September 2017

We know there’s a widening geographic economic gap in the United States, most vividly described in the months leading up to the 2016 election as a battle between the “left behind” and the “coastal elites.” Now we have new detail on how that breaks down by locality . One in six Americans are living in ZIP codes that are considered economically “distressed,” according to the Economic Innovation Group’s 2017 Distressed Communities Index . More than 84 million others—one in four—live in...

During the last presidential election season, I visited a dear friend. In her front yard, I saw a sign for a candidate whom I vehemently opposed. “Are you kidding me?” I thought, in a moment of disbelief. I knew my political views were different from those of my friend, and I have also known her for over ten years as a kind, generous, salt-of-the-Earth kind of person. You might be wondering which candidate it was, but that’s not the point of this story. The point is about my attitude: While...

As lawmakers prepare this fall to debate plans to overhaul the state criminal justice system, one priority for advocates is a proposal that would allow defendants to be spared incarceration for nonviolent offenses if they are the primary caretaker of a child. The challenge, activists said, is persuading lawmakers to adopt the plan alongside less controversial reforms expected to easily win passage. “My concern is that we pass one bill and the other one ends up not getting through the...

Just off the banks of the parched Santa Cruz River in Tucson, Arizona, gardeners at Las Milpitas de Cottonwood Community Farm are harvesting a bounty of produce. They grow hot and sweet peppers, summer squashes, Nichols and Punta Banda cherry tomatoes, basil, okra, beans, corn, and the striped, oval Tohono O’odham watermelon: a desert-adapted watermelon with sweet orange-yellow flesh, cultivated by the Tohono O’odham tribe over generations in the Sonoran Desert region. An urban community...

Childhood trauma comes in many forms. Whether it’s the shock of a friend’s sudden death or violence in school, we’ve heard far too many stories about students having to recover from traumatic events. But trauma can also rear its head in more subtle ways. It’s easy to write off a misbehaving student as “troubled.” But often, this behavior is a direct result of continued trauma at home. Abuse, neglect, struggles with poverty are all part of a particular type of trauma called Adverse Childhood...

Is health care a right? The United States remains the only developed country in the world unable to come to agreement on an answer. Earlier this year, I was visiting Athens, Ohio, the town in the Appalachian foothills where I grew up. The battle over whether to repeal, replace, or repair the Affordable Care Act raged then, as it continues to rage now. So I began asking people whether they thought that health care was a right. The responses were always interesting. [For more on this story by...

The Portland Police Bureau maintains the gang database was kept confidential but acknowledges the fear among black and Hispanic residents that the information was spread to employers and housing providers. “Because there was a lack of trust, they didn’t believe us,” says police Capt. Mike Krantz. Gang databases are used across the U.S. by local police departments, some states and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. These law enforcement agencies create the databases by adding people...

Living in Tumultuous Times: Responding to the “Hidden” Public Health Crisis in the U.S. We live in tumultuous times. Although our minds might immediately takes us to issues with North Korea, or ISIS, or the dysfunction in Washington D.C., these are not the primary focus of this article. Washington’s dysfunction over the past couple decades is a contributing factor, yet the dynamics discussed here go far beyond our nation’s capital. With the ongoing focus on the Affordable Care Act, health...

Traditional batterer intervention programs have a big gaping hole: They’re good at describing what men and women do to abuse their partners (intentionally control or dominate an intimate partner), and what they should stop doing (stop using power tactics against their partners), but they don’t get at the roots of why men and women abuse their partners: their adverse childhood experiences. A handful of people around the U.S. are integrating trauma-informed and resilience-building practices...

Conditional cash transfers (CCTs) are rapidly expanding as a poverty-reduction strategy around the world. Following the publication of positive findings from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) launched in 1998 to evaluate Mexico’s CCT program (Progresa/Oportunidades), more than 60 countries have adopted CCT programs. Such programs vary in their specific features, but all share the common element of providing cash payments to poor families that are contingent on meeting certain conditions,...

When high levels of lead were discovered in the public water system in Flint, Mich., in 2015, Medicaid stepped in to help thousands of children get tested for poisoning and receive care. When disabled children need to get to doctor's appointments — either across town or hundreds of miles away — Medicaid pays for their transportation. When older middle-class Americans deplete their savings to pay for costly nursing home care, Medicaid offers coverage . The United States has become a Medicaid...

There’s no doubt about it: mental illness sucks. And it’s even suckier when it starts to affect your children. It’s something I know only too well as a mother of two with a diagnosis of recurrent depressive disorder – an illness that has seen me suicidal and hospitalised on more than one occasion. My children, aged six and 11, have had their childhoods shaped by my illness. They’ve seen me so unwell that I’ve been unable to get out of bed, let alone make their packed lunches or take them to...