Just once I'd like to see a male politician caught in a sex scandal stand up there at the press conference all by himself. You want to be an alpha male with extra helpings of testosterone and appetites that cannot be denied? Fine, but if you get caught, Be. A. Man. Don't drag your wife in front of the cameras to prove how strong your marriage is. Practice saying these words: 'No, darling, I could never live with myself if I let you humiliate your self in public to help my career. I know people always want to blame the wife, but this is all my fault. Besides, I don't want our children to think marriage means wives have to put up with their husband's crap--that's what prostitutes are for! No, wait..."

The government treats its soldiers the way most corporations treat their workforce--as an invisible, disrespected, disposable means to an end that is contrary to workers' interests. Members of the armed forces come mainly and disproportionately from the working class and from small-town and rural America, where opportunities are hard to come by. The "economic draft" operates, in effect, to recruit young people from these communities as they sign up to gain job skills, experience and educational opportunities absent from their civilian lives.

Driven by a painful mix of layoffs and rising food and fuel prices, the number of Americans receiving food stamps is projected to reach 28 million in the coming year, the highest level since the aid program began in the 1960s.

Being accepted. Proving loyalty. Navigating the tight space between racial divides. Americans of mixed race say these are issues they have long confronted,,,

No matter whether debating estate tax elimination or $600 rebates, Democrats and Republicans alike assure us that Washington legislates for the middle class. But today's middle class is much more than an income bracket. Access to health care, secure employment, and college education defines the group, while wage and benefit guarantees and an inclusive immigration policy that prevents wages and working conditions from bottoming out maintain its vitality.

Older Americans are living longer than ever and enjoying better health and financial security, a new report finds. Yet there continue to be lingering disparities between racial and ethnic groups.

Your neighborhood may have a major influence on how much you exercise, according to a study that looked at data on 8,782 people in 373 Chicago neighborhoods. The researchers found that people who live in neighborhoods with higher levels of poverty, lower levels of education, and more families headed by women are less likely than others to exercise. But this doesn't mean that poorer people are least likely to exercise, said the researchers, who found that individual income wasn't as important as neighborhood in determining exercise levels.

It's a revolt that has been overdue for a while and has now found its focus in Clinton's candidacy. In 1952, Ralph Ellison's revelatory novel, "Invisible Man," nailed the experience of being black in America. In the relentless youth culture of the early 21st century, if you are 50 and female, the novel that's being written on your forehead every day is ""Invisible Woman." All over the country there are vigorous, independent, self-liberated boomer women-women who possess all the management skills that come from raising families while holding down demanding jobs, women who have experience, enterprise and, among the empty nesters, a little financial independence, yet still find themselves steadfastly dissed and ignored. Advertisers don't want them. TV networks dump their older anchorwomen off the air. Hollywood studios refuse to write parts for them. Employers make it clear they'd prefer a "fresh (cheaper) face."

Geraldine Ferraro put race back on the front burner in the Democratic primaries this week by claiming that Barack Obama owes his success to his skin color. But while racial politics have bubbled up from time to time during the contentious Democratic primary, the two historic candidates thus far have had very little to say about a substantive topic that impacts both women and blacks: affirmative action.

Drawing Lots for Health Care.

A Vatican official has listed drugs, pollution and genetic manipulations as well as social and economic injustices as new areas of sinful behavior. Monsignor Gianfranco Girotti said in an interview published on Sunday by the Vatican's daily newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, that known sins increasingly manifest themselves as behavior that damages society as a whole.

Life expectancy in the United States is on the increase, but only among people with more than 12 years of education, a new study finds. In fact, those with more than 12 years of education -- more than a high school diploma -- can expect to live to 82; for those with 12 or fewer years of education, life expectancy is 75.

Separating schoolboys from schoolgirls has long been a staple of private and parochial education. But the idea is now gaining traction in American public schools, in response to both the desire of parents to have more choice in their children's public education and the separate education crises girls and boys have been widely reported to experience.

The subprime crisis is just the tip of the iceberg. Fundamental changes in American life may turn today's McMansions into tomorrow's tenements.

Nationwide, the prison population grew by 25,000 last year, bringing it to almost 1.6 million. Another 723,000 people are in local jails. The number of American adults is about 230 million, meaning that one in every 99.1 adults is behind bars.

Incarceration rates are even higher for some groups. One in 36 Hispanic adults is behind bars, based on Justice Department figures for 2006. One in 15 black adults is, too, as is one in nine black men between the ages of 20 and 34.

The aim of outfits such as BlueOrchard to serve those below the poverty line is both a philanthropic and profitable endeavor.

...one new book on the subject, Out of Poverty: What Works When Traditional Approaches Fail by Paul Polak, offers optimism. Optimism not just for those fighting poverty and those fighting to get out of it, but for any company interested in a basically untapped 1 billion-person market. That optimism is based on the author's real-world experience as the founder of International Development Enterprises (IDE), a nonprofit organization that develops and/or markets products such as treadle pumps and drip irrigation systems that have already helped 17 million people lift themselves out of poverty.

Members of poor households in which it is consistently hard to afford enough high-quality food end up eating nutritionally risky diets, Canadian researchers reveal. The new study is the first to show that food insecurity directly translates into poor nutrition. It also suggests that in such homes, adults and teens, rather than very young children, are the most likely to be subsisting on diets low in vitamins, minerals, fruits, vegetables, grains and meat.

Savannah program provides a day of hard insights to policymakers trying to help the poor.

Economic mobility, the chance that children of the poor or middle class will climb up the income ladder, has not changed significantly over the last three decades, a study being released on Wednesday says.

"...neuroscientists have found that "many children growing up in very poor families with low social status experience unhealthy levels of stress hormones, which impair their neural development." The effect is to impair language development and memory - and hence the ability to escape poverty - for the rest of the child's life. So now we have another, even more compelling reason to be ashamed about America's record of failing to fight poverty."

Blacks awaiting a lung transplant during a recent 10-year period were less likely to receive a new lung and more likely to die or be removed from the transplant list than whites, according to researchers.

"The Bush administration announced plans on Wednesday to overhaul the notoriously inefficient federal guest worker program for agriculture, seeking to provide more legal workers to American farmers who now rely primarily on illegal immigrants."

The economy is increasingly disconnected from working Americans.

The best available facts, figures and trends about opportunity in America.

We cannot refuse to recognize hunger in America.

Yonkers considers "living wage."

Families struggling in the Rust Belt.

Housing problems and solutions.

Prices can go higher before more try to save, but pain is spreading.

Restrictions threaten states’ abilities to expand eligibility.

Study finds they lose about 4 points on IQ tests compared to better-off peers.