State prison admissions fall, and more

State prison admissions fall

With states decriminalizing marijuana and scaling back 1970s-era drug laws, admissions to state prisons have fallen from 689,536 in 2006 to 553,843 in 2012. New York state alone has shut down 24 prison facilities since 2011.

USA Today

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Broadway's male audience dwindles

Only 32 percent of Broadway theater audiences last year were men, down from 42 percent in 1980, as producers struggle in particular to attract straight men. “Gay men remain a core part of the Broadway audience, even as we’ve lost other men,” said producer Kevin McCollum.

The New York Times

Urban population increases

Americans are moving to cities in ever-greater numbers. Between July 2012 and July 2013, the number of people living in metropolitan areas increased by 2.3 million, to a total of 270 million. Rural areas, meanwhile, saw their population drop by 35,000 people.

The Washington Post

Using taxpayer money for private schools

Through voucher programs, 14 states funnel nearly $1 billion a year in taxpayer money to private schools, including religious schools that teach that the world is 6,000 years old, Adam and Eve coexisted with dinosaurs, and most of modern biology, geology, and cosmology is a lie.

Politico.com

The fate of journal articles

About 1.8 million scholarly articles and scientific papers are published each year in 28,000 journals. As many as half of these articles are not read by anyone beyond the author and the journal’s editor, and 90 percent are not cited in other papers.

Smithsonian.com