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Top headlines
Lead story
In December, big retailers decorate stores to the nines to lure holiday shoppers through the doors. This year, however, many are sending a different message. Target, Walmart, Nordstrom, Macy’s, CVS and other chains are closing stores across the U.S., especially in urban areas. The companies blame shoplifting and weak law enforcement, but urban policy scholar Nicholas Dagen Bloom argues that big-box retailers were always a poor fit for downtowns. In his view, smaller stores typically return more revenues to their communities, have more realistic growth targets and offer personal service that produces a safer and better shopping experience.
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Merchandise is locked in cases to guard against theft in a Target store in New York City on Sept. 23, 2023.
Deb Cohn-Orbach/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Nicholas Dagen Bloom, Hunter College
Shoplifting has been hyped as a driver of chain-store closures, but did these companies ever really understand urban environments in the first place?
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Economy + Business
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Richard Carney, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shenzhen
More autocratic governments, growing urbanization and emerging technologies will bolster the spread of Chinese influence around the world, an expert on emerging economies explains.
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Health + Medicine
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Monica Wang, Boston University
Studies show that health misinformation on social media has led to fewer people getting vaccinated and more lives lost to COVID-19 and other life-threatening diseases.
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Politics + Society
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Michael D. White, Arizona State University; Henry F. Fradella, Arizona State University
In a bid to reduce violent crime, the city’s new mayor is calling for a revitalization of a controversial practice the police department had mostly abandoned.
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Environment + Energy
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Rick Thoman, University of Alaska Fairbanks; Matthew L. Druckenmiller, University of Colorado Boulder; Twila A. Moon, University of Colorado Boulder
The early heat melted snow and warmed rivers, heating up the land and downstream ocean areas. The effects harmed salmon fisheries, melted sea ice and fueled widespread fires.
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Science + Technology
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Clark Danderson, Auburn University
Nonalcoholic beer may sound like an oxymoron, but newer techniques are producing tasty, high-quality options in this growing beverage category.
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Scott Ruoti, University of Tennessee
Here’s what happens when you scan one of those ubiquitous two-dimensional black-and-white patterns, and why the FTC urges you to use caution.
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Arts + Culture
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Angela M. Nelson, Bowling Green State University
Norman Lear brought the first nuclear Black family to prime-time television in 1974.
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