Pew Research Center Staff

A majority of Americans say it is important to conduct stem-cell research.

In 2007, Latinos accounted for 40% of all sentenced federal offenders -- triple their share of the U.S. population.

Even when it's bad, most Americans want to know the latest on the economy.

A small majority says torture is rarely or never justified.

Since the 1980s, the number of U.S. wire services and newspapers covering Congress has fallen by 72%.

The most frequently used one-word descriptor of President Obama is intelligent.

Almost half of Americans say they would rather live in a different type of community from the one they're living in now.

The percentage of those ages 70 to 75 using the internet has nearly doubled, from 26% in 2005 to 46% in 2008.

While most Americans say they have friends of a different race, pluralities of whites, blacks and Hispanics say they only have a few.

Many of the Catholics who will be visiting their churches today, Ash Wednesday, to have their foreheads marked with ashen crosses, will be over age 65, a reflection of the fact that older Catholics are considerably more likely than their younger co-religionists to say they attend worship services regularly.