For many Americans, lead poisoning feels like a solved problem. It belongs to the past, alongside leaded gasoline and peeling paint in abandoned buildings. The […]
When Politics Enters the Science: The Fight Over What Judges Should Know
The courts routinely deal with questions that judges cannot answer through legal precedent alone. What caused an environmental disaster? How reliable is a particular scientific test? What does the available research tell us about a disputed health risk? When those questions arise, judges often turn to scientific experts and reference materials to help them understand complicated evidence. That process is now at the center of an unusual controversy involving the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the Federal Judicial Center, and a chapter about climate science that was written to help judges evaluate scientific evidence. The chapter was included…
Why States Are Worried About SNAP
For decades, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, has operated as a partnership between the federal government and the states. The federal government has traditionally paid for food benefits while states have shared responsibility for administering the program. Although disagreements over funding and eligibility have been common, the basic financial structure remained largely unchanged. That is beginning to change. New federal rules tied to state payment error rates are creating a financial challenge that many states have never faced before. States with higher administrative error rates could soon be required to contribute a portion of the cost…
Can We Trust Food Safety?
Americans rarely think about the complex system that keeps the food supply safe. They purchase a bag of lettuce, a container of fruit, or a packaged meal and generally assume that government regulators, food producers, and distributors have already done the work necessary to protect them. That trust is essential. The United States has one of the largest and most sophisticated food safety systems in the world, involving federal agencies, state health departments, laboratories, farmers, processors, and retailers. Yet when something goes wrong, that trust can quickly become fralettucegile. The recent Cyclospora outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce has raised…
Why States Are Worried About SNAP
For decades, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP, has operated as a partnership between the federal government and the states. The federal…
The Battle Over the 25-Foot Rule
A person standing on a sidewalk with a smartphone can now document events that previously might have gone unnoticed. A traffic stop, a protest, an…
The Growing Alarm Over Facial Recognition and ICE Detentions
For years, debates about facial recognition technology largely centered on local police departments, airport security, and private sector data collection. More recently, however, a different…
The Evolution of Artificial Intelligence
Artificial intelligence has moved from a largely academic concept to a central force shaping modern technology. Today, AI systems influence how people search for information,…
When Politics Enters the Science: The Fight Over What Judges Should Know
The courts routinely deal with questions that judges cannot answer through legal precedent alone. What caused an environmental disaster? How reliable is a particular scientific…
Can We Trust Food Safety?
Americans rarely think about the complex system that keeps the food supply safe. They purchase a bag of lettuce, a container of fruit, or a…
Why Financial Literacy Matters More Than Ever
For generations, financial literacy has been viewed as a personal skill that helps people budget wisely, save for retirement, and avoid unnecessary debt. Today, it…
How Speculators Move Gas Prices
For most Americans, the price of gasoline feels deeply personal. It determines commuting costs, shipping prices, airline tickets, and, indirectly, the cost of groceries and…
Can We Trust Food Safety?
Americans rarely think about the complex system that keeps the food supply safe. They purchase a bag of lettuce, a container of fruit, or a…
How Worried Should We Be About Hantavirus?
News about outbreaks of rare viruses tends to trigger a familiar cycle of anxiety. Headlines spread quickly, social media speculation accelerates, and comparisons to COVID-19…
The Economics Behind “Free” Apps
Open your phone, and almost everything feels free. Messaging, maps, social media, photo storage, news, fitness tracking, and even sophisticated creative tools often cost nothing […]
Voter ID Is a Solution Without a Problem
Claims of widespread voter fraud have become a familiar feature of American politics. They surface before elections, spike after close results, and are often used […]
Why Medicine Is Losing Its Workforce
For years, headlines have warned about clinician shortages as if the problem were purely demographic. Too many older doctors are retiring. Too few nurses are […]
The Fantasy of the Free Market
Few ideas in modern economics are as powerful, or as misleading, as the notion of the “free market.” In popular imagination, an unregulated market is […]
The Difference Between Scientific Evidence and Scientific Headlines
If you follow science through news coverage alone, it can feel like reality changes every week. Coffee is bad, then good. Eggs are dangerous, then […]
The Internet Isn’t Decentralized Anymore
The Internet was built to route around failure. That origin story is not just nostalgia. It describes a set of architectural instincts that shaped how […]
The Myths of U.S. Immigration and What the Evidence Actually Shows
Immigration debates in the United States rarely fail for lack of passion. They fail because a handful of persistent myths flatten a complex reality into […]
Debt Isn’t a Moral Failure; It’s an Economic Strategy
Debt is often treated as a character test. If you have too much of it, the story goes, you must have lived beyond your means, […]
Why “The Science Is Settled” Is Almost Always Misleading
“The science is settled” is one of the most common phrases in modern public debate and one of the most misunderstood. People use it to […]