ARLINGTON, Va. – FOR the 16 million American children living below the federal poverty line, the start of a new school year should be reason to celebrate. Summer is no vacation when your parents are working multiple jobs or looking for one. Many kids are left to fend for themselves in neighborhoods full of gangs, […]
Nearly 47,000 Americans died from a drug overdose in 2014 — more than from gunshot wounds or car crashes. In Maryland, the governor’s office has defined the problem as an “epidemic … destroying lives.” Indeed, heroin deaths alone have increased by 186 percent from 2010 to 2015 in the state. Not only are drug related […]
The Moab area of Utah has some of the country’s most stunning landscapes. With easy access to Arches and Canyonlands National Parks and miles of spectacular red rock landscapes, it’s an internationally renowned adventure destination. In 1776, Fathers Dominguez and Escalante travelled through the area trying to map a route from Santa Fe to Monterey […]
I grew up on a produce farm on the outskirts of Salt Lake City, Utah. It was my playground, and our family’s livelihood. From a very young age I had a deep reverence for the land and the great outdoors. As an adult, I appreciate it even more. Luckily, here in Utah we have many […]
I’m a seventh-generation Latina Coloradan with roots in the San Luis Valley. I spent my childhood exploring the outdoors with my family — hiking, camping, skiing, rafting, and spending every summer at camp. Constructed in 1986, La Capilla de Todos Los Santos (the Chapel of All Saints) sits on a hill that overlooks the small […]
For kids, education is a basic human right. For adults, providing that education is a moral imperative. Those are the high-minded reasons that we invest in our public schools, but now the number-crunchers at Standard & Poor’s have given us one more: For the national economy, education is the tide that lifts all boats. If […]
The socio-political and economic conditions in North America have been undergoing a considerable shift over the last several decades. The end of the post-WWII “golden age” heralded a gradual erosion of the Keynesian welfare state social safety-net and as a result, state funding has been continuously withdrawn from social services. The reason for this shift […]
It doesn’t take a genius to see that electronics are more widely used than ever before. People have become nearly inseparable from their smartphones, tablets and laptops. And they eagerly await the release of newer devices promising faster processing, better screen resolution, more apps, more functionality, more everything. The magnitude of the market for digital […]
A few years ago, an audit of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Energy Star program brought some disturbing realities to light. Auditors posing as real companies were able to secure the Energy Star label for more than a dozen fake products — including an “air purifier” that was nothing more than a space heater with […]
Election Day blues: Could education provide the antidote to voter cynicism? The midterm elections are around the corner and even though we will soon know who controls the House and who controls the Senate, it’s hard to say whether anyone actually will win, in the fullest sense of the word. The president’s approval ratings are abysmal, […]