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In Brazil, Women Candidates Find Strength in Numbers

Isabela Dias

November 12, 2020 |

Yes! Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Brazil

Collective, or shared, candidacies, where groups of candidates to run for a single elected position in Brazil, has helped elevate women and other marginalized groups with progressive platforms to rise to power. From 2016 and 2018, 22 of the 98 groups that ran were elected. In 2020, 41% of the joint candidacies were led by women. A national bill to formalize collective candidacies has stalled since 2017, so one member of the group is formally elected, and is the one to cast votes and give formal speeches, while the others are hired as advisers but still are empowered to write and propose bills.

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Norway's Wealth Tax Is Uncommon. Here's What America Could Learn From It.

Carly Stern

November 12, 2020 |

The Huffington Post |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Norway

To reduce income inequality, progressive U.S. senators look to Norway for ways to raise revenue by taxing those with the greatest capacity to pay. A wealth tax of 0.85% kicks in when individuals amass roughly $165,000 in personal wealth for individuals and $330,000 for couples. Data shows that individuals who own small businesses, which are counted as personal wealth, tend to invest in their companies and hire more employees to reduce their taxable wealth. Support for the system is generally high because of the services citizens get in return, such as free education, health care, and other social services.

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

Tony Briscoe Haru Coryne Mick Dumke

November 11, 2020 |

ProPublica |

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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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Colorado's new family leave law could transform fatherhood

Andrew Wear

November 09, 2020 |

Struggles from Below Magazine |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Iceland

Icelandic parents each get three months leave, paid at 80% of their salary, to be used within 18 months of a child’s birth. Parents also get an additional three months leave that they can split up as they choose. The “use it or lose it” leave is used by about 80% of fathers. Shared caregiving responsibilities deepen fathers’ bonds with their children and, along with other generous family benefits, has helped Iceland achieve the world’s smallest gender gap by enabling mothers to remain and advance in the workforce. It also shapes children’s experience of gender norms. Colorado recently passed a similar law.

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Local high school students volunteer for national nonprofit to educate voters

Kathryn Goodwin

November 08, 2020 |

The Daily Tar Heel |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States

MyVote organized over 300 student volunteers, mostly in high school, to research candidates and their policies so that voters could have a “one-stop-shop” platform to learn about policy platforms of candidates running in national and local elections. The group covered the policies of all candidates from North Carolina, Florida, and Pennsylvania and voters used the guides at the polls to educate themselves on the candidates and issues. Since many of the volunteers are not old enough to vote, carrying out the voter education research helped them get involved in ways that are useful to the democratic process.

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It Took a Group of Black Farmers to Start Fixing Land Ownership Problems in Detroit

Rhonda J. Smith

November 06, 2020 |

Planet Detroit |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Detroit, Michigan

Two urban farmers launched a GoFundMe and raised $55,000 to help provide land security to Black farmers in Detroit. Through the Detroit Black Farmer Land Fund, they will select applicants to grow crops for five years and provide technical assistance to growers who want to purchase their own land. The amount raised is not enough to help everyone who needs it, but organizers hope city programs make land more accessible to neighborhood residents.

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Urban farmers in Richmond are helping in the fight against food insecurity

Cameron Nielsen

November 05, 2020 |

Richmond Confidential |

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Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Richmond, California

Urban Tilth, an urban farm in California, is providing food directly to communities in need and upending the traditional food supply chain so they can help people access healthy and sustainably-grown food. They have been providing local organic food to 190 families financially impacted by COVID-19, almost six times more food they’ve distributed since the pandemic began.

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On Election Day, Facebook and Twitter Did Better by Making Their Products Worse

Kevin Roose

November 05, 2020 |

The New York Times |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Facebook, Twitter, and other social media sites defended against election-related disinformation campaigns by quickly identifying and removing fake accounts and putting labels and warnings on posts that made false claims of voter fraud and premature claims of victory. Instead of frictionless usability, they slowed or shut down core parts of their products such as limiting political ads, tweaking recommendation algorithms, and/or preventing sharing and comments on questionable posts. Threats will continue in the weeks ahead, but the companies have prevented widespread disinformation campaigns so far.

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Los Angeles voters just delivered a huge win for the defund the police movement

Roge Karma

November 04, 2020 |

Vox |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Los Angeles, California

By framing their police-reform proposal as an investment in community services rather than a bid to take money away from policing, the Re-Imagine L.A. County coalition of racial and criminal justice advocacy groups won voter approval for what could be the most significant realignment of public safety spending since the 2020 policing protests began. Los Angeles County voters approved Measure J, which mandates that the county allocate 10% of its $8.8 billion discretionary local budget to "direct community investment," and not to law enforcement. The Sheriff's Department accounts for $2 billion of that budget.

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Inside Democrats' efforts to fight election security threats

Eric Geller

November 02, 2020 |

Politico |

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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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