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American giving lost some ground in 2018 amid tax changes and stock market losses

  • Written by Una Osili, Professor, Economics and Philanthropic Studies; Associate Dean for Research and International Programs, Lilly Family School of Philanthropy, IUPUI

The sweeping tax reforms that took effect in 2018 meant fewer Americans could itemize their taxes and benefit from the charitable deduction.

Has that brought about any dramatic changes in charitable giving?

We are the lead researcher and an author of Giving USA 2019: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2018, which the Giving USA...

Read more: American giving lost some ground in 2018 amid tax changes and stock market losses

Sleep training for your kids: Why and how it works

  • Written by Ryan Anderson, Researcher, Child Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
Getting a baby to fall asleep can be exhausting.Marcos Mesa Sam Wordley/Shutterstock.com

For thousands of years, mothers have sung lullabies to help their babies and children fall asleep. In more recent times, gadgets and devices have been invented and marketed to help the tired child – and weary parent.

One of these devices has been linked in...

Read more: Sleep training for your kids: Why and how it works

Detaining refugee children at military bases may sound un-American, but it's been done before

  • Written by Jana Lipman, Associate Professor of History, Tulane University
Children line up to enter a tent at the Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children in Homestead, Fla., Feb. 19, 2019.AP Photo/Wilfredo Lee

Fort Sill, an army base in Oklahoma, will soon become a refugee camp. The Department of Health and Human Services expects the repurposed military facility to house up to 1,400 unaccompanied migrant...

Read more: Detaining refugee children at military bases may sound un-American, but it's been done before

The Supreme Court's Virginia uranium ruling hints at the limits of federal power

  • Written by Cale Jaffe, Assistant Professor of Law and Director, Environmental and Regulatory Law Clinic, University of Virginia
Many Virginians back the decades-old moratorium.AP Photo/Steve Helber

Virginia has the authority to ban uranium mining under state law, even as the federal government regulates the processing of nuclear fuel under the Atomic Energy Act, the Supreme Court has ruled.

Neil Gorsuch, joined by the court’s longest-serving and newest conservatives...

Read more: The Supreme Court's Virginia uranium ruling hints at the limits of federal power

Mass protests protect Hong Kong's legal autonomy from China – for now

  • Written by Kelly Chernin, Research Assistant Professor, Appalachian State University

Protesters in Hong Kong have achieved a major victory in their fight to protect their legal system from Chinese interference.

On June 15, in response to massive popular resistance, Chief Executive Carrie Lam announced she would suspend a vote on a proposed new law that would allow China to extradite suspects accused of certain crimes and prosecute...

Read more: Mass protests protect Hong Kong's legal autonomy from China – for now

Thousands of asylum seekers left waiting at the US-Mexico border

  • Written by Savitri Arvey, Graduate Student Researcher at the Center for US-Mexican Studies, University of California San Diego
The U.S.-Mexico border, between San Diego and Calexico, California.Savitri Arvey, CC BY-SA

Over the past three months, the number of Central Americans arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border has jumped exponentially, and total border crossings have reached levels last seen in 2006.

Yet, while the number of families arriving between official border...

Read more: Thousands of asylum seekers left waiting at the US-Mexico border

What does the dust in your home mean for your health?

  • Written by Gabriel Filippelli, Professor of Earth Sciences and Director of the Center for Urban Health, IUPUI
Some ingredients in those tiny particles can have big impacts.Yaroslau Mikheyeu/Shutterstock.com

You vacuum it, sweep it and wipe it off your furniture. But do you know what it actually is – and how it may affect your health?

Don’t feel bad if you’re clueless about your dust. Scientists are not that far ahead of you in terms of...

Read more: What does the dust in your home mean for your health?

Most US drug arrests involve a gram or less

  • Written by Joseph E. Kennedy, Professor of Law, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Less than one percent of state and local drug arrests involve amounts over a kilogram.content_creator/Shutterstock.com

In the long-running television drama “Breaking Bad,” viewers watched the moral devolution of Walter White, a cancer-stricken high school chemistry teacher who tried to provide for the financial future of his family by...

