TIME Magazine

In 1992 the first President Bush's budget was at the printer when congressional Republicans revolted. Bush, they were told, planned to fund expanded health coverage by leaping on one of American politics' "third rails": the fact that the value of employer-provided health benefits is not included in employees' taxable income. Making a portion of these benefits taxable, Bush the Elder reckoned, was a smart way to pay for health care for folks who had none. But G.O.P. leaders were apoplectic.… more

Victoria Walker knows a thing or two about staying flexible. This Nashville grandmother is raising seven grandchildren, ages six to fifteen. Even with osteoporosis and two injured shoulders, Mrs. Walker still manages to turn herself inside out to keep her family together. "I didn't want them to go to strangers and lose each other forever," she says. "They didn't ask for this."

For the last five years, Mrs. Walker has struggled to keep her grandchildren out of foster care, relying on… more

There is no single cause for breast cancer, but one major factor is estrogen. That's a shocking thought. The same hormone that softens our skin, thickens our hair and fills out our hips and breasts also feeds disfiguring tumors. Rates of breast cancer are highest in developed nations, in part, scientists believe, because with better nutrition we reach menses earlier and menopause later, allowing estrogen to course through our bodies for that much longer.

If there is a bright side to… more

At 16, Lloyd Lamb already knows a thing or two about cruelty and loneliness. The Marion, Ind., 10th-grader is bright and outgoing. He plays golf and wrestles. He is also 5 ft. 8 in., weighs 200 lbs. and at times suffers the taunts of classmates. Lamb says he works hard to ignore them, but there are moments, he admits, when he gets "depressed and lonely."

There must be a lot of lonely kids in America these days, judging from the… more