On January 22, 2007, the American Library Association awarded The Newbery Medal (the most prestigious book award for children’s literature) to Susan Patron for her book “The Higher Power of Lucky.”  The book is about a ten year old girl named Lucky living in a tiny town in the California desert who fears being abandoned...Read More

The Human Papillomavirus (HPV) is the name of a group of viruses that includes more than 100 different strains or types.  It is sexually transmitted and can lead in some cases to cervical cancer.  Cervical cancer can lead to loss of fertility, ongoing health problems, and even death (4000 women a year die from cervical...Read More

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