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Billions spent, miles to go: The story of California's failure to build high-speed rail

Benton Graham

September 08, 2025 |

Grist |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, California

California's troubled high-speed rail project—hampered by inexperienced management, inadequate upfront funding, and poor route selection—demonstrates why successful infrastructure mega-projects require experienced agencies, full financing commitments, and streamlined implementation strategies.

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Can filtering seawater provide for a thirsty world?

Chico Harlan, Nada Talbi

September 08, 2025 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Morocco

Morocco's implementation of seawater desalination plants has successfully provided drinking water to 1.6 million people and enabled record agricultural exports for large-scale tomato producers, while simultaneously revealing the technology's limitations in addressing broader water needs due to high costs, geographic constraints, and environmental impacts that benefit only well-funded farms near coastal facilities.

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How drones and AI are changing the way we fight wildfires

Emily Senkosky

September 02, 2025 |

Grist |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

The U.S. Forest Service's drone program has rapidly scaled from 734 flights in 2019 to over 17,000 in 2024, enabling safer and more efficient wildfire management by replacing dangerous pilot reconnaissance missions with unmanned thermal imaging that can detect hotspots and guide ground crews more precisely.

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Plateau Farmers Turn to Land Documents to Reclaim Their Fields Amid Violence

Johnstone Kpilaakaa

August 29, 2025 |

HumAngle |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Nigeria

The Norwegian Refugee Council's land documentation project helped over 2,000 farmers in Plateau State obtain formal land tenure documents, providing legal security and reducing land disputes, but cannot protect them from ongoing violent attacks that continue to threaten their lives and livelihoods.

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The invisible ‘giant nets' that catch the smallest songbirds

Kylie Mohr

August 27, 2025 |

High Country News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Canada

The Motus network—a collaborative system of 2,200 radio towers across 34 countries that track tiny migratory animals using lightweight tags—has successfully mapped previously unknown migration routes for over 55,000 animals across 450+ species, revolutionizing conservation research for small songbirds and other creatures too tiny for traditional GPS tracking.

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'Historic': how Mexico's welfare policies helped 13.4 million people out of poverty

Oscar Lopez

August 18, 2025 |

The Guardian |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Mexico

During the presidency of Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Mexico roughly tripled its minimum wage and instituted universal cash transfers for elderly residents and others in need, which helped reduce the number of people living under the poverty line by nearly 26 percent. But some people are still falling through the cracks and advocates say more could be done to reach the country’s most vulnerable.

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Despite federal cuts to higher ed, Mass. free community college presses on, transforming students' lives

Mara Kardas-Nelson, Diti Kohli

August 17, 2025 |

The Boston Globe |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Massachusetts

The MassReconnect program makes community college free for students over 25 without a bachelor’s degree, while the MassEducate program helps cover tuition and fees for all Massachusetts residents. Since the programs were launched, the state has seen both enrollment and student retention rates go up, and students are transferring from community colleges to four-year universities.

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The World's Smartest City Is a Tiny German Village

Michaela Haas

August 11, 2025 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Germany, Etteln

The residents of Etteln, Germany responded to rural decline and digital exclusion by organizing grassroots collective action—including volunteer-led fiber-optic installation and community-driven digital innovations—which reversed population loss, doubled school enrollment, earned global recognition as the world's smartest city, and created a replicable model now used by 500+ cities worldwide.

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Seattle Renews Its Unique Approach to Public Campaign Financing

Amy Sundberg

August 08, 2025 |

Bolts |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Seattle, Washington

Seattle’s democracy vouchers program provides residents with four $25 vouchers to donate to local political candidates of their choice, with the goal of making it easier for citizens to participate in local elections while also leveling the playing field for a wider range of candidates. Research on the program found that it has helped increase the number of unique donors and made local elections more competitive.

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Rooftop Solar Power Is Struggling to Take Off in Hong Kong. What Went Wrong?

Selena Liang

August 08, 2025 |

The Xylom |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: Hong Kong

The Hong Kong Feed-in Tariff (FiT) Scheme is an ongoing government program that incentivizes rooftop solar adoption by allowing individuals and organizations to sell solar-generated electricity back to utility companies at rates higher than what customers pay for regular electricity.

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