Born to Be Good: The Science Behind Children’s Inner Moral Codes

By Arsh Sarao 

Five-year-olds know right from wrong.

In a 2025 study, researchers showed young children videos of either a robot or a peer grabbing something that wasn’t theirs or refusing to share. Then they asked a simple question: Was the behavior right or wrong?

The children’s verdict was clear. Stealing and refusing to share were always wrong, period. It didn’t matter whether the bad actor was a playmate or a machine programmed to misbehave.

The children even attributed guilt to the robot, as if it should have known better. “Morality is present even in the youngest children—and it is powerful,” Antonella Marchetti, a professor of developmental and educational psychology known for her work in children’s moral development, said in a press release.

The study naturally invites a question: If five-year-olds condemn wrongdoing, do these judgments begin even earlier—before language?

Chugwater Ranch Rehabs Million-Dollar Racehorses Once Thought Doomed

CHUGWATER — The horses are all warm and chocolate, white and creamy, brown and caramel, their tails calmly swishing as their wide and curious eyes watch farrier Meghan McGann working on the hooves of a fellow horse. 

“This foot isn’t going to look pretty and be comfortable to her,” McGann tells Cowboy State Daily, pointing at a deep notch in the hoof. 

The cuticle was damaged in an injury and, just like fingernails, likely won’t ever grow back correctly. It's dangerous because the notch could catch on something and tear up the horse's entire hoof, so it has to be trimmed. 

McGann's goal, as with all the horses, is minimal intervention. 

Governor Hochul Signs Bill Legalizing Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Steven Ertelt |   Feb 6, 2026   |   7:38PM   |  Albany, New York

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul [pictured right] signed a dangerous bill legalizing assisted suicide, a move pro-life advocates blasted as putting vulnerable residents at extreme risk of coercion, abandonment and premature death while undermining the sanctity of life.

The amended Medical Aid in Dying Act, signed Friday, theoretically only allows mentally competent, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live to request life-ending medication from physicians.

Religiously oriented home hospice providers can supposedly opt out while ensuring patients can kill themselves elsewhere, and violations are defined as professional misconduct under state education law.

The law takes effect in six months to allow for regulations and training.

At the American Constitutional Rights Union (ACRU), we don't do comfortable. We do Constitutional. And sometimes the Constitution isn’t easy.

Lori Roman (pictured here).*

I've spent my career fighting for the Constitution, the whole thing, not just the parts that are politically convenient on any given Tuesday.

So, when FBI Director Kash Patel went on Fox News last week and declared, “You cannot bring a firearm loaded with multiple magazines to any sort of protest that you want,” I was concerned. Let's clarify, Director Patel. 

Carrying a gun at a peaceful protest is constitutionally protected. But carrying while committing a crime, such as interfering with law enforcement operations, brings additional criminal charges. Criminal behavior while carrying accelerates the risk to everyone.

The Second Amendment doesn't evaporate because someone is also exercising their First Amendment rights. That's not how the Bill of Rights works. They're not multiple choice. 

13-Year-Old Swims 4 Kilometres to Save Stranded Family

2/4/2026:  

A 13-year-old boy has been hailed a hero by netizens all over the world after he swam around four kilometres (approximately 2.5 miles) to get help for his stranded mother and siblings.

Austin Appleby was on holiday in Quindalup, Western Australia, and enjoying a day in the water with his mother Joanne, 47, and siblings Beau, 12, and Grace, 8.

The family got into trouble when their inflatable kayak and paddleboats were swept out to sea off the West Australian coast around noon.

Montana’s junior senator has thrown his support behind the Trump administration’s push to end birthright citizenship.

Montana Public Radio | By Shaylee Ragar, published 02/05/26, at 5:29 pm, shaylee.ragar@mso.umt.edu.

President Donald Trump’s executive order redefining citizenship was challenged and is now before the U.S. Supreme Court. U.S. Sen. Tim Sheehy [pictured here] signed on to a brief supporting the administration’s policy.

Trump’s order relies on a narrow application of the U.S. Constitution’s citizenship clause. It would end automatic citizenship for children of parents who are unlawfully or temporarily in the country. The administration argues such parents are not subject to U.S. jurisdiction.