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“The death penalty is about us”: Sister Helen Prejean on humanizing death row prisoners

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Bryan Stevenson on Why We Need to Abolish the Death Penalty | Op-Ed | NowThis

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

And now we're going to bring in other voices to talk about their solutions to gun violence in America. Joining us now are Thomas Abt. He's a researcher who studies gun violence. His most recent book is "Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences Of Urban Violence -- And A Bold New Plan For Peace In The Streets."

Thomas Abt, thank you so much for joining us once again.

THOMAS ABT: Pleasure to be with you.

MARTIN: Kris Brown is the president of Brady - that's an organization that aims to reduce gun violence in America.

Kris Brown, thank you so much for joining us as well.

KRIS BROWN: Thank you.

MARTIN: We're also joined by Reverend Rob Schenck. He's an evangelical pastor. He's based here in Washington, D.C. He published a book last year titled "Costly Grace: An Evangelical Minister's Rediscovery Of Faith, Hope, And Love." And in it, he argues that Christians - especially those who identify as pro-life - should also embrace gun control as a faith issue - or gun safety measures, I should say.

Reverend Schenck, welcome back to you as well.

ROB SCHENCK: Thank you.

MARTIN: Earlier, we were joined by Mark Bryant, the director of the Gun Violence Archive. We asked him to come for additional perspective on the scope of the gun violence issue in this country. He had to leave, so joining us now is James Burnett, editorial director of The Trace. That's a nonprofit and nonpartisan news organization that reports on guns in America.

James, thank you so much for joining us.

JAMES BURNETT: Thank you.

MARTIN: So I'm going to start with Thomas Abt because you've been thinking about this issue for a long time. And the reason we called you is that the focus this weekend is mass shootings because they're so horrific and they're so attention-getting. But you focused a very great deal on what you call community violence or urban violence. Why is that important?

ABT: I think it's important because mass shootings, while horribly tragic - and I don't want to diminish the importance of what's happened over just the past week and all of the lives tragically lost - but we have a daily slaughter in the United States. Mass shootings account for approximately 1% of all homicides due to gun violence in the United States as compared to urban violence, which accounts for the vast majority (unintelligible). And...

MARTIN: OK. OK, I understand your point here. But you have some specific policy solutions that you have been advancing for some time now, which you gathered in the book. And one of the things, if I can sort of encapsulate - you talk about focusing on hot people and hot places, which is really sort of pouring focus into places that have demonstrated a propensity to have violence or people who've demonstrated a previous propensity to violence. But noting your point that, you know, that that is your particular focus, would those measures also address some of the things that happened this weekend?

ABT: No, they wouldn't. And it's very important that the public understand that we're not facing one gun violence challenge the United States. We're facing at least four. There is urban violence, which accounts for the vast majority of homicides in the United States. There are domestic gun homicides, mass shootings. And then suicides account for two thirds of all gun deaths. While there are some relationships between these four gun violence crises, they're different, and they will require different policies.

MARTIN: OK. I hope we'll come back to you in a minute. Let's go to Kris here. Your organization has been thinking about this for, what - 30 years now?

BROWN: Yes.

MARTIN: But give us your top lines. What do you think is the most important thing this country should be thinking about right now?

BROWN: Well, I think that the - Thomas said it very well. We have an epidemic of gun violence. We have 40,000 people on average a year dying from gun violence - a hundred people a day. And while the mass shootings do make the headlines and are absolutely horrific, they account for about 2% of all gun deaths in America. We have to treat this issue as an epidemic and holistically.

So I have policy solutions that I think would really help reduce mass violence. Look at El Paso. Look at Dayton. We have assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines. Start there. Renew the assault weapons ban. But then we have far too many crime guns flooding America's cities. We've focused for so long on the trigger-pullers without focusing on the actual supply of guns into so many of these communities.

And that's about enforcement. We hear people from the other side talking about enforcement all the time. Yes, we agree. We need to enforce the laws and stop the about 5% of gun dealers who are flooding our communities with guns. And the other thing we have to focus on are the 300 million-plus guns in people's homes all across this country. We have a phenomena that is uniquely American called family fire. Eight kids a day are killed or injured with guns in their own home. So we need this holistic approach. It takes policy, it takes enforcement and it takes action within our own homes to address these issues.

MARTIN: James, what about you? Your organization reports on this. And, as a journalist, I don't want to put you in the position of sort of adopting specific policies. But can you just tell us more broadly, are people more willing to discuss these kinds of measures or not?

BURNETT: I do think you see an increasing willingness to address gun violence as a problem in the political sphere. That's certainly true in the Democratic primary right now, where we did a survey of the candidates. And there's broad consensus about - or broad support for some core policy tenets - universal background checks, assault weapons bans, things like that.

One area - a particular area of compromise at the state level in some places has been on extreme risk protection orders - sometimes also called a red flag law. That's the idea that there are a lot of people who purchase a gun legally, own it lawfully, own it safely, but then because of circumstances in their life become high-risk.

These laws give police - and in some cases family members and other members of the community - a mechanism for going to a court and saying, this gun - this person right now is in crisis. It's not safe for them to have a gun. The gun can be removed for a fixed period of time, and the danger can be averted in some cases. And there are instances of, you know, tragedies being averted by those laws. And again, those are laws that have been passed at the state level, signed by Republican governors in some cases. There's even some glimmer in the Senate where Lindsey Graham convened a hearing and talked about...

MARTIN: OK.

BURNETT: ...Red flag laws as one possible. There has been no action beyond that in the Senate, but that's at least one place where you've seen...

MARTIN: Reverend Schenck...

BURNETT: ...An opening.

MARTIN: Thanks for that, James. Reverend Schenck, I just want to ask you just about the tenor of this because it's almost as if we've gotten to a place where we can't even talk about this, let alone move forward on this. You know, I understand that, Kris, that there was a lot of legislative activity last year and in 2018 and also this year during that legislative sessions and so forth. But I was curious about - because you're kind of in the faith and hope business, and I was interested in you as a person who - for whom this was not the original focus of your interest as a faith leader and as a...

SCHENCK: Indeed.

MARTIN: ...Public figure. And you came to a place of believing that it is fundamental to your mission. And I wanted to ask you, you know, what would it take in your view for people to believe that it is important for this country to address this, that the suffering is too great and that as people of goodwill can in fact address this, like they've addressed other health crises?

SCHENCK: If Republicans believe - as they have assured my community, the evangelical community - that they believe that every human life is sacred - we've heard the president say that recently a few times. If they really believe that, then there is a moral mandate here. Whether the technical pieces of the puzzle are in place or not, there is a mandate to do what is right, and what is right is to protect human life.

My community defines itself as pro-life. It is pro-life to protect our fellow human beings - Americans in particular, in this case - in one way by prohibiting bad actors from getting the firepower that will help them realize their immoral, wicked, murderous imaginations, their intentions. We have to frustrate that. One way to do that is to make it very difficult to get the kind of firepower it takes to carry out the kind of acts we've just seen. So to me, we've crossed a moral line. It's now time for Republicans - in particular, the president - to put up or shut up. Either stop talking about the sanctity of human life, stop talking about every human life being sacred, or take the necessary actions to protect human life.

MARTIN: Do you see any evidence that others who share your faith perspective and commitment agree with you?

SCHENCK: Yes, especially young evangelicals, emerging evangelical leaders, the young pastors of megachurches in this country are nearly unanimous on calling for sensible gun regulation. Not rolling back the Second Amendment - that's not necessary. There's plenty of room to restrict access to the kind of firepower that we've seen used. And we begin by talking about common-sense regulations surrounding semi-automatic weapons. If you've shot a semiautomatic rifle as I have, an AR-15, you know that your finger on that feather trigger can turn it into a machine gun. There is no need for an average person to have a machine gun.

MARTIN: Is there - I'm going to ask - I guess, Kris, I'm going to give you the final word here. And I apologize to all and thank you all so much for joining us on this very disturbing weekend. Kris, give us some hope. I mean, I know Rob Schenck - that's his specific job, is he's in the kind of hope business...

SCHENCK: And I am hopeful.

MARTIN: He is the hope business. But what about you? Is there anything giving you hope? I mean, you've been working on this for so long.

BROWN: I have. We have at Brady. And - but a number of things give me hope. One, reverend Schenck is absolutely right. The young people are leading the way here. If you look at any poll, 18- to 34-year-olds rate this as a top priority issue. We won in 2018 in Congress, and we'll continue to move in that direction.

MARTIN: That's Kris Brown. She's the president of Brady. Also with us - Thomas Abt, a senior research fellow at Harvard University and the author of "Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences Of Urban Violence -- And A Bold New Plan For Peace In The Streets." James Bennett's the editorial director of The Trace, a nonpartisan news site that focuses on gun violence. And Rob Schenck, as you heard, is a minister in the evangelical tradition.

Thank you all so much for joining us.

Copyright © 2019 NPR. All rights reserved. Visit our website terms of use and permissions pages at www.npr.org for further information.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by Verb8tm, Inc., an NPR contractor, and produced using a proprietary transcription process developed with NPR. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR's programming is the audio record.

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MICHEL MARTIN, HOST: And now we're going to bring in other voices to talk about their solutions to gun violence in America. Joining us now are Thomas Abt. He's a researcher who studies gun violence. His most recent book is "Bleeding Out: The Devastating Consequences Of Urban Violence -- And A Bold New Plan For Peace In The Streets."

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6 Real Ways to We Can Reduce Gun Violence in America

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America is the only developed country with such high rates of gun violence. Here are six steps we can take to reduce those numbers.

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A federal judge on Monday approved a partial settlement in the long-running dispute over equal pay between U.S. Soccer and its World Cup-winning women's national team, but the players' fight with the federation is far from over.

The ruling by Judge R. Gary Klausner, of the United States District Court for the Central District of California, rubber-stamped an agreement on working conditions that the sides had reached last year. When he rejected the players' core arguments about equal pay last May, Klausner let them continue their claims about unequal working conditions in areas like team flights, hotels, venue selection and staffing support.

Before they could pursue an appeal of their equal pay defeat, the players needed to resolve those issues. With that agreement now in place, the players said, they will return to the core of their legal fight: an appeal of Klausner's ruling that dismissed their demands for pay equal to what the men's team earns.

"Now that this is behind us, we intend to appeal the court's equal pay decision, which does not account for the fact that women players have been paid at lesser rates than men who do the same job," said the players' spokeswoman, Molly Levinson.

The women's players sued U.S. Soccer in March 2019, contending they had been subjected to years of unequal treatment and compensation. Twenty-eight members of the team filed the initial lawsuit, which later grew to include anyone in a larger class of players who had been part of the women's team since 2015.

The players pressed their equal pay argument for years - through on-field protests, interviews and social media campaigns - as they piled up victories and two World Cup championships on the field. Then Klausner rejected them in a single devastating paragraph last May.

In that decision, Klausner ruled that not only had U.S. Soccer not paid the women's players less than their men's counterparts, but also that he had been convinced that " the WNT has been paid more on both a cumulative and an average per-game basis than the MNT" over the years covered in the case.

It is unclear how long an appeal of his decisioncould take, or even whether it will be decided in a courtroom or at the negotiating table.

The women's team's collective bargaining agreement expires at the end of December. While the women won significant gains in their current agreement, the largest gap in compensation between men's and women's players remains the World Cup bonuses paid by FIFA, world soccer's governing body. The bonus pool at the last men's World Cup was $400 million, compared with $30 million for the women's event a year later.

While noting that it has no control over those payments, U.S. Soccer offered again on Monday to pursue a negotiated settlement that might end a legal fight that has damaged both sides financially and emotionally, and that has forced fans of both U.S. teams to take sides.

"We expected the women's national team to appeal the summary judgment ruling that determined U.S. Soccer has paid the USWNT fair and equitable compensation," the federation said in a statement. "We remain hopeful that we can come to a resolution outside of the court system."

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U.S. Women's Team Clears Hurdle to Reviving Equal Pay Fight

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A federal judge on Monday approved a partial settlement in the long-running dispute over equal pay between U.S. Soccer and its World Cup-winning women's national team, but the players' fight with the federation is far from over. The ruling by Judge R.

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Donald Trump is well known for his biased and insensitive remarks toward communities of color. Trump spent the final year of his presidency normalizing terms like the "China virus" and "kung flu," despite members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and World Health Organization warning that such rhetoric could amplify anti-Asian backlash and hate incidents. Congress's response has mostly fallen along party lines: when the House passed a non-binding resolution in September 2020 to denounce anti-Asian racism, including terms like the "Wuhan virus," 164 Republicans voted against it and only 14 voted in favor.

Rep. Grace Meng (D-NY) has described Joe Biden's treatment of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community as "night and day." During his first week in office, Biden issued a memorandum to condemn coronavirus-related racism, including language like "China virus" from political leaders. Yet, even after Biden assumed office, high-profile assaults on Asian Americans continued. On March 18, one day after the shooting of eight people-six of whom were Asian women-in Atlanta, Georgia, the House held its first hearing on anti-Asian discrimination in over three decades. Preliminary data from Stop AAPI Hate and the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism suggests a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes since the start of the pandemic, although there are widespread challenges in collecting data and legally classifying incidents.

This week, Democratic leaders are set to take action on the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, a measure introduced by Meng and Sen. Marie Hirono (D-HI), in both the House and Senate. This bill would help state and local law enforcement establish online hate incident reporting (in multiple languages), appoint a Department of Justice official to expedite review of such reports, and release guidance on avoiding discriminatory language to describe COVID-19. Although President Biden has publicly endorsed the bill, so far no Republicans have co-sponsored it-with several citing concerns such as free speech or overregulation for their lack of support. Without at least some GOP support, the bill's outcome is uncertain-should Republicans choose to actively block the bill, it cannot survive a potential Senate filibuster without at least 60 votes.

Despite this lack of endorsement of the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, it is still possible that Republicans might support hate crime protections in some form. Several GOP leaders denounced anti-Asian racism in the wake of the Atlanta shooting, and a few have indicated willingness to discuss amendments to Meng and Hirono's legislation. Furthermore, the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act-which lacked Senate Republican co-sponsors in the 116 th Congress-has been formally reintroduced this month with some bipartisan support. Meanwhile, Rep. Michelle Steel (R-CA) co-sponsored a resolution in February to condemn anti-Asian racism and Rep. Young Kim (R-CA) recently called for bipartisan support of the AAPI community.

While hate crime legislation faces partisan barriers in Congress, the White House recently announced several executive actions to respond to anti-Asian hate incidents. It will solicit recommendations from AAPI leaders to improve the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and continue to fund research into anti-Asian racism through the National Science Foundation. It will also allocate $49.5 million to improve cultural and community-based services for domestic violence and sexual survivors, particularly AAPI individuals who may experience limited English proficiency or other barriers to assistance. In addition, it will establish a Department of Justice initiative to improve data transparency, language access, community resources, and coordination to fight hate crimes.

As Congress and the White House respond to anti-Asian attacks, including the mass shooting in Georgia, it is important to look at a larger context. Asian Americans are the fastest-growing racial demographic in the United States and are becoming an increasingly important electorate. In combination with demographic growth, preliminary analysis suggests that overall AAPI voter turnout increased from 51% in 2016 to 58% in 2020. This estimated seven percentage-point increase in voter turnout has been positively influenced by direct outreach from political campaigns and organizations. In Georgia, much of this outreach has been led by Black women; Stacey Abrams, for example, has attended AAPI political events and actively connected with the Asian American community for years.

For toss-up elections and battleground states-where the threshold between Democrats and Republicans is thin-outreach to the AAPI community can be especially vital for both parties. Last November, Joe Biden narrowly won Georgia by 11,779 votes, or a 0.23% margin. Meanwhile, preliminary estimates suggest that approximately 134,000 AAPI voters from Georgia cast a ballot in the presidential election, up from 73,000 in 2016. [i] And while Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock's subsequent Senate run-off victories were the direct result of extraordinary turnout from Black voters in Georgia-as well as the organizing by Abrams and many others-the closeness of the races means that neither party can afford to ignore AAPI voters, which comprised about 2% of run-off voters. Other potential swing states with a relatively large AAPI electorate include Nevada and Virginia, and Asian American voters could continue to be influential during certain House elections in Texas and California as well.

Georgia's new voting law, enacted March 25, has received criticism-and a reported Department of Justice investigation-due to its potential to disproportionately suppress voters in communities of color. For example, the law shortens the early-voting period and introduces tougher absentee voter ID requirements. This could serve to disenfranchise the AAPI community, which has seen an almost 300% increase in early and mail-in voting in swing states from the 2016 to the 2020 presidential election. Furthermore, the more complex voting requirements could present confusion and language barriers for people who speak English as a second language. In Georgia, approximately 80% of Asian Americans speak a language other than English at home.

As states like Texas, Florida, and Arizona consider similar voting legislation, it is possible that these Republican-trifecta governments are reacting to changing demographics within their electorates. But, as Rashawn Ray writes, neither party benefits from voter suppression. Both parties are better served by supporting policies that appeal to diverse constituencies, conducting outreach to communities of color early in the campaign cycle, and increasing access to the ballot box. And so, as members of Congress continue to respond to the Atlanta shooting and other anti-Asian verbal or physical attacks-and as they vote on the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act-both parties could benefit from protecting the AAPI community not only as a matter of morality, but a matter of politics.

Editors note: this blog has been updated to reflect that the Jabara-Heyer NO HATE Act lacked Senate Republican co-sponsors in the 116th Congress.

Footnotes

[i] This estimate is based on TargetSmart's analysis of early voting data. The Current Population Survey has not yet released voter demographic information for the 2020 presidential election.

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Why Democrats and Republicans would benefit from hate crime protections for Asian Americans

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Donald Trump is well known for his biased and insensitive remarks toward communities of color. Trump spent the final year of his presidency normalizing terms like the "China virus" and "kung flu," despite members of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and World Health Organization warning that such rhetoric could amplify anti-Asian backlash and hate incidents.

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senate pushes bill to combat surge of anti-asian hate crimes - cnnpolitics

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Senate pushes bill to combat surge of anti-Asian hate crimes

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The Senate is pushing to advance a bill Wednesday that would address the surge of hate crimes against Asian Americans.

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Following recent articles I wrote on both lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, I received significant correspondence about the environmental pros and cons of both types of battery. In this article I will use some of the feedback and references I received in an effort to compare and contrast some environmental impacts of these two types of battery.

Because of the long history of lead-acid batteries, there is a significant body of literature discussing their impact on the environment. But lithium-ion batteries are newer to the market, and their environmental impact is still being worked out.
Lead-Acid Batteries
The single-biggest environmental issue with lead-acid batteries involves the lead component of the battery. Lead is a heavy metal with potentially dangerous health impacts. Ingestion of lead is especially dangerous for young children because their brains are still developing.

In the 20th century, leaded gasoline and lead-based paints were extensively disseminated in the environment. Today those sources have largely been eliminated. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), today around 85% of the world's lead consumption is for the production of lead-acid batteries.

The good news is that lead-acid batteries are 99% recyclable. However, lead exposure can still take place during the mining and processing of the lead, as well as during the recycling steps.

The WHO report referenced above noted that lead recycling is an important source of environmental contamination and human exposure in many countries where it is poorly regulated. Lead recycling in such countries is often carried out without the necessary processes and technologies to control lead emissions.

But this can be a problem even in developed countries with good regulations. The California Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) has written extensively on the case of Exide Technologies, a lead-acid battery manufacturing company.

Exide had to close down a large battery recycling plant in California after it failed to meet emission controls and waste management standards. California regulators believe as many as 10,000 homes could be contaminated with lead from the plant. The cleanup is expected to take many years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars. Exide battery recycling plants in other states have also been cited for contaminating the environment with lead.

The WHO report also highlighted cases in Senegal, Dominican Republic, and Vietnam where contamination from lead-acid battery recycling resulted in negative health effects - including potentially the death of children.

