Nadia Prupis – Initiatives to help addicts highlight links between legally prescribed pain medication and opioid addiction

Faced with a growing nationwide opioid addiction, health and consumer advocates say it’s time to identify and sever ties with the culprits behind the scourge—pain medication manufacturers and the companies who promote their products. In Massachusetts, which recently saw a spike in deaths related to heroin overdoses, police and community organizations in Gloucester implemented a new program this year—known as …

Nadia Prupis – Incredible News for Bees’: Court Rejects EPA Pesticide Approval Neonicotinoid known as sulfoxaflor may not be used in the U.S. until EPA obtains necessary scientific research

A federal appeals court on Thursday overturned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) approval of a controversial pesticide, saying the agency violated federal law by giving a green light without obtaining or reviewing reliable studies on the neonicotinoid’s impact on honeybees. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeal’s ruling (pdf) in the case, which was brought by environmental law firm Earthjustice, …

Nadia Prupis – Latest SAT Scores Raise New Alarms Over ‘Test-and-Punish’ Education

New statistics show that average SAT scores countrywide have dropped to their lowest level since the college admissions exam was redesigned in 2005, continuing a 10-year trend that education advocates say illustrates the failures of test-driven schooling. According to the College Board, which reported the statistics on Thursday, the average SAT score for the class of 2015 was 1490 out …

Nadia Prupis – New Study Reveals Yet More Risks to Bees from Controversial Pesticides

Pesticides that have been banned in Europe over bee safety concerns may pose an even greater risk to pollinators than previously thought, a new report by the European Union’s food safety watchdog reveals. Neonicotinoids, or neonics, pose high risks to bees when sprayed on plant leaves, according to data by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in its report, published Wednesday—which bolsters previous …

Nadia Prupis – Mass Shootings Dubbed the ‘Dark Side of American Exceptionalism’

Mass shootings are a perennial crisis in the U.S., unmatched in numbers anywhere else in the world—and it’s a problem that may grow worse over time without addressing underlying issues, according to a new study unveiled on Sunday. In “Mass Shooters, Firearms, and Social Strains: A Global Analysis of an Exceptionally American Problem,” presented at the annual meeting of the …