavored vapor from a device that most people would call an e-cigarette. But Ms. Zacks, a high school senior, does not call it that. In fact, she insists she has never even tried.... More

The breast cancer racial gap. A troubling racial divide in breast cancer mortality continues to widen in most major cities around the country, suggesting that advances in diagnosis and treatment continue to bypass African-American women, according to new research. More

Obama budget would expand low-income tax break. WASHINGTON — When President Obama releases his proposed annual budget on Tuesday, he will grab his best opportunity of the year to show, in one comprehensive package of hard numbers and precise detail, how he would have the government address.... More

Study finds suicidal tendencies are evident before deployment. Amid growing alarm at the rate of suicide among members of the military and confusion about possible causes, researchers reported on Monday that most of the Army’s enlisted men and women with suicidal tendencies had them before they enlisted,.... More

Cities move to help those threatened by gentrification. PHILADELPHIA — Cities that have worked for years to attract young professionals who might have once moved to the suburbs are now experimenting with ways to protect a group long deemed expendable — working- and lower-middle class homeowners.... More

Disney ends funding to Boy Scouts over gay policy. LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company will cut funding to the Boy Scouts of America beginning in 2015 because of a policy that bans gay adult leaders in the organization. The Boy Scouts organization is "disappointed" by the decision, which.... More

Infant sleeping machines at maximum volume may harm hearing. Devices that produce soothing sounds in order to lull infants to sleep can be loud enough at maximum volume to damage their hearing, researchers reported Monday. Infant sleep machines emit white noise or nature sounds to drown out everyday.... More

Rare mutation kills off gene responsible for diabetes. A new study based on genetic testing of 150,000 people has found a rare mutation that protects even fat people from getting Type 2 diabetes. The effect is so pronounced — the mutation reduces risk by two-thirds — that it provides a.... More

New law's demands on doctors have many seeking a network. TAYLORSVILLE, Ky. — Dr. Sven Jonsson, a primary care physician in this rural community, is seeing a steady tide of new patients under President Obama’s health care law, the Affordable Care Act. And so far, it is working out for him. His.... More

State report finds deep flaws in care for mentally ill. Public care for the mentally ill in Minnesota is deeply flawed, with patients cycling in and out of county jails and hospital ERs because of a severe shortage of psychiatric beds and community treatment, according to a stark new review by the.... More

Six months of gay marriage has state confronting profound change. Thom Bieniek remembers when he had to go by the name “Marissa” just to communicate with his partner Tyler Bieniek during Tyler’s combat deployment in Afghanistan in 2009. Now that burden is gone: Last fall, for the first time, he even got.... More

Of crime and punishment, aging and aerobics. It was a stinging 9 degrees on a recent Thursday morning when Thomas Mickens bounded into the Rochdale Village Senior Center in Jamaica, Queens. He was 15 minutes early to teach his 8:30 a.m. aerobics class, and his boisterous entrance was.... More

Discovery leads Yale to revise a chapter of its black history. On the campus of Yale University, Edward Bouchet has long been a venerated name. Hailed as the first African-American to graduate from Yale College, in 1874, he went on to be the first African-American to earn a Ph.D. (and only the sixth person.... More

New health fix offers subsidies for insurance policies bought outside.... WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Friday that it would allow some people to receive federal subsidies for health insurance purchased in the private market outside of health insurance exchanges. The sudden shift was the latest in a.... More

How many calories in that ice cream? New food labels aim to help. WASHINGTON — Ice cream lovers beware: The government knows you're unlikely to stop after half a cup. New nutrition labels proposed Thursday for many popular foods, including ice cream, aim to more accurately reflect what people actually eat..... More

Winter-weary Americans plead with travel agents: "get me out of here." CHICAGO — Shannon Frauenholtz has had it with winter. Barely able to stomach the television news with its images of snowbound cars, she heads to the tanning salon, closes her eyes and imagines she's back in Mexico, where she's already.... More

Business and the minimum wage: an editorial. Much of the discussion about the Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour by 2016 has rightly focused on the workers who will clearly benefit from the move. But what about businesses? How would higher wages affect.... More

What helps motion sickness? It’s not a new medicine, but Dr. John P. Carey of Johns Hopkins University often recommends the scopolamine patch to his patients. The patch, sold under the brand name Transderm Scop, requires a prescription, and works by blocking brain.... More

A call to arms on a Vermont heroin epidemic. RUTLAND, Vt. — Block by block, this city in central Vermont has been fighting a heroin epidemic so entrenched that it has confounded all efforts to combat it. On Cottage Street, the foot traffic is heavy in and out of No. 24 ½, a red.... More

Best Buy job cuts target 2,000 managers around the U.S. Best Buy Co. Inc. apparently told about 2,000 managers around the United States on Wednesday that they were being laid off, a move that would be the company’s biggest job reduction since July 2012 as it continues to cut costs following a.... More

Health law's small co-ops have mixed success so far. The rented offices of HealthyCT, a new insurer in Connecticut, bustle with the energy of a start-up. The sales force takes pride in noting that HealthyCT is a truly local outfit, governed by members, rather than a for-profit behemoth like.... More

New F.D.A. nutrition labels would make 'serving sizes' reflect actual.... WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration for the first time in two decades will propose major changes to nutrition labels on food packages, putting calorie counts in large type and adjusting portion sizes to reflect how much Americans.... More

Arizona's governor vetoes bill on refusal of service to gays. PHOENIX — Ending a day that cast a glaring national spotlight on Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, vetoed a bill on Wednesday that would have given business owners the right to refuse service to gay men, lesbians and other people on.... More

Obama to announce plan to empower young black men. WASHINGTON — For much of Barack Obama’s presidency, he has sought to avoid being defined by his race or gender, often emphasizing that he is the leader of all Americans. On Thursday, Mr. Obama will use the power of his office to focus on.... More

Man describes solitary confinement: "I saw men lose their minds." WASHINGTON – For nearly 15 years, Damon Thibodeaux lived in near-isolation on death row, locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Under the watch of armed guards, he had 60 minutes daily to shower, exercise and walk the halls of the Louisiana State.... More

Man describes solitary confinement: "I saw men lose their minds." WASHINGTON – For nearly 15 years, Damon Thibodeaux lived in near-isolation on death row, locked in a cell 23 hours a day. Under the watch of armed guards, he had 60 minutes daily to shower, exercise and walk the halls of the Louisiana State.... More

How to get fit in a few minutes a week. High-intensity interval training, a type of workout that consists of very brief bouts of very strenuous exercise, has become enormously popular in recent years. A main reason is that although such workouts are draining, they can be both very.... More

California endangered species: plastic bags. LOS ANGELES — On a recent drizzly day, Esha Moya found herself standing outside a grocery store in South Los Angeles, her half-dozen paper bags falling apart in the rain, wishing she had a few small items that had been free and plentiful her.... More

A non-profit lender revives hopes of sub-prime borrowers. WASHINGTON — About 200 people struggling to become homeowners filled the pews of Plymouth Congregational church on a recent Saturday morning. Some were self-employed, others short on a down payment, many branded by credit problems. Mortgage.... More

Obesity rate for young children plummets 43% in a decade. Federal health authorities on Tuesday reported a 43 percent drop in theobesity rate among 2- to 5-year-old children over the past decade, the first broad decline in an epidemic that often leads to lifelong struggles with weight and higher.... More

Online personality quizzes go viral on social media. NEW YORK — For a compulsive online quiz-taker like Chrissy Noh, the temptation was too great to resist: "Which sandwich are you?" After answering a series of unscientific, seemingly unrelated questions, which included selecting her favorite.... More

Walk and talk therapy is gaining ground. There’s no couch. In fact, there aren’t even any chairs. When Minneapolis therapist Tammie Rosenbloom meets her clients for a session, they go for a walk around a lake. If it’s too cold out, they head into the downtown skyways or even a.... More

When men get breast cancer. Breast cancer is not always pink. That is the message of a provocative new photography series featuring the faces, and scars, of men with breast cancer. The photos, by the New York-based fashion photographer David Jay, are part of his.... More

Governor of Arizona is pressed to veto bill. PHOENIX — As the Arizona Legislature sent a bill to her desk Monday that would grant business owners the right to invoke religion to refuse service to gays and others, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, faced pressure from many corners to veto.... More

Notion of colorblind colleges faces reality check. ANN ARBOR, Mich. — A brochure for the University of Michigan features a vision of multicultural harmony, with a group of students from different racial backgrounds sitting on a verdant lawn, smiling and conversing. The scene at the.... More

Ole Miss chapter suspends chapter, expels three in noose hanging on statue.... OXFORD, Miss. — A fraternity chapter at the University of Mississippi was indefinitely suspended Friday by its national organization and three of its freshman members were kicked out because of their suspected involvement in hanging a noose.... More

Five reasons why you shouldn't work too hard. Forget Russian figure skater Julia Lipnitskaia spinning in a blur with her leg impossibly held straight up against her ear. The sight of skier Bode Miller collapsing with emotion at the end of a race dedicated to his brother while NBC cameras.... More

Plan to limit some drugs in Medicare is criticized. An alliance of drug companies and patient advocates, joined by Democrats and Republicans in Congress, is fiercely opposing an Obama administration proposal that would allow insurers to limitMedicare coverage for certain classes of drugs,.... More

Religious right in Arizona cheers bill allowing businesses to refuse to.... In New Mexico, a photographer declined to take pictures of a lesbian couple’s commitment ceremony. In Washington State, a florist would not provide flowers for a same-sex wedding. And in Colorado, a baker refused to make a cake for a party.... More

Arizona approves right to refuse service to gays. The Arizona Legislature gave final approval Thursday evening to legislation that allows business owners asserting their religious beliefs to refuse service to gays, drawing backlash from Democrats who called the proposal "state-sanctioned.... More

Accident rates improve for older drivers. WASHINGTON — Safety researchers expressed concern a decade ago that traffic accidents would increase as the nation's aging population swelled the number of older drivers on the road. Now, they say they've been proved wrong.Today's drivers.... More

Minnesota's new way of seeing patients has improved health care results,.... A new model of primary care that emphasizes disease prevention and doctor-patient collaboration appears to be lowering Minnesota’s medical costs while raising the quality of care patients receive. Patients seen at “health care homes,”.... More

With 2015 budget request, Obama will call for an end to era of austerity. WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama’s forthcoming budget request will seek tens of billions of dollars in fresh spending for domestic priorities while abandoning a compromise proposal to tame the national debt in part by trimming Social.... More

New York will remove 400 children from homeless shelters. In the face of New York’s mounting homeless crisis, Mayor Bill de Blasio will announce on Friday that his administration is removing hundreds of children from two city-owned homeless shelters that inspectors have repeatedly cited for.... More

Racist episodes continue to stir Ole Miss campus. OXFORD, Miss. — On the campus of the University of Mississippi, a few hundred yards from a monument honoring Confederate soldiers, a statue of the university’s first black student, who enrolled in 1962 amid rioting that left two people dead.... More

Colorado expects tax bonanza from legal marijuana sales. DENVER — For Colorado’s new flock of recreational marijuana growers and sellers, Thursday was Tax Day — their first deadline to hand over the taxes they had collected during their inaugural month of sales. And as store owners stuffed cash.... More

Research shows talking to babies early really matters; long sentences are.... New research shows that both how much and how well parents talk with babies and toddlers help to tune the youngsters' brains in ways that build crucial language and vocabulary skills — a key to fighting the infamous "word gap" that puts poor.... More

More than 100,000 people are taking a class from Yale; here's what it.... The first-ever MOOC taught by a Nobel Prize-winning academic – the Financial Markets course taught by Yale’s Robert Shiller – has already signed up more than 100,000 people from around the world. Measured in terms of sign-ups only,.... More

Federal lawsuit accuses for-profit schools of fraud. LINWOOD, N.J. — It was the electronic monitor around a student’s ankle that first gave Kelli J. Amaya serious doubts about the Harris School of Business. The young man with the monitor was studying to be a pharmacy technician, and Ms. Amaya.... More

Study finds greater income inequality in nation's thriving cities. WASHINGTON — If you want to live in a more equal community, it might mean living in a more moribund economy. That is one of the implications of a new study of local income trends by the Brookings Institution, the Washington research group..... More

In New York, a push for compensated surrogacy. A month before their baby’s due date, Brad Hoylman and David Sigal got a call from the woman they had hired to have their child. She was having contractions; come right away. Mr. Sigal, a filmmaker, had the more flexible schedule. So after a.... More

Americans say they'd dump a carrier that slowed their Web traffic. Americans overwhelmingly dislike the idea of having their traffic throttled or blocked. And they're threatening to vote with their feet if Internet providers don't play along. A survey conducted by Consumer Reports finds that 71 percent of U.S.... More

Household debt increases, but survey finds Americans seem more cautious. Americans have been borrowing money at rates not seen since the recession began, but they are vigilant about paying their debts on time, according to data released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The findings from a government.... More

Obamacare volunteers struggle to find the uninsured. HOLLYWOOD, Fla. — The hunt for the uninsured in Broward County got underway one recent afternoon when 41 canvassers, armed with electronic maps on Samsung tablets, set off through working-class neighborhoods to peddle the Affordable Care Act.... More

Minimum wage increase would have mixed results, C.B.O. report says. WASHINGTON — A popular Democratic proposal to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, championed by President Obama, could reduce total employment by 500,000 workers by the second half of 2016. But it would also lift 900,000 families out of.... More

Doctors train to spot signs of A.D.H.D. in children. Jerry, 9 years old, dissolved into his Game Boy while his father described his attentional difficulties to the family pediatrician. The child began flitting around the room distractedly, ignoring the doctor’s questions and squirming in his.... More

Growing student debt may hurt housing recovery. The growing student loan burden carried by millions of Americans threatens to undermine the housing recovery’s momentum by discouraging, or even blocking, a generation of potential buyers from purchasing their first homes. Recent improvements.... More

Delta Air Lines gives employees highest ever profit-sharing. It’s a good day for nearly 80,000 Delta Air Lines employees, who will get the company’s biggest-ever profit-sharing checks for last year’s performance. Delta, which has a major hub at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport and.... More

Driving under the influence - of marijuana. If you are pulled over on suspicion of drunken driving, the police officer is likely to ask you to complete three tasks: Follow a pen with your eyes while the officer moves it back and forth; get out of the car and walk nine steps, heel to toe,.... More

A fresh case for breast self-exams. Scientists produced dismal news last week about mammograms. After tracking 90,000 women for 25 years, researchers in Canada found that those who received regular mammograms did not experience fewer deaths from breast canceror from all.... More

At Newark Airport, the lights are on and they're watching you. Visitors to Terminal B at Newark Liberty International Airport may notice the bright, clean lighting that now blankets the cavernous interior, courtesy of 171 recently installed LED fixtures. But they probably will not realize that the light.... More

In the debate over health care, 'real people' become human volley balls. WASHINGTON — In the Republican response to theState of the Union address, Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington lamented the travails of “Bette in Spokane,” whose insurance policy had been canceled because of the health care.... More

Defeat of auto union in Tennessee casts its strategy in doubt. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — Bob King has pursued one goal above all as president of the United Automobile Workers — to unionize several foreign-owned auto plants in the South. He said he viewed that as pivotal if his once-mighty union was to.... More

