MSNBC Democratic Debate: Live Coverage

How inside the beltway is the Trans-Pacific Partnership as an issue? According to Google Trends, there are twice as many searches per capita for the trade deal in Washington, D.C., than in any of the 50 states.

Economists are split on the economic benefits of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the big trade agreement known as the TPP. A team of economists from Tufts University recently concluded that the trade deal would destroy jobs and worsen income inequality. Earlier this week, however, the Peterson Institute for International Economics, a Washington think tank, released what was probably the most in-depth analysis of the TPP’s impact to date. The institute, which is typically pro-trade, found that the deal would increase U.S. exports, raise incomes and boost the economy as a whole.

To understand how the water in Flint got so dangerous, and the public-health impacts so potentially enormous, that the crisis merited a question in the debate, see this FiveThirtyEight article by Anna Maria Barry-Jester, with graphics by Ritchie King.