Lab Report: The Drug That's Fueling Cities' Opioid Crisis

The fentanyl scourge: In 25 of the nation’s largest urban areas, overdose deaths from fentanyl—the manmade narcotic that’s about 50 times stronger than heroin—increased nearly 600 percent from 2014 to 2016, according to a Washington Post analysis that shows New York City, Chicago, and areas in Pennsylvania have seen the largest spikes. The Post reports on the problem in Philadelphia:

Nearly bankrupt: Despite its unusually high property taxes, Connecticut’s capital city of Hartford is now teetering on the edge of bankruptcy—a stark symbol, The New York Times writes, of “the gulf between the affluent enclaves that drive Connecticut’s wealth and its larger cities that have long grappled with high crime, underperforming schools and unsure financial footing.”