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

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  • Stopped: Profiling the Police Town Hall

    Missouri requires police to record the race of drivers from every traffic stop, a response meant to expose and ultimately reduce racial profiling in law enforcement. But, 20 years after that law took effect, Black drivers are 95% more likely to be stopped by police than white drivers, the biggest gap since the state started collecting the data. The policy was rendered meaningless because the data are collected inconsistently, high rates of noncompliance with the policy go unpunished, and individual officers' records go uncounted. As a result, there's no accountability for racist traffic enforcement.

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  • Patients Struggle to Find Prescription Opioids After NY Tax Drives Out Suppliers

    To "punish major drugmakers for their role in the opioid epidemic and generate funding for treatment programs," the state of New York implemented a new an excise tax on opioids. Since going into effect, though, the tax has failed to bring in the expected revenue and many opioid manufacturers and wholesalers have stopped selling their drugs to the state which has negatively impacted those who have been prescribed opioids for ailments such as pain management.

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  • How SU survived a COVID-19 fall semester

    When Salisbury University faced the likelihood of having to enact a campus-wide lockdown due to the rapidly increasing prevalence of COVID-19 cases, the school took steps to revise protocols and mandate further regulations in order to keep operations running. From hybrid classrooms to "mandating negative tests on file every 30 days for university members to retain access to campus facilities," the university has recently been touted as a model for successfully staying open amid the pandemic.

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  • MMSD more than triples weekly food distribution from spring with more sites, bus delivery

    The Madison Metropolitan School District created a food delivery program so students could access meals during the pandemic when teaching became virtual. When they noticed only 15,000 meals were being delivered, a low number, they created changes to their meal distribution program. The district collaborated with Badger buses to deliver the school lunches, then at specific stops school officials would distribute the meals to students. After the changes, 50,000 meals were delivered.

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  • Where the COVID-19 Pandemic Might Finally Ignite Change in the Bail Bonds System

    The spread of COVID-19 in jails prompted many releases from custody and a surge in donations to bail funds that pay for people's release. But those fixes have done little to address the underlying challenges of detaining millions of people before trial, either because they cannot afford cash bail or because risk-assessment tools deem them a threat to public safety or unlikely to return to court. In two South Florida jails, the struggles over containing the virus, providing due process to criminal defendants, and ensuring public safety have brought the debate into sharper focus.

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  • Why Las Vegas Is at the Heart of Western States' Water Conundrums

    After running out of water during a drought in 2002, the Southern Nevada Water Authority and Las Vegas Valley Water District took proactive steps to conserve the region’s water for future generations. Thanks to public service campaigns, outdoor water usage limits, and turf replacement programs, the region’s water usage per capita has dropped by 46 percent. However, many people still don’t fully comply with the city’s water regulations and the region continues to grow at an expanding rate. Yet, similar conservation efforts could be a model for other arid regions around the United States.

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  • From individual sessions to taking a real-world approach, here's how teachers are adapting to the pandemic

    Teachers are having to restructure the way they teach due to the pandemic imposed challenges of virtual classes. This story chronicles how three different teachers adjusted their instruction. From having students break out into chat rooms, to changing the material they teach, these teachers are adjusting as they go along to accommodate learning.

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  • A Watchdog Accused Officers of Serious Misconduct. Few Were Punished.

    New York City established its Civilian Complaint Review board in 1993 to strengthen its police-discipline system, a response to complaints that police officers rarely were punished for harassment and brutality, especially in Black and brown neighborhoods. In 6,900 cases in which the board recommended the toughest punishment, however, police officials overruled it more than 70% of the time over the past two decades. The result is a disciplinary mechanism designed to instill trust but that instead "has become all but toothless" because of how it is structured and how police leaders responded to oversight.

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  • Manhattan Mental Health Court offers lifeline to those with serious mental illness — but they have to get in

    Manhattan Mental Health Court was created in 2011 to divert felony criminal cases to treatment, and away from prison, for people in need of mental health treatment. But few people with serious mental illness ever benefit from it. Too few defense lawyers know to request the intervention or do it correctly. Prosecutors act as gatekeepers in deciding who gets the help, and many do not see its value. And, once cases are admitted to the court, they can sometimes take years to be resolved. Covid restrictions on the courts have only aggravated these problems.

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  • Disinvested: How Government and Private Industry Let the Main Street of a Black Neighborhood Crumble

    A series of government programs designed to rebuild a neighborhood badly damaged by the 1968 Chicago uprising not only failed to achieve their goal, but actually made it worse. Hundreds of businesses in the Madison Street area of Chicago's West side were destroyed in days of rioting. Programs that emphasized clearing "blight" over building anew left vacant lots where new businesses might have emerged. Overall, "efforts turned out to be too scattered, too small and too susceptible to shifting politics to make a lasting impact," while opportunistic businesses cashed in without improving conditions.

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