Lake Charles

Why there's a growing rift in GOP over law and order

Should the government be able to take your money, car, or home without charging you with a crime? For Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a “careful” plan to expand the program amounts to a common-sense approach to support law enforcement and weaken criminal enterprises amid an uptick in violent crime. Democrats and civil libertarians have been up in arms about such seizures for years, saying the war-on-drugs-era tactic creates absurd incentives that have in many cases resulted in “policing for profit,” as the nonprofit Institute for Justice found in a 2015 report.

Poland’s challenge to EU values

Poland’s government, elected in 2015 with 38 percent of the vote, appears to be on a collision course with the European Union. In fact, the EU has few tools to punish Poland. One of the EU’s great triumphs is the spread of the idea that people should be treated equally before the law.

For homeless girls in Queens, Girl Scout Troop 6000 offers an anchor

When New York City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer attended the first meeting of Girl Scout Troop 6000 in his district in western Queens this year, he hadn’t the slightest inkling that the small group of girls gathering here would have such an impact. As the first Girl Scout troop in New York designed specifically for homeless girls, Troop 6000 began in February as a modest effort to help bring a sense of community, if not normalcy, to the 100 families with children who lived in a Queens shelter in his district. Only eight girls attended that first meeting in the old breakfast nook of the converted budget hotel in Long Island City. Yet the idea to bring a Girl Scout troop to a family shelter became a symbol for the city’s larger efforts to rethink its efforts to help the homeless, including those to maintain “community anchors” for families that had lost their homes, such as churches and schools.

She arrived in Senegal 43 years ago – and is still there working on social issues

Two dozen men and women sit in a circle at a training center an hour’s drive from Dakar, the capital of Senegal. Molly Melching, a warm American in her 60s who is Tostan’s founder and chief executive officer, listens attentively as participants share what they’ve learned. With support from the Atlanta-based Carter Center, these individuals are learning about human rights at Tostan.