Ryan Blitstein

A family law professor explains why differences between states over gay marriage may lead to a deluge of court cases.

David Cope’s software creates beautiful, original music. Why are people so angry about that?

Researchers investigate whether that dollar of foreign aid just frees up money for the recipient to spend elsewhere.

The U.S. spends billions on levees, but river flooding still causes havoc across the country. Vermont has a better way.

A law professor explains how to keep criminal informants from duping prosecutors, police and the rest of us.

A political scientist argues that while FEMA has pulled up its socks since Hurricane Katrina, it’s still not ready for primetime.

University professor Loren Toussaint wants to spread the tangible benefits of forgiveness.

Northwestern’s David Cella is leading a vast effort at better measuring pain, fatigue and outcomes. It may change the way researchers run clinical trials.

A pioneering nonprofit Chicago news source has gone the way of many old-fashioned for-profit predecessors, but wants to resurrect itself as for-profit.

When sick people change health plans, it can muck up the insurance market. A new paper suggests ways for fixing it.

New book Healing the Broken Mind by Timothy Kelly demonstrates how to begin fixing America’s utterly failed mental health care system.

Does the stress of living in a white-dominated society make African Americans get sick and die younger than their white counterparts? Apparently, yes.

Giving people basic facts changes their opinions on major schools issues — which may dismay those seeking more school funding.

With African Americans disproportionately affected by HIV, we asked Donna Hubbard McCree to describe the culturally centered work being done to stem the infection. A Miller-McCune.com interview.

On the whole, the mental health establishment outshone most other emergency responders after Hurricane Katrina. In a Miller-McCune interview, the director of the National Center for Disaster Mental Health Research explains some of the lessons drawn from that experience.

A new study suggests that no one really looks at the nutritional information that fast-food outlets are being urged to — or forced to — paste on their walls.

Wonks examine the state of American self-governance; little hopeful audacity is found.

As new health threats, changes in privacy requirements and shifting legal precedents advance, the laws governing public health mostly remain stuck in the past.

History professor and blogger Juan Cole succeeds at debunking American myths about the Muslim world. It’s the policy prescription that’s trite.

An ambitious project in Chicago provides a glimpse at poverty solutions that might actually make a difference.

U.S. smoking rates have declined, but tobacco still runs rampant in prisons. A new study documents a technique to help prisoners quit.

A community-based strategy to prevent and treat hepatitis B may reduce its staggeringly high prevalence among Asian Americans.

Lawrence Summers and Richard Zeckhauser say politicians and bureaucrats should spend more time thinking about long-range policy.

A Veterans Administration psychiatrist and researcher offers a revamped model for treatment of returning soldiers that looks to training and education as much as therapy and pills.

Gritty Hammond, Ind., and 80 other cities in decline have a novel approach to economic development: They’re attracting new residents by offering to pay for their children to attend college. But is a promise to pay tuition a growth strategy — or welfare for the middle class?

A documentary film warns that America’s fiscal policies are a looming disaster as Wall Street melts down in real time.

Two professors explain why small government, loose regulations and an over-reliance on markets eventually cost taxpayers.

A Danish professor promotes a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns in government megaprojects: Use past boondoggles as a baseline.

As seen in our main story on a cure for billion-dollar cost overruns, here’s a look at some infamous public works projects and what went wrong.

Portland-area researchers find that investing in social capital improves health among the disadvantaged.

Court experts worry that actions taken in prosecuting terrorism could erode protections for those accused of common crimes.

Two economists say increased public health spending may lower suicide rates. But how?

A camp for grieving children applies academic research on trauma to help kids cope with death.

In Europe and elsewhere, governments are using ideas from the new science of well-being to try to make citizens more content. Will America follow their lead?

A psychotherapist argues that right-wing political operatives, religious leaders and the media are prospering by screwing with our collective sense of reality.

Research into helping families cope with divorce is finally bearing fruit, but some governments continue funding unproven programs.

New research examines how controversial Supreme Court decisions affect American confidence in the nation’s highest court.

Congressmen and state legislators aim to further regulate hospital management, hoping to encourage better care and finances. New research suggests these laws might not make much difference.

The “megacommunity” approach to problem solving, with a dose of consultant-speak.

Across America, nonprofit Web sites are trying to keep public interest journalism alive at the local level. But to provide what print newspapers increasingly do not, these digitized nonprofits must overcome the challenge facing every startup: Eventually, they have to break even.

States’ kindergarten policies continue to diverge, despite years of research revealing the academic benefits of full-day kindergarten.

Since the 1970s, the cry has been to ‘Save Our Cities’ — often from the seductive call of the suburbs. But now our oldest suburbs themselves are under siege from the same problems.

While zero-tolerance laws have slightly curbed underage drunken driving, researchers have been unable to describe exactly why they work.

The GED may not be worth as much as governments, the military and employers might suggest, but new research shows it may promote better health.