For the fourth consecutive year, civil filings are growing faster than criminal filings, widening a trend that first emerged as courts recovered from pandemic-era disruptions. The growth in civil filings is concentrated within a relatively small number of case categories. At the same time, courts may be seeing the first signs of a slowing post-pandemic recovery, as clearance rates decline after several years of improvement. Since 2021, courts across the country have devoted considerable effort toward resolving pandemic-era backlogs. Enhanced case management practices, expanded hearing options, and operational innovations helped many state court jurisdictions process cases faster than they were receiving them. While total filings continue to evolve, the most notable story emerging from early 2025 data is not simply that civil caseloads are increasing. Rather, the growth is concentrated within specific types of cases, particularly contract disputes, small claims matters, and debt collection-related litigation. These case categories now account for much of the growth observed across participating states, which include Arizona, California, Florida, Ohio, and Texas.

Moral injury is the psychological injury that follows perpetrating, witnessing, or failing to prevent acts that violate one’s deepest moral beliefs. It is widespread, debilitating, and under-recognized among Texas first responders. It frequently is comorbid with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but is rooted in shame, guilt, and betrayal of trust rather than fear, and requires a different response. This article presents findings from a survey of Texas first responders, predominantly active-duty officers and firefighters from the Fort Worth Police and Fire Departments, Dallas Police and Fire Rescue, and the Dallas Fort Worth Airport, Department of Public Safety. Key findings include that 62.6% of Texas first responders surveyed had experienced a morally injurious event; half of those screened positive for probable PTSD. More than half reported numbness or detachment from people and surroundings, which is an established risk factor for suicide. Lastly, the newest responders, in their first three years on the job, showed the highest distress of any tenure cohort.

This article analyzes a structural defect of English criminal procedure whereby the examination of an accused’s mental state and culpable disposition is made contingent on the tactical choices of the defense rather than on any judicial duty to establish the material truth. Using the two case studies— Lucy Letby (R v Letby, 2023) as a case study, it shows how the adversarial model — in combination with the archaic M’Naghten Rules (1843), a narrowly cognitive test of insanity, and the imposition of the burden of proof on the accused — creates a “zone of invisibility” (institutional blindness): a category of defendants whose diagnosable mental disorders remain unexamined precisely because the nature of those disorders precludes the defense from being raised. The English model is compared with the Russian (continental) construction of sanity and with the institution of compulsory forensic psychiatric examination ordered ex officio. Researchers argue that this defect is not an inevitable property of criminal justice but an institutional choice of the adversarial system.

Income-driven repayment plans calculate monthly payments based on income, matching the path of payments to the path of earnings over a career and providing student loan borrowers some insurance in the event of unexpectedly low earnings. Recent years have been a tumultuous time for the student loan program. The pandemic-related payment pause, the introduction of the short-lived federal Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) plan, and the litigation that ended it have created confusion for borrowers. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), enacted in July 2025, made important changes to the student loan program, reducing how much graduate and professional students and parents can borrow and overhauling how borrowers repay their loans. This could simplify the system considerably, but the transition will be a real challenge for a significantly downsized Federal Student Aid. After the transition, multiple repayment options will be replaced with just two: a new tiered standard plan (with repayment terms ranging from 10 years for balances under $25,000 to 25 years for balances of $100,000 or more) and a single new income-driven repayment plan called the Repayment Assistance Plan. Older plans will be phased out over time.

As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, civic learning is in the national spotlight. Researchers surveyed hundreds of school districts to understand the state of civic learning in public K-12 education. Survey findings suggest that additional supports for students and teachers are needed to move students from knowing the basics of civics to participating in civics learning and practice within their communities. For example, although 90% of surveyed district leaders reported embedding civics in a required academic class, only 35% of districts offered optional experiential civics opportunities and only 13% required them. Also per survey respondents, teacher training on civics education is far more likely to cover state standards than civics skills, instructional materials, or how to facilitate discussion of controversial topics. Respondents reported that teachers need support with not only understanding civics standards or curriculum, but also translating those standards into meaningful learning experiences for students. The authors conclude that if districts want students to apply civic knowledge and demonstrate civic skills, they must build the conditions to support deeper engagement and alignment with standards: clear goals, shared instructional materials, teacher training, and structured opportunities for students to practice civic skills.

Dropping out of high school is often characterized as a form of "economic death sentence" as the shift towards a knowledge-based economy has made low-education jobs scarcer and less financially viable. The authors conducted a large-scale experiment (n=2,528) to test the effectiveness of a comprehensive, school-based support program designed to improve high school graduation rates among students at elevated risk of dropout in two urban, disadvantaged school districts. While the overall effect on graduation rates was small and statistically insignificant, the authors exploited the unusual scale of the experiment to explore key aspects of program implementation and heterogeneity in impact, finding notable variation by site and over time. For example, in one of the two participating districts, assignment to the program had a large and positive, though only weakly statistically significant, impact on high school graduation for one cohort, followed by a negative impact for a subsequent cohort entering just one year later. The authors note several implications for findings, including the difficulty of consistently maintaining the quality of more complex programs on a larger scale across contexts and time and the potential risks of drawing conclusions from smaller-scale – often single site, single year – program evaluations.

The U.S. Department of State manages housing for over 9,000 Foreign Service employees living overseas with a goal of providing housing comparable to what an employee would occupy in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. This report examines the extent to which the department updates its overseas housing standards to ensure they align with its goal of providing adequate housing, adheres to its overseas housing standards at posts, and the challenges the department faces in adhering to its overseas housing standards at selected posts. Key findings include that the department last updated its standards for overseas housing space in 1991 and they may no longer align with department goals. In addition, the department’s method for measuring overseas housing does not align with the domestic industry standards typically followed by U.S. housing appraisers which may prevent the department from comparing its overseas housing to housing in the D.C. area. The department’s posts largely adhered to overseas housing cost and space standards, with 87% and 81% of units meeting those standards, respectively. Lastly, department officials from the three select posts–Côte d’Ivoire, France, and Thailand—identified various challenges that limited their ability to provide and manage overseas foreign service housing. The challenges included resource constraints, limited suitable housing, and disparate systems tracking housing data.

A nationally representative survey found that Americans’ opposition to data centers in their communities has risen in the past four months. The survey, by the Annenberg Public Policy of the University of Pennsylvania, was conducted among a nationally representative sample of 1,320 U.S. adult citizens in the summer of 2026. The survey found that approximately 3 in 5 U.S. adults (61%) oppose the construction of new data centers in their area, up 12 percentage points from a similar survey conducted in February and March. Opposition to data centers crosses party lines and is highest among younger adults, with majorities of Democrats (69%), Republicans (54%), independents (53%), and those under 30 (70%) opposed to new local data centers. Americans’ broader views of artificial intelligence (AI), however, have remained stable. The share of survey respondents saying that AI’s impact on the United States over the next 10 years will be somewhat or very negative was 39%, statistically unchanged from the prior survey. Two-thirds (68%) continue to say the government has done “too little” to regulate AI. Thus, changes in attitudes toward data centers and artificial intelligence were concentrated in what respondents think about the physical infrastructure of a data center being built near their home.

Large numbers of Americans experience mental illness or substance use disorder. Integrating mental health and/or substance use services with medical care recognizes the overlap in populations affected by these conditions and the benefits of addressing these health issues through a comprehensive care strategy. This paper outlines the evolving landscape of integrated care in the U.S., including established frameworks that emphasize interdisciplinary teams, clear communication systems, and care coordination across providers. Key findings include that integrating mental health and/or substance use services with medical care recognizes the overlap in populations affected by these conditions and the benefits of addressing these health issues through a comprehensive care strategy. However, structural constraints have impeded the more comprehensive transformations to the health system needed to ensure that mental health, substance use, and other medical conditions are identified and treated in an intentional and coordinated approach.

Caffeinated products are increasingly available to youth. Guidelines for safe levels of caffeine intake are based on adults and have not been established through research including children. Caffeine consumption may disrupt sleep, and many caffeinated products consumed by youth contain high levels of added sugar, which may increase the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cavities. This report provides estimates of the percentage of youth ages 2–19 who consumed caffeine on a given day during August 2021–August 2023. Key findings include that during August 2021–August 2023, 62.6% of youth consumed caffeine on a given day. Children ages 2–5 were less likely to consume caffeine than other age groups, and no differences were seen between boys and girls. On average, youth consumed 19.4 mg of caffeine on a given day, and mean intake increased with age: 5.0 mg for ages 2–5, 12.0 mg for ages 6–11, and 30.7 mg for ages 12–19. The top five sources of caffeine consumed by youth included both food and beverage items, including sweet bakery products and soda. Youth consumed most caffeinated products at home (67.8%) and most caffeinated products were purchased from grocery stores (65.6%).

Hypertension (high blood pressure) affects more than 100 million U.S. adults and a billion adults worldwide. High blood pressure, which is often asymptomatic, can cause severe heart, brain, kidney, and eye problems. Effective interventions include medicating and maintaining a healthy lifestyle: limiting salt intake, keeping and monitoring a healthy weight, and participating in physical activity each week. A new study of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults found that having high blood pressure is associated with greater intentions to follow doctors’ recommendations to take medication but lesser intentions to make recommended lifestyle changes relative to those without high blood pressure. The authors also found that the beliefs traditionally used to explain health behaviors do better at predicting intentions to take medication than intentions to adopt healthier habits such as exercising, maintaining a healthy weight, eating a nutritious diet, and reducing salt intake. Findings suggest that while patients being treated for high blood pressure recognize the importance of medication more than people without hypertension, motivating patients to make additional lifestyle changes may require approaches that address factors beyond traditional health beliefs.