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

Search Results

You searched for: -

There are 17309 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • Cops, crisis calls and conflict over who should help

    Seattle Police Department's crisis response team answers some of the city's many 911 calls for people in distress, pairing police trained in handling such calls with mental health professionals. The aim is to counter the default policing approach to problems that usually involve mental illness or substance abuse, which is to control people. It doesn't always work, due to the complexity of the calls, the nature of policing, and the department's limited resources devoted to the program. But, when it works, it can help rather than escalate situations, and avoid the ultimate failure, the use of excessive force.

    Read More

  • Meet the TikTok stars using viral videos to save the planet

    The growing account known as “EcoTok” on the social media app TikTok is working to expose more people to data about the climate crisis and tackle scientific misinformation. With more than 80,000 followers and 1.2 million likes, the account features short videos with scientists, students, and activists highlighting ways that young people can be more sustainable. Their ability to engage people in environmental and scientific issues has led to partnerships with TED Countdown and the UN Environment Programme.

    Read More

  • SC law enforcement agencies are supposed to report info on traffic stops, but most are not

    After the South Carolina legislature in 2005 began requiring police to enforce a seat-belt law with traffic stops, it imposed on all police departments a duty to track and report traffic-stop data on drivers' race. The law was meant as a way to prevent biased policing, through public disclosure of disparities. But only about one-third of the state's law enforcement agencies have consistently complied with the law, and some never have. Some blame ignorance of how the system should work. But another explanation is the state has done little or nothing to enforce the law.

    Read More

  • St. Louis comedian shares story of redemption, reentry following prison sentence

    When people emerge from long prison sentences, they can be in a hurry to put their lives back on track. But, when enrolled in a voluntary re-entry program called the Concordance Academy of Leadership, they first must go through intense mental health counseling that begins while they're incarcerated before they launch a search for a job or permanent housing. The St. Louis-based program boasts much lower-than-average recidivism rates, in part because it responds to post-release mistakes with more counseling rather than automatic punishment.

    Read More

  • Worker-Owned Cooperatives are Building Their Own Investment Network

    Cooperatives are getting the funding they need through a “nationwide network of loans funds and incubators that specialize in supporting and investing in cooperative businesses.” Coops lack access to traditional funding and are typically member funded. The new source of funding has allowed historically marginalized Black and Hispanic communities the opportunity to create coops where workers share ownership equally.

    Read More

  • How residents are working to make Ramapuram a better place to live in

    Active civic participation by residents and associations, such as the Ramapuram Social Welfare Federation, supports the identification of civic problems and escalation to the appropriate authorities. When the local lake, key to the city’s groundwater supply, was developed and polluted, the federation got local authorities to intervene and stop building on the lake bed. They also filed a lawsuit demanding the lake be restored and all people evicted from the area. The federation worked through official channels to covert land into a public use park and established an urban forest with rich biodiversity.

    Read More

  • Michigan's New Clean-Slate Law Makes State a Leader in Criminal Justice Reform

    A new law in Michigan will automatically expunge misdemeanors and felonies after several years, making it easier to find employment for those who have a record. The automatic nature of the expungement removes the barriers of cost and time for successfully completing the long application process. A clean slate makes it easier for people to improve their lives through better housing and higher pay, leading to lower rates of recidivism.

    Read More

  • St. Louisans Mapped Monuments of Their City, and Uncovered Surprising Connections

    When the Public Iconographies project asked people in St. Louis "how would you map the monuments of St. Louis?", it got 750 hand-drawn maps telling stories of often-overlooked sites throughout the city. By letting people from the community determine what is important, the project ended up with a data-filled report channeling freeform responses. They included the spot where a Ferguson police officer killed Michael Brown, the site of a 1917 race riot, and Cahokia Mounds, a pre-Columbian site in the city. The project formed a counterpoint to efforts to remove problematic symbols, like a Columbus statue.

    Read More

  • How Hawaii is trying to save Haena State Park, a Kauai tourist hotspot that's been loved to death

    Hawaii’s North Shore has implemented a plan to embrace a model of tourism that would respect the land, minimize any damage, and create a better community for native residents. Regenerative tourism helped stabilize a fragile ecosystem and will hopefully continue to protect Haena State Park when international travel resumes after the pandemic.

    Read More

  • Queens Prosecutors Long Overlooked Misconduct. Can a New D.A. Do Better?

    On her first day as district attorney of Queens, Melinda Katz created a unit to review potential wrongful convictions that in its first year has exonerated four men and has 80 more cases under review. The Queens DA's office long resisted the national trend toward such "conviction integrity" units, based on its contention that all prosecutors should be open to fixing their mistakes. The office, however, showed little inclination to do so systematically. Katz put the new unit under the control of a former lawyer with the Innocence Project and showed a resolve to take claimed injustices more seriously.

    Read More