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

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  • Why a dry Chilean lagoon matters to the future of the Great Salt Lake

    Burdened by extreme drought, water diversions, and a lack of regulation, Lake Acuelo in Chile dried up. Now, researchers are learning from this slow-moving ecological disaster to help other lakes in trouble, like Utah’s Great Salt Lake.

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  • AirBnB regs may impact housing markets. But what about housing local workers?

    In response to a tight housing market that's left locals with few options to buy a home, communities like Truckee, Calif. instituted short term rental regulations intended to curb purchases by part-time residents. But there's not enough data to prove that these rules are having the intended effect, and in many communities, housing prices haven't budged.

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  • Financiamiento de pequeñas empresas en Costa Rica: eslabones de una cadena rota

    Desde el 2008, el Sistema de Banca para el Desarrollo en Costa Rica ha sido presentado como la solución a la brecha entre las microempresas y el crédito. Los resultados son mixtos y la brecha continúa, pero esfuerzos comunitarios muestran una posible ruta hacia una mejora.

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  • Giving Up Glyphosate

    Glyphosate is herbicide that kills deciduous trees, weeds, and shrubs and it is one of the most used herbicides in Canada. However, the World Health Organization stated that the herbicide is probably carcinogenic. Indigenous groups have linked it to the deaths of plants and animals. Across Canada, various groups and organizations are trying to end the use of the herbicide, from indigenous groups, to timber companies, and grassroots activists.

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  • Burning Sugar Cane Pollutes Communities of Color in Florida. Brazil Shows There's Another Way.

    In Brazil, the world's largest producer of sugar cane, industry leaders have found a way to harvest the crop without sugar cane burning. Sugar cane burning is harmful to the environment and nearby residents. After complaints and regulations, producers invested in technology that allows them to cut the cane without burning it. This is a contrast to South Florida, despite producing less sugar cane than Brazil, producers in the state continue the practice.

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  • Santa Fe's once-vaunted diversion program for people with addictions has dwindled to nearly nothing

    One of the nation's first programs using police officers to get people into drug treatment instead of jail succeeded at first, and inspired other programs throughout New Mexico. But the original Santa Fe program now serves as a lesson in what can all but kill such a program, thanks to a leadership vacuum and mistakes that undercut the cultural change needed within a police department. Like the first program of its kind, in Seattle, Santa Fe's LEAD (Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion) program takes aim at people whose drug abuse deeply entangles them in the justice system when what they need is treatment.

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  • This Scientist Created a Rapid Test Just Weeks Into the Pandemic. Here's Why You Still Can't Get It.

    E25Bio created a rapid COVID-19 test soon after the pandemic began and had an existing factory that could be repurposed to quickly manufacture tests. The prototypes, priced under $10 each, attracted major donors and would have made at-home antigen tests that identified around 80% of contagious cases available from the pandemic’s early days. Instead, an unclear FDA review process that prioritized higher detection rates over inexpensive ways people could test often, as well as resistance from medical device regulators, prevented the company from producing the tests for the public early in the pandemic.

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  • Burlington, Vt., ‘defunded' its police force. Here's what followed.

    In Burlington, a city of progressive politics with a police department long seen as forward-looking, city leaders' decision in June 2020 to respond to social-justice protests by cutting the police force by 30% has backfired in a number of ways. By moving quickly without an analysis of optimal staffing or how to shift duties to other agencies, the "defund police" measure prompted more police resignations than expected. Residents complain about conditions on downtown streets that make them feel unsafe. The city has since restored some of the police positions while moving more deliberately toward alternatives.

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  • How America Broke the Speed Limit

    Lowering speed limits and aggressive traffic enforcement by police patrols have not succeeded at erasing America's exceptionally high traffic death rate. The 1974-95 mandate for a national 55-mph limit coincided with a steep drop in highway deaths. But its repeal did not reverse the trend, with deaths hitting a 40-year low in 2014. Speed remains a factor in about a quarter of highway deaths, which remain high by world standards. Speed cameras and automated ticketing for violations have worked in their limited use, just as they have in broader use in Europe. But they remain politically unpopular in the U.S.

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  • They Said the Tornado Would Hit at 9:30. It Hit at 9:30.

    Advances in meteorological technology have helped drive down the fatality rate from tornadoes in the U.S. to a fraction of what it was a century ago. Violent tornadoes rarely evade advance detection, thanks to weather satellites, advances in radar, and a communication system to announce warnings. The deadly tornadoes that struck Kentucky and other states in December 2021 illustrate the ways in which even this system – one scientist called it "one of the most incredible success stories in applied science" – can fail, including when people ignore warnings or buildings cannot withstand the high winds.

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