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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 2418 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Aquarium Fish, Hold the Cyanide

    LINI for Reef to Aquarium, works with local villagers to implement sustainable fishing practices and restore reef habitats damaged by neurotoxins used to catch fish for the saltwater aquarium fish trade. LINI, with the community’s help, installed cement domes to provide refuges for ornamental fish in 2008. These alternative spots for collecting fish effectively removed pressure from natural reefs and by 2011, live coral cover had increased by 35% and continues to do well today. Villagers also started a land-based breeding program to take pressure off of the coral reefs.

    Read More

  • Here's a look at the security precautions in Colorado's mail-in ballot system

    Colorado has fine-tuned an effective mail-in ballot protocol for statewide elections and has one of the highest voter turnouts. Ballots are stored in tamperproof locked rooms that are continuously monitored and voters’ signatures are compared by bipartisan election judges to signatures in a state database. An audit of election results is also conducted to ensure the accuracy of the results. Officials in other states are reaching out to learn more about Colorado’s system, which is well-suited to keeping voters safe during a pandemic, but a lot goes into the system’s success and it takes time to implement.

    Read More

  • 19 Volunteers Sharing an iPhone Are Trying to Support Incarcerated People Through COVID-19 Audio icon

    Beyond These Walls launched a crisis phone line to provide emotional support for LGBTQ+ people who are incarcerated and to hold prisons and jails accountable for their virus-containment practices. Trained volunteers have fielded 369 calls so far, more than a quarter of which concern fears that reporting virus symptoms could land people in solitary confinement. Beyond These Walls and its coalition partners can provide safety by letting jailers know their practices are being monitored.

    Read More

  • Metro Detroit's environmental organizations are largely white. Some are working to change that.

    Several environmental groups in the Detroit area are coming to terms with the lack of racial diversity in their organizations. Huron-Clinton Metroparks released a plan to make their parks more welcoming and accessible to everyone, regardless of race and ethnicity. The Friends of the Rouge watershed organization has partnered with other nonprofits to explore race and organizational culture within their own groups. While many of these initiatives have just launched, many groups are taking crucial steps to address environmental injustice within their ranks and how it trickles down to the people they serve.

    Read More

  • Beating the coronavirus with knives, forks, and moving tables

    Restaurants in Providence, Rhode Island are "repurposing parking lots, waterfronts, and any adjacent land where an al fresco meal can be savored, public health preserved, and restaurant profits protected" during the coronavirus pandemic. Collaborative efforts by various elected officials, health officials, and emergency responders are making the idea to repurpose outdoor areas feasible, and some restaurants have already projected a significant success in profits.

    Read More

  • Challenge of archiving the #MeToo movement

    Radcliffe’s Schlesinger Library’s digital services team gathered and archived all the virtual material they could find related to the #MeToo movement. The social media-driven movement is now represented in the library’s online archive that contains more than 32 million tweets, 1,100 webpages, and thousands of articles. The team created a largely automated system to capture the content, including 71 hashtags, and a steering committee of historians, lawyers, and data experts helped work through the challenges of capturing a digital footprint. The data has already been examined to study aspects of the movement.

    Read More

  • COVID-19: NC rural mental health outreach gets creative

    Mental health agencies in North Carolina have partnered with a mobile phone carrier to provide data-enabled smartphones to individuals who lack access to technology during the pandemic. Because this doesn't provide a solution to all, however, mental health experts are also meeting with patients outside in social distanced settings.

    Read More

  • Short on Money, Cities Around the World Try Making Their Own

    Complementary currencies are local alternatives to national currencies that help local economies when budgets are tight. Tenino prints “wooden dollars” and residents in need get up to $300/month to spend at local businesses from grocery stores to day cares. Cities across the US have reached out for advice on starting their own local currencies, which can take many forms including digital-only. There are 3,500-4,500 local currencies in 50 countries, including Brazil’s Maricá where it helped the under-resourced city build schools and hospitals. These currencies have no value outside of the local economy.

    Read More

  • Could Mecklenburg County learn from a New Jersey city's contact tracing success?

    Paterson, NJ became a national leader using contact tracing to slow the spread of COVID-19. Health department employees persistently and “aggressively” tracked down as many people as possible who were potentially exposed to the coronavirus. To reach those who hung up on contact tracers or wouldn’t return calls, the health department coordinated with community police officers who left letters at their homes or workplaces urging them to return calls and take precautions. The program is credited with significantly reducing the virus’ spread and is seen as a model for other locations to achieve success.

    Read More

  • In San Diego, ‘Smart' Streetlights Spark Surveillance Reform

    A smart-streetlight program has helped businesses and residents by collecting a wealth of data to make parking easier, monitor air quality, and inform drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists of traffic patterns. But its use by the police to collect evidence of suspected crimes has prompted a privacy backlash. Police officials say the videos have been used only in serious crimes and have both incriminated and exonerated suspects. Critics say mission creep has led to improper surveillance of protests and racially disparate enforcement in minor crimes. City legislators are considering ways to regulate the practice.

    Read More