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More than 100 American cities host online open data portals brimming with information on crime, housing, transit, traffic, and neighborhood boundaries. Such initiatives have promised to make government more transparent, accountable, and accessible, at a time when the public’s trust is scraping bottom . But so far, open data has largely fallen short of those lofty ambitions. Part of the problem seems to lie in design: Many online portals are hard for non-expert citizens to use. They keep...

In the June issue of the journal Health Affairs, my colleagues and I published research showing that in 2012, just prior to the implementation of the Affordable Care Act, the United States had among the widest income-based disparities in people’s perceptions of their own health and health care among a global sample of 32 countries. Compared to people in the top third, those in the bottom third of household income in the U.S. tended to rate their health worse, forgo care they felt they needed...

More evidence of stress's harmful effects comes from a pregnancy study. California researchers found that stress increases the risk that exposure to toxic chemicals in pregnancy will lead to a low birth weight baby. "It appears that stress may amplify the health effects of toxic chemical exposure, which means that for some people, toxic chemicals become more toxic," said senior author Tracey Woodruff, a professor of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of...

Recently, a Department of Education administrator (in charge of Civil Rights within the Department at present) stated that 90% of campus rapes were alcohol related. There are NO data, I repeat no data, supporting this position. Here's the citation: http://www.chronicle.com/article/Ed-Dept-Official-Apologizes/240634?cid=trend_right_a, lest you think I am making this up. Who could even make this stuff up -- even if you tried? For me, this kind of misstatement requires more than an apology. It...

A quiet, unsmiling little girl with big brown eyes crawls inside a carpeted cubicle, hugs a stuffed teddy bear tight, and turns her head away from the noisy classroom. The safe spaces, quiet times and breathing exercises for her and the other preschoolers at the Verner Center for Early Learning are designed to help kids cope with intense stress so they can learn. But experts hope there's an even bigger benefit - protecting young bodies and brains from stress so persistent that it becomes...

Are human beings inherently altruistic ? At a time when Ayn Rand's selfishness-justifying philosophy is dominating congressional debate, the question is far from academic. A just-published study —one in which participants both administered and endured painful electric shocks—provides a nuanced answer: While human beings have the capacity for genuine altruism, this impulse appears to have clearly defined limits. Researchers from the University of California–Santa Barbara report we will forgo...

As a White parent of White kids, ignoring the police slayings of Black people and other people of color could be easy. However, as a halfway decent person who wants to raise kids who are not monsters, I believe that as White people, talking to kids about White privilege and what is happening in this country to people of color is essential. I know it can be difficult to know what to say to kids and how to talk to them about these events, but we must. Here are some tips that have worked with...

After three defendants fatally overdosed in a single week last year, it became clear that Buffalo's ordinary drug treatment court was no match for the heroin and painkiller crisis. Now the city is experimenting with the nation's first opioid crisis intervention court, which can get users into treatment within hours of their arrest instead of days, requires them to check in with a judge every day for a month instead of once a week, and puts them on strict curfews. Administering justice takes...

The crowd was overflowing at a nondescript convention center in suburban Maryland, a few miles from the Baltimore airport. The event had originally been capped at 350, but organizers had to make plans for an overflow room, seating an additional 150 people. Despite that, registration still maxed out days before the conference took place. Any event that brings together three regional leaders in the same room -- in this case, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe and...

Staff members at Northside Elementary School want to do more to support students suffering from trauma. The La Crosse Public Education Foundation has awarded a $4,000 grant in support of the trauma-informed school project, in which staff would be trained in techniques to help children who are experiencing adverse childhood experiences, such as abuse, neglect or mental illness, or are living in a home with violence or substance abuse. The school is asking for an additional $4,000 in donations...

The Scottish government has announced a greater emphasis on crime prevention as part of its new justice strategy. Justice Secretary Michael Matheson published the new priorities as he started the demolition of Scotland's only women's prison at Cornton Vale. Two new community-based custody units for women will be located in Glasgow and either Fife or Dundee. The new units will focus on recovery and keeping women closer to their families. A smaller prison will also be built at Cornton Vale for...

In an oddly placed story, the Arts and Entertainment section of the Star Tribune in Minnesota covered the cost of phone calls for inmates after the FCC decided that it would not support caps on cost for inmates to make calls. The article starts out talking about the Netflix series, Orange is the New Black, but this issue isn't fiction, it's impacting families all over the United States. In criminal justice reform this issue could easily get lost when larger issues like mental health are so...