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Mass layoffs at Education Department signal Trump’s plan to gut the agency

  • Written by Joshua Cowen, Professor of Education Policy, Michigan State University
imageThe Department of Education is seen on Feb. 4, 2025, in Washington, D.C. Alex Wong/Getty Images

The Trump administration on Tuesday slashed staff at the Department of Education – firing roughly 1,300 employees – as part of its long-planned effort to eliminate the agency entirely. The move leaves the department with 2,183 employees, down...

Read more: Mass layoffs at Education Department signal Trump’s plan to gut the agency

Is the US heading for a government shutdown? 5 essential reads to occupy the mind while we wait to find out

  • Written by Matt Williams, Senior International Editor
imageHello, shutdown, my old friend ...Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images

Brinkmanship, a political scramble to keep the lights on in Washington and finger-pointing over who is to the blame – we’ve been here before, right?

The threat of government shutdowns seems to be a regular feature of modern American politics.

And while this is...

Read more: Is the US heading for a government shutdown? 5 essential reads to occupy the mind while we wait to...

How do researchers determine how toxic a chemical is? A toxicologist explains alternatives to animal testing

  • Written by Brad Reisfeld, Professor of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, and Public Health, Colorado State University

A vast number of chemicals are registered for production and use around the world. But only a portion have been thoroughly evaluated for their toxicity due to time, cost, ethical concerns and regulatory limitations.

To safeguard public health, researchers at organizations such as the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Food and Drug...

Read more: How do researchers determine how toxic a chemical is? A toxicologist explains alternatives to...

The fediverse promises social media without Big Tech – if it can avoid familiar pitfalls

  • Written by Aram Sinnreich, Professor of Communication Studies, American University School of Communication
imageIn the fediverse, you can have your own social media platform but also connect to many others.Aram Sinnreich, CC BY-ND

You’ve probably noticed lately that a lot of people are trying out alternatives to the big social media networks X, Instagram and Facebook. For example, after Elon Musk bought Twitter in 2022 and started allowing far more...

Read more: The fediverse promises social media without Big Tech – if it can avoid familiar pitfalls

For superfans, comic-con culture is more than fun – it’s sacred, a sociologist explains

  • Written by Michael Elliott, Professor of Sociology, Towson University
imageAn attendee dressed as Dvalin from the video game 'Genshin Impact' poses during New York Comic Con in October 2024. Charles Sykes/Invision/AP

Picture a packed stadium of fans in extreme weather, all clad in their favorite jerseys, cheering and cursing at their favorite American football team or European soccer club. Or a crush of screaming fans,...

Read more: For superfans, comic-con culture is more than fun – it’s sacred, a sociologist explains

Alien and Sedition Acts were reviled in their time, and John Adams was not sorry to see them go

  • Written by Marianne Holdzkom, Associate Professor of History, Kennesaw State University

When John Adams became the second president of the United States in 1797, he inherited from George Washington a new experiment in government and a bit of a mess. The country’s two political parties – the Federalists and the Democratic-Republicans – were increasingly hostile to one another, and the young nation was sinking deeper...

Read more: Alien and Sedition Acts were reviled in their time, and John Adams was not sorry to see them go

Pennsylvania’s mushroom industry faces urgent labor shortage − and latest immigration policies will likely make it worse

  • Written by Hazel Velasco Palacios, Ph.D. Candidate in Rural Sociology & Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Penn State
imagePennsylvania's mushroom farmers have been struggling for decades to recruit and retain workers.John Greim/LightRocket via Getty Images

“I had never worked with mushrooms before,” Luis said, reflecting on his time in Chester County’s mushroom industry. “But my family has always worked in agriculture, so I like it. I’m...

Read more: Pennsylvania’s mushroom industry faces urgent labor shortage − and latest immigration policies...

US workers with remote-friendly jobs are still working from home nearly half the time, 5 years after the pandemic began

  • Written by Radostina Purvanova, Professor of Management and Organizational Leadership, Drake University
imageWhere did everybody go?AP Photo/Ted ShaffreyimageCC BY-ND

Five years after the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted office life, American workplaces are settling into a new rhythm. Employees in remote-friendly jobs now spend an average of 2.3 days each week working from home, a research team that tracks remote employment has found. And when you look at all...

Read more: US workers with remote-friendly jobs are still working from home nearly half the time, 5 years...

How Jesse Jackson embodied Southern politics − and changed American elections

  • Written by Gibbs Knotts, Professor of Political Science, Coastal Carolina University

Holding hands with other prominent Black leaders, the Rev. Jesse Jackson crossed the Edmund Pettus bridge in Selma, Alabama, on March 9, 2025, to commemorate the 60th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday.” Like several survivors of that violent day in 1965, when police brutally attacked civil rights protesters, Jackson crossed the bridge in a...

