Because of soaring costs in home health care for the elderly, some relatives of individuals in late adulthood are tapping a “hidden” market:  the so-called “gray market” in elderly home health care.  This consists of a network of generally untrained, unscreened, unsupervised, women who are willing to work for less than the fees charged by...Read More

The New York Times examined more than 1200 nursing homes purchased by private investment groups in the past several years, and discovered that, compared to national averages, these homes declined in care given, and scored lower in 12 of 14 indicators used to track ailments of long-term residents.  Homes owned by such investment firms as Warburg...Read More

I’m impressed with the work of  Susan Linn, author of The Case for Make-Believe: Saving Play in a Commercialized World, whose organization, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood (CCFC), has been attempting to stop corporations from using characters like Sponge Bob Square Pants,Sesame Street’s Elmo, and cartoon movie figures to advertise everything from sugar-rich cereals and unhealthy McDonald’s “happy meals” to...Read More