Crossing borders and changing lives, lured by higher State minimum wages. ONTARIO, Ore. — Carly Lynch dreams of a life one day on the professional rodeo circuit, but for now she commutes 20 miles from Idaho to this small city in eastern Oregon to work as a waitress. There are restaurant jobs closer to home, but she.... More

U.S. marijuana policy in Colorado, Washington fuel push for legal pot.... In a former colonial mansion in Jamaica, politicians huddle to discuss trying to ease marijuana laws in the land of the late reggae musician and cannabis evangelist Bob Marley. In Morocco, one of the world's top producers of the concentrated.... More

A victory for gay rights in Virginia, but opponents vow to fight on. Supporters of gay rights celebrated on Friday their latest courtroom victory, the overturning of Virginia’s ban on same-sex marriage, as opponents condemned the decision as an infringement on states’ rights and vowed to take the issue to.... More

As services expand, cable bills keep rising. WASHINGTON — Of the many benefits that Comcast executives said would flow to consumers from its proposed $45 billion takeover of Time Warner Cable — more innovation, advanced technology, improved service — the one it did not mention.... More

Volkswagon vote is defeat for labor in South. CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — In a defeat for organized labor in the South, employees at the Volkswagen plant here voted 712 to 626 against joining the United Automobile Workers. The loss is an especially stinging blow for U.A.W. because Volkswagen did not even oppose the unionization drive. More

Medicines manufactured in India set off safety worries. NEW DELHI — India, the second-largest exporter of over-the-counter and prescription drugs to the United States, is coming under increased scrutiny by American regulators for safety lapses, falsified drug test results and selling fake.... More

Health insurance enrollment on target in January. For the first time since the federal and state health-insurance marketplaces opened early last fall, the number of people who signed up for coverage exceeded the government’s expectations for the month in January, bringing the overall total.... More

Court ruling hobbles prosecution for unpaid child support. A Rochester (Minnesota) man who ignored years of demands to pay child support for his two kids cannot be punished because there is no proof he didn’t otherwise care for them, the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. One justice who.... More

Blood clot risk lasts for 12 weeks after pregnancy. Researchers say women have a higher risk of blood clots for 12 weeks after childbirth, twice as long as has been believed. Pregnant women are more prone to blood clots because substances that thicken the blood naturally rise, and blood from the.... More

G.O.P. Senate leaders avert debt ceiling crisis. WASHINGTON — It was a moment of real drama in a chamber known for its somnambulism. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, counted votes on his hand, at one point holding up three fingers as he searched for the remaining.... More

Staggering through another winter burial. A powerful storm system that left thousands of commuters stranded in the South and caused power failures along the East Coast swept into New York early Thursday morning, blanketing the city yet again in a cover of white. More

Obama to launch effort to help young men of color. President Obama will launch a significant new effort this week to bolster the lives of young men of color, seeking to use the power of the presidency to help a group of Americans whose lives are disproportionately affected by poverty and prison.... More

Gay football player's message met with support. Scott Cooper was at his Minneapolis home Sunday scrolling through Facebook on his phone when someone shared a link that former Missouri defensive end and NFL draft prospect Michael Sam had announced he is gay. Cooper, who recently ended his.... More

Minnesota students: you'd better not forget your lunch money. Some Minnesota children go to school hungry and leave even hungrier. A majority of public school districts in this state deny hot lunch — or any lunch at all in some cases — to children who can’t pay for them. Some schools take the meals.... More

Heroin's small town toll, and a mother's grief. HUDSON, Wis. — Karen Hale averts her eyes when she drives past the Super 8 motel in this picturesque riverfront town where her 21-year-old daughter, Alysa Ivy, died of an overdose last May. She has contemplated asking the medical examiner,.... More

Obama extends health law delay for some employers. The Obama administration announced on Monday that it would postpone enforcement of a federal requirement for medium-size employers to provide health insurance to employees and allow larger employers more flexibility in how they provide coverage. More

Is the end near for cigarette smoking in America? Maybe. ATLANTA — Health officials have begun to predict the end of cigarette smoking in America.They have long wished for a cigarette-free America, but shied away from calling for smoking rates to fall to zero or near zero by any particular year..... More

Disruptions: For a restful night, make your smartphone sleep on the couch. We’ve all been there. You wake up in the middle of the night and grab your smartphone to check the time — it’s 3 a.m. — and see an alert. Before you know it, you fall down a rabbit hole of email and Twitter. Sleep? Forget it. Well,.... More

LeanIn.org and Getty aim to change women’s portrayal in stock photos. SAN FRANCISCO — There is the businesswoman, wearing a suit and glasses and holding a briefcase. There is the mother, smiling as she pours milk into her children’s cereal bowls at the breakfast table. There is the multitasker, holding a.... More

NFL prospect proudly says what teammates knew: he's gay. Coaches at the University of Missouri divided players into small groups at a preseason football practice last year for a team-building exercise. One by one, players were asked to talk about themselves — where they grew up, why they chose.... More

Fight over minimum wage illustrates web of industry ties. WASHINGTON — Just four blocks from the White House is the headquarters of the Employment Policies Institute, a widely quoted economic research center whose academic reports have repeatedly warned that increasing the minimum wage could be.... More

Want to make a change in your health plan? Now you can. The Obama administration has quietly reworked rules and computer code for HealthCare.gov to try to stem an outpouring of discontent by some Americans who have discovered that the health plans they bought do not include their old doctors or.... More

AOL chief ignites firestorm over 401(k) cuts and ‘distressed babies’.... It should have been a glorious week for AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong. His company’s quarterly earnings, announced Thursday, were the best in a decade. “Olympian,” he declared. Instead, he angered employees, insulted parents with.... More

Car seats save lives, but are still underused. More than 9,000 children under 12 died in motor vehicle accidents from 2002 to 2011, in many cases because they were not properly restrained in child seats or seatbelts. Though the death rate decreased over those years, to 1.2 per 100,000.... More

Stepping up to stop sexual assault at colleges. BYSTANDER INTERVENTION is so easy to grasp, even by the most inexperienced college freshman, that the program may well be the best hope for reducing sexual assaults on campuses. Mostly it is common sense: If a drunk young man at a party is.... More

'Aid in dying' movement takes hold in some states. DENVER — Helping the terminally ill end their lives, condemned for decades as immoral, is gaining traction. Banned everywhere but Oregon until 2008, it is now legal in five states. Its advocates, who have learned to shun the term “assisted.... More

Debit card users beware; all plastic is not protected equally. Before you whip out your debit card, consider this: if some crafty thief hacks the store terminal and goes on a shopping spree using your data, you could be held responsible for $500 in charges. That’s because debit cards do not share the.... More

Krauthammer: The health care myths we live by. Swedish researchers report that antioxidants make cancers worse in mice. It’s already known that the antioxidant beta-carotene exacerbates lung cancers in humans. Not exactly what you’d expect given the extravagant — and incessant —.... More

Learning to think outside the box. IT BOTHERS MATTHEW LAHUEand it surely bothers you: enter a public restroom and the stall lock is broken. Fortunately, Mr. Lahue has a solution. It’s called the Bathroom Bodyguard. Standing before his Buffalo State College classmates and.... More

Four gay rights activists arrested in St. Petersburg. ST.PETERSBURG, Russia — Russian police have arrested four gay rights activists protesting in St. Petersburg on the opening day of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. During Friday's protest, four gay activists unfurled a banner quoting the.... More

Weakness continues as 113,000 jobs are added in January. The American economy added 113,000 jobs in January, a disappointing showing that is likely to spur fears that the labor market is poised for yet another slowdown. Before the report from the Labor Department on Friday morning, economists had.... More

This is why your smartphone battery has the life span of a fruit fly. When news leaked out this week that Apple was experimenting with a new way of charging its anticipated iWatch – possibly using kinetic movement, magnetic induction or solar power — it should have been an “a-ha” moment for innovators.... More

Boehner proposes linking debt-limit hike to a restoration of recent cuts.... House Speaker John A. Boehner scrambled to sell a new debt-ceiling solution to his Republican colleagues on Wednesday, encouraging them to demand a restoration of recently cut military benefits in exchange for a one-year extension of the.... More

New surveillance technology can track everyone in the area for several.... DAYTON, Ohio — Shooter and victim were just a pair of pixels, dark specks on a gray streetscape. Hair color, bullet wounds, even the weapon were not visible in the series of pictures taken from an airplane flying two miles above. But what the.... More

Narcissists' dream: a selfie-friendly phone. “Selfie” was Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year in 2013. And selfies are powerful business; #me is the third-most-common tag on Instagram, appended to more than 184 million photos, according to the app’s Web viewer, Webstagram..... More

Study suggests fears about longer childbirths are misplaced. Epidural anesthesia lengthens the second stage of labor, the one in which women push. But a study published on Wednesday has found that epidurals are associated with an even longer duration in the second stage than is generally recognized,.... More

CVS Caremark plans to snuff out tobacco sales at stores nationally due to.... CVS Caremark is kicking the habit of selling tobacco products at its more than 7,600 drugstores nationwide as it focuses more on providing health care. The nation's second-largest drugstore chain said Wednesday that it will phase out cigarettes.... More

Senate passes long-stalled farm bill, with clear winners and losers. WASHINGTON — No one was happier than Danny Murphy, a Mississippi soybean farmer with 1,500 acres, when the Senate on Tuesday passed a farm bill that expanded crop insurance and other benefits for agribusiness. “It’s a relief,” Mr..... More

Health care law projected to cut the labor force. WASHINGTON — A Congressional Budget Office analysis released Tuesday predicted that the Affordable Care Act would shrink the work force by the equivalent of more than two million full-time positions and recharged the political debate over the.... More

In texting era, crisi hotlines put help at youths' fingertips. The conversation began abruptly, with the anonymous teenager getting straight to the point: She had just told her family that she was really a boy trapped in a female body. “Now my family hates me,” she told a crisis counselor. The.... More

Freeing workers from the insurance trap. The Congressional Budget Office estimated on Tuesday that the Affordable Care Act will reduce the number of full-time workers by 2.5 million over the next decade. That is mostly a good thing, a liberating result of the law. Of course,.... More

First women ski jumpers ready to prove their mettle. No single word was powerful enough to convey Jessica Jerome’s joy in late December, when she became the first American female ski jumper to clinch a spot in the 2014 Sochi Games, where women’s ski jumping will make its Olympic debut on Feb.... More

Preschool's benefits extend to parents. If preschool is having a moment, it is due in part to its appeal to voters as a program designed to help children: preschool is “the most cost-effective” educational intervention, one that can set children up for greater success not just in.... More

Olson and Boies, legal duo, seek role in 2 cases on gay marriage. WASHINGTON — Theodore B. Olson and David Boies, the star legal duo who defied skeptics by successfully challenging California’s ban on same-sex marriage, are seeking to play a central role in the next round of marriage cases that appear.... More

Preschool push moving ahead in several states. Preschool is having its moment, as a favored cause for politicians and interest groups who ordinarily have trouble agreeing on the time of day. President Obama devoted part of his State of the Union address to it, while the deeply red states of.... More

Ethics questions arise as genetics testing of embryos increases. Her first thought after she heard the news, after she screamed and made her mother and boyfriend leave the room, was that she would never have children. Amanda Baxley’s doctor had just told her, over a speakerphone in her psychiatrist’s.... More

Employers find returns in workplace wellness investments. Janis Smith feels a lot healthier — and more confident — since shedding 65 pounds in six months, and that has helped in her job leading employee training for 1st Mariner Bank. “Being in front of a classroom of people … I don’t feel.... More

Abortions declining in U.S., study finds. The abortion rate among American women declined to its lowest level in more than three decades in 2011, according to a new report released Monday that is widely considered the country’s most definitive examination of abortion trends. The 1.... More

The middle class is eroding; just ask the business world. In Manhattan, the upscale clothing retailer Barneys will replace the bankrupt discounter Loehmann’s, whose Chelsea store closes in a few weeks. Across the country, Olive Garden and Red Lobster restaurants are struggling, while fine-dining.... More

Battles loom in many states over what to do with surpluses. In a year when three dozen governors are up for election, unexpectedly robust revenues from taxes and other sources are filling most state coffers, creating surpluses not seen in years and prompting statehouse battles over what to do with the.... More

Method of study criticized in group's health policy tests. The idea seemed transformative. The Affordable Care Act would fund a new research outfit evocatively named the Innovation Center to discover how to most effectively deliver health care, with $10 billion to spend over a decade. But now that the.... More

Long-term jobless will get new help. WASHINGTON – President Obama has persuaded some of the nation's largest companies, including Wal-Mart, Apple, General Motors and Ford, to revamp their hiring practices to avoid discriminating against applicants who have been out of work for.... More

Over 50, working against time in America's harsh job market. As hard as he tried, Michael Duffy couldn’t find a job to match the one he’d lost. For two decades he earned six figures selling equipment to factories. But at 62, he kept getting turned away, one job interview after another. So last fall.... More

Digital underground is behind the attack on Target. They are known as “coders” and “carders,” high-tech gurus who live in a digital underworld. Their identities have been elusive, but their tactics and profiles are emerging in the aftermath of the malware attacks against Target and.... More

Technophoria: When no one is just a face in the crowd. Hey, big spenders. Facial recognition technology, already employed by some retail stores to spot and thwart shoplifters, may soon be used to identify and track the freest spenders in the aisles. The NEC Corporation, for instance, is working.... More

Severe drought has California fearing the worst. LOS ANGELES — The punishing drought that has swept California is now threatening the state’s drinking water supply. With no sign of rain, 17 rural communities providing water to 40,000 people are in danger of running out within 60 to 120.... More

Federal retirement wave looms. The federal workforce is building toward a potential retirement wave in coming years, with more than a third of career federal employees projected to be eligible for collecting their end-of-career benefits by September 2017, compared to just 14.... More

Welcome to Salt City, where cars, sidewalks and shoes bear winter's briny.... Salt is everywhere, lingering far longer than our gratitude for its service. It coats our cars in gray talcum. It covers our sidewalks in long saline swirls. It appears as ghostly footprints across our floors in spite of the extra towels we lay.... More

Retailers ask: where did teenagers go? Luring young shoppers into traditional teenage clothing stores has become a tough sell. When 19-year-old Tsarina Merrin thinks of a typical shopper at some of the national chains, she doesn’t think of herself, her friends or even.... More

Parched, California cuts off tap to agencies. LOS ANGELES — Acting in one of the worst droughts in California’s history, state officials announced on Friday that they would cut off the water that it provides to local agencies serving 25 million residents and about 750,000 acres of.... More

Snacks laced with marijuana raise concerns. DENVER — All day long, customers at LoDo Wellness Center, one of Colorado’s new recreational marijuana stores, reach into the refrigerator and pull out tasty ways to get high. They buy sparkling peach and mandarin elixirs, watermelon Dew.... More

A lost boy finds his calling. Someone dims the lights, and an old video clip begins to roll. In a dank room, dozens of children with shaved heads crouch naked in puddles of urine, fight over a bucket of gruel, lie tethered to radiators. One little girl’s leg juts up at a.... More

