Up For Discussion

Can Cash and Cooperation Save the Colorado River?

How Businesses, Governments, and Conservationists Can Get Water Flowing Again Throughout the Southwest

In the Southwest, even a place like Las Vegas’ Caesars Palace relies on the Colorado River, which is responsible for $1.4 trillion in annual economic activity across the region. After 15 years of drought, the hotel-casino is now saving 30 million gallons of water a year by using a car wash-like laundry to clean its linens and towels.

If river flow continues to decline, it will be an economic as well as an ecological disaster affecting everyone from the maids at Caesars to the endangered humpback chub.

In advance of …

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A Humbler California Dream

Previous Generations Fantasized About Gold and Cheap Land. A New Generation of Californians Wants Upward Mobility, Environmental Responsibility, and Better Schools.

California has long been seen as a beautiful land of opportunity—a place where the sun is always shining and anything is possible. For many generations, people have flocked here to …

Women and the Myth of the American West

The Frontier Offered Opportunities for Land Ownership and Artistic Inspiration—But Life There Wasn’t Without Struggle

In the American imagination, the rugged, vast landscapes of the West are dotted with solitary men on horseback—cowboys, outlaws, sheriffs. But the frontier was also home to women whose stories …

Can the City of Lights Solve the Traffic Woes of the City of Angels?

Looking to Paris and Other Global Cities to Help Southern California Get Moving

In London, tourists happily buy T-shirts and mugs with the city’s iconic Underground logo or “Mind the Gap” slogan. The New York subway’s signage for famous stops like Grand Central …

Is There Anything Exciting About Buying Health Insurance?

Convincing the Uninsured to Sign Up for Obamacare Isn't an Easy Task, But Someone's Got to Do It

When Obamacare’s second open enrollment period started in November, leaders of Covered California (the state’s insurance marketplace) got on the road, spreading the word about health insurance options campaign-style: on …

How Do We Keep New Teachers From Flunking?

Push Student Teachers Harder, Stick with Them Once They’re in the Classroom, and Integrate Them Into Their Schools' Communities

Teaching elementary or high school is not an easy job. But teaching teachers is tricky, too. Teacher preparation programs have to strike a delicate balance between theory and practice. And …


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