When governments fail to address community issues, who steps in?

Jul 6, 2022
In an excerpt from "The Fight to Save the Town," the author describes how residents get by in an Oregon county with a declining government.
A person in Detroit walks past the remains of the Packard Motor Car Co., which ceased production in the late 1950s.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Budget shortfalls mean rethinking mass transit funding and strategies

Jan 4, 2021
One way to keep money and transit service moving is to rely more on local taxes and tolls and less on fares.
Washington, D.C.'s Metro rail ridership is down about 86% from 2019. Above, commuters step in and out of a train at the Metro Center station on Dec. 2 in Washington.
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Parks departments face cuts, even as people have headed outdoors during COVID-19

Oct 26, 2020
Intensive use can take a toll on green spaces, and parks need to be maintained to keep from deteriorating.
A two-person crew sprays down the playground at McIntosh Park in Dayton, Ohio. The city expects to spend $60,000 this year just on sanitizing playground equipment.
Leila Goldstein

Latest GOP health care proposal would cut funds to some states, boost funds for others

Sep 25, 2017
The Graham-Cassidy bill, the latest attempt by Senate Republicans to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, would cause some states to win money and others to lose funds. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, by 2026, the effect of the bill’s repeal of ACA Medicare expansion and insurance subsidies in the individual marketplace would result […]

Black college leaders say Trump administration hasn't made good on its promises to HBCUs

Aug 24, 2017
The White House has yet to name a director or board of advisers to oversee its initiative.
President Donald Trump is applauded before signing an executive order to bolster historically black colleges and universities in the Oval Office on Feb. 28.
JIM WATSON/AFP/Getty Images

A scientist worries about a climate "hostile to science and the truth"

Government funding has been pretty reliable — up until now, the Los Alamos National Laboratory researcher says.
ANGELIKA WARMUTH/AFP/GettyImages

A record number of people want to leave Earth

Jun 7, 2017
Vice President Mike Pence will be at the Johnson Space Center in Houston today to inaugurate the newest class of NASA astronauts. There was a record number of applicants this time around — more than 18,000 people applied to the space program. That’s triple the number of the last class in 2012. But the heightened […]

For public good, not for profit.

DeVos faced tough questions about education budget on the Hill

May 24, 2017
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos was on the Hill today defending the president’s 2018 budget request before a House appropriations subcommittee. The White House has proposed cutting or shrinking more than 30 federal education programs, shaving more than 13 percent off the overall budget. That’s the biggest proposed cut to the department’s discretionary funding since the […]

Rural America weighs the economic realities of proposed federal budget cuts

May 23, 2017
President Trump calls for the USDA to be cut by 21 percent. Rural areas have a lot of federal employment and funding at stake.
Goldendale, Washington, population 3,400, could be impacted by cuts to agriculture, environmental and other federal programs in President Trump's proposed 2018 budget.
Mitchell Hartman/Marketplace

Inside Trump’s budget, a big cut for Obamacare’s healthcare.gov

May 23, 2017
The site where about 10 million people shop for insurance could get harder to navigate.
If the proposed cuts to healthcare.gov go through, it will make it that much harder for the millions who use the site to get coverage, said Jessica Altman, chief of staff at the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.
KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images