Rising house prices may change the personality make-up of US cities within a few years, with residents becoming increasingly open-minded – not just as wealthier people move in, but also among longer-term locals. This is according to a University of Cambridge-led study of almost two million people in the US living across 199 cities. Psychologists...
Local
As the Mercury Rises, the Urban Heat Penalty Grows, Especially at Night
City living has its perks: Live music, museums, trendy cafés and much more. But urban living isn’t so cool when it comes to summer weather. Living in a city translates to an extra two to six hours of uncomfortable weather per day in the summer for people in the eastern and central United States, according...
Community Policing May Not Improve Police-Community Relations, Study in Six Countries Shows
Contrary to prior evidence, a new field study in six developing countries finds that community policing did not improve trust between citizens and the police, nor did it reduce crime. The results reveal that community policing – a widely lauded form of police reform – may not improve police-community relations in all contexts. The findings...
The First Thanksgiving Is a Key Chapter in America’s Origin Story – but What Happened in Virginia Four Months Later Mattered Much More
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the first Thanksgiving in New England. Remembered and retold as an allegory for perseverance and cooperation, the story of that first Thanksgiving has become an important part of how Americans think about the founding of their country. But what happened four months later, starting in March 1622 about...
Jury Finds Rittenhouse Not Guilty in Kenosha Shootings
Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges Friday after pleading self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice in the U.S. Rittenhouse, 18, began to choke up, fell forward toward the defense table and then hugged one of his attorneys as he heard a court clerk recite “not...
More Than Half of Utah’s Households Unable to Afford Median Home Price, Report Shows
The State of the State’s Housing Market report, released last week by the Gardner Policy Institute, shows that more than half of Utah’s households are now unable to afford the median-home priced home in 2021. For renters, the path to ownership narrowed further. In 2019, approximately 63.1% of renter households were priced out of the median...
Drought-Stricken California Doused by Major Storm
A powerful storm barreled toward Southern California after flooding highways, toppling trees and causing mud flows in areas burned bare by recent fires across the northern part of the state. Drenching showers and strong winds accompanied the weekend’s arrival of an atmospheric river — a long and wide plume of moisture pulled in from the...
Missing White Women: Why Racial Bias Dominates Coverage of Missing Person Cases
The high-profile disappearances of Sarah Everard and Sabina Nessa in England and Gabby Petito in the US have brought renewed attention to media bias in coverage of missing person cases. In 2019-2020, over 150,000 people were reported missing to police in England and Wales. Of those whose ethnicity was known, about 80% were white, and 14% were black. The rate of black...
California’s Latest Offshore Oil Spill Could Fuel Pressure to End Oil Production Statewide
An oil spill first reported on Oct. 2, 2021, has released thousands of gallons of crude oil into southern California coastal waters. The source is believed to be a leak in an underwater pipeline connected to an oil drilling platform 17.5 miles offshore. Oil has washed ashore in Huntington Beach and Newport Beach and into...
Police Killings of Civilians in the U.S. Have Been Undercounted by More Than Half in Official Statistics
The big idea The number of people killed by police officers in the U.S. has been massively underreported in official statistics over the past four decades, with an additional 17,000 deaths over that period, according to our new research. Our study, which was published on Oct. 2, 2021, in The Lancet, compared statistics from the...