Infant mortality: A solemn reminder (Florida Times-Union) Many of the babies are dying because they are being born to mothers who are in poor physical health to begin with, as well as burdened with the stresses of poverty and racism.

A Texas-Sized Health Care Failure (New York Times) It would be smarter for Congress to revisit the idea of creating a public plan that could provide an attractive choice for consumers and real competition for private insurers, to give them the incentive to offer good coverage at affordable prices.

Florida nearly last for the percentage of children covered by health insurance (Palm Beach Post) Overall, Florida ranked 44th among all 50 states and the District of Columbia for the performance of its health system, based on measurements that included access to care, prevention and treatment of disease, costs, avoidable hospital use and equity.

U.S.: 60% of Kids Exposed to Violence (CBS News) "We simply cannot stand for an epidemic of violence that robs our youth of their childhood and perpetuates a cycle in which today's victims become tomorrow's criminals," Holder said.

Protecting the vulnerable (Tampa Tribune) The purpose of the campaign is to heighten public awareness on how to keep a child safe and to give families information so that they know where to go for help.

Guest commentary: Early Learning Coalition's efforts pay off for community (Naples Daily News) It is not just educators who tout the benefits of quality early care these days; it’s economists. Again, the data is clear. For every dollar a community puts into early learning, somewhere between almost $2 and $17 is returned on the investment.

Million-step marcher visits PC (The News Herald) The campaign “Worst to First” is aimed at increasing awareness about the important of raising successful children. Chiles believes early education and after-school opportunities need to be available to students in addition to access to health care.

Powerful state legislator expresses concern about ongoing abuse (Florida Times-Union) "Our children don't, one, need to come to us and be injured or, worse off, die in our care," said Adams, whose committed oversees $5 billion in justice spending, including $618 million for DJJ.

Area pair among Florida's youngest female inmates (Florida Times-Union) Since 1999, the number of women admitted to prisons every year in Florida has more than doubled and grown twice as fast as the number of men. There were 4,611 women who came into the system in 2008, versus 1,926 in 1999. On June 30, 2008, the female population was 6,888.

'Schools' financial picture gloomy (Florida Today) Revenue estimators are projecting that the state will be in the red through fiscal year 2012-13, at least. Their estimates show a deficit of 11.8 percent in 2010-11, which will increase to 20.2 percent by 2012-13.

Forum aimed at improving kids' lives (Tallahassee Democrat) A crowd of nearly 150 people attended the meeting organized by Children's Campaign Inc., an organization devoted to making children's issues a legislative priority. Topics of interest include health care, protection, early education, after-school programs and juvenile justice.