Thus, while the 99% recycling statistic is important, it may understate the potential for lead contamination via this process. However, the situation would definitely be much worse if these batteries were being landfilled, as a single lead acid battery in a landfill has the potential to contaminate a large area.
Lithium-ion batteries
Many who wrote to me following previous articles maintained that recycling is the Achilles heel of lithium-ion batteries. They stressed that while lead-acid batteries are 99% recyclable, lithium-ion batteries are recycled at a rate below 5%. However, several companies also contacted me to argue that the 5% statistic itself is misleading.

The primary issue with lithium-ion recycling is that beyond smaller batteries used in consumer electronics, relatively few lithium-ion batteries (compared to lead-acid batteries) have reached the end of life stage because they haven't been in the market all that long and they last a long time.

Further, because lithium isn't a toxic heavy metal like lead, there has been far less pressure to recycle these batteries. Nevertheless, the issue will have a growing profile as growing numbers of lithium-ion batteries reach the end of their usable life.

The good news is that there are companies that are working on it. Li-ion batteries can be recycled at rates as high as lead-acid batteries, but the issue has simply not yet been viewed as one of critical importance.

Alex Pisarev, the CEO of California-based lithium-ion battery supplier OneCharge responded to a query on the question of lithium-ion battery recycling:

"Our batteries are highly recyclable - based on our Bill of Materials on average we have 83% of steel and copper, by weight. They are close to 100% recyclable. There are technologies being developed to recycle the rest, which is Li-ion cells themselves. Some companies already claim 50%, which takes OneCharge batteries to around 90% recycling rate. It is important to mention that we plan to repurpose the batteries after the end of their useful life in lift trucks. Around 80% of cells usually can still work in less demanding applications, such as home energy storage. There is a lot of potential here, we just have not accumulated enough old batteries, they just keep working!"

And while lithium itself isn't of great concern from a pollution angle, these batteries do contain metals like cobalt, nickel, and manganese. While these metals aren't as problematic as lead, they are considered toxic heavy metals.

Further, these metals must be mined, and there can be pollution associated with this activity (as there is with lead mining). In addition to the pollution potential, much of the criticisms surrounding the environmental impact of lithium-ion batteries have been in relation to child labor in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

I reached out again to OneCharge for comments specifically on the environmental and ethical issues around cobalt use in lithium-ion batteries.

Tim Karimov, President of OneCharge, replied:

"Our batteries are designed for optimal performance and safety required by the Material Handling Industry, and the perfect cell chemistry here is LiFePO4. These cells do not contain cobalt or other metals associated with unethical mining. They are just so much safer for workers and do not cause pollution! This technology is truly sustainable."

If the broader trend of lithium-ion batteries is to move away from chemistries containing cobalt - something both Tesla and Panasonic are working toward - then it would address one of the primary criticisms focused on growing lithium-ion battery usage.
Conclusions
Electric vehicle sales have exploded in recent years, but those batteries won't reach the end of life for a few years yet. Projections by industry experts are that China alone will produce half a million metric tons of used lithium-ion batteries through this year. By 2030, 11 million metric tons of Li-ion batteries are expected to reach the end of their service lives. Thus, Li-ion battery recycling is an issue that will take on much greater importance in coming years.

Many of those batteries will be headed to landfills or to China under current trends. But lithium-ion recycling plants are coming online, like this recently-announced recycling plant by Swedish lithium-ion battery maker Northvolt. As Northvolt CEO Peter Carlsson explained: "There's a pretty significant export flow of used batteries to China, and that's stupid. It's important to keep these flows within Europe."

... Read More

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Environmental Implications Of Lead-Acid And Lithium-Ion Batteries

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Following recent articles I wrote on both lithium-ion and lead-acid batteries, I received significant correspondence about the environmental pros and cons of both types of battery. In this article I will use some of the feedback and references I received in an effort to compare and contrast some environmental impacts of these two types of battery.

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Current lithium prices are a major stumbling block for the future of lithium-ion in grid-scale storage

The lithium-ion battery has played an integral role in powering the modern-day world - but questions remain about its environmental impact.

The rechargeable batteries, which are used in everything from mobile phones to electric cars, hit the news this week after three scientists behind its development were awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize for chemistry.

John B Goodenough, 97, became the oldest ever Nobel laureate and he shared the nine million Swedish kronor ($904,000) award with fellow researchers M Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino.

The Nobel Committee said: "Lithium-ion batteries are used globally to power the portable electronics that we use to communicate, work, study, listen to music and search for knowledge."

Despite the accolade, lithium-ion batteries have their critics. Here we take a look at how they operate and the issues that surround them.

What makes the lithium-ion battery different to other batteries?

Batteries are an integral part of life in the 21 st century, providing the world with electricity in a convenient, portable format.

But the main flaw with a number of batteries - including lead acid and nickel cadmium - is that they tend to run flat relatively quickly and are then, ultimately, thrown away.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US alone throws away more than three billion batteries each year.

This means it's not just the pockets of the average person taking a hit, but also the environment.

That is where rechargeable batteries, like the Nobel Prize-winning ones that use the reactive alkali metal lithium, strive to resolve that issue.

It was during the global oil crisis of the 1970s that the foundation of the lithium-ion battery was laid on, when Nottingham-born M Stanley Whittingham worked to develop energy technologies that did not rely on fossil fuels.

After constructing the cathode, which is the positive terminal in a lithium battery, Whittingham then made the anode - the battery's negative terminal, from metallic lithium.

The resulting device was able to release just over two volts, but given that the metallic lithium made it explosive, John B Goodenough decided to use cobalt oxide to boost the battery's potential to four volts in 1980.

Using the cathode as a basis, Akira Yoshino created the first commercially viable lithium-ion battery in 1985, leading to Sony releasing the first edition of the product in 1991.

Professor of chemistry Olof Ramström recently said that lithium-ion batteries had "enabled the mobile world".

In the present day, everything from our smartphone, iPad and laptop to electric cars would not be possible without being powered by lithium-ion batteries.

There have been many questions raised, though, with regards to whether the batteries should continue to be a big player as the world moves towards a greener future.

Issues with environmental impact of lithium-ion battery

Grid-scale storage and price

There are huge question marks surrounding whether lithium-ion batteries can be used for large grid-scale storage in an attempt to clean up the grid and replace fossil fuel plants.

Although this may be the best economical solution, the main question surrounding the future of lithium-ion batteries in grid-scale storage is the costs involved.

A study in early 2018 by the Energy & Environmental Science journal found that, in order to meet 80% of US electricity demand with wind and solar, it would require either a nationwide high-speed transmission system that can balance renewable generation over hundreds of miles or 12 hours of electricity storage for the whole system.

At current prices, a battery storage system of that size would cost more than $2.5tn.

A 2016 report on the value of energy storage in decarbonising the electricity sector by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Chicago's Argonne National Lab found there are potential problems with using batteries for grid-scale storage.

The study found steeply diminishing returns when a lot of battery storage is added to the grid.

It concluded that coupling battery storage with renewable plants is a "weak substitute" for large, flexible coal or natural-gas combined-cycle plants - ones that can be tapped at any time, run continuously, and vary output levels to meet shifting demand throughout the day.

Polluting rivers and killing wildlife

There have been huge problems reported from the surrounding areas of the Ganzizhou Rongda lithium mine in Tibet.

Protestors from the nearby town of Tagong took to the streets in 2016, after fish from the nearby Liqi River were found dead on mass following a toxic chemical leak from the mine.

The area has seen a sharp rise in mining activity in recent years, which has led to two similar incidents in just a seven-year period. Fish and other livestock have been found dead after drinking the polluted water.

Chinese automotive firm BYD (Build Your Dreams), which is the world's largest supplier of lithium-ion batteries for smartphones and other forms of technology, is one of the companies which undertakes mining operations in the area.

Environmental problems in South America

In Chile, the world's second-biggest lithium producer after Australia, is also feeling the effects of mining.

In order to begin operations, miners drill holes into salt flats to pump salty, mineral-rich brine to the surface.

The holes are then left for a period of up to 18 months so the liquid can evaporate, before returning to scoop up the lithium carbonate, which can then be turned into metallic lithium.

But this leaves the potential situation similar to the one in Tibet, destroying local habitats and polluting nearby grasslands and rivers, with hydrochloric acid being used in the lithium process.

One of the main issues in Chile, though, is the water consumption associated with lithium mining. For every tonne of lithium produced, 500,000 gallons of water is used.

In Salar de Atacama, mining activities consumed up to 65% of the region's water, causing havoc for local farmers.

Elsewhere in South America, Argentinians in the Salar de Hombre Muerto natural salt pan have expressed concerns over the lithium mining in the region, citing contamination to streams and the irrigation of crops.

There have been reports that lithium operations are also damaging soil which farmers use to herd livestock in the region.

A report on lithium by the Friends of the Earth Europe charity said: "The extraction of lithium has significant environmental and social impacts, especially due to water pollution and depletion.

"In addition, toxic chemicals are needed to process lithium.

"The release of such chemicals through leaching, spills or air emissions can harm communities, ecosystems and food production.

"Moreover, lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and also causes air contamination."

Recycling issues

After receiving the Nobel Prize award, Akira Yoshino admitted that the key for the future of electric mobility is figuring out how to fully recycle batteries, saying the industry is not there yet.

The Japanese chemist also revealed that recycling batteries is the key to securing enough raw materials to power the surge in electric vehicle demand.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Yoshino said: "The point is whether electric vehicle batteries can be recycled. The cost should pay off if all waste car batteries in Japan are collected and processed."

As part of the UK government's £246m ($312m) Faraday Challenge for battery research, the University of Birmingham is trying to find new ways of recycling lithium-ion.

Research in Australia found that just 2% of the country's 3,300 tonnes of lithium-ion waste is recycled.

This also leads to the potential scenario of fluids from the batteries leaking into landfills and releasing them into the environment.

Dr Gavin Harper, of the Faraday Institution's lithium recycling project, told Wired: "Manufacturers are understandably secretive about what actually goes into their batteries, which makes it harder to recycle them properly."

The most common procedure for recycling recovered lithium cells from devices and electric vehicles is to shred the cells, which creates a mixture of metal that can then be separated using burning techniques.

But a lot of the lithium is wasted using this method.

Ethical issues with lithium-ion batteries

DR Congo and cobalt

Critical to the construction of batteries, the silver-tinged metal cobalt has caught the world's attention and emerged as central to some of the industries set to determine the future.

Cobalt is an essential element within lithium battery cells, alongside lithium, nickel and manganese, making up the metal oxide slurry of the battery cell's cathode from which electricity is generated.

Roughly 10kg of the precious resource is needed to make an electric car, for example - but without it, the feasibility of grid-scale battery storage is severely compromised.

From a geopolitical perspective, there are concerns that China could now monopolise the cobalt market and, thus, have a more powerful role within lithium-ion battery manufacturing than many countries are comfortable with.

About 70% of the world's cobalt comes from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), where a plethora of interested parties are engaged in a frantic contest for control over mining operations.

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence senior analyst Casper Rawles pinpointed a major concern, noting there is no electric vehicle industry without DRC cobalt, but the region is among the most politically unstable, volatile and dangerous places on earth.

China's refineries, fed in large part by feedstuff from Chinese owned mines, supply 80% of the world's battery-ready high-grade cobalt.

Control of the critical raw materials, including cobalt, and the world-beating processing and manufacturing capacity will determine who holds the balance of industrial power in automotive and energy storage.

After DCR, Cuba leads the rest of the world with a mere 5% of cobalt, although investment is now slowly going into Idaho, Alaska and Australia to extract cobalt from nickel deposits as the US, in particular, wakes up to the situation.

Currently, cobalt costs around 30% more per kg than lithium and twice as much as nickel.

So, for that reason, coupled with the supply risk, the drive is on among automakers led by Tesla, Toyota and BMW working with their battery suppliers to reduce the cobalt content in batteries and even replace it entirely with a nickel alternative.

But the latter involves chemical properties that shorten their batteries' lifetimes and the former raises general concerns about the incendiary risk posed by batteries even at current levels of cobalt content.

Could aluminium one day replace the lithium-ion battery?

A new concept for an aluminium battery could offer a greener way of storing energy than what's available in today's market, according to a report released last month.

Researchers in Sweden and Slovenia say it has twice the energy density of previous aluminium batteries, while it could lead to reduced production costs and a smaller environmental impact compared to today's lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.

They believe it could be used for large-scale applications, including storage of solar and wind energy.

Patrik Johansson, a professor in the Department of Physics at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden, has led the project.

He said: "The material costs and environmental impacts that we envisage from our new concept are much lower than what we see today, making them feasible for large-scale usage, such as solar cell parks or storage of wind energy, for example.

"Additionally, our new battery concept has twice the energy density compared with the aluminium batteries that are 'state-of-the-art' today."

Previous designs for aluminium batteries have used the aluminium as the anode - the negative electrode - and graphite as the cathode, or the positive electrode.

But graphite provides too low an energy content to create battery cells with enough performance to be useful.

Prof Johansson's Gothenburg-based team has worked alongside a research group at the National Institute of Chemistry in Ljubljana, Slovenia, to create a new aluminium battery.

In their concept, the graphite has been replaced by an organic, nanostructured cathode made from the carbon-based molecule anthraquinone.

The advantage of this organic molecule in the cathode material is that it can store positive charge-carriers from the electrolyte - the solution in which ions move between the electrodes - making higher energy density in the battery possible.

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videos & industry opinion - compelo energy

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Is the lithium-ion battery having a positive impact on the environment?

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Current lithium prices are a major stumbling block for the future of lithium-ion in grid-scale storage The lithium-ion battery has played an integral role in powering the modern-day world - but questions remain about its environmental impact.

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Tracy Murray's kindergarten classroom in New York City has a unique approach to supporting students on the spectrum.

Tracy Murray / The Atlantic

A charming, bright 5-year-old stands out in his classroom at Maurice Wollin elementary school, on Staten Island, as an extremely social, kind, and curious child. He remembers more about his peers-names, significant events, likes and dislikes-than almost any other kindergartner at his school does.

But despite his genuine interest in his classmates and their well-being, he often struggles with interpreting their feelings and intentions-he has been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). (This 5-year-old and the other students mentioned in this article have been granted anonymity to protect their privacy.) One morning last month, in the middle of a math lesson, a soft-spoken classmate accidentally bumped into his shoulder, and quickly apologized with a big, friendly smile. But the sociable child concluded that his classmate was being mean, and punched him in the shoulder, then dropped to the floor, crying, his arms flailing and his voice growing louder.

In many classrooms, a teacher's aide might have pulled him aside, attempted to help him calm down, and encouraged him to be quiet. If he didn't comply, and continued to disrupt other students' learning, he might have been sent to a counselor's office or the principal's office, or have been sent home for the day. (Across the nation, students with disabilities are suspended at twice the rate of students without them.)

More in this series

Instead, within seconds of his dropping to the floor, his teacher, Tracy Murray, raised a laminated sign with an image of her classroom's "clubhouse," a special stress-relief area where kids who feel emotionally overwhelmed can take a break and use relaxation techniques that their teachers and therapists have recommended for them personally. There, he sank into a black beanbag chair and started slowly squeezing a pink ball in order to soothe himself.

Once he looked more relaxed, Murray, a 26-year veteran of special education, sat down next to him while her co-teacher, Elizabeth Garber, continued with the lesson. Because many children with autism learn better with visual aids, Murray drew a simple comic strip-with stick figures and dialogue balloons-to represent what had happened with the student and his classmate. Once he saw that the encounter was an accident and that he could make "smart guesses" about his peers' intentions in the future by observing their facial expressions and listening to what they say, he calmed down and returned to the math lesson.

The scene in Murray's classroom unfolded as it did because the kindergartner is part of a program called ASD Nest, which places students like him alongside neurotypical students in classrooms led by specially trained teachers. ASD Nest, which is named after its goal of giving kids with ASD a nurturing place to learn and grow, is a collaboration between the New York City Department of Education and NYU. It launched in 2003 with four teachers and has since expanded to 54 elementary, middle, and high schools in New York City.
Read: How to keep teachers from leaving the profession
Nationwide, more than half of students with autism ages 6 to 21 spend more than 40 percent of their school day in a majority-neurotypical classroom, with about two-thirds of this group spending 80 percent of their day in one. In general, the rest spend most of their school day in a special-education class or at a school where all students have one or more disabilities.

When a student on the spectrum is present, majority-neurotypical classrooms typically have one certified teacher-many without special-education training-and one or more teacher's aides, who help students with special needs follow teachers' directions and complete academic tasks. ASD Nest, meanwhile, places two certified and specially trained teachers in each participating classroom, which allows one of them to provide one-on-one social, emotional, or academic support whenever the need arises, without disrupting the lesson or pulling a student out of the classroom. On top of that, each classroom's two co-teachers meet weekly with occupational, speech, and physical therapists to discuss each student's progress and share observations about what's working and what isn't.

Murray, who was one of the inaugural Nest teachers, thinks that the program is effective because of its focus on collaboration among the ASD Nest teachers, school therapists, and university researchers, which results in frequent adjustments in the classroom activities and strategies tailored to every student. "We don't expect students to learn the way we teach-we teach them the way they learn," Murray told me at her school, sitting next to bookshelves covered by curtains in order to minimize visual stimulation, which can overwhelm some of her students on the spectrum, much like clutter, bright lights, and loud noises can.

Throughout the day, Murray and other teachers in the Nest program provide explicit guidance about emotional cues and social norms-information that can be elusive and invisible to children with autism. By the age of 5, many children can deduce that a smiling, friendly classmate is not looking to start a physical fight. Children with autism can struggle to reach that conclusion, but many special-education teachers, including Murray, believe that the ability to pick up on social cues can be taught in a classroom setting. ASD Nest is one of the few academic programs in the country that implements this approach in the classroom.

Last year, before the student Murray sat with in the clubhouse was enrolled in the program, he frequently struggled to make sense of social interactions and often stormed out of his preschool classroom in a panic, unable to return to class and missing out on learning. Two months into kindergarten, he hadn't excused himself from his classroom once.

"We have a permission to prioritize social goals over academic lessons if we see an opportunity," Murray said. That contrasts with the traditional approach to integrating students on the spectrum into majority-neurotypical classes, which prioritizes academic development, often without addressing the social and emotional challenges that can make classroom engagement difficult. The Nest approach, in the long run, can help give kids on the spectrum skills that they need in order to live with some degree of independence as adults.

Each Nest kindergarten class typically includes four students with autism and eight neurotypical students, and Murray maintains that the Nest approach benefits all students, not just those with developmental disorders. "Learning how to perceive the intentions and feelings of others and manage your own emotions is good for all students, not just autistic children," she said.

Stephen Shore, a special-education professor at Adelphi University who has autism, thinks that Nest is effective because it focuses on addressing students' strengths rather than their weaknesses. Too often, he says, programs for students on the spectrum dwell on their deficits, such as their inability to pay attention for long periods of time. Nest teachers, meanwhile, get to know the strengths and interests of each student, and then extend them to the academic domain.

For instance, one pink-cheeked, shy student at Maurice Wollin excels in reading but recently failed a math test. Teachers noticed that many of the books he read were about dinosaurs, so they changed some of the math questions to include dinosaurs. His engagement and confidence soared.

ASD Nest represents a big philosophical shift for Murray, who grew up in the 1970s attending schools that made few accommodations for students with diverse needs. She remembers when, in fifth grade at her Catholic school, a teacher reacted harshly to a friend of hers who she now guesses was on the spectrum. After the student asked for help multiple times, Murray recalled, the teacher slapped his textbook out of his hands and yelled, "How dare you keep interrupting while others are thinking!" The student returned to his desk in tears and, overwhelmed, threw his chair against the wall. (Murray long ago lost touch with him, and never learned his backstory.)

When, as a child, Murray would ask her mother what she could do to help her struggling friend at school, her mother would tell her that she could become a teacher. Eventually, she did. After graduating from college in the early '90s with a degree in general and special education (and after a brief stint at a Catholic kindergarten that she disliked because she found it too similar to her own schooling experiences), Murray began working for the Guild for Exceptional Children, a nonprofit school and day-care center for children and adults with developmental disabilities based in Brooklyn. Seven years later, she enrolled in a special-education master's program and then accepted an invitation from a mentor to teach for ASD Nest.

