Affordable Care
Kaiser Family Foundation | READ STORY

Three years into discussion of the Affordable Care Act, a majority of American voters still feel that they are too under-informed to know how the bill will affect them. The Kaiser Family Foundation's March 2013 Tracking Poll shows that attitudes toward the ACA remain divided roughly evenly across party lines.

Working Mothers, Working Fathers

Pew Research | READ STORY

This study by Pew Social & Demographic Trends presents data on the changing relationship between mothers and fathers at work and in the household. In dual-income households, 59% of mothers and 58% of fathers report spending part of their time on paid work, housework and child care. The data also shows that the division of labor between parents is more equal under such circumstances than in single-income homes.

Government Benefits
New York Times | READ STORY

This interactive tool, presented by the New York Times, displays the geographical distribution of individual dependence on government benefit programs for each decade between 1969 and 2009, showing that the share of personal income collected from benefit programs has more than doubled during this period.

Texting and Talking While Driving
Atlantic Cities | READ STORY

The Atlantic reports on a recent study by the CDC, showing that Americans are more likely to risk an accident by talking on the phone while driving than are of those polled from outside the United States. Americans showed the highest likelihood of both texting and talking while driving.

Birth and Death in Rural America
Daily Yonder | READ STORY

The Daily Yonder reports on the declining post-recession birth-rate in the U.S., noting that nearly half of all rural counties are "dying," meaning that they saw more deaths than births between June of 2011 and July of 2012. Because of rural areas' generally older population, they suffered a disproportionate share of the year's deaths: 21%, despite being home to only 16.4% of the population.

Metro Population Change
Governing | READ STORY

Governing.com presents an interactive map that displays comparative population change data for a number of metropolitan areas, including Billings, Great Falls, and Missoula. The data shows that most of the fastest-growing metropolitan areas are in the South and Western regions of the country.