| Tue, 11 Sep 2007 | | New rules on hedge funds, transparency could have harmful, unintended consequences. | | More information |
| Mon, 10 Sep 2007 | | In the course of creating any new strategy, there are three big questions military planners pose to themselves: What are the ways, what are the means, and what are the ends? In Iraq, the ways and means of the current strategy have involved sending an extra 30,000 troops into the country's capital this year in the hopes of tamping down violence there. The ends: to give the national government, led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, breathing room to try to bring together the citizens of his broken country. The question on the table this week: How is that working out for the Iraqis? No less important, how is that working out for a U.S. military strained mightily by this troop buildup? | | More information |
| Mon, 10 Sep 2007 | | FALLUJAH, IRAQ?In what has been a hotbed of the Sunni insurgency, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Sunni Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi recently strolled through a market full of vegetables and along a main street once favored by snipers. Their high-visibility visit to this Sunni city, 40 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province, was meant to showcase the partnership in recent months between Americans and Sunnis. | | More information |
| Sun, 2 Sep 2007 | | Families now stuffing backpacks and greeting the children's new teachers face a crisis that makes falling test scores and rising college costs dull by comparison. Ten years and billions of dollars into the fight against childhood fat, it's clear that the campaign has been a losing battle. According to a report released last week by the research group Trust for America's Health, one third of kids nationwide are overweight now; other stats show that the percentage of children who are obese has more than tripled since the 1970s. Now, experts are worrying about the collateral damage, too: A 2006 University of Minnesota study found that 57 percent of girls and 33 percent of boys used cigarettes, fasting, or skipping meals to control their weight and that diet-pill intake by teenage girls had nearly doubled in five years. Last year, nearly 5,000 teens opted for liposuction, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons--more than three times the number in 1998, when experts first warned of a "childhood obesity epidemic." | | More information |
| Sun, 2 Sep 2007 | | Even gentle and well-meant comments about your kids' weight can have an unintended downside: an increased likelihood that they'll turn to dangerous dieting behaviors. U.S. News recently sat down with five teens who were treated for anorexia at the Emily Program, a private eating disorders facility in Minneapolis-St. Paul, to find out what sent their weight plunging. Their moms sat in, too. Here are some of the comments the girls wish they'd never heard. | | More information |
| Sun, 2 Sep 2007 | | A focus on body weight may be necessary when a seriously overweight child's well-being is at stake. But parents need to be respectful and supportive, since pressuring kids--especially teens--to lose weight could cause them to overeat more or develop an eating disorder. After seeing her 18-year-old son, Wes, shave 65 pounds off his 270-pound frame, registered dietitian Anne Fletcher set out to discover the secret of other teens' success. In her recent book Weight Loss Confidential, she studies how 104 seriously overweight preteens and teens, 41 boys and 63 girls, got to a healthier weight and stayed there for two years or longer. The kids on average lost 58 pounds each, and one quarter lost 75 pounds or more. Here's how they did it: | | More information |
| Sun, 9 Sep 2007 | | By the time Jim Hurley, 54, learned last year that he had early-stage prostate cancer, the disease had already killed his father and struck two brothers. With that family history, the plaster artisan from Springfield, N.J., wasn't about to take chances. For two months, he pored over scientific studies, books, and websites about the cancer. He discussed his situation with doctors, his brothers, and other survivors. A surgeon recommended surgery. A radiation oncologist advocated a form of radiation therapy. But Hurley, concerned that either could leave him impotent or incontinent, settled on a novel technique that attacks cancer with sound waves. He had to drop $23,500 and fly to Toronto to get treated with high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU. (Health officials in Canada and Mexico permit the procedure, but U.S. regulators haven't made a decision on it.) So far, he's pleased with the results. | | More information |
| Sun, 9 Sep 2007 | | Thompson, running as a true conservative, just might be able to shake up the GOP race. | | More information |
| Fri, 7 Sep 2007 | | Families recoil at how much is expected of them. | | More information |
| Fri, 7 Sep 2007 | | You can get more dough by pitting schools against one another. | | More information |
| Fri, 7 Sep 2007 | | Schools expect students to work part time. So do parents. | | More information |
| Fri, 7 Sep 2007 | | Small rebates from retailers are just another way parents can fund ever expanding 529 plans. | | More information |
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