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

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  • The invisible shield: how qualified immunity was created and nearly destroyed the ability to sue police officers in America Pt. I

    The Civil Rights Act of 1871, as a direct response to white resistance to Reconstruction-era reforms in the former Confederacy, gave people the right to sue government officials for depriving them of their civil rights. But a series of court decisions from the Civil Rights Era of the 1960s through the 1980s undercut the law's intent, so much so that police officers ended up with "qualified immunity" from liability for rights violations – effectively avoiding accountability, even when they act in bad faith.

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  • Algorithmic Redlining Is Real. Why Not Algorithmic Greenlining?

    Urban planning algorithms have contributed to the racial wealth gap by prioritizing funding for communities that don’t need extra funding, but which would create a higher return on investment. The algorithm bias negatively impacts neighborhoods that are typically Black and poor. Detroit’s water and sewage utilities were disconnected as a result of an algorithm, highlighting the “fundamental pitfall of algorithms, as well as the risks that they can be misused or produce unintended consequences.”

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  • Can California's Organic Vegetable Farmers Unlock the Secrets of No-Till Farming?

    A trial experiment with three farmers and several California universities is looking to better understand how to farm with little or no chemicals. No-till farming can boost soil health and better store carbon, but it’s not a perfect system. These farmers are testing how to reduce soil disturbance, use cover crops, and diversify their species of crops, yet so far, they haven’t found much success. “Figuring this all out has been ‘a school of hard knocks,’” says one of the farmers.

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  • Finding childcare is hard. It's even harder when you don't work 9 to 5.

    More than 50 percent of children from economically-disadvantaged families have at least one parent who works non-traditional schedule, which consists of hours outside of the 9am to 5pm. However, subsidized child care often does not apply to the few childcare facilities that do cater to families with nontraditional schedules. Over-regulation of child care, which makes it illegal for parents to leave children for more than 12 hours, also forces parents into unregulated options which don't qualify for federal subsidies. Expanding access to after-hours childcare is key to upward mobility.

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  • In Denver, Tiny Homes Take On Affordable Housing

    Denver's Beloved Community Village is a development of 20 "tiny houses," affordable single-family homes that have helped residents obtain stable housing at rates that allow them to get ahead financially. Charlotte would have to change its zoning laws, and some residents' attitudes, to allow for such a hedge against homelessless. Those changes are possible, but will take time and much effort.

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  • Tactics other states use to boost vaccination rates

    Georgia's Covid-19 vaccine rollout has been slow and confusing, but Wisconsin's offers lessons for how to improve the system. Unlike Georgia, Wisconsin has created a pre-registration list to eliminate confusion regarding eligibility and has also focused on outreach to marginalized communities. These efforts have helped the state achieve one of the nation's highest vaccination rates.

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  • The New Push for Corporate Diversity Comes with an Atlanta Address

    Companies are making the move to Atlanta in their efforts to diversify their workforces. Corporate diversity is hard to achieve in places like Silicon Valley. Instead, companies like Pandora have drastically increased the number of diverse employees since moving to the majority-Black city.

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  • Juvenile (in)justice

    Five years after South Dakota replaced a failing, punitive juvenile justice system that emphasized incarceration and probation with approaches focused on rehabilitation and local services for youth, the state's investment has paid off in far lower recidivism, incarceration, and expense. Counties have financial, justice, and moral incentives to follow the evidence of what works and help teens improve their lives. The state also keeps the data needed to track what is working. Neighboring Wyoming does the opposite on all counts, and it has the wrecked lives and high costs to show for it.

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  • Promising Crime Solutions Are Being Undermined by Flawed Federal Ratings, Researchers Say

    The National Institute of Justice created CrimeSolutions in 2011 to rate crime-reduction programs as effective or not, based on a review of research literature. The service aims to inform crime policymaking with the best available evidence of effectiveness. But its rigid standards mean that few programs get rated "effective," and many with mixed results get lumped in with truly ineffective programs for having "no effects." Critics say it misses the nuances in published studies by making ratings overly reliant on a strict reading of statistical significance.

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  • How Do You Kill an Invasive Species? Bring in a Bigger, Meaner Species to Eat It

    An insect that makes its home on eastern hemlocks in Nova Scotia has the power to wipe out the tree species if left unchecked. Scientists are looking to a strategy called biological control — a historically controversial approach — that would introduce a new predatory species to kill the insect. After rigorous lab testing showed a small black beetle only attacked their targets and didn’t disrupt other ecosystems, they released them in 2003 at an orchard on Vancouver Island. Results show they have been somewhat effective, but it’s unclear if it will completely solve the problem.

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