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

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  • This revolutionary housing reform bill out of Portland would bring relief to tons of Philadelphians

    Portland's new policy allowing for multi-family homes resulted from a long campaign of coalition building to address a need for middle-income housing that often gets overlooked in many cities. Although the Residential Infill Project will not take effect until August 2021, its enactment offers cities like Philadelphia lessons in strategic policymaking that overcomes entrenched views at opposite ends of the income and class spectrum, from property owners concerned about declining home values and advocates for low-income housing concerned about gentrification.

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  • How young poll workers may save Americans from Election Day chaos

    Organizations ran campaigns to recruit young people to work as poll workers, addressing shortages due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Hundreds of thousands of high school and college students, as well as recent graduates, signed up to fill the gaps. Social media provided an effective recruitment tool, and the diverse coalition called Power to the Polls, that includes MTV, Uber, Starbucks, and others, got 400,000 people to sign up. Some coalition partners offer paid time off to their employees for working at polls and states, such as Georgia, offer poll worker compensation, which was a draw for young people.

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  • How to Save Ballot Drop Boxes

    Voting by mail will increase dramatically due to Covid-19 and drop boxes are one way to collect these ballots. Although fears of fraud have been unfounded, the GOP initiated lawsuits to block or limit drop boxes if they are not monitored so some states and districts place the boxes in government buildings and other places, such as libraries, that are staffed. While this slightly limits the hours that voters can drop off their ballots, it uses existing resources to provide supervision and increases voter confidence that their ballots will be received, especially among ongoing issues with the postal service.

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  • Are You Liberal? Are You Sure?

    “Deep Canvassing” is an approach to political organizing based on the idea that our political beliefs may be more flexible than we think. Canvassers go door-to-door but instead of rallying identified supporters to go to the polls, they approach people who hold opposing viewpoints for meaningful conversations, including substantial active listening. Even though people start out attached to their own opinions, these meaningful connections have shown that people are usually willing to adjust their beliefs towards the center in a quest to find common ground.

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  • Latinx 'promotores' lead the way for environmental action

    A leadership program in the Chesapeake Bay region gives members of the Latinx community to become change makers in the environmental movement. Since 2016, Chispa Maryland has produced more than 100 graduates from its “promotores” program, where they learn the basics of climate justice, advocacy, and community organizing. While the work is difficult and the COVID-19 pandemic has affected operations, the promotores have seen some success in organizing community gardens and lobbying the county to purchase electric school buses.

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  • Drink. Drive. Lose your job with BCSO: Sheriff says it's that simple.

    After two dozen of his deputies were arrested in 2018, many of them for drunken driving, the Bexar County sheriff imposed stricter rules, firing people for DWI offenses and barring them from future employment at the agency. He also began offering alcohol abuse treatment, to address the problem before it turns into an arrest. Since the start of 2020, only one deputy has been arrested on DWI charges.

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  • Put the Students in Charge

    Students at two Philadelphia schools are getting to know the ins-and-outs of the democratic system by actively participating in the operations of their schools. Students at Philly Free School meet weekly with faculty and staff where they help decide how to spend the school's money, if popcorn should be banned and who should be hired. At Revolution School, students helped decide what fall reopening plans would look like.

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  • Feminists Paper Paris With Stark Posters Decrying Domestic Abuse

    The feminist group Les Colleuses (The Gluers) has attracted about 1,500 activists and spread from Paris to other French cities, plus Belgium and Italy, with a message of empowerment that counters weak government responses to domestic violence and femicide. They use posters in public places decrying the abuse. The simple, inexpensive, yet illegal protest – using such messages as "Dad Killed Mom" and "She leaves him, he kills her" – emboldens women to reclaim public spaces where they have felt threatened. In 2019, 146 French women were killed by their current or former partners, a 21% increase from 2018.

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  • Schools rarely teach climate change outside of science class. Teachers are changing that.

    Climate Change lessons are lacking even in science classes. This article identifies a variety of methods that educators can take to incorporate climate change into the classroom. Examples include things like incorporating climate change into non-science classes, creating interdisciplinary courses, and keeping the issue non-partisan. "They just want to be told the truth. They want to acknowledge that they're angry," Metzger-Carter said. "So, I tell them the truth. I tell them that their voices are way more powerful than mine. Then, I step out of the way."

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  • Why Pennsylvania is ground zero for mail-in voting debate

    Learning from the failures of the 2020 Pennsylvania primary, where a sharp increase in mail-in voting led to a 2-week delay in certifying election results and many ballots being invalidated, officials introduced a bill to address those problems. Anticipating 3 million mail-in presidential election ballots, the bill would allow mailed in ballots to be opened before election day, which is currently prohibited. The bill would also notify voters and allow them to prove their identity in the case of signature mismatches. While officials are optimistic, there is not much time left to pass and implement the bill.

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