Baltimore Hits Pause on Gun Violence Command Centers

https://www.thetrace.org/2020/07/baltimore-hits-pause-on-gun-violence-command-centers

J. Brian Charles

The Trace

6 July 2020

Text / 800-1500 Words

A strategy to improve the intelligence that steers policing and violence-intervention efforts has worked in Chicago and shown promising early signs in Baltimore. But plans to expand Strategic Decision Support Centers in Baltimore ran into political opposition, based on sentiment in favor of diverting police resources to other strategies. Chicago’s SDSC program is credited with a much greater reduction in shootings than in untargeted areas of the city. Baltimore likewise has seen homicides decline where SDSCs help police and violence interrupters decide where and on whom to focus their interventions.

Paradise Lockdown: How Thailand's Phuket Island flattened its coronavirus curve

https://www.asiasentinel.com/p/paradise-lockdown

Nina Milhaud

Asia Sentinel

6 July 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Despite devastating economic consequences, Thailand’s quick and hardline response to early signs of COVID-19 spread contained the virus and within weeks limited the country’s infections to just over 3,000 as of July 1, a far better record than nearby countries. Tourism-dependent Phuket Island was Thailand’s only province to impose a total lockdown for more than one month. Thanks to aggressive travel restrictions, contact tracing, and quarantines of possibly infected residents and travelers, the stringent measures paid off as restaurants and shops began reopening in early May.

Vietnam has 0 coronavirus deaths. Here's why.

https://www.cnbc.com/video/2020/07/06/vietnam-has-0-coronavirus-deaths-heres-why.html

Timothyna Duncan

CNBC

6 July 2020

Broadcast TV News / 5-15 Minutes

Vietnam reacted swiftly to the approaching pandemic, screening travelers from Wuhan, then banning all visitors from China, mandating masks, producing a catchy hand-washing video, and conducting extensive testing, with mandatory quarantines of infected people. The country of 97 million had just a few hundred cases and no deaths in the pandemic's first six months, even though its public health system is not regarded as extraordinary. As a result of its success at containment, Vietnam was one of the first in the region to relax social distancing and reopen its economy.

Beach Cleanups Prove Popular And Purposeful During Pandemic

https://www.civilbeat.org/2020/07/beach-cleanups-prove-popular-and-purposeful-during-pandemic

Claire Caulfield

Honolulu Civil Beat

6 July 2020

Text / Under 800 Words

Since single-use plastic usage has increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, organizations in Hawaii are planning beach cleanup events to pick up the plastic waste. Sustainable Coastlines Hawaii’s first beach cleanup event since the start of the pandemic drew 150 registrations in less than a day. 808 Cleanups is growing its adopt-a-site program where households identify a beach, waterway, or trail they’d like to regularly clean up. Coordinating a large number of volunteers while maintaining social distancing guidelines has been difficult to navigate.

This town of 170,000 replaced some cops with medics and mental health workers. It's worked for over 30 years

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/05/us/cahoots-replace-police-mental-health-trnd/index.html

Scottie Andrew

CNN

5 July 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

The CAHOOTS crisis-response program saves its city money and its people living on the streets a great deal of unwanted police contact – contact that in other places is a common cause of excessive force and arrests that solve nothing. And, while less than 1% of its calls require police backup, the resource-thin agency cautions that it is a partner with police, not an antagonistic replacement, and that its model cannot simply be copied wholesale regardless of where it's used.

The problem with Facebook's plan to sign up 4 million voters

https://www.fastcompany.com/90523974/whats-wrong-with-facebook-plan-to-sign-up-4-million-voters

Alex Pasternack

FastCompany

3 July 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

In the past decade, Facebook's US voter engagement campaigns included registration and election-day reminders for its 61 million 18+ users and sharing friends’ voting behavior. One study attributes hundreds of thousands of more votes to these election campaigns, with friends’ voting behavior the strongest influencer. The California Secretary of State credits the 4th highest voter registration daily total to Facebook’s same day reminder. Criticisms include not releasing data for independent review and negative aspects of its influence like potential liberal biases and the 2016 Russian disinformation campaign.

Breaking down the disability stigma, one creation at a time

https://www.pioneerspost.com/news-views/20200703/breaking-down-the-disability-stigma-one-creation-time

Cass Hebron

Astari Sarosa

Pioneers Post

3 July 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

A collaborative movement in Indonesia is creating job opportunities within the creative sector for those living with disabilities. Gerakan Kreabilitas holds workshops and events to provide business training through mentors who provide their expertise and business connections in supporting the micro-enterprises. The program also does outreach to local businesses and government officials to reduce barriers and stigmas faced by disabled Indonesians seeking work.

Police reformers push for de-escalation training, but the jury is out on its effectiveness

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/police-reformers-push-de-escalation-training-jury-effectiveness/story?id=71262003

Erin Schumaker

ABC News (American Broadcasting Company)

2 July 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Teaching police de-escalation tactics to avoid the use of force in a crisis is a popular suggestion in the police-reform debate, but a number of structural deficits make success a great unknown. Before police departments embrace the concept, they must first realize there has been no rigorous testing of any particular training regimen for effectiveness, nor do any national standards on use of force exist. Police training and the definition of de-escalation tactics are both highly fractured, lacking common definitions based on proven effectiveness.

As Domestic Abuse Rises, U.K. Failings Leave Victims in Peril

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/07/02/world/europe/uk-coronavirus-domestic-abuse.html

Amanda Taub

Jane Bradley

The New York Times

2 July 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

Ignoring the pleas of victim-aid groups and the examples set by other countries, the British government and courts failed to protect domestic violence victims during the pandemic. Italy, Spain, Germany, and New Zealand provided for emergency shelter for victims trapped at home with their abusers or made other preparations a formal part of their lockdown plans. But in England, where at least 26 deaths and multiple cases of abuse are blamed on the government’s failures, shelters overflowed and orders of protection went unenforced because of a lack of funding and effective planning.

Texas's High School Voter Registration Law Fails to Live Up to Ideals

https://nextcity.org/daily/entry/texass-high-school-voter-registration-law-fails-to-live-up-to-ideals

James Russell

Next City

2 July 2020

Text / 1500-3000 Words

A Texas law requiring high school principals to register eligible student voters has failed because it is unequally carried out, not enforceable or tracked, and other obstacles to vote prevent students from casting ballots. While the law was an impressive attempt to increase the civic participation of young people, many high schools have not participated. A 2019 report shows that only 38% of schools with at least 20 seniors requested voter registration forms. A confounding obstacle is a 2013 voter ID law that requires voters to show one of seven forms of photo identification, but student IDs are not eligible