The number of prisons in the US swelled between 1970 and 2000, from 511 to nearly 1,663. Here’s the story of why one town in Arkansas welcomed a correction facility.
On Ash Wednesday 2017 glitter was used to show support for LGBTQ rights.
Parity
There is a long history of the use of glitter to express moral outrage and show resistance. What is the power of glitter?
Coal train in Missouri. Assigning a social cost to carbon emissions puts a price on activities that generate them, such as burning fossil fuels.
Scott Granneman/Flickr
To weigh the economic impact of climate change policies, we need to estimate the social cost of carbon. An economist explains how it’s done and why the Trump administration shouldn’t end the practice.
The current EPA administrator says the agency should prioritize clean air and clean water, rather than deal with greenhouse gases.
billy_wilson/flickr
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has said the agency’s purview should not include climate change, but a look at its history under both Republican and Democratic presidents says otherwise.
A member of the Muslim Brotherhood during Egypt’s Freedom and Justice Party convention.
Lilian Wagdy
The Muslim Brotherhood exists in the form of many local organizations and well as an international organization. Research shows there isn’t a coherent Muslim Brotherhood ideology.
Border Patrol officers detaining immigrants in a field after a few local raids.
U.S. Border Patrol Museum
In 1954, US Border Patrol’s Operation Wetback promised to deport millions of undocumented Mexicans. It fell far short of its target, but made a mark in the minds of immigrants who lived in fear.
Trump’s budget director, left, says White House spending priorities are straight out of the president’s mouth.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Roy T. Meyers, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Trump is proposing a budget with little substance and filled with politically toxic spending cuts, making it very unlikely to go anywhere, even in a Republican Congress.
Illustration titled, “If you want to get rid of mosquitos, drain the swamp that breeds them.” (1909)
Library of Congress
Trump’s orders on deportations and immigration enforcement signal a hard-line approach without consideration for important factors in the lives of migrants.
Men watch the TV news in Baghdad, Iraq, on March 6, 2017.
AP Photo/Hadi Mizban
Comparisons often ignore the troubling history of how Jackson treated Native Americans. An expert on Native American history draws parallels to the new administration.
A day without museums? The NEA has been threatened with cuts and elimination many times in its short history, including in 1990.
Al Behrman/AP Photo
Trump has indicated he wants to eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts in his budget to save money. The impact on many US museums could be devastating.
Prairie potholes in South Dakota are important breeding and feeding areas for many types of birds. Under the Clean Water Rule, farmers cannot fill them in or discharge pollutants into them without a permit.
Laura Hubers, USFWS/Flickr
President Trump signed an executive order to roll back the 2015 Clean Water Rule. Two water experts explain why the rule alarms farmers and ranchers concerned about over-regulation.
Deporting more illegal immigrants means hiring more ICE agents. The costs add up.
Charles Reed/U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via AP
Following through on campaign promises to forcibly evict several million illegal immigrants, Trump has set in motion a plan to deport those with criminal records. But doing so won’t come cheap.
A Mexican who was recently deported from the U.S. in Tijuana, Mexico.
REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
From Chinese laborers to ‘bad hombres,’ the US settler mentality has perpetuated an immigration system that pushes out unwanted groups and bypasses the Constitution.
White House spokesman Sean Spicer and senior advisor Kellyanne Conway chat.
REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
How do we determine what is fact? An archaeologist explains how the answer has changed over time and why it matters so much now.
The bad old days: Public and political support for the EPA was highest when environmental problems like air and water pollution were more obvious than current problems like climate change or endocrine disruptors.
U.S. National Archives