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Our children's clothes matter. Here's what science and religion teach us
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In the past two weeks, a quintessentially local story became news around the world. The Charles Middle School in El Paso, Texas, banned all-black clothing for the coming school year because such attire “has become more associated with depression and mental health issues and/or criminality than with happy and healthy kids ready to learn.”
The response was fast and furious. Krista Wongate, the chief of child and adolescent services at El Paso’s Emergence Health Network said: “… mental health and depression, they don’t have colors. They don’t have outfits.”
Alex Lucero, a member of the community, objected as well. He said: “The color of clothing has nothing to do with your ability to do anything or feel any emotion.”
In recent years, a new discipline has emerged at universities across the world – fashion psychology. (iStock)
The response worked. The dress code was revoked.
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As is always the case with social, cultural, psychological and political questions, there is one book to consult for guidance – the Torah.
Let’s start with Genesis 28, perhaps the pivotal movement in the early history of the Jewish people. Rebecca has a few hours to prevent her husband, Isaac, from making a huge mistake, and giving the blessing of eternal Jewish leadership to their impulsive, unthoughtful and undisciplined son Esau.
She has an alternative: Esau’s twin, Jacob. If Rebecca can convince Isaac that Jacob is really Esau, her husband will – mistakenly but irrevocably – give the blessing to Jacob. The future of God’s project on earth is in her hands, at that moment.
The problem: Jacob, we are told, “dwelt in tents” – indicating that he spent his time studying, apart from the difficult doings of the world. He has never done anything like the trickery she needs him to perform. How can Rebecca get Jacob to immediately become like Esau. She has the solution. She tells Jacob to put on his brother’s “favorite clothes.”
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Why Esau’s “favorite clothes”? Why, for that matter, Esau’s clothes at all? Isaac is blind, and would have no idea what Jacob was wearing. The clothes were not to deceive Isaac. They were to change Jacob. Rebecca knew that we become what we wear. Sure enough, the young man who “dwelt in tents” pulls the most important ruse of all time.
Moving from the first to the last book of the Torah – Deuteronomy – there is a speech from Moses about what the Jewish people will need to emphasize in order to be a free people in the Promised Land.
Moses, amplifying a law from Leviticus, commands: “You shall not wear wool and linen together.” The ancient rabbis interpreted this commandment so strictly that they ruled that one who finds himself in public wearing wool and linen should take off those clothes rather than continue!
Why is the commandment against mixing wool and linen so important? It relates to the Torah’s idea of separation. We sanctify things by separating them. For instance, we sanctify the Sabbath by separating it from all other days. We sanctify marriage, formally under the chuppah (the marriage canopy), by separating our wife from all other women. The prohibition on mixing wool and linen has us wear the concept of separation, so that it is always a part of who we are.
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Is the guidance throughout the Torah that we become what we wear correct?
For Pittsburgh sports,1979 was a great year. The Steelers had won the Super Bowl and the Pirates had won the World Series. But there was a problem.
The Penguins had started the season by winning less than half of their games. They made one change that was entirely within their control. They changed their uniforms – from white and blue to black and gold. There was a result, but it did not show in the win-loss column. The Penguins, after they changed their uniforms, had a 50% increase in their number of penalties.
The Cornell University professors Thomas Gilovich and Mark Frank set out to determine if this was a fluke. It wasn’t. They examined the penalty data for the NFL and the NHL from 1970 to 1986. Of the 28 teams in the NFL, five wore black uniforms. These teams had the first, third, seventh, eighth, and 12th most penalties. Of the 23 teams in the NHL, five wore black uniforms. These teams had the first, second, third, sixth and 10th most penalties.
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Is there anything unique about sports that might explain how clothing profoundly affects performance? No. The reasons and evidence showing that we become what we wear has been demonstrated in activities from heavy metal drumming to math test-taking – and are discussed in the chapter on clothing in my forthcoming book “God was Right: How Modern Social Science Proves the Torah is True.”
A quintessential example came from Northwestern University in 2012. Professors Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky gave the same kind of white coat to two groups of study participants. They told one group that the coat was a painter’s coat. They told the other group that it was a doctor’s coat.
The result: those who were told it was a doctor’s coat did far better on tasks that required careful attention to detail. Galinsky explained, “Clothes invade the body and brain, putting the wearer into a different psychological state.”
In recent years, a new discipline has emerged at universities across the world – fashion psychology. Degrees in fashion psychology are offered at Purdue, Pepperdine, Arizona State, the London School of Fashion and other universities. One of the leaders in this emerging field is Karen Pine of the University of Hertfordshire.
