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Why Japan's Jobless Rate Is Just 2.6% While the U.S.'s Has Soared

Ben Dooley Hisako Ueno

June 20, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Japan

Japan's unemployment has barely grown during the COVID-19 crisis, thanks in large part to a business culture that prizes employees' interests over short-term profits. Much of the country's economy remained open in the pandemic's early months. But the jobless picture was aided even more by policies based on a tradeoff between ordinarily high demands on workers in return for job security. The same policies have produced a tight job market that can make companies risk averse in their hiring. But the net effect during the crisis has been much less economic pain inflicted on workers.

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Coronavirus concerns revive labor organizing

Carl Segerstrom

June 18, 2020 |

High Country News |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Employees at 7 Yakima Valley fruit packing plants, who are predominately Latinx, went on strike to protest inadequate protection and pay during the Covid-19 pandemic. Agricultural workers accounted for nearly one-fifth of the county’s positive cases. The worker initiated strikes and picket lines were supported by community members, union representatives, and non-profit legal centers. Workers returned to work after gaining concessions on better pay, safety protections, and the formation of worker advocacy committees. The state also issued new workplace safety standards for agricultural workers after protests.

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How Violence Interrupters Brokered An End To Anti-Black Attacks In A Latino Neighborhood

Pascal Sabino

June 16, 2020 |

Block Club Chicago |

Text |

Under 800 Words

Response Location: United States, Chicago, Illinois

When protests against police violence turned into looting and anti-Black violence in some Latinx neighborhoods, violence interrupters from groups such as UCAN, EnLace, and Chicago CRED brokered a peace agreement that almost immediately ended that violence. The outreach workers’ years-long relationships and training in dispute mediation gave them credibility to address historic racial tensions among gangs in Lawndale and Little Village. The violence could have escalated, but three days of negotiation – and a sense of common cause against racism in policing – united the neighborhoods.

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Organizing for Help in a Pandemic

Madeline St. Amour

June 16, 2020 |

Inside Higher Ed |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Graduate students at several major universities organized to secure benefits during the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, the University of Illinois Graduate Employees Organization fought for and won the expansion of mental health services and summer health care coverage, as well as free summer housing for international graduate students who cannot return home due to travel restrictions. After graduate students at the University of Texas Austin demonstrated and 1,400 signed a petition, the dean granted expanded funding opportunities and a commitment to finding a healthcare plan that ensures no coverage gap.

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How Massachusetts v. EPA Forced the U.S. Government to Take On Climate Change

Sam Evans-Brown

June 13, 2020 |

New Hampshire Public Radio |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Massachusetts

In order to get the U.S. government to take action on climate change, 30 environmental groups and 12 state governments joined forces to sue the Environmental Protection Agency arguing that it was required to regulate greenhouse gas emissions according to the Clean Air Act. While the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in their favor in the landmark Massachusetts v. EPA case in 2007, the justices’ decision didn’t specify how to reduce that pollution and future lawsuits could challenge the government’s requirement to reign in those emissions.

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Balancing out the doom and gloom: Why we're producing more journalism with a glass-half-full outlook

Angela Ross

June 11, 2020 |

ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) |

Multi-Media |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Australia

ABC News in Australia is using a solutions-focused, or constructive, approach to reporting on social problems. Focusing in particular on three areas, affordable housing, stormwater, and obesity, the Hobart newsroom is combating widespread hopelessness and mistrust of the media by highlighting what individuals and communities are already doing to address problems. The approach is used around the world and supported by organizations such as Solutions Journalism Network and the Constructive Institute. While change can be slow, these groups offer newsroom training to help shift reporting perspectives.

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Community groups have consistently failed to improve policing. These advocates are pushing a new way.

Jamie Smith Hopkins Kristine Villanueva

June 11, 2020 |

Mother Jones |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Denver, Colorado

Civilian oversight panels serving as watchdogs and disciplinary enforcers for police departments have a generally poor record of effectiveness, thanks to multiple structural flaws. But examples of successful oversight are multiplying, and thanks to protests of police violence many more cities are working to establish bodies with real power to investigate wrongdoing in specific cases and effect change throughout an agency. One city getting high marks for its program is Denver, where the Office of Independent Monitor succeeded in pressing for new use-of-force rules, which cut incidents by 21% in a year.

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Getting to 10% forest cover: Kenya's road to recovering its lost ecosystem

David Owino

June 05, 2020 |

DIRAJ |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: Kenya

In Kenya, initiatives are being devised to help the country reach a minimum tree cover target of 10% of the total landmass by 2022. One of the more successful efforts has been an uptick of public awareness campaigns such as the "adopt a tree campaign," which educates youth about the importance of planting trees in the correct areas.

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I Cover Cops as an Investigative Reporter. Here Are Five Ways You Can Start Holding Your Department Accountable.

Andrew Ford

June 04, 2020 |

ProPublica |

Text |

1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, New Jersey

Citizen watchdogs can hold local police accountable by using the tactics of investigative reporters that have successfully exposed systemic problems and sparked reforms. One reporter shares five approaches he’s used to hold up policies and practices to scrutiny, some of which led to positive change. He provides a how-to on learning the existing policies, obtaining public records, engaging influencers in honest dialog, presenting verified evidence in a fair format, and seeking allies to pressure for reform.

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Around the world, Indigenous seed banks are helping to preserve culture, boost nutrition and protect the environment

Andrew Wight

June 02, 2020 |

Ensia |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Guatemala

Indigenous seed banks preserve and reintroduce native agricultural varieties, which in some cases are more nutritious than other varieties. Qachuu Aloom runs a one-room seed bank that provides raw materials for its 500 active members, 80% of whom are women, to practice agroecological farming. The Cherokee Nation Seed Bank preserves more than 100 different kinds of seeds, distributing over 10,000 packets to growers in 2019. Several international organizations are working with seed banks to drive more resilient and diversified food production with native varieties as a way to address food insecurity.

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