Absent Minded: “Some students consistently miss a couple of days a week, while others may leave during the day or escape to the nurse or counselor’s office. In some extreme cases, students don’t step foot in a school for months or years at a time.” Students are increasingly refusing to go to school. It’s becoming a mental health crisis.

+ Big Nut: “It’s a fire hose of cash aimed at destroying American liberal culture through lawsuits and support for politicians challenging gay rights, unions, environmental protection, voting rights, and public education. The money will last a good long while. Philanthropic recipients usually follow a 5 percent rule: They try not to spend more than 5 percent of the endowment per year. Seid’s pile is so large that it could return an average $136 million a year, or north of $230 million on a good year, to influence U.S. law and policy. Without ever having to touch the nut.” Who Is Leonard Leo’s Mysterious Dark Money King?

+ Worship Wreck: “Just 16% of Americans surveyed said religion is the most important thing in their lives … down from 20% a decade ago.” The importance of religion in the lives of Americans is shrinking. But the influence of those to whom it’s important feels stronger than ever. See the story above.

+ Ven Diagram: “And so began their six-month journey north, a perilous trek through swamps and raging rivers, covering their children’s eyes from the sight of bodies of other migrants who died along the way. From Caracas to Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, then to El Paso, Texas and ultimately New York City, surviving machete-wielding gangs, threats of extortion and all in the knowledge they may just be turned away at the border.” A photo essay from Bloomberg (Gift Article): ‘We Didn’t Have a Choice’: One Family’s Perilous Escape From Venezuela to NYC.

+ Following the Party Line: “Threats of violence against the LGBTQ community are on the rise and intensifying, according to a new briefing by the Department of Homeland Security.” (Policies and political speech have an impact.)

+ Eyes on the High Rise: “When they installed the new surveillance system, local officials promised it would help tamp down a gang war menacing this forgotten steel town. But residents of Steubenville public housing soon learned the cameras were pointed at them.” WaPo: Eyes on the poor: Cameras, facial recognition watch over public housing.

+ Sting Operation: “Hundreds of bees swarmed the Los Angeles neighborhood of Encino Monday, and authorities said that the chaos that ensued resulted in two people, including one police volunteer, being sent to the hospital.”