Communication Builds Our Community

Articles written by Stacker


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  • Childhood Vaccination Rates Drop Across 1,600 US Counties Including Polk

    Stacker, Amanda Geduld for The 74|Updated Jul 9, 2025

    Childhood vaccination rates have markedly declined across the U.S. since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new Johns Hopkins University study that shows that Polk is among the 78% of more than 2,000 counties reporting drops. The average immunization rate has fallen to 91% — below the 95% threshold needed for herd immunity. While existing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data has historically shown broadly declining measles-mumps-rubella vaccination r...

  • Keep Getting Texts About Unpaid Tolls?

    Stacker, Dan Ketchum for Spokeo|Updated Jul 9, 2025

    Keep getting texts about unpaid tolls? Here's what to know about the new E-ZPass scam According to Robokiller, Americans received 19.2 billion spam and scam texts in April 2025 alone — that comes out to about 63 spam texts for every person. There’s only one group of people who don’t think that’s too much, and they’re called scammers. Enter their latest racket, the E-ZPass scam, a toll scam that first rose to popularity in the spring this year. Because E-ZPass is so widely us...

  • Six years studying a deadly disease. One promising treatment. Then came Trump funding cuts.

    Stacker, Ainslie Cruickshank for The Narwhal|Updated Apr 29, 2025

    Researchers Cori Lausen and Maleen Mund step out of the warm spring sun and into a dimly lit workshop. The only light streams in through the doorway behind them and a few dusty windows. It's been a cool start to the season in the Lower Mainland, but some bats have already emerged from their winter hibernation. A couple dozen are roosting in cozy clusters in the rafters of this old, wood building near Hayward Lake, about 35 miles east of Vancouver, British Columbia, in Canada....

  • April Fools' Day: The Roots of our Silliest Holiday

    Stacker, Andrea Vale|Updated Apr 1, 2024

    People have always been stymied about the origins of April Fools' Day, dating all the way back to the late Middle Ages (as far as academics could confidently say). In 1760, the parody periodical Poor Robin's Almanac astutely asked a question on everyone's mind, including the line: "The First of April some do say/ Is set apart for all Fool's Day/ But why the people call it so/ Nor I nor they themselves do know." From its origins—whether in Ancient Rome, medieval England, or Ren...