Driving through south-west Alabama on Route 84, a near 2,000-mile east-to-west highway, the emptiness is striking. Dense pine forest is broken by occasional wooden shotgun shacks and tiny churches set behind white picket fences. Even the roadkill is fascinating — armadillo, raccoon
A $45,000-a-year school in Los Angeles is locked in a struggle with parents as administrators push for a more progressive curriculum that excludes classic modern American literature like To Kill a Mockingbird and the Lord of the Flies. Parents, faculty, staff and