Hispanics often lead the way in their faith in the American Dream, poll.... After five days painting hotel rooms in Ohio and an all-night bus ride, Jorge Garcia reached his Falls Church home at 4 one recent morning. His wife, Sara, was waiting up with hot Bolivian-style soup in the small house he had remodeled with.... More

Responding to critics, gynecology board reverses ban on treating male.... After months of protest from doctors and patients, a professional group that certifies obstetrician-gynecologists has lifted a ban it imposed in September and now says its members are free to treat men. The decision, announced Thursday by.... More

In the event of an air emergency, remember what Alf said. The spoof movie “Airplane!” is becoming the basis for something real, 34 years after its release. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is reprising his role as the pilot Roger Murdock in Delta Air Lines’ in-flight safety video which began appearing.... More

GOP's immigration blueprint leaves party at odds and Democrats hopeful. CAMBRIDGE, Md. — The House Republican leadership’s call on Thursday to provide legal status for 11 million undocumented workers, and possible citizenship for those brought to this country as children, caused sharp division within the party.... More

Passengers recall days of misery as cruise ship returns home. BAYONNE, N.J. — Passengers aboard a cruise ship on which hundreds fell ill recalled days of misery holed up in their rooms as it returned to its home port Wednesday from a Caribbean trip cut short by what is suspected to be among the largest.... More

Giving kids with peanut allergy doses of peanut flour helped. LONDON — An experimental therapy that fed children with peanut allergies small amounts of peanut flour has helped more than 80 percent of them safely eat a handful of the previously worrisome nuts. Although experts say the results of the.... More

New concern about testosterone and heart risks. A large new study found that prescription testosterone raised the risk of heart attacks in older men and in middle-aged men with a history of heart disease, prompting some experts on Wednesday to call for more extensive warning labels on the.... More

U.S. economy grew 3.2% in fourth quarter. The economy grew 3.2 percent in the final quarter of 2013, shrugging off the effects of the fall’s government shutdown and debt standoff, and raising hopes that the recovery was finally getting more robust. The pace of expansion in October,.... More

Obesity is found to gain its hold in earliest years. For many obese adults, the die was cast by the time they were 5 years old. A major new study of more than 7,000 children has found that a third of children who were overweight in kindergarten were obese by eighth grade. And almost every child.... More

DNA shows ancient hunter had blue eyes, dark skin. BERLIN — A hunter-gatherer who lived in Europe some 7,000 years ago probably had blue eyes and dark skin, a combination that has largely disappeared from the continent in the millennia since, scientists said Tuesday. The discovery, published.... More

A culture of toxic leaders afflicts U.S. military, documents show. There are miserable bosses, and then there are toxic military commanders. Air Force Maj. Gen. Stephen D. Schmidt was unquestionably among the latter in the view of some staff members under his thumb. A profane screamer, he ran through six.... More

Executive order may be only option, but it comes with limits. President Obama’s State of the Union address represented a study in scaled-down ambition. A man who entered the White House yearning for sweeping achievements finds himself five years later threatening an end run around gridlock on Capitol.... More

Frigid blast disrupts life in South and Midwest as emergencies are.... CHICAGO — In Alabama, snow made roads impassable and forced some schools to prepare to keep students overnight. Many people in metro Atlanta planned to sleep in offices and hotels. And here in Chicago, where winter usually brings a shrug,.... More

A court's all-hands approach aids girls most at risk. SAN LEANDRO, Calif. — Toni J., an effervescent 16-year-old who talks on speed-dial, lives with 11 family members in West Oakland, on a street buffeted by gang activity and poverty. Her mother died of an overdose, her father in a revenge.... More

Some bad habits get a little respect. Do you pick your skin? Bite your nails? Tear the calluses off your heels? Then you’ve won a small, if bittersweet, victory. Your condition, now known as “excoriation disorder,” made it into the latest edition of the Diagnostic and.... More

U.S. relaxes some data disclosure rules. The Obama administration says it will allow Internet companies to give customers a better idea of how often the government demands their information, but will not allow companies to disclose what is being collected or how much. The new rules.... More

Genetic weapon against insects raises hope and fear in farming. Scientists and biotechnology companies are developing what could become the next powerful weapon in the war on pests — one that harnesses a Nobel Prize-winning discovery to kill insects and pathogens by disabling their genes. By zeroing in on.... More

Vision care insurer VSP to cover Google Glass. Google and VSP, the nation’s biggest optical health insurance provider, have struck a deal to offer subsidized frames and prescription lenses for Google Glass, the Internet-connected eyewear. The announcement could take wearable devices out.... More

Obama will raise minimum wage for federal contractors to $10.10. WASHINGTON — President Obama plans to sign an executive order requiring that janitors, construction workers and others working for federal contractors be paid at least $10.10 an hour, using his own power to enact a more limited version of a.... More

Republicans decry Obama plans to bypass Congress to advance agenda. President Obama's strategy to bypass Congress this year with executive orders to advance his policy agenda received a cold reaction on Sunday from Republican leaders, who accused the White House of arrogance and sidestepping the political.... More

Postal rates to rise today; court challenges ahead. WASHINGTON — Postage rates on first-class letters and most other mail will rise Monday by 3 cents to help the financially ailing U.S. Postal Service recoup millions of dollars it lost during the economic downturn. But the largest rate.... More

Helping smokers quit - or not start in the first place. “Even 50 years after the first surgeon general’s report on smoking and health, we’re still finding out new ways that tobacco kills and maims people,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,.... More

Cannabis legal, localities begin to just say no. YAKIMA, Wash. — The momentum toward legalized marijuana might seem like an inevitable tide, with states from Florida to New York considering easing laws for medical use, and a full-blown recreational industry rapidly emerging in Colorado and.... More

Committing to play for a college, then starting 9th grade. SANFORD, Fla. — Before Haley Berg was done with middle school, she had the numbers for 16 college soccer coaches programmed into the iPhone she protected with a Justin Bieber case. he was all of 14, but Hales, as her friends call her, was.... More

Flexing mental muscles keeps aging brain healthy. Ken Lehmann is taking his Alzheimer’s diagnosis very seriously: He’s making a game of it. Three and a half years ago, the retired furniture executive from Edina learned he was in the early stages of the disease. Since then, the.... More

Supreme Court: nuns exempt from Obamacare birth control rule - for now. The Supreme Court said Friday that a group of Colorado nuns does not have to comply with the Affordable Care Act’s requirement that employers offer insurance plans that cover contraceptives while the nuns pursue a legal challenge of that.... More

U.S. cites evidence of anti-semitism in school district. Federal authorities say evidence collected in a lawsuit filed by three Jewish families against an upstate New York school district “is sufficient for a jury to find that the district failed to respond to pervasive anti-Semitic harassment in.... More

Judge orders pregnant woman off life-support. FORT WORTH — A Texas judge ruled Friday that a Fort Worth hospital may not keep a brain-dead pregnant woman on life support against her family’s wishes, and ordered doctors to take her off the machines by 5 p.m. on Monday. More

After 20 years, FDA is remaking the nutrition facts on the back of food.... WASHINGTON — After 20 years, the nutrition facts label on the back of food packages is getting a makeover. Knowledge about nutrition has evolved since the early 1990s, and the Food and Drug Administration says the labels need to reflect that..... More

Fear of home seizure causing people to avoid Medicaid coverage. Add this to the scary but improbable things people are hearing could happen because of the new federal health-care law: After you die, the state could come after your house. The concern arises from a long-standing but little-known aspect of.... More

In rural jails, e-cigarettes are a calming vapor. LAFAYETTE, Tenn. — As city governments and schools across the country move to ban or restrict the use of electronic cigarettes, one place increasingly welcomes the devices: the rural county jail. More

Morning after pill may not work in heavy women. LONDON — The European Medicines Agency says it has started a review of emergency contraceptives to see if they work less well in heavy women. In November, French drug maker HRA Pharma announced its morning-after pill Norvelo was less.... More

U.S. companies awaken to threat of global warming. WASHINGTON — Coca-Cola has always been more focused on its economic bottom line than on global warming, but when the company lost a lucrative operating license in India because of a serious water shortage there in 2004, things began to change. More

Besieged Target lays off 475, won't fill 700 jobs. Target Corp. laid off 475 employees Wednesday and said it will not fill 700 open positions as the company struggles with stubbornly sluggish sales and fallout from the massive computer security breach that short-circuited its crucial holiday.... More

Gallup finds modest drop in uninsured rate as new health law takes effect. WASHINGTON — The nation's uninsured rate dropped modestly this month as the major coverage expansion under President Barack Obama's health care law got underway, according to a closely watched survey released Thursday. The Gallup-Healthways.... More

Upward mobility has not declined, study says. The odds of moving up — or down — the income ladder in the United States have not changed appreciably in the last 20 years, according to a large new academic study that contradicts politicians in both parties who have claimed that income.... More

What's in your fish oil supplements? Millions of Americans take fish oil supplements to promote heart and vascular health. But a new analysis suggests that some consumers may not always get what they are paying for.The new research, carried out by a testing company called LabDoor.... More

Virginia won't defend gay marriage ban. RICHMOND, Va. — Following a seismic political shift in Virginia's top elected offices, the new attorney general has concluded that the state's ban on gay marriage is unconstitutional and he will no longer defend it in federal lawsuits, his.... More

Target will drop health insurance for its part-time employees. Target Corp. said Tuesday that it will stop offering health insurance to its part-time employees because new online health exchanges offer workers an opportunity to buy coverage. The Minneapolis-based retailer will give each worker $500 to.... More

The health hazards of sitting. We know sitting too much is bad, and most of us intuitively feel a little guilty after a long TV binge. But what exactly goes wrong in our bodies when we park ourselves for nearly eight hours per day, the average for a U.S. adult? Many things,.... More

Food banks anticipate impact of cuts to food stamps. WASHINGTON — Late last year, staff members at the Capital Area Food Bank here began fielding requests for larger deliveries from the dozens of soup kitchens and food pantries that it supplies as more and more people showed up seeking help. More

States cutting weeks of aid to the jobless. RIEGELWOOD, N.C. — After losing her job as a security guard in June, Alnetta McKnight turned to food stamps and unemployment insurance to support herself and her 14-year-old son. But her jobless payments ran out after 20 weeks, and now they.... More

Sexual orientation ruled no basis for exclusion from jury. Gay men and lesbians may not be excluded from juries based on their sexual orientation, the federal appeals court in San Francisco ruled on Tuesday. During jury selection, lawyers are generally permitted to exclude — or strike — a fixed.... More

Study: nearly half of U.S. black men, 38% of white men arrested at least.... NEW YORK — Nearly 50 percent of black men and 40 percent of white men are arrested at least once on non-traffic-related crimes by the time they turn 23, according to a new study. One of the authors of the study published this month in the.... More

Planning to become a first-time home owner? These steps will make it.... If you’re planning in the spring to buy your first house, you already may be feeling a bit overwhelmed about what can often be a complicated and convoluted process. The good news is that you have plenty of time to learn the myriad steps to.... More

High-tech upgrades may let aging boomers live independently in their homes.... As more baby boomers enter retirement, many may see their homes get a high-tech makeover. Their medicine bottles will alert their doctor when they miss a dose. Pressure-sensing floor mats can sense when they have fallen or let caregivers know.... More

Law's expanded Medicaid coverage brings a surge in signups. WELCH, W.Va. — Sharon Mills, a disabled nurse, long depended on other people’s kindness to manage her diabetes. She scrounged free samples from doctors’ offices, signed up for drug company discounts and asked for money from her parents.... More

Parties seize on abortion rights in midterm race. WASHINGTON — When the Republican National Committee gathers for its winter meeting here on Wednesday, the action will start a few hours late to accommodate anyone who wants to stop first at the March for Life, the annual anti-abortion.... More

President doesn't think weed is more serious than alcohol. President Barack Obama said he doesn't think marijuana is more dangerous than alcohol, "in terms of its impact on the individual consumer." "As has been well documented, I smoked pot as a kid, and I view it as a bad habit and a vice, not very.... More

Have you ever been on a boat and other weird interview questions from tech.... Looking for a new job? Employment review site Glassdoor reported Friday that one in five employees are looking to switch companies this year. If you’re one of those looking for greener pastures, remember that updating your resume isn’t the.... More

Building toward the home of tomorrow. The home of the future — complete with helper bots and automated appliances — has long been the stuff of science fiction. The tech world is determined to make it a reality. Soon, the vision goes, everything from garden products to bathroom.... More

Juveniles facing lifelong terms, despite rulings. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — In decisions widely hailed as milestones, the United States Supreme Court in 2010 and 2012 acted to curtail the use of mandatory life sentences for juveniles, accepting the argument that children, even those who are.... More

Coming a long way on smoking, with a way to go. Fifty years ago this month, Dr. Luther L. Terry issued the first “Surgeon General’s Report on Smoking and Health,” which cited smoking as a cause of lung cancer in men. The hefty report landed like a bombshell on a complacent public,.... More

Why everyone seems to have cancer. At the beginning of every year, when the government publishes its Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, it’s followed by a lament: We’re losing the war against cancer. Half a century ago, the story goes, a person was far more likely.... More

A sneaky path into Target customers' wallets. It was, in essence, a cybercriminal’s dream. For months, an amorphous group of Eastern European hackers had been poking around the networks of major American retailers, searching for loose portals that would take them deep into corporate.... More

Wealth: Having enough but hungry for more. THREE recent stories got me thinking about a concept that is central to money, wealth and ultimately contentment but that is overlooked this time of year: knowing how much is enough. First, Mathew Martoma, a former portfolio manager at SAC.... More

NYC leaders begin city's left turn with expanded sick pay proposal. New York City’s top elected officials said on Friday that they would greatly expand the reach of a measure mandating paid time off for sick workers, a cherished cause of the national left that had long been resisted by local business leaders. More

Obama to call for significant changes in collection of phone records of U.... President Obama will call Friday for significant changes to the way the National Security Agency collects and uses telephone records of U.S. citizens, moving to transition away from government control of the information and immediately require.... More

Obama lauds pledges to expand college opportunities. WASHINGTON — Mobilized by the Obama administration, and egged on by both the president and the first lady, scores of college presidents, along with corporate and nonprofit leaders, on Thursday promised new initiatives and money toward.... More

List of smoking-related illnesses grows significantly in U.S. report.. WASHINGTON — In a broad review of scientific literature, the nation’s top doctor has concluded that cigarette smoking — long known to cause lung cancer and heart disease — also causes diabetes, colorectal and liver cancers.... More

U.N, says lag in confronting climate woes will be costly. Nations have so dragged their feet in battling climate change that the situation has grown critical and the risk of severe economic disruption is rising, according to a draft United Nations report. Another 15 years of failure to limit carbon.... More

Advocates for workers raise the ire of business. As America’s labor unions have lost members and clout, new types of worker advocacy groups have sprouted nationwide, and they have started to get on businesses’ nerves — protesting low wages at Capital Grille restaurants, for instance,.... More

Can heavier people really be healthier? Scientists call it the obesity paradox, the notion that being overweight or moderately obese lowers the risk of an early death. They have documented the phenomenon in large population studies and in groups of patients with chronic diseases.... More

