Municipal

Scholars have hypothesized that state capitals such as Trenton, N.J., Albany, N.Y., or Springfield, Ill., may be more susceptible to political corruption because they are geographically remote from their state’s major metropolitan centers — and therefore remain out of the full glare of the public spotlight. But prior research has not definitively established a precise connection or pinpointed the mechanisms that might explain such a pattern.

Once upon a time, the American family of the popular imagination lived in the suburbs, had 2.5 children, and spent its weekends washing the car in the driveway. The United States has become increasingly diverse and significantly more urban over time, however, and such images no longer hold true for much of the country — even to the exclusion of that most American of icons, the family car.

A 2016 study explores the issue of the unclaimed dead – who they are, how they died and how long they waited in a coroner’s office before burial or cremation.