For the second year in a row, life expectancy in the U.S. has dropped, and the CDC is attributing the cause to opioid abuse. Rare Media is about to launch an extensive series about the opioid crisis' smallest victims – babies born to dependent mothers who are themselves, addicted. Gayle Putrich, Rare's Heartland Editor, tells how communities in Ohio and West Virginia are trying to help.
Ohio and West Virginia are at the center of the nation's opioid epidemic. Putrich tells us about Huntington West Virginia, where one in five babies born at Cabel hospital there has been exposed to drugs in the womb.
This condition is called Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome. With so few resources dedicated to helping these children and families, clinics such as Brigid's Path in Ohio and Lily's Place in West Virginia are helping through grants and donations.
Oliver James is a 34-year-old man who has struggled with reading his whole life. He has taken to “book-tok” to document his goal of reading 100 books this year.
Cheddar recs, "Poker Face," "National Geographic Investigates: LSD and Psychedelics," "The Legend of Vox Machina," "The Hatchet Wielding Hitchhiker,""M3GAN," and "Last Night in Soho."
A Newport News, Virginia teacher is set to file a lawsuit against the local school district after she was shot and critically wounded by a six-year-old student.
Pope Francis criticized laws that criminalized homosexuality as "unjust" and said it's not a crime but considered it "a sin," according to the Associated Press.
