"Why is the teen birth rate in the United States so high, and why does it matter?" Those questions are posed in the title of a new paper in the Journal of Economic Perspectives getting a good deal of applause on the Internet.
The earthquake and tsunami in northeastern Japan on March 11 last year took more than 20,000 lives, caused the evacuation of about 300,000 people, and set off the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl. The meltdowns of the Fukushima Daiichi reactors ended Japan's plans to produce half of its electricity through nuclear energy.
You've probably read those articles about how, in the United States, minorities are becoming the majority. That's a polite way of describing what is really going on. Namely, that the U.S. population is becoming more Latino and less white. More than any other group, it is Latinos who are driving demographic changes.
Rather than getting ready to attract more tourists in its high season, Greece is headed toward the polls again on June 17. In the midst of domestic political uncertainty, more and more outside observers agree that "Grexit" -- the prospect of Greece leaving the euro -- has become inevitable.
It's always been a mystery to me why Republican lawmakers who denounce the evils of government choose to run for office. If your belief is that the private sector holds the answers to all that ails us, it seems like you would want to go out and prove the case. So the May 9 vote by the House GOP to eliminate the American Community Survey, which collects statistics about the nation's population, is confusing.
As the presidential campaign veers off onto the Bain Capital ramp, the predictable arguments ensue: Is the turn simply a political attack meant to distract from bad economic news? (So says Mitt Romney). Or is it an important, valid argument at the heart of the contest? (So says President Barack Obama.)
At the NATO summit in Chicago, President Obama and leaders of America's NATO allies agreed on an "irreversible" plan to withdraw from Afghanistan. But challenges remain.
Each spring, I monitor the list of commencement speakers at our nation's leading colleges and universities. Who is chosen, and who is not, tells us a lot about academia's perception of the most important voices in America.
After an astounding debut on Friday, Facebook's shares have tumbled for the most part. Is the most highly anticipated technology IPO in recent years a failure?
The Sixth Amendment right to a trial by an impartial jury is the bedrock of our criminal justice system. Yet the promise of impartiality is called into question when defendants face juries that include few, if any, members of their race.
A leather-faced Egyptian fruit seller said it best: "The revolution was like a beautiful woman. She charmed us, and we fell in love with her and killed the tyrant to marry her, but she was just a trick -- another burden to add to our heavy load, and we are falling out of love."
Do you know how long your cell phone company keeps records of whom you text, who calls you or what places you have traveled? Do you know how often cell phone companies turn over this information to the police and whether they first ask the police to get a warrant based on probable cause?
The one thing that Egyptians know for certain is that their next president is not a woman. That is because there are no female candidates contesting the presidential elections.
As Egyptians prepare for their milestone presidential election this week, thousands of activist youths who spearheaded the revolution -- the very ones who made the election possible -- will not be casting a vote. Instead, they are in prison, facing military trials.
Should men be routinely screened for prostate cancer? This question has been asked ever since the prostate specific antigen test, or PSA, became widely available more than two decades ago.
It feels as if I've been living a double life all of these years, and I do not want to deceive you, or myself, any longer. The burden has become too heavy, the struggle to deny my true self, too great.
There are more elephants in India than Mormons. Five of the rare Mormons are in a Bible class in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, which occupies a portion of a red residential building in south Delhi.
As many as 5.4 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease. That number includes my mother-in-law, who started showing signs of the disease in 2007. Standing beside all those living with Alzheimer's are more than 15 million family members and friends who provide them with care and everyday support. That includes my husband, his siblings, our kids and me.
When Iranian officials arrive at the next round of nuclear talks in Baghdad on May 23, they will seek to advance several of their own goals, while only making modest changes to their nuclear program.
Congress is reaching a point where it will no longer be able to function at all. Over the past two years, some members of the Republican Party have ramped up the partisan wars on Capitol Hill. They are threatening to bring the legislative process to a standstill.
The European financial crisis is poorly understood in the United States.
How can it be that we are firmly into the 21st century and reading claims that birth control pills can cause prostate cancer and abort babies? Or, my personal favorite, that a woman can be considered pregnant before her egg unites with a sperm?
Amid the buzz over the Facebook IPO, the ever-evolving theories about how Twitter is reshaping our communications and speculation about where the next social media-enabled protest or revolution will occur, there is an important question we've largely ignored. What are the real effects of all this on the huge segment of the population most affected by social media themselves: our children and our teens?
Have you ever wondered what is inside your dental plaque? Probably not. But this question is now being asked not only by dentists, but also by archaeologists.
