Social Issues

President Bush has pledged to rebuild the area of the Gulf Coast devastated by Hurricane Katrina. But many say meaningful long-term recovery will only happen if the country addresses the region's poverty in the process.
People who lost their homes in Hurricane Katrina are now scattered across the country, many of them in evacuee camps. Since the start of the disaster, there's been some discussion about whether to describe those people as refugees. Local actor and singer T. Mychael Rambo argues the term "refugee" has negative connotations and racial overtones. Several listeners called MPR with their comments about the subject.
Marin Alsop made history this summer when she became the first female music director of a major American orchestra. Her appointment reflects the changes in gender balance which have occurred in classical music over the past few decades, including in Minnesota.
Minnesotans adopt more children from overseas per capita than any other state in the nation. The question is, why? Some adoption scholars say Minnesotans should examine the trend.
While Hurricane Katrina had no deliberate target as it ravaged the Gulf Coast, in the aftermath it's clear that the victims are mostly black and mostly poor. So many photographs from the devastation of New Orleans show the same faces: Desperate. Grief-stricken. Black.
Two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright and one-time St. Paulite August Wilson has revealed that he is dying of liver cancer and may only have months to live. Wilson left Minnesota in 1990 after living here for 12 years, but he made a short homecoming in 1991 to address the University of Minnesota Alumni Association.
Food shelf organizers have some suggestions for how to make your food donations do the most good.
Alcoholism has long been defined as a disease, but until now the treatment has not moved beyond the therapy and abstinence programs similar to the 12-step program. New evidence is pointing toward treatment with medication that would reduce the cravings.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author and National Public Radio senior correspondent Juan Williams says that great leadership doesn't always eminate from the pinnacles of government and industry. Williams says great leaders sometimes come from the grassroots. Williams spoke about leadership and the Civil Rights Movement at the Aspen Ideas Festival in July.