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The most overlooked piece to building media trust is the willingness of a community to engage with journalists. addillum/Getty Images

How journalists and communities work together to confront low levels of trust

Current News / News & Features /

In the past decade, study after study has come to a troubling conclusion: Trust in news and journalism has declined dramatically.

The public’s loss of trust corresponds with the explosive development of our information ecosystem. The more options audiences have to find news elsewhere, the less trust the public has placed in ...Read more

Attorney General Todd Blanche announces the indictment against the Southern Poverty Law Center on April 21, 2026, in Washington. Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images

White supremacists spin a Justice Department indictment against a hate-monitoring group to legitimize extremism and expand recruitment

Current News / News & Features /

In April 2026, a federal grand jury returned indictments charging the Southern Poverty Law Center with wire fraud, bank fraud and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The indictment alleges the SPLC, a nonprofit legal advocacy group, secretly funneled more than US$3 million in donated funds to people associated with violent ...Read more

A sense of threat can fuel Christian nationalism. Win McNamee/Getty Images

Christian nationalists’ professed support for religious pluralism is often drowned out by perceptions that Christians are under threat

Current News / News & Features /

Christian nationalism, a worldview that sees the United States as a Christian nation and believes that Christianity should have a privileged role in American civic life, has been shown to be related to a host of social attitudes.

Research shows that people who hold Christian nationalistic beliefs tend to, on average, also show ...Read more

Schizophrenia is among the top 10 leading causes of disability, according to the World Health Organization. ATHVisions/E+ via Getty Images

New therapies help people with schizophrenia – but access is woefully inadequate

Current News / News & Features /

It’s common to hear casual descriptions of “schizophrenic” behavior, describing a person oscillating between two extremes.

“I really want that luxurious Italian cashmere sweater,” followed by “What am I saying? I can’t even afford a $20 polyester top right now!”

I’m a professor of psychology who studies ...Read more

A view over Lake Mead shows how far the lake's level has fallen. AP Photo/Ty ONeil

Colorado River water conservation efforts get only halfway to a solution

Current News / News & Features /

In August 2026 the nation’s two largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, both on the Colorado River, hit their lowest levels since they first began to be filled in 1936 and 1963, respectively.

The federal government and the seven Colorado River basin states – Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and ...Read more

Eric Harkleroad/KFF Health News/TNS

Kennedy's quiet hunt for autism culprits stalls as Trump orders baseless changes to childhood shots

Current News / News & Features /

President Donald Trump has ordered a reduction in childhood vaccines — publicly faulting the shots for an increase in autism cases — even as the nation’s top health official, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., has failed to produce evidence linking vaccinations to the disorder.

While the executive order released Aug. 10 does not directly mention ...Read more

Russ Mitchell/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Hydrogen failed as car fuel. Now California's big dollar bet on it for green energy is fading, too

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Hydrogen, viewed by its advocates as a clean fuel and a solution to climate change, is having a “non moment,” but don’t ask anyone in the industry to say that on the record.

Years of market turmoil, federal funding cuts, canceled projects and industry pullback have made it clear: California’s grand vision for fleets of ...Read more

Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Parents are being held responsible for their kids' crimes under new laws

Current News / News & Features /

When young children and teenagers get into trouble, the question often comes quickly: Where were their parents?

That question is again shaping public policy in communities across the country, as state and local lawmakers and prosecutors increasingly look for ways to respond to concerns about youth crime and public disorder.

Some proposals ...Read more

Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times/TNS

A convicted election denier went to prison. Now, she might help run elections in a California county

Current News / News & Features /

LOS ANGELES — Tina Peters was recently released early from prison amid a pressure campaign from President Donald Trump after the former Colorado elections official was convicted of tampering with voting machines.

Now, the top elections official in a conservative California county with a long history of voting controversies is seeking to hire ...Read more

Steve Callahan/Dreamstime/TNS

Mice may drive Lyme disease more than deer

Current News / News & Features /

For more than three decades, researchers have been tracking ticks, mice, oak trees and other wildlife in a New York forest to better understand what makes Lyme disease more likely to spread.

Their latest findings challenge some long-held assumptions — including the idea that deer are a major driver of Lyme disease risk.

