Violent Crime Is Dropping, But Americans Feel Less Safe.
Fast forward a couple of years – and things look very different. According to crime analyst Jeff Asher, “2023 featured one of the lowest rates of violent crime in the US in more than 50 years.”
In big cities and small, from the East coast to the West, violence has dropped dramatically.
Despite a significant and measurable drop in violent crime, Americans feel less safe. According to a Gallup poll released in November, more than three quarters of Americans believe there’s more crime in the country than there was last year.
We explore the reasons why the good news on crime isn’t getting through.
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Is Fox News Still A Republican Kingmaker?
Nearly three decades later, many Republicans perceive Fox as the de facto kingmaker for all kinds of Republican candidates — including presidential.
That kingmaker status brought Fox News power, ratings and billions in profits and has spawned a succession of imitators and competition.
But for Fox, that synergy with Trump and the Republicans has come with significant risk and significant consequences.
Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox for defamation after network anchors amplified Trump’s false election claims. The company settled, at a cost of nearly $790 million.
Nevertheless, Fox News still has the power to shape Republican politics as the country heads into another presidential election cycle. But is that power diminished in 2024?
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Impeaching Mayorkas: High Crimes and Misdemeanors Or Politics As Usual?
House republicans are trying to advance articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. They say he has refused to comply with the law and has breached the trust of the public.
Meanwhile President Biden is describing the U.S. immigration system as broken.
All this is playing out as a government funding bill is tied to the border and a presidential election is months away.
With 3 Soldiers Dead, The U.S. Tries to Avoid Direct Conflict With Iran
How the U.S. responds could determine whether the country enters another full scale war. We ask National Security Council spokesperson, John Kirby, what comes next.
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What Would The Economy Look Like If Donald Trump Gets A Second Term?
When he gave his final State of the Union address in February 2020, employers had added more than six million jobs, unemployment was at three-and-a-half percent and the stock market was soaring.
But by March all of that ended as coronavirus spread rapidly across the globe.
Donald Trump is poised to capture the Republican presidential nomination. As president, some of his economic policies came out of the traditional Republican playbook. But other policies were more populist, more nativist and more unpredictable.
NPR’s Scott Detrow speaks with Chief Economics Correspondent Scott Horsley about what might change, and what might stay the same, under a second Trump administration.
How Do You Win An Oscar? It’s More Complicated Than You Think
US troops in the Middle East face a growing challenge
That could have consequences for American troops in the Middle East. Recently, U.S. forces have been attacked in Iraq by Iran-backed militias, for example.
Host Ari Shapiro speaks with NPR’s Jane Arraf in Amman, Jordan and NPR Pentagon correspondent Tom Bowman about what all this could mean for troops in the region.
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In Israel, Anger At Netanyahu Getting Louder
For decades, Netanyahu has sold himself as a leader who would keep Israelis safe.
Instead, one of the world’s strongest militaries failed to protect its citizens from a long-planned, Mad Max style invasion – with attackers from Gaza coming in on motorcycles, pickup trucks and hang gliders. Israeli authorities say 1,200 people were killed October 7th and more than 200 taken hostage.
Netanyahu promised an investigation after the war with Hamas, but public outrage has grown louder in recent days.
Now as public outrage grows in Israel, Netanyahu’s future seems all but certain. And that future is inseparable from the future of Israel’s war with Hamas, or an eventual peace in Gaza.
Trump Brings Back Birtherism Taunts
That means Trump’s fire is concentrated on Haley — a daughter of Indian immigrants. And he’s using that heritage to try to undermine Haley’s candidacy, and stoke concern about her legitimacy for the presidency.
For the record, that concern is unfounded – Haley, as the Constitution dictates, is a natural-born US citizen.
NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly and Senior Editor and Correspondent Domenico Montanaro dissect the reasons WHY Trump keeps returning to this particular political playbook.
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