Murray said that in the 16 years since she joined the program, she has come to focus less on exclusively academic goals and more on her students' needs and desires, including their wishes to form relationships and be recognized for their individual strengths and contributions. "I'm not trying to change my students, eradicate their intense interests, or teach them compliance," she said. "I'm helping them become the most successful they can be in ways that are meaningful to them."

The shift in her thinking mirrors a larger, society-wide one. The animal-behavior professor and author Temple Grandin's 1995 memoir, Thinking in Pictures, has been credited as the first narrative of autism by a person on the spectrum. It helped establish the idea that autism, as Steve Silberman put it in NeuroTribes: The Legacy of Autism and the Future of Neurodiversity, is "both a disability and a gift." The contributions of Grandin and other public figures on the spectrum-including the actor and writer Dan Aykroyd and the climate activist Greta Thunberg-have promoted the notion that autism isn't something to be "cured" or eradicated, and that it is the result of natural variations in human genes.

ASD Nest was formed in the early days of this neurodiversity movement, and since the beginning, it has focused on helping students become more independent. One recent morning, a counselor brought a student back to Murray's kindergarten class from a speech-therapy session. He scores well on tests, but panics when faced with anything unexpected, such as a slightly different daily schedule or a stranger entering a classroom. His therapist has been working with him on detecting visual markers in the classroom so that he can make inferences about what's going on. Today, instead of having a meltdown upon returning to class in the middle of a lesson, he scans the room and quietly walks to his seat, pulling out his school supplies.

Every day, Nest students with autism also attend "social clubs," which are intended to help demystify unstated norms, such as whispering in libraries and not talking to strangers in bathroom stalls. In social clubs, students read fiction, look at photographs, watch movie clips, and play games, trying to glean what the characters in the films and books, as well as their peers in the group, are feeling and thinking based on their facial expressions, body language, and tone of voice.

This all has been working well for the student who was practicing making inferences based on what he saw in the classroom. Last year, when he went to preschool each day, his mother had to fight with him to get him on the school bus. "This year has been such a change," she told me. "Every day, he is talking about teachers, his friends, what he is learning." He even teaches his family members about the appropriate voice levels in different settings and about notions of private space-information he learned in his social club this year. He has two friends he can name-a major milestone for him. It's one of many that ASD Nest has helped him and other students reach.
This article is part of our project "On Teaching," which is supported by grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and the Panta Rhea Foundation.

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What School Could Be If It Were Designed for Kids With Autism

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Tracy Murray's kindergarten classroom in New York City has a unique approach to supporting students on the spectrum. A charming, bright 5-year-old stands out in his classroom at Maurice Wollin elementary school, on Staten Island, as an extremely social, kind, and curious child.

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Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and worldwide.

1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70.

More than 2 people die of skin cancer in the U.S. every hour.

Having 5 or more sunburns doubles your risk for melanoma.

When detected early, the 5-year survival rate for melanoma is 99 percent.

There's more than meets the eye when it comes to skin cancer, so make sure you know all the facts. For the latest news, visit our Press Room.

References

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3. Stern, RS. Prevalence of a history of skin cancer in 2007: results of an incidence-based model. Arch Dermatol 2010; 146(3):279-282.

4. The Lewin Group, Inc. The Burden of Skin Diseases 2005. Prepared for the Society for Investigative Dermatology, Cleveland, OH, and the American Academy of Dermatology Assn., Washington, DC, 2005.

5. Guy GP, Machlin SR, Ekwueme DU, Yabroff KR. Prevalence and costs of skin cancer treatment in the U.S., 2002-2006 and 2007-2011. Am J Prev Med 2015; 48(2):183-187. doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2014.08.036.

6. Mohan SV, Chang AL. Advanced basal cell carcinoma: epidemiology and therapeutic innovations. Curr Dermatol Rep 2014; 3(1): 40-45. doi:10.1007/s13671-014-0069-y.

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8. What are basal and squamous cell skin cancers? American Cancer Society. http://www.cancer.org/cancer/skincancer-basalandsquamouscell/detailedguide/skin-cancer-basal-and-squamous-cell-what-is-basal-and-squamous-cell . Accessed January 31, 2018.

9. Mansouri B, Housewright C. The treatment of actinic keratoses-the rule rather than the exception. J Am Acad Dermatol 2017; 153(11):1200. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2017.3395.

10. Lindelöf B, Sigurgeirsson B, Gäbel H, et al. Incidence of skin cancer in 5356 patients following organ transplantation. Br J Dermatol 2000; 143(3):513-9.

11. Green A, Williams G, Neale R, et al. Daily sunscreen application and betacarotene supplementation in prevention of basal-cell and squamous-cell carcinomas of the skin: a randomized controlled trial. The Lancet 1999; 354(9180):723-729.

12. Parkin DM, Mesher D, Sasieni P. Cancers attributable to solar (ultraviolet) radiation exposure in the UK in 2010. Br J Cancer 2011; 105:S66-S69.

13. Conic RZ, Cabrera CI, Khorana AA, Gastman BR. Determination of the impact of melanoma surgical timing on survival using the National Cancer Database. J Am Acad Dermatol 2018; 78(1):40-46.e7. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2017.08.039.

14. Cymerman RM, Shao Y, Wang K, et al. De novo versus nevus-associated melanomas: Differences in associations with prognostic indicators and survival. J Natl Cancer Inst 2016 May 27; 108(10). doi:10.1093/jnci/djw121.

15. Pfahlberg A, Kölmel KF, Gefeller O. Timing of excessive ultraviolet radiation and melanoma: epidemiology does not support the existence of a critical period of high susceptibility to solar ultraviolet radiation-induced melanoma. Br J Dermatol 2001; 144:3:471-475.

16. Green AC, Williams GM, Logan V, Strutton GM. Reduced melanoma after regular sunscreen use: randomized trial follow-up. J Clin Oncol 2011; 29(3):257-263.

17. Fisher DE, Geller AC. Disproportionate burden of melanoma mortality in young US men. JAMA Dermatol 2013; 149(8): 903. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.20134437.

18. Ultraviolet-radiation-related exposures. Broad-spectrum UVR, pp. 1-5. NTP (National Toxicology Program). 2014. Report on Carcinogens, Thirteenth Edition. Research Triangle Park, NC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service. http://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/ntp/roc/content/profiles/ultravioletradiationrelatedexposures.pdf .Accessed January 26, 2018.

19. El Ghissassi F, Baan R, Straif K, et al. Special report: policy. A review of human carcinogens-part D: radiation. The Lancet 2009; 10(8):751-752. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1470-2045(09)70213-X .

20. National Cancer Institute. U.S. indoor tanning rates are dropping, but still high. https://www.cancer.gov/news-events/cancer-currents-blog/2015/indoor-tanning . Accessed January 31, 2018.

21. Indoor tanning restrictions for minors - a state-by-state comparison. NCSL, National Conference of State Legislatures. http://www.ncsl.org/research/health/indoor-tanning-restrictions.aspx . Accessed January 29, 2018.

22. Skin cancer: indoor tanning is not safe. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/skin/basic_info/indoor_tanning.htm . Last updated January 5, 2016, last reviewed January 22, 2016. Accessed January 31, 2018.

23. Waters HR, Adamson A. The health and economic implications of the use of tanning devices. J Cancer Policy 2017; http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcpo.2016.12.003 .

24. Wehner MR, Chren MM, Nameth D, et al. International prevalence of indoor tanning: a systematic review and meta-analysis. JAMA Dermatol 2014; 150(4):390-400. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2013.6896.

25. Ferrucci LM, Cartmel B, Molinaro AM, et al. Indoor tanning and risk of early-onset basal cell carcinoma. J Am Acad Dermatol 2012 Oct; 67(4):552-62. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2011.11.940.

26. Lazovich D, Vogel RI, Weinstock MA, et al. Association between indoor tanning and melanoma in younger men and women. JAMA Dermatol 2016; 152(3): 268-275. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2015.2938

27. Colantonio S, Bracken MB, Beecker J. The association of indoor tanning and melanoma in adults: systematic review and meta-analysis. J Am Acad Dermatol 2014; 70(5):847-857.e1-118. doi:10.1016/j.jaad.2013.11.050.

28. The International Agency for Research on Cancer Working Group. The association of use of sunbeds with cutaneous malignant melanoma and other skin cancers: a systematic review. Int J Canc 2006; 120:1116-1122.

29. Guy GP Jr, Berkowitz Z, Everett Jones S, et al. Prevalence of indoor tanning and association with sunburn among youth in the United States. JAMA Dermatol 2017; 153(5):387-390. doi:10.1001/jamadermatol.2016.6273.

30. Taylor CR, Stern RS, Leyden JJ, Gilchrest BA. Photoaging/photodamage and photoprotection. J Am Acad Dermatol 1990; 22:1-15.

31. Hughes MCB, Williams GM, Baker P, Green AC. Sunscreen and prevention of skin aging: a randomized trial. Ann Intern Med 2013; 158(11):781-790.

32. Godar DE, Urbach F, Gasparro FP, van der Leun JC. UV doses of young adults. Photochem Photobiol 2003; 77(4):453-7.

33. Gloster HM, Neal K. Skin cancer in skin of color. J Am Acad Dermatol 2006; 55:741-60.

34. Hu S, Soza-Vento RM, Parker DF, et al. Comparison of stage at diagnosis of melanoma among Hispanic, black, and white patients in Miami-Dade County, Florida. Arch Dermatol 2006; 142(6):704-8.

35. Dean PH, Bucevska M, Strahlendorf C, Verchere C. Pediatric melanoma: a 35-year population-based review. Plast Reconstr Surg Glob Open 2017; 5(3): e1252.

36. Ferrari A, Bono A, Baldi M, et al. Does melanoma behave differently in younger children than in adults? A retrospective study of 33 cases of childhood melanoma from a single institution. Pediatrics 2005; 115(3):649-57.

37. Cancer Facts and Figures 2008. American Cancer Society. https://www.cancer.org/content/dam/cancer-org/research/cancer-facts-and-statistics/annual-cancer-facts-and-figures/2008/cancer-facts-and-figures-2008.pdf . Accessed May 3, 2018.

38. Bradford, Porcia T. Skin Cancer in Skin of Color. Dermatol Nurs 2009 Jul-Aug; 21(4): 170-178.

39. Lew RA, Sober AJ, Cook N, et al. Sun exposure habits in patients with cutaneous melanoma: a case study. J Dermatol Surg Onc 1983; 12:981-6.

40. Paulson KG, Park SY, Vandeven NA, et al. Merkel cell carcinoma: Current US incidence and projected increases based on changing demographics. J Am Acad Dermatol 2018; 78:457-463.

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Skin Cancer Facts & Statistics - The Skin Cancer Foundation

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Skin cancer is the most common cancer in the United States and worldwide. 1 in 5 Americans will develop skin cancer by the age of 70. More than 2 people die of skin cancer in the U.S. every hour. Having 5 or more sunburns doubles your risk for melanoma.

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Kierstyn Lawson hated kindergarten. She struggled to keep up with her peers, leaving her mother at a loss for how to help.

"What kindergartner doesn't like school?" recalled the parent, Stephanie Lawson, of California, Mo., a rural community halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis.

Kierstyn was not diagnosed with dyslexia until she turned 9. Once she was, her mother said it shed light on why Kierstyn was struggling in school. Yet even after the diagnosis, Lawson had to fight to get her daughter the support she needed from her school. Eventually, Lawson hired a private dyslexia tutor-a move that ultimately helped her daughter move forward. Kierstyn, now 11, can read more fluently and comprehend what she sees on a page.

Catching Dyslexia Sooner

The state of Missouri is now rolling out a dyslexia law aimed at identifying and supporting students like Kierstyn early in their education. State-mandated dyslexia screenings for children in K-3 take effect in the 2018-19 school year in all Missouri regular public and charter schools. The law, signed in 2016, also led to the development of dyslexia training for teachers and recommendations on how best to support dyslexic students throughout the state.

Missouri joins dozens of other states with dyslexia laws and is among the latest to face the challenge of implementing, explaining, and coordinating the screenings and subsequent follow-ups with students. While the screenings are not designed to diagnose dyslexia, they will identify where students are struggling and leave it to parents, districts, and educators to decide what is best.

Dyslexia affects the way people process written and oral language. A common characteristic is difficulty connecting letters to the sounds that those letters represent. The Education Department says that 3.4 percent of students aged 6-21-about 2.4 million children and youth-are receiving services for a specific learning disability through the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The category includes children with dyslexia.

Advocates, however, argue that the prevalence of learning disabilities is much higher. The National Center for Learning Disabilities says that 1 in 5 students has "learning or attention issues," including dyslexia.

The Missouri education department has provided a list of recommendations for conducting screenings and offering classroom supports for students with dyslexia. For some districts, the law will require supports beyond their existing special education and reading programs. The mandate also annually requires two hours of dyslexia training for every practicing teacher in the state's 518 districts.

Rep. Kathy Swan, a Republican state lawmaker who originally proposed the bill that led to the new law, said it's up to the schools to choose what screening tool they will use for the assessments.

"There was concern during the bill, in its passage, over the cost of that," Swan said, adding that some screening tools are free and others come at a price.

Swan said a subcommittee in the Missouri House of Representatives proposed funding in February to cover any costs for the screenings. If approved, the funding would be part of the fiscal year 2019 budget and falls within the current Missouri legislative session, which adjourns May 18.

Efforts by organizations such as Decoding Dyslexia, which launched in 2011, have fought to keep dyslexia at the forefront of discussions among educators, parents, and lawmakers.

Erica Lembke, a member of the 21-member dyslexia task force established by the state, said a key part of the commission's process was hearing hours of testimony from educators, parents, students, and others.

"To me, it's a great example of how parents and families can push legislation forward," said Lembke, who chairs the special education department at the University of Missouri.

A total of 29 states have dyslexia-support and -identification laws, according to statistics from the International Dyslexia Association available as of December 2015. Six states have resolutions or initiatives addressing dyslexia, and 14 offer procedures or handbooks for educators and parents to support dyslexic students.

Kim Stuckey was hired in 2016 as a dyslexia specialist for the Missouri education department. She worked with the task force to devise a plan to implement the legislation.

In its research, the task force discovered many gaps in how Missouri school districts and educators understood dyslexia, Stuckey said.

"The awareness piece has been really important," she said. "For many years, teachers [would] tell you, 'We're not allowed to say dyslexia. We're not allowed to talk about it.' Anecdotally, you would hear that across the nation."

Some school personnel have been reluctant to use the term, saying that dyslexia is a medical diagnosis, or that educators should focus on specific deficits and not a label. The U.S. Department of Education addressed that issue in an October 2015 "Dear Colleague" letter. The letter explained that dyslexia, along with dysgraphia and dyscalculia, were acceptable terms to use when discussing a student's evaluations, special education eligibility, and individualized education program.

Stuckey said the letter, and now the Missouri state law, are steps in the right direction to remedy the lack of conversation and understanding about dyslexia. She said the screenings are designed to equip educators and parents with more information to help students who are struggling.

"At the end of the day, schools overwhelmingly want to do what's best for kids," Stuckey said.

Training Teachers

Lembke said she hopes universities and colleges around the state will also improve dyslexia training for preservice teachers.

After the task force surveyed higher education institutions, Lembke said she was surprised at how many were not properly equipping preservice teachers to address dyslexia. State lawmakers Swan and Rep. Donna Pfautsch are seeking to craft requirements for colleges and universities to better prepare future teachers to handle dyslexia in their classrooms.

When it comes to additional costs, resources, and time that may be required of administrators and educators, Swan said it comes down to the "right thing to do" to ensure students succeed in their education, careers, and lives.

"We are doing a great disservice to people in the state of Missouri if we do not begin to recognize [dyslexia] and do something about it," Swan said. "It's a critical effort."

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Missouri Tackles Challenge of Dyslexia Screening, Services

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Kierstyn Lawson hated kindergarten. She struggled to keep up with her peers, leaving her mother at a loss for how to help. "What kindergartner doesn't like school?" recalled the parent, Stephanie Lawson, of California, Mo., a rural community halfway between Kansas City and St. Louis. Kierstyn was not diagnosed with dyslexia until she turned 9.

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The deadly pandemic, which disrupted large parts of the economy, throwing millions out of work, has led to unprecedented food lines across the United States, as more people are finding their cupboards bare and refrigerators empty for the first time.

Those fighting hunger in St. Louis and across the nation say they've never seen anything like this - even during the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

Feeding America, the nation's largest anti-hunger organization, has handed out 4.2 billion meals from March through October. The organization, which includes the St. Louis Area Foodbank, has seen a 60% average increase in food bank users during the pandemic; about 4 in 10 are first-timers.

An Associated Press analysis of Feeding America data from 181 food banks in its network found the organization has distributed nearly 57% more food in the third quarter of the year, compared with the same period in 2019.

Across the country, cars line up for miles to wait for food handouts, each driver waiting hours for a box or bag of food. In many cities, people stand, waiting for blocks on end.

It's a phenomenon that Urban League of Metropolitan St. Louis President Mike McMillan witnessed first hand.

The Urban League has held massive food drives that have drawn long lines of cars and given away thousands of masks and sanitary kits.

In the past, McMillan said, the Urban League has helped around 20,000 people per year through its three area food pantries. This year, that number has crested to about 85,000, and McMillan anticipates serving even more as the holiday season approaches.

"Literally when we have talked to people queueing in the (food) line, 75% of people said they've never been to a food line in their entire lives," McMillan said. "Many said that in February they had jobs, they were able to take care of themselves, they had benefits, they had economic security. Now, they have none of those things."

About 6,000 people came to the Urban League's Thanksgiving meal, about three times the attendance of years past, McMillan said. The Urban League also delivers meals to senior citizens, many of whom have had children and grandchildren move back home with them during the pandemic.

Eve Brandes, executive director of the Affton Christian Food Pantry, said she's seen the same phenomenon with some regular client households now having more mouths to feed.

The Affton pantry, which only serves households in the 63123 ZIP code area, usually helped about 230 families a month. But in recent months, that number has swelled to about 330 - some families that hadn't needed assistance in months or years returned, Brandes said, and some families who never needed the help before also joined their rosters.

Miriam Seidenfeld, CEO of Jewish Family Services in St. Louis, said the Harvey Kornblum Jewish Food Pantry in St. Louis County has also seen a large uptick in the demand for donated food. From January to November of this year, Seidenfeld said, the food pantry served more than 6,700 people - almost 3,000 more than during that same time period in 2019.

The pandemic also brought other challenges. When local governments began encouraging people to stay home, Seidenfeld said, the food pantry bled volunteers. They went from having 175 volunteers on their rosters to 14.

"We had to scramble," Seidenfeld said. "Through our generous donors we were able to hire five temporary staff to get us through three months while we rebuilt our volunteer force. (We) recruited and recruited and put all kinds of safety measures in place ... we have a much more diverse volunteer force now, of all ages, and we're lucky to have them."

It's unclear when the demand will begin to abate.

"It's a family collective effort just to try to keep everyone afloat and try to get everyone through this," the Urban League's McMillan said.

"I feel like I'm in the middle of the ocean, building a ship that has a hole in the bottom, but we keep forging ahead."

The Urban League is planning yet another holiday food drive-thru at its headquarters at 1408 N. Kingshighway, from noon until 3 p.m. Dec. 19.

While food banks have become critical during the pandemic, they're just one path for combating hunger. For every meal from a food bank, a federal program called the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps - provides nine.

Anti-hunger groups have lobbied Congress for a 15% increase in maximum food stamp benefits. A similar measure went a long way in digging the nation out of the Great Recession. A stimulus bill passed by the House this spring includes such a provision, but it has been bogged down in partisan squabbling.

Many going to food pantries also are receiving food stamps, though eligibility varies among states.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

State government is a big, sprawling operation that spends your Missouri tax dollars. Stay up to date on what's happening in Jefferson City by subscribing.

