In McDowell County, West Virginia people are dying of overdoses at a rate twenty times higher than the rest of America. The rising body count is a side-effect of the skyrocketing use of legal narcotics.

Architecture students head to Bluff, Utah, to build Earth-friendly homes for Navajo in need.

Many police departments hope "predictive policing" can forecast patterns of where crime occurs using computer algorithms.

The bottom-of-the-pyramid marketing movement tries to profit the developing world and make a profit at the same time.

"Treme" is not another cop show. Even though police, drugs, and prisons figure into Treme's several braided and branching storylines, the HBO series' central concern is a unique segment of New Orleans's working class: musicians, and what they mean for the city.

An extraordinary plan to revive the Dead Sea could ease tensions among Israel, Palestine and Jordan. Or it could create an environmental disaster.

Every day, all over America, police cut dubious deals, coercing small-time offenders into working as "criminal informants."

Why is the West Bank's most notorious militant hotbed being touted as a model of Israeli-Palestinian cooperation?

The 21st century's ubiquitous communications tools are turning up in prisons around the world.

What will the tanking economy mean for clean tech?

Freezing ovum offers women the chance to add years to their fertility -- but with no guarantees.

It's both encouraging and appalling that Obama's getting a pass for doing something that has gotten thousands of other Americans thrown in jail.

The satisfying pop of a cork is giving way to the unglamorous crink-crank of a metal top. That's upsetting not just to tradition-minded wine drinkers, but to environmentalists as well.

Though a majority of Americans back capital punishment, surveys find growing unease over it.

Almost every raid on illegal immigrants inflicts collateral damage.

America is no closer to catching Osama, but it is doing a historic job of busting potheads.

The latest advances in booze detection devices.

With a full-time staff of dozens, including consultants fluent in Spanish, Filipino, Creole and several dialects of Chinese, the Burke Group may be America's leading union-busting firm.

Vancouver has essentially become a gigantic field-test for harm reduction policies.

Don't stop by and visit the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, America's only underground repository for military-generated radioactive waste.