
How the National Weather Service Issues Warnings
Each severe weather alert carries a precise meaning set by one agency. Knowing the difference between a watch and a warning can change what you do next.

Each severe weather alert carries a precise meaning set by one agency. Knowing the difference between a watch and a warning can change what you do next.

The national debt is the running total of what the federal government owes its lenders. It is held by the government itself, private investors, and foreign countries.

The rules a department writes reach farther than any law Congress passes this year.

An executive order runs the executive branch. It cannot write law, spend money, or survive a court that says it exceeds the president's authority.

The field's most practical textbook came from a political scientist who insisted that the best of the feasible is the best you get.

Civic duties are what the law asks of you; constitutional guarantees are what the law owes you — and the two are not the same thing.