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Food banks see unprecedented demand as hungry Americans seek help

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The deadly pandemic, which disrupted large parts of the economy, throwing millions out of work, has led to unprecedented food lines across the United States, as more people are finding their cupboards bare and refrigerators empty for the first time. Those fighting hunger in St.

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Hang around any civil rights type discussion for any length of time and you'll hear talk of allies. Not allies like "the side the US fought for in World War II'" but allies the individual people.

So what is an ally?

An ally is a person with privilege on a particular axis who makes a conscious choice to work against oppression on that axis. In this instance it's a non autistic person working with and for autistic rights, though the groups one can ally with are near endless.

Being an ally goes further than "not actively adding to the oppressive crap this group lives with every day." It's more "actively combating the oppression." Not giving to Autism $peaks doesn't make someone an ally. It's more than that. Being an ally is active, and it is hard.

Some things nonautistic allies can do include: Signal boosting things Autistics say-people who don't listen to us magically understand the same words when presented by someone they consider a real person. A real ally will correct the willful (and accidental) misconceptions and misinformation spread by other non-autistic people. We spend a great deal of time spoonfeeding 101-level information to hostile people who resent listening to us-these people take the same information (like why Autism $peaks is bad) much better from non-autistics. This leaves us more energy to work with people who actually care about our rights and our issues; the hostility and repetitive nature thereof get exhausting and disheartening very quickly indeed.

In short, what allies do is guide the conversation from a place where we are at best peripheral to a place where Autistic perspectives are central. Allies help us in our fight for a seat at the table so that once we get there we have the energy to make good use of it.

But here's the thing: if you are trying to be an ally, you need to recognize that it's not about you. If you are talking over Autistics or otherwise bringing the discussion back to center on 'allies', you are not a real ally. Real allies tell these people "don't do that shit. This isn't about you."

If you are really an ally, you are not going to make it about your feelings. Declaring yourself an ally isn't something you get to do. If you are really fighting with us and for us, it should be because it's right, not because you want an "Ally!" sticker for your Good Person collection.

A conditional ally, by the way, is not an ally at all. Anyone who says they'd be for your cause if you weren't so mean/if you personally educated them on every issue/if you were more appreciative is not an ally. Again, it's not about the privileged group's feelings here-it's about equal rights and about our very existence. My exasperation with nearly everything does not reduce my personhood or the fact that I should have equal rights.

Let me expand on that a bit: if you're only for my rights when I give you warm fuzzies, you aren't at all for my rights. I'd rather know this in advance-before I put effort into you. Building strong allies from relatively clueless people who want to do the right thing is one hell of an energy investment. I do not have the time or the energy to squander on people who are ultimately faux allies.

Because of the energy investment, I unapologetically expect the world of allies-nothing less. I'm not going to lie, I am hard on people who want to be on my team. This isn't a game-it's about my rights and those of my friends to live as equals. This is beyond important for us & if someone wants to play ball on my team, they need to bring their A game. This isn't Calvinball in the back yard-this game is for reals and the outcome will effect every moment of the rest of our lives.

So if finding and training allies is such a phenomenal pain in the ass, why work with them at all? Frankly, because we need them. No civil rights struggle was won, no major progress made, without some folks with power standing beside the oppressed and lending their voices. We are fighting an uphill battle against a strong power gradient. Allies can use their privilege to lend legitimacy and to somewhat relieve the power imbalance.

And allies can lead the way in us being treated as equal by showing everyone else how it is done. They should be treating us as though equality is already a thing and everyone else hasn't caught up yet-allies are the people we don't need to prove our humanity to. They can show the world how it can be better.

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by Kassiane S. Hang around any civil rights type discussion for any length of time and you'll hear talk of allies. Not allies like "the side the US fought for in World War II'" but allies the individual people. So what is an ally?

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Getting testing and intervention for dyslexia at their public school proved to be more complicated than it first appeared. The Thorsens experienced more hurdles than they had expected, including the most basic: recognizing that dyslexia exists. Thorsen recalled the Nashville school district telling them that the state of Tennessee didn't recognize dyslexia as a learning disorder.

Many children aren't receiving the diagnosis and intervention they desperately need to do well in school, and many families don't have the means for expensive testing and tutoring.

But the Thorsens, who are both attorneys, knew differently. The Tennessee statehouse had passed the " Dyslexia is Real " bill some months before, in April 2014. The law made provisions for dyslexia as a recognized reading disability, as well as for teacher training on dyslexia, both for teachers already teaching and in education schools in Tennessee. Yet while provisions had been decided at the state level, for one reason or another, they hadn't made their way down to the district, which was still operating under old guidelines.

When the Thorsens showed the school and the district laws from both the federal government and the state of Tennessee recognizing dyslexia as a learning disability, their school listened and agreed to help Clara get what she needed. But the family received pushback from the district, which balked at giving Clara, whose tests showed she was highly dyslexic with a high IQ, an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) without going through the proper channel -- in this case, 26 weeks of specialized reading instruction happening inside the classroom called Response To Intervention (RTI). If Clara failed to improve after 26 weeks, she would then qualify for an IEP.

With a positive diagnosis in hand, the Thorsens believed that 26 weeks of RTI would only delay a more dyslexia-specific intervention. They enlisted the help of the Office of Special Education Programs at the federal Department of Education to pressure the state of Tennessee to recognize dyslexia as a reading disability, even though the "Dyslexia is Real" law was already firmly in place. After a monthlong struggle to secure services, the district finally relented, giving Clara an IEP that focused on both her dyslexia and her giftedness.

The district said it is only following guidelines set up by the state of Tennessee. "We test for specific learning disabilities in accordance with state guidelines," said Debbie McAdams, executive director for exceptional education at Metro Nashville Public Schools. "Dyslexia falls under the term 'Specific Learning Disability'. The universal screening used in MNPS screens for basic reading deficits, including phonemic awareness, phonics, word reading and fluency, which are all deficits associated with dyslexia." She said that students receive intervention for reading difficulties whether or not they have an IEP.
Dyslexia Recognition Elsewhere
The Thorsens are happy to report that Clara is currently receiving the targeted intervention she needs. But their story is far from singular: Families interviewed across the country reveal that both public and private schools aren't fully aware of the signs of dyslexia, even though it affects 5-20 percent of schoolchildren. And, once diagnosed, schools are often unsure -- or even afraid -- of how to intervene. Currently, only 30 states recognize dyslexia as a learning disability.

But, according to Nancy Mather, professor of Disabilities and Psychoeducational Studies at the University of Arizona, screening and intervention, not to mention teacher education, mandated by law is much more uneven across states.

A disconnect between laws passed at the state or federal level and district enforcement is common, Mather said, and awareness needs to be raised about dyslexia as a learning disability. In an article soon to be published in Perspectives, the journal of the International Dyslexia Association, Mather and colleague Martha Youman highlight the inconsistencies of how dyslexia is defined in different states across the U.S.:

"A number of states have spearheaded the recognition of dyslexia as a unique disorder with prevalence rates varying from 5% to 20% among researchers and national and international organizations. This effort to recognize dyslexia is crucial because, unfortunately, the terminology used to describe reading disorders varies across states and settings. Individuals with dyslexia who are diagnosed in school settings fall under the category of "Specific Learning Disability (SLD)," a category within the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004). Individuals with dyslexia diagnosed in clinical settings fall under the category of Specific Learning Disorder with Impairment in Reading as described in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-5 (DSM-5) (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Both diagnoses include "dyslexia" as a descriptive term within their definitions, but within school settings, the actual term "dyslexia" is rarely used in psychological and diagnostic reports. Thus, most parents of children who receive special education services at school under the category of SLD in reading have not been informed that their child has dyslexia. Similarly, if a clinical diagnosis of Specific Learning Disorder with Impairment in Reading is made in a clinical setting with DSM-5, parents and teachers may not necessarily understand that this label encompasses dyslexia. With the hopes of separating dyslexia from a large umbrella of learning disorders, the states of Alabama, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Texas, have passed legislation for the recognition of a dyslexia day, week, or month. On such dates, schools and mental health practitioners are encouraged to educate others about the common characteristics of dyslexia, as well as the appropriate accommodations and interventions."

"Dyslexia is the most common type of learning disability," Mather said. "Seventy-five to 80 percent of kids with Specified Learning Disabilities (SLD) have some form of dyslexia. But states have all kinds of terminology, and labels differ from state to state, which is why in Tennessee, they said, we don't have dyslexia. It creates confusion. The parents are told their child has an SLD, but don't realize their child has dyslexia."

Even among the state dyslexia laws that do exist, many don't have much meat on the bone. Passing a law creating "Dyslexia Awareness Month," Mather said, is nice but isn't going to do much to help the kids who are sitting in classrooms right now, struggling to read.

"When there's awareness, you're more likely to get the right kind of diagnosis and the right kind of teacher," she said, but much more needs to be done. "Teachers need more training in specific methodologies, teachers need a strong background in language structure. They need very specific training to teach students with dyslexia."
Advocating for Intervention
Families interviewed for this story reported feelings of panic surrounding the whole issue, from trying to diagnose a failure to read, plus the maze of tests, services and interventions involved, often coming with hefty price tags. Brooklyn parent Zanthe Taylor paid $4,000 for a battery of tests for her daughter, Calliope, when her private school requested independent testing. There were free options for both testing and tutoring, Taylor found out later, but she wasn't made aware of them. And even the free options came with hurdles: wait lists were impossibly long, and free tutors had to come from a state-approved list.

The Thorsens attempted to get Clara tested at a highly regarded dyslexia clinic in suburban Nashville for $35, but were put on a seven-to-eight-month wait list. Impatient to begin intervention, they opted for a local, private center that provided a comprehensive test in the same week for $800. Both Taylor and the Thorsens also pay for private tutors on top of help received at school.

Experts like Mather and Maryanne Wolf of Tufts University say the core of the panic and confusion from states on down to classrooms can largely be avoided with proper understanding of what dyslexia is and what it isn't. When schools and educators are properly trained on how to identify the different manifestations of dyslexia and to intervene appropriately, panic dissipates.

They confirmed that what families experienced was real, and part of a bigger picture: Many children aren't receiving the diagnosis and intervention they desperately need to do well in school, and many families don't have the means for expensive testing and tutoring.

"The kids don't get any better, that's what happens," Mather said. "That's the reality -- it's the fortunate few who get some kind of help."

Mather worked with educational software development company MindPlay to develop a three-hour video course designed specifically for teachers to better understand dyslexia.

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Why Recognizing Dyslexia In Children At School Can Be Difficult | KQED

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Getting testing and intervention for dyslexia at their public school proved to be more complicated than it first appeared. The Thorsens experienced more hurdles than they had expected, including the most basic: recognizing that dyslexia exists. Thorsen recalled the Nashville school district telling them that the state of Tennessee didn't recognize dyslexia as a learning disorder.

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The Center for Biological Diversity filed a legal petition Thursday morning asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban a popular flea and tick collar that has been linked to thousands of incident reports about pet and human harm.

The Seresto collar, developed by Bayer and now sold by Elanco, has faced increased scrutiny, including a Congressional inquiry and class action lawsuits, following a March story by the Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting and USA TODAY. The story found more than 75,000 incident reports of harm linked to the collar, including at least 1,698 pet deaths and almost 1,000 people harmed.
More: Popular flea collar linked to almost 1,700 pet deaths. The EPA has issued no warning.
The Center for Biological Diversity, a national nonprofit conservation organization that acts as a watchdog of the EPA as part of its mission to protect endangered species, obtained those documents showing the widespread harm and shared them with the news outlets.

The group's petition, to which the EPA is required to respond, argues that the agency needs to take action to protect pets and people. Seresto has been the subject of more adverse incident reports than any other product in EPA history, according to EPA documents, yet the agency has not taken any action to inform the public of risks associated with the pesticide-based collar. The petition outlines how the EPA's registration decisions regarding the pesticides failed to protect pets and humans.

"Every day this is on the market, someone else might get poisoned," said Lori Ann Burd, environmental health program director for the Center for Biological Diversity.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which under federal law must decide whether the use of pesticides causes unreasonable adverse effects, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the petition.

Burd said petitions have been filed over controversial pesticides in the past, including chlorpyrifos, a pesticide linked to brain damage in children, and tetrachlorvinphos, another pesticide often used in pet collars. The National Resource Defence Council originally petitioned to ban it in 2009. Neither pesticide has been banned, despite years of legal action.

Burd said the agency frequently ignores petitions, but organizations have a six-year statute of limitations to sue the agency to get them to respond.

The Biden administration has pledged to follow science in its decision-making and has raised concerns about Trump administration decisions that valued politics over science.

"If this administration wants to show it's different, this is the chance," Burd said.

Elanco Animal Health spokeswoman Keri McGrath said in a statement that the company stands by the safety of Seresto collars, and there is no medical or scientific basis to cancel the registration of the collar.

The company is "disappointed this is causing confusion and unfounded fear for pet owners trying to protect their pets from fleas and ticks," she said.

McGrath said more than 80 countries have rigorously reviewed and approved the product, and that incident report numbers are "raw data" that cannot be used to draw conclusions on what caused adverse incident reports.

"Thorough investigation of available data has shown no established link between exposure to the active ingredients in Seresto and pet deaths," she said.

Elanco Animal Health, a former subsidiary of Eli Lilly and Co., did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Elanco purchased German pharmaceutical giant Bayer's animal health division in 2019 for $7.6 billion. In its 2019 annual report, German agribusiness and pharmaceutical company Bayer reported revenue of more than $300 million on Seresto alone. In previous interviews, Elanco has said that it has reviewed the 1,698 incident reports related to pet deaths and found no link between the collars and the deaths.

Pesticide approval problems

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is in charge of regulating products containing pesticides, and conducts registration review of chemicals every 15 years.

Seresto collars, which are supposed to work for eight months by frequently expelling a pesticide onto a pet's fur, contain two active ingredients: flumethrin and imidacloprid.

Imidacloprid is a member of the neonicotinoid class of insecticides, which are the most widely used in agriculture. Much of the registration focused on agricultural uses, though imidacloprid is frequently used in pet flea and tick treatments. Imidacloprid and most neonicotinoids are banned in the European Union because of their links to massive die-offs of non-target insects such as bees.

Flumethrin is a pyrethroid insecticide that is only used in one product: Seresto.

Both pesticides are in the final stages of re-approval. Many of the studies the EPA approval is based on are conducted by the company that sells the product.

The petition argues that the EPA underestimated the danger of the collar in its approval of both pesticides.

For example:

► Epidemiological studies of both pesticides found that when pregnant women are exposed to the chemicals, their children have an elevated risk of autism spectrum disorder.

► Despite a Bayer study emphasizing the two chemicals "synergy," or the toxic effects caused by the mixing of the pesticides, the agency only looked at each chemical individually when approving Seresto.

► In a 2017 risk assessment for imidacloprid, the agency relied on toxicity studies on rats to determine that the chemical is safe for dogs, despite studies showing that dogs are more sensitive than rats at one-seventh the dose.

► In a 2017 risk assessment, the EPA determined that children exposed to imidacloprid in pet collars could be at risk. However, after the assessment, Bayer Animal Health submitted two new studies that lowered the likelihood that children would be exposed. One of these studies was conducted on rats using an agricultural seed treatment, rather than a pet collar.

The petition also includes copies of a handful of complaints filed by pet owners and veterinarians about Seresto with the National Pesticide Information Center and Food and Drug Administration.

Company says incident rates are low

Under federal pesticide laws, companies must submit incident reports associated with products to the EPA. Often, the company receives the complaint via customer service and then later forwards the complaint numbers to the EPA.

The Center for Biological Diversity argues that this leads to an underreporting of incidents, but Elanco and associated veterinarians argue it could inflate the number of adverse incident reports because the reports show correlation, not causation.

In a recent interview, Renee Schmid, a senior veterinary toxicologist at the Pet Poison Helpline and SafetyCall International, said she is "very comfortable with the safety profile with both of these ingredients."

Schmid said the Pet Poison Helpline has received 400 calls about Seresto in the past five years and about 9 out of 10 involve a pet ingesting the collar. Most of those pets were vomiting or had diarrhea.

Elanco recommended that the Midwest Center and USA TODAY speak with Schmid. Elanco frequently hires SafetyCall International to assess the safety of Seresto, as well as other products.

Schmid said one of her colleagues did a review of incidents related to Seresto and found that it was unlikely Seresto caused the 1,698 deaths.

"We feel the likelihood of a true fatality being due to the ingredients in a Seresto collar would be very, very low," Schmid said.

With more than 25 million collars sold, the overall incident review rate is also low, Schmid said. In a press release, Elanco said it has an incident rate of 0.3%, meaning one-in-300 dogs has a reported issue. Most of those are hair loss, the company has said.

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Watchdog group petitions EPA to ban Seresto pet collar after thousands report harm

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The Center for Biological Diversity filed a legal petition Thursday morning asking the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to ban a popular flea and tick collar that has been linked to thousands of incident reports about pet and human harm.

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Since last February, over 2.3 million women have dropped out of the workforce, compared to just 1.8 million men who left the labor force between February 2020 and 2021, according to data compiled by the National Women's Law Center. And many of those women are still unemployed because they are caring for children who are not in school or daycare.

New research from Columbia University and the National Women's Law Center finds that a universal child-care system - one that provides affordable, reliable child care from birth to age 13 - would not only help many of those out-of-work employees get back into the workforce, but would also dramatically increase the lifetime earnings and security of women across the country.

An average woman with two children could see a $97,000 increase in her lifetime earnings under universal child care, according to the report. Collectively, about 1.3 million women in the U.S. could experience about a $130 billion boost in income over their lifetimes.

Overall, the number of women working full-time would increase by 17% if the U.S. expanded access to stable and consistent child care. The number of women working without a college degree would jump by about 31%.

"When there's an increased investment in child care, there's a measured increase in women's labor force participation," says Melissa Boteach, vice president of income security and child care/early learning at the National Women's Law Center. The highest gains can be seen for women in their 30s and 40s, since those are the decades when women are most likely to raise children, she adds.

This increase in workforce participation and lifetime earnings could also lead to a significant impact on women's retirement situations, the report finds. Women would have an additional $20,000 in private savings on average and about $10,000 more in Social Security benefits. That adds up to about $160 per month in additional funding in retirement, the report finds.

Those extra earnings could especially help improve the financial situations of older women, who are more likely to experience poverty later in life than men. "Senior women have significantly higher poverty rates than senior men because of all the discrimination and all of the financial challenges that compound over their lives [and] stick with them in retirement," Boteach adds.

But child-care reform could reduce poverty among senior women by about 21%, the report finds.

The report's projections are based on a model of universal child care that provides stable and consistent care to children from birth to age 13. Under the model, child-care costs would not exceed 7% of a family's annual income and child-care workers would earn a livable wage rather than the pre-pandemic average of $11.65 an hour.

These policies would dramatically impact low-income women and women of color. Currently, women who earn lower incomes typically spend about a third of their take-home pay on child care, Boteach says. That can affect a family's choices around whether one or both parents work. If a parent needs to stay at home or reduce their hours to care for children, it's generally going to be the woman, she explains.

When talking about economic solutions that will improve the workforce and reduce poverty, child care is probably not top of mind, Boteach says. But the findings show that child care is an economic driver that can be used to improve financial stability throughout women's lives.

"If we start with this generation of women and start investing in their ability to be breadwinners and caregivers, then you will see the fruit of that 30 years from now," Boteach says.
Check out: Don't miss: For many older millennials, student loan debt delayed buying homes, starting families and pursuing creative careers Meet the middle-aged millennial: Homeowner, debt-burdened and turning 40

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Universal child care could boost women's lifetime earnings by $130 billion-and ensure more stable retirement options

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Since last February, over 2.3 million women have dropped out of the workforce, compared to just 1.8 million men who left the labor force between February 2020 and 2021, according to data compiled by the National Women's Law Center. And many of those women are still unemployed because they are caring for children who are not in school or daycare.

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Researchers have come up with some whiz-bang solutions to bring robust broadband connectivity to millions of rural Americans. One involves high-altitude helium-filled balloons. Another would use "white spaces" between television broadcast channels to deliver high-speed internet.

