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Last November, the High Turnout Wide Margins team held a live event looking ahead to 2024’s election cycle.Hosts Brianna Lennon and Eric Fey spoke - for the first time – with Secretary of State-level election administrators: Gabriel Sterling in Georgia and Trey Grayson in Kentucky. They spoke about some of the things they’ve learned during their time working in elections.

Updated at 6:30 p.m. to add information on mercury pollution. A new report released today puts both Missouri and Illinois among the top 20 states with the most toxic air pollution from power plants. The Natural Resources Defense Council report ranked Missouri 15th and Illinois 16th nationwide, based on 2010 data from the Environmental Protection Agency, the most recent data available. Although their relative rankings changed little from the year before, the NRDC's clean air director John Walke says both states actually reduced their emissions. "That reflects a 20 percent drop in power plants' toxic pollution in Missouri, and a 16 percent reduction from that sector in Illinois," Walke said. "So those are impressive reductions." About a million pounds less air pollution in each state. Walke says that’s also good news for our region’s water and fish, which are contaminated with mercury – a power plant pollutant. “It builds up in water bodies through a process called bioaccumulation, but once you reduce it, you can actually see a pretty substantial recovery.” Exposure to mercury can cause developmental problems - pregnant women and children are most at risk. The U.S. EPA set limits on mercury emissions from power plants late last year, but they won’t go into effect until at least 2015. Walke says that nationally, air pollution from the electric sector has dropped as plants have installed pollution controls or switched from coal to natural gas. Missouri still gets more than 80 percent of its electricity from coal; Illinois gets close to half of its energy from nuclear power. Follow Véronique LaCapra on Twitter: @KWMUScience

NPR's senior education correspondent offers his predictions for the big stories in K-12 and higher education.

It's time for the press screenings of Les Miserables. They're embargoed after they happen, but we can share what we won't be doing.

A fan is a fan is a … fanatic. Which is to say that niceties won’t be necessary this weekend for those obviously obsessed with such things as St....

Alistair Campbell, British Prime Minister Tony Blair's top media strategist, steps down amid accusations that he helped exaggerate evidence on Iraq's weapons programs. The British media had dubbed Campbell the "real deputy prime minister." Campbell cites family reasons for his resignation. Hear NPR's Guy Raz.

Companies at the center of the deadly prescription opioid epidemic are close to deals that would cap their liability while funding drug treatment and recovery programs.

Catch up on key developments and the latest in-depth coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.