Public hospitals hope to attract more upscale patients under new health.... Todd Obolsky lives in a studio apartment in Manhattan, drives a leased Toyota Corolla and occasionally splurges on experimental cuisine in the East Village. When the Affordable Care Act allowed him to buy insurance for the first time in years.... More

Seven reasons why Google is the most fascinating company in the world. Just Google it. The word is synonymous with searching the Web. But given the sweeping goals of the company, the word Google might come to mean something else in pop culture. Google made a big move Monday, announcing plans to acquire Nest.... More

Amid focus on lighter cars and fuel efficiency, big performance vehicles.... DETROIT — No sign of economic strife mars the dazzling floors of the North American International Auto Show, where Vice President Biden is expected to lead a contingent of Obama administration officials Wednesday and Thursday in what amounts.... More

Seeking clues to obesity in rare hunger disorder. Lisa Tremblay still recalls in horror the time her daughter Kristin pulled a hot dog crawling with ants from the garbage at a cookout and prepared to swallow it. Kristin has a rare genetic abnormality that gives her an incessant,.... More

What ultra-marathons do to our bodies. Ultra-runners are different from you and me in one simple way: They run more. But a new study of these racers, who compete in events longer than marathons, joins other recent science in finding that they also tend to be older and have some.... More

Feeling mad? New devices can sense your mood, and even tell others. Cognitive psychologist Mary Czerwinski and her boyfriend were having a vigorous argument as they drove to Vancouver, B.C., from Seattle, where she works at Microsoft Research. She can’t remember the subject, but she does recall that suddenly,.... More

Feeling mad? New devices can sense your mood, and even tell others. Cognitive psychologist Mary Czerwinski and her boyfriend were having a vigorous argument as they drove to Vancouver, B.C., from Seattle, where she works at Microsoft Research. She can’t remember the subject, but she does recall that suddenly,.... More

House and Senate negotiators agree on spending bill. WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators reached accord on a trillion-dollar spending plan that will finance the government through September, reversing some cuts to military veterans’ pensions that were included in a broader.... More

Older pool of health care enrollees stirs fears on costs. WASHINGTON — People signing up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act’s federal and state marketplaces tend to be older and potentially less healthy, officials said Monday, a demographic mix that could threaten the law’s.... More

Secretive Apple squirms in gaze of U.S. monitor. Most companies are reluctant to open themselves to outside inspection. Yet Apple is even resisting someone who was appointed by a court to do exactly that, leading to an unusual public feud between the world’s biggest technology company and.... More

Swedish doctors transplant wombs into nine women. STOCKHOLM — Nine women in Sweden have successfully received transplanted wombs donated from relatives and will soon try to become pregnant, the doctor in charge of the pioneering project has revealed. The women were born without a uterus or.... More

West Virginia residents cope with water woes after chemical spill. CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Around the swollen Elk River, now flowing with a chemical that’s hard to pronounce, myriad streams and rivulets tumbled from the hillsides over the weekend, the result of a drenching downpour. Logs and branches floated.... More

As conjugal visits fade, a lifeline to inmates' spouses is lost. PARCHMAN, Miss. — To spend time alone with the man she married four months ago, Ebony Fisher, 25, drives nearly three hours through the flat cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta until she pulls into a gravel lot next to the state’s rural.... More

Where free speech collides with abortion rights. BOSTON — A couple of mornings a week, Eleanor McCullen stakes out a spot outside the Planned Parenthood clinic here and tries to persuade women on their way in to think twice before having an abortion. More

U.S. to recognize 1,300 marriages disputed by Utah. The Obama administration on Friday made the latest contribution to a fast-moving legal battle over same-sex marriage rights as the Justice Department said that the federal government would recognize as lawful the marriages of some 1,300.... More

The next data privacy battle may be waged inside your car. Cars are becoming smarter than ever, with global positioning systems, Internet connections, data recorders and high-definition cameras. Drivers can barely make a left turn, put on their seatbelts or push 80 miles an hour without their actions.... More

Wall Street shock: take a day off, even a Sunday. For the ambitious college graduates who flock to Wall Street, working into the wee hours or even pulling all-nighters is an unwritten expectation of the job. Spending both Saturdays and Sundays at the office is the norm. More

Enrollees at health exchanges face struggle to prove coverage. Paul D. Donahue and his wife, Angela, are among more than a million Americans who have signed up for health coverage through the federal insurance exchange. Mr. Donahue has a card in his wallet from his insurer to prove it. But when he tried to.... More

Jobs data gives hope for benefits extension. WASHINGTON — The surprisingly weak December jobs report might have strengthened Democrats’ hand in the current fight over emergency jobless benefits for the long-term unemployed even as it weakened the party in the larger midterm election.... More

U.S. employers may have finished 2013 with 5th month of solid hiring. Healthy U.S. economic growth in the second half of last year has raised expectations that 2013 ended with a fifth straight month of solid hiring. Economists predict that employers added 196,000 jobs last month, according to a survey by FactSet..... More

Meat industry launches legal assault against new U.S. labeling rules. WASHINGTON – The meat industry launched a legal assault Thursday against the nation’s food labeling laws that, if successful, could significantly limit consumers’ ability to learn the origins of what they eat. The move came in a federal.... More

Is jogging bad for older people? Is there any scientific study to substantiate the claim that older people (over 45) should limit high impact exercises such as jogging, sprinting, etc.? Actually, much of the recent science about high-impact exercise by “older people” like.... More

At issue in two wrenching cases: What to do after the brain dies. In one way, the cases are polar opposites: the parents of Jahi McMath in Oakland, Calif., have fought to keep their daughter connected to a ventilator, while the parents and husband of Marlise Muñoz in Fort Worth, Tex., want desperately to.... More

More U.S. economists see half-full glass. Record exports and the smallest trade deficit in four years. Healthier consumer spending, including the strongest annual increase in automobile sales since 2007, spurred by a booming stock market and an improving housing sector. And a slow but.... More

Farm bill deal could mean about $9 billion in food stamp cuts. Negotiations are almost complete on a long-overdue farm bill that will set new spending levels for the federal food stamp program and add yet another wrinkle to the national debate over income inequality as Congress mulls how to help unemployed.... More

With help of victims from 1849, scientists decode early strain of cholera. Using bits of human intestine stored in a Philadelphia medical museum in 1849, scientists have decoded the genes of an early form of cholera, the deadly diarrheal disease that first swept the globe just a few decades earlier. More

Opinion: How to help college students graduate. AMERICAN students are enrolling in college in record numbers, but they’re also dropping out in droves. Barely half of those who start four-year colleges, and only a third of community college students, graduate. That’s one of the worst.... More

T-Mobile to cover termination fees for new users. In perhaps the most daring move yet, T-Mobile US, the country’s No. 4 carrier, announced on Wednesday that it would cover the termination fees for individuals as well as up to five lines per family for consumers who leave their carrier..... More

Tech attire, more beta than chic. LAS VEGAS — The next computer consumers buy will fit on a wrist or sit atop a nose. At least that is what many tech companies are hoping.At the International CES here this week, more than a dozen tech companies showcased Internet-connected.... More

Senate set to clash over bill extending long-term unemployment benefits. WASHINGTON — The new year looks a lot like the old one in the Senate, with Democrats scratching for votes to pass an agenda they share with President Barack Obama, and Republicans decidedly unenthusiastic about supporting legislation without.... More

When doctors 'google' their patients. I remember when I first looked up a patient on Google. It was my last day on the bone marrow transplant unit, back when I was an intern. As I stood before the patient, taking her history, she told me she had been a painter and suggested I.... More

Justice's halt to gay marriage leaves couples in limbo. SALT LAKE CITY — In a move that cast doubt over the marriages of roughly 1,000 same-sex couples in Utah, the United States Supreme Court on Monday blocked further same-sex marriages there while state officials appeal a decision allowing.... More

Faulty websites confront needy in search of aid. MIAMI — Three months after the disastrous rollout of a new $63 million website for unemployment claims, Florida is hiring hundreds of employees to deal with technical problems that left tens of thousands of people without their checks while.... More

Hundreds spend night on stranded Amtrak trains, more than 1,900 flights.... Hundreds of Amtrak travelers had to spend the night aboard three trains that were stranded in northern Illinois due to the snow, the Associated Press reports: The trains — The Southwest Chief from Los Angeles, the Illinois Zephyr from.... More

Small business: Jobma website connects job-seekers, employers. Mandeep Sodhi’s entrepreneurial success stems from his wide-ranging work history. He’s held corporate jobs, been a consultant and launched ventures including restaurants, a nightclub, a day-care center and commercial property management..... More

Requirement in health law threatens volunteer firefighting system.... FREEPORT, Maine — Fire chiefs and lawmakers are working to protect the system of volunteer firefighting that has served rural America for more than a century but is threatened by an ambiguity in President Barack Obama's health care law. More

Personal journeys: traveling while black. As I walked through the Forbidden City, the majestic imperial palace at the center of Beijing, with a friend and her teenager, I scanned the crowd. In the maze of shrines and courtyards, there was no one quite like us: I am an African-American.... More

With marijuana access on the horizon, patients fear potential restrictions. Nancy Rivera, a cancer survivor, has a bag of pills in her night stand — white, gold and rust, big and little, antidepressants, antiemetics and tranquilizers — given to her by doctors. So it always seemed hypocritical to her that while.... More

An astonishing, dangerous cold snap is about to descend on U.S. For days, it’s appeared on computer model maps in the form of deep blue and purple shades. Now it’s about to get real and up close and personal. Some of the coldest air in years, if not decades, is poised to pour into the U.S., with.... More

Justices are asked to reject nuns' challenge to health law. The Obama administration urged the Supreme Court on Friday to reject a lawsuit filed by the Little Sisters of the Poor,  an order of Roman Catholic nuns challenging requirements for many employers to provide health insurance coverage for birth.... More

Unemployed in Europe stymied by lack of technology skills. DUBLIN — Week after week, newspapers issue a stream of hopeful headlines: Microsoft, PayPal, Fujitsu and scores of other companies are expanding their investments in Ireland, creating thousands of jobs as unemployment hovers near record highs. More

Access to abortion falling as states pass restrictions. A three-year surge in anti-abortion measures in more than half the states has altered the landscape for abortion access, with supporters and opponents agreeing that the new restrictions are shutting some clinics, threatening others, and making.... More

Obama urges Congress to restore benefits to long-term unemployed. President Obama, seeking the upper hand with Congress as he heads back from his Hawaiian vacation, insisted Saturday that lawmakers make restoring unemployment benefits for 1.3 million Americans out of work their “first order of business”.... More

General Mills will stop using genetically modified organisms in Cheerios. General Mills Inc. said it has stopped using genetically modified organisms in its flagship Cheerios breakfast cereal amid growing oppostion to the use of such ingredients. The Minneapolis-based company said in a blog post Thursday night that.... More

Missing a cancer diagnosis. Stories of misdiagnoses circulate throughout the testimonies of people contending with all sorts of cancers. Such errors, made by patients as well as doctors, bring in their wake a sense of betrayal, self-recrimination and anger. Should we.... More

Allowed to join the bar, but not to take a job. LOS ANGELES — As a teenager in Northern California, Sergio Garcia worked in the almond fields and in a grocery store, earning his way through college and then law school. He passed the California bar exam on his first try, something just half.... More

Emergency visits seen increasing with health law. Supporters of President Obama’s health care law had predicted that expanding insurance coverage for the poor would reduce costly emergency room visits because people would go to primary care doctors instead. But a rigorous new experiment in.... More

Doctors, hospitals, expect some confusion as Obamacare starts. (Reuters) - Hospitals and medical practices across the United States braced for confusion and administrative hassles as new insurance plans under President Barack Obama's healthcare law took effect on Wednesday. More

A good year for U.S. firms as deals pick up. What may have been the most auspicious deal of late was not the biggest or the most groundbreaking of mergers. It was just one that took a little gumption. In September, Applied Materials, a California maker of semiconductor manufacturing.... More

In Colorado, marijuana sales for recreational use commence. DENVER — At 8 a.m. New Year’s Day, in an industrial area a few miles from downtown Denver, a former Marine named Sean Azzariti walked into a giant store and bought a bag of weed. Legally. To smoke just for fun, if he’s so inclined..... More

Loan monitor accused of ruthless tactics on student debt. Stacy Jorgensen fought her way through pancreatic cancer. But her struggle was just beginning. Before she became ill, Ms. Jorgensen took out $43,000 in student loans. As her payments piled up along with medical bills, she took the unusual step.... More

Boehner said to embrace changes in immigration. Speaker John A. Boehner of Ohio has signaled he may embrace a series of limited changes to the nation’s immigration laws in the coming months, giving advocates for change new hope that 2014 might be the year that a bitterly divided Congress.... More

Shoppers wait for opening of nation's first recreational pot shops in.... DENVER — Firing up bongs and cheering in a cloud of marijuana smoke, pot users in Colorado hailed the arrival of the nation's first recreational pot industry Wednesday.Retail sales weren't to begin until 8 a.m. But marijuana fans didn't wait.... More

World celebrates, ushers in 2014 A world-wide wave of celebrations rang in 2014 with a dazzling 30-minute fireworks show in Dubai, a deluge of confetti in London that tasted as good as it looked and a lavish, boozy, music-filled party throughout the streets of Las Vegas. In.... More

Sotomayor blocks contraception mandate in insurance. Acting at the request of an order of nuns in Colorado, Justice Sonia Sotomayor on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Obama administration from forcing some religious-affiliated groups to provide health insurance coverage of birth control or face.... More

Viewing where the Internet goes. When Edward J. Snowden, the disaffected National Security Agency contract employee, purloined tens of thousands of classified documents from computers around the world, his actions — and their still-reverberating consequences — heightened.... More

Millions gaining health coverage under new law. Millions of Americans will begin receiving health insurance coverage under the Affordable Care Act on Wednesday after years of contention and a rollout hobbled by delays and technical problems. The decisively new moment in the effort to.... More

Despite more gadgets, electricity use in U.S. falling to 2001 levels. NEW YORK — The average amount of electricity consumed in U.S. homes has fallen to levels last seen more than a decade ago, back when the smartest device in people's pockets was a Palm pilot and anyone talking about a tablet was probably an.... More

Budget deal's pension cuts anger veterans. After 25 years of service, including combat tours in Afghanistan and Iraq, Lt. Col. Stephen Preston retired from the Army and began collecting a pension of nearly $55,000 a year. The money made it possible for Preston to go back to college,.... More

A resisted pill to prevent H.I.V. SAN FRANCISCO — Over a cup of tea at a downtown Starbucks, Michael Rubio recalled how four friends became H.I.V. positive through unprotected sex, all within a year. The news shocked Mr. Rubio, a 28-year-old gay man, into trying a.... More

Total signups for ObamaCare estimated at 2M as December surge propels.... A December surge propelled health care sign-ups through the government's rehabilitated website past the 1 million mark, the Obama administration said Sunday, reflecting new vigor for the problem-plagued federal insurance market. More

Utah judge unexpected as a hero to gay people. DENVER — For a judge who would go on to make same-sex marriage legal in Utah, a deep-red state where streets in the capital are numbered by their distance from the Mormon temple, Robert J. Shelby arrived on the bench with enthusiastic.... More

