Booking homeless Portlanders into jail is endless, expensive cycle that arrests don't curb, but housing does

https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2020/10/booking-homeless-portlanders-into-jail-is-endless-expensive-cycle-that-arrests-dont-curb-but-housing-does.html

Molly Harbarger

Melissa Lewis

The Oregonian

25 October 2020

Text / Over 3000 Words

Temporary housing providing drug treatment and other services to people experiencing homelessness appears to cut the chances that people arrested in Portland on minor charges will cycle repeatedly through the criminal justice system. In 2019, 250 people living in transitional housing were booked into jail, versus nearly 3,700 people still living on the streets. The rearrest rate for people living on the street is 87%, but 30 points lower for people with housing. Portland officials have been slow to provide alternatives to arrests and jail since a report in 2017 that most arrestees in Portland are homeless.

Racial disparities in LAPD stops fueled by failed crime-fighting strategy, audit finds

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-10-24/racial-disparities-in-lapd-stops-fueled-by-failed-crime-fighting-strategy-audit-finds

Cindy Chang

Kevin Rector

Los Angeles Times

24 October 2020

Text / 800-1500 Words

When the Los Angeles tried to prevent violence and other serious crimes by using minor vehicle and traffic violations as excuses to stop vehicles and search drivers, they failed at their intended goal and showed a strong bias against Black and Latino residents. The findings by the LAPD's own inspector general, which confirmed a 2019 report by the Los Angeles Times that resulted in the curtailment of the traffic-stop ploy, showed that only 2% of hundreds of thousands of stops and intrusive searches resulted in arrests of any kind. The report recommended fixes if the program is ever revived.

Two years in, Maryland leads most other states in use of ‘red flag' gun law

https://www.baltimoresun.com/politics/bs-md-pol-red-flag-extreme-risk-erpo-maryland-20201022-piawdaqnbffv7etagy2lhqaopq-story.html

Ben Leonard

The Baltimore Sun

23 October 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Police and the public have invoked Maryland's law allowing for court orders denying gun access to people at high risk of harming themselves or others far more often than in most states with such laws. Though it is difficult to prove that domestic-violence assaults or suicides have been prevented, which is the goal of such laws, advocates and law enforcement officials believe anecdotally they have seen that. Research has documented that extreme-risk protection orders, as such laws are known, can prevent suicides. Credit for the law's use goes to police training and 24/7 court access for emergency hearings.

They lost their brothers to addiction. Now they're tackling deadly stigmas head on, with humor

https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/story/2020-10-22/podcast-suicide-addiction-last-day

Tim Greiving

Los Angeles Times

22 October 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Two women who lost their brothers to heroin overdoses launched the podcast "Last Day" to address death – by drugs and, in season two, by suicide – with a mix of humor, unsettling candor, and conventional-wisdom-busting storytelling. At first a modest startup, their production company now employs 17, topped the podcast charts with almost 4 million downloads, and has rolled out other programs on such topics as body image, bullying, the pandemic, policing, and loneliness. Many of the topics were proposed by listeners to "Last Day," who wanted their problems or questions to get the same treatment.

Washington state's not new to voting by mail. Here's how we work to keep it safe

https://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article246234620.html

Robert Mittendorf

The Bellingham Herald

21 October 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Since Washington made voting by mail mandatory in 2011, nonpartisan election officials have refined ballot-security procedures to achieve a smoothly run system in which suspected cheating or interference represents a tiny fraction of the millions of votes cast in each election. Those procedures include signature verification, ballot-box integrity, securely blocking Internet access to vote tabulations and voter registration, and other safeguards against electronic or in-person tampering with votes or registrations.

After serving prison time, these students excel in Fresno State program. How it works

https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/education-lab/article246240850.html

Ashleigh Panoo

The Fresno Bee

21 October 2020

Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words

Project Rebound is a program aimed to help formerly incarcerated students navigate and succeed in pursuing their higher education goals. The program works by working with potential candidates, whether they are incarcerated or have completed their sentences, and provides aid in meeting basic needs like gas, food, shelter, as well as legal advice referrals and navigating technology. By 2021, 14 California State University campuses will have joined the list of institutions implementing the program. As of 2016, there were 180 students participating in the program and the number more than doubled by 2019.

Broods in the woods

https://montanafreepress.org/2020/10/21/broods-in-the-woods

Amanda Eggert

Montana Free Press

21 October 2020

Multi-Media / 800-1500 Words

Nature-based preschools are gaining traction in Montana and are increasing in demand due to the pandemic. Fledglings, in Billings, and Foxtail Förskola, in Whitefish, are two preschools offering kids the opportunity to learn and play in an environment meant to foster "risky play," which means letting kids participate in activities where there is a physical risk, like climbing trees, in order to help strengthen their confidence and resiliency. Natural Start Alliance, an organization which supports outdoor education, reports that the number of these schools has rapidly increased to 585 over the last decade.

Vote by mail has increased minority participation in Washington but other hurdles remain

http://www.bellinghamherald.com/news/politics-government/election/article246598423.html

Craig Sailor

Phillip Reese

The Bellingham Herald

21 October 2020

Multi-Media / 1500-3000 Words

Most Washington counties adopted a universal vote by mail system between the 2004 and 2006 federal elections, which led to increased voter turnout. Statewide turnout increased by over six percentage points for subsequent elections and culturally relevant voter registration initiatives increased turnout in Latinx and Native American communities specifically. Officials have encountered little to no fraud with universal voting by mail. Instead, it reduces the number of polling places that need to be secured and monitored and it also substantially decreases the costs of administering elections.

EdNext Podcast: Teaching the Declaration of Independence with a Video Game

https://www.educationnext.org/ednext-podcast-teaching-the-declaration-of-independence-with-a-video-game

Marty West

Education Next

21 October 2020

Podcast / Over 15 Minutes

Nationally, civic courses lack rigor, partly because few states require coursework in civics. A new video game called “Portrait of a Tyrant,” based on the Declaration of Independence, could change that. “Let’s gamify a story,” said Danielle S. Allen, director of the Democratic Knowledge Project. In this episode, the creators of the video game share the challenges that exist for creating civics curriculum and the way this game can bridge that game between students and history.

How MIT, Harvard are managing to keep COVID-19 numbers low

https://cambridge.wickedlocal.com/news/20201020/how-mit-harvard-are-managing-to-keep-covid-19-numbers-low

Maya Jones

Wicked Local Cambridge

20 October 2020

Text / 800-1500 Words

East Coast universities, MIT and Harvard mitigated the spread of COVID-19 on its campuses during the onset of the fall semester and have been able to maintain low transmission numbers. "Harvard, which invited just 40% of its undergraduates to campus this fall, had a .08% positivity rate." Meanwhile, MIT had students start the first two weeks of school entirely remote and keep quarantine until administrators could determine there were no sick students on campus.