As the Trump administration prepares to allow fewer refugees into the United States this year than at any time in the 38-year history of the Refuge Act, Helen Thorpe’s The Newcomers: Finding Refuge, Friendship, and Hope in an American Classroom seeks to shift the nation’s polarized immigration debate

The current generation of American public-school students has grown up in the era of centralized, standardized data. Anyone curious about how local schools were doing could look at pass rates on annual exams in math and reading, the foundation of federally mandated, test-based accountability.

America’s Last Frontier is in trouble. The 40-year oil boom that turned Alaska from a frigid backwater into one of the nation’s richest states is over. Not only have petroleum prices crashed, but Alaska’s supply of crude is running out. Thirty years ago the state was pumping 2 million barrels a day, a quarter of all U.S. output.

Angela Lo grew up in a strict household, under constant pressure to get grades good enough for admission to a top university. But in stark contrast to stereotypes of Asian student success perpetuated in Amy Chua’s new bestseller Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother, Lo put off going to college and instead got a job.

Concealed under a thick blanket of fog, Louisville International Airport emitted an eerie orange glow as Capt. James Haney lined up his heavy cargo jet for landing after a long nighttime flight from Los Angeles.