A.D.H.D. experts revisit study's zeal for drugs. Twenty years ago, more than a dozen leaders in child psychiatry received $11 million from the National Institute of Mental Health to study an important question facing families with children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Is.... More

Democrats turn to minimum wage as 2014 strategy. WASHINGTON — Democratic Party leaders, bruised by months of attacks on the new health care program, have found an issue they believe can lift their fortunes both locally and nationally in 2014: an increase in the minimum wage. The effort.... More

U.S. struggles to keep pace in delivering broadband services. WASHINGTON — San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States, a progressive and economically vibrant metropolis of 1.4 million people sprawled across south-central Texas. But the speed of its Internet service is no match for the.... More

Smartphones become the new house keys. For Raffi Kajberouni, the keys to his Santa Clarita, Calif., home have become relics. If he locks himself out, no problem. If a friend arrives at his two-story house before him, there’s no waiting outside for Kajberouni to arrive. Kajberouni.... More

Amid polarization, two rival Americas. Political polarization has ushered in a new era in state government, where single-party control of the levers of power has produced competing Americas. One is grounded in principles of lean and limited government and on traditional values; the.... More

A second wind from an injured knee. When Kim Gustafson moved to Vail Valley in Colorado more than a decade ago, he was 54 and had recently retired as an executive in the office-equipment business. But he wasn’t ready to stop working. “I’m not the type of person who wanted.... More

Brain-like computers, learning from experience. PALO ALTO, Calif. — Computers have entered the age when they are able to learn from their own mistakes, a development that is about to turn the digital world on its head. The first commercial version of the new kind of computer chip is.... More

Let's hope the hangover is virtual; web parties abound. On Tuesday evening, when Times Square is mobbed, Dr. Maria Evans, a 53-year-old surgical and clinical pathologist, will be having a party in Kirksville, Mo. She has been preparing for it over the last few weeks, inviting friends with a message.... More

Medicare to cover more mental health costs. For decades, older adults with depression, anxiety and other psychological conditions have received unequal treatment under Medicare. The program paid a smaller share of the bill for therapy from psychiatrists, psychologists or clinical social.... More

Denver gives out first licenses to businesses approved to sell.... DENVER — The first batch of Denver businesses approved to sell recreational marijuana got their licenses Friday, the owners mugging for pictures and saying they never thought they'd see the day when they'd get a permit to sell pot. More

Hospitalizations spike as flu season worsens. First came the cold. Now brace your­self for flu. Hospital ad­mis­sions re­lated to the flu vi­rus jumped sharp­ly in Minnesota dur­ing the week be­fore Christ­mas, and now state health of­fi­cials are re­mind­ing those who.... More

Police salaries and pensions push California city to the brink. DESERT HOT SPRINGS, Calif. — Emerging from Los Angeles’s vast eastern sprawl, the freeway glides over a narrow pass and slips gently into the scrubby, palm-flecked Coachella Valley. Turn south, and you head into Palm Springs with its.... More

Benefits ending for one million unemployed. WASHINGTON — An emergency federal program that acts as a lifeline for 1.3 million jobless workers will end on Saturday, drastically curtailing government support for the long-term unemployed and setting the stage for a major political fight.... More

U.S. steps up oversite of hand and face transplants. WASHINGTON — Sure your liver or kidney could save someone's life. But would you donate your hands, or your face? Signing up to become an organ donor may get more complicated than just checking a box on your driver's license. More

Holiday rush at Mexico City's "hangover prison." MEXICO CITY — On the way home from a pre-Christmas fiesta, Mauricio Rodriguez, after “two tequilas,” felt clear-headed and focused, “not dizzy or anything.” So when the IT help desk employee failed one of Mexico City’s feared.... More

Hospice firms draining billions from Medicare. Hospice patients are expected to die: The treatment focuses on providing comfort to the terminally ill, not finding a cure. To enroll a patient, two doctors certify a life expectancy of six months or less. But over the past decade, the number.... More

New York soon to trail Florida in population. ALBANY — New York, whose status as the most populous state has long been ceded, will soon fall behind Florida into fourth place, a long-anticipated drop that is rife with symbolism and that could carry potentially serious economic.... More

Utah ruling means no respite for Supreme Court on same-sex marriage. WASHINGTON — In June, when the Supreme Court stopped short of deciding whether the Constitution guaranteed a right to same-sex marriage, many thought the court had bought itself several years before it had to confront the question again. More

Study suggests knee surgery does very little for some. A popular surgical procedure worked no better than fake operations in helping people with one type of common knee problem, suggesting that thousands of people may be undergoing unnecessary surgery, a new study in The New England Journal of.... More

Getting out of discount game, small colleges lower price. SPARTANBURG, S.C. — A higher education riddle: When can a college slash tuition by almost half, without losing revenues? Answer: When nobody much pays full tuition anyway. More

E.R. costs for mentally ill soar and hospitals seek a better way. As darkness fell on a Friday evening over downtown Raleigh, N.C., Michael Lyons, a paramedic supervisor for Wake County Emergency Medical Services, slowly approached the tall, lanky man who was swaying back and forth in a gentle rhythm. More

Underwater homeowners could face extra tax burden in 2014. Struggling homeowners could be hit with an unexpected tax bill in the new year. A law that spared people who owe more than their homes are worth from being saddled with extra taxes when their banks provide mortgage relief is expiring next week..... More

For the nearly 1.3 million long-term jobless, another step closer to the.... Kathy Biscotti cut back to two meals a day after losing her job over the summer. On Saturday, she must swallow an even more bitter pill: the end of her federal unemployment benefits. An estimated 1.3 million long-term unemployed workers like.... More

Winning veteran's trust, and profiting from it. With every slip and fall, every bruise and ache, the reality set in: Henry Schaffer, 86, could no longer live on his own. So his daughter, Kristi, began searching for a retirement home — and the money to pay for it. More

Utah's battle over gay marriage is sign of a larger shift. A fresh battle over same-sex marriage in conservative Utah, the heart of Mormon country, has offered gay-rights advocates hope that their effort has reached a national tipping point. The judge who struck down the state’s same-sex marriage ban.... More

Babes in a digital toyland: even 3-year-olds get gadgets. The children come day after day, lining up in the cold and snow on Main Street in Midland, Mich., to wait their turn to enter Santa’s house and whisper their Christmas longings to the jolly man in the red suit. “Cellphone.” “IPad.”.... More

Day is added to deadline as rush hits health portal. WASHINGTON — A record-setting crush of last-minute shoppers descended on HealthCare.gov on Monday, creating long wait times for users and putting new stress on the government’s much-maligned health portal as they raced against a midnight.... More

A new focus on depression. When will we ever get depression under control? Of all the major illnesses, mental or physical, depression has been one of the toughest to subdue. Despite the ubiquity of antidepressant drugs — there are now 26 to choose from — only a.... More

Do nuts really help you lose weight? A peculiar experiment is taking place at Purdue University, one that might determine how nutty our brains can be. Researchers are collecting stacks of brain scans with crystal-clear views inside the minds of their test subjects — while.... More

U.S. credit and debit cards use easy-to-replicate magnetic strip; rest of.... NEW YORK — The U.S. is the juiciest target for hackers hunting credit card information. And experts say incidents like the recent data theft at Target's stores will get worse before they get better. That's in part because U.S. credit and.... More

Subtract teachers, add pupils: math of today's jammed schools. COATESVILLE, Pa. — The recession may have ended, but many of the nation’s school districts that laid off teachers and other employees to cut payrolls in leaner times have not yet replenished their ranks. Now, despite the recovery, many.... More

On jammed jets, sardines turn on one another. Flying coach can be a bruising experience these days. With air travelers increasingly feeling like packed sardines, flying has become a contact sport, nowhere more than over the reclined seat. Now, it is only getting worse, as airlines.... More

Amid steady deportation, fear and worry multiply among immigrants. NEW ORLEANS — Karen Sandoval’s promising life in this city fell apart in one day last summer when she went to buy school supplies for her two daughters. Ms. Sandoval, a Honduran immigrant here illegally, was riding with the man her girls.... More

Listening to the elderly cuts use of costly medications. An experiment that began four years ago in Two Harbors, Minn., is winning praise from federal and state authorities as a breakthrough in reducing the use of antipsychotic medications among elderly nursing home clients, improving patient care.... More

BlackBerry hits the reset button on its core business. BlackBerry is finally hitting the restart button. After reporting a $4.4 billion third-quarter loss Friday, the smartphone maker said it will focus on developing software and offload much of its hardware production on the technology industry.... More

Federal judge rules same-sex marriage is legal in Utah. Salt Lake County began issuing marriage licenses to jubilant same-sex couples on Friday, hours after a federal judge ruled that Utah’s amendment barring same-sex marriage violated the United States Constitution. The decision, by Judge.... More

Health law frustrates many in middle class. Ginger Chapman and her husband, Doug, are sitting on the health care cliff. The cheapest insurance plan they can find through the new federal marketplace in New Hampshire will cost their family of four about $1,000 a month, 12 percent of their.... More

Is creativity destined to fade as we grow older?   Doris Lessing, the freewheeling Nobel Prize-winning writer on racism, colonialism, feminism and communism who died last month at age 94, was prolific for most of her life. But five years ago, she said the writing had dried up..... More

What does parenting feel like when the grownups don't like to play?e ecreation supervisor for the city of Bellingham, Wash., yet when it came time to raise children, there were certain things she just didn't love to play. "When we played Monopoly we were the worst. We actually applauded each other if you could.... More

It's the economy: supersize my wage. About 20 years ago, in the midst of a recession, New Jersey decided to boost its minimum wage to $5.05 an hour from $4.25. Its neighbor to the west, Pennsylvania, chose not to tinker with its wage floor. Two bright young economists at Princeton.... More

Glaxo says it will stop paying doctors to promote drugs. The British drug maker GlaxoSmithKline will no longer pay doctors to promote its products and will stop tying compensation of sales representatives to the number of prescriptions doctors write, its chief executive said Monday, effectively.... More

Budget deal heads for Senate approval as more Republicans give support. WASHINGTON — Support for a compromise two-year budget deal grew ahead of a Tuesday vote in the Senate as Republicans concluded they could not allow a measure that passed the House with overwhelming bipartisan support to die in Congress’s.... More

FDA raises safety concerns on antibacterial soap. WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration says there is no evidence that antibacterial chemicals used in liquid soaps and washes help prevent the spread of germs, and there is some evidence they may pose health risks. The agency said it.... More

Independent bookstores turn a new page on brick-and-mortar retailing. Bookstores are terminally ill. Borders? Dead. Barnes & Noble? Life support. Amazon is king. E-books are the present and the future. Have tablet, will read. But in downtown Frederick, Md., Marlene and Tom England are defying the future: They.... More

Companies turn again to stock buybacks to reward shareholders. Battered by months of dis­appointing sales, networking giant Cisco needed a way to give its shareholders a pick-me-up. So the San Jose-based firm did what has become routine for many big U.S. companies in a slow-growing economy: It announced.... More

The Well: Music and the young brain. Many experts and parents believe that exposing preschoolers to music “makes them smarter” — that is, gives them an advantage in cognitive development in other areas. But two new randomized trials have found no evidence for the belief. In.... More

More retailers see haggling as a price of doing business. Pay no attention to the price on that tag. Or even the markdown. This year some shoppers are quietly taking the art of bargaining up the escalator to the floors selling cashmere or over-the-knee leather boots, building on the haggling skills.... More

New drug-testing method shows promise for speeding new breast cancer.... SAN ANTONIO — A novel way to speed the testing of cancer drugs and quickly separate winners from duds has yielded its first big result: an experimental medicine that shows promise against a hard-to-treat form of breast cancer. The method.... More

Three years in, co-parenting court claims success. When Anthony Spears walked into a Hennepin County courtroom with the mother of his infant daughter, he expected to be legally recognized as the father and to be told how much child support to pay each month. Instead, the two were steered to.... More

If you're planning to buy a home next year, get ready for some new rules. If you’re planning to buy a house next year — and unless you’re in a position to make an all-cash offer — chances are you’ll be affected by some significant changes occurring in the mortgage application process beginning in January..... More

An alternative to giving up the car keys for older drivers. Robert Cullon, 80, has a neurological condition that makes his feet numb and forces him to rely on a walker. He thought he was driving just fine, but his six children were worried. “They kept saying, ‘Are you sure you’re doing all.... More

In 2 states, corner cannabis stores near reality. DENVER — Starting early next year, any adult with a craving or curiosity will be able to stroll into a strip mall or downtown shop in Colorado or Washington State and do what has long been forbidden: buy a zip-lock bag of legal marijuana. More

U.S. considers cellphones on flights, but no calls. The federal government on Thursday moved closer to allowing cellphone use during flights, but with a catch: Passengers won’t be able to use the devices to make calls. If approved, the new rules would mean consumers could use their data plans.... More

Top students at community colleges to have a chance to raise ambitions. A disparate group of colleges from across the country — public and private, two-year and four-year — plans to announce a novel alliance on Friday aimed at producing high-achieving community college graduates and making it easier for them to.... More

Schools use Web tools, and data is seen at risk. Public schools around the country are adopting web-based services that collect and analyze personal details about students without adequately safeguarding the information from potential misuse by service providers, according to new research. More

Health plans urged to extend enrollment. With many Americans still foiled in their efforts to buy insurance under the new health care law, the Obama administration moved Thursday to give them more time to sign up and pay premiums, and it extended a program for people with cancer,.... More

In food cravings, sugar trumps fat. What makes a milkshake so irresistible? Is it the sweet flavor that our taste buds are after? Or the smooth and creamy texture? Or perhaps it is the copious blend of fat and sugar? An intriguing new study suggests that what really draws people.... More

How sequester cuts divided winners from losers - including Head Start.... OWENSBORO, Ky. — How, exactly, did Congress manage to kick 4-year-old Carli Hopkins out of her preschool? Carli asked after it happened. Her mother didn’t try to explain. The child was still too young to learn about politicians. “Some.... More

House Republicans appear to be rallying behind $85 billion budget deal. House Republicans appeared Wednesday to be rallying around an $85 billion deal to avert ­another government shutdown, brushing off complaints from their right wing that the effort would trade immediate spending cuts for less-certain.... More

Federal safety regulators shut 52 bus companies. LOS ANGELES — Federal bus safety regulators have shut down 52 companies in what they describe as a major nationwide crackdown on unsafe outfits, including lines whose drivers had suspended licenses or worked routes of more than 800 miles.... More

F.D.A. restricts antibiotic use for livestock. WASHINGTON — The Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday put in place a major new policy to phase out the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in cows, pigs and chickens raised for meat, a practice that experts say has endangered human health.... More

U.S. colleges finding ideals tested abroad. WELLESLEY, Mass. — Members of the Wellesley College faculty reacted strongly when word spread that Peking University might fire Prof. Xia Yeliang, a critic of the Chinese government. Professor Xia, an economist, had visited Wellesley over.... More

