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Middle-Aged Women Drinking to Excess, British Study Finds
Marco Rubio for President in 2012- White House Easter Roll: Eggstra Fun for Potter, Bieber Fans
RNC's Monday, Bloody Monday
A Star-Studded White House Easter Egg Roll for 30,000
Political Extremism: Made in the GOP?- RNC Chairman Steele's Newest Aide Misused Baseball Groups' Money
Why a Hung Parliament in the U.K. Might Not Be So Bad
The Silent Killer Takes Out a Woman Who Would Not Shut Up
Obama: Holiday Weekend Brings 'Heartening News' on Economy
Cherry Blossom Fever: Not a Moment Too Soon
'Will an Insurance Mandate Affect Me?' and More Readers' Questions Answered
Linda Kulman
Linda Kulman, who covers education for PoliticsDaily.com, is a former senior writer for U.S. News and World Report... moreObama Can Pass Health Care, but He Can't Quit Smoking?
By Linda Kulman
My Politics Daily colleague David Corn has written eloquently about Post-Health-Care-Fatigue Syndrome, the exhaustion at the end of nearly a year of (a) shepherding through (b) lobbying against or (c) reporting on what he calls "the epic debate." But at my house, it's not Obama's health care plan that concerns us, it's his health. "Why does President Obama smoke?" my 7-year-old asked me from the back seat of the car after the president's annual physical a few weeks ago, when it was announced that he's still the smoker-in-chief. My son's voice was weighted with worry and confusion. No ...
Reform of 'No Child Left Behind' Calls for More Flexibility, Higher Standards
By Linda Kulman
It's been something of a parlor game among educators and Washington think-tank types to speculate on what the long-overdue reauthorization of the No Child Left Behind Act would -- and should -- eventually look like. (Perhaps knowing that's what passes for cocktail-party chitchat is the reason that President Obama's outline for education reform was released on Saturday night.) On Monday, Obama delivered his much-anticipated wish list for revamping NCLB to Congress, to largely positive reviews. "A Blueprint for Reform," as Obama's outline is called, makes clear that one of the first things to ...
Divorced at Age 10: Nujood Ali's Stolen Childhood
By Linda Kulman
The astonishing story of Nujood Ali, the 10-year-old Yemeni child bride who bucked her culture by demanding a divorce from her abusive husband, left me feeling a combination of anger and admiration. I was angry that any society could place a third-grader in that nightmare, but I was also thrilled that Nujood, a child who still likes to watch "Tom and Jerry" cartoons and play with dolls, had the moxie to extricate herself. ...
High School Students: Present, But Not Accounted For
By Linda Kulman
"I hope school is as close as any of you ever comes to jail." It's not the kind of wish you'd ever hear coming from today's overachieving parents, but that's what a friend's eccentric father used to tell his children 40 years ago. "I hope school is as close to prison as you children ever come." It's not the kind of wish you'd ever hear coming from today's overachieving parents, who tell their kids that school is their job -- one they'd better do well at. The above line is what a friend's eccentric father used to tell his children 40 years ago. And given the mind-numbing rote he saw his ...
Consumer Spending: As American as Apple Pie?
By Linda Kulman
While I understand little of economics, having relied on the kindness of my college friends to get me through Econ 101, my eye nonetheless landed on a news item today that personal spending this past January rose by 0.5 percent -- more than had been anticipated -- while personal income growth had crept up only 0.1 percent. This discrepancy roughly fits a scenario my father used to describe when I was young "as too much month left at the end of the paycheck," a shortfall my mom inevitably addressed by serving up cost-saving tuna-noodle casserole with potato chips crumbled on top. ...
Caveman Cuisine: Is Paleo the Diet of the Future?
By Linda Kulman
It's occurred to me in these first two months of 2010 that, at least where food is concerned, we may be defining the new decade not by moving forward but by moving back -- in some cases, 2.5 million years back. At CrossFit MPH in Washington, which I joined after Thanksgiving, the coaches promote functional movements (squats, sit-ups, pull-ups) and minimal equipment use, along with the Paleo diet, in which adherents eat the same way our hunter-gatherer ancestors did -- that is, after the discovery of fire but before farming. ...
Great Teachers: More Feats Than Team USA
By Linda Kulman
Although the jobs bill wending its way through Congress might help, we should expect to see more teachers lose their jobs this spring as states cut into education funds to balance their budgets, U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently told the National Governors Association. ...
Carnival's 7-Year-Old Queen: You Can't Just Blame It on Rio
By Linda Kulman
Several years ago, before I got pregnant with our first child, my husband and I puzzled at length (probably ad nauseam, looking back on it now) about what parents can do to give daughters the same sense of entitlement that sons seem to come by so naturally. I'm here to say that among the many possibilities we considered, not one included allowing our future 7-year-old to be queen of the annual Rio Carnival parade, a role typically reserved for scantily clad -- often famously erotic -- women before thousands of onlookers. ...
Michelle Obama Fights Child Obesity, But What About Hunger?
By Linda Kulman
My PD colleague Lynn Sweet writes in her Daily Flotus blog about First Lady Michelle Obama's carefully calibrated roll-out of her first substantive policy issue: childhood obesity. She planted a vegetable garden on the South Lawn last spring, and given her interest in what comes out of the White House kitchen, promoting better eating and exercise habits for our nation's children seems not just to grow out of a real passion but to be worthy of White House attention. (Click play below for a video about the White House Garden) ...
New Year's Resolutions: Not Quite in the (Recycled) Bag
By Linda Kulman
Hey, how are you doing with your new year's resolutions? Better than I am, I hope. Sure, I'm exercising more and eating about as well as I can (which is to say I haven't consumed the cookie dough hanging out in the fridge from a tea party with my daughter wholesale -- just in little, mouse-size, sneaky helpings). Then there's the whole category of trying to do a better job of organizing and simplifying my family's life, that perennial quest that had me sunk before I really opened up my eyes on new year's day. ...
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