To almost no one’s surprise, Puerto Rico missed a US$422 million debt payment earlier this month, triggering fears among investors that additional defaults are on the way and increasing pressure on Congress to act.

The warnings that this would happen could hardly have been louder. The major credit rating agencies long ago cut Puerto...

Recently, United States Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work publicly confirmed that the Pentagon’s Cyber Command was “dropping cyberbombs,” taking its ongoing battle against the Islamic State group into the online world. Other American...

NASA’s chief scientist recently announced that “…we’re going to have strong indications of life beyond Earth within a decade, and I think we’re going to have definitive evidence within 20 to 30 years.” Such a discovery...

What if every time the bathroom fan buzzed, you became unhinged? Or you lived in a place where it felt impossible to avoid curious neighbors whenever you went outside? Or where the location of kitchen appliances made it feel like a combat zone every time you tried to...

Tuesday was not a good day for Hillary Clinton’s campaign.

She lost the West Virginia primary to Bernie Sanders by about 15 points, a stinging setback for the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Worse yet, Quinnipiac University released a series of polls from three key swing states with bad news for Clinton. The poll results showed Donald Trump...

The opioid abuse epidemic is a full-fledged item in the 2016 campaign, and with it questions about how to combat the problem and treat people who are addicted.

At a debate in December Bernie Sanders described addiction as a “disease, not a...

This week our collaborators at the PBS debate show Point Taken focus on the idea of reparations for slavery and Jim Crow.

Writing for The Conversation, Carlton Mark Waterhouse of Indiana University argues that reparations for slavery should take the form of monuments, museums, memorials, and educational programs. He’d limit...

The tragic consequences of bullying have become a regular part of the news cycle. In April, an eighth grade girl in Missouri and a sixth grade boy in Pennsylvania committed suicide. Bullying was an important factor, according to their families.

Wh...

Coal’s share of the U.S. energy market is rapidly plunging. Low-cost fracking-generated natural gas has overtaken the use of coal at America’s power plants. Impending implementation of the Obama administration’s proposed Clean Power Plan,...

Economic inequality is high and rising. At the same time, many governments are struggling to balance budgets while maintaining spending for popular programs.

That’s prompted some presidential candidates to argue it’s time to raise taxes on the rich. Bernie Sanders is leading the charge and would create a new top income tax rate of 54.2...