But such innovations offer little immediate help to people like Wanda Shirk, a retired high school English teacher who sat in front of her computer on a recent day and bemoaned her exasperatingly slow internet connection.

"Simply downloading emails, especially with attachments, takes a while," Shirk said, adding that she was attempting to send an email to a friend. "I have something right now, a PDF that is 14 pages. It's been sitting here for five minutes. It says 'sending,' " she added. What she called the "circle of death" - a colorful icon - spun on her screen. While the computer buffers, she suffers.

Experts say technological solutions and innovation could bridge the digital chasm that leaves Shirk and at least 19 million other rural Americans with little or no internet connectivity. Solutions exist. But a shortage of investment capital, and a lack of muscular federal policy, delay faster action, they add.

"The sad reality is that the technologies are there to bring big broadband to everyone in the country. The problem is not technological. And you don't need 5G or any newfangled tech to solve the problem. The problems are political and the problems are the business model. They are economic," said Sascha Meinrath, a telecommunications expert at Penn State University.

Indeed, state-of-the-art solutions aren't necessary to push broadband coverage into rural areas. Proven methods include stringing up fiber optic cable over the significant distances between villages and farmhouses. Satellite service is also an option. But both options are costly, and traditional internet providers balk at the lack of return on any such investments.

So some perhaps unexpected players have stepped in to help rural residents who live in isolated swaths of the country where internet service is spotty, slow or non-existent. In some cases, local governments have tried to set up broadband service. In other areas, the farmers' cooperatives that helped light up the nation eight decades ago as part of a rural electrification drive are getting into the broadband game.

Those rural electric cooperatives are mostly nonprofit, owned by members who agitate for broadband. Once-reluctant managers heed the outcry. Nearly 100 of the 900 or so rural electric co-ops across the United States offer some form of broadband. Another 200 or so co-ops are studying whether to move in the same direction.

"It's not easy. We're electric companies. We're not telecommunications companies," said Craig Eccher, chief executive of the Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative headquartered in Mansfield in north-central Pennsylvania.

The surprising role of the rural co-ops in providing high-speed internet mirrors an important chapter in U.S. history, and sheds light on the financial challenges of connecting rural America, where residents say the lack of high-speed internet makes them feel left behind.

"I don't want to say they feel second class, you know, but you do have that feeling in a rural area because you just don't have the benefit of the services you can get in suburbia," Eccher said.

His Tri-County rural electric co-op dates to the 1936 federal act that offered low-cost loans to farmers who established not-for-profit electric utilities, giving them what the act called a "fair chance." Most of the cooperative utilities still exist today. Indeed, rural electric cooperatives provide power to 56 percent of the U.S. landmass.

"The membership in these rural areas have all said, 'There's nobody else. We want you to bring us broadband'," said Bob Marshall, a former director of the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative and a general manager of the small Plumas-Sierra rural electric cooperative north of Lake Tahoe in California.

"People were like, 'I got to have this.' Giving them better broadband, but not great broadband, only heightened their desire," Marshall added.

After hearing requests, the Tri-County Rural Electric Cooperative surveyed its members to see if they wanted the co-op in the broadband business. The response was a resounding yes.

But financing the project was "ugly," Eccher added, and was only possible when the Tri-County received pledges of more than $33.5 million in federal and state grants. The co-op will begin stringing fiber optic cable later this year. The 16,000 customers who may get lightning-quick internet are jubilant, but they comprise a fraction of the 520,000 rural Pennsylvanians who the state says lack high-speed internet.

The fiber optic cable that Tri-County will string up is only one of many possible solutions.

"There are a lot of companies doing different experiments. You've got balloons. There's been talk of drone services," said Craig W. Wigginton, vice chairman and U.S. telecommunications leader at Deloitte, a professional services giant. "I'd say within a decade, we'll stand a better chance of getting a lot of this digital divide closed."

Google parent Alphabet Inc. has been testing internet service from high-altitude helium-filled balloons, a project dubbed Loon. The balloons can stay aloft for 200 days, providing broadband coverage over an area 20 to 30 times greater than ground-based systems. Later this year, Loon, together with Telkom Kenya, will offer balloon-powered commercial internet to parts of central Kenya.

For its part, Microsoft says it will bring broadband to three million people in rural areas by 2022. The tech giant offers high-speed internet using spaces between television signals, commonly called white spaces.

Advocates for cellular companies say eventually there will be rural buildout for fifth generation, or 5G, cellular networks that are at least 10 times faster than fourth generation, or 4G, widely in use now. But some experts say rural residents shouldn't hold their breath.

"5G is not going to happen in rural America, not for a long, long time," said Christopher Ali, an expert on communication policy at the Department of Media Studies at the University of Virginia.

The Republican chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, and the FCC's sole Democratic member, Jessica Rosenworcel, clash over U.S. progress in bridging the Digital Divide, the term used to describe the chasm between those who have access to broadband and those who do not.

Pai told Congress in a report in mid-February that broadband "is being deployed on a reasonable and timely basis." Rosenworcel differed, saying in a tweet, "Millions of households - in rural and urban communities - have no access to high-speed service. That's a fact."

Underlying the dispute is how the FCC calculates who has access to high-speed internet. Providers supply the FCC with data, and if it shows that a census block has a single person or institution with broadband, the block is counted as served. Such a definition irks researchers, critics of telecom concentration, and industry titans.

"The FCC broadband map is a mess, a colossal mess," said Ali, the University of Virginia researcher.

"The existing providers have an incentive to overestimate broadband availability because the FCC is awarding funding, and they don't want anybody else getting funding and coming into their areas," said John Windhausen Jr., founder of SHLB, a schools, health and libraries broadband coalition based in Washington.

Microsoft President Brad Smith said at a forum in Washington in December that the FCC's estimate of 19 million rural Americans without access to broadband is vastly underestimated.

Microsoft's own services give it insight to actual internet speeds that people use, Smith said.

"We can see download speeds across the country, in every county, and we've assembled our own map and made our own estimates. What we have found is that basically half the country is still not using the internet at broadband speed. That's 162.8 million people. We have a big problem we need to solve," Smith said.

Proponents of more aggressive federal action to bring broadband to rural areas use language that harkens back to the "fair chance" slogan for rural electrification from the 1930s.

"Right now, this agency's understanding of where broadband is and is not is flat-out insufficient. We know that if you have broadband, you have a fair shot at success in the digital age," Rosenworcel, the FCC commissioner, said in an interview.

The FCC has spent $114 billion on rural broadband grants and subsidies, and still at least 19 million people are without adequate service, said Tracy K. Warren, a spokeswoman for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association.

"We view this as a classic market failure. The need is out there. Consumers are out there. But it just hasn't been profitable enough to attract the big service providers," Warren said.

A flashpoint in the turf wars over telecom service occurs 18 feet in the air on the power poles that carry fiber optic cable.

"One of the tricks the incumbents do is when they replace cable they don't take the old cable down. And then there's no more room on the pole," Marshall said. "The big guys tend to point fingers at the electrics and say they own the poles. Then when they get on the poles, they overload them with cables."

How much more must be spent to resolve the rural Digital Divide is not clear. Just to address it in areas served by rural electric co-ops, which have 42 million residents, would be expensive.

The National Rural Electric Cooperative Association estimates that it would cost $40 billion to reach 98 percent of the 6.3 million of its members who don't have broadband currently, and another $40 billion to reach the final 2 percent.

While such costs are huge, not spending the money also inflicts an economic penalty. Those costs range from lower property prices to lost income-generating potential for residents who want to telecommute or operate businesses with an online presence.

The association estimates that its 6.3 million members without robust broadband suffer lost economic gains of $68 billion, failing to receive such benefits as improved healthcare, online learning opportunities, increased housing values and obtaining savings through competitive online retailers.

Even if broadband steadily reaches more rural areas, demands made on providers will change.

"As time keeps rolling on, the average customer is going to need more and more and more bandwidth," Eccher said.

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19M rural Americans have little or no internet access. Here's how they hope to change that

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Researchers have come up with some whiz-bang solutions to bring robust broadband connectivity to millions of rural Americans. One involves high-altitude helium-filled balloons. Another would use "white spaces" between television broadcast channels to deliver high-speed internet.

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On the heels of the 2016 election, author Michael Lewis published a book that provided a rational path forward during a divided time. The Undoing Project details the complex relationship of two Israeli psychologists, the brash Amos Tversky and the more reserved Daniel Kahneman, who both served in the Yom Kippur War and began collaborating at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the fall of 1969. Over time, the pair laid the groundwork for a host of insights into human behavior that have transformed how we think about everything from economics to public policy, medicine to happiness.

Lewis discovered the story of Tversky and Kahneman after a review in The New Republic pointed out that the social scientists had already shared the underpinnings for the premise of Lewis' bestselling book Moneyball, which told how biases of the mind caused baseball scouts, supposed experts, to misevaluate players. A more objective statistical analysis, what came to be known as sabermetrics, could yield better results with undervalued players.

The takeaway: Human reasoning is often fallible. Our thinking is not always as rational as we might like to believe. Instead, we should apply more scrutiny to even the most strongly held beliefs in a particular field, rationales that can drive judgments and decision-making. Personally and as a society, we should be open to acknowledging instinctual errors and find a way to step back and look for a better solution.

In the same spirit, this feature takes a fresh look at some of the region's most fundamental concerns. It embraces the words of Steve Jobs, who once said, "Let's go invent tomorrow instead of worrying about what happened yesterday." The story examines how we might address some of the region's most pressing issues, often drawing on other cities for inspiration.

These case studies are just that-a starting place from which to work that might require refinement and rethinking.

As we move forward, the region will need to embrace the same type of resilience and innovation that have helped us endure the past year. With any luck, after everything we've been through, issues once considered daunting won't seem so insurmountable.

In finding common ground and looking ahead together, we might draw another important lesson from Tversky and Kahneman. Their many differences sharpened their work but also caused them to grow apart. At one point, Kahneman recalled, "I sort of divorced him." Days later, Tversky told his longtime friend that he'd been given a diagnosis of malignant melanoma and had just six months to live. The two reunited shortly before Tversky's death at age 59.

Years later, in his bestselling book Thinking, Fast and Slow, Kahneman reflected on his collaboration with Tversky, as well as what we might learn from history. He observed, "The illusion that we understand the past fosters overconfidence in our ability to predict the future."

A Breath of Fresh Air

The American Lung Association's 2020 State of the Air report gave St. Louis an F for high-ozone days. It will take an elevated effort to fix it

There was a cruel irony at play as the coronavirus pandemic swept into St. Louis in March: In a way, the wide-ranging effects of a respiratory illness made it easier for St. Louisians to breathe. With fewer drivers commuting to work and industry brought to a halt this spring, air quality in the region improved.

According to data collected by the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, concentrations of nitrogen dioxide-a pollutant from motor vehicles and industrial plants-measured March 23 to May 4 were significantly lower in 2020 than during the same span in 2019.

Poor air quality is an issue that cities across the country, including St. Louis, have grappled with for decades. In the 2020 State of the Air report, released the same year as the Clean Air Act's 50th anniversary, the American Lung Association found that nearly half of the nation's population, or about 150 million people, lived with polluted air. Examining the two most widespread outdoor air pollutants, the report gave the St. Louis region a grade of F for its high-ozone days and ranked the area 25th on its list of the most polluted cities by year-round particle pollution.

So how do we fix it? The short answer: It's complicated.

It's easy to look at air quality and the effects of pollution through a narrow lens. In reality, bad air quality is the product of many things: traffic, industry, poverty, segregation. The air that we breathe is inextricably entwined with every other thing we do, and solving air quality issues will require fixing a list of other things first.

"It took decades for this to happen, and it's going to take a while to get out of it," says Christine Ekenga, an assistant professor of public health at Washington University.

Ekenga was the lead author of a study published last year showing that St. Louis residents living in neighborhoods with high levels of poverty, unemployment, and segregation have higher cancer risks because of their proximity to bad air. Addressing this issue will require a region-wide effort to reduce segregation by looking at housing laws and affordable housing options and by promoting civic engagement so residents can use their voices to fight for zoning regulations.

And it won't stop there. "The main source of our poor air quality in the region is mostly transportation-related air quality and pollution," Ekenga says, "so we really need to think about transportation policies when we think about reducing pollution in the air. We need to think about multi-mobile streets, so restricted travel, more pedestrian lanes, more bicycling lanes, boosting public transit, thinking about open spaces for people instead of cars and vehicles."
AVERAGE HIGH-OZONE DAYS FOR ST. LOUIS AND SEVEN OTHER MIDWEST CITIES HIGH-OZONE DAY DEFINED: Emissions from cars, power plants, industrial boilers, chemical plants, and other sources are already not ideal. Add a dry, sunny day and the chemical reaction is extremely harmful ground-level ozone. Breathing ground-level ozone can cause or worsen a variety of health problems and take a toll on ecosystems. These days, often called Ozone Action Days, are usually declared by a county or state and occur most often in urban Midwestern cities. SOURCE: United States Environmental Agency Protection Agency, American Lung Association
Fun Factor: Rooftop River Dining
While we're on the topic of taking St. Louis to new heights, let's take another look at rooftop dining options, especially with the increased desire for alfresco spots. Yes, there's Cinder House and Three Sixty, but we might also look farther north and south, at underutilized plots just beyond the typical flood zone. In recent years, for instance, restaurateur Munsok So renovated a collapsed historic building into a five-story restaurant and event space. "I still don't understand why we don't do more to build up what's happening on the river," he told SLM at the time. "Why does St. Louis not want to do that?"

Going Green

How we can transform slabs of concrete into walls of vegetation

When you squire out-of-towners around the historic heart of our city, do you gesture to the parking garages and beam with pride? Nope, because they're lifeless behemoths of concrete and sadness-and they're everywhere. Mercifully, there's a way to spruce them up and accomplish a lot more in the meantime: vertical gardens.

Vertical gardens (a.k.a. "living walls") are just what they sound like: structures affixed to the exteriors of buildings that fill up the surface with plants. Cities around the world are experimenting with them. Miami boasts several parking garages with such gardens.

The benefits abound. They reduce the urban heat island effect, that broiling concrete jungle feeling you get while walking to Busch Stadium in the summer. Living walls cut down on car exhaust pollution by sequestering carbon dioxide. They capture dust particulates-good news for people with asthma. They muffle unpleasant city sounds, like jackhammers or, say, a free Sammy Hagar concert. There's also a psychological benefit well attested to in scientific literature: Green plants reduce stress and enhance feelings of well-being.

So how would this work downtown? Jennifer Smock, manager of the Kemper Center for Home Gardening at the Missouri Botanical Garden, points to several species with a strong chance of survival on the exterior of a downtown building. One example is Carex, a genus of sedges, native to the state, that grow in a range of conditions and feed butterflies. Heuchera, coral bells, is another; it offers multiple colors and has thrived on MoBot's vertical garden.

Then there's Sedum, commonly known as stonecrop. Mark Woolbright, founder and CEO of St. Louis-based vertical garden company Varden, says a good example of that plant's potential is the MADE STL building on Delmar. It has a 50-foot living wall of Sedum that was planted last summer and is now "totally green."

Establishing vertical gardens downtown may be trickier, he notes, because the high-rises will block some natural light. "You'd have to work with a really skilled horticulturist to come up with species to work in sun and shade," he says.

Funding all of this would likewise require some creativity. Each year, the downtown garages pay real estate taxes-some of them hundreds of thousands of dollars. A portion could be abated if the owners greenlighted vertical gardens. As for the city-owned garages, look at Mexico City. There, private enterprise has sponsored living walls around the columns that support raised highways; in exchange, the companies use some columns for advertising. Another solution: Ask voters to raise parking rates. A longer-term strategy, Woolbright suggests, is to amend the building code to require living walls.

"[Owners would] complain," he says, "but they'd go for it-they'd have to. And it would give them a branding punch and generate some goodwill."
WHERE PLANTS MEET PARKING 1. HEUCHERA Coral bells, which range in color, have thrived on MoBot's vertical garden. 2. CAREX This genus of sedges is native to the state and feed butterflies. 3. SEDUM Commonly known as stonecrop, sedum is on the MADE STL building.
Block by Block

How to address gentrification while reinvigorating neighborhoods

The key to solving gentrification might be rethinking how we define it. An influx of new businesses, new people, and new money-or gentrification-can be a driver of economic growth. But if it's coupled with cultural displacement-increasing housing costs to the point where lower-income folks can't afford to live there anymore-it comes at a steep price. A recent report in The New York Times detailed the difficulty of adding parks to areas in Denver, in part because residents of lower-income areas worried about "green gentrification."

So how do you improve neighborhoods without driving out the people whom investments most benefit?

In 2019, the National Community Reinvestment Coalition released a study. It looked at census data from 2000-2013 to try and suss out demographic changes indicative of gentrification and displacement. The good news: Though gentrification was common in the country's most populated cities, it was actually pretty rare in smaller and midsize ones. St. Louis, researchers found, had nine gentrified census tracts, or neighborhoods. Seven of the top 10 cities with the most gentrified neighborhoods were on the coasts. The bad news: We can also probably conclude that wealth-building investment is concentrated in those cities as well. Ah, a problem for another day.

The gentrification-versus-displacement question might be especially timely, given the Next NGA West's impending arrival in 2023 in North St. Louis. Housing will be key. Research from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia found that gentrifying Philly neighborhoods saw a decrease in affordable rental units at nearly five times the rate of non-gentrifying neighborhoods. The NCRC researchers cited the Petworth neighborhood in Washington state as an example of the opposite. In 2000, 85 percent of the area's 3,500 residents were African-American, and homeownership was high-80 percent. In 2019, though, the African-American population only made up 63 percent of the population, but home values climbed from $167,000 to $367,000. So though African-American residents might have moved away, they were, with any luck, able to sell their homes at much higher prices than the ones they originally paid, building generational wealth. Although 250 homes were planned for the neighborhood around Next NGA West, according to the St. Louis Business Journal, after building three, the developer said it was uncertain if the project will be finished.

So what do we do? The Missouri Property Tax Credit Claim, a $1,000 credit for homeowners, may help keep elderly residents in their homes, should property values and taxes increase as a result of gentrification. Other options: expanding public housing, offering assistance to residents who fall behind on property taxes, and providing renters with the option to purchase their apartments.

For a local example, consider the $100 million mixed-use Delmar Divine project, slated to open in fall 2021. Build-A-Bear Workshop founder Maxine Clark, who's spearheading the project, is including 150 apartments in the development, with studios starting at $700-$800 per month, aimed at people who earn $35,000-$55,000 annually. The idea: Affordable housing and economic diversity are at the heart of reinvigorating a neighborhood.
CITIES WITH GENTRIFIED NEIGHBORHOODS AND HIGH LEVELS OF BLACK AND HISPANIC DISPLACEMENT, 2000-2013
Fun Factor: Weekday-Morning Dance Parties
How to brighten the ho-hum weekday morning routine? Dance parties. Yes, we're serious. Already, such cities as Nashville, Denver, and Austin are hosting high-energy events during the morning, with the help of New York-based company Daybreaker. Like a night at the club, the parties involve DJs and dancing, but the booze is replaced with energy drinks and, oftentimes, yoga and uplifting mantras. It's a fresh way to jumpstart the morning-and beats a hangover.

Room to Roam

What the pandemic's taught us about parklets and pedestrians

When the pandemic hit here, in mid-March, St. Louisans turned to the outdoors for respite from their homes. People walked and jogged on the sidewalks. Restaurants found creative ways to expand their outdoor dining spaces. Streateries and parklets popped up as real estate typically reserved for cars was temporarily closed to vehicular traffic. Roads in Forest Park and Tower Grove Park were closed to provide more space for pedestrians, and Tower Grove Park's extra space was used to spread out its Saturday market stands.

The National Association of Realtors has found that 62 percent of millennials favor walkable cities, and pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods are often synonymous with higher property values and more active restaurants and retail. People flock to La Rambla in Barcelona and the Third Street Promenade in Los Angeles. Walkable cities are more equitable, sustainable, and healthier.