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Professor Pine’s research has led her to conclude that it is possible to contemplate “a wardrobe of ‘happy clothes,’ as protection against ever feeling miserable again.” She recommends: distinctive jewelry, playful patterns evoking childhood, flowered prints that signify health, and bright colors that connect us with nature.
There is now a term for what Pine described: Dopamine Dressing. Dopamine Dressing is the concept that clothing choices significantly influence the release of dopamine, the “feel good” neurotransmitter associated with feelings of pleasure, motivation, satisfaction and joy.
While Pine’s specific recommendations may be novel and helpful, the general truth she tells should resonate widely given recent lived experience. In March 2020, when COVID-19 struck, millions of people suddenly found themselves working from home. The customary workplace norms and customs quickly became obsolete. How should people working from home adapt? One guiding principle emerged, especially among those mindful of mental health.
On March 17, 2020, the BBC highlighted this as the No. 1 recommendation in their article, “Coronavirus: Five Ways to Work Well From Home”: Get dressed. A variety of studies published after the pandemic confirm that those who dress formally for work are more mentally fit, productive and successful than those who do not – whether the work is at home or in the office.
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So the Torah, validated by modern social science and experience, does for El Paso what it always does: it illuminates the path of truth for any social, cultural, psychological or political question.
The Charles Middle School administrators were absolutely right that a student’s attitude and performance will be profoundly affected by the clothes he or she wears. They were right again in concluding that wearing all black clothing is inadvisable for a cohort of students who might be struggling with mental health issues.
They were wrong only in conceding to clearly erroneous ideas that “mental health and depression… don’t have outfits” and that “the color of clothing has nothing to do with your ability to do anything or feel any emotion.”
Within the next few weeks, our children will be back at school. We parents are preparing them in all kinds of ways – from school supplies to class selection, from organizing transportation to choosing after-school activities, from easing social anxieties to getting doctor’s appointments.
The Torah and social science converge to tell us parents: Remember what just might be the important thing – which is what your children wear. The primary function of clothing, the divine and scientific voices are telling us, has nothing to do with temperature control or aesthetics. It has everything to do with helping us to feel, think and act as we want to.
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How might parents help our children in this back-to-school season? We could follow the wisdom of King Solomon, who told us: “Educate the child according to his way” – with, crucially, the “his” being singular. We parents who want our children to thrive in this school year should consider the specific gifts and challenges of each child – and dress them accordingly.
If we have a daughter who is struggling with depression, we should take the advice of Pine and fill her closet with bright colors and floral prints.
If we have a son who is struggling with confidence issues, we should channel our inner Rebecca and tell him to go to school in his “favorite clothes” – his jerseys of Tom Brady, Kobe Bryant or Aaron Judge.
If we have a child who gets distracted doing his homework, we should tell him to put on a button-down shirt and pressed pants – even, and perhaps especially, if he studies alone in his bedroom.
We can explain to our children, and to ourselves, that there is nothing pediatric about this advice. It is universal. We adults should, as well, think about how we want to feel and who we want to be – and dress accordingly!
MARK GERSON
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Arizona governor vetoes Charlie Kirk memorial license plate, sparking GOP outrage: ‘This bill falls short’
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Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk, a move Republicans are blasting as a stunning act of partisanship after his assassination.
Kirk, who was assassinated while speaking at a Sept. 10 Turning Point USA event at Utah Valley University, lived in Arizona with his wife, Erika, and two children.
The proposed specialty plate, referred to as the “Charlie Kirk memorial” plate or the “Conservative grassroots network special plate,” featured a photo of the late Kirk and the TPUSA logo in front of an American flag background.
Below the license plate number were the words “FOR CHARLIE.”
A custom Arizona license plate, featuring a Turning Point USA and Charlie Kirk design, shared by state Sen. Jake Hoffman. (Senator Jake Hoffman via X)
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Of the $25 fee required for the plate, $17 would be an annual donation deposited into the Conservative Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund, according to the legislation.
While the recipient of the Grassroots Network Special Plate Fund was not explicitly designated as TPUSA in the bill, it noted the director of the fund would allocate revenue annually to a nonprofit organization, founded in 2012, that focuses on restoring traditional values, maintaining a grassroots activist network on high school and college campuses in Arizona, and assisting college students with voter registration and absentee ballots.
People gather at a memorial to mourn Turning Point USA Founder Charlie Kirk outside Turning Point USA headquarters Sept. 12, 2025, in Phoenix. (Charly Triballeau/AFP via Getty Images)
TPUSA, founded by Kirk in 2012, is well known for its grassroots activist networks on high school and college campuses. It is headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona.
