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Top headlines
Lead story
If it feels like the U.S. has gotten more unequal over the past 50 years – well, that’s because it has. That’s according to sociologist Nathan Meyers, who studies how the American economy has transformed since the mid-20th century. His research finds that economic gains since 1970 have disproportionately gone to business owners rather than workers.
The tax bill Donald Trump recently signed into law is likely to widen the divide. The poorest Americans will be paying $1,600 more annually as a result, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, while the wealthiest will be gaining an extra $12,000 a year.
The effects will go beyond dollars and cents. As Meyers notes, economic inequality is linked to a host of social problems: worsening public health, political corruption, a collapse in civic trust and even family difficulties. In other words, a crisis decades in the making is about to get worse.
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Demonstrators march outside the U.S. Capitol during the Poor People’s Campaign rally at the National Mall in Washington on June 23, 2018.
AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana
Nathan Meyers, UMass Amherst
The Republican tax bill is set to worsen inequality, government data shows. It’s part of a 50-year trend that’s affecting the social fabric as well as the economy.
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Arts + Culture
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Karen Tan, Middle Tennessee State University
As vacations approach, anxiety often mounts: What if you’re seen as a slacker – or, worse, replaceable?
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Ethics + Religion
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Lloyd Hitoshi Mayer, University of Notre Dame
There’s only one known instance of a church losing its tax-exempt status because it violated the Johnson Amendment, but Republicans have tried to get rid of it before.
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Education
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Margaret Murray, University of Michigan
Across the US, parents are leading the charge to limit cellphone use in schools.
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Health + Medicine
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Jalees Rehman, University of Illinois Chicago
Many cancer survivors struggle with muscle weakness, which can be so profound that they may have difficulties walking up a couple of flights of stairs or going shopping for groceries on their own.
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Turgay Ayer, Georgia Institute of Technology
Privacy and bias concerns and integration challenges are brakes on the pace of health care systems adopting the technology.
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Science + Technology
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Guillaume Chomicki, Durham University; Susanne S. Renner, Washington University in St. Louis
Squamellaria plants grow special structures to host the ants they symbiotically rely on for nutrients. Distinct compartments help different ant colonies live peacefully side by side.
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Mojtaba Akhavan-Tafti, University of Michigan
As more satellites are launched into orbit, space agencies are looking at how to predict space weather events that could harm them.
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Wayne Unger, Quinnipiac University
US law tries to strike a balance between free speech and protecting people from harm. When it comes to child pornography, AI makes that task all the more difficult.
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Flor Acevedo, Penn State
An entomologist describes how the sap-sucking insects can weaken grapevines and reduce fruit yield and quality.
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