You can have your cake and eat it too in California, but if you do so at a school bake sale, you might be breaking the law. Cookies and cupcakes are crumbling under tough new dietary standards that outlaw their presence in public schools. Have bake sales become nutritionally irresponsible?... Read full article

Every state in America has a so-called “safe haven” law, under which a troubled parent can safely surrender a newborn baby, usually at a hospital or fire station, no questions asked. But Nebraska’s safe haven law is different. Intended to protect only infants, it was written with the word “child” left undefined and without an age limit, opening a gaping legal loophole for an unprecedented human bailout.... Read full article

After years of quietly gathering speed, there’s a growing movement to elevate public service to national service and in the process, set up incentives and opportunities that make it easier for each person to help another in need. The goal is to make volunteering as fundamental as voting.... Read full article

We are a nation that pulls itself up by the bootstraps. But are we also a nation that needs to pull up its pants? A 17-year-old Florida boy was recently jailed overnight for violating a local “sagging pants” law after a police officer spotted him riding his bike with his pants slung low enough to reveal four or five inches of boxer shorts. Should government be responsible for telling citizens what to wear?... Read full article

In the small farm town of Harrold, Texas, it’s not teacher’s pet that has everyone talking. It’s teacher’s pistol. The local school board recently decreed that teachers could carry concealed weapons at school and in the classrooms. Should armed teachers be responsible for providing school security?... Read full article

Do you have the right to bare your laundry on an outdoor clothesline on your private property? Perhaps not, if your home is governed by a local homeowners association, many of which ban clotheslines for aesthetic reasons. Where some see an eyesore flapping in the breeze, others see an answer to an environmental question blowing in the wind.... Read full article

Silence may be golden, but its recent pursuit in a New York City gym has set off a loud debate about entitlement and personal responsibility. It started in a spin class, when a 49-year-old Wall Street investment partner named Stuart Sugarman began yelling and grunting comments like “You go, girl!” and “Good burn!” as he cycled.... Read full article

If you had critical information that could free an innocent man from prison, would you reveal it to a judge, even if doing so was illegal? A North Carolina lawyer named Staples Hughes wrestled with that question for 22 years, while a man he believes is innocent of a double murder continued to serve two life sentences in prison.... Read full article

A stranger steals your personal property. Instead of reporting the theft to authorities, you confront the suspect yourself. Your possessions are returned. You bypass the inconvenience of a police investigation and court appearances, and the offender goes without punishment.... Read full article

If your doctor was a convicted killer, would you trust him with your life?

Karl Svensson’s future as a doctor seemed certain when he was accepted to medical school at Sweden’s prestigious Karolinska Institute. Famed for choosing the annual winners of the Nobel Prize in medicine, Karolinska hand-picked its medical students, selecting an elite group best suited for grappling with the ethics of life-or-death decisions and leading lives devoted to saving others. But four months into Svensson’s studies, the 31 year-old’s future became unhinged by his past: would-be doctor Karl Svensson had killed a man.... Read full article