The $25 fee and annual $17 donation are consistent with the fees for the other 109 nonprofit license plates offered by the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT).
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The state Senate passed the bill, 16-2, with the House of Representatives voting 31-23 in favor prior to Hobbs’ veto.
Specialty plates in Arizona are authorized by the legislature and sent to the governor to be signed into law. They have been offered since 1989.
In a letter explaining the veto, Hobbs cited concerns with the bill “bring[ing] people together,” claiming it would “insert politics into a function of government that should remain nonpartisan.”
Democratic Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs is facing fierce backlash after vetoing a bill that would have created a specialty license plate honoring slain Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk. (Rebecca Noble/Getty Images)
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“Charlie Kirk’s assassination is tragic and a horrifying act of violence,” Hobbs wrote. “In America, we resolve our political differences at the ballot box. No matter who it targets, political violence puts us all in harm’s way and damages our sacred democratic institutions.
“I will continue working toward solutions that bring people together, but this bill falls short of that standard.”
Specialty license plates with political interests already approved by the state include the “Choose Life” Plate, which benefits the Arizona Life Coalition and its mission to promote anti-abortion advocacy and education; the “In God We Trust” Plate, which benefits conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom; and the Arizona Realtors’ “Homes for All” Plate, which funds affordable housing projects.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, speaks during the Turning Point Action conference in 2023 in West Palm Beach, Fla. (Lynne Sladky/AP Photo)
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Another approved plate, “Alice Cooper’s Solid Rock Plate,” which benefits Solid Rock Teen Centers, features a portrait of the legendary musician, who has made political comments about social issues including gender identity.
Republican state Sen. Jake Hoffman, who sponsored the bill, posted a fiery statement on social media after the governor’s action, claiming her “grotesque partisanship knows no bounds.”
“Even in the wake of a global civil rights leader — an Arizona resident and her own constituent — being assassinated in broad daylight for his defense of the First Amendment, Hobbs couldn’t find the human decency to put her far-Left extremism aside simply to allow those how wish to honor him to do so,” Hoffman wrote. “Katie Hobbs will forever be known as a stain on the pages of Arizona’s story.”
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On Saturday, TPUSA COO Tyler Bowyer shared an X post that said, “Deport Katie Hobbs.”
TPUSA, Bowyer and Hobbs’ office did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
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Air Force veteran warns ‘cartels don’t collapse — they fracture’ after notorious drug lord killed
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Nearly two weeks after Mexican forces killed notorious cartel boss Ruben “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes, questions remain about how the powerful Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) will respond and whether the blow will meaningfully disrupt the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
Carlos De La Cruz, a 20-year U.S. Air Force veteran who deployed after 9/11 and later served along the southern border, told Fox News the cartel leader’s death marked a major victory, but warned Americans should not mistake it for the end of the fight.
“When I say that this is a significant win, I mean it,” De La Cruz said. “El Mencho ran one of the most violent cartels on the planet.”
Oseguera, who rose to prominence in the post–El Chapo era, oversaw CJNG’s aggressive expansion across Mexico and into key trafficking corridors feeding U.S. drug markets. Under his leadership, the cartel became a central architect of fentanyl and methamphetamine trafficking and drew a $15 million U.S. reward for information leading to his capture.
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Smoke rises from burning vehicles after a military operation that a government source said killed Mexican drug lord Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho,” in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, on Feb. 22, 2026. (Screen grab obtained from a social media video. @morelifediares via Instagram/YouTube via Reuters)
But De La Cruz cautioned that removing a cartel kingpin does not dismantle the organization.
“Cartels don’t collapse when you just cut the head off — they fracture,” he said. “And part of that fracture is going to see a lot of short-term violence while all these factions fight over territory.”
Following Oseguera’s killing on Feb. 22, the U.S. State Department issued travel alerts in multiple Mexican states, citing road blockages and criminal activity tied to security operations, underscoring concerns about instability in the aftermath.
Drawing on his military background studying enemy command structures, De La Cruz described the cartel fight as a long-term campaign requiring sustained pressure.
A mughsot of Ruben “Nemesio” Oseguera Cervantes, known as “El Mencho,” beside graffiti depicting the letters of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, covering the facade of an abandoned home in El Limoncito, in the Michoacan state of Mexico. (Eduardo Verdugo/AP Images; Drug Enforcement Administration)
“You don’t win a war with just one airstrike,” he said. “The goal is dismantling the networks and going after their financing.”
