Isolation on Both Ends of the Line

Isolation on Both Ends of the Line

When Martha Wright’s grandson went to prison more than 20 years ago, she learned a stark lesson about the cost of maintaining ties with a family member who is incarcerated. Beyond the isolation and deep wound of being separated from a loved one, there’s...
A Nuclear Strike on States’ Rights

A Nuclear Strike on States’ Rights

The 9/11 attacks made terrorist incidents at nuclear reactors appear much less hypothetical. After the nuclear disaster in Fukushima, Japan, concerned citizens grew more alarmed about the possibility of a catastrophic nuclear accident in our own country. Now, a...
Pulling the Plug on Ex-Gay Quackery

Pulling the Plug on Ex-Gay Quackery

Jerry, a 23-year-old gay Texan, endured seven years of so-called “conversion therapy” starting at the age of 13. One of the most humiliating “treatments” entailed being taken to Nevada, where prostitution is legal, and forced to perform sex...
Consumer Choice: As American as Apple Pie

Consumer Choice: As American as Apple Pie

Meet the Arctic apple. In the field-trial stage since 2003, this fruit has had bacterial and viral DNA inserted into it — a genetic modification that prevents browning when bruised or sliced. One company, Okanagan Specialty Foods, has been testing these...
Cigarettes: The Killer that Won’t Die

Cigarettes: The Killer that Won’t Die

Would you believe that 45 million adult Americans still smoke? That’s about one in five of us grownups. Worldwide this killer habit ends about six million lives each year. But what’s most disturbing — 10 percent of victims never even took a puff....