Insight on the News

Tobacco advocates and opponents have been around since the plant first was grown commercially in America in the early 1600s. Those who would ban it today run up against freedom-lovers who cry foul. Fussy, cranky King James I of England didn't like...

Much effort has gone toward finding a cure for America's ailing health-care system, but costs continue to skyrocket and many people remain uninsured. Andrew Weil, director of integrative medicine at the University of Arizona and author of the best-sellers...

Growing older isn't a disease, but it brings disease with it. For men, aging raises the specter of prostate cancer. Researchers are learning more about the perplexing illness, but they have yet to find a cure. Prostate cancer is the most common type...

States' attorneys general and the White House are fighting tobacco giants over Americans' health risks from smoking. But the some bunch -- and other crusaders -- stand aside while other government agencies and politicians promote the industry and make...

The so-called "Founding Act on Mutual Relations, Cooperation and Security between NATO and the Russian Federation" was unveiled in mid-May in Moscow with much fanfare and declarations that the way now was clear for including several former Soviet-occupied...

Yes: Scientific research shows overwhelmingly that other people's smoke can hurt you. The toxic effects of secondhand smoke have been so well-documented during the last 25 years that there should be no doubt that smoke emitted from other people's...

Just about everyone who lived through the 1960s has some overreaching generalization to describe that bizarre decade. Like the decade itself (which also overlaps with the 1970s), rhetoric about it is shot with inconsistency, but it's always dramatic...

For more than 30 years, the federal government has been trying to figure out ways to get people to work. It spends billions of taxpayer dollars each year on job-training and placement programs -- with questionable results. For six years, I have...