State public health officials need timely, comprehensive data to effectively detect and respond to the wide range of issues within their purview—from disease outbreaks and maternal mortality to contaminated food and water, opioid overdoses, and more.
The reported funding gap for state pension plans—the disparity between promised benefits and available assets—was $1.32 trillion in 2023, according to 50-state data collected by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
As states grapple with how to meet rising energy demand, lawmakers across the nation are turning to a promising solution to modernize the grid and help bring new electricity generation projects online.
Across the country, state governments are faced with the increasing frequency and intensity of disasters and the compounding scarcity of resources to plan for and lessen their impacts. With these unprecedented challenges likely to grow, state leaders are turning to one another to share best practices and lessons learned to increase resilience.
After years of growth, states’ rainy day fund capacity—the number of days they could cover state operations—fell in fiscal year 2025, the first decline since the Great Recession of 2007-09. At the end of fiscal 2025, the median state could run on just its rainy day funds for 46.9 days, down from the record high of 53.2 days in fiscal 2024, according to estimated budget numbers reported to the National Association of State Budget Officers.
In one of the world’s most urbanized coastal environments—the waters around Hong Kong—pressure from human activities is threatening the vulnerable Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, known locally as the Chinese white dolphin.
It’s not exactly news that Americans are mistrustful of their federal government. What you may have heard less about is that trust in some historically respected institutions has also taken a hit in the post-pandemic years.
The annual “fall back” in the U.S. from daylight saving time to standard time creates a seasonal hazard for many drivers: navigating familiar routes at familiar times but now in darkness instead of daylight. In many parts of the country, this is exacerbated by wildlife on roadways—deer, big game, and other animals that only days before were easier to see and avoid.
The reported funding gap for state pension plans—the disparity between promised benefits and available assets—was $1.32 trillion in 2023, according to 50-state data collected by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Millions of Americans are behind on their retirement savings goals, and nearly 70% of those already retired wish they had started saving earlier. But Gen Z, the latest generation to enter the workforce, is an outlier, with the data showing that they are saving more than millennials and putting new emphasis on planning for the future. What gives?
A category of widely used chemicals has been found to disrupt the human endocrine system. Research indicates that this disruption can increase the risk of health problems such as reproductive disorders, cancer, diabetes, and more.
In this episode of “After the Fact,” Dr. Elizabeth Salisbury-Afshar, an addiction medicine specialist, and Pew’s Frances McGaffey discuss the latest trends related to alcohol use, its normalization in American culture, and the evolving science behind its risks.