Baby's first tech toys trouble experts. A newborn baby cannot hold or even swipe at an iPad, but Fisher-Price is providing a way to keep infants glued to the device. The Newborn-to-Toddler Apptivity Seat for the iPad allows parents to strap a baby to the reclining bouncy chair and.... More

Men with pelvic pain find path to treatment blocked by a gynecology board. After visiting dozens of doctors and suffering for nearly five years from pelvic pain so severe that he could not work, Daniel Davidson, 57, a dentist in Dalton Gardens, Idaho, finally found a specialist in Phoenix who had an outstanding.... More

New GM chief is company woman, born to it. DETROIT — Her father was a die maker for 39 years, one of the legions of employees who performed the gritty tasks that made General Motors the nation’s largest and most powerful auto company. And ever since she was a child, Mary T. Barra.... More

After setbacks, online courses are rethought. Two years after a Stanford professor drew 160,000 students from around the globe to a free online course on artificial intelligence, starting what was widely viewed as a revolution in higher education, early results for such large-scale courses.... More

Sebelius to testify, as U.S. cites rise in healthcare signups. WASHINGTON — The number of people selecting health insurance plans in the federal and state marketplaces increased in November at a brisk pace, bringing the total to date to nearly 365,000, or more than triple the number who signed up in.... More

Study: U.S. poverty rate has decreased, thanks to safety-net programs. Government programs such as food stamps and unemployment insurance have made significant progress in easing the plight of the poor in the half-century since the launch of the war on poverty, according to a major new study. But the nation’s.... More

AIDS advocates say some insurance coverage is inadequate. The nation’s new health-care law says insurers can’t turn anyone away, even people who are sick. But some companies, patient advocates say, have found a way to discourage the chronically ill from enrolling in their plans: offer drug.... More

If a story is viral, truth may be taking a beating. Truth has never been an essential ingredient of viral content on the Internet. But in the stepped-up competition for readers, digital news sites are increasingly blurring the line between fact and fiction, and saying that it is all part of.... More

Vitamin's old, old edge. In 1602, a Spanish fleet was sailing up the Pacific coast of Mexico when the crew became deathly ill. “The first symptom is pain in the whole body that makes it sensitive to touch,” wrote Antonio de la Ascensión, a priest on the.... More

Health care exchange is vastly improved, users say. MIAMI — After two months of false starts, error messages and pleas for patience from the once-hobbled federal online health care exchange, Karen Egozi, the chief executive of the Epilepsy Foundation of Florida, watched on Monday as counselors.... More

Eight tech giants issue call for limits on government surveillance of.... Eight prominent technology companies, bruised by revelations of government spying on their customers’ data and scrambling to repair the damage to their reputations, are mounting a public campaign to urge President Obama and Congress to set.... More

Amid uproar over health law, voices of quiet optimism and relief. Since his chronic leukemia was diagnosed in 2010, Ray Acosta has paid dearly for health insurance: more than $800 a month in premiums, plus steep co-payments for the drug that helps keep him alive. More

Why do doctors choose a $2,000 drug when one is available for $50? The two drugs have been declared equivalently miraculous. Tested side by side in six major trials, both prevent blindness in a common old-age affliction. Biologically, they are cousins. They’re even made by the same company. But one holds a.... More

Winter storms grip U.S., knocking out power and grounding flights. A deadly winter storm caused power failures and flight cancellations in Dallas on Saturday, while sleet and freezing rain were forecast for much of the Tennessee Valley and the mid-Atlantic on Sunday. More

Enhanced medical care for an annual fee. On a recent morning, Edward S. Goldberg, an unusually affable internist who bears the look of a scholarly Robert De Niro, sat in his office on the Upper East Side and described the realities of practicing general medicine in the Manhattan of.... More

Wall Street mothers, stay-at-home fathers. Marielle Jan de Beur often catches the 6:27 a.m. train to Grand Central Terminal, waiting on the Westchester platform with a swarm of dark-suited men, and then walks 10 blocks to a Park Avenue office fronted by the fountain where Audrey.... More

Meningitis outbreak strikes two universities. Outbreaks of bacterial meningitis have struck two college campuses, though health officials say the episodes — one on the East Coast, the other on the West Coast — are apparently unrelated. Since mid-November, four students at.... More

Meningitis outbreak strikes two universities. Outbreaks of bacterial meningitis have struck two college campuses, though health officials say the episodes — one on the East Coast, the other on the West Coast — are apparently unrelated. Since mid-November, four students at.... More

Families see Colorado as new frontier on medical marijuana. FOUNTAIN, Colo. — As their children cooed from wheelchairs and rocked softly in their arms, the marijuana migrants of Colorado clasped hands, bowed their heads and said a prayer of cautious thanks. More

Endurance, exercise and life span. Is life expectancy affected if you do “extreme” exercise like ultra-marathons, iron-man races, etc? “The short answer is, we don’t know,” said Dr. James O’Keefe, the director of preventive cardiology at Mid-American Heart Institute.... More

U.S. economy adds 203,000 jobs as unemployment falls to 5-year low. The jobs picture brightened in November as hiring was stronger than expected and the unemployment rate fell to a 5-year low, data that increases the likelihood that the Federal Reserve will begin easing its stimulus efforts sooner, rather than.... More

In Minnesota, health insurance applications double as state works to fix.... After two months of failure and hours of help from her broker, Toni Byard navigated Minnesota’s glitchy health insurance website, MNsure, and bought coverage on Tuesday. “So much frustration!” the 63-year-old from Blaine. said “I just.... More

Does boosting the minimum wage cost jobs? “We all know the arguments that have been used against a higher minimum wage.  Some say it actually hurts low-wage workers — businesses will be less likely to hire them.  But there’s no solid evidence that a higher minimum wage costs.... More

Internet firms step up efforts to stop spying. SAN FRANCISCO — When Marissa Mayer, Yahoo’s chief executive, recently announced the company’s biggest security overhaul in more than a decade, she did not exactly receive a standing ovation. Ordinary users asked Ms. Mayer why Yahoo was.... More

U.S. growth faster than estimated as businesses stock up. The economy expanded much faster than first thought in the third quarter, as the government on Thursday revised its estimate of growth in the period to a 3.6 percent annual rate from 2.8 percent. More

The face of AIDS is rapidly becoming poor black and Hispanic men. The AIDS epidemic in America is rapidly becoming concentrated among poor, young black and Hispanic men who have sex with men. espite years of progress in preventing and treating H.I.V. in the middle class, the number of new infections.... More

Why are girls more prone to concussions than boys? With attention on concussions largely focused on professional football and men’s sports, these brain injuries may get overlooked in women’s sports. Concussion experts agree that while football still sees the most concussions, every sport.... More

House votes to renew prohibition on all-plastic guns. With the advent of 3-D printers capable of producing plastic weapons, the House voted Tuesday to renew a 25-year-old prohibition against firearms that can evade metal detectors and X-ray machines. A bipartisan bill extending the Undetectable.... More

U.S. private sector adds 215,000 jobs in November. U.S. private employers added 215,000 jobs in November, topping economists' expectations, a report by a payrolls processor showed on Wednesday. Economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast the ADP National Employment Report would show a gain of.... More

Why a brisk walk is better for your health. Walking, fast or slow, is wonderful exercise. But now a first-of-its-kind study shows that to get the most health benefits from walking, many of us need to pick up the pace. The findings stem from a new analysis of the National Walkers’.... More

Google puts money on robots, using the man behind Android. In an out-of-the-way Google office, two life-size humanoid robots hang suspended in a corner. If Amazon can imagine delivering books by drones, is it too much to think that Google might be planning to one day have one of the robots hop off an.... More

Device use expands through adaptation, innovation The Mayo Clinic's Dr. Richard Marsh helps control brain seizures in epileptic patients with a fiber-optic laser first introduced to treat prostate tumors. At the University of Minnesota, Dr. Ganesh Raveendran has figured out how to treat young.... More

Inside the race to rescue the health care site, and Obama. WASHINGTON — As a small coterie of grim-faced advisers shuffled into the Oval Office on the evening of Oct. 15, President Obama’s chief domestic accomplishment was falling apart 24 miles away, at a bustling high-tech data center in suburban.... More

Life on $7.25 an hour. Older workers are increasingly entering the fast food industry. On a recent Friday evening, Eduardo Shoy left work at 6 p.m. Mr. Shoy, a deliveryman for KFC and Pizza Hut, was coming off an eight-hour shift of driving three-cheese pies and.... More

All dogs may go to heaven; some go to hospice. More and more, cats and dogs get the human treatment. There are pet spas, pet therapists, pet clothes. And as it goes in life, so it now goes in the twilight. The latest phenomenon: pet hospice. Around the country, a growing number of.... More

Shop first, and eat later. Before most Thanksgiving turkeys even approached the oven on Thursday, a small line of tents had formed in front of a Best Buy in Falls Church, Va., their inhabitants waiting for the holiday deals to begin. First in line was William Ignacio,.... More

Once for women only, college adds men's teams after 104 years. LAKEWOOD, N.J. — Luka Zgonjanin arrived in the United States from Serbia in August, barely able to speak English. He had accepted a scholarship to play basketball at Georgian Court, a small liberal arts university on the outskirts of the.... More

On register's other side, little to spend. In many stores around the country, the workers stocking the shelves and ringing up the gifts are at the very heart of this season’s retail lament —many Americans are so financially strapped that projections for holiday sales have grown.... More

Study suggests whooping cough shot curbs illness, not spread. ATLANTA — A government study offers a new theory on why the whooping cough vaccine doesn't seem to be working as well as expected. The research suggests that while the vaccine may keep people from getting sick, it doesn't prevent them from.... More

Many children orphaned by Philippines typhoon. TACLOBAN, Philippines — The teenager with unruly hair in a ponytail wipes tears from her eyes as she holds her feverish 3-year-old brother, who clings to her and lets out a sob of his own now and then. They have been inseparable ever since.... More

Many children orphaned by Philippines typhoon. TACLOBAN, Philippines — The teenager with unruly hair in a ponytail wipes tears from her eyes as she holds her feverish 3-year-old brother, who clings to her and lets out a sob of his own now and then. They have been inseparable ever since.... More

Holidays bring families together . . . for tech support. The trip to Mom and Dad’s to celebrate Thanksgiving comes with turkey, pumpkin pie and a chance to watch football on that fancy new flat-screen TV — after you program the universal remote control, that is. Across Minnesota, college kids and.... More

Hospital studies link heart device to clots. Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic began to suspect in 2012 that something might be wrong with a high-tech implant used to treat patients with advanced heart failure like former Vice President Dick Cheney. The number of patients developing.... More

In Kentucky, health-care debate takes back seat as long-uninsured line up. At the White House, President Obama was still apologizing for the botched federal Web site. In a state where the rollout has gone smoothly, and in a county that is one of the poorest and unhealthiest in the country, Courtney Lively has been.... More

Backlash by the bay: tech riches alter a city. SAN FRANCISCO — If there was a tipping point, a moment that crystallized the anger building here toward the so-called technorati for driving up housing prices and threatening the city’s bohemian identity, it came in response to a diatribe.... More

Anti-viral drugs curb child flu deaths, but fall in use. The flu can lead to serious complications, even death, in children, but relatively few studies have assessed the effectiveness of antiviral treatments in young patients hospitalized with the infection. Now a large study, published Monday in the.... More

Court confronts religious rights of corporations WASHINGTON — Hobby Lobby, a chain of crafts stores, closes on Sundays, costing its owners millions but honoring their Christian faith. The stores play religious music. Employees get free spiritual counseling. But they do not get free.... More

Sex, Violence and R ratings. A new study reports that gun violence in PG-13 movies now exceeds that in most R-rated films. Meanwhile, a love story that follows two young people in a relationship has been given an NC-17 rating, discouraging much of the demographic its two.... More

Service members left vulnerable to payday loans. Petty Officer First Class Vernaye Kelly winces when roughly $350 is automatically deducted from her Navy paycheck twice a month. Month after month, the money goes to cover payments on loans with annual interest rates of nearly 40 percent. The.... More

Health care law opens rift among governors SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Republicans are planning to use the troubled health law against Democrats in next year’s midterm elections, but the Affordable Care Act is increasingly dividing their party, too. At the annual meeting here of the.... More

A talk that stirred fears of antigay bias is postponed at Bronx high.... Ever since Pope Francis spoke compassionately about gay people last summer — saying, “Who am I to judge?” — Roman Catholics around the world have debated the meaning of his words. That debate continued this week at Cardinal Spellman.... More

Perks ease way in health plans for lawmakers. Members of Congress like to boast that they will have the same health care enrollment experience as constituents struggling with the balky federal website, because the law they wrote forced lawmakers to get coverage from the new insurance.... More

Perks ease way in health plans for lawmakers. Members of Congress like to boast that they will have the same health care enrollment experience as constituents struggling with the balky federal website, because the law they wrote forced lawmakers to get coverage from the new insurance.... More

Mother's exercise may boost baby's brain. If a woman is physically active during pregnancy, she may boost the development of her unborn child’s brain, according to a heart-tugging new study of expectant mothers and their newborns. The findings bolster a growing scientific consensus.... More

Safer cities? Tell this neighborhood. ST. LOUIS — The unmistakable pop of a gunshot ricocheted through the park in the humid air, and Montez Wayne could only hope that the bullet did not have his name on it. He sprang from his seat beneath a sprawling bald cypress, ready to make.... More

Governors: How we got Obamacare to work in our states. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, is governor of Washington. Steve Beshear, a Democrat, is governor of Kentucky. Dannel P. Malloy, a Democrat, is governor of Connecticut. In our states — Washington, Kentucky and Connecticut — the Affordable Care.... More

Tornadoes, powerful storms, kill 6 and level homes across Illinois, then.... WASHINGTON, Ill. — As a powerful tornado bore down on their Illinois farmhouse, Curt Zehr’s wife and adult son didn’t have time to do anything but scramble down the stairs into their basement. Uninjured, the pair looked out moments later.... More

New risk calculator for cholesterol appears flawed. Last week, the nation’s leading heart organizations released a sweeping new set of guidelines for lowering cholesterol, along with an online calculator meant to help doctors assess risks and treatment options. But, in a major embarrassment.... More

Dispute over gay marriage disrupts in Cheney family. WASHINGTON — They were the towheaded sisters who tagged along on campaigns, polite and smiling, as their father rose through Wyoming and then Washington politics to become one of the most powerful men in the country. “We were as close as.... More

Duncan: 'White suburban moms' upset that Common Core shows their kids.... U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan told a group of state schools superintendents Friday that he found it “fascinating” that some of the opposition to the Common Core State Standards has come from “white suburban moms who — all of a.... More

A computer academy in France defies conventional wisdom. PARIS — In a nation of schools typically christened with sensible acronyms or the names of dead Frenchmen, 42 seems an odd title for an institution of higher learning. But then, Xavier Niel’s new technology academy hardly aims to be.... More

Addiction treatment with a dark side. For Shawn Schneider, a carpenter and rock musician, the descent into addiction began one Wisconsin winter with a fall from a rooftop construction site onto the frozen ground below. As the potent pain pills prescribed for his injuries became his.... More

