Pew Charitable Trusts

Safe injection sites, which also connect clients to treatment programs and offer emergency care to reverse overdoses, exist in 27 cities in other parts of the world. Some have been around for decades.

The transparency the networks provide doesn’t come without conflict — over funding, what should be shown, and how lawmakers should behave when the cameras are rolling. Some legislators are hesitant to be in the glare of the camera, and securing funding leaves some networks at their mercy.

Initially, some objected to making naloxone widely available, arguing that it would simply enable more drug addicts to continue shooting up. Now that more Americans are dying of heroin and prescription painkiller overdoses than from homicides — roughly 28,000 people in 2014 — that argument rarely comes up.

Most of the machines, adopted by local governments after “hanging chads” left the 2000 presidential election in the balance for weeks, are at least a decade old. And they create a perilous situation: an equipment breakdown on Election Day could mean long lines, potentially leaving some people unable to vote.

Seven percent of community college dropouts leave because of an unplanned pregnancy, according to the American Association of Community Colleges.

Schools nationwide are reporting teacher shortages that go beyond the chronic struggle to fill positions at low-income schools and in subjects such as science and special education. Oklahoma, where education funding has been slashed, may be the hardest hit state.