Tamar Abrams

According to the Poynter Institute, there has been a 20-year steady decline in newspaper circulation. Daily circulation, which stood at 62.3 million in 1990, fell to 43.4 million in 2010, a decline of 30 percent. This is hardly news. Between a weakening economy and the rise in online...

Fans of Fox's show Bones have actress/singer Diana Ross to thank for one of the lead characters. Tamara Taylor, who has played the pivotal role of Dr. Camille Saroyan for six seasons, was inspired to become an actress by Diana Ross. "I saw Mahogany and Lady...

I found myself in a scene from Dante's Inferno this morning. The acrid smell of smoke filled the air as high pitched squealing sounds assaulted my ears. Bodies pressed against one another, surging to enter into a space already packed with bodies. The air was damp with humidity and perspiration...

So thanks to Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell, women seeking abortions in our state have the "right to know" what a fetus looks like. In particular, their own fetuses. And by "right to know," he means that beginning on July 1, they will be forced to undergo an ultrasound...

Romany Malco claims that he is often recognized by fans, but usually as the "funny black guy" from such crowd-pleasers as The 40 Year Old Virgin, Baby Mama, Weeds and No Ordinary Family. That may change next month when his film Think Like a Man is released. Based...

Do you remember being forced to read the Aristophanes play Lysistrata in your high school Great Books class? I do. I wasn't thrilled by yet another Greek drama but ended up captivated by the story of women who swore an oath to withhold sexual activity from men in...

What do you call a state (excuse me -- Commonwealth) whose legislature in one month advances laws allowing unlimited purchases of handguns, declares the rights of personhood from the moment a sperm and egg unite and forces all women seeking abortions to first have an

It would be way too easy to use the word "lucky" in describing how British actor Tom Payne was cast in the new HBO hit series Luck. And yet that's how he talks about it: "It was the easiest casting process ever." Payne plays Cajun jockey...

It's not easy being progressive in Virginia. It seems like every time I turn around our Republican governor or his like-minded legislators are attempting to pass legislation that denies another group of people some of their civil rights. A woman's right to choose abortion has been narrowing over the past...

Ken Davitian believes that things work out the way they are supposed to. That's why, when his rubbish business collapsed, it made possible one of this century's most unforgettable movie scenes: a rotund and naked Davitian wrestling with Sacha Baron Cohen in Borat. First, let's dispel...

There is a saying in Zambia that goes something like this: "When you run alone, you can run fast. When you run with others, you can run far." General Mills -- the company that satisfies your cravings for Cheerios and Yoplait and Häagen-Dazs -- knows a thing or two about...

When I was a child, my parents played a cloying song with the lyrics, "Where are you goin' my little one, little one? Where are you goin' my baby, my own? Turn around and you're two, Turn around and you're four, Turn around and you're a young girl going out...

I'm writing from Nigeria -- not with an email that uses the word "barrister" and attempts to scam you out of thousands of your hard-earned dollars -- but rather as a visitor to this country that regularly turns up as a punch line on late night TV. It is not...

Actor Ricky Schroder has found his way into film history: Just last week researchers at the University of California Berkeley named his 1979 film The Champ the saddest film of all time. In the climactic scene, an eight-year-old Ricky watches his father, played by Jon Voight, die and...

There are some one million donor-conceived children in the U.S. today; my daughter is one of them. And starting July 22, one state started to improve their access to critical information about their donors.

Nineteen years ago, in my mid-30s, I decided to use an anonymous sperm...

Some see the show as exploitation of little girls, while others see it as an exposé of moms seeking validation through the beauty of their children. I, on the other hand, see Toddlers & Tiaras for what it is surely meant to be: Life Lessons. Seven in fact....

A new mobile app -- AOK -- lets users record and tag Acts and Observations of Kindness (AOKs) performed and observed in everyday life, instantly share with friends and follow other AOKers, while earning points and rewards for their actions. In keeping with the nature of the...

Politics is probably the last thing on the minds of those of us watching the news over the past week with mind-numbing images of a leveled Joplin, Missouri. From seriously ill patients being evacuated from a ruined hospital onto flat-bed trucks to the scenes of community members digging through rubble...

In the late 1970s you could just show up in Washington, DC and declare, "Here I am." No calling ahead. No need for connections or even internships. There was room for everyone. So, one year out of college, I loaded up the back of my Ford Pinto with my meager...

A foster child's life is rarely easy. There is a lack of permanence, an uneasy sense that his or her circumstance could change at a moment's notice, an implicit understanding that the child is dependent upon the kindness of strangers. I know this because I was a foster parent in...