SCHOOL'S OUT

Budget worries remain as summer settles in

Summer's here!

Not the season — which officially begins June 21 — but the summer recess for about 178,300 public school kids. That's what really counts on the calendar, as every student and parent knows.

This year, however, the weeks of break will be tempered with trepidation over higher school-lunch costs and a modified school calendar come the fall, all thanks to our state budget crisis.

Education officials are wrangling with options. Parents would be well-advised to stay atop the situation by monitoring e-mails and paying extra attention to the news.

TO YOUR HEALTH

Don't gamble when it comes to your health

“;Alternative medicine”; is something of a misnomer these days, given the growing number of adherents for whom natural remedies are the first line of defense in the treatment and prevention of pain and illness. Millions of people take dietary supplements and unconventional therapies on blind faith, according to an analysis by the Associated Press. But such treatments continue to gain steam — despite a lack of scientific proof that they work — partly out of dissatisfaction with conventional medicine. Consumers should apply a dose of healthy skepticism to claims made by companies selling alternative treatments that are unregulated, unproven and, sometimes, unsafe.