LISTEN: Pregnancy complicates public, private life during pandemic
By Jane Vaughan Medill Reports During a recent Zoom interview, Madi Louis was breastfeeding her 5-month-old, Wiley, in a moment that demonstrates how the boundaries between public and private life shifted during the pandemic, especially regarding pregnancy. Louis said it was harder to tell people her big news since she wasn’t coincidentally running into them […]
Climate change pushes precipitation — and ability to predict it — to its limits
By Sarah Anderson Medill Reports Primed by a drought that has lasted longer than the 1930s Dust Bowl, wildfires scorched over 5 million acres of land in the western United States this year. The water level of Lake Powell is dipping dangerously low amid the severe dry spell, threatening the hydroelectric power it generates. On […]
COLDEX: The search for Earth’s oldest ice and new climate solutions
By Christian Elliott Medill Reports Even summer days are cold in the Allan Hills Blue Ice Area, a meteorite-strewn expanse of glacier flanked by mountains at the eastern edge of the Antarctic ice sheet near the McMurdo Station research center. Jeff Severinghaus, a paleoclimatologist at the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and his colleagues at Princeton […]
Melting tropical glaciers threaten freshwater sources while sea ice melt accelerates rising oceans
By Sarah Anderson Medill Reports “Tropical glacier” — the term sounds like an oxymoron and, due to climate change, it might become one. These bodies of ice nestle in the mountain ranges of tropical regions, providing a major source of freshwater and tourism revenue. However, studies predict most tropical glaciers will disappear within the next […]
On a scale of 1 to 10, how helpful are self-monitoring tools for mental health?
By Sarah Anderson Medill Reports You settle into your seat on the bus and open the app with the virus icon. “Are you experiencing any of the following symptoms of COVID-19?” You scan the list, click “no” and screenshot the green pass that appears to flash at your office front desk. Next, you open the […]
Fermilab on the trail for a new building block of matter and quantum computing power
By Sarah Anderson and Yuliya Klochan Medill Reports Researchers transported a gigantic electromagnetic ring from Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island to Fermilab near Chicago eight years ago in the search for a new building block of matter. While it wasn’t the secret spaceship bystanders thought it was, it did allow scientists to explore fundamental questions […]
A Wisconsin border town faces challenges with a pandemic-driven increase in Minnesota late-night guests and crime spike
By Sam Stroozas Medill Reports “I believe in it, I just don’t think it’s that bad,” said a man waiting for entry into a packed and mask-less restaurant on Second Street in Hudson, Wisconsin on a busy Friday night. There were no parking spots left, groups strutted out of vehicles quickly at red lights; mask-less […]
Queer Christian cover band reclaims church space
Queer Christian cover band reclaims church space by Caroline Love Medill Reports It started as an idea on Twitter. Now, it has 1.6 million views on TikTok. HERE’S THE PITCH: An all queer Relient K/Switchfoot cover band and we tour the country and put on shows for kids who were done wrong by their youth […]
Chicago Election Commissioners support bilingual voters, but still fall short of community needs
By Kelly Heinzerling Medill Reports When Sarah Cartagena went to Humboldt Park to vote with her predominantly Spanish-speaking mother, she was surprised to find that, though the materials and signs were in multiple languages, the poll worker she interacted with in this large Spanish-speaking community did not speak the language. For the 15.7% of Chicago […]
California students receiving free, reduced-price meals face accessibility challenges during pandemic
By Hannah Schoenbaum Medill Reports Jesus Garcia, 17, depended on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District’s free and reduced-price meals program during his time at Back Bay High School in Costa Mesa, California. When the school closed in the spring of his senior year to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Garcia struggled to find stable internet […]