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The hidden history of Philadelphia’s window-box gardens and their role in urban reform

  • Written by Sonja Dümpelmann, Professor of Environmental Humanities, Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
imageWindow-box gardening has been a Philly tradition since the 1800s.Sonja Dümpelmann, CC BY-SA

It’s that time of year when Philadelphia row home owners with a green thumb fastidiously attend to their window boxes – selecting new plants to design an artful blend of colors, shapes and textures.

Sonja Dümpelmann is a historian of...

Read more: The hidden history of Philadelphia’s window-box gardens and their role in urban reform

Is China the new cool? How Beijing is using pop culture to win the soft power war

  • Written by Shaoyu Yuan, Research Scientist at the Division of Global Affairs, Rutgers University - Newark

IShowSpeed, a 20-year-old American YouTuber and internet star, recently livestreamed hourslong tours of Chinese cities including Beijing and Shanghai, showcasing the locations to some of his nearly 40 million viewers.

During the March events, IShowSpeed, whose real name is Darren Jason Watkins Jr., marveled at friendly locals, spotless streets and...

Read more: Is China the new cool? How Beijing is using pop culture to win the soft power war

From Doing Business to B-READY: World Bank’s new rankings represent a rebrand, not a revamp

  • Written by Fernanda G Nicola, Professor of Law, American University
imageThe 2025 spring meetings of the World Bank Group and the International Monetary Fund takes place in Washington, D.C.Bryan Dozier/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images

In 2021, the World Bank shut down one of its flagship projects: the Doing Business index, a global ranking system that measured how easy it was to start and run a business in 190...

Read more: From Doing Business to B-READY: World Bank’s new rankings represent a rebrand, not a revamp

Justice Department lawyers work for justice and the Constitution – not the White House

  • Written by Cassandra Burke Robertson, Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Professional Ethics, Case Western Reserve University
imageThe U.S. flag flies above Department of Justice headquarters on Jan. 20, 2024, in Washington. J. David Ake/Getty Images

In the 1970s, President Richard Nixon tried to fire the Department of Justice prosecutor leading an investigation into the president’s involvement in wiretapping the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters.

Since...

Read more: Justice Department lawyers work for justice and the Constitution – not the White House

Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that’s a problem for fishing’s future, and for whales, corals and other ocean life

  • Written by David Shiffman, Faculty Research Associate in Marine Biology, Arizona State University
imageThe coral reefs of Palmyra Atoll, part of Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument, provide nurseries for many fish species.Andrew S. Wright/U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service via Flickr, CC BY-SA

The single greatest threat to the diversity of life in our oceans over the past 50 years, more than climate change or plastic pollution, has been...

Read more: Trump is stripping protections from marine protected areas – why that’s a problem for fishing’s...

US universities lose millions of dollars chasing patents, research shows

  • Written by Joshua M. Pearce, John M. Thompson Chair in Information Technology and Innovation and Professor, Western University

Every year, American universities spend millions of dollars patenting inventions developed on their campuses. Big names such as Stanford and the University of California system lead the pack in patent activity, but hundreds of other universities are also trying to strike gold by monetizing intellectual property. The idea is simple: By investing in...

Read more: US universities lose millions of dollars chasing patents, research shows

From help to harm: How the government is quietly repurposing everyone’s data for surveillance

  • Written by Nicole M. Bennett, Ph.D. Candidate in Geography and Assistant Director at the Center for Refugee Studies, Indiana University
imageImmigration enforcement is a key justification for repurposing government data.Photo by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement via Getty Images

A whistleblower at the National Labor Relations Board reported an unusual spike in potentially sensitive data flowing out of the agency’s network in early March 2025 when staffers from the...

Read more: From help to harm: How the government is quietly repurposing everyone’s data for surveillance

Trump administration pauses new mine safety regulation − here’s how those rules benefit companies as well as workers

  • Written by Jeremy M. Gernand, Associate Professor of Environmental Health and Safety Engineering, Penn State
imageFederal officials in white hard hats speak with miners in an Indiana coal mine in 2015. AP Photo/Timothy D. Easley

President Donald Trump’s administration has announced its intention to pause or reverse regulations on mine safety, saying it wants to loosen rules that constrain companies. But as a scholar of both engineering and public policy,...

Read more: Trump administration pauses new mine safety regulation − here’s how those rules benefit companies...

Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding − this could be a rough year

  • Written by Laura Dee, Associate Professor of Ecology, University of Colorado Boulder
imagePrescribed burns like this one are intentional, controlled fires used to clear out dry grass and underbrush that could fuel more destructive wildfires.Ethan Swope/Getty Images

Red skies in August, longer fire seasons and checking air quality before taking my toddler to the park. This has become the new norm in the western United States as wildfires...

Read more: Controlled burns reduce wildfire risk, but they require trained staff and funding − this could be...

