The Star's editorial board is taking a look at teen pregnancy in Alabama -- which is on the rise -- and what can be done to replicate the success our state had with this issue a decade ago.
Back in the 1990s, the state and the nation did something right. Maybe it was better sex education and instruction in the ways births can be controlled. Maybe it was more effective abstinence-only education. Maybe it was a combination of these and other ways to get the message to teens. We need to know what it was.
The Star also is examining the social and national implications of the acquittal of defendants charged with beating a black student in Panama City, Fla.
The jury could have found the drill instructors and the nurse guilty of charges ranging from manslaughter to negligence. Instead, the jury chose to acquit all of the defendants.
If all of the South now begins to hear the familiar criticisms of racial injustice, it will be no wonder. We have a lot of familiar elements here.
We'll also have Eugene Robinson's Tuesday column and several letters to the editor.