Read more: How Jesse Jackson embodied Southern politics − and changed American elections

The parallels between Kash Patel and William J. Burns, a scandal-mongering 1920s FBI director — an FBI historian explains

  • Written by Douglas M. Charles, Professor of History, Penn State
imageFBI Director Kash Patel speaks at his confirmation hearing on Jan. 20, 2025, in Washington. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

After winning the 2024 election, President Donald Trump said on Nov. 30 that his new FBI director would be Kash Patel, a controversial lawyer and former Trump aide known for backing right-wing conspiracies.

Patel officially...

Read more: The parallels between Kash Patel and William J. Burns, a scandal-mongering 1920s FBI director — an...

More Articles ...

  1. Middle age is a time when women are vulnerable to eating disorders
  2. Arrest of ex-president Duterte will shake up dynastic politics in the Philippines – and hand initiative to rival Marcos family
  3. US-Ukraine deal highlights Ukraine’s wealth of critical minerals, but extracting them isn’t so simple
  4. The world regulated sulfur in ship fuels − and the lightning stopped
  5. 5 years of COVID-19 underscore value of coordinated efforts to manage disease – while CDC, NIH and WHO face threats to their ability to respond to a crisis
  6. What is a SLAPP suit? Legal experts explain how these lawsuits suppress free speech
  7. How Trump’s foreign aid and diplomatic cuts will make it harder for the US to wield soft power to maintain its friendships and win new ones
  8. Mission possible − parastronaut programs can make space travel more inclusive and attainable for all
  9. From TB to HIV/AIDS to cancer, disease tracking has always had a political dimension, but it’s the foundation of public health
  10. End-of-life planning can be hampered by misconceptions − but the process is easier than you might think
  11. Trump’s DOGE campaign accelerates 50-year trend of government privatization
  12. What happens when leaders have loyalists in charge of men with guns: Lessons for the US from Nicaragua, Syria and other authoritarian countries
  13. The sun is setting on government transparency in Florida – and secrecy creep is affecting the rest of the US, too
  14. How the color of St. Patrick’s Day went from blue to green
  15. George Washington, a real estate investor and successful entrepreneur, knew the difference between running a business and running the government
  16. Taking a leap of faith into imaginary numbers opens new doors in the real world through complex analysis
  17. DEI initiatives removed from federal agencies that fund science, but scientific research continues
  18. The dark parallels between 1920s America and today’s political climate
  19. The fear of deportation hangs over unauthorized workers trying to fight exploitation, but all workers in the US have rights
  20. The FACE Act was enacted to protect reproductive health clinics − here’s why its history matters today
  21. Ann Arbor’s sustainable energy utility aims to build the electric power grid of the future − alongside the old one
  22. 5 ways schools have shifted in 5 years since COVID-19
  23. Is ranch dressing a liquid or a solid? A physicist explains
  24. America is becoming a nation of homebodies
  25. 5 reasons veterans are especially hard-hit by federal cuts
  26. Daylight saving time and early school start times cost billions in lost productivity and health care expenses
  27. How Trump’s $2B court battle over foreign aid could reshape executive authority
  28. Pause in aid has introduced uncertainty into Ukraine’s military planning − forever changing its war calculus
  29. NIH funding cuts will hit red states, rural areas and underserved communities the hardest
  30. ‘Pac-Man with a ponytail’ proteins regulate everything from night vision to heartbeats – studying what GRKs look like could improve an array of drugs
  31. What Amazon MGM’s creative control over the James Bond film franchise means for the future of 007
  32. Exhausted by the news? Here are 6 strategies to stay informed without getting overwhelmed − or misled by misinformation
  33. The US has pardoned insurrectionists twice before – and both times, years of violent racism followed
  34. Beyond AI regulation: How government and industry can team up to make the technology safer without hindering innovation
  35. Knocking down abandoned buildings has a lot of benefits for Detroit − but it’s costly for cities
  36. Why getting the numbers right isn’t enough for pollsters to be credible in today’s polarized climate
  37. Butterflies declined by 22% in just 2 decades across the US – there are ways you can help save them
  38. How 18F transformed government technology − and why its elimination matters
  39. Anger is a flow of emotion like water through a hose − at work, it helps to know when to turn it up or down and how to direct it
  40. DOGE threat: How government data would give an AI company extraordinary power
  41. As tuberculosis cases rise in the US and worldwide, health officials puzzle over the resurgence of a disease once in decline
  42. What’s that microplastic? Advances in machine learning are making identifying plastics in the environment more reliable
  43. Why Muslim American nonprofits are taking steps to build trust with donors during Ramadan
  44. Death by firing squad set to resume in the US – but no matter the method, all means of execution come with a troubling history
  45. Philly’s street fentanyl contains an industrial chemical called BTMPS that’s an ingredient in plastic
  46. The US energy market has its troubles, though it may not be a ‘national emergency’
  47. Carolina wildfires followed months of weather whiplash, from drought to hurricane-fueled floods and back to drought
  48. The child boss in ‘Severance’ reveals a devastating truth about work and child-rearing in the 21st century
  49. Supreme Court sides with San Francisco, requiring EPA to set specific targets in water pollution permits
  50. COVID-19 is the latest epidemic to show biomedical breakthroughs aren’t enough to eliminate a disease