Ed Finkel

This guidebook for homeowners gave details on how to gradually, as time and money permit, upgrading and making more efficient one's home energy use. The steps invovled include energy audits and preparing your home with weatherization, electrifying your home with heat pump technology for heating and air conditioning, and electrifying other appliances like water heaters and dryers. The guidebook also gives a cost rundown and what to expect.

This article for a local news website traced how Evanston/Skokie School District 65 went from passing a $135.6 milion referendum to help fund schools for the next eight years to growing budget deficits by the end of that time-line. The article traces ups and downs of yearly budgets, school board elections, new superintendents, and a decision to build a new school for the district at a time of sharply declining enrollments.

This aricle profiled the optical systems technology program at Monroe Community College in Rochester, New York, which was founded in the 1960s, nearly closed in the mid-2010s when it had dwindled to five students despite more than 150 optics firms in the region, but since then has been revived. The program currently has 153 students, all of whom have jobs upon graduation if not before.

This article profiled the then-incoming president of the American Bar Association, Michelle Behnke, providing her background, career trajectory and previous bar involvement, as well as what she hoped to accopmlish during her year in leadership. The article also quotes several profile who have known and worked with her about why they thought she would be an excellent bar leader.

This short article provides ideas for educators on how to reengage K-12 students after they have been on winter break for two or three weeks. To a large degree, the recommendations involved tapping into similar strategies as those used at the beginning of the school year in August or September while updating classroom agreements and policies first laid out during that earlier time frame.

Profile of a mostly retired physician and Northwestern medical school alumnus who continues to do cleft palate surgeries at Shriners Children's Chicago hospital. The article talks about his background and career, what cleft palate surgery involves, how the Shriners team works, and why he finds this type of work so rewarding.

This article covered examples of sustainable initiatives that are helping managers of multifamily apartment complexes reduce costs, safeguard the environment and attract new resdients, with everything from weatherization to solar rooftops. The motivations span the bottom-line focus on reducing costs to a more idealistic desire to build sustainable communities. Residents and prospective residents appreciate both.

This blog post surveyed several board member of NAIOP from across the country about the outlook for various segments of commercial real estate in their local areas and nationally, looking back to how things went in 2025 and what they foresaw for 2026. Interest rates, availability of power generation and the costs of commercial insurance were among their top concerns.

This blog post covered a session at the IFT FIRST conference about how food scientists can science denial and misinformation in the age of social media and online influencers. This involves piercing echo chambers and validating people's concerns without validating their misinformation, attempting to relate to them before providing a barrage of facts.