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Changing Lives by Building Credit History — One Microloan at a Time

Farida Jhabvala Romero

November 08, 2019 |

KQED |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

A program through the Mission Asset Fund, based in San Francisco, helps low-income communities get loans and good credit from an unlikely source: each other. The initiative pools together funds from family members and neighbors and distributes the loan to one of the contributors each month; the loans are interest free and allow community members to build credit without the difficulties of breaking into the typical microfinance realm.

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Banks Don't Know What to Do With Their Branches

Allison Prang

November 07, 2019 |

Wall Street Journal |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

With more users than ever use digital resources to access their bank accounts, banking companies with brick-and-mortar locations get creative with how to balance the digital and physical requests from their consumers. Some companies, like Capital One, have steered away from the traditional teller environment and have instead opened cafes and hosted community workshops to help people feel more comfortable in a bank setting.

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Could a Tax Credit Reduce the Impacts of Philly Students' Debt?

Rachel Chernasky

November 05, 2019 |

Next City |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Leaders in Philadelphia are considering offering a $7,500 tax credit to college graduates who owe $35,000 or more. The city hopes that the program will help retain more talent and chip away at Pennsylvania's high levels of student debt.

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These shops will sell you shampoo, but it's BYOB — bring your own bottle

Cara Giaimo

November 04, 2019 |

Grist |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Cambridge, Massachusetts

Eschewing packaging reduces waste. Cleenland, a store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, encourages low-waste shopping by selling household items like soap, cleaner, and detergent in bulk. Customers bring their own containers and purchase the products by weight. The store is among the first in the country to offer package-free shopping.

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As other local news outlets struggle, NPR affiliates are growing — and quickly

Rick Edmonds

November 04, 2019 |

Poynter |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

While newspaper staffs shrank dramatically, eroding resources to cover local and statewide news, local public radio stations added 1,000 full- and part-time journalists, a 50% increase, between 2011 and 2018. While still small overall, relative to the scale of newspaper newsrooms in their prime, public radio stations – including NPR affiliates – have become a more significant force in preserving and expanding coverage of local news. One tactic stations have used in several markets, notably in Texas, is to collaborate on statewide networks, to boost statehouse coverage and stories of statewide interest.

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How Cleveland revamped its preschool programs in just five years

Jackie Mader

October 31, 2019 |

The Hechinger Report |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Cleveland, Ohio

With $14 million in public and private funding, Cleveland transformed its early childhood education offerings in just five years. The partnership called PRE4CLE provided intensive support and funding for staff education and salaries, curricula, classroom supplies, renovations, and more.

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University of Chicago projected to be the first U.S. university to charge $100,000 a year

Pete D'Amato

October 30, 2019 |

The Hechinger Report |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

One way that colleges are able to offer increasing amounts of financial aid is by increasing the full cost for others that can afford to pay. However, studies have found that these strategies are not effectively bringing low-income students to high-cost colleges because they are still seeing a sticker price that appears far out of reach.

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Housing The Homeless Is Actually Saving LA Money

Matt Tinoco

October 21, 2019 |

LAist |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

In California, homeless populations oftentimes face much greater health issues which financially impacts the state's public health care system. To address barriers to obtaining housing, with a sub-goal of bettering people's health, Los Angeles County has implemented a housing for the homeless pilot project that makes housing a part of a health care plan.

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This Conservative City Built a $132 Million Park Using One Weird Trick

Zach Mortice

October 11, 2019 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

After falling behind in urban planning and innovation in the 1990s and early 2000s, Oklahoma City created a limited-time sales tax called MAPS to pay for capital projects, like the new Scissortail Park. The tax consisted of a series of one-cent sales taxes and has brought in over $1.5 billion and has helped fund convention centers, other urban green areas, and more.

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Some colleges seek radical solutions to survive

Jon Marcus

October 10, 2019 |

The Hechinger Report |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

As enrollments decline and finances increasingly pose problems, institutions of higher education are taking a number of creative approaches, chief among them, merging with other schools and accelerating degree program timelines.

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