On the most dangerous streets of Los Angeles, Calif., “gun violence equals gang violence,” says Police Chief Charlie Beck of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). Six years ago the Mayor’s office and the LAPD came up with an innovative way to combat gang violence with a program called “Summer Night Lights”. The program invites the entire community for a night of fun and food, and provides access to valuable resources like employment opportunities.

Late Saturday evening, a jury in Florida found George Zimmerman not-guilty of second degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin. While Zimmerman may have been acquitted, protesters around the country rallied against the decision and demanded federal intervention.

Faculty at DiLoreto School in New Britain, Conn., are facing push-back from their community after deciding to switch from a dual-language school to English-only classrooms.

In the Asian country of Myanmar, also known as Burma, farmers are facing the destruction of their family’s homeland as the government enters into numerous development contracts with large corporations in the race to develop the impoverished country. Farmlands that have been owned and farmed for generations will soon be high-tech food and textile factories.

Video games are one of the world’s fasting growing industries, now grossing about $80 billion a year in revenue, or roughly twice that of movies. Now the race is on for researchers to develop a fresh way to create new virtual realities. Many are hoping to find ways that games can have a positive impact on economic and social behavior.

A gold rush has opened up jobs for the desperately poor in the West African nation of Burkina Faso, but these lucrative opportunities have created a major risk for many children who work in the mines.

Wednesday morning, the Supreme Court issued two rulings on the ongoing debate over same-sex marriage. In a victory for gay rights activists, the Supreme Court extended benefits to legally married gay couples, but did not rule on the constitutionality of California’s ban on same-sex marriage.

Gay rights activists claimed victory Wednesday after the Supreme Court decided to strike down the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which denied legally married same-sex couples the same rights as their straight counterparts.

After 17 years underground, millions of periodical cicadas have emerged from their dark homes and invaded the East Coast, alerting everyone with a deafening hum.

Singapore is one of the world’s most populous cities, but the wealthy island metropolis that is home to more than five million people only grows about seven percent of the produce it consumes. This may be an extreme case, but a lack of local food is a problem for urban areas around the world, and with 80 percent of the world’s population expected to live in cities by 2050, a problem that will only grow larger.

In 1963, civil rights activist Medgar Evers was gunned down in front of his family home while his wife and children took cover inside. White supremacist Byron De La Beckwith was eventually convicted of murder, but only after a 30 year legal battle.