Decisions and Organizations

M. thought she was doing the right thing. She had become dependent on opioids, but when she learned she was pregnant, she immediately tried to enroll in a medication assisted treatment (MAT) program.

Peter A. Nadosy is a pillar of the Wall Street establishment — he spent 27 years at Morgan Stanley, rising to vice chairman. He served a stint managing the endowment at Harvard, his alma mater, and he’s also a life trustee and member of the investment committee at Amherst College.

Trying to have a baby with the aid of modern reproductive technology can feel like visiting a gambling parlor with the highest possible stakes. So consider the pitch that many fertility clinics now put in front of people like Kristi and Carleton Chambers.

This article is part of Future Tense, a collaboration among Arizona State University, New America, and Slate. On Wednesday, Nov. 30, Future Tense will host an event in Washington, D.C., on the future of law enforcement technology. For more information and to RSVP, visit the New America website.

On his first day on the job in the Seattle Police Department, Mike Wagers was invited to an urgent meeting about transparency. It was July 28, 2014, little more than a week after Eric Garner was killed on Staten Island, less than two weeks before Michael Brown was killed in Ferguson, Mo.

Policies aimed at ending discrimination against people with criminal records may actually have the unintended consequence of increasing racial discrimination.

Some of the best business ideas are inspired by others, or so the wisdom of the crowd goes. That is leading more entrepreneurs to tap into other people’s brains — rather than just their pocketbooks — to test new products, set pricing and bring ideas to market faster.

SEATTLE — Some parents find peace of mind in the location-tracking features in smartphones that let them keep tabs on their children. There are also the dog owners who can rest easy knowing that hired dog walkers are doing their job, and that the dogs are doing their business.

What motivates agents in the social sector? Recent theoretical advances indicate that financial incentives might crowd out intrinsic motivation and reduce performance. This column describes a field experiment where hairdressers in Zambia were motivated in different ways to sell condoms.

The verdict in federal court in San Jose, Calif., is a setback for Gilead, whose drugs Sovaldi and Harvoni brought in $19.2 billion in worldwide sales last year. Merck has demanded more than $2 billion in damages and a royalty of 10 percent of Gilead’s sales going forward.

SAN FRANCISCO — After a third party went to the F.B.I. with claims of being able to unlock an iPhone, many in the security industry said they were not surprised that the third party did not go to Apple.

Last week, the District of Columbia Public Schools district announced major changes to its teacher evaluation program, called IMPACT. Again. Administrators have tweaked the program constantly since implementing it in 2009, mirroring a troubling national trend: The way teachers are graded in the U.S.

TWO of our most vital industries, health care and education, have become increasingly subjected to metrics and measurements. Of course, we need to hold professionals accountable. But the focus on numbers has gone too far. We’re hitting the targets, but missing the point.

LOS ANGELES — For the first time, tickets to Walt Disney World in Florida and Disneyland in California will cost more during holidays and some weekends — up to 20 percent more — than during slower periods, as the bursting-at-the-seams parks seek to spread out demand.

Where’s the loyalty? Starbucks is changing its My Starbucks Rewards loyalty program so that rewards are tied to dollars spent instead of number of visits. To no one’s surprise, some customers feel that the coffee house chain is less than loyal.

SAN FRANCISCO — One of Marissa Mayer’s signature policies as chief executive of Yahoo has been the quarterly performance review, in which every employee at the company is ranked on a scale of 1 to 5. The ratings have been used to fire hundreds of employees since Ms.