Yet streets account for 80 percent of public space in cities. In the past, the nation's city planning standard didn't prioritize walking in design plans, yielding safety concerns. In St. Louis, local historian (and SLM contributor) Chris Naffziger believes that dual one-way traffic routes, such as Broadway and Fourth, jeopardize pedestrian safety. As he put it in a March story about how the city has become less pedestrian-friendly over time, "The needs of automobile and pedestrian are diametrically opposed."

The National Association of City Transportation Officials has created guides to help cities become more pedestrian-friendly. They recommend that sidewalks be wide enough to accommodate pedestrians and commerce. In St. Louis, Great Rivers Greenway executive director Susan Trautman describes downtown streets as "super-wide," an area where walkways and landscaping could be added to make downtown more pedestrian-friendly. Expanding the existing network of greenways, Trautman adds, can connect people in ways that don't require cars: "St. Louis can continue to invest in infrastructure and decision-making that supports giving people options for how they want to travel."

St. Louis might be taking note: Design Downtown STL recently unveiled plans to make the heart of the city more pedestrian-friendly, with more trees and events to attract people, as well as plans to narrow unusually wide thoroughfares, such as Market Street and Tucker Boulevard.

Guardians of Peace

How a new approach to law enforcement might help curb crime and strengthen community relations

A decade ago, Camden, New Jersey, was a city in crisis. Open-air drug markets dotted street corners, and violent crime put the city in the news for all the wrong reasons. Its institutions were broken, too, with corruption, lethargy, and apathy crippling the system from the inside out. Police Chief J. Scott Thomson realized that many things, including his own department, needed to change.

The opportunity to enact meaningful change came in 2013, after the state disbanded the city's police department. Camden's policing model was then reimagined to better reflect the needs of the people. Camden didn't need a band of law enforcement warriors patrolling its streets, officials decided; it needed guardians.

"My message to police officers as we onboarded everyone into this new organization was 'When you come into this department, you will identify more with being a member of the Peace Corps than you will as a Special Forces operator,'" Thomson recalls.

As calls for police reforms hit full volume in the wake of George Floyd's death in May, community policing has been pitched as one of several answers. But what is it, and how should it work?

Laurie Robinson, a professor of criminology at George Mason University who served as a co-chair for the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing, formed in the wake of the events in Ferguson in 2014, says there are several ways to view and define community policing. At its core, though, it's about co-producing public safety through coordination between community members and law enforcement officials. The first step: building trust and fortifying relationships on both sides of the divide. "That is the central principle," Robinson says.

Activists insist they need to have input in the way communities are policed, that traditional methods do not work. For his part, Thomson, who retired from the Camden department last year, refuses to wave a victory flag over his own efforts to change the policing model, but he is eager to point to examples of progress in the city of more than 70,000, located across the river from Philadelphia. The murder rate has dropped by nearly 70 percent over the past seven years, and violent crime has decreased by 42 percent. Thomson says there's no unilateral approach to community policing, and the methods used in Camden may not necessarily be the best methods to use in a larger city, such as St. Louis, but the underlying ethos of involvement, engagement, and trust still applies.

To establish rapport, Robinson says, departments should be involved in dialogue with community organizations, religious groups, and youth groups. Training and recruitment could also be reimagined; police academies could do more than teach police tactics and instead instill in new officers a broader worldview to help them understand social issues in the communities where they'll be working. In other words, Robinson says, police forces can be more empathetic, so more effective partnerships can be established.

"The community has to have a sharing hand on the wheel of how a police force is being guided," Thomson says. "You've got to engage with people. You've got to empower them. That is the start."

Fun Factor: Light Installations
To lift spirits and light up the night, we might look to Quebec City. There, light installations transform industrial structures into colorful masterpieces. The historic Jacques Cartier Bridge changes shades with the season and hosts hourly short animations influenced by the traffic, weather, and social media data. Across the St. Lawrence River from the walled city, Bunge's grain silos served as a 600-by-30-meter canvas for a light show inspired by the Aurora Borealis. In recent years, St. Louis' skyline has already been illuminated by the St. Louis Wheel and Stan Span; imagine the Eads Bridge and Cargill grain elevator in a new light as well.

New School

What we can learn from our neighbors about universal pre-K

In Missouri, early childhood education is a seesaw of give and take. Last year, the state rolled out a new pre-K program, the Missouri Pre-K Foundation Formula, but reduced funding for the existing Missouri Preschool Program, a competitive grant offered in just 9 percent of school districts statewide. Enrollment increased to 5,788 children in 2018-2019, up 3,410 children from the previous year. State funding for the two programs also increased by $8 million, to more than $19 million total, yet the National Institute for Early Education Research ranked the state 39th in access for 4-year-olds and 37th for resources.

So how might we expand access to pre-K? We could start by looking to our neighbors to the southwest as a model. Oklahoma is one of a handful of states with free voluntary pre-K. The state spent a whopping $182 million on early childhood education and $4,264 per child in 2018-2019. (By contrast, in Missouri, spending per child dropped to $3,330, down $1,388 from the previous year. These figures weren't adjusted for cost of living, like the bar graph to the left.) The quality of education that 4-year-olds receive in Oklahoma is gold star-worthy. Pre-K teachers there must hold a bachelor's degree in education with a specialization in pre-kindergarten, and the student/teacher ratio is 10:1. The approach seems to be working: A report in 2016 found that Oklahoma was one of 13 states to see "significant growth on fourth-grade reading scores as measured by the National Assessment of Educational Progress."

But Oklahomans lucked out in getting the funding for the program in the first place. Before launching free pre-K in 1998, lawmakers discovered that schools with half-day kindergarten were receiving money to cover full-day costs and misusing the overage. Legislators expanded the aid formula to include preschool.

In the absence of budget indiscretions and a tax increase, we could look to Chicago for a possible solution. There, a partnership has formed between the Chicago Public Schools, the city, and private investors. The Child-Parent Center Pay for Success Initiative is a social impact bond aimed to enroll more than 2,620 low-income children in pre-K classes. The idea: Private lenders provide the capital ($17 million upfront, in Chicago's case) to increase access to education, and the government repays them if educational outcomes improve. Because children are less likely to need special education services if they receive quality early childhood education, the state will save and use that money to repay investors. Funding partners also receive repayments for increases in kindergarten readiness and increases in third-grade literacy-a win across the board.
VARIATION IN STATE SPENDING PER CHILD, ADJUSTED FOR STATE COST OF LIVING In 2018-2019, total spending for early childhood education increased, but spending per child remained stagnant. The gap between the states that spend the most on early childhood education and the states that spend the least continues to grow. Source: National Institute for Early Education Research
Talent Tap

How state policymakers might help keep skilled rising stars in Missouri after graduation

The exit of young educated workers from the state is not a problem unique to Missouri. More states-most notably in northern New England, the Plains, the Southeast, and the Rust Belt-are losing more trained and skilled laborers than they are keeping or gaining them.

Although Missouri has low out-migration because many people who are born here stay, those who do leave are more educated than those left behind. There's a 16 percent gap between the percentages of leavers who are highly educated and the percentage of stayers who are highly educated. There's also an 8.8 percent gap when comparing leavers to entrants, according to a 2019 report by the United States Congress Joint Economic Committee. For context, in regard to the gap between those who leave and enter, North Dakota and Delaware top the list with nearly a 20 percent difference, whereas for states with low brain drain, such as California and New York, the difference is closer to minus-20 percent.

There are strides: The Missouri Chamber Foundation, for example, is analyzing the state's workforce through a 15-year plan aimed at improving its economy. In September, it helped launch a service that matches companies with apprentice programs to potential apprentices.

According to the National Center for Education Statistics, Missouri holds its own at attracting college students. In 2019, 8,320 Missouri high school seniors left the state for tertiary education, but we also had an influx of 9,875 out-of-staters attending our universities.

So in some cases, why can't we keep them after graduation? One key is bustling metropolitan areas, with which such states as Illinois, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia have won over millennials in recent years.

In 2007, Maine became the first state to give a large tax credit to help college graduates pay off student loans, on the condition that they stay and work in the state. But, so far, the initiative hasn't created dramatic change. As Ohio is discovering with the slow progression of its 2017 House Bill 396 (which would help pay off student loans for STEM graduates working in the state), policy change takes time.

In the short term, Missouri could take a lesson from Purdue University, which in 2019 launched the Purdue Brain Gain Initiative, inviting alumni to move back to Indiana. The pilot program found 220 alumni interested in discussing new jobs in the state, leading to conversations between them and the program's partner companies.

As many companies shift to remote working, perhaps now is the time to begin those conversations-and for policymakers to brainstorm how to sweeten the deal.
Gross Brain Drain, 2017 Gap in percentages of highly educated between Leavers and Stayers SOURCE: U.S. Joint Economic Committee
Fun Factor: Wilderness Expeditions
Out-of-towners might be drawn to Six Flags, then zip down I-44 to Busch Stadium. They'd be remiss, however, in overlooking our natural offerings. The scenic stretch of wilderness at the region's edges-hills, rivers, trails, wildlife-is like a slice of Colorado in our own backyard. Perhaps all that's needed is a little nudge, guided trips, in the same spirit as Big Muddy Adventures' river expeditions, to experience these wonders with a pro-a seasoned photographer, a knowledgeable naturalist, an experienced adventurer. Such experiences might help both tourists and lifelong St. Louisans see the metro region through a new lens.

Making Moves

Rideshare and bus rapid transit services offer less costly alternatives to mass transit.

The call to action came four years ago. That's when, in a report on the ongoing evolution of the public transit industry, the American Public Transportation Association challenged public transit agencies to get away from the traditional idea of transit service as a system in which buses and trains move around the city and think of themselves more in terms of where people go. In other words, the charge for these organizations is to stop thinking of themselves as public transit agencies and start reimagining themselves as mobility agencies.

"It's much better if the transit agency can be seen as a partner in all of these ways of moving people and not as something separate," says Victoria Perk, a senior research associate at the Center for Urban Transportation Research at the University of South Florida. "Think more along the lines of combining all the ways that people move in a community. That would include walking and biking and perhaps even scooters and partnering with rideshare companies so that these modes aren't competing with each other-they're complementing each other."

Our region is already getting a taste of what the future may hold. In June, St. Louis Metro Transit launched a new on-demand rideshare transit service, Via Metro STL, that allows riders in North and Southwest St. Louis County to hail a vehicle from a smartphone app. (Think Uber but under the Metro umbrella.) Metro reports that 1,300 trips were completed in the first month of the program.

There's also the possibility that an action plan for the long-discussed north-south MetroLink expansion is put into place in the next decade, says Jim Wild, executive director of East-West Gateway, but such a project is estimated to carry a price tag of at least $940 million. Nationally, ridership was already on the decline entering the year, and the pandemic only exacerbated budget problems for agencies across the country. In May, APTA projected that transit agencies will face a shortfall of $23.8 billion through the end of 2021, so it may take time before cities are able to fully implement bold ideas.

Several Midwestern cities, such as Kansas City, Columbus, and Indianapolis, have explored cost-effective alternatives to light rail, including bus rapid transit services. These BRT lines often use dedicated roadways and take priority at intersections to deliver a faster transit experience than standard bus service. In August, the city issued a request for qualifications for north-south transit options, including the possibility of BRT service. BRT is worth looking into, but Wild says it's important to consider that operating costs mean that these hybrid bus systems aren't always the long-term money-savers they're touted to be.

Whichever direction the region goes, the best way for St. Louis to better embrace transit is to show riders what the system can do for them. "We need to understand that transit is for everyone," Wild says. "It's a way for people to get to their jobs, to do their shopping, to do everyday errands. We need to educate the community about the benefits of transit."
ANNUAL TRANSIT BOARDINGS PER CAPITA AS OF 2018 SOURCE: Federal Transit Administration, National Transit Database
Cracking the Code

How a wonky tweak to zoning can make a big difference for small businesses

From barbershops and microbreweries to florists and taquerías, lots of small businesses thrive on foot traffic. Just as much as they want their neighborhood regulars to drop by, they want wandering pedestrians to spy something through the front window and venture inside. Foot traffic is a feature of urban density. And density, it turns out, can be fostered and guided with a wonky policy tool called " form-based codes."

The city's current zoning code is decades old and not form-based. It's use-based: It separates the land into spheres of activity (so heavy industry goes here, houses go over there). A form-based code, however, is more explicit about what form the built environment should assume and what strolling through it should feel like. A form-based code may mandate that new buildings be made of brick, be a minimum height, be snug up to the sidewalk, and have mostly glass fronts on the ground level.

"Form-based codes are intended to create walkable, mixed-use urban space," says Marta Goldsmith, executive director of the Form-Based Codes Institute at Smart Growth America, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit. "Walkability is really key."

Two city neighborhoods, Forest Park Southeast/The Grove and the Central West End, have already nailed down their own form-based-code districts. They "overlay" onto the city's code. Brooks Goedeker, now the executive director of the St. Louis Midtown Redevelopment Corporation, helped bring these codes to fruition and has witnessed their potency. "I've seen it work," he says. Developers there, he observed, realized that the code made everyone play by specific rules, so they could invest with more certainty, knowing their projects would be protected.

Thanks to the expansion of Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, those neighborhoods saw a multi-year burst of construction, so they had momentum to channel. But Goldsmith says some towns and main streets around the country have used form-based codes to stimulate investment: "They have a clear vision and write a code to achieve it. In these cases, the code comes before property values rise to help expedite redevelopment."

Building these codes takes patience. It starts with soliciting input from stakeholders on what they already like and what they're aspiring to, which is time-consuming. It's not a cheap process, either, costing in some cases more than $100,000. Don Roe, executive director of the city's Planning and Urban Design Agency, says he's been getting more funding to hire staffers who can work on neighborhood planning, which could lead to more form-based codes. But there's still plenty of opportunity, he says, for nonprofits and private foundations to step in and get started in select areas. "We can't be everywhere at once," says Roe.

At least one nonprofit is already doing this. Abdul-Kaba Abdullah, executive director of Park Central Development, says his group is working on a form-based code in DeBaliviere and the West End, and laying the early groundwork in the neighborhoods of Academy, Sherman Park, and Fountain Park, north of Delmar. "I'd like to see more private funding for place-based community-development corporations to do this type of planning," he says. "We're happy to teach the neighborhoods how to do it. It just takes more money."

Fun Factor: Party Barges
For a city of river people, we don't spend nearly enough time cruising on the Mississippi. The Gateway Arch offers relaxing daytime and dinner cruise options, but we want-no, demand-a party barge. In the summer, fill it with sand for a blowout volleyball tournament or an A+ adult sandbox, or install a tiki bar and treat it like a beach. In the winter, artificial snow could be a cool setting for an epic snowball fight, as long as the water's not too icy to sail.

Building a Bridge

A merger might not happen anytime soon, but trans-governmental contracts and mutual aid networks could provide a solution.

Yes, the consolidation conversation is nothing new. Since the Great Divorce of 1876, numerous proposals for regional governmental unity have been presented-only to fizzle. Better Together, which spent six years examining regional governance before dissolving last year, was only the latest entrant in the stop-and-start debate.

Talk of regional unity is often focused on the examples of other city-county agreements and the lessons they could provide St. Louis. Better Together, for example, examined consolidation efforts in Indianapolis, Louisville, and Nashville to inform a path forward. But instead of scrutinizing other cities' reform plans in search of inspiration, perhaps St. Louis should look to-and try to learn from-a new kind of model.

"Historically, one of the issues with a merger has been that all mergers are really focused on merging territories and they have not examined other efficiencies that can exist," says local historian Michael Allen, a lecturer in American cultural studies at Washington University.

Proposals to merge have met all kinds of roadblocks in the past century, but that doesn't mean cooperation can't happen. It might just have to look different. Mutual aid networks could serve as inspiration for how the region might think differently about the way government could work better together.

In the age of COVID-19, mutual aid networks have sprouted at the grassroots level to pool resources and ensure that people's needs are met. On a governmental scale, this model would mean coordinating police departments, fire departments, parks departments, and similar civic services so they could be reallocated from a central source to help cut down on wastefulness and duplication.

"It's not something that even has to entail dissolving your favorite municipality," Allen says. "Ladue can still exist at the end of the day. St. Louis city can still be independent, but resources could just be shared and pooled and redistributed to new trans-governmental contracts. And maybe that is how St. Louis will get there. For some reason, the territorial boundaries and names are all sacred to people, but I don't think people care as much which parks district is improving and maintaining their park. If you live in Ladue, that's the Ladue city government. But what if that was a regional parks district and the parks still had the same quality? I don't think anyone's going to be offended by that, as long as Ladue is still on the map."

Absent a merger or any other profound structural changes, Todd Swanstrom, a public policy professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, believes there's also room for more cooperation with economic development in mind. "What we have done pretty well as a region, I think, is to have special districts that cleave off certain functions and fund them with the city-county tax base," Swanstrom says. "The Zoo-Museum District uses property taxes from the city and the county, and I think that's been a huge success. The question is 'Could we do that in other areas? Could there be some way in which the city and county can collaborate and coordinate more intimately on economic development in the future?'"
ST. LOUIS' GREAT DIVORCE... AND ATTEMPTS TO REUNITE

1875 By popular election in November, a board of freeholders is to be appointed to write a new charter separating city from county.

1876 On August 22, the new Scheme and Charter are voted down. After a November recount, the measures pass.

1877 In March, the city officially declares itself independent.

1924 A new board of freeholders is formed.

1926 The county rejects its plan to consolidate city and county.

1930 A bid for a Greater St. Louis metropolitan government is defeated.

1959 Another board of freeholders offers a plan to create a Metropolitan District with city-county cooperation, but it falls flat.

1962 Both city and county refuse a reorganization into boroughs, à la New York.

1982 An initiative led by John Hanley, Monsanto CEO, considers reunification but winds up urging only increased city-county cooperation.

1987 Another board of freeholders is established, but opponents sue and block the plan.

1996 Talk of city-county merger heats up again.

2004 The Advance St. Louis charter reform task force strikes out; voters reject all four of its suggested amendments to the city charter.

2019 Better Together pushes for a statewide vote on reunification-then withdraws the proposal.

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10 bold solutions to move St. Louis forward

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On the heels of the 2016 election, author Michael Lewis published a book that provided a rational path forward during a divided time. The Undoing Project details the complex relationship of two Israeli psychologists, the brash Amos Tversky and the more reserved Daniel Kahneman, who both served in the Yom Kippur War and began collaborating at Hebrew University of Jerusalem in the fall of 1969.

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Newsela | Generating energy from the wind

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Wind, an original source of energy, is coming back in favor around the world.

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Newsela | Supreme Court rejects Trump bid to end young immigrants' protections

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On June 18, 2020, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the rights of "Dreamers" to avoid deportation for at least two more years.

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Newsela | Animal rights groups dislike Japan's owl cafes

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There's a new animal cafe in town. Tokyo locals and snap-happy tourists are lining up for the owl cafe experience. But not everyone's happy about it.

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Newsela | Nuclear power as an energy source has its pros and cons

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Nuclear power's viability as an energy source is offset by the potential for a catastrophic nuclear waste accident

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In the U.S., it remains an unfortunate reality that many children-including those born to low-income parents whose families live in poor neighborhoods with low-quality schools or who are members of minority groups-are statistically disadvantaged from the moment of birth or even earlier. Though some are able to break out and achieve educational and economic success, the odds are stacked against these children-now more than ever.

Among this already disadvantaged group of children, one subgroup stands out for the accumulation of factors that work against them enjoying a happy and normal childhood or beating the odds to achieve a fulfilling life as an adult characterized by a stable family, a good job, and financial independence. These most unfortunate and at-risk children are those removed from their homes by local officials and placed in the nation's foster care system. These are the most disadvantaged children in the nation, and therefore have the greatest claim to public support.

