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

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  • In Austria, the Government Pays to Repair Your Stuff

    In 2020, Vienna, Austria launched a program to subsidize half the cost of repairs to items such as clothing, electronics, bicycles, and furniture. The initiative supported the repair of more than 35,000 items, saving 850 tons of carbon dioxide emissions and spurring other localities, such as Thüringen, Germany, and Portland, Oregon, to roll out their own repair bonus schemes.

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  • Democracy Comes to Michigan

    A grassroots campaign ended gerrymandering in Michigan by passing an initiative requiring districts be drawn by citizen-commissions rather than politicians. The all-volunteer campaign went door-to-door collecting enough signatures to get the initiative on the ballot and used creative voter-engagement techniques to sustain the support. Once the ballot initiative passed, 9,300 people applied for the first commission. A third-party firm ultimately selected four Democrats, four Republicans, and five non-partisan people as commissioners, who worked together very well to redraw districts.

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  • The secret sauce behind Wichita's success in distributing emergency housing vouchers

    A federal voucher program is seeing huge success in Wichita, Kansas with almost 70 percent usage rates. Coordination between nonprofits and the housing program are required for the success of the initiative, something that the city had in place prior to the program. Wichita also had a supply of affordable housing available for people experiencing housing instability. A lack of housing stock has been a huge barrier in the success of the federal program in other part of the country.

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  • Oregon Is Turning Sewage into an Endless Supply of Green Energy

    A wastewater treatment plant in Oregon not only cleans water that is released into the local river, but it also creates fertilizer that is sent to farmers to use on non-food crops and it produces renewable power from methane. The green energy created at the plant heats five buildings on the site and produces half of the energy the facility uses. This kind of co-generation system is growing in other places in the United States, China, Brazil, and Norway.

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  • Want to rebuild soil? Build relationships

    Regenerative agriculture is one of the top ways the Biden administration aims to reduce atmospheric carbon. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources Conservation Service and individual farmers’ work on regenerative agriculture have implications for the future of food production in regards to global supply chain disruptions and combatting climate change.

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  • Kansas increasingly meeting the need for rural broadband speed

    Kansas has increased access to high-quality broadband, especially in rural areas, by using $60 of the $250 million Congress allocated to Kansas for coronavirus-related costs. The Statewide Broadband Expansion Planning Task Force had already made recommendations to the state legislature, which were approved in the 2020 session. Companies who won the bids to expand access quickly deployed about 350 miles of fiber and fixed wireless service in some areas. Other grant-funded initiatives will continue to improve access, particularly to low-income areas.

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  • The ‘timber detectives' on the front lines of illegal wood trade

    At the Thünen Institute in Germany, a team of 15 people are working to identify culprits of the world’s third largest criminal sector: the illegal wood trade. Since 2013, they have been analyzing and identifying the origin of wood products to determine if they were made from endangered or protected tree species. In 2021, they analyzed about 10,000 samples and are working with organizations and authorities around the world to prevent illegal logging.

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  • AirBnB regs may impact housing markets. But what about housing local workers?

    In response to a tight housing market that's left locals with few options to buy a home, communities like Truckee, Calif. instituted short term rental regulations intended to curb purchases by part-time residents. But there's not enough data to prove that these rules are having the intended effect, and in many communities, housing prices haven't budged.

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  • Pandemic Disruptions Created an Opportunity for Organic School Meals in California

    The West Contra Costa Unified School District saw loosened regulations during the pandemic as an opportunity to tie up with local organic farms and producers and ensure hundred percent organic meals to students from low-income families. This is part of a growing effort in the state that recognizes school lunch as a way to not just provide the healthiest food to students but also to support a more sustainable food system that helps address climate change.

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  • Despite Hurdles, Automatic Voter Registration Law Adds to Voter Rolls

    Illinois’ 2018 automatic voter registration law resulted in 111,000 additional voter registration applications. Under the automatic system, eligible voters are automatically registered to vote with their most up-to-date address and information every time they interact with state agencies, like the DMV. Each time there is a new interaction with a state agency, voter rolls are updated and individuals who don’t want to be registered can proactively opt-out.

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