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Why some bike shares work and others don't

Hope Ngo

January 12, 2021 |

BBC |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: China

A boom in Chinese bike-share companies sought a technology-driven transport solution for people traveling short distances. While investors were drawn to green transportation solutions, a lack of any regulatory framework to introduce the bikes and integrate them with existing public transportation led to millions of bikes inundating urban areas. The more than 40 dockless bike share companies operating around the country led to an oversupply, bikes were vandalized, and many were found in rivers and other natural settings. Massive bike graveyards popped up as the bike parts were not easily recycled.

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‘Slow Streets' Disrupted City Planning. What Comes Next?

Laura Bliss

January 06, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Durham, North Carolina

When city planners rushed early in the pandemic to close streets to automobile traffic in order to give residents a safe space to roam outdoors, they ended up learning lessons entirely apart from their original goals rooted in public health and traffic safety. In Durham, Atlanta, Los Angeles, and Oakland, community groups pushed back at the cities' initial failures to consider the opinions of communities of color whose neighborhoods were affected by the changes. The pushback led to collaborations and modified plans that redefined the problems at issue and the ways to address them.

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The U.S. Could Make New Cars a Lot Less Deadly

David Zipper

January 06, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

American cars made since the early 1980s have carried ratings from the federal New Car Assessment Program, showing how risky they are to human life in a crash. NCAP ratings motivated a host of safety enhancements by manufacturers. Since the 1990s, similar programs in the European Union, China, Australia, Korea, and Japan have also rated vehicles' risks to pedestrians and bicyclists, and their fatalities have dropped. Not so in the U.S., where industry resistance has stalled expansion of NCAP ratings. Advocates hope the Biden Transportation Department will finally expand the program.

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Revolving door in Montana corrections still turning, despite reforms

Phoebe Tollefson

January 04, 2021 |

Helena Independent Record |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Montana

A set of criminal justice reforms enacted in Montana in 2017 that were meant to reduce incarceration and reinvest some of the savings in crime prevention programs has had little effect on the prison population. The state's "justice reinvestment" program, using a model adopted in 30 other states, has failed to put plans into action, partly for a lack of public spending on programs for incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people. As a result, the prison population is tracking where it would have been had nothing been done, and recidivism remains high.

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New laws lead some Washington prosecutors to rethink three-strike life sentences

Manuel Villa Nina Shapiro

January 03, 2021 |

The Seattle Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington

Nearly three decades after Washington voters made their state the first to enact a three-strikes law, imposing life imprisonment for repeated, serious offenses, some prosecutors have found ways to avoid the law's effects that are seen as unduly harsh or racially biased. Some have interpreted a law authorizing resentencing to apply to three-strikes cases. Others have pushed the governor to grant clemency more often. This new willingness to question the law's effects is not universal among prosecutors, and the state Supreme Court soon will weigh in on the issue.

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These Cities Tried to Tackle Disinvestment. Here Are Lessons From What Happened.

Tony Briscoe Haru Coryne

December 30, 2020 |

ProPublica |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Various government policies and programs have been implemented in Black communities facing urban decline but not all of them have been completely successful. Initiatives included: Expanding public transportation, refining tax codes, providing incentives for corporations, and supporting small businesses. The ideas yielded some results but also led to unintended negative consequences.

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After 3 years and $1.5 million devoted to testing rape kits, Alaska made one new arrest

Kyle Hopkins

December 30, 2020 |

Anchorage Daily News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Alaska

Despite hopes that testing a backlog of rape kits would reveal many new serial-rape suspects, Alaska's three-year push to test 568 kits under the federally funded Sexual Assault Kit Initiative led to only one new prosecution. The reasons the program fell short of expectations include a lack of usable DNA samples, errors by investigators, cases in which victims and suspects had died or victims no longer wished to proceed, or the kits revealed no evidence that wasn't previously known. Alaska is now footing the bill to test more kits, which contain physical evidence collected after a rape.

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Under Biden, the Justice Department is expected to again police the police

Robert Klemko

December 29, 2020 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, East Haven, Connecticut

After East Haven, Connecticut, police officers were caught harassing residents based on race, the Obama Justice Department took the police department to court and won a consent decree requiring a long list of reforms, in hiring, training, discipline, and use of force. The oversight, rare for a small city, changed the department's culture and won praise from many residents, who now trust the police more. Such federal action waned in the Trump years, but is expected to revive in the Biden administration, though perhaps under a more collaborative, less coercive model.

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After a sexual assault, where can you get a medical and forensic exam?

Catie Beck Adiel Kaplan Alexa Keyes Wilson Wong

December 28, 2020 |

NBC News |

Broadcast TV News |

3-5 Minutes

Response Location: United States

A critical element in responding to rapes with trauma-informed victim care that aids an eventual prosecution is a sexual assault forensic exam. Rape kits, as they are known, are best administered by highly trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners (SANEs). But the first nationwide census of available SANEs shows enormous gaps in availability and training. Federal aid since 2005 has helped improve care, and some states have innovated workarounds, including regional mobile SANE units for underserved areas.

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The Karen Next Door

Allison P. Davis

December 21, 2020 |

The Cut |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Montclair, New Jersey

During protests over racial inequity in American criminal justice, the Karen video became a common response to an incident of racist hostility. A case in Montclair, New Jersey, at first followed the familiar trajectory. Confronted by a white woman over a perceived assault, a Black victim of the false accusation posted a video of the argument and the inevitable call for police assistance. White allies responded with support for the Black victims, which is the intended effect of such videos. But the aftermath raised a host of unresolved questions about how best to think about and respond to such incidents.

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