National/International

It’s hard to imagine an upside to the opioid overdose crisis in the United States. But some families are saying they’ve found one.

Organ banks around the country have noted an increasing number of organs becoming available from donors who have died of overdoses. The New England Organ Bank notes that in 2010 there were eight overdose victims donated organs in the region; in 2015 there were 54. Nationally, 848 organs became available from overdose victims in 2015.

New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand said sexual misconduct remains a destructive force in the armed forces and military communities. With a bipartisan group of senators on Tuesday, she called on the Senate to pass a measure that she says targets the inherent conflicts of interest that exist in the military justice system and the way it prosecutes sexual assault cases.

Before the mortgage crisis, real estate seemed like a sure bet. Pretty much anyone could buy a house: no money down, thousands of square feet, second and third vacation homes were not out of the question. Then the bubble burst.

Homeowners across the U.S. confronted the reality that their houses were worth a fraction of what they had paid for them. Now, a decade later, even though the recession is over, more than 6 million homeowners are still upside down on their mortgages.

Nigerians got a lift this week. The rescue of former Boko Haram teenage schoolgirl captive, Amina Ali Nkeki, has raised hopes and expectations. It's also put pressure on President Muhammadu Buhari to do more to secure the freedom of 218 of her schoolmates who are still missing, as well as possibly thousands more captives.

Adia Victoria Paul spent a good bit of her South Carolina childhood in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, but you won't hear the songwriter wax nostalgic for a pastoral paradise. The South we used to hear about in songs was a land of shade trees, sweet tea and southern belles. Victoria makes it abundantly clear on her debut album, Beyond the Bloodhounds, that that's not the South she knows. Instead, she remembers an unforgiving landscape.