Artwork stating 'Education Destroys Barriers', 'We Demand Treatment', and 'I Need A Chance'

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  • Manhattan Mental Health Court offers lifeline to those with serious mental illness — but they have to get in

    November 14, 2020 |

    New York Daily News |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, New York, New York

    Manhattan Mental Health Court was created in 2011 to divert felony criminal cases to treatment, and away from prison, for people in need of mental health treatment. But few people with serious mental illness ever benefit from it. Too few defense lawyers know to request the intervention or do it correctly. Prosecutors act as gatekeepers in deciding who gets the help, and many do not see its value. And, once cases are admitted to the court, they can sometimes take years to be resolved. Covid restrictions on the courts have only aggravated these problems.

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  • Disinvested: How Government and Private Industry Let the Main Street of a Black Neighborhood Crumble

    November 11, 2020 |

    ProPublica |

    Text |

    Over 3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

    A series of government programs designed to rebuild a neighborhood badly damaged by the 1968 Chicago uprising not only failed to achieve their goal, but actually made it worse. Hundreds of businesses in the Madison Street area of Chicago's West side were destroyed in days of rioting. Programs that emphasized clearing "blight" over building anew left vacant lots where new businesses might have emerged. Overall, "efforts turned out to be too scattered, too small and too susceptible to shifting politics to make a lasting impact," while opportunistic businesses cashed in without improving conditions.

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  • What happens after the police stop? People of color with disabilities face higher risks

    November 11, 2020 |

    Flatland |

    Multi-Media |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

    Crisis intervention training for Kansas City police officers does not reach the majority of the department and can fail to address a critical reason that police might use excessive force on people with disabilities. Although the 40-hour training includes a segment on dealing with people with autism and developmental disabilities, the combination of racial bias and some people's eccentric behavior can cause officers' "compliance culture" to kick in and make them overreact to perceived threats. Training without culture change, advocates say, is doomed to have short-lived effects.

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  • Tracking incomplete grades moves students forward – with extra focus from educators

    November 09, 2020 |

    WAVY-TV |

    Broadcast TV News |

    Under 3 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Norfolk, Virginia

    Norfolk Public Schools had a unique approach to addressing student performance post-pandemic—giving students an incomplete instead of failing them. The move revealed racial disparities that allowed the district to respond. “Of the 12,455 incomplete grades submitted, 71% went to Black students.” The district acted on that information and gave devices to students, limited instruction to four times a week to prevent teacher burnout, and placed a bus driver at every school to send staff to communities.

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  • Cities Want Green Spaces. Here's How to Make Them More Fire-Resistant

    November 06, 2020 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Ashland, Oregon

    A 20-year project by the nonprofit Lomakatsi Restoration Project to restore native plants helped to spare Ashland, Ore., from the worst destruction of a wildfire. Along the Bear Creek greenway in Ashland, the restoration project's work to replace dense thickets of invasive Himalayan blackberries with native shrubs and trees is credited with slowing the speed and severity of the Almeda Fire. Traditional firebreaks and the greenway at other points on the creek failed to slow the fire, and in some ways even sped its destruction.

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  • Analyzing the risk

    November 05, 2020 |

    Boulder Weekly |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Boulder County, Colorado

    The Colorado Pretrial Assessment Tool uses a formula to weigh the risk of releasing someone from jail while they await trial. While prosecutors say the tool is better than nothing, critics, backed by a study of the tool's effects, say it disproportionately harms people of color and people experiencing homelessness. Risk assessment algorithms consider a number of facts about a defendant's past and present to predict whether they can leave jail without committing new crimes or failing to make court appearances. But because they penalize already-overpoliced populations, they are not considered objective.

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  • Unhoused: Status Quo

    November 05, 2020 |

    Boulder Weekly |

    Podcast |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Boulder County, Colorado

    Housing First has successfully been implemented in cities across the world to reduce the number of people sleeping on the streets but in Boulder County, the approach has not been nearly as effective. The lack of affordable housing has resulted in just a small percentage of unhoused people accessing a place to live, while services for those who do not make the cut have been drastically reduced. While plans to create more affordable housing are in place, the Housing First approach in Boulder County has led to a reduction in homelessness services and only one homeless shelter stands.

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  • How effective are China's attempts to reduce the risk of wildlife spreading disease to humans?

    November 05, 2020 |

    Ensia |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: China, Shebu, Guangdong

    In order to get a handle on the spread of COVID-19, and to prevent future zoonotic disease outbreaks, China introduced temporary regulations banning commercial breeding of wildlife for meat consumption. These have hit farmers hard, with at least 20,000 farming operations shutting down by the end of February. With the bans on their way to fully becoming a law, local governments are trying to provide training and loans to help farmers transition to new products, but some claim the process is slow and doesn’t go far enough to prevent the breeding of the banned creatures for fur farming and traditional medicine.

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  • What the US can learn from how African countries handled Covid

    November 03, 2020 |

    CNN |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Senegal

    The death toll and infection rate from the coronavirus pandemic have been extravagant in the U.S., especially compared to that of other countries. The difference is largely explained in how different governments handled the early days of the pandemic. In many African nations – such as Senegal, which has been touted as having one of the best COVID-19 responses – "leadership, disaster preparedness, conformity to scientific advice, and coherence in pandemic response strategies" have played a significant role in the outcomes.

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  • Inside Democrats' efforts to fight election security threats

    November 02, 2020 |

    Politico |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States

    The Democratic National Committee (DNC) built up its digital defenses, successfully protecting the 2018 midterm election from the cyber-hacking that occurred in 2016. The DNC now trains staff to spot cyber threats, conducts simulated phishing campaigns to test employees’ vigilance, and security staffers regularly meet with their House and Senate campaign counterparts to offer their security expertise. The DNC also requires protections, such as two-factor authentication, which requires a temporary code in addition to a user’s password and conducts regular “spot checks” of Democrats’ cybersecurity practices.

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