Read more: Most US drug arrests involve a gram or less

No African American has won statewide office in Mississippi in 129 years – here's why

  • Written by John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, Lagrange College
People waited outside the Supreme Court in 2013 to listen to the Shelby County, Ala. v. Holder voting rights case.AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Mississippi is home to the highest percentage of African Americans of any state in the country.

And yet, Mississippi hasn’t elected an African American candidate to statewide office since 1890.

That’s 129...

Read more: No African American has won statewide office in Mississippi in 129 years – here's why

The Trebek effect: The benefits of well wishes

  • Written by Richard Gunderman, Chancellor's Professor of Medicine, Liberal Arts, and Philanthropy, Indiana University
Alex Trebek pictured in Pasadena, California on May 5, 2019.Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP

Long-time “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek announced in March that he had been diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer. Within days, he offered thanks to “the hundreds of thousands of people who have sent emails, texts, tweets, and cards wishing...

Read more: The Trebek effect: The benefits of well wishes

More Articles ...

  1. Fathers need to care for themselves as well as their kids – but often don't
  2. Divorced dads often dissed by schools
  3. When America had an open prison – the story of Kenyon Scudder and his 'prison without walls'
  4. Americans don't agree on whether the poor should chip in or do work in exchange for aid
  5. How an aid gusher helped and hurt Liberia
  6. Elder abuse increasing, without increased awareness
  7. Maryland has created a truth commission on lynchings – can it deliver?
  8. Seaweed and sea slugs rely on toxic bacteria to defend against predators
  9. Who’s your daddy? Don’t ask a DNA test
  10. European elections suggest US shouldn't be complacent in 2020
  11. Consumer genetic testing customers stretch their DNA data further with third-party interpretation websites
  12. What does the Trump administration want from Iran?
  13. For some, self-tracking means more than self-help
  14. How to handle raccoons, snakes and other critters in your yard (hint: not with a thermos)
  15. 'I still get tweets to go back in the kitchen' – the enduring power of sexism in sports media
  16. Rapid DNA analysis helps diagnose mystery diseases
  17. Fed’s dilemma: Inflation is healthy for the economy – but too much can trigger a recession
  18. Inflation is healthy for the economy – but too much can trigger a recession
  19. Food label nutrition facts matter to you, but don't tell you much about your gut microbes
  20. What the ban on gene-edited babies means for family planning
  21. What Orwell's '1984' tells us about today's world, 70 years after it was published
  22. Companies' self-regulation doesn't have to be bad for the public
  23. Could a weakening US economy imperil Trump's trade war against China?
  24. A growing source of Canadian asylum-seekers: US citizens whose parents were born elsewhere
  25. The Defense Department is worried about climate change – and also a huge carbon emitter
  26. The 25th Amendment wouldn’t work to dump Trump
  27. Artificial intelligence-enhanced journalism offers a glimpse of the future of the knowledge economy
  28. E-cig companies use cartoon characters as logos, and new study shows it works
  29. 23% of young black women now identify as bisexual
  30. Minorities face more obstacles to a lifesaving organ transplant
  31. Why Sudan's deadly crackdown on protesters could escalate in coming weeks
  32. Migrants will pay the price of Mexico's tariff deal with Trump
  33. Investigating the investigative reporters: Bad news from Down Under
  34. The struggle to find silence in the ancient monastic world – and now
  35. What advice articles miss about 'summer loss'
  36. The most unpopular presidential election winner ever could win again in 2020
  37. Driverless cars are going to disrupt the airline industry
  38. Trophies made from human skulls hint at regional conflicts around the time of Maya civilization's mysterious collapse
  39. A concise history of the US abortion debate
  40. May jobs report suggests a slowing economy – and possibly an imminent interest rate cut
  41. Climate change alters what's possible in restoring Florida's Everglades
  42. Forget lower jobs growth, the number of people who've stopped looking for work is much more worrisome
  43. Are brain games mostly BS?
  44. School vouchers expand despite evidence of negative effects
  45. How the 'good guy with a gun' became a deadly American fantasy
  46. Convicts are returning to farming – anti-immigrant policies are the reason
  47. Privacy concerns don't stop people from putting their DNA on the internet to help solve crimes
  48. Does hitting the snooze button really help you feel better?
  49. What would happen to Congress if Washington, DC became the 51st state?
  50. What the US could learn about vaccination from Nigeria