Certain demographic transformations now underway are poised to change the nature of human communities and how they function. These trends are vital context for reporting and research of all kinds.
School lunches don’t generally get a lot of love. Students often accuse the food of being bland and the portions skimpy, while nutritionists say the levels of fat are too high and real nutrition scarce. School districts don’t have it any easier, as they’re caught between rising costs, federal standards, and the need to keep students happy — a tricky proposition at best, as all parents know.
A home solar panel system is a consumer product like few others. Because the alternative choice — electricity from the grid — is almost universally available, relatively inexpensive and has no up-front cost, potential buyers of solar systems require other incentives. These can range from government rebates to credit for energy sold back to the grid to the warm feeling one gets for doing a good deed — in this case, for the environment.
The issue: Some of America’s most politically sensitive issues concern our health: abortion, stem cell research, firearm safety and contraception, for example. In many cases, Democrats and Republicans split on these questions down party lines. So do doctors, according to a new study, depending on their political affiliation. These biases may be influencing how doctors treat patients.
Tax increases targeting the top 1 percent did not stop their income growth and may have helped the economy overall, according to a new study.
The Issue: Need directions? Or a restaurant recommendation? These days, you’d probably seek help on your smartphone — a handy know-it-all device that can spit out answers to almost anything anywhere at any time. But a mere ten years ago, you may have asked someone — a neighbor, a stranger — for help. A new paper looks at the unseen social costs of this change in how we obtain information and interact with others.