Stripping federal protection for clean water harms just about everyone, especially already vulnerable communities

  • Written by Jeremy Orr, Adjunct Professor of Law, Michigan State University
imageA Des Moines Water Works employee takes samples from a nearby river for analysis. The regional water utility delivers drinking water to more than 500,000 Iowans.AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall

Before Congress passed the Clean Water Act in 1972, U.S. factories and cities could pipe their pollution directly into waterways. Rivers, including the Potomac...

Read more: Stripping federal protection for clean water harms just about everyone, especially already...

More Articles ...

  1. I study local government and Hurricane Helene forced me from my home − here’s how rural towns and counties in North Carolina and beyond cooperate to rebuild
  2. A warning for Democrats from the Gilded Age and the 1896 election
  3. Habeas corpus: A thousand-year-old legal principle for defending rights that’s getting a workout under the Trump administration
  4. Reducing diversity, equity and inclusion to a catchphrase undermines its true purpose
  5. Perfect brownies baked at high altitude are possible thanks to Colorado’s home economics pioneer Inga Allison
  6. Some politicians who share harmful information are rewarded with more clicks, study finds
  7. Make Russia Medieval Again! How Putin is seeking to remold society, with a little help from Ivan the Terrible
  8. Francis, a pope of many firsts: 5 essential reads
  9. Lawful permanent residents like Mahmoud Khalil have a right to freedom of speech – but does that protect them from deportation?
  10. Federal laws don’t ban rollbacks of environmental protection, but they don’t make it easy
  11. Why don’t humans have hair all over their bodies? A biologist explains our lack of fur
  12. Endowments aren’t blank checks – but universities can rely on them more heavily in turbulent times
  13. Exposure to perceptible temperature rise increases concern about climate change, higher education adds to understanding
  14. What will happen at the funeral of Pope Francis
  15. How the next pope will be elected – what goes on at the conclave
  16. Scientists found a potential sign of life on a distant planet – an astronomer explains why many are still skeptical
  17. ‘I never issued a criminal contempt citation in 19 ½ years on the bench’ – a former federal judge looks at the ‘relentless bad behavior’ of the Trump administration in court
  18. As views on spanking shift worldwide, most US adults support it, and 19 states allow physical punishment in schools
  19. Crime is nonpartisan and the blame game on crime in cities is wrong – on both sides
  20. With federal funding in question, artists can navigate a perilous future by looking to the past
  21. Lawsuits seeking to address climate change have promise but face uncertain future
  22. All models are wrong − a computational modeling expert explains how engineers make them useful
  23. Trump’s attacks on central bank threaten its independence − and that isn’t good news for sound economic stewardship (or battling inflation)
  24. Claims of ‘anti-Christian bias’ sound to some voters like a message about race, not just religion
  25. How does your brain create new memories? Neuroscientists discover ‘rules’ for how neurons encode new information
  26. Patriots’ Day: How far-right groups hijack history and patriotic symbols to advance their cause, according to an expert on extremism
  27. International students infuse tens of millions of dollars into local economies across the US. What happens if they stay home?
  28. Popular AIs head-to-head: OpenAI beats DeepSeek on sentence-level reasoning
  29. Why people with autism struggle to get hired − and how businesses can help by changing how they look at job interviews
  30. Appliance efficiency standards save consumers billions, reduce pollution and fight climate change
  31. Why deregulating online platforms is actually bad for free speech
  32. Ethical leadership can boost well-being and performance in remote work environments
  33. Is a ‘friend-apist’ what we really want from therapy?
  34. Federal judge finds ‘probable cause’ to hold Trump administration in contempt – a legal scholar explains what this means
  35. How single-stream recycling works − your choices can make it better
  36. The sudden dismissal of public records staff at health agencies threatens government accountability
  37. Wide variety of old-growth ecosystems across the US makes their conservation a complex challenge
  38. Railways were essential to carrying out the Holocaust – decades later, corporate reckoning continues
  39. 200 years ago, France extorted Haiti in one of history’s greatest heists – and Haitians want reparations
  40. Cory Booker’s long speech offers a strategy for Trump opponents in a fragmented media landscape
  41. Miami researchers are testing a textured seawall designed to hold back water and create a home for marine organisms
  42. Dark energy may have once been ‘springier’ than it is today − DESI cosmologists explain what their collaboration’s new measurement says about the universe’s history
  43. Giving cash to families in poor, rural communities can help bring down child marriage rates – new research
  44. Des Moines food pantries face spiking demand as the Iowa region’s SNAP enrollment declines
  45. Beggar thy neighbor, harm thyself: Tariffs like Trump’s come with pitfalls, history shows
  46. 25 years of Everglades restoration has improved drinking water for millions in Florida, but a new risk is rising
  47. A need for chaos powers some Americans’ support for Elon Musk taking a chainsaw to the US government
  48. Preventive care may no longer be free in 2026 because of HIV stigma − unless the Trump administration successfully defends the ACA
  49. How bird flu differs from seasonal flu − an infectious disease researcher explains
  50. Educators find creative work-arounds to new laws that restrict what they can teach