Focus on Arts and Ecology

That data point only hints at the uncertainty U.S. families faced this year as the financial effects of COVID-19 deepened—as shown in these Pew Research Center findings from August:

• One in 4 U.S. adults have had trouble paying their bills since the start of the pandemic.
• One-third have dipped into savings or retirement accounts to make ends meet.
• About 1 in 6 have borrowed money from friends or family or have gotten food from a food bank.

This pandemic-era presidential election brought new challenges—and solutions. In the end, the Pew Research Center found, voters generally agreed on a few points:

• Seventy-seven percent of voters said casting a ballot was "very easy," despite anticipated issues.
• Fifty-nine percent of all voters said elections in the United States were well run.
• Ninety percent of voters think elections in their community were well run.

Breakdown: See how post-election views compare across demographics and party lines.

The use of police, jails, and emergency rooms as the default reaction in the U.S. to people in crisis is costly and can limit access to evidence-based treatments.

Some states are taking a new approach:

• A Dallas initiative has been teaming police officers with social workers and paramedics to connect people with the help they need.
• New programs in Miami have led to a substantial drop in jail bookings since 2008—and taxpayer savings.

• Most of the increase was among 18- to 24-year-olds.
• Racial and ethnic differences in the share of young adults living with parents have narrowed over time.

• More than 2,000 of the 3,143 counties in the U.S. have no daily local newspaper.
• Nearly 2,100 newspapers have closed in this country since 2004.

States can shorten probation and protect public safety at the same time. Our analysis this year uncovered plenty of opportunities to do just that:

• Many Americans on probation serve longer terms than necessary for public safety.
• Maximum allowable probation sentences vary substantially across states, and few states have statutes that provide for early release.
• The average total time spent on probation declined nationally between 2000 and 2018. But in 28 states, it increased.

America's National Park System faces billions of dollars' worth of overdue maintenance. But thanks to the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act, enacted Aug. 4, up to $6.65 billion in nontaxpayer funds will be directed toward priority repairs over five years.

By the numbers

• It's the biggest investment in U.S. national parks in nearly 65 years.
• By addressing the repair backlog, the act is projected to generate 100,000 new park-related jobs.
• The act also allocates nearly $3 billion for national forests, Bureau of Land Management lands, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Education schools over five years, and it fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund in perpetuity.