Latest Stories

Latest Stories

Negro Leagues barnstorming brought baseball to new places

It's just one of the lasting economic legacies of the professional baseball played in the Negro Leagues in the 20th century.
Teams that played in the Negro Leagues often had no choice but to hit the road and play games all over. They relied on this practice, known as barnstorming, to keep the money coming in. Pictured above: The Newark Eagles in a dugout in 1936.
Courtesy Magnolia Pictures

SCOTUS weighs policy on policing homeless people amid a national housing shortage

Apr 22, 2024
The justices will debate if enforcing a public camping ban in Grants Pass, Oregon, violated the Eighth Amendment.
Communities are grappling with how to address record-high homelessness across the country.
John Moore via Getty Images

Cash for your backyard? Companies, homeowners try to capitalize on a California law.

Apr 22, 2024
Housing shortage-plagued California recently started allowing property owners to split their lots and have developers build new homes there.
Courtesy Peter Taormina

Electrical grid transformers could be more efficient with different steel. Here's the challenge.

Apr 22, 2024
Last year, the Department of Energy proposed using amorphous steel. But some electricity providers, power companies and steel plants objected.
Workers from United Auto Workers Local 3303 and community members gather in Butler, Pennsylvania, to hear how the proposed Department of Energy rule could impact their plant. The DOE ultimately walked back the efficiency mandates.
Julie Grant/The Allegheny Front

Biden administration will award $7 billion in solar energy grants for homes

Apr 22, 2024
The funds will help 900,000 low-income and disadvantaged households benefit from solar energy, including by cutting their electric bills.
President Biden announced the Solar for All program Monday in Virginia during an event commemorating Earth Day.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

This illustrator plans to go back to teaching, but that doesn't mean she's given up on her business

Apr 22, 2024
Julia McGuigan, a freelance illustrator in Omaha, Nebraska, has decided to seek a salary to supplement her unpredictable business income.
Julia McGuigan is an illustrator, small-business owner and soon-to-be art teacher based in Omaha, Nebraska.
Courtesy Faith Gedwillo

For public good, not for profit.

Salvadoran janitors fight for better wages, supporting families here and abroad

Apr 22, 2024
Immigrants from El Salvador clustered in major cities often work demanding, low-paying jobs that are hard to fill — like janitors.
Nuria Gomez de Gonzalez from El Salvador marches in downtown Houston for better wages and hours for local janitors like her.
Elizabeth Trovall/Marketplace

Why it's gotten more expensive to house people experiencing homelessness

Apr 22, 2024
Higher interest rates and insurance costs make building low-income and supportive housing more costly —  especially in California, home to 28% of the U.S. homeless population.
The costs of constructing housing for the unhoused are being hammered by higher interest rates.
Mario Tama/Getty Images