De La Cruz, who is running for Congress and is the brother of Texas Republican Rep. Monica De La Cruz, argued that CJNG’s Foreign Terrorist Organization designation gives U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies expanded tools to target cartel infrastructure and financial pipelines.
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A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire in Cointzio, Mexico, Sunday, Feb. 22, 2026, after the cartel leader’s death. (Armando Solis/AP Photo)
But he stressed that the fentanyl crisis should be viewed as a domestic security emergency, not a distant foreign problem.
“For decades, they were using their territories as launching pads to pump chemical weapons into America — because that’s exactly what fentanyl is,” he said.
De La Cruz, who said he worked side by side with Customs agents while deployed to the border, warned that cartel networks are highly adaptive and that any gains could be temporary without sustained follow-through.
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Smoke rises after violence hit Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. (Courtesy of Scott Posilkin)
“These networks, they’re going to adjust. They’re going to adapt and they’re going to adapt quickly,” he said. “We have to continue to go after the money launderers, especially on our side of the border, because that’s the full fight.”
While Oseguera’s death removes one of the most dominant figures in Mexico’s criminal underworld, De La Cruz said the mission is personal.
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“I took an oath to defend this country,” he said. “And I intend to stand by that oath.”
Fox News Digital’s Greg Wehner contributed to this report.
Stepheny Price covers crime, including missing persons, homicides and migrant crime. Send story tips to stepheny.price@fox.com.
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TUCSON, Ariz. — More than five weeks after the suspected abduction of Nancy Guthrie — the 84-year-old mother of “Today” co-host Savannah Guthrie — Arizona authorities say cadaver dogs used earlier in the investigation are not currently being deployed as the search continues.
The elder Guthrie is believed to have been kidnapped from her home in the Catalina Foothills in northern Tucson around 2:30 a.m. on Feb. 1.
While no suspects have been publicly identified, and she has not been found, cadaver dogs had been deployed earlier in the case, according to Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos. They have not been visible in weeks.
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A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office remains outside of Nancy Guthrie’s home, Monday, Feb. 9, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (AP Photo/Ty ONeil; Nathan Congleton/NBC via Getty Images)
“They are available if needed in the future,” he told Fox News Digital.
There are a number of reasons not to be using cadaver dogs at this stage in the investigation, according to Betsy Brantner Smith, a retired police sergeant and spokeswoman for the National Police Association.
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Savannah Guthrie visits the Today show at Rockefeller Plaza in New York on Thursday, March 5, 2026. (Charles Sykes/Invision/AP)
One would be if there’s credible information that Guthrie is still alive.
“Anything is possible,” Nanos told Fox News Digital last week, adding that he would not discuss specific leads or evidence in the case.
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Brantner Smith, who is not involved in the case, said departments may hold back K-9 resources for several reasons. Those could be that authorities don’t have a good idea of where to search, they think she might be concealed in a place where dogs would have a hard time detecting her, or they believe she’s been taken to Mexico, according to Brantner Smith.
Law enforcement agents walk around the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
“I do believe that the sheriff’s department has much more information that they are not releasing to the public,” she told Fox News Digital. “And I’m not sure at this point why that would be, unless they have a solid suspect and don’t want to tip them off.”
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Most departments, including the Pima County Sheriff’s, don’t have their own cadaver dogs and borrow them from state and federal authorities or neighboring jurisdictions.
An investigator looks inside a culvert in the neighborhood where Annie Guthrie, whose mother Nancy Guthrie has been missing for more than a week, lives just outside Tucson, Ariz., on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
In Guthrie’s case, the sheriff’s department sought K-9 assistance from the local Border Patrol office earlier in the investigation.
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PCSD deferred further comment on the K-9s to Customs and Border Protection, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A member of the Pima County Sheriff’s Office walks around Nancy Guthrie’s home on Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2026 in Tucson, Ariz. (Ty ONeil/AP Photo)
The biggest lead so far has been Nest camera video showing a masked intruder on Guthrie’s doorstep the morning of her abduction.
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He is described as about 5 feet, 9 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall and of medium build.
Nancy Guthrie, 84, has been missing from her Arizona home since Jan. 31, 2026. (Don Arnold/WireImage/Getty Images)
He was wearing a black Ozark Trail backpack.
Authorities have said they won’t consider the case cold until they run out of viable leads to follow up on — and tens of thousands have come in so far.
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Savannah Guthrie has asked anyone with information to dial 1-800-CALL-FBI.
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There’s a combined reward of more than $1.2 million for information that leads to her mother’s recovery.
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