• Column: Why has Social Security staff been breaking the new law?

    Column: Why has Social Security staff been breaking the new law?

    Feb 23, 2016 04:52 PM EDT

    ... much higher retirement benefit at 70. John McAdams has been trying to get senior officials at the Social Security Administration to do a full computerized search for these cases and have the claimants who were misadvised or mistreated informed and compensated. 5. I'd love to see the guidance on ...

  • Chief justice remembers Scalia's 'irrepressible spirit'

    Chief justice remembers Scalia's 'irrepressible spirit'

    Feb 22, 2016 06:20 PM EDT

    ... for no reason other than to check if the person has an arrest warrant. Armed with a warrant, police can then make an arrest and search for evidence of a crime. Does the valid warrant outweigh the illegal stop? Or should the evidence found in the search be thrown out ...

  • Supreme Court may face extended period with 8 justices

    Supreme Court may face extended period with 8 justices

    Feb 17, 2016 06:16 PM EDT

    WASHINGTON — Is eight enough? The Supreme Court has managed to function effectively at less than its full nine-member strength for two extended periods in the past 50 years. The question now is whether the death of Justice Antonin Scalia in the middle of the court term and a polarizing ...

  • How a computer program became champion of the world’s trickiest board game

    How a computer program became champion of the world’s trickiest board game

    Jan 28, 2016 01:02 AM EDT

    ... to each one of those moves, hundreds of different ways that black can respond in turn to white's moves. And you get this enormous search tree with hundreds times hundreds times hundreds of possibilities. And, in fact, the search base of Go is too enormous and too vast for ...

  • Hunt for gold in Washington’s waterways dredges up conflict

    Hunt for gold in Washington’s waterways dredges up conflict

    Jan 26, 2016 02:16 AM EDT

    ... land, and that has to be part of how our agency achieves our mission. I don't think you can regulate your way to long-term healthy fish and wildlife resources in every circumstance. NILS COWAN: McDonald believes the increase in mining in already threatened fish habitat underscores the need ...

  • Age discrimination in the workplace starts as early as 35

    Age discrimination in the workplace starts as early as 35

    Jan 15, 2016 09:47 PM EDT

    Editor's Note: Older women workers now make up half of the long-term unemployed. For PBS NewsHour's latest Making Sen$e report, economics correspondent Paul Solman spoke with economist Joanna Lahey, an expert on age discrimination and the relationship between age and labor market outcomes, about the difficulty "older ...

  • Here’s where my 2015 predictions succeeded and failed

    Here’s where my 2015 predictions succeeded and failed

    Dec 30, 2015 05:27 PM EDT

    ... is true. A one-year timeframe is noisy, while a longer horizon allows you to zoom out, analyze overarching trends and look through the short-term cross currents that domineer the day. Looking further helps identify signal amidst short-term noise. For me, this works best if I deliberately evaluate ...

  • News Wrap: Survivor rescued from Shenzhen mudslide

    News Wrap: Survivor rescued from Shenzhen mudslide

    Dec 23, 2015 11:27 PM EDT

    In our news wrap Wednesday, there was a miraculous rescue in Shenzhen, China, where a devastating mudslide buried part of an industrial park three days ago. Also, forecasters issued tornado warnings from Louisiana to Illinois just two days before Christmas.

  • What’s in that synthetic drug? An unknown grab-bag of toxic chemicals

    What’s in that synthetic drug? An unknown grab-bag of toxic chemicals

    Dec 23, 2015 12:26 AM EDT

    The synthetic drug Spice is known as "fake pot," but its effects are completely different from marijuana. The hard-to-detect substances are often made in foreign facilities with an ever-changing cocktail of chemicals, meaning you can never be sure of what you're taking. This year, poison control hotlines have seen a record number of calls across...

  • Music duo Pomplamoose take Do-It-Yourself to the next level

    Music duo Pomplamoose take Do-It-Yourself to the next level

    Dec 18, 2015 01:17 AM EDT

    Jack Conte and Nataly Dawn, who make up the musical duo Pomplamoose, explain in this ‎Brief But Spectacular take how they harness their fans' internet curiosity with their covers of Beyonce hits and behind-the-scenes videos.