The nation’s most comprehensive measure of student learning shows fourth-grade math scores climbing back toward pre-pandemic levels — even as the federal office that produces the data has lost more than half its staff. The National Assessment of Educational Progress, known as the Nation’s Report Card, found fourth-grade math scores rose 2 points nationally in… Continue reading Fourth-Graders’ Math Scores Ticked Up. The Federal Office That Measures Them Just Got Gutted.
Category: national
America’s Infrastructure Just Got Its Best Grade Ever. It’s Still a C.
The nation’s civil engineers gave America’s roads, bridges, water systems and power grid the highest overall grade in the history of their report card this year. The grade was a C. The American Society of Civil Engineers raised the nation’s overall infrastructure grade to a C in its 2025 Report Card for America’s Infrastructure, up… Continue reading America’s Infrastructure Just Got Its Best Grade Ever. It’s Still a C.
Nobody Knows What to Do With This Patient
A Las Vegas resident has spent more than a decade calling doctors. Five different specialists, same problem, no answers. She is immunocompromised, on disability, and watching her monthly income drop as Medicare costs kick in. She spent two hours on hold with the welfare office just to learn she qualifies for a program that might… Continue reading Nobody Knows What to Do With This Patient
Congress Approved the Science Funding. Federal Agencies Still Aren’t Spending It.
Lawmakers rejected the White House’s push for the deepest cuts to federal science funding in decades, but a new bottleneck is now keeping much of that money from reaching researchers at all. Congress rejected the Trump administration’s fiscal 2026 budget request, which sought a 57% cut to the National Science Foundation and a 41% cut… Continue reading Congress Approved the Science Funding. Federal Agencies Still Aren’t Spending It.
More Than Half of Teachers Are Already Using AI. Most Have Never Been Trained On It.
Generative AI has moved into American classrooms faster than school districts have figured out how to manage it, according to the country’s most detailed ongoing survey of the trend. RAND Corporation’s nationally representative surveys of K-12 teachers, school leaders, district leaders, students and parents have tracked rising AI use in classrooms since generative tools like… Continue reading More Than Half of Teachers Are Already Using AI. Most Have Never Been Trained On It.
AI Companies Have Poured Over $150 Million Into the Midterms. They’re Writing Their Own Rules.
The industry Congress is trying to regulate is now bankrolling the campaigns of the people writing that regulation, and the sums already dwarf most other single-issue spending this cycle. The two largest AI-focused political action committees have spent at least $44 million on roughly 40 House and Senate candidates as of the end of June,… Continue reading AI Companies Have Poured Over $150 Million Into the Midterms. They’re Writing Their Own Rules.
U.S. Home Prices Hit an All-Time High. Fewer People Can Buy One.
Median home prices climbed to their highest level on record in June, even as sales slowed and mortgage rates ticked upward — a combination squeezing first-time buyers further out of the market. Existing home sales fell 2.4% in June from May, to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 4.09 million units, the National Association of… Continue reading U.S. Home Prices Hit an All-Time High. Fewer People Can Buy One.
AI Made Child Sexual Abuse Images. The Victims Are Now Suing.
New plaintiffs have joined a federal lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI and Stability AI, alleging the companies’ artificial intelligence tools were used to generate sexually explicit images of them as children. The case raises a question that no court has yet resolved: when an AI system produces child sexual abuse material, who is legally responsible?… Continue reading AI Made Child Sexual Abuse Images. The Victims Are Now Suing.
A Wisconsin Judge Helped a Man Evade ICE. She’s Paying $5,000. He’s Already Been Deported.
A federal judge spared a former Wisconsin judge from prison this week, closing a case that turned a routine courthouse arrest into a national flashpoint over judicial independence and immigration enforcement. U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman sentenced former Milwaukee County Circuit Judge Hannah Dugan on July 8 to a $5,000 fine, declining to impose prison… Continue reading A Wisconsin Judge Helped a Man Evade ICE. She’s Paying $5,000. He’s Already Been Deported.
Mitch McConnell Has Been Hospitalized for 25 Days. Kentucky’s Governor Wants to Know Why.
Senator Mitch McConnell has been hospitalized since June 14. That is 25 days. He chairs the Senate Defense Appropriations Subcommittee during an active war. Kentucky’s Democratic governor has formally demanded a health update. No one from McConnell’s office has provided one. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear sent a formal letter to Senator Mitch McConnell on Wednesday… Continue reading Mitch McConnell Has Been Hospitalized for 25 Days. Kentucky’s Governor Wants to Know Why.
