Category: Read Here

Melissa Farmer often walks her dog through Gompers Park on Chicago’s northwest side. “This park is gorgeous. People don’t know about it,” she said, walking along a lagoon on a recent morning. “I want to keep my fingers crossed that people continue not to.” In the last year, though, a homeless encampment moved in. In…

Read More “Politicians often link crime and homelessness. The reality is more complex” »

A federal facility in Pennsylvania has failed to take steps to reduce suicide risks among inmates — contrary to policies from the federal Bureau of Prisons and repeated reports from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General, according to the latest federal review on the facility. Lewisburg federal prison is a medium-security men’s institution…

Read More “DOJ watchdog: federal prison not doing enough to prevent inmate suicides” »

Helene is threatening the Carolinas 66 years to the day after a storm with that same name brought heavy winds and rain to the same areas. Hurricane Helene raked the coast of the Carolinas on September 27, 1958, but did not actually make landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center. As it approached Charleston, S.C….

Read More “Exactly 66 years ago, another Hurricane Helene rocked the Carolinas” »

In the two days before it hit Florida, Hurricane Helene grew from a relatively weak tropical storm into a major Category 4 hurricane. When a storm gets powerful very quickly like that, scientists call it rapid intensification. Such rapid intensification is relatively normal for major hurricanes that form in the Atlantic, according to federal hurricane…

Read More “Abnormally warm water helped Helene rapidly intensify and suck up moisture” »

When people think of Bangladesh, they often think of poverty. It was one of the world’s poorest nations when it was created in 1971. And they probably think of political upheaval — this year massive protests led to the resignation of the prime minister. An interim government led by Nobel Prize winner Muhammad Yunus is…

Read More “Bangladesh defies stereotypes when it comes to health care. Let’s keep it that way” »

Some 25,000 dockworkers at East Coast and Gulf Coast ports, from Boston to Houston, could strike as early as October 1. Their union, the International Longshoremen’s Association, has been in contract talks with the United States Maritime Alliance, representing ocean carriers and port operators, for months. But the two sides have not met face-to-face since…

Read More “Dockworkers are on the verge of a strike. Here’s what you need to know” »

Before Helene even made landfall in Florida, authorities conducted a dramatic rescue operation: The U.S. Coast Guard saved a man whose sailboat started taking on water off the coast of Sanibel Island. His dog, wearing a fluorescent life vest, was with him too. Both were brought to safety and reported to be in good medical…

Read More “The Coast Guard save a man and his dog from a sinking boat off the coast of Florida” »

Lately, Audrey Rowe has been a bit preoccupied with a girl named Elma. Rowe is a paleoecologist and Ph.D. candidate at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. And Elma is a woolly mammoth she’s studying. The mammoth’s full name, Élmayųujey’eh, was given to her by the Healy Lake Village Council – the Mendas Cha’ag People –…

Read More “One woolly mammoth’s journey at the end of the Ice Age” »

Neuroscientist Nathan Sawtell has spent a lot of time studying a funky looking electric fish characterized by its long nose. The Gnathonemus petersii, or elephantnose fish, can send and decipher weak electric signals, which Sawtell hopes will help neuroscientists better understand how the brain pieces together information about the outside world. But as Sawtell studied…

Read More “The “shocking” tactic electric fish use to collectively sense the world” »