Editor's note

Today Senate Democrats appear ready to block a bill to fund the government if Republicans refuse to include a provision to protect “Dreamers,” the undocumented immigrants who were brought to the U.S. as children. American University’s Matthew Wright points out that the wider issue with any potential deal on immigration is that it will be woefully short of long sought-after comprehensive reform. “The only remotely viable path to a ‘comprehensive’ deal, it seems, is to leave millions of undocumented immigrants who are not Dreamers out in the cold.”

According to new data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2017 was the third-warmest year on record. But that figure masks major extremes, from scorching heat last summer to arctic cold in late December. Economists Garth Heutel, David Molitor and Nolan Miller analyzed the impact of extreme temperatures on elderly people and found that both very hot weather and very cold weather can be deadly.

When colleges began to make the SAT optional, the idea was to make selective colleges more accessible to low-income and minority students. Penn State scholar Kelly Ochs Rosinger explains why things didn’t turn out that way.

Bryan Keogh

Economics + Business Editor

Top stories

Senators meet with President Donald Trump to discuss immigration on Jan. 9, 2018. AP Photo/Evan Vucci

Ahead of government shutdown, Congress sets its sights on not-so-comprehensive immigration reform

Matthew Wright, American University

If they pass a deal on DACA, it's a win for both sides of the aisle and thousands of ‘Dreamers,’ but a loss for millions of undocumented immigrants.

Extreme cold weather in Atlanta, Ga., on Jan. 3, 2018. AP Photo/David Goldman

Climate change and weather extremes: Both heat and cold can kill

Garth Heutel, Georgia State University; David Molitor, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Nolan Miller, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Many parts of the US have experienced extreme heat or extreme cold in the past year. Recent research projects that climate change will increase deaths from both types of weather, especially cold spells.

Students in New York City prep for the SAT in 2016 at a Kaplan Test Prep center. Shutterstock.com

If you thought colleges making the SAT optional would level the playing field, think again

Kelly Ochs Rosinger, Pennsylvania State University

Although proponents of making the SAT optional hoped it would expand college access for low-income and minority students, research shows that hasn't happened.

Economy + Business

Health + Medicine

Ethics + Religion

  • Tolerating distraction

    David Marno, University of California, Berkeley

    We disapprove of distraction and consider attention as being valuable. What if they were, in fact, morally charged words, referring to the same behavior? Here's what early Christian monks thought.

Science + Technology

Arts + Culture

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Today’s quote

It is reasonable to ask whether attention and distraction are simply two morally and culturally charged terms referring to what in reality is the same behavior.

 

Tolerating distraction

David Marno

University of California, Berkeley

David Marno