Urban agriculture isn’t as climate-friendly as it seems – but these best practices can transform gardens and city farms

  Urban agriculture is expected to be an important feature of 21st century sustainability and can have many benefits for communities and cities, including providing fresh produce in neighborhoods with few other options.

  Among those benefits, growing food in backyards, community gardens, or urban farms can shrink the distance fruits and vegetables have to travel between producers and consumers – what’s known as the “food mile” problem. With transportation’s greenhouse gas emissions eliminated, it’s a small leap to assume that urban agriculture is a simple climate solution.

‘No cash accepted’ signs are bad news for millions of unbanked Americans

  How many people don’t have a bank account? And just how difficult has it become to live without one?

  These questions are becoming increasingly important as more businesses refuse to take cash in cities across the U.S. People without bank accounts are shut out from stores and restaurants that refuse to accept cash.

  As it happens, a lot of people are still “unbanked”: roughly 6 million in the U.S., the latest data shows, which is about the population of Wisconsin. And outside of the U.S., more than a billion people don’t have a bank account.

‘Collective mind’ bridges societal divides − psychology research explores how watching the same thing can bring people together

  Only about 1 in 4 Americans said that they had trust in the nation’s institutions in 2023 – with big business (1 in 7), television news (1 in 7), and Congress (1 in 12) scraping the very bottom.

  While institutional trust is decreasing, political polarization is increasing. The majority of Republicans (72%) and Democrats (64%) think of each other as more immoral than other Americans – a nearly 30% rise from 2016 to 2022. When compared with similar democracies, the United States has exhibited the largest increase in animus toward the opposing political party over the past 40 years.

The 'Thank You' system

  When a person is leaving a restaurant or any other retail establishment, who should be saying “Thank you”—the seller or the buyer?

  The answer is: Both. That’s because they are both benefiting from the transaction from their own individual, subjective perspectives. That is, they are each giving up something they value less for something they value more. Thus, at the moment of the trade, they have both improved their state of being, from their own individual, subjective perspective.

Rural Alabama, meet mid-century Ireland: What the Emerald Isle can teach us about reversing population loss

  A land with a large cattle industry; few jobs; a history of colonialism and struggling schools sees a decades-long population collapse.

  Rural Alabama? Yes.

  But also, mid-century Ireland.

The establishment clause: Everything to know

  Religious freedom in the United States is guaranteed by two provisions of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  One, commonly known as the establishment clause, has been interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent government from either advancing (that is, establishing) or hindering religion, preferring one religion over others, or favoring religion over nonreligion.

Supreme Court appears poised to overrule Chevron deference in judicial power grab

  On the morning of January 17, 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in a pair of cases that could upend 40 years of administrative jurisprudence, impede the federal government’s ability to effectively serve the American people, and allow the federal judiciary to amass unchecked levels of power. At issue in both Loper Bright v. Raimondo and Relentless v. Department of Commerce is a challenge to a regulation created by the National Marine Fisheries Service, under the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act, requiring commercial fishing vessels to pay for federal monitors who collect data to ensure that fisheries remain sustainable and viable for decades to come. Rather than address the narrow and technical question on this regulation, however, the Supreme Court opted instead to take up the broader and far more existentially threatening question of whether to completely do away with 40-year-old precedent known as Chevron deference.

Steve Flowers: Inside the Statehouse - 2024 is an election year

  This is a presidential election year. Our Alabama GOP Presidential Primary is our election in the Heart of Dixie. We are a one-party state, especially in presidential races. Alabama is one of a group of states that will hold its primary early, March 5th to be exact.  Therefore, we will be going to the polls in less than two months to vote for president.

  The presidential contest will more than likely be a rematch between Democratic sitting President Joe Biden and Republican former President Donald Trump. Americans are not too enthused to see this replay. I have never seen such a weird presidential matchup or unusual scenario in my lifetime.  

What’s the best diet for healthy sleep? A nutritional epidemiologist explains what food choices will help you get more restful z’s

  You probably already know that how you eat before bed affects your sleep. Maybe you’ve found yourself still lying awake at 2 a.m. after enjoying a cup of coffee with dessert. But did you know that your eating choices throughout the day may also affect your sleep at night?

  In fact, more and more evidence shows that overall dietary patterns can affect sleep quality and contribute to insomnia.

This isn’t how you improve Alabama schools

  My sister and I attended Catholic schools for 12 years.

  These were not elite institutions. None of my classmates, as far as I know, went to Ivy League universities. On balance, the education we got was on par with what the local public schools offered.

  But it was important to our parents that we pray in class and get Catholic religious instruction. Public schools couldn’t deliver that, and our non-Catholic neighbors wouldn’t want them to.