Not to reopen the circumcision wars of blogging years past, but I thought I’d note this Los Angeles Times feature on the evolving debate over the practice, which reports that just 56 percent of newborns were circumcised in 2005, compared to 85 percent in 1965. Today’s parents are weighing some limited evidence that circumcision could prevent the spread of HIV against an overall preference for less invasive surgeries.

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.