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Around a quarter of high school students identify as gay, bisexual or have a more fluid sexuality, official data suggests. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's biannual youth report found that just 75.5 percent of 14 to 18-year-olds said they were heterosexual in 2021 - a new low. The remainder said they were either bisexual (12.1 percent), gay or lesbian (3.2 percent), 'other' (3.9 percent) or said they 'questioned' their sexuality (5.2 percent).

Nearly 400 people, led by local clergy on Saturday, took to the streets of the Loop to offer their response to last weekend’s chaos when hundreds of young people gathered downtown — with some engaging in violent acts and harassment of people on the street. The roving groups tied up police resources and two people were shot amid the mayhem. Fifteen people were arrested. A week later, organizers said their march was aimed at showing the city’s youth that people care about them and that they are ready to offer them opportunities in the hope it will discourage teens from...

There are some students who don’t really speak, who don’t really engage, who don’t show signs of confidence in the classroom. But when that particular child finds a special thing and is energized, and talkative, and proud of what they’ve made or what they’ve learned — a teacher knows he or she has made a real difference in that kid’s life. Anja Cleveland works with fourth and fifth graders to construct wood products at Danielsville Elementary School, and she said she’s seeing that happen on a regular basis, the brightness in the eyes, the silent child speaking, the energy that...

At 17 years old, most people are still struggling to parallel park. Yes, it takes a bit of practice. And once the car is parked, the day is packed with school activities and homework and just hanging out with friends. But at 17, Maggie Taraska had an outrageous goal in mind: Fly solo across the United States. Both of Maggie’s parents are Air Force veterans, so the urge to be airborne is in Maggie’s genes. So she went to flight school, put in the hours with an instructor and started on her solo hours. But on her first solo takeoff,...

New Jersey is cracking down on “mall”-adjusted teens. Garden State Plaza Mall will require patrons under 18 to be accompanied by a chaperone who is 21 or older on weekend nights in response to a spate of TikTok-fueled mayhem. The policy will begin on April 28 and will be in effect after 5 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, according to mall officials who said the aim was to stomp out unruly behavior. “We’ve seen an increase in large crowds of teens, essentially juveniles. … The teens aren’t just enjoying the property in shopping, dining and entertainment,” Wesley Rebisz, senior general...

A third suspect allegedly involved in the shooting deaths of three teenagers in Marion County was arrested, deputies say. According to the Marion County Sheriff’s Office, Tahj Brewton, 16, was arrested on Saturday for his involvement in the murder of three teenagers. Brewton was captured just south of Groveland by United States Marshals, with the assistance of the Lake County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies said Brewton was arrested on outstanding warrants for carjacking with a firearm, aggravated assault, grand theft of a motor vehicle, fleeing or attempting to elude a law enforcement officer, and tampering with an electronic monitoring device.

A new poll shows patriotism in dramatic decline. The WSJ-NORC poll found that only 38 percent say patriotism is very important (down from 70 percent in 1998 and 61 percent in 2019). It also found that 39 percent say religion is very important (down from 62 percent in 1998 and 48 percent in 2019),and 30 percent say having kids is very important (down from 59 percent in 1998 and 43 percent in 2019). The number of Americans saying community involvement is very important has plummeted from 62 percent to 27 percent in just four years. The only thing more Americans...

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Americans have taken on significantly more debt to buy vehicles. This is especially true for Gen Z and Millennials, who the Federal Reserve believes may have borrowed beyond their means.In this infographic, Visual Capitalist's Marcu Lu visualizes data from the Fed’s most recent consumer debt update.Aggressive BorrowingThe first chart in this graphic shows the growth in outstanding car loans between Q2 2020 (start of the pandemic) to Q4 2022 (latest available).We can see that Americans under the age of 40 have grown their vehicle-related debt the most. It’s natural for Gen Z (ages 11-26) to have...

On the morning of July 25, 2020, Matthew Thomas took what he believed was a Percocet, a prescription drug for pain relief. He died moments later, the victim of fentanyl poisoning.U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized approximately 47,000 rainbow-colored fentanyl pills, 186,000 blue fentanyl pills, and 6.5 pounds of meth hidden in a floor compartment of a vehicle at the Nogales port of entry on the southern border with Mexico on Sept. 3, 2022. (U.S. Customs and Border Protection)On Jan. 26, 2019, Austen Babcock took what he believed was cocaine. Unbeknownst to him, it was laced with fentanyl, a potent...

As the US military struggles to fill the ranks with new recruits, a new report from the Department of Defense reveals that the vast majority of Americans aged 17-24 are unfit for military service.Citing a Feb. 16 congressional hearing, a DoD report reveals that 77% of Americans in the above age group could not physically qualify to enter the armed forces - a 6% increase from 2017.A key factor is obesity - which hit nearly 42% in 2020. Meanwhile, a 2022 study cited by the Epoch Times found a link between receiving government food assistance and a greater chance of...

