WGCU Public Media

1 day ago | wgcu.org | Clark Merrefield

Unlocked is a new series focused on explaining U.S. federal government systems, structures, and processes. This SNAP explainer is part of that series, which is produced by The Journalist’s Resource and the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, where JR is housed. In late May, House Republicans voted to send legislation to the Senate -- the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” -- with trillions of dollars worth of federal tax breaks and extended tax cuts.

3 days ago | wgcu.org | Laura Cassels

The Trump Administration is cutting personnel and funding for federal agencies such as the National Weather Service and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as hurricane season 2025 begins. But wait! Artificial intelligence is rolling out lightning-fast data-crunching powers that can fill in for some of the missing meteorologists and emergency managers. But wait! Those AI platforms rely on precise data to perform their miracles.

6 days ago | wgcu.org | Tom Bayles

For those hitting the beach on this first unofficial summer weekend after Memorial Day, there’s a decent chance that when you get done ridding your shorts of all that sand, similar grains will waft down from the sky. It’s not sand, exactly, but it was in the Sahara Desert a few days earlier. How the microns-wide dust particles get from there to here is an amazing voyage. To follow the remarkable journey of a Saharan dust cloud has definite Hollywood potential.

1 week ago | wgcu.org | Tom Hall

Brett Marston is an actor’s director. He approaches every script from an actor’s perspective. But when Artistic Director Scott Lilly asked Marston to take a look at John Patrick Shanley’s “Prodigal Son” for the Golden Gate Community Center production, it wasn’t to have him direct, but rather play the role of Carl Schmitt, the stern headmaster of Thomas More Prep School. “I didn’t know the play at the time,” said Marston.” But I knew the playwright.

1 week ago | wgcu.org | Jessica Meszaros

Journalist Charlie Whitehead can be found sitting in his front yard outside his motor home. The tall man with salt and pepper hair and wide, red suspenders attached to blue jeans has lived in the town of Fort Myers Beach for 40 years. And the yard is on the same lot his grandparents bought back in 1966. The property is surrounded by water with a bay that connects to the Gulf out front, and a manmade saltwater canal out back.