From New America Media and Richmond Pulse: Across the San Francisco Bay Area, young people are using all kinds of drugs – well known, obscure, illegal and prescription. Although the names and effects of the drugs may vary, what’s consistent is that youth are a major segment of the population abusing them, often mixing multiple substances at the same time. And in Oakland, Richmond and other East Bay communities, it’s the prescription drugs that appear to be gaining popularity among youth.

New America Media and Investigative Reporting Workshop: Young and old in mud-caked shoes marched toward the Capitol last Thursday calling for jobs and economic fairness. The marchers have convened in Washington from across the country, camping on Washington’s National Mall by day and sleeping in local churches by night. They are part of an effort backed by Our DC, a grassroots advocacy group focused on good jobs for District residents.

From New America Media: PCIP is a part of President Obama's healthcare plan that guarantees access to insurance for U.S. citizens with preexisting conditions, who have been uninsured for at least six months. Knowing that the major changes under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) wouldn’t kick in until 2014, Democrats made sure to include provisions that would take effect quickly, as a bridge to 2014 – and before the 2012 election.

From New America Media: This week, politics interfered with health care when young women were again denied the ability to obtain over-the-counter emergency contraception (EC) despite recommendations from the nation's leading health experts. 

From New America Media and FirstPost: In the old days it was standard (if a slightly morbid) practice in major newsrooms to prep obituaries of famous persons. Elizabeth Taylor famously outlived her own New York Times obituary writer Mel Gussow by six years. … In the age of social media, obituaries have turned into a string of tweets.

From New America Media: Now that the architect of Arizona’s harsh anti-immigrant bill (SB 1070) has been recalled by voters and no longer represents Mesa, a group of citizens wants to take the immigration issue up a notch. They propose that the city adopt guiding principles that focus on keeping immigrant families together and enforcing the law in a humanitarian way.

From New America Media: The recent pepper spraying of Occupy protesters at the University of California, Davis, went a long way to exposing an ethos of privilege, arrogance and contempt for students that is all too common among the top university administrators and campus police.

From New America Media: A good amount of the media coverage before and during the first round of parliamentary elections -- some Egyptians have referred to it as their country’s “first free election” – has focused on religious tensions, both real and perceived, between the country’s Muslim majority (90 percent) and Coptic Christian minority (10 percent).

From New America Media: “Shut It Down,” “No More Shipping for the 1 Percent” and “Death to Capitalism” proclaimed some of the banners near me as I joined thousands of demonstrators who converged on the Port of Oakland, Calif., on a sunny afternoon. This city is part of a global movement that has changed the terms of the political debate, stealing much of the thunder from the Tea Party movement and shaking governments around the world in a way not seen since the 1960s.

From New America Media and Color Lines: Less than a third of people living with HIV/AIDS in the United States are in successful enough treatment that they will remain healthy and reduce the likelihood of transmitting the virus to their partners, according to the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials believe they must dramatically boost that number in order to control the epidemic, which has ravaged black communities in particular and is still growing among black gay and bisexual men.