A very nice married couple from Canada struck up a conversation in a restaurant where we were having dinner. At one point the husband said that, earlier in his life, he had played with some buddies in a rock band.
Today marks the 508th anniversary of the death of Christopher Columbus.
Shortly after President Barack Obama was inaugurated, he said that his re-election effort will be judged largely on the economy.
If democracy had existed in ancient Egypt, then not a single pyramid would have been built.
On Saturday, a company called SpaceX was scheduled to launch the first private mission to the International Space Station, demonstrating a freight-carrying capability NASA gave up when it retired its fleet of space shuttles in July. (The flight was aborted at the last second after a faulty valve was discovered; SpaceX officials said the launch was postponed till Tuesday or Wednesday.)
Until the rerun of the Greek elections scheduled for June 17, we will witness an unprecedented game of brinkmanship. The game will be played along the following lines.
The events of the past few weeks have made increasingly probable what was once considered impossible: Greece may exit the euro.
Afghanistan's recent signings of strategic partnerships with the United States and other countries have provided a measure of reassurance to Afghans about the international community's sustained engagement in the country beyond 2014, when the drawdown of NATO combat forces will be complete. But these documents are short on specifics and do not fully tackle the political, economic and regional challenges that need to be addressed so the Afghan army and police can take responsibility for the security of the country.
It used to be that when Americans thought of Mexico, they imagined a festive getaway where margaritas flowed, mariachis played, and every day was Cinco de Mayo.
Facebook's $104 billion initial public offering comes at a time when the United States is suffering a bout of self-doubt. Many wonder if America is falling behind as other countries are catching up fast. And yet the Facebook phenomenon did not occur in a vacuum.
Donna Summer defined the disco era. Her brazenly sexual hits "Love To Love You Baby" and "I Feel Love" horrified some and delighted many more when they came out. They also helped to propel disco into a national phenomenon. Even now, the sound of her voice -- controlled yet passionate -- summons up the hedonistic, willful spirit of the late 1970s.
Here we go again. The perennial question of: "Would you rather own shares in a major financial conglomerate or manage one?" comes up as JPMorgan Chase loses more than $2 billion in trading bets.
Time magazine's recent cover story featuring Jamie Lynne Grumet breastfeeding her almost four-year-old son raised a firestorm about different styles of parenting. Along with the headline -- "Are you mom enough?" -- the piece makes every mother question whether she should practice attachment parenting and in the process, embrace all things natural. Wear your baby! Make your own baby food! Breastfeed! Sleep with your baby! Give birth at home -- and don't use painkillers!
The relationship between France and Germany is the barometer of the political health of Europe.
A woman in Ohio recently wrote us about her struggles in finding the time and the money to take care of her health. Billie wrote, "I am 33 years old and without Planned Parenthood I would have never found out in time that I'm a woman with precancerous cells in my uterus and cervix. I cannot afford to pay for my health care, and by them having a sliding scale I could afford it or else otherwise I may have died from cervical cancer. I wouldn't have found out about it in time. ... (Now) I can see my children grow up."
Barack Obama's appearance on "The View" on Tuesday topped a week spent cozying up to the world of entertainment, including a dinner hosted by George Clooney that raised $15 million and a $5,000-a-plate extravaganza with Ricky Martin.
Conventional wisdom has it that President Barack Obama's campaign four years ago was a political masterpiece. Yes, the Republican brand was in the toilet; the economy had cratered; his real opponent, George Bush, was a political pariah; and the country despaired for a new direction. Still, we recall the Obama campaign as a crushing force, brilliantly harnessed, riding the tide of history.
When Facebook's 27-year-old CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, wore a hoodie at a presentation to investors during the lead-up to Facebook's initial public offering, a financial analyst publicly accused Zuckerberg of immaturity. By dressing casually at such an important event, he alleged, Zuckerberg was telling potential shareholders they didn't matter.
Over the past weekend, Gov. Jerry Brown of California took to the safety of YouTube to reveal that the Golden State's budget deficit is now $15.7 billion, far greater than the original $9.2 billion estimate in January.
The "mommy war" between stay-at-home and working mothers is in danger of being overshadowed by another maddening contest: the one between mothers in the U.S. and France.
During his 2010 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama made headlines by directly criticizing the Supreme Court for its decision in Citizens United v. FEC, the political funding case. He said Citizens United would "open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections."
Nicole came to the United States from Indonesia on a temporary fiancée visa, fully expecting that she would enjoy life in a new country with the U.S. citizen she intended to marry. Instead, she found herself trapped as a victim of sex trafficking.
