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News & Features

Tokyo, Seoul Prepare for Obama Visit

By Kim Tae-gyu

All eyes are on President Barack Obama’s itinerary for his planned trip to Asia in April as Korea and Japan are now embroiled in a fierce historical and territorial battle of nerves.Obama is widely expected to visit Southeast Asian countries like the Philippines and Malaysia as well as Japan. Of interest is whether or not his stops will include Seoul and how long he will stay in Tokyo.

Over-the-Counter Meds: A Dangerous Prescription for Confusion

By Rochelle Sharpe

Problems with OTC drugs could get worse, as the United States population ages. While people of all ages have been harmed by these medications, elders are at greater risk, because they take more medicine, experience more adverse reactions and have more difficulty understanding health information. Last year, the Gerontological Society of America and Consumer Healthcare Products Association convened a national summit, calling for research into ways to improve these drug labels and how to better educate patients about these medicines’ potential risks. 

Why Decriminalizing Marijuana Will Help the Failing War on Drugs

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

A frank admission that the laws are biased and unfair, and have not done much to combat the drug plague, would be an admission of failure. It could ignite a real soul-searching over whether all the billions of dollars that have been squandered in the failed and flawed drug war -- the lives ruined by it, and the families torn apart by the rigid and unequal enforcement of the laws -- has really accomplished anything. This might call into question why people use and abuse drugs in the first place. 

Did Abraham Lincoln Really Free the Slaves?

By Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, right? Well, the truth is a bit more complicated than that; actually, the truth is very complicated, leading even usually sober commentators such as the venerable historian Lerone Bennett Jr. to cry “foul,” and to do so quite bitterly, suggesting that black people have been sold a bill of goods when it comes to “The Great Emancipator.” 

How Smoking Hookahs Became a Popular Fad and a Health Hazard

By David Leveille

"I'm alarmed by this explosion because hookah smoking is perceived by many as not as risky as cigarettes, while in fact the data show on the contrary, it's even riskier. The risk of developing systemic diseases from hookah are even more extensive than cigarette smoking." That comparison to cigarettes may be surprising to many young people who believe that inhaling smoke that's cooled by a waterpipe isn't as harmful as smoking cigarette tobacco. Wrong.

Living in the Shadows: Refugees and Healthcare

By Erika Beras

The first few months of a refugee’s life in the U.S. are filled with new experiences. And with doctor’s visits. All that initial care is covered by federal medical assistance. But when that coverage ends, refugees may still have outstanding health issues and no way to pay for them. Gov. Tom Corbett isn’t expanding Medicaid in Pennsylvania this year. It’s estimated that there are more than 600,000 people who could benefit from the Medicaid expansion, but for people like Tamang who face a disappointing reality, even the cheapest insurance plan would still cost him too much.

Miley Cyrus’ Sexual Politics

By Mary Kinney

 Cyrus came from the world of Disney, growing up as Hannah Montana, and was supposedly contractually obligated to keep her hair long. The VMAs has historically been a breeding ground for “shocking” sexual stage work. Cyrus’s twerking was definitely sexual, but was it sexy? She came out of a bear and stuck her tongue out: the statement wasn’t sexy, but the gesture of sex in pop culture will, almost without fail, make audiences’ jaws drop

The GOP’s Obstructionist Tactics Against the Obama Administration Escalate

By Earl Ofari Hutchinson

Obama’s vow to wield the executive pen whenever and wherever he thinks he must amounts to a frontal challenge to the GOP to cease its relentless, dogged, and destructive campaign of dither, delay, denial, and obstructionism to anything that has the White House stamp on it. The GOP knows this but that won’t stop it from eagerly spinning its politically self-serving line of Obama the dictator.