Researchers at the ...Read more

Cynthia Mccrary/Dreamstime/TNS

Erasing Carolinas history? Signs removed at NC, SC national parks under Trump order

Current News / News & Features /

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — In Greensboro, a display at the Guilford Courthouse National Military Park explains that North Carolina women submitted to their husbands and observed a “monastic seclusion” before the American Revolution.

It reports that most women could not read or write and that they were “bred to the Needle and Spinning” and “...Read more

Jim Watson/AFP/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump says US starting 'economic warfare' operation against Iran

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WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced plans to inflict what he called “an ECONOMIC D-DAY” against Iran, underscoring his rising frustration with the country’s refusal to capitulate despite weeks of military strikes and a U.S. blockade that’s crimped its oil exports.

Trump didn’t specify what measures he would take but his ...Read more

Handout/Getty Images North America/TNS

North Korea denies Kim talks as Trump eyes meeting this year

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North Korea denied any direct communication between Kim Jong Un and President Donald Trump even as the U.S. president said he’s seeking to meet with the strongman this year.

“The relationship between the two leaders remains excellent,” Kim Yo Jong, the sister of the North Korean leader, said in a statement issued through state media KCNA....Read more

Paul Kitagaki Jr./The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Trump's new national forest rule change would impact Yuba, American river watersheds

Current News / News & Features /

From the air, the stretches of U.S. National Forest that hug the higher reaches of the American and Rubicon rivers in the Sierra do not look entirely pristine.

They are cut through with old roads and have been thinned in places by wildfires and logging. Timber slash piles dot at least one ridge, waiting for removal or burning.

But these areas ...Read more

Alejandro A. Alvarez/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

Human error, gaps in FAA oversight seen as possible factors in last year's Northeast Philly medical jet crash

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A series of human and oversight failings is being eyed by federal investigators as possible contributors to the fatal crash of a medical jet in Northeast Philadelphia last year, according to documents filed by the National Transportation Safety Board.

The federal agency does not identify a cause of the Jan. 31, 2025, crash of the Mexican-owned ...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

NC prosecutors deny Trump influence in Comey '86 47' prosecution, defend threat case

Current News / News & Features /

Federal prosecutors say the Trump administration did not influence their decision to charge James Comey with threatening the president, pushing back against the former FBI director’s effort to have the case thrown out on the grounds of biased prosecution.

In an affidavit, Ellis Boyle, U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina, ...Read more

Tom Gralish/The Philadelphia Inquirer/TNS

'Political earthquake' in Western Pennsylvania as Democrats flip deep-red district in special election

Current News / News & Features /

Pennsylvania Democrats, including Gov. Josh Shapiro, are pointing to a stunning upset in a special election for a deep-red statehouse district as proof that the party has momentum while campaigning this fall for a trifecta in Harrisburg.

Butler County Democrat Brandon Dukes said his apparent victory over Republican Scott Timko, by fewer than ...Read more

Ronald Martinez/Getty Images North America/TNS

Goodbye, Montecito. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle reportedly moving to UK

Current News / News & Features /

Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are said to be leaving Montecito, California, and moving back to Britain six years after the couple left amid a family feud.

In the coming weeks, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex will reportedly relocate just in time for Prince Archie, 7, and Princess Lilibet, 5, to begin school in September. The couple will put ...Read more

Xavier Mascareñas/The Sacramento Bee/TNS

Amid controversy, California officials release long-awaited Delta water plan

Current News / News & Features /

California regulators have released a plan to change how the state governs the pumping of water from the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, a proposal that would give water agencies more leeway in how they comply with the rules.

The Delta is the central hub of California’s water system, providing water for nearly 30 million people and 4 ...Read more

Cole Burston/Getty Images North America/TNS

US set to cut tariffs on Canada metals, autos in trade deal

Current News / News & Features /

WASHINGTON — The tentative trade deal between the United States and Canada would lower tariffs on certain Canadian exports of steel and aluminum to 25% and cut duties on Canadian auto exports to 15%, according to people familiar with the matter.

The details have yet to be finalized and are not expected to apply across the board. For steel and...Read more