Getting hired or promoted in today's competitive environment is no easy feat. But, then again, neither was our pitch for MasterCard.
It's the diplomatic equivalent of hosting both the World Cup and the World Series in the same country on the same weekend.
Facebook advocates are touting the company's initial public offering this week -- the biggest ever for an Internet company-- as if it will save the net, the economy and the American way. Its detractors see the final chapter in the rise and fall of a smart but solipsistic Harvard dropout, and predict the inevitable decline of Facebook's stock will spell the end to innovation in social media. Internet Bubble 2.0.
North Carolina is so important to the re-election chances of Barack Obama that he picked Charlotte as the host city for the Democratic nominating convention.
President Obama appeared at two recent fundraisers with some serious sticker shock.
The United States is at a strategic inflection point. The choices we make now will have an enormous effect on our national security for decades. The war in Iraq has ended, and we have begun a transition in Afghanistan that will lead to a smaller American commitment in 2014 and beyond. On the horizon, we can see the end of a decade of war.
After President Barack Obama made his tepid endorsement of same-sex marriage last week, the pundits, from Fox News all the way to The New York Times, quickly pivoted from asking why to whether it will hurt him politically.
JPMorgan Chase can be considered a systemically dangerous institution, which means that it is "too big to fail" because the government fears that its collapse would cause a global financial crisis.
Last month, two political scientists published one of those rare op-eds that gets the political community talking.
By 2023, hideously powerful technology companies like the Weyland Corporation will rule the world. At least that's the storyline in "Prometheus," Ridley Scott's much-anticipated prequel to "Aliens," which will be released next month.
In his recent CNN column, Bill Bennett lambasts Obama campaign's slide show ad, "The Life of Julia," as the epitome of government reliance propaganda.
Mitt Romney spoke this weekend to the students at Liberty University, a hotbed of conservative studies,and he has been forced to think about his ties to the right. He is facing a difficult challenge in determining what his relationship should be with the tea party Republicans who helped revitalize the GOP after the doldrums of 2008.
In the years before penicillin came into wide use in the 1940s, medicine couldn't do very much for many of the sickest patients. A hospital could keep you warm and provide food and nursing care, but as surgeon and writer Atul Gawande pointed out, in many cases the patient would do no better than if he or she had stayed home.
It is Mother's Day, and let us celebrate single-mother households -- not as half empty, but as half full of strong women. It is a good time to encourage children raised by women to see themselves as resilient, not doomed. And it is time, today and every day, for our culture to stop assigning blame and start offering help.
For well over a century the world has come to call on Garden City, Kansas, every day of the year.
The vetting process and the subsequent hiring of Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson seemed like standard procedure. But in recent days he has come under fire for the controversy surrounding his academic credentials.
The first woman elected to the White House will answer to many names -- Madam President, ma'am, and, most likely, Mom. That's something I like to think about on Mother's Day.
There is no reason Marissa Alexander should spend the next 20 years in prison.
There had to be something special about Rebekah Brooks. Here was a woman, after all, who managed to be a close friend of Tony and Cherie Blair, then a friend (perhaps less close and more briefly) of Gordon and Sarah Brown, and then a very close ("lots of love") friend of David and Samantha Cameron.
We sometimes liken the presidential campaign to an extended job interview, but it's certainly unlike any job any of us has ever applied for.
In a new book, a "60 Minutes" interview and other recent public statements, Jose Rodriguez, a three-decade veteran of the CIA who rose to become head of the National Clandestine Service, has stoutly defended the CIA's use of coercive interrogation techniques on al Qaeda detainees.
Recent ballistic missile tests by India, Pakistan and North Korea -- which has ominously threatened to "reduce to ashes" the South Korean military "in minutes" -- are once again focusing the world's attention on the dangers of nuclear war.
I heard on the news that Junior Seau passed away. Seau, 43, ended his life last Wednesday. He did so as purposefully and violently as he played the game of football. Today, a public memorial is planned for him at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego.
Sacha Baron Cohen's new movie, "The Dictator," is a modern-day minstrel show judging from the trailer and Cohen's comments promoting the film while dressed as the film's star, "Gen. Shabazz Aladeen," the leader of a fictitious Arab country.
Germany's electoral map has many colors in comparison to the red and blue of America, yet on both sides of the Atlantic, battleground state elections can portend change on the national level.
For those of you who do not have your calendars marked and gifts or cards purchased, a reminder: Sunday is Mother's Day, a "holiday" that many Americans have the luxury and good fortune to be able to observe.
President Obama is indeed a profile in courage. He has made history yet again with his announcement that he supports full marriage equality for gay and lesbian Americans. Bravo, Mr. President.