Caught in unemployment's revolving door. On a cold October morning, just after the federal government shutdown came to an end, Jenner Barrington-Ward headed into court in Boston to declare bankruptcy. It took weeks to put the paperwork together, given that her papers and belongings.... More

Alzheimer's anxiety. PHILADELPHIA — ALMOST every day I worry about whether my parents have Alzheimer’s. My dad is 86 and my mother is about to turn 80. Just because of their age they are at high risk for the disease, and I constantly wonder if their.... More

United Health invests $50 million in low-income housing. UnitedHealth Group Inc. said Thursday that it is putting $50 million into a fund to construct hundreds of low-income housing units in Minnesota and the Upper Midwest. While the investment brings financial benefits, officials at the nation’s.... More

E-cigarettes gain attention in schools amid rise in popularity. When a teacher noticed what looked like smoke rising in her Eastern Middle School classroom one day this fall, she quickly investigated, finding an eighth-grade boy holding an e-cigarette. The “smoke” was vapor, but for Casey B. Crouse,.... More

Ravaged by typhoon, Philippines faces threat of serious diseases. The aftermath of the Philippines typhoon is now threatening the country with outbreaks of debilitating and potentially fatal diseases, including some thought to have been nearly eradicated, because of a collapse in sanitation, shortages of.... More

China to ease one-child policy. HONG KONG — The Chinese government will ease its one-child family size restrictions and abolish re-education through labor camps, significantly curtailing two policies that for decades have defined the state’s power to control citizens’.... More

Obama moves to avert cancellation of insurance. President Obama, trying to quell a growing furor over the rollout of his health care law, bowed to bipartisan pressure on Thursday and announced a policy reversal that would allow insurance companies to temporarily keep people on health plans.... More

Boeing workers reject labor deal in Washington State. Members of a union representing thousands of Boeing employees voted late Wednesday to reject a controversial labor deal that would have cut compensation but have kept assembly of the company’s new 777X jets in Washington State, raising the.... More

In a Phillipine hospital, survivors face quiet despair. TACLOBAN, the Philippines — Richard Pulga, a 27-year-old farmer with thick black hair and a gentle manner, has been lying on a hard steel bed in a dark hallway of the main hospital here since Saturday with a shattered lower right leg,.... More

Car mechanic dreams up tool to ease childbirth. The idea came to Jorge Odón as he slept. Somehow, he said, his unconscious made the leap from a YouTube video he had just seen on extracting a lost cork from a wine bottle to the realization that the same parlor trick could save a baby stuck.... More

Obama expected to sign bill aimed at helping kids with food allergies. WASHINGTON — The deaths of two girls in Illinois and Virginia from severe food allergies have helped spur efforts to get schools to stockpile emergency medications that can save lives. That effort has now reached the highest level: President.... More

Rethinking the rise of inequality: is college really key to prosperity? Many Americans have come to doubt the proposition that college delivers a path to prosperity. In a poll conducted last month by the College Board and National Journal, 46 percent of respondents — including more than half of 18- to.... More

Some state health exchanges still face technical problems. Six weeks into the rollout of President Obama’s new health care law, some of the online insurance exchanges run by states are continuing to have serious technological problems, often mirroring the issues plaguing the much larger federal.... More

New guidelines could have far more Americans taking cholesterol drugs. Millions more Americans could end up taking cholesterol-lowering statin drugs under new recommendations released Tuesday that advocate a dramatic shift in the way doctors assess and treat cardiovascular risk. Roughly a quarter of Americans.... More

Troubled Healthcare.gov unlikely to work fully by end of November. Software problems with the federal online health insurance marketplace, especially in handling high volumes, are proving so stubborn that the system is unlikely to work fully by the end of the month as the White House has promised, according to.... More

About 40,000 have signed up for plans on healthcare.gov. Roughly 40,000 Americans have signed up for private insurance through the flawed federalonline insurance marketplace since it opened six weeks ago, according to two people with access to the figures. That amount is a tiny fraction of the.... More

In Phillipines, a struggle to reach typhoon victims. CEBU, Philippines — Hundreds of Filipinos gathered at Mactan Air Base on Tuesday, hoping for a chance to board a C-130 transport plane carrying relief supplies to the city of Tacloban, one of the areas worst-hit by Typhoon Haiyan. More

Michelle Obama edges into policy role in higher education. Michelle Obama, after nearly five years of evangelizing exercise and good eating habits, will begin a new initiative on Tuesday that seeks to increase the number of low-income students who pursue a college degree. The goals of the program.... More

Buying cheaper drugs online. Is it safe to order prescription drugs from online pharmacies in Canada? Though technically illegal, millions of Americans do so to save money. But the practice can be a huge gamble. A review of sources has found many sold fake or unapproved.... More

Insurers press for way around healthcare.gov. Some major health insurers are so worried about the Obama administration’s ability to fix its troubled health care website that they are pushing the government to create a shortcut that would allow them to enroll people entitled to subsidies.... More

Amazon to deliver on Sundays, using Postal Service fleet. The Internet has been blamed for the death of the mail, but now it’s offering hope to the beleaguered U.S. Postal Service. Amazon announced Monday that it will begin Sunday deliveries using the government agency’s fleet of foot soldiers,.... More

Health website tests a tycoon and a tinkerer. WASHINGTON — Jeffrey D. Zients, a multimillionaire entrepreneur and management consultant, joined the Obama White House in 2009 with a mandate to streamline the federal bureaucracy. A year later, he issued a prescient warning. The government.... More

Health website tests a tycoon and a tinkerer. WASHINGTON — Jeffrey D. Zients, a multimillionaire entrepreneur and management consultant, joined the Obama White House in 2009 with a mandate to streamline the federal bureaucracy. A year later, he issued a prescient warning. More

South Florida faces ominous prospects from rising waters. MIAMI BEACH — In the most dire predictions, South Florida’s delicate barrier islands, coastal communities and captivating subtropical beaches will be lost to the rising waters in as few as 100 years. Further inland, the Everglades, the.... More

Talk of penalty is missing in ads for health care. New York’s health exchange slogan is “Today’s the Day.” Minnesota has enlisted Paul Bunyan. Oregon held a music contest, and California stresses the “peace of mind” that will come with insurance. The state and federal health.... More

A father tries to end the fat talk. Recently, I was changing my 2-year-old son’s diaper and I happened to be shirtless. In the middle of the change, I caught a glimpse of my body in the mirror. Disturbed by what I’ve always perceived as a less-than-impressive physique, I.... More

Job growth eases fears about effect of shutdown. Despite dysfunction in Washington and a 16-day government shutdown, the economy chugged along in October, surprising many analysts as private sector hiring bounced back after a spring slowdown. The latest figures lifted the estimated monthly.... More

Standing up for the rights of new fathers. Josh Levs, father of a new baby girl, emerged from his sleep-deprived stupor last month to take a stand: He is challenging his employer’s parental leave policy on the grounds that it discriminates against biological dads. This was his third.... More

Gay marriage battle nears end in Hawaii, the first front line. HONOLULU — When, as most everyone expects, Gov. Neil Abercrombie signs into law same-sex marriage here in the coming days, it may almost seem like a routine event. Hawaii is poised to be among 16 states to approve gay marriage, along with.... More

Cuts in hospital subsidies threaten safety-net care. SAVANNAH, Ga. — The uninsured pour into Memorial Health hospital here: the waitress with cancer in her voice box who for two years assumed she just had a sore throat. The unemployed diabetic with a wound stretching the length of her shin. The.... More

President Obama apologizes to those who are losing their health insurance. President Obama apologized Thursday to Americans who are losing their health insurance despite his repeated promises that they wouldn’t, an unusual act of contrition for a president who has come under heavy criticism for misleading the.... More

When nest emptied, discontent entered. When their last child left for college, Arlene Petty, now 64, felt resentment about her decades-long marriage to Ed Petty, also now 64. Facing an empty nest, she asked for a trial separation. In hindsight, both would have done things very.... More

Rules to require equal coverage for mental illness. WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday will complete a generation-long effort to require insurers to cover care formental health and addiction just like physical illnesses when it issues long-awaited regulations defining parity in.... More

Cut in food stamps force hard choices on poor. CHARLESTON, S.C. — For many, a $10 or $20 cut in the monthly food budget would be absorbed with little notice. But for millions of poor Americans who rely on food stamps, reductions that began this month present awful choices. One gallon of.... More

U.S. unemployment rate rises to 7.3%; 204,000 jobs added. The American government shutdown was barely evident in the October jobs report Friday, as temporarily furloughed federal workers lifted the unemployment rate slightly while private employers added positions at a robust pace. More

Senate okays gay rights bill, banning discrimination. The Senate on Thursday approved a ban on discrimination in the workplace based on sexual orientation and gender identity, voting 64 to 32 in a bipartisan show of support that is rare for any social issue. It was the first time in the.... More

Health law clock is ticking for seriously ill patients. PORTLAND, Ore. — With federal and state online health care marketplaces experiencing glitches a month into implementation, concern is mounting for a vulnerable group of people who were supposed to be among the health law's earliest.... More

Eye contact in infants seen as earliest sign of autism. Scientists are reporting the earliest behavioral sign to date that a child is likely to develop autism: when and how long a baby looks at other people’s eyes. In a study published Wednesday, researchers using eye-tracking technology found.... More

Reports of military sexual assault rise sharply. WASHINGTON — Reports of sexual assault in the military increased sharply during the last fiscal year, new Pentagon figures showed Wednesday, just weeks before a defense bill with provisions to tackle the problem is expected to reach the.... More

U.S. grew at unexpectedly fast rate in third quarter. The American economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent in the third quarter, significantly better than economists had expected and the fastest pace this year. The Commerce Department report had originally been scheduled to come out on Oct..... More

FDA moves to ban trans fats, citing health concerns. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed measures that would all but eliminate artificial trans fats, the artery clogging substance that is a major contributor to heart disease in the United States, from the food supply. More

Study finds a woman's success may be bad for male partner's ego. Does a woman’s success damage the ego of her male partner? Perhaps we’d like to think we’ve evolved beyond that, but a recent study suggests otherwise. In fact, in the study, a woman’s success made her partner feel worse about himself.... More

Supreme Court takes up Steelworkers' bid for time to put on work gear. The Supreme Court, which ordinarily confronts complicated questions, heard arguments on Monday about what might seem like a simple one: What does it mean to change clothes? But the arguments quickly became tangled, as lawyers and justices.... More

After Los Angeles airport shooting, no easy answers on security strategies. WASHINGTON — When Stephen L. Holl, the chief of police at the Washington Metropolitan Airports Authority, gathered his staff for the regular morning meeting on Monday, he opened with a sobering assessment. “It wasn’t our turn this time.... More

Bill advances to outlaw discrimination against gays. WASHINGTON — A measure that would outlaw workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity overcame a significant obstacle in the Senate on Monday as seven Republicans crossed party lines and voted to begin debate on.... More

For uninsured, clearing the way for enrollment. LA GRANGE, Ky. — Kelli Cauley’s fingers raced over her keyboard as she asked the anxious woman at her side a series of questions. What was her income? How many people lived in her household? Did she smoke? (“That’s the only health.... More

New heart device could reverse heart damage in some patients. Though U.S. clinical trials are just starting, doctors and analysts are already intrigued. The new C-Pulse by Sunshine Heart, Inc. rhythmically squeezes the aorta to take strain off the heart and helps it pump more efficiently. Piper Jaffray.... More

Skydiver recounts miracle at 12,000 feet after midair collision. Mike Robinson was on the step outside the plane, 12,000 feet above ground, just seconds from making the 937th sky dive of his career, his final jump of the day. Then came “that terribly loud bang,” he recalled Sunday. The wing and its.... More

Looking for intimacy in the age of Facebook. IT WAS the only time I have ever allowed college students to have their cellphones out during class, in their hands no less. “I want you to send a text to a friend,” I told students in my course, “The Search for Intimacy in the Age of.... More

Colorado asks taxpayers for $1 billion to help schools. In one poor school district in Colorado’s San Luis Valley, students take classes in a bus garage, using plastic sheeting to keep the diesel fumes at bay. In another, there is no more money to tutor young immigrants struggling to read. And.... More

Under Health Care Act, millions eligible for free policies. Millions of people could qualify for federal subsidies that will pay the entire monthly cost of some health care plans being offered in the online marketplaces set up under President Obama’s health care law, a surprising figure that has not.... More

Tablet wars: Apple cedes market share to Samsung. Today is the release date for Apple’s new iPad Air. Globally, Apple continues to dominate the growing tablet market. But as these Reuters charts show, in the last year, Samsung has been gaining ground, more than doubling the number of.... More

Welcomed with kisses, Stanford freshmen risk the 'kissing disease.' STANFORD, Calif. — It is minutes to midnight. A sultry full moon hangs over Stanford’s Memorial Church, bathing the campus’s red roofs and adobe-toned walls. In the Quad, thousands of students mill around, some bobbing drunkenly, some.... More

How to get an A- in organic chemistry. THE molecule looked like a giant jellyfish. Or maybe a spider. Halfway through my organic chemistry final, the monster lay there on the page, mocking me. My task: explain how the ungainly molecule folds into a tidy package. The problem: I had.... More

The pills of last resort. It was shortly after the breadbasket arrived last year at the Temple Bar near Harvard Square that Sarah Broom first told me about the last-ditch plan to save her own life. Broom’s mere presence that evening was something of a miracle..... More

Panel says climate change poses risk to food supplies. Climate change will pose sharp risks to the world’s food supply in coming decades, potentially undermining crop production and driving up prices at a time when the demand for food is expected to soar, scientists have found. More

Rollovers for flexible spending accounts. Workers taking advantage of special tax-free accounts to pay out-of-pocket medical expenses could soon be allowed to carry over up to $500 from one year to the next.For nearly 30 years, employees eligible to use the accounts had to forfeit any.... More

Food stamp cuts set to kick in Friday as Congress debates billions in.... More than 47 million Americans who receive food stamps will see their benefits go down starting Friday, just as Congress has begun negotiations on further cuts to the program. Beginning in November, a temporary benefit from the 2009 economic.... More

In first month, vast majority of Obamacare signups are in Medicaid. The first month of the new health law’s rollout reveals an unexpected pattern in several states: a crush of people applying for an expansion of Medicaid and a trickle of sign-ups for private insurance. This early imbalance — in some places,.... More

Homeland Security workers routinely boost pay with unearned overtime. Federal employees at the Department of Homeland Security call it the “candy bowl,” a pot of overtime money they have long dipped into to pad their pay even if they haven’t earned it, whistleblowers say. This practice, which can add up.... More

Walmart discounting could kill holiday season. U.S. retailers facing the shortest holiday season in years are preparing to assail customers with deals and promotions this week, before they have even digested their Halloween candy. Wal-Mart Stores Inc (WMT.N) is kicking off its online.... More

When insurers drop policies: 3 stories. Charles Nance, Dean Wright and Julie Tyrrell are getting dropped — forced out of their existing health insurance plans — and landing smack in the middle of the uproar over President Obama’s health care law. One expects to pay more..... More

Illinois grade school test scores plunge — especially in poor.... The push to toughen state exams for Illinois grade school students triggered widespread drops in 2013 scores, with hundreds of schools in some of the state's poorest communities seeing performances plunge, test results show. But some schools.... More