For the last four years at her Christian college, Gracie Turner had been keeping a secret. She had lost her faith. In high school, she watched cancer ravage her great-grandmother. Then she saw her family fall apart. One fight drove her to call the police on a relative. “I just remember thinking, why is this happening? How could this happen? And my first thought, or first person to blame was God,” Turner, a 21-year-old film major, told me. “I would lay in bed sometimes and just pray to God, like, it would be really nice if I didn’t wake up...

The sudden death of a cadet player for Sporting Club de Huelva has shocked the Spanish football community. Estrella Martin, 14, died suddenly in her hometown of Ayamonte, in southern Spain, on Wednesday, according to the club. According to the report from local media, Estrella had a routine Tuesday training session before being found unresponsive in her home by her parents on Wednesday. “The Sporting Club de Huelva deeply regrets to announce the death this morning of our player Estrella Martín Rasco in her native Ayamonte,” the club said in a statement. “Belonging to our lower echelons, the soccer player,...

I first encountered unabashed pride in being American when I came to the United States in 1951. I sailed across the Atlantic alone. Perhaps someone along the way told me tht I was going to the United States; however, as a seven or eight-year-old I knew nothing about the nation that had granted me refuge. Upon disembarking in New York what stood out was not the awe-inspiring and intimidating skyscrapers seemingly reaching to the heavens, or for the first time in my life seeing a city not lying in ruins from the ravages of war, but that there was a...

The rising cases of young and otherwise healthy people dying suddenly has claimed another victim with a promising future. According to End Times Headlines: A 25-year-old doctor of Pharmacy died suddenly in Pittsburgh in December, just before her father was rushed to the ICU, loved ones say in a GoFundMe campaign. Dr. Lindsay Ann Heck, 25, died unexpectedly from an unknown cause on Dec. 20, 2022, as stated in her obituary.

(Tribune News Service) — A massive brawl broke out on a parade ground at Fort Gordon in Augusta one afternoon last fall, when about 70 teenage recruits of the Georgia National Guard’s Youth Challenge Academy slugged it out. Some used homemade weapons, including metal shanks, crudely sharpened toothbrushes and tube socks filled with metal padlocks. Overwhelmed, the academy’s staff — most former military drill instructors — called for help, summoning the military police to break it up and ambulances to treat the injured. Two boys were taken to the hospital, one with a concussion, the other with bruised ribs. Others...

A New York professor says that Generation Z is too brittle and jeopardizes America’s future, especially if a war happens because they will be useless in combat. Backing up that statement is, “Pentagon and Army Major Jon-Marc Thibodeau believe that Generation Z’s skeletons are weaker for various reasons. The dubbed “Nintendo Generation” has listed that a sedentary lifestyle has affected the skeletons of the current-day soldiers, making them easier to break when transitioning from a civilian lifestyle into the military.” Gen Z has been raised to be addicted to pointless social media posts and to be whiny victims who have...

A vaccine adviser to the Food and Drug Administration is questioning whether young, healthy people should get new COVID-19 boosters, arguing those shots should be used for older individuals.“I believe we should stop trying to prevent all symptomatic infections in healthy, young people by boosting them with vaccines containing mRNA from strains that might disappear a few months later,” wrote Dr. Paul A. Offit, an FDA vaccine panel adviser and professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, in New England Journal of Medicine on Jan. 11.In his article, Offit cited two studies suggesting that bivalent boosters, which target...

I just learned about this incident today after police in Toronto released the name of the victim. Ken Lee (pictured above) was killed last month in the early morning of December 18th. Lee had recently become homeless and was living in a shelter but apparently has family in the area. A group of 8 teenage girls allegedly carried out a “swarming” attack on Lee, stabbing him in a fight over a liquor bottle.An alleged “swarming” attack in Toronto started when the eight teen girls charged in the slaying tried to take a liquor bottle from the victim and his friend,...

With rent prices through the roof and the housing market scaring potential buyers away, more young adults in the US are choosing to live at home instead of venturing out on their own. According to data from the US Census Bureau, nearly half of young Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 are not living on their own but with their parents. With rent prices through the roof and the housing market scaring potential buyers away, more young adults in the US are choosing to live at home instead of venturing out on their own. According to data from...

A 10-year-old boy accused of shooting his mom dead because she refused to buy him a $500 VR headset has asked for his bond to be lowered from $50,000 to $100. Prosecutors said Quiana Mann, 44, was shot in the face by her son, who went on to use her credit card to purchase an Oculus VR headset before telling his grandma he was 'sorry' for killing his mother and asking where his package was. The boy's attorney, Angela Cunningham, argued in court on Wednesday that his bail should be lowered to only $100, the amount he has in his...