Free Republic

Bad news for students who need to borrow federal student loans: your interest rates for the 2014-2015 school year will be higher than they were during the 2013-2014 academic calendar.

Republicans will nominate someone younger than her, and it won't make a difference to young people.Our old colleague Patrick Caldwell has an interesting article up at Mother Jones about the way the Hillary Clinton campaign—or whatever we can call it at this point, since it isn't actually a campaign but it isn't exactly just a bunch of independent people doing their own thing either—is going after college students. I had forgotten how idiotically hostile the Hillary '08 campaign was toward college students in Iowa, but that's just one of innumerable mistakes that one presumes she'll attempt to correct this time...

Building the Machine introduces the public to the Common Core States Standards Initiative (CCSSI) and its effects on our children’s education. The documentary compiles interviews from leading educational experts, including members of the Common Core Validation Committee. Parents, officials, and the American public should be involved in this national decision regardless of their political persuasion. What is the common core? The Common Core is the largest systemic reform of American public education in recent history. What started as a collaboration between the National Governors Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers to reevaluate and nationalize America’s education standards...

Europe’s unemployed youth do not mind a little economic insecurity. What they can’t stand is a chronic atmosphere of political hopelessness. No wonder they are fleeing the continent. Young people appear to be the social group most affected by the lingering economic crisis of the EU. Around a quarter of them is unemployed. As expected, the situation is the most dramatic in the countries on the European periphery: In Spain 57 per cent of the population below 30 is unable to find a job, according to the most recent Eurostat figures. The worrying list also includes Greece with 58 per...

A few weeks ago, I began to show from extensive studies and evidence how alcohol use and marijuana use compare in terms of addiction, withdrawal and using motorized vehicles. This week, I will discuss in greater detail how alcohol and marijuana compare in their effects on our minds, bodies and relationships. And then I want to conclude by addressing the most overlooked aspect of the marijuana legalization debate: its effects on the youth of America. CNN recently reported on multiple studies on alcohol and marijuana use. Of course, we know that long-term drinking can lead to neurological and psychiatric problems,...

It's 8 PM on Wednesday in Bellevile, Ontario, Canada, and independent filmmaker Andrew Gray hasn't eaten dinner...

Lawmakers in Utah and Colorado are promoting legislation to raise the legal age for tobacco use to 21, a higher standard than imposed by any other state, saying they want to discourage young people from picking up a lifelong smoking habit. Supporters say keeping tobacco out of the hands of young adults will save thousands of lives, even as critics complain that Americans who are old enough to vote and serve in the military should not be deemed too young to decide on their own if they should smoke. In a dramatic display of the risks of smoking, lawmakers in...

After doing a fun bit in a Tonight Show sketch, Michelle Obama sat down to talk with Jimmy Fallon about life in the White House, dealing with two young girls while still being the First Lady and all, her Let’s Move! healthy living initiative, and getting young people signed up under the Affordable Care Act. Obama said Malia and Sasha are basically just like every other kid: they want “nothing to do” with their parents. After chatting about that and the Olympics a bit, Fallon brought up the Let’s Move campaign (which Fallon has promoted twice before when the First...

Liberal failures always trace back to having glossed over the biggest problems, the showstoppers that should kill bad ideas before they get out of committee. Instead, an unfounded trust in the power of technology, the future, or in the sense of being on the cutting edge of everything gets these manic ideas passed and signed.During the Bush era, I heard plenty of appeals to a futuristic savior as a means for avoiding war: Dude, itÂ’s 2005. YouÂ’re telling me they canÂ’t come up with a better strategy for Iraq than shooting the bad guys some more? Yes. I was...

An increasingly desperate -and unpopular- Obama regime seems to be running out of the dumb luck that's gotten them way farther than was ever any good for this country... With Obamacare itself unsuccessful by almost any measure -other than subjugation of the populace and big government expansion- the most fatal flaw would seem to be the ACA's widespread lack of appeal to those it needs the most... healthy young people who pay but make few claims. After Pajama Boy failed to make much of an impact, now Dear Leader's asking his snake-fascinated true believers to inflict direct pressure on basically anybody they can trap in a corner,...

