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  • Interest in Community Police Watch Training Soars as Courses Go Online

    Groups in the Bay Area that have successfully sought to have police disciplined for misconduct and won new police-accountability policies have turned their form of organized monitoring into a training platform for protesters nationwide. Responding to widespread Black Lives Matter protests, groups like Berkeley Copwatch and Wecopwatch use online education to teach hundreds of activists nationwide how to use videotape archives to systematically document abuses, and how to perform the work of legal observers at protests. Those activities are meant to act as deterrents to abuse.

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  • Toward a Cure: Cities Declare Racism a Public Health Crisis

    Milwaukee was one of the first U.S. cities to show that communities of color were disproportionately impacted by the coronavirus pandemic because of a framework that had been established and implemented after the city and county declared racism a public health crisis. The resolution allowed for city officials to track data that framed "disparities in health outcomes through a racial lens." Now, 70 other jurisdictions have made similar declarations and additional efforts are underway to address a range of health issues tied to racial trends.

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  • Grounded by the pandemic, community groups are working to save Cleveland's Census

    With 75 micro-grants totaling $200,000, community organizations in Cleveland encourage people to complete the census in innovative ways. The Cleveland Caravan, or La Caravana, is a collaborative effort where trucks play looped messages in English and Spanish over a loud speaker with information on how to fill out the Census, vote, and stay safe during the pandemic. Asian Services in Action and Us Together, a refugee and immigrant services group, conduct outreach and have helped 1,190 and 700 people complete the Census respectively. Despite these efforts, the city's response rate is comparatively low.

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  • As COVID-19 cases rise, experts question effectiveness of contact tracing in S.D. and across the U.S.

    Contact tracing has been touted as an effective tool for slowing the spread of COVID-19 and has shown success in countries such as South Korea – helping to not just identify potential superspreader events, but to also help the economy remain largely open. In the U.S., contact tracers in South Dakota have been able to "identify 35,000 close contacts of coronavirus patients during the pandemic so far," but health experts question if the workforce spans enough of the state.

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  • Solar Power Is Booming. But It's Putting Desert Wilderness At Risk.

    Solar development can reduce or significantly alter local biodiversity, and this should be considered when planning sustainability projects in the desert, argues a new study. Scientists measured the impact of a solar plant built in California and found that while some grasses and native shrubs grew back, cacti and yucca didn’t fare well. They recommend building solar projects on places that have already been developed or have low environmental impact. Groups like the Nature Conservancy are using that advice to pilot a project demonstrating that old mine sites in Nevada can be used for clean energy.

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  • This AI startup is tackling the coronavirus disinformation deluge

    Logically is a fact-checking app that combines AI technology and human research to assess and label the truthfulness of news articles. The app has about 20,000 users after a soft launch in the UK, with a full launch planned for late 2020. The AI technology, a feature that makes the app unique, tries to match news claims to other sources and then human researchers take over to make a final judgment. The app has been busy fact-checking the extensive Covid-19 related misinformation. Some aspects, like technology glitches and slow fact-checking responses from researchers, still need to be worked out.

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  • 19 Volunteers Sharing an iPhone Are Trying to Support Incarcerated People Through COVID-19 Audio icon

    Beyond These Walls launched a crisis phone line to provide emotional support for LGBTQ+ people who are incarcerated and to hold prisons and jails accountable for their virus-containment practices. Trained volunteers have fielded 369 calls so far, more than a quarter of which concern fears that reporting virus symptoms could land people in solitary confinement. Beyond These Walls and its coalition partners can provide safety by letting jailers know their practices are being monitored.

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  • Youngstown, Ohio, Lost Its Only Paper. A 'Zombie' News Site Wants To Fill The Void

    Mahoning Matters formed as a news site with laid-off veterans of the Youngstown Vindicator, filling part of a void in local accountability journalism in what is now the largest U.S. city without a seven-day print newspaper. Its funder, The Compass Experiment, set the startup on a three-year trajectory toward self-sustainability, an experiment that has yet to play out. Meantime, Compass successfully recruited a tiny band of Vindicator alumni, whose first stories have included unmasking the public official whose sexual misconduct compromised the management of a local police department.

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  • How to save a life: Easing grief from inside COVID ICUs

    To combat the grief, trauma, and frustration caused by COVID-19 hospitalizations where families are cut off from loved ones and from most information about their care and condition, the staff at Vincent Pallotti Hospital created a new way of capturing doctors' updates on patients that improved the flow of information. Instead of recording their observations and treatments on paper charts, doctors enter the information on an online system. Volunteer counselors with access to that information then update families daily, relieving some stress and bringing solace to families and patients alike.

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  • States eye vote by mail, Oregon officials say it's safe and secure

    Officials in Oregon, where voters have voted by mail in statewide elections for decades, point to their successful system to counter Donald Trump’s claim that voting by mail is “rigged” and results could take “years.” Several precautions prevent voter fraud, including a signature verification system, unique tracking barcodes on every ballot, and voters can get alerts when their ballot is received and counted. Officials and academics who have studied the system say that fraud is exceedingly rare with current security measures, though states implementing the system for the first time could experience delays.

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