Author: WHES

For those concerned about eating and health, the glass was more than half full last week; some activists were actually exuberant. First, there was evidence that obesity rates among pre-school children had fallen significantly.

The world has long been aware of North Korea’s repression and brutality against its citizens, through the stories of escapees and reports by human rights groups and the State Department. But a study by a special United Nations commission has produced the most authoritative indictment yet.

FRESNO, Calif. — EVERY Saturday in late December and January, as reports of brutal temperatures and historic snowfalls streamed in from family in Vermont, New York and even southern Louisiana, we made weekly pilgrimages to our local beer garden to enjoy craft brews and unseasonably warm afternoons.

The political posturing over raising the minimum wage sometimes obscures the huge and growing number of low-wage workers it would affect. An estimated 27.8 million people would earn more money under the Democratic proposal to lift the hourly minimum from $7.25 today to $10.10 by 2016. And most of them do not fit the low-wage stereotype of a teenager with a summer job.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — The African Union commemorated the 10-year anniversary of the Maputo Declaration on agricultural development with the launch of the “Year of Agriculture and Food Security” last week at its summit in Addis Ababa.

Watch closely: I’m about to demystify the sleight-of-hand by which good jobs were transformed into bad jobs, full-time workers with benefits into freelancers with nothing, during the dark days of the Great Recession.

The proposed farm bill conference agreement announced today represents a relatively favorable outcome for SNAP and most of the millions of low-income Americans who rely on it, especially in light of what might have occurred or what may occur if Congress rejects this agreement and leaves it to the next Congress to write its own farm bill.

IF you’re confused about all the turmoil in the Arab world and asking how the United States should respond, I find it useful to consider three questions:

While liberals and conservatives differ sharply in assessing the War on Poverty,[1] they seem to agree that we must do more to help low-income childless workers to succeed in the workplace — most likely by strengthening the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), which currently does little for this group.