The Food and Drug Administration is launching a new campaign against youth tobacco use. "The Real Cost" advertisements graphically depict the health consequences of smoking, such as tooth loss and skin damage. Tobacco use is the leading preventable cause of disease, death, and disability in the U.S. Every day, more than 3,200 Americans under age 18 try their first cigarette, and more than 700 become regular smokers. The FDA is targeting its efforts toward the 10 million Americans ages 12 to 17 who have never smoked a cigarette but are open to it. "We know that early intervention is critical,...

TAMPA -- Some Florida Republicans fear, and some Democrats hope, that a November referendum on legalizing medical marijuana in Florida will drive young and liberal voters to the polls, helping Democratic candidates including gubernatorial challenger Charlie Crist. The initiative, still not certified for the November ballot, is generating charges of political motives from both sides. Some Republicans call it an expensive ploy by Crist's backers to help him win. "It is no coincidence that Charlie Crist's law partner and biggest supporter, John Morgan, is financing medical marijuana," said Gainesville-based GOP consultant Alex Patton. "It's a plan." Some Democrats, meanwhile, say...

Equal protection under the law for pre-born human beings is headed our way - and from the work of a surprising demographic: adults under 30. A 28-year old dynamo working on college campuses across the nation, Kristan Hawkins, president of Students for Life, exemplifies why hers is the "pro-life generation". Kristan feels deeply the loss of nearly one-third of her age group. “The undeniable fact is that nearly a third of my generation was killed by abortion. We are missing brothers, sisters, cousins, friends, husbands and wives…. But [we’re] determined to set it right. We’ve seen the ultrasounds of our...

Under Obama, Youth Misery Index Hits All-Time High A Youth Misery Index that measures young Americans’ woes has skyrocketed under President Barack Obama and hit an all-time high. The index, released Wednesday, was calculated by adding youth unemployment and average college loan debt figures with each person’s share of the national debt. While it has steadily grown over the decades, under Obama the figure has shot up dramatically, from 83.5 in 2009 to 98.6 in 2013. The index has increased by 18.1 percent since Obama took office, the highest increase under any president, making Obama the worst president for youth...

Somewhat lost in news about how bad the economy has been is the plight of America's young people. They are threatened with becoming a "lost generation" whose promise was cut short by policies of the Obama administration. The Young America's Foundation has been publishing its "Youth Misery Index" since 1993. It is calculated by adding youth unemployment and average college loan debt figures with each person's share of the national debt.  Under President Obama, the index has skyrocketed. A Youth Misery Index that measures young Americans' woes has skyrocketed under President Barack Obama and hit an all-time high.The index,...

I saw one at the airport on Monday and then another in the elevator on Wednesday. I see them on the street, at coffee shops around town, often at the grocery. Now Obamacare supporters have adopted one as the face of their new public relations campaign. I'm speaking of adults of both sexes and all ages -- though the style seems to be most popular among those under 30 -- who can't be bothered to change out of their pajamas when they go out in public. The latest entry into the fashion craze is Pajama Boy, the now infamous, plaid-clad...

".....Still, some Chicago communities — such as West Garfield Park on the West Side — continue to suffer from extremely high rates of violence, [Professor Andrew] Papachristos noted. “There is a lot of work to be done,” he said in an interview. “The work to be done is how to deal with the inequality in the crime rates.” The violent crime rate for West Garfield Park in 2011 was more than 3,000 crimes per 100,000 people, more than any community in Chicago other than Fuller Park on the South Side. Papachristos’ research showed West Garfield Park was more murderous in...

Polls indicating that Obamacare may be costing Democrats the youth vote sparked outrage from several sources. Representative Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (Fla), Chair of the Democratic National Committee, characterized concerns over the price as “selfish and misguided.” “Those reacting negatively to insurance plans that double or triple their out-of-pocket costs for medical care are placing their own welfare ahead of society's,” she declared. “Maybe they think they're strong and healthy and don't need medication or therapy, but what about those who do?” The Congresswoman urged young people to “not try to substitute their thinking for that of the government's experts. These experts...

Seduced and then disappointed by a hipster who turned out just to be another solipsistic boomer, now chastened yet still hopeful for change (if no longer swept away by the promise of Hope and Change), young Americans are ready to ditch Barack Obama. Things had been getting rocky for a while, but seeing the dawning of the Age of Obamacare in its full glory seems to have been the final indignity. The young will of course never acknowledge that maybe their old-fogey parents were right all along, but they do understand that what they thought was going to be a...