The magnitude of the problem is shown by a recent survey that found that nearly 40 percent of the nation's children experienced a child protective services investigation by age 18. ¹ In 2014 alone, reports to public authorities documented child abuse or neglect allegations affecting 3.2 million children. ² Not all children who are victims of abuse or neglect are identified when the maltreatment occurs-and even fewer receive services-but every state has a public entity, often called the Department of Social Services (DSS), that investigates these reports of abuse or neglect and, in the cases that the local DSS finds to be most serious, formulates and executes a plan for helping the parents and the child improve their relationship and reduce the problems that led to the maltreatment.

In the most serious cases of abuse or neglect, DSS may remove children from their parents and place them in a setting outside their family household, sometimes in a group or institutional care setting, sometimes with a relative, and sometimes with another family that has been determined to meet at least minimum standards of being able to provide an adequate environment for raising the child. About 260,000 children enter foster care each year; at any given moment, a total of around 400,000 of the nation's children are in foster care. ³

The needs of children in foster care

Imagine the emotional condition of children who enter foster care. Before entering care, nearly all of them experience trauma that can have serious and sometimes lasting impacts on their development and personality. Once placed in foster care, their contact with their own parents is greatly reduced, at least temporarily. Although child welfare agencies are supposed to keep children in their home communities and in their own schools if possible, achieving these two placement goals is often difficult, in which case children may be placed in a new neighborhood where they must go to a new school and make new friends. Thus, children who already face many disadvantages can lose major parts of their familiar environment while facing what must seem to them an uncertain and deeply confusing future.

It is little wonder that these children, when studied over many years, have outcomes in education, delinquency, mental health, employment, and many other areas that are far below average. One of the best studies of the long-term impacts of foster care and the conditions that cause children to enter foster care followed about 730 adolescents who were in foster care at age 17 in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. They were followed until they reached age 26. The authors' conclusion provides a clear picture of the fate of many of these young people who experienced years in foster care:

The picture that emerges . . . is disquieting, particularly if we measure the success of the young people . . . in terms of self-sufficiency during early adulthood. Across a wide range of outcome measures, including postsecondary educational attainment, employment, housing stability, public assistance receipt, and criminal justice system involvement, these former foster youth are faring poorly as a group. . . . Our findings raise questions about the adequacy of current efforts to help young people make a successful transition out of foster care. ⁴

Research in recent decades has established that for most children, their parents are the most important influence on their development. ⁵ Parents establish and maintain most parts of the preschool child's rearing environment and have more interactions with the child than any other person. Parents establish the child's daily routines, listen to and talk to the child more than anyone else, and are the child's original source of information and values. But just as children who enter foster care come from neighborhood and school environments that are less than ideal, their home environments-including their parents-are also unlikely to have supported normal child development. Most enter foster care already carrying emotional-and often physical-scars.

How foster care placement works

Precisely because parents are so important to children's development and well-being, when children are removed from their parents by public officials, the public assumes responsibility for their development and well-being. For the approximately 260,000 children placed in foster care each year, the choice of foster care setting is central to the child's future.

There is now almost universal agreement that group or institutional care should be considered an option of last resort. ⁶ In 2014, a group of ten leading child welfare researchers with extensive careers of research on children felt so strongly about this issue that they issued a "consensus statement" on group care. Their conclusion, stated with admirable conciseness, is that children should be placed in group care only "when necessary therapeutic mental health services cannot be delivered in a less restrictive setting." ⁷ Nonetheless, according to a report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, nearly 15 percent of children are placed in group homes or institutional care. ⁸

Far preferable to group care is placement with a qualified, loving family. Two types of placements with families are used by child welfare offices across the nation. In one type, children are placed with family members, often grandparents. This mode of placement has been used for centuries and is today a form of foster care endorsed by child welfare agencies, government agencies responsible for administering child welfare programs, and child welfare professional organizations. ⁹ There are two major factors that make kinship placements so desirable: First, children are usually familiar with the adults with whom they will be living. Second, both the parents and the child experience less trauma if the child is placed with someone known to and trusted by the parents and the child. About 30 percent of children in foster care are in kinship care.

Many families whose children enter foster care do not have relatives available or able to provide reliable and loving care to the child. Thus, DSS agencies find families-usually unknown to the child and the child's family-that are willing to devote themselves to the care and nurturing of the child. Children placed with foster families are often traumatized, especially if they have been living in difficult circumstances with their biological family for many years. Thus, the children often act out and are resistant to adult supervision. As every parent knows, raising children is always challenging. But raising a foster child can be especially challenging due to the unique needs of foster children and tensions with parents who have lost temporary custody of their children. Both conditions weigh heavily on foster parents.

Given these challenges, DSS agencies have a demanding task in selecting, training, and certifying foster parents who can stand up to these various pressures-and all so they can serve a child and family they don't know. Despite these barriers, however, placement with non-relative families is the most common placement type: 45 percent of foster children live with non-relative foster families.

A national campaign to catalyze foster care reform

Given the stakes, and our nation's public responsibility for providing the best possible care for these abused and neglected children, a group of child welfare advocates, researchers, community activists, and foundation officials have initiated a national campaign called CHAMPS (CHildren need AMazing ParentS) to ensure bright futures for children in foster care by promoting the highest quality foster parenting.

To achieve this goal, CHAMPS will work with state policymakers, child welfare administrators, and advocates to leverage research and spur policy reforms in up to 25 states over the next five years.

As spelled out in detail in a paper published in 2016 by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, ¹⁰ the reforms are aimed at:

Building a robust constituency network and enhancing the capacity of advocates to effectively push for quality foster parenting through a broad-based coalition equipped with the latest evidence and tools.

Reforming state policies, including changes to statutes, administrative codes, and regulations, to increase public and private agency capacity to support, engage, recruit, and retain foster parents. Policy approaches will vary by state, but will include steps to promote quality caregiving, ensure accountability and oversight, and create more effective partnerships between parents and agencies.

Promoting stronger federal policies that firmly embed the principle that children do best in families. Federal policy approaches might include fiscal incentives and greater state accountability measures to ensure the availability of trained and qualified foster parents to meet the needs of children and communities.

Changing the public narrative about foster parents to emphasize the vital role that they play in a child's life. By leveraging survey data, as well as the voices of foster parents, youth who have experienced foster care, and other community leaders, the public will gain greater understanding and appreciation of foster parents.

The Center on Children and Families (CCF) at Brookings is pleased to announce its participation in the project as the research arm of the CHAMPs initiative.

With financial and advisory support from several foundations, CCF will examine four key issues that are well-aligned with the aims of the CHAMPS reforms outlined above.

First, we will conduct research on the quality of foster care offered by states. We are especially interested in research on how the quality of foster care can best be measured and on the relationship between quality measures and child progress and outcomes. Measures of the quality of foster care should correlate with, or even cause, the most important outcomes such high school graduation, attaining a post-high school degree or certificate, avoiding teen pregnancy, and avoiding delinquency and criminal involvement.

Second, we plan to examine the best ways to determine state accountability for their foster care systems, especially the capacity of states to conduct oversight and evaluation of the services they are offering. We will focus attention on how the federal government and the states now measure accountability and how the measures could be improved. Again, as with measures of the quality of foster care, measures of state accountability should be highly correlated with desirable child outcomes.

Third, we will explore ways to increase the American public's understanding of the vital role played by foster parents and the great value of the services they provide to foster children. Increasing the visibility of foster parents and promoting a greater understanding of their vital role in preparing the nation's most disadvantaged children for adulthood will increase the number of parents who are interested in the possibility of serving as foster parents as well as political support for public initiatives to improve foster care.

Fourth, as shown by a visit to the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare, ¹¹ in recent decades program specialists and researchers have developed a number of programs capable of successfully treating the types of serious emotional and behavioral problems that afflict many of the children who wind up in foster care. The field needs to know more about these intervention programs and how foster parents can play an important role in improving the success of these programs in helping foster children. A special focus of our research will be figuring out how to adapt these treatment programs to the individual strengths and weaknesses of foster families so that the impact of the programs in reducing emotional and behavioral problems can be improved.

The Center on Children and Families at Brookings looks forward to playing a contributing role in the national movement to help states improve the quality of foster parenting for abused and neglected children through aggressive implementation of the CHAMPS initiative. There are few public policies for which the potential payoff in lives brightened is as promising as improvements in the nation's foster care system.

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A national campaign to improve foster care

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In the U.S., it remains an unfortunate reality that many children-including those born to low-income parents whose families live in poor neighborhoods with low-quality schools or who are members of minority groups-are statistically disadvantaged from the moment of birth or even earlier.

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Peter Keating, ESPN Senior WriterMay 14, 2020, 08:00 AM ET

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Peter Keating is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine, where he covers investigative and statistical subjects. His column, The Numbers, appears in every issue.

THE CHANTS BEGAN almost as soon as the U.S. women's soccer team won the World Cup last July. The American squad beat the Netherlands 2-0 in the final, capping a month of dominance in which Team USA outscored opponents 26-3. But by the time Megan Rapinoe, Alex Morgan and their mates were celebrating their triumph, the world knew they would earn just $4 million collectively, a fraction of what their male counterparts had taken home a year earlier. Indeed, the $30 million awarded to all of the athletes combined at the 2019 Women's World Cup would not even equal the $38 million the French national team made after winning the 2018 men's World Cup, where prize money totaled $400 million.

So as FIFA president Gianni Infantino strode across the pitch at Stade Lyon to present the American women with their trophy, the crowd of 57,900 began to roar.

"Equal pay! Equal pay!"

It happened again three days later, after a ticker tape parade through New York's Canyon of Heroes honored the four-time Cup winners. When Carlos Cordeiro, then president of the U.S. Soccer Federation, began speaking in front of City Hall, shouts drowned him out:

"USA! Equal pay!"

"We hear you," Cordeiro told the crowd.

At that time, U.S. Soccer was already battling the women's national team in court, after all 28 members sued their national federation in March 2019 for "purposeful gender discrimination." It could have been the moment for USSF officials to declare victory and get out of that war, to find some way to share with the athletes the public triumphs and financial gains of American soccer.

Instead, the federation proceeded to file thousands of pages of documents asserting that, as one motion put it, "WNT and MNT players do not perform equal work requiring equal skill, effort and responsibility under similar working conditions." This past March, the USSF even declared it was entitled to treat men better because of biology: "The overall soccer-playing ability required to compete at the senior men's national team level is materially influenced by the level of certain physical attributes, such as speed and strength."

On May 1, a federal judge sided with U.S. Soccer on most of the key issues at stake in the lawsuit. U.S. District Court Judge R. Gary Klausner held that the women's national team had agreed to the terms of the deal that paid them. He also found that the WNT made more money than the men's team from 2015 to 2019. The athletes are planning to appeal, but at least for the moment, crucial parts of the suit have been dismissed.

In the court of public opinion, however, something snapped after those March filings. WNT members wore their jerseys inside out in protest. Major sponsors, including Coca-Cola and Procter & Gamble, released statements supporting the athletes. Cindy Parlow Cone, then U.S. Soccer's vice president, condemned the USSF's legal arguments. So did Major League Soccer commissioner Don Garber. Cordeiro resigned three days later, and the federation switched lawyers within a week.

So this much is clear: Whenever and however sports reemerge from the deep freeze of the coronavirus pandemic, women's leagues and federations will face changing expectations as they answer the basic question of how to compensate their players. Spurred by the excellence of the USWNT, the idea of pay equity has taken hold among athletes, fans and sponsors. And now central offices across the sports map are scrambling to catch up. U.S. Soccer is at a crossroads: Whatever happens with the equal pay lawsuit, the USSF has to negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement with the women's national team by the end of next year, and its long-term relationship with the National Women's Soccer League is up in the air. Meanwhile, the Women's Super League in England has gone fully professional. The WNBA inked a landmark labor deal in January, guaranteeing improved pay and unprecedented health benefits, after its players opted out of their CBA for the first time. And last May, 175 players left the National Women's Hockey League to protest poor wages, and they have been barnstorming as their own group.

ESPN Daily on equal pay

* Mina Kimes talks with two-time World Cup and Olympic soccer champion Julie Foudy for a candid, inside look at the battle over fair pay for female players. Listen

* Peter Keating joins Mina to discuss the U.S. Soccer's court victory and what's next for the U.S. women's national team. Listen

But here's the thing. While equal pay for equal work has emerged as a rallying cry in the ongoing struggles of women athletes, equity doesn't always, or even often, mean literal equality across all sports. Consider a comparison: Anthony Davis was the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft in 2012. Heading into this season, he had made six All-Star teams, and he created 0.247 win shares per 48 minutes in 2018-19. Nneka Ogwumike was the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft in 2012. Also a six-time All-Star, she had a nearly identical 0.248 win shares per 48 minutes in 2019.

This season, Davis made $27.1 million. Last season, Ogwumike earned $115,000.

That is a staggering gap. Yet nobody is suggesting that Ogwumike ought to be paid $27 million a year -- not even the WNBA athletes who have been fighting the longest for better wages. "These are businesses, and none of us are out there saying we want to be paid the exact same as the men," says 17-year WNBA veteran Sue Bird of the Seattle Storm. "When I think of pay equity, I think of the opportunity that the NBA and other male sports leagues have to be successful."

So what's really at stake? As demands for equal pay spark across arenas, boardrooms, TV screens, Twitter feeds and even presidential campaigns, it's time to take a deeper look. To assess the new landscape and figure out just how it's changing, we talked with athletes and their advocates and opponents, and scoured academic research, court papers and financial documents across women's sports. The biggest lesson: Today's athletes are asking for something even bigger than the strict definition of "pay equity." They want a piece of the action.

MALE AND FEMALE athletes are paid on entirely different scales, to the extent that examples can seem literally unbelievable. Just one woman was ranked among the 100 highest-paid athletes in the world in 2019, according to Forbes (Serena Williams, at No. 63). Steph Curry's salary ($40 million) is more than three times as much as what every player in the WNBA earned in 2019 combined ($12.5 million). Last year, Delanie Gourley, a star pitcher in National Pro Fastpitch softball, disclosed that she makes less than a Yankees bat boy.

The disparity is so wide that the money pulls skilled men into a career in sports, while the lack of money makes it impossible for many talented women to earn a living as an athlete. As an example, the Global Sports Salary Survey (GSSS), produced by the U.K.-based research firm Sporting Intelligence, counted 137,021 men who played professional soccer in the world in 2017 and just 1,287 women -- a ratio of 106 to 1.

Even compared with other fields traditionally dominated by men, it's far harder for women to break into the upper ranks of compensation in sports. In the United States, women make up 24% of Congress, 18% of surgeons, 10% of Christian church leaders. Worldwide, 18% of university presidents, 11% of astronauts who have been to space and 6% of major-company CEOs are women. "None of which is laudable," the GSSS report says, "but it makes 1% of professional footballers look more pitiful still."

The salary gap between men and women athletes echoes the huge difference in revenues between men's and women's sports. For instance, NBA teams took in a total of $8.8 billion this year, according to Forbes. Meanwhile, WNBA revenues were probably around $70 million, estimates David Berri, a professor of economics at Southern Utah University and author of numerous studies about women's sports. The raw numbers make it easy to assume that women make less money simply because fans prefer men's games -- that pay follows revenues, and revenues follow popularity. But the truth is more complicated, because a league's financial data also embeds its history, opportunities and labor relations. "We have to consider why the revenue is different, what bias and discrimination are in play," says Lindsay Kagawa Colas, senior vice president for women's sports at Wasserman, whose clients include a bevy of the WNBA's biggest stars, such as Diana Taurasi and Maya Moore, as well as gymnast Katelyn Ohashi and swimmer Simone Manuel. "Have investments been equal? Has commitment been equal? Is the allocation of the best talent to thinking about ways to grow fan engagement, innovation or player experience happening?"

"These are businesses, and none of us are out there saying we want to be paid the exact same as the men. When I think of pay equity, I think of the opportunity that the NBA and other male sports leagues have to be successful." Sue Bird

Any sport needs three kinds of support to grow into a large-scale, sustainable business. And these provisions have tilted strongly, almost exclusively, toward men's sports for decades.

First, investment. A league requires seed money to grow. That includes outlays by committed owners with deep pockets, rather than the unstable financing that has so often plagued franchises in women's sports. (Including the very greatest: From 1997 to 2000, the Houston Comets won four straight WNBA championships with a core of Cynthia Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson, all top-shelf Hall of Famers. But in 2007, a furniture-store owner named Hilton Koch bought the club for $10 million, then couldn't pay its bills, and the team was disbanded the following year.) It also includes corporate sponsorship. And while companies have shown more interest in backing female athletes recently, men's leagues and teams still captured 93% of the $31 billion that corporations around the globe spent on sports last year, according to a November 2019 report by the German research firm Statista.

Investment includes public money too, usually in the form of taxpayer-financed stadiums. New arenas allow teams to improve their game experience, hike prices and build up adjoining land. And men's leagues have proved adept at getting state and local governments to defray the costs of that development. From 1990 to 2012, for instance, MLB, NBA, NFL and NHL teams got a mammoth $17 billion in public funds for new homes, according to research by economists Robert Baade and Victor Matheson. As Berri puts it: "Men love investing in men's sports."

More recently, men's soccer clubs have kept the gravy train rolling. From 2005 to 2018, municipalities in the U.S. forked over a combined $738 million in subsidies for new Major League Soccer fields. These deals have been great for teams -- and for MLS; its expansion fee has rocketed to $325 million. But while women's clubs are sharing some of the new pitches (and a handful of NBA facilities too), when it comes to securing arenas as primary occupants, the women's game has barely arrived at the table. In 2021, Tacoma and Louisville are scheduled to open the first soccer-specific stadiums with National Women's Soccer League clubs as their highest-level tenants.

"The NWSL has the opportunity to be the best league in the world," says Becca Roux, executive director of the U.S. Women's National Team Players Association. "But we need investors with the mindset that there's tons of value here that hasn't been shown before who will go unlock it. And we need access to better stadiums, facilities and everything that makes a better entertainment product."

"The NWSL has the opportunity to be the best league in the world. But we need investors with the mindset that there's tons of value here that hasn't been shown before who will go unlock it." Becca Roux

Beyond money, a sport needs time to grow into its potential audience. Leagues and clubs are subject to what economists call "network externality," which means the value of something depends on how many consumers use it. Think of cellphones: If you were the only person to have one, your phone would be useless. It's when the number of people with them grows that the devices become valuable. In the same way, if you're the only fan you know of a new sports team, your experience will be extremely limited. Your joys and agonies and memories increase exponentially as your network of friends and family involved with the same team expands.

Successful sports build enough familiarity and loyalty that their followers spread, find one another and reach a critical mass that, like a chain reaction in a nuclear power plant, creates a new energy that feeds on itself over time. And it can take decades for leagues and franchises to develop faith and establish their footing.

The WNBA is scheduled to play its 24th season this year. The NFL was the same age in 1943, a year when it fielded only eight teams, including the Brooklyn Dodgers, and averaged a third of its 2019 per-game attendance. Women's professional soccer was actually banned in Germany until 1970, England until 1971 and Brazil until 1979; the NWSL, its latest and longest-lived incarnation in the U.S., has now been playing for seven years. In 1953, at the same stage in its timeline, the NBA had total revenues of less than $16 million in today's dollars, according to data collected by the House Judiciary Committee in 1957, and drew only 3,583 fans per game.

Of course, the sports world is bigger and more lucrative today. But a generation is still a generation. "No one should expect any women's sports league to have the following we see in men's professional sports today," Berri says. "Right now, WNBA fans are just beginning to pass their fan preferences down to their children."

Finally, sports need media to reach their full potential. And make no mistake, fans today have more access than ever to the games played by female athletes, because a burgeoning number of networks and apps, hungry to acquire and offer new content, are programming all kinds of formerly "niche" sports.