At a time when Republicans are reaching out to the Hispanic community, why are some in my party treating the U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico differently than the U.S. citizens in the 50 states?
For the better part of four years, voters have said the No. 1 issue is the economy.
Chances are that most of you reading this are opposed to at least some of the following federal laws and policies: the Troubled Assets Relief Program, the auto bailout, the serial raising of the debt ceiling, the Iraq War, the Patriot Act, marijuana prohibition, systematic increases in the Department of Education budget, Medicare Part D, sugar subsidies, obstacles to gay marriage, the nationalization of the mortgage industry and the infuriating performance (or even existence) of the Transportation Security Administration.
The arraignment of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four others charged as terrorists in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, over the weekend was widely described by the media as a "circus."
After two years of claiming that his views were "evolving," President Obama said on Wednesday that he has finally reached a conclusion and supports same-sex marriage. Obama's public endorsement is an important step in the right direction, but it does not undo the fact that he has a mixed record on gay rights.
Start-ups are fighting a war for talent in Silicon Valley, and the companies that actively welcome men and women are going to win it. Smart companies don't recruit "brogrammers."
As evidenced by media stories and public awareness campaigns, Americans have resolved to get tough on bullying. In that spirit, it's time to send a message to bullies with badges.
President Barack Obama's blockbuster announcement that he is in favor of full marriage equality is the most courageous thing he has done since he entered the White House three and a half years ago.
President Barack Obama has endorsed same-sex marriage. Will it make any difference to the battle for marriage equality? The news coming out of North Carolina suggests not. The Tar Heelers on Tuesday voted 61% to 39% to amend their constitution to outlaw same-sex marriage. Actually, they've gone much further. The new amendment prohibits any kind of same-sex unions, including the relatively innocuous option of civil partnership.
Just in case you thought you had time to catch your breath from the culture wars, the issue of marriage for gay couples is back at the ballot box this year. On Tuesday, North Carolinians voted 61% to 39% to ban all forms of relationship recognition for same-sex couples.
There is a hidden revolution at work that can transform the lives of a billion of the poorest people on the planet.
Last week, President Obama's campaign launched a fictional storybook ad called, "The Life of Julia." The slide show narrative follows Julia, a cartoon character, from age 3 to age 67 and explains how Obama's policies, from Head Start to Obamacare to mandated contraception coverage to Medicare reform, would provide Julia with a better life than Mitt Romney or Paul Ryan could.
Start-ups often keep the "beta test phase" label on their products for a time after the official launch to stress that the product is not finished so much as ready for the next batch of improvements.
I met the original Wild Thing when he was about halfway through his long life. At a conference of many fine artists and writers, Maurice Sendak was indisputably "King of All Wild Things." But in the late 1970s, when "Where the Wild Things Are" was only 15 years old (it is turning 50 soon), it was already, indisputably, a classic.
A long time ago a great three-time governor of Louisiana, Earl Long, said about Jimmie Davis, the two-time not very good governor of Louisiana, "You couldn't wake up Jimmie Davis with an earthquake."
With 30-plus governments since independence (average length less than two years), Israeli politics rarely surprises. But Monday's agreement between Benjamin Netanyahu and Kadima leader Shaul Mofaz did precisely that.
Suddenly, Europe is talking about growth and not just austerity.
Sharon Edwards of Salem, Oregon, may have to move to Mexico, where the cost of living is cheaper, so she can afford her retirement.
Let's be clear about one thing: Vice President Joe Biden's recent comment about being OK with marriage equality did not place the president in a difficult situation.
Sunday's parliamentary election in Greece delivered a crushing blow to New Democracy and Pasok, the two dominant parties that have ruled the country for the last 37 years. In the coming weeks, expect uncertainty, shifting alliances and growing frustration as a new political landscape struggles to emerge from the wreckage of the old.
Formal trial proceedings against the alleged planners of the 9/11 atrocities have finally begun. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants were arraigned on capital charges before a military judge in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on Saturday. The Obama administration claims that its improved military commission rules ensure a fair and credible trial. But outside the United States, who will view a U.S. military trial and potential execution of our enemies as credible?
François Hollande did not thank his opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy, during his acceptance speech, after defeating the incumbent with 51.6% of the vote in the French presidential runoff. But he should have, as he ran an anti-Sarkozy campaign, promising to behave like a "normal president" in contrast to the impulsive, unpredictable and sometimes ostentatious Sarkozy. And it worked: Fifty-five percent of the voters who cast a ballot for him did it to defeat Sarkozy rather than to elect Hollande.
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