The importance of Florida and fact-checking

Florida has been a central focus for presidential campaigns ever since it put George W. Bush in the White House with a margin of 537 votes. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and their surrogates have been crisscrossing the state in the last few days.

A widely cited 2010 study found that even when presented with facts, people are still likely to hold onto their erroneous views and sometimes cling to them even more. Now that study has been debunked..

Janet Reno’s tenure as Bill Clinton’s attorney general was marked by increasing acts of right-wing white extremism. The events revealed a deep divide along political lines similar to what we see today.

The new novel The Mothers focuses on a teenager who gets pregnant by the son of her pastor. Her decision to have an abortion then ripples out to affect her African-American church community in Oceanside, California.

Like political opinions, society’s view of profanity is subject to evolution. That’s the subject of a new book called What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains and Ourselves.

Image: Welcome to Florida sign, by Joel Kramer