ESPN, for instance, dedicated more than 16,000 hours across all its platforms and partners to the programming of women's sporting events last year, up from 7,500 in 2015 and just 1,500 in 2010. CBS Sports Network struck a deal in 2019 to show 40 WNBA games a year, increasing the number of regular-season contests on national television by more than 60%. NBC and its fleet of cable channels showed a record 631.5 hours of the 2018 Winter Olympics -- and for the first time ever, a majority of prime-time airtime was devoted to women's sports, according to research by Andrew Billings of the University of Alabama and James Angelini of the University of Delaware. And the media surge is lifting smaller sports onto regional, digital and streaming platforms. B/R Live shows the Women's FIH Pro League, where women's national field hockey teams face off; FloSports streams Premier Girls Fastpitch, a top club softball league for high school and younger players.

Sustained exposure has certainly been a boon to college softball, to which ESPN has held the rights for 40 years. Broadcasts have spurred fan interest. And that's led to more viewers (Women's College World Series ratings have increased by nearly 40% since 2000), more revenues (up 360% from 2003 to 2016) and, in turn, more broadcasts (more than 1,600 games, including all of the playoffs, were scheduled for this season before the pandemic struck). In 2017, ESPN stayed with a WCWS game that went to extra innings instead of switching to a previously scheduled MLB broadcast. That's the chain reaction of network externalities.

On the other hand, sports news and highlight segments have historically focused overwhelmingly on men. In 2017, for example, a majority of the most popular sports sites on the Internet didn't dedicate even one page to a women's sport or league, according to research by Berri. For instance, NBC Sports had pages for horse racing and the National Dog Show, but not for the WNBA or NWSL. Earlier studies from 1990 to 2015 drew similar conclusions, whether looking at daily highlights or Olympic coverage, conveyed through print or images, on television or in newspapers or magazines: Men's sports got more coverage -- and more exciting coverage. Viewing stories about men's sports was like "watching that classic 1960s Batman TV show (Bam! Pow!) ... plenty of action," Cheryl Cooky of Purdue and Michael Messner and Michela Musto of USC wrote in a 2015 report that studied SportsCenter and local TV news broadcasts in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, listening to announcers talk about women's sports "was usually like hearing someone deliver a boring afterthought, with an obvious lack of enthusiasm."

News coverage of women's sports seems to have shifted considerably in just the past few years, though there aren't any published studies yet to say by just how much. Most major sites have now joined ESPN, which launched espnW in 2010, in allocating space to women's sports across multiple dedicated pages, particularly for basketball and soccer. The Athletic, for example, expanded its reporting in 2019 to include regular coverage of all 12 WNBA clubs and women's college basketball. But when it comes to getting the kind of daily, comprehensive news, analysis and statistics that multiple media outlets and platforms routinely provide for men's teams, most women's sports still lag.

Putting together all of the factors that affect league revenues -- investment, time and media -- it's apparent that most women's sports have struggled for years with what the Statista report calls a vicious cycle, which reverses the pattern that college softball has experienced. Low investment and media coverage have led to limited viewership, rights deals and sponsorships, which leads to low pay, which hampers the development of new talent and initiatives, which leads to ... low investment and media coverage.

Just maybe, however, that cycle is breaking at this moment, because women athletes are changing the terms of business in two of the world's biggest sports.

"ONE THING I DO KNOW," Sunil Gulati, president of U.S. Soccer from 2006 to 2018, said in a declaration to the equal pay lawsuit. "I never would have authorized offering or accepting, and never would have recommended to the board agreeing to, the same bonuses for Women's World Cup play that were contained in the MNT's agreement for their World Cup play for very simple reasons."

Now, comparing the finances of the U.S women's and men's national soccer teams is complicated. The squads face different adversaries, at different levels of competition, on different schedules, including World Cup cycles in different years. They have different collective bargaining agreements with U.S. Soccer, which pays base salaries, NWSL subsidies and performance bonuses to women while compensating men through much larger bonuses. To secure international friendlies, the men's team pays and sometimes earns appearance fees, which don't exist for women.

But Gulati's first reason for paying them unequal rates was simple indeed: The women were playing better, so they would have earned more. "I believed," he said, "the WNT was much more likely to qualify for and succeed in their tournament than the MNT was."

He certainly was right about that. The U.S. women have been playing so well that they now generate nearly as much money as the men on game days, despite typically lower official ticket prices. For years, the MNT had posted significantly more from events than the WNT -- more than three times as much from 2009 to 2015, according to data from U.S. Soccer. But that gap has virtually disappeared since the women's team won the 2015 World Cup and then maintained its global supremacy: The women's team has brought in $63.4 million since 2016, compared with $66.3 million for the men, according to U.S. Soccer's most recent financial statements. (These numbers include gate receipts but not sponsorship or broadcast-rights money, which account for about half of all USSF revenue but which the federation does not report separately for the MNT and WNT.) Today, grassroots support for the national teams seem to be at parity.

And the equal pay lawsuit has exposed just how out of whack performance and pay have become in American soccer, legally or not. Suppose we take the various rates of compensation for the men's national team -- bonuses for appearances and wins in friendlies, tournaments and World Cups -- and apply them to the members of the women's national team, player by player. That's the approach taken by Finnie Bevin Cook, an economist who compiled a report for the plaintiffs in the equal pay lawsuit. Cook found that under the men's wage scales, members of the women's team would have earned $91.8 million from 2014 to 2019. But they were actually paid just $27.7 million.

Beyond anticipating the savings from that huge gulf, Gulati had a second simple reason for paying men and women differently: U.S. Soccer replicates the compensation practices of FIFA, the organization that is by far the biggest driver of unequal pay in global soccer. Realizing that FIFA awards much bigger prizes in men's events, the federation gave greater incentives and rewards to the men's national team, hoping they would bring home more cash.

As Gulati put it: "I believed that the MNT's participation and success in their tournament would result in the receipt of substantially more prize money from FIFA than the WNT's participation and success in their tournament."

FIFA has a notoriously checkered past with women athletes. "Female players are pretty, if you excuse me saying so," former FIFA president Sepp Blatter opined in 2004. "Let the women play in more feminine clothes like they do in volleyball. They could, for example, have tighter shorts." (Blatter is currently in the midst of a six-year ban from FIFA for ethics violations.) While men have always played on grass, FIFA staged the 2015 Women's World Cup at arenas with artificial turf, which American striker Sydney Leroux, one of dozens of athletes who protested, likened to "running pretty much on cement." Analysts have noted for years that when it comes to television rights, FIFA has treated the Women's World Cup as an afterthought -- at worst a loss leader, at best a chance for media companies to use women's games to prepare for the men's tournaments. "Every time FIFA bundles broadcast rights, it ascribes no value to the Women's World Cup," Roux says. "It centers contracts around the men's World Cup and uses TV coverage of women's games as a dry run for the men."

Until recently, it seemed that, at least from a business perspective, FIFA pursued that strategy because the money it brought in from the men's tournament dwarfed that from the women's game. For instance, FIFA says the 2018 men's World Cup generated $5.4 billion in revenue. Meanwhile, the organization's financial reports projected just $131 million in total revenue from the 2019 Women's World Cup, a number that spread like wildfire among outlets last summer. U.S. Soccer's lobbyists even used it to argue that the American women's national team is paid fairly, simply because there's so much less available to pay them.

But the number was wrong. FIFA did list $131 million under "total revenue" in its financials, but for some reason, that was merely an investment figure -- how much the organization initially budgeted to spend on the 2019 World Cup, as Rachel Bachman of The Wall Street Journal reported last September. There actually isn't any correct number, because income data isn't broken out anywhere for the Women's World Cup. FIFA commingles broadcasting rights and sponsorships for the men's and women's tournaments.

"As many rights for FIFA competitions are sold to commercial affiliates as a package, specific commercial revenues for the FIFA Women's World Cup cannot be distinguished from the overall revenue from FIFA competitions," FIFA said in a statement to ESPN. "FIFA wants to develop a specific commercial strategy for women's football in order to attract additional funds that can be attributed directly to the women's game. This new reality will only be reflected in our future financial results."

FIFA's own audience reports, however, show the value of women's soccer already rising rapidly. Matches across the 2019 Women's World Cup, for example, had an average live viewership of 17.3 million people, a whopping 106% more than the 2015 WWC. The U.S.-Netherlands final reached an average live audience of 82.2 million, up 56%. And overall, viewers consumed 2.49 billion hours of coverage across all platforms, a jump of 93%. As totals, these numbers are considerably smaller than for the men's game, but they are also generally growing much faster. For instance, 994 million people watched at least one minute of the 2019 Women's World Cup on linear television, a 30% increase from 2015, while 3.26 billion watched a minute or more of the men's World Cup in 2018, up just 2% from four years earlier. There are different ways to weight these audience eyeballs and viewing times, and to project future statistics. But there's no clear business reason for FIFA to keep acting like the Women's World Cup is worth less than 10% of the men's game.

Or for the USSF to follow FIFA's lead in allocating prize money. "It's not just FIFA that needs to be clear about the revenue that it's making from the Women's World Cup," says Molly Levinson, spokesperson for the U.S. women's national team. "U.S. Soccer has purposefully withheld and obscured the revenues that it has received through similar marketing deals."

"There is indeed a significant difference in World Cup prize money awarded by FIFA to the men's and women's championship teams," the federation said in a March 7 letter to its members, a copy of which it provided to ESPN. "However, it is not reasonable or fiscally sound for U.S. Soccer to make up the gap. It would seriously impair our ability to support our mission and invest in these other critical developmental areas."

Piece together all of these revelations about how the highest level of women's soccer has been functioning and you'll notice a new horizon is looming for the sport. As important as the equal pay lawsuit is for the players who are seeking back pay and damages, it's essentially about the past. Looking ahead, the women's national team also has a collective bargaining agreement with U.S. Soccer that expires at the end of 2021. And it's in the runup to that deadline that the two sides will collide again over the even bigger issues at hand.

Over the past two years, U.S. Soccer has spent half its budget (which was $131.8 million in 2019) on management expenses and youth programs and devoted less than 30% to athlete pay and benefits. And over the next two, it has plans to spend down its surplus, which swelled to more than $160 million after the Copa America in 2016, to about $50 million. But suddenly the USSF has a new president in Parlow Cone and a new CEO in William Wilson, formerly an executive at Wasserman and MLS. It has lost the support of the men's national team, which has accused U.S. Soccer of "working very hard to sell a false narrative" and called for a sharp increase in women's compensation. And it is also contending with at least four other lawsuits, so its legal bills will total about $9 million this year. These short-term issues could blow up U.S. Soccer's priorities, and new labor negotiations are an even bigger threat.

Meanwhile, the U.S. women want more than a new pay structure. At peak popularity, marketability and leverage, they are also seeking more equitable spending on coaching. (In its most recent fiscal year, ending in March 2019, the USSF paid $304,113 to current men's coach Gregg Berhalter for four months of work, $241,869 to former coach David Sarachan, whom Berhalter replaced in December 2018, and $1.475 million to former coach Jurgen Klinsmann, who was fired in 2016. Meanwhile, over the same span, women's coach Jill Ellis, winner of back-to-back World Cups, earned $390,409.) They're looking for better training and travel budgets. They want more open accounting and less obeisance to FIFA. Critically, they have called on U.S. Soccer to spend more on marketing, in part by investing much more in the NWSL. "The bar is pretty f---ing low," says one executive close to the team, noting that U.S. Soccer contributed less than $850,000 to the NWSL's administrative costs last year.

Essentially, the women want to partner in growing their game. "The good news is that folks outside the federation, from sponsors to broadcasters to partners, are incredibly bullish on the U.S. women's national team and on women's football," Levinson says. "I think they're going to all drag the federation along, hopefully to a place where there's equal pay and beyond."

If there's a way forward, it might be thanks to one more surprise from the past few months: The WNBA's new CBA is fundamentally different from every past labor agreement in women's sports.

AT THE NBA All-Star Game in Charlotte in 2019, where athletes met to discuss their collective bargaining agreement, NBA commissioner Adam Silver ran into Terri Jackson, executive director of the WNBA Players Association. "If players are talking ridiculous salaries ... ," Silver began.

"Let me stop you," Jackson said. "We're not, and I think we should talk."

"If that's the case, then we should talk," Silver agreed.

Of course, compensation has always been a serious issue in the WNBA, which paid its players one-ninety-sixth the NBA's average salary at the time Jackson and Silver chatted. Pay is so low that it has compelled most American athletes to play overseas as well as in the WNBA just to make a living, increasing their wear and tear and their injury risk. As just one brutal example, 2018 league MVP Breanna Stewart ruptured her right Achilles tendon in April 2019 while playing for Dynamo Kursk in the EuroLeague women's championship.

Low pay has also warped the women's game itself. A small number of women players are truly dominant at the college level, which makes the first few picks in the WNBA draft extremely valuable. At the same time, there's very little downside if a player happens to go bust, because even top rookies earn only about $50,000 a year. That risk/reward ratio, combined with restricted-free-agency rules, has created more incentive to tank for teams in the WNBA than for those in any other major sport. From 2011 to 2015, the Phoenix Mercury went 19-15, 7-27, 19-15, 29-5 and 20-14. Can you guess in which season they rested Diana Taurasi and earned the league's No. 1 draft choice, and in which they won the WNBA championship with Brittney Griner, whom they selected with that pick?

Yet as WNBA players came to a crossroads in 2018, nobody told their union leaders to demand million-dollar salaries. The athletes did want a larger share of league revenues. But they were just as concerned about the relentless everyday signals that ownership -- which is split 50-50 between team owners and the NBA -- was running the league on a shoestring. Just five WNBA teams were playing in NBA arenas, with two others at college campuses, two at casinos, two in G League gyms and the New York Liberty shunted to a 5,000-seat facility in Westchester County, 30 miles from Manhattan. Athletes were traveling by cramped coach flights, sometimes by bus, and staying in shared hotel rooms and dormitory-style housing. Maybe most important, while TV ratings were way up, promotion and marketing remained extremely limited.

The players wanted a viable league where they could build careers, not just part-time jobs. Jackson, whose husband and son are both NBA veterans, kept asking, "What motivates you?" They kept telling her, "This is the legacy we want to protect."

In October 2018, the G League announced it would provide new contracts worth $125,000 for elite prospects -- which meant it would pay some 18-year-old men more than any woman had ever earned from the WNBA in a year. Leading WNBA players were stunned, but they took note of the NBA's terminology, which was full of words like "development," "programmatic opportunities," "supporting infrastructure" and "tools for top young players to grow." Jackson posted the phrase "language of investment" on her office wall.

Shortly afterward, the players opted out of their CBA. Union president Ogwumike announced the move in an essay for The Players' Tribune titled "Bet on Women."

In July 2019, the WNBA hired Cathy Engelbert, former CEO of the consulting firm Deloitte -- and a basketball walk-on who became a captain under Muffet McGraw at Lehigh in the 1980s -- as commissioner. Jackson met with Engelbert even before her hiring was official and told her the players were concerned about salary and compensation, player experience, and health and wellness. Engelbert wrote those items down. It was an unprecedented moment for a commissioner of a professional sports league and a head of a union: The labor deal they were about to negotiate could become a major platform for women's empowerment.

Silver was ready to hear about investment and commitment and even empowerment. The NBA commissioner complained publicly that the WNBA was losing more than $10 million a year, but that number said more about how the women's game was still small scale than about any significant damage to the bottom line of NBA teams. To grow the WNBA, he and the owners were prepared to, as he put it, "double down." The two sides channeled that willingness into the areas Engelbert and the league's negotiators discussed with Jackson, Ogwumike and the players, and reached an eight-year agreement in January.

The new CBA raises the WNBA salary cap by 30% and boosts maximum annual salaries from $117,500 to $215,000. Players will also be able to earn up to $250,000 apiece from a $1.6 million pool the league is dedicating to marketing agreements and will gain free agency after five years, down from six. Teams will provide housing with two bedrooms for athletes with children, individual hotel rooms on the road and flight upgrades.

The deal also pioneers a range of provisions important to players who are mothers or potential parents. Under the old CBA, athletes who had children lost pay when they lost work time; now they will have maternity leave with full compensation, plus space set aside in arenas for nursing. They will also be eligible to get reimbursed for the costs of adoption, surrogacy, fertility treatments and preservation of eggs. The new WNBA calendar will make it harder to play overseas and stateside in the same year, which could force athletes earning big money internationally to make some tough decisions. But the league has agreed to prepare and promote players for coaching and other jobs in the offseason.

As important as all these changes are, their total cost is about $1 million per WNBA team per year, which means the proportion of league revenues paid to players will rise only from about 20% to approximately 30%. Since most major sports are at around 50%, you could look at that and say the players are still leaving considerable cash on the table. But once two sides establish good faith in a negotiation, both can see spending -- or sacrifice -- as an investment. "This new CBA is going to dramatically change how this league operates," Bird says. "It's more merit-based, it will make us feel more professional and well-established, and kids are going to be able to see you can have a full-on career in the WNBA."

Essentially, the women and men all around the table decided to partner in growing their game.

IN THE UNITED STATES, we have now spent two generations since Title IX raising women athletes to compete on the same footing as men. That's one kind of equity: equality. Much more than ever before, the women who become professionals are now building the public support, partnerships and organizations they need to get paid what they are fully worth. They're not just bringing their skills to market, they're trying to make sure the market supports their skills.

That's the other kind of equity: ownership.

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Analysis: What equal pay in women's sports really means

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Peter Keating, ESPN Senior WriterMay 14, 2020, 08:00 AM ET Close Peter Keating is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine, where he covers investigative and statistical subjects. His column, The Numbers, appears in every issue. THE CHANTS BEGAN almost as soon as the U.S. women's soccer team won the World Cup last July.

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equality act: house passes bill aimed at ending discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity - cnnpolitics

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The House has passed the Equality Act, which would amend the 1964 Civil Rights Act to protect people from being discriminated based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and other services as well as access to public accommodations such as restaurants.

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Newsela | PRO/CON: Should we abolish the Electoral College?

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For or against changes to the Electoral College?

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Newsela | Students go to waste in this academic endeavor

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Middle school students learn about how much cafeteria waste ends up in landfill

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Newsela | Ten "stealth microplastics" to avoid if you want to save the oceans

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Reducing the amount of plastic in our everyday lives can have a positive impact on the environment

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Newsela | U.S. women's soccer team files gender discrimination lawsuit

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Do Voter ID Laws Burden Voters? [POLICYbrief]

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Physical Punishment in Schools

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Newsela | Various groups support the idea of ending physical punishment in schools

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In January, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, D-M.A., and Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., urged President Joe Biden to include the American Opportunity Accounts Act into the next economic recovery package. If passed, it would make baby bonds government policy, meaning that U.S. children would receive a set amount of money at birth.

The American Opportunity Accounts Act calls for children to get $1,000 at birth and then between $0 and $2,000 each year, depending on family income, until the child turns 18. The money would sit in a low-risk, federally insured savings account managed by the U.S. Treasury Department.

The impact would be "transformative," Pressley and Booker wrote in their letter. By their estimates, a child who receives $1,000 at birth and $2,000 every year after that would receive a little over $46,000 when they turn 18, given an annual interest rate of 3%.

Progressive economic programs like baby bonds were a longshot during the Trump administration, experts say, but under Biden, and with a Democrat-controlled House and Senate, there is actually a chance they could become a reality.

Though the idea of baby bonds had arisen in the past, the idea was brought back into the conversation in a serious way by economists William Darity and Darrick Hamilton in 2010 as a way to narrow the racial wealth gap. In 2019, the median household wealth for White families was $188,200, almost 8 times higher than that of Black households, according to data analysis by the Brookings Institute.

The American Opportunity Accounts Act, if passed, could reduce the racial wealth gap between White and Black household by 40%, according to a Morningstar report.

That said, baby bonds aren't specifically intended to help children of color, says Ian Rowe, a resident fellow of domestic policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, so the AOAA could have a better chance in Congress than a proposal more directly tied to racial equity, such as reparations. "I think it's increasingly plausible, primarily because it is a race-neutral intervention that has the potential to address the racial wealth gap," he says. "Those who would benefit most are children of low-income families."

Those who would benefit most are children of low-income families.

resident fellow of domestic policy studies, American Enterprise Institute

Under the proposed American Opportunity Accounts Act, baby bond recipients can only use the funds for "wealth-building activities," which include buