Category: Politics

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY SCHERER / GETTY IMAGES There was nothing overtly biased about the way the Wilkes-Barre Township Police Department described a mugging on its Facebook page in February 2019. The first post simply described a Black suspect who was alleged to have threatened a victim with a gun and demanded cash in this […]

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY EMILY SCHERER / GETTY IMAGES In the second half of 2021, housing prices rose faster in Florida than in any other state. In some cities, rents soared by as much as 30 percent that summer. This put an enormous strain on families living in Florida and already struggling to pay rent, especially […]

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES Welcome to Pollapalooza, our weekly polling roundup. Last Saturday, a Norfolk Southern freight train derailed in Springfield, Ohio, taking out power for over 1,000 people and prompting authorities to issue a temporary shelter-in-place order for nearby residents. And no, this wasn’t the one that generated headlines with images […]

The Details Longtime readers of FiveThirtyEight are probably familiar with our pollster ratings: letter grades that we assign to pollsters based on their historical accuracy and transparency. Since 2008, we have been evaluating pollsters and using these ratings to inform both the public and our models about the quality of individual polls. Over the years, […]

Transcript Nathaniel Rakich: The death of polling has been greatly exaggerated. After the 2016 and 2020 elections, when the polls had a rough year, a lot of people wanted to leave them for dead. But in 2022, polls had one of their most accurate election cycles in recent history. But not all polls are created […]

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION BY FIVETHIRTYEIGHT / GETTY IMAGES Over the past 18 months, inflation has dominated our understanding of the pandemic economy. Americans have endured the highest yearly price increases in four decades, from soup to nuts — literally. Even now, as experts and forecasters worry that the economy might dip into recession, observers also remain […]

Transcript Santul Nerkar: Inflation in America is high. You’ve probably noticed when you’ve gone to the grocery store or gas station. But ordinary Americans aren’t the only ones unhappy with our current 6 percent inflation rate. The Federal Reserve isn’t thrilled, either. The number that the Fed would like to see — its target inflation […]

Celal Gunes / Anadolu Agency via Getty Images In their first full legislative sessions after the Supreme Court overruled Roe v. Wade, Republican state legislators are being pressed on what “pro-life” really means. There are plenty of bills focusing on abortion restrictions — particularly in the Republican-controlled states where abortion is still largely legal — […]

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, senior elections analyst):Last weekend, conservative activists and media members alike descended on Washington, D.C., for the Conservative Political Action Conference. But all is not well in CPAC-land. Matt Schlapp, the conference’s longtime chair, is facing allegations of groping and a […]

For the past eight months, Utah has been an unexpected haven for people seeking to end their pregnancies. After the Supreme Court overturned the constitutional right to abortion in their ruling on Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization in June 2022, nearby Idaho banned the procedure. Wyoming already only had one clinic left. But Utah’s […]