Short Reads

Australians go to the polls to choose a new government this week. Recent surveys show that public satisfaction with the economic direction of the country is falling.

Updated data on the legislative productivity of the 113th Congress is available here. As Congress gets ready to return from its August recess and address the pressing issue of whether to take action in Syria, it does so amid largely unfavorable views from the public. Seven-in-ten Americans have a “very” or “mostly” unfavorable opinion of […]

Are men losing interest in work? Male labor force participation rates in the United States have been in steady decline since at least 1950 while women’s labor market participation steadily rose before leveling off about a decade ago. Two recent analyses of U.S. Census data document this trend and offer some unexpected reasons why this […]

There is a widening gap in support for legal abortion between New England (75%) and the South Central states (40%).

About half of Americans have a favorable view of labor unions, up 10 percentage points since 2011.

Using documents obtained from former intelligence contractor Edward Snowden, The Washington Post has published the first-ever detailed look at the U.S. government’s intelligence spending — the “black budget,” so called because, though the overall spending figure has been made public since 2007, the specifics have not. For its combination of newsworthiness, clear and efficient presentation […]

Although household-income growth for African-Americans has outpaced that of whites since the 1960s, those gains haven't led to any narrowing of the wealth gap between the races.

The UN Security Council failed Wednesday to reach agreement on a British-sponsored resolution authorizing approval of taking action against Syria for its alleged use of chemical weapons. A 2011 Pew Research poll found publics in most countries surveyed did not support the principle of obtaining UN approval first.

Six-in-ten Americans say that the federal government should not enforce its marijuana laws in states that permit use.

As the number of Latinos attending college has surged in recent years, a new analysis of Census data finds wide variances by state in the share of Latino adults who have a bachelor’s degree. Overall, the District of Columbia has the highest college degree attainment rate among Hispanic adults, with 36.2% of those ages 25 […]