Insights

<p>Reporters covering truancy often conclude that poor students and students of color who skip school do so because they don't care about education. But many of the students want to go to school but can't for a variety of reasons.</p>

<p>Why are parents still giving their toddlers OTC cough medicine? Answers and more in our Daily Briefing</p>

<p>Why don't Valentine's Day hearts look like actual human hearts? Answers and more in our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p>So many doctors have been trying to lure people to get Lap-Band surgery, <a href="../../../../../../../../blogs/irresponsible-marketing-lap-bands-may-have-deadly-consequences">with deadly consequences</a>, that the maker of the Lap-Band surgical device, Allergan, has finally been forced to speak up.</p><p>Stuart Pfeifer at the <em>Los Angeles Times </em>recently asked Allergan CEO David E.I. Pyott <a href="http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/03/business/la-fi-lap-band-2011020… the sleazy 1-800-GET-THIN campaign</a>:</p>

<p>The Reynolds Center for Business Journalism offered three seminars on social media this week. I won't do another post on the virtues and anxieties and the basics of using social media. Instead, I’ll focus on using social media to be a better reporter.</p>

<p>Doctors and bloggers slam Huffington Post for wacky health theories, unhealthy journalism in wake of AOL merger, plus more from our Daily Briefing.</p>

<p><img src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2798/4222944792_00c84c960a_m.jpg&quot; alt="Lose Weight Billboard" width="240" height="180" style="float: left; margin-left: 5px; margin-right: 15px;" />The consequences can be severe when clinics lure patients by setting up “1-800” numbers and offering free se

<p>Recently, I participated in a <a href="https://www.newsu.org/social-media-search">Poynter NewsU webinar</a> to learn how to search social media more effectively, hoping to glean some tips for journalists and others covering health issues. Like many of you, I can search Twitter and Facebook, but Time magazine reporter and search whiz Jeremy Caplan offered some tools that go well beyond those platforms.</p>

<p>An undocumented immigrant was expelled from a Texas hospital as she was being prepped for surgery, plus more from our Daily Briefing.</p>