Researchers found a sharp rise in calls to US poison centers about magic mushrooms coincided with their decriminalization in several US cities and states.
A homeless person near an elementary school in Fruitdale Park in Grants Pass, Ore.
AP Photo/Jenny Kane
Legal precedents hold that criminalizing someone for their status, such as being homeless, is cruel and unusual punishment. But what if that status leads to actions like sleeping in public spaces?
Sit back and relax – you’re in the Garden State.
Kena Betancur/VIEWpress via Getty Images
The Garden State is the only one in the country that forbids self-service gas stations − and that’s not likely to change anytime soon.
Exxon Mobil Corp.’s campus in East Baton Rouge Parish, left, received millions in tax abatements to the detriment of local schools, right.
Barry Lewis/Getty Images, Tjean314/Wikimedia
Alarmingly, about half the people exposed to wildfires in Washington and Oregon were those least able to afford to protect their homes, evacuate safely and recover.
Water spills over the Copco 1 Dam on the Klamath River near Hornbrook, Calif.
AP Photo/Gillian Flaccus
The largest dam removal project is moving forward on the Klamath River in California and Oregon. Tribal nations there have fought for decades to protect native fish runs and the ecology of the river.
Washington state was home to some of the nation’s first dispensaries for legalized marijuana.
AP Photo/Ted S. Warren
Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon all experienced big increases in both deposits and lending shortly after legalizing marijuana for recreational use.
Packaging for consumer products represents a large share of U.S. solid waste, and barely half of it is recycled.
iStock via Getty Images
Maine and Oregon have enacted laws that require makers of consumer product packaging to pay for recycling or disposing of it. Will other states follow?
Chlorpyrifos is widely used on crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, corn and soybeans.
AP Photo/John Raoux
Gina Solomon, University of California, San Francisco
What kind of evidence does it require to get a widely used chemical banned? A professor of medicine and former state regulator explains how the case for chlorpyrifos as a threat to public health developed.
The banks of the Hackensack River near an opportunity zone in Jersey City, N.J.
(AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
U.S. opportunity zones can positively impact real estate development and help local communities. But to fully realize the program’s potential, it needs reform.
The Cedar Creek Fire burns in Washington’s Methow Valley in late July 2021.
Jessica Kelley
More than 40 fire scientists and forest ecologists in the US and Canada teamed up to investigate why wildfires are getting more extreme. Climate change is part of the problem, but there’s more.
If you want to stroll the shoreline, know your rights.
Normanack/Flickr
In principle, some portion of the shoreline is public land along virtually all US coasts. But these can sometimes overlap with private property interests, creating confusion and conflict.
An orchard near Kettleman City in California’s San Joaquin Valley on April 2, 2021.
Frederic J. Brown/AFP via Getty Images
Debra Perrone, University of California, Santa Barbara e Scott Jasechko, University of California, Santa Barbara
The US has one of the highest groundwater use rates in the world. When wells run dry, households may opt to conserve water, find new sources or sell and move.
Electric utilities will often cut off power to prevent equipment from starting wildfires during hot, windy weather.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Jeanie Chin, Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
In an era of climate change and extreme weather, a microgrid — a self-sufficient, energy-generating distribution and control system — puts communities on the path to self-reliance.
Debris in Paradise, California, after the Camp Fire, Nov. 17, 2018.
Senior Airman Crystal Housman/U.S. Air National Guard
Relying on incarcerated workers in emergencies such as the wildfires ravaging parts of the US is a cheap alternative for states. But what protections are there for prisoners?
Wildfire smoke creates an orange glow over San Francisco, Sept. 9, 2020.
Burak Arik/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images