As pharmacies take on a larger role in delivering care, they are challenging a long-standing assumption about medicine: that healthcare has to happen in a traditional healthcare setting. For most of modern medicine, receiving healthcare has meant going somewhere specifically designed for it. We visit our primary care physician (PCP) for an annual checkup, a hospital when something is seriously wrong, or a specialty clinic for everything in between. Yet one of the most signif

Color-Coded Recycling Bins in Hamburg America was among the first leaders in curbside recycling. However, it now falls short in global recycling efforts. The current system is outdated. The most recent major recycling reform was when Congress enacted the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act in 1976 to address growing municipal waste. Since then, land waste laws have only become more flexible. In 2018, only 32.1% of municipal waste in the US was recycled or composted. By con

As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly involved in decisions about employment, housing, healthcare, and online content, it risks reproducing inequalities already embedded in society. Artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly shapes decisions about who gets hired, who qualifies for housing, and who has access to medical care. AI can appear more objective than human decision-making because it relies on data. However, the outcome of using this data is not necessarily ob

A radon test kit, the kind Ithaca could require before any lease is signed. The first time I toured a house in Collegetown, the landlord ran through the checklist every Cornell student learns by the second week of the search: water pressure, window locks, smoke detectors, and whether the basement smells like mildew. Nobody said the word radon. I did not think to ask, and no law in New York required anyone in that hallway to bring it up. However, just because you will not fi

Children and families with Minneapolis Families for Public Schools calling for ICE out of schools and Minnesota in January 2026. School should be a sanctuary for growth; but today, the looming fear of immigration enforcement seeps into these spaces, threatening countless students’ ability to learn. The Protected Areas Policy, enacted during the Biden Administration, once barred Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) from conducting

A child placing money in a jar On July fourth, 2025, President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Act and, with it, created a new generation of investors: baby bankers. “Trump Accounts” are the first federal child savings accounts in the US—a policy President Trump argues will help American children build long-term wealth through early investment. Under this policy, the federal government will seed eligible children’s accounts with $1,000, which is invested in broad US stock

An aerial view of the San Antonio downtown area, with the current Spurs sports area pictured in the bottom left. On May 30, 2026, the San Antonio Spurs won the NBA Western Conference Finals, advancing to the national championship after a twelve-year drought. Suddenly, San Antonio was thrust into the spotlight: Oxford Economics named it a “city to watch,” the City Council approved a historic expansion of the Spurs’ arena, and Oklahomans shouted, “¡Puro San Antonio!” San Anto

Comprehensive Map of the United States Every ten years, the US census counts the country’s population for congressional apportionment, as required by Article I and the Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution. What happens when the government starts changing who counts? The Trump administration recently announced a new proposal, calling for the exclusion of noncitizens without lawful permanent resident status from the count used to apportion House seats. The argument here re

Abelardo de la Espriella, May 25, 2026. Due to the high profitability of global commodity markets, Amazonian basin governments have historically pursued extractive projects in agriculture, mining, and oil drilling that required clearing forests. Although a regional wave of climate-focused administrations has sought to counter these pressures by implementing stronger environmental regulations, their efforts and protections have proven to be precarious. Colombia’s outgoing Gus

A public school teacher gives students a lesson—an example of the instruction that Nebraska parents say compels students to accept government viewpoints. A group of parents is suing state and local officials in a Nebraska court, arguing that the state’s compulsory education law effectively forces them to accept government messaging by enrolling their children in public schools or pay steep private school tuition to escape it. This financial pressure to opt in to public educa

For decades, genomic research has disproportionately represented those of European ancestry. The All of Us Research Program aims to build a more representative biomedical dataset, reflecting a growing acknowledgment that precision medicine cannot fully serve all patients if the genomic evidence does not represent them. When a 57-year-old African American woman with cancer received an uncertain result after genetic testing for Lynch syndrome, an inherited condition that incre

A well-lit street does more than improve visibility; it shapes who feels safe moving through a neighborhood and who bears the health costs when infrastructure falls short. A streetlight is a piece of city infrastructure that becomes visible only when it fails. A dark block changes an ordinary walk home: Will a driver see me at the crosswalk? Can I see what is happening farther down the sidewalk? Do I feel safe continuing on foot, or should I change my route or call a ride? Ci

A smartphone displaying ChatGPT rests on a textbook, raising questions about AI’s place in the classroom and its impact on student learning. New York City responded to AI in a way that few governments have before: it led with a pause instead of a rollout. On September 2, 2026, the City enacted the broadest student-facing AI ban in the country. Starting this school year, nearly 600,000 students from 2-K through 8th grade will go a full year without generative AI, as the city d