Article by Micah Bertoli

Looks can be deceiving.

There is something innately satisfying about confirming suspicions. We see something, we draw conclusions, and then hopefully confirm them. That beautifully crafted dish is just as delicious as it looks. That frosted glass of beer is as refreshing as we had imagined. That latest reality TV show is just as terrible and contrived as the dozen that came before it.

But when our preconceived notions are contradicted, we’re forced to rethink what we thought was a given. It can be uncomfortable to go through this process—to admit we were wrong and then restructure how we view a situation. This growth, however, is necessary. It grounds opinions in reality. It helps us to move forward.

Perceptions about homelessness are no exception.

Jeff Bleich, American diplomat, put it this way: “We tend to assume that homeless people are alike in some way, and that they must suffer from mental illness or drug addiction or some other common challenge. But the only thing that’s similar about homeless people is that they lack housing. Like all people, homeless people are much more than just one thing, with their own lives and circumstances.”

Trevor Nace- Senior Contributor
Nov 23, 2019,1:11 pm

As Australia experiences record-breaking drought and bushfires, koala populations have dwindled along with their habitat, leaving them “functionally extinct.”

The chairman of the Australian Koala Foundation, Deborah Tabart, estimates that over 1,000 koalas have been killed from the fires and that 80 percent of their habitat has been destroyed.

Recent bushfires, along with prolonged drought and deforestation has led to koalas becoming “functionally extinct” according to experts.

Functional extinction is when a population becomes so limited that they no longer play a significant role in their ecosystem and the population becomes no longer viable. While some individuals could produce, the limited number of koalas makes the long-term viability of the species unlikely and highly susceptible to disease.

BY DAVID BRENNAN ON 11/22/19 AT 4:29 AM EST

President Donald Trump's criticisms of NATO have been one of the most concerning elements of his presidency to date for career diplomats and Pentagon officials.

A new book written by an anonymous White House insider published this week has shed further light on the president's aversion to the Cold War-era alliance, alleging Trump claimed the U.S. is "getting raped" by its allies and pushed to ditch the accord.

A Warning, by Anonymous, was published earlier this week. It is written by the same unnamed White House official who authored an op-ed for The New York Times last year, claiming to be part of "the resistance" against Trump within his own administration, working to frustrate much of the president's policy agenda.

A portion of the book is dedicated to Trump's belligerent stance on NATO. Since coming into office, the president has repeatedly maligned the alliance and its members, accusing members of not spending enough on joint defense and suggesting the transatlantic bloc is no longer fit for purpose.

Kayla Robbins

Common life events that can cause homelessness
You’ve heard it before: the root cause of homelessness is the lack of affordable housing.

That’s still true. However, anyone can become homeless. Setting aside the structural factors and systemic failures, here are the most common individual causes of homelessness.

Because this is a more personal look at the subject, I’ve included examples of someone who became homeless in these various ways.

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This morning a Florida dog put a car in reverse and drove it in a circle for an hour. That dog would make a better president than Donald Trump.

By Alex Horton
November 14, 2019 at 4:25 PM EST

Five years after his combat service in Afghanistan, Jilmar Ramos-Gomez sat in an immigrant detention center in Michigan, contemplating how a U.S. citizen and war veteran could get sucked into a Kafkaesque deportation void.

It started with an off-duty police captain watching the evening news featuring Ramos-Gomez’s arrest, speculating if the veteran, Michigan born and bred, was in the country illegally.

Those suspicions triggered a decision by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain him for three days, despite immediate evidence that proved Ramos-Gomez was a citizen, including police reviewing his passport the day of his arrest.