Nightmares: terror in the kitchen. It was a dark and stormy night. Tree branches brushed the roof as the wind shook the house. She barely noticed from her spot in the kitchen, busy as she was chopping onions, simmering broth and using the immersion blender, while checking e-mail.... More

U.S. jobless claims decline by 10,000. WASHINGTON, Oct 31 — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits declined largely as expected last week as the impact of a California computer glitch worked its way out of the report. Initial claims for state.... More

As interest fades in the humanities, colleges worry. STANFORD, Calif. — On Stanford University’s sprawling campus, where a long palm-lined drive leads to manicured quads, humanities professors produce highly regarded scholarship on Renaissance French literature and the philosophy of language.... More

No U.S. action, so states move on privacy laws. State legislatures around the country, facing growing public concern about the collection and trade of personal data, have rushed to propose a series of privacy laws, from limiting how schools can collect student data to deciding whether the.... More

Is the sugar high a sweet-tooth myth? Sugar highs seem to be a part of many kids’ Halloween traditions, but no one has ever been able to prove that such a phenomenon actually exists, scientists say. Parents offer trick-or-treat bagfuls of anecdotal evidence that when their.... More

Parents with few options still turn to troubled youth ranches, despite.... LBUQUERQUE, N.M. — David Hall was afraid of his own son. They were getting into violent, physical fights requiring police intervention. Fearing the teen would end up in juvenile detention, Hall had his son hauled away in handcuffs and.... More

Lighter and faster, it's iPad Air. The iPad Air is noticeably lighter than its predecessors. If you are the least bit interested in the new tablet computer from Apple, you probably already know that. The company’s engineers shaved just short of a third off the weight of the.... More

U.S. consumer prices rise, but underlying inflation is benign. U.S. consumer prices rose modestly in September but there was little sign of underlying inflation in the economy, which should give the Federal Reserve scope to maintain its monthly bond purchases. More

In Boston, Obama will point to health law's success. President Obama will travel to Boston on Wednesday to promote the success of the Massachusetts health care program on which the Affordable Care Act was based, while Mr. Obama’s top health official faces an intense grilling on Capitol Hill.... More

Why is it so hard to diagnose ADHD? No laboratory or imaging tests exist to reliably diagnose ADHD. A diagnosis relies only on behavioral symptoms and ruling out other disorders. Many doctors believe that the disorder is both overdiagnosed in some children but underdiagnosed in.... More

Washington state voters will weigh in on million-dollar food fight. In Washington state, a well-financed food fight is about to come to an end. More than $27 million has been spent on an initiative before voters next Tuesday that would require labeling of genetically-modified foods. That’s nearly $10.... More

Education system equating time with learning is being challenged after.... IN 1893, Charles Eliot, president of Harvard, introduced to the National Education Association a novel concept: the credit hour. Roughly equivalent to one hour of lecture time a week for a 12- to 14-week semester, it became the basic unit of a.... More

U.S. home prices rise again in August; yearly gain best since 2006. NEW YORK — U.S. single-family home prices rose in August and also posted their strongest annual gain in more than seven years, a closely watched survey showed on Tuesday. The S&P/Case Shiller composite index of 20 metropolitan areas rose.... More

Warily, schools watch students on the Internet. SAN FRANCISCO — For years, a school principal’s job was to make sure students were not creating a ruckus in the hallways or smoking in the bathroom. Vigilance ended at the schoolhouse gates. Now, as students complain, taunt and sometimes.... More

Older workers tend to be happier, survey finds. A study by the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that 9 in 10 workers who are age 50 or older say they are very or somewhat satisfied with their job. Older workers reported satisfaction regardless of gender, race,.... More

7 ridiculous restrictions on women's rights around the world. With Saudi Arabian women behind the wheel since Saturday to protest their country's refusal to grant driver's licenses to women, they’re challenging not only long-standing restriction, but also a the larger system of Saudi Arabian.... More

Health site's woes could dissuade vital enrollee: the young and healthy. Sean Jackson, like tens of thousands of other Americans, has had trouble signing up for medical coverage using the HealthCare.gov insurance marketplace, despite several attempts. “I was able to create an account on Oct. 2, and I haven’t.... More

Lists that rank colleges value are on the rise. Looking out over the quadrangle before him as students dashed from one class to the next, James Muyskens was feeling proud one recent afternoon, and why not? The college he had led for the past 11 years had just been awarded second place in a.... More

F.D.A. shift on painkillers was years in the making. When Heather Dougherty heard the news last week that the Food and Drug Administration had recommended tightening how doctors prescribed the most commonly used narcotic painkillers, she was overjoyed. Fourteen years earlier, her father, Dr..... More

Don't be the office dinosaur. Linda DiCicco is 53 going on 20. She works at a computer store in Southdale mall, where many of her customers are half her age, and so are her co-workers. “I went to a training seminar in Atlanta where my roommate was 22,” she said. “I.... More

Study finds brains flush toxic waste in sleep, including.... While we are asleep, our bodies may be resting, but our brains are busy taking out the trash. A new study has found that the cleanup system in the brain, responsible for flushing out toxic waste products that cells produce with daily use,.... More

Teen drinking: should parents ever look the other way? It’s one of the fault lines of modern parenting: What do you do when you stumble into a teenage drinking party? Look the other way? Shut it down? Call the police? Susan Burkinshaw, a PTA mom from Germantown, Md., admits that she would want to.... More

Promised fix for health site could squeeze some users. The Obama administration said Friday that it would fix problems in the federal health insurance marketplace by Nov. 30, just two weeks before the deadline to sign up for coverage to replace health insurance policies being canceled because they.... More

Bottled water sales rising as soda ebbs. Few things are more American than Coca-Cola. But bottled water is washing away the palate trained to drain a bubbly soda. By the end of this decade, if not sooner, sales of bottled water are expected to surpass those of carbonated soft drinks,.... More

Biotech firms program living cells like iPhone apps, heralding a.... For scientist Jack Newman, creating a new life-form has become as simple as this: He types out a DNA sequence on his laptop. Clicks “send.” And a few yards away in the laboratory, robotic arms mix together some compounds to produce the.... More

Eight states teaming up to support electric cars. In an effort to spur lackluster sales of electric cars, California, New York and six other states said on Thursday that they would work jointly to adopt a range of measures, including encouraging more charging stations and changing building.... More

To combat elder abuse, doormen are enlisted to keep a watchful eye. Michael Marlow, a doorman at the Gracie Mews apartment building on the Upper East Side, does a lot more than just open doors for residents. He unscrews their jar lids, runs to the store for apple juice, listens to their complaints about spouses.... More

F.D.A. urging tighter rein on painkillers. The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday recommended tighter controls on how doctors prescribe the most commonly used narcotic painkillers, changes that are expected to take place as early as next year. More

F.D.A. moves to regulate food for animals. The Food and Drug Administration proposed rules on Friday that would govern the production of pet food and farm animal feed for the first time. The regulation would help prevent food-borne illness in both animals and people, officials at the.... More

U.S. unemployment applications fall to 350,000. The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits dropped 12,000 to a seasonally adjusted 350,000 last week, though the total was elevated for the third straight week by technical problems in California. The Labor Department said Thursday.... More

Better news in new study that assesses U.S. students. Amid growing alarm over the slipping international competitiveness of American students, a report comparing math and science test scores of eighth graders in individual states to those in other countries has found that a majority outperformed.... More

How music can boost our workouts. Making music — and not just listening to it — while exercising makes the exercise easier, a remarkable new experiment finds, suggesting that the human love of music may have evolved, in part, to ease physical effort. More

Case explores rights of fetus versus mother. JACKSON, Wis. — Alicia Beltran cried with fear and disbelief when county sheriffs surrounded her home on July 18 and took her in handcuffs to a holding cell. She was 14 weeks pregnant and thought she had done the right thing when, at a.... More

Health law fails to keep prices low in rural areas. As technical failures bedevil the rollout of President Obama’s health care law, evidence is emerging that one of the program’s loftiest goals — to encourage competition among insurers in an effort to keep costs low — is falling short.... More

It's true: Moms can like a kid best, study finds. Despite what they may say, mothers have favorites among their children, and a new study finds that those preferences tend to continue into old age. The authors of the study suggest that doctors, hospital staff and family members need to take.... More

Federal judge clears way for challenge of health care law. WASHINGTON – A federal judge cleared the way on Tuesday for consumers to challenge President Obama’s health care law on the grounds that the federal government cannot legally provide subsidies to people who buy insurance through the.... More

Shutdown will hinder true gauge of U.S. economy. Like a driver with a broken speedometer, economists are being forced to come up with new ways to gauge the economy’s strength as the aftereffects of the government shutdown distort the usual metrics. Unlike the delayed jobs data released on.... More

Annual rise in cost of public college slows. Tuition and fees at public universities increased less than 3 percent this academic year, the smallest rise in three decades, according to the annual College Board reports on trends in pricing and aid. “This does not mean that college is.... More

Sebelius faces firestorm on health care exchanges. The first, and perhaps most painful, call for Kathleen Sebelius to resign as President Obama’s health secretary came this month from an old family friend: Senator Pat Roberts, Republican of Kansas, who once boasted of a “special.... More

Language-gap study bolsters a push for Pre-K. Nearly two decades ago, a landmark study found that by age 3, the children of wealthier professionals have heard words millions more times than those of less educated parents, giving them a distinct advantage in school and suggesting the need.... More

Yoga dominated by women despite benefits to both sexes. At a yoga studio in the District recently, practitioners breathed, bent, twisted and stretched their way to a happier state. They left more relaxed, more energized, with better posture and a renewed outlook. But there was one curious thing: Of.... More

Poll shows major damage to GOP after shutdown. The budget confrontation that led to a partial government shutdown dealt a major blow to the GOP’s image and has exposed significant divisions between tea party supporters and other Republicans, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News.... More

Security check now starts long before you fly. The Transportation Security Administration is expanding its screening of passengers before they arrive at the airport by searching a wide array of government and private databases that can include records like car registrations and employment.... More

As gays wed in New Jersey, Christie ends court fight. As couples across New Jersey began marrying on Monday after the stroke of midnight, Gov. Chris Christie abandoned his long fight against same-sex marriage, concluding that signals from the court and the march of history were against him. More

Obama admits Web site flaws on health care. President Obama offered an impassioned defense of the Affordable Care Act on Monday, acknowledging the technical failures of the HealthCare.gov Web site, but providing little new information about the problems with the online portal or the.... More

Gay rights supporters wage quiet campaign to woo Republicans. Few elected Republicans support giving gays the right to marry. The party’s influential social-conservative wing sees “traditional marriage” as a defining issue. And while most major Democrats are rushing to embrace same-sex marriage,.... More

Tablet-makers gear up for latest skirmish. SAN FRANCISCO — The race for the tablet market has become a full-blown sprint. The intense competition will be highlighted on Tuesday, as Apple, Nokia and Microsoft each introduce new tablets. Those devices will be competing for consumer.... More

Breast milk bought online is often tainted, says study. A cottage industry has sprung up facilitating the sale and donation of human breast milk on the Internet, but a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics confirms the concerns of health professionals over this unregulated marketplace. More

Contractors see weeks of work on health site. Federal contractors have identified most of the main problems crippling President Obama’s online health insurance marketplace, but the administration has been slow to issue orders for fixing those flaws, and some contractors worry that the.... More

At 12:01, same-sex couples in New Jersey say 'I do.' In Lambertville, N.J., the marriage certificate of Beth Asaro and Joanne Schailey allowed only for a “bride” and a “groom,” so Ms. Asaro — in a pink suit — was listed as the groom, and Ms. Schailey — in a black suit — as the.... More

Chalk is the new (old) medium for self-expression. Chalkboards once were a classroom staple. They could be black or green, but always dusty all over with the dregs of algebra problems, history dates and homework assignments. Occasionally, someone might scrawl a wisecrack, or draw a rude stick.... More

Facebook changes privacy settings to let teenagers share with anyone on.... SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook is now allowing teenagers to share their posts on the social network with anyone on the Internet, raising the risks of minors leaving a digital trail that could lead to trouble. The change announced Wednesday affects.... More

Republicans back down, ending crisis. Congressional Republicans conceded defeat on Wednesday in their bitter budget fight with President Obama over the new health care law as the House and Senate approved last-minute legislation ending a disruptive 16-day government shutdown and.... More

Gridlock has cost U.S. billions and the meter is still running. WASHINGTON — Containers of goods idling at ports. Reduced sales at sandwich shops in downtown Washington. Canceled vacations to national parks and to destinations abroad. Reduced corporate earnings forecasts. Higher interest payments on.... More

Search tools wanting on many exchanges. SHELBYVILLE, Ky. — As he was trying to sign up for health insurance through Kentucky’s new online exchange this month, Kenny Wheeler hit a wall. Mr. Wheeler, an independent sales representative with a neuromuscular disorder, had.... More

Riding to rescue? Senators seek debt limit, shutdown deal after House bill.... WASHINGTON — Senate leaders are optimistic about forging an eleventh-hour bipartisan deal preventing a possible federal default and ending the partial government shutdown after Republican divisions forced GOP leaders to drop efforts to ram.... More

Justices weigh Michigan law and race in college admissions. WASHINGTON — Just four months after the Supreme Court largely ducked the question of whether the University of Texas may take account of race in its admissions decisions, the justices heard arguments on Tuesday about whether Michigan’s.... More

Pounding pavement by heel or toe. A noteworthy new study suggests that each style of running has advantages and drawbacks, and the right way to run almost certainly depends on what kind of runner you already are. More

Night shifts not linked to mental decline. NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In a large study, middle-aged women working night shifts didn't suffer any long-term impairment in their thinking skills. Previous studies suggested working a mix of day and night shifts disrupts circadian rhythms -.... More

Obamacare's secret traffic weapon Healthcare.gov has, by all accounts, been an absolute train wreck of a website roll-out. Weeks after the site for the Affordable Care Act went online, users still couldn’t sign up for insurance or, in many cases, even get page site to load.... More

Senate near fiscal deal, but House is uncertain. WASHINGTON — Senate leaders neared the completion Monday night of a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown while the rest of the world braced for the possibility of an American default that could set off a.... More

Richmond awaits a bold antipoverty plan. RICHMOND, Va. — Dressed on an unseasonably warm day, as ever, in a tailored suit, tie and pocket square, Mayor Dwight C. Jones, a fourth-generation pastor, arrived at a late-afternoon meeting this month to talk about his ambitious — some.... More

Haunted by a child's illness A child’s serious illness can cast a very long shadow across a family, often for years after the crisis has passed. A mother sat in our clinic recently, crying because her older child was having trouble in school. She blamed herself. A.... More

Social Security raise to be smallest in years. WASHINGTON — For the second straight year, millions of Social Security recipients, disabled veterans and federal retirees can expect historically small increases in their benefits come January. Preliminary figures suggest a benefit increase.... More

Debt-ceiling breach would push economy into freefall with no safety net. The Obama administration will have to decide whether to delay — or possibly suspend — tens of billions of dollars in Social Security checks, food stamps and unemployment benefits if negotiations to raise the federal debt ceiling are not.... More