In 2016, nearly all major metropolitan areas voted for Hillary Clinton, including the counties that generate nearly two-thirds of the U.S. economy. In 2018, voters in the nation’s big blue metros returned Democrats to the majority in the House and drove the party’s senate pick-ups in Arizona and Nevada. They also secured gubernatorial victories in several other states. Suburbs in particular played an outsized role in the blue shift.

A U.S. map peppered with red and blue has become the unofficial logo of the presidential election in recent years. But it hasn’t always been that way, and, like much in politics, it’s a bit more complicated.

A U.S. map peppered with red and blue has become the unofficial logo of the presidential election in recent years. But it hasn’t always been that way, and, like much in politics, it’s a bit more complicated.

Unidentified hackers recently stole thousands of children’s private information from Clark County School District computers and we know little or nothing of how this happened. This theft of sensitive personal information raises questions as to the security vulnerabilities created by the five tech giants (Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft) and their hold over consumers’ data.

Over the last several years, education policymakers and school leaders have worked to rein in excessively punitive school discipline practices. Motivated by concerns about disproportionality in discipline rates and the consequences of harsh discipline, they have limited the use of suspension and expulsion, especially for young children. It’s been among the most active areas of state and district education policymaking, while also attracting the attention of federal policymakers.

For years, the Southwest shimmered like a mirage to Democrats thirsting for a political breakthrough in the desert.

According to an analysis by CNN, Republican losses in the U.S. Southwest have accelerated during the presidency of Donald Trump to the point where the GOP could become the minority party in states that have long been GOP strongholds.

Bob Aggarwal is a rare species in this year’s U.S. presidential election: an undecided voter.

For generations, redlining was used to designate neighborhoods—typically in urban areas with high concentrations of minority residents—as places banks should avoid offering home mortgages. The term originates from Federal Housing Administration maps developed in the 1930s where “red” labeled high-risk lending zones. To be “redlined” meant that households were structurally denied home loans and lost the opportunity to build wealth.

For generations, redlining was used to designate neighborhoods—typically in urban areas with high concentrations of minority residents—as places banks should avoid offering home mortgages. The term originates from Federal Housing Administration maps developed in the 1930s where “red” labeled high-risk lending zones. To be “redlined” meant that households were structurally denied home loans and lost the opportunity to build wealth.

It's an election year like no other. Most people in Nevada are expected to mail their ballots in. Election officials will have a lot of signatures to process. It’s a measure to verify voters, but it could cause your ballot to get rejected or challenged.

In this special edition of the podcast, Bill Finan—director of the Brookings Institution Press—talks with two of the authors of a new Brookings press book that explores America’s current political division from demographic and geographic perspectives. David Damore, Robert Lang, and Karen Danielsen, all professors at the University of Nevada Las Vegas, are co-authors of Blue Metros, Red States: The Shifting Urban-Rural Divide in America’s Swing States. Damore and Lang join Finan for this episode in which they address some of the factors that tend to make large metropolitan areas lean Democratic while existing in a sea of rural areas that are largely Republican. And, how do states like Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Texas—with both large urban areas and widespread rural areas—express this red-blue divide between rural and metropolitan areas? Listen also to find out which two counties in America could indicate which way the election is going on November 3.