LONG BEACH — On a recent Thursday afternoon, Rhianna Alvarado struggled to don her protective gloves, which were too big for her petite hands.  With her mom coaching her every move, she edged close to her father and gently removed the plastic tube from his throat that allows him to breathe. She then cautiously inserted a new […]

A new study shows that the more people read any kind of fiction the better their language skills are likely to be. Researchers found that people who enjoyed reading fiction for leisure and who identified as a reader scored higher on language tests, whereas those who read to access specific information scored more poorly on […]

This story also ran on USA Today. It can be republished for free. This spring, high school senior Nathan Kassis will play baseball in the shadow of covid-19 — wearing a neck gaiter under his catcher’s mask, sitting 6 feet from teammates in the dugout and trading elbow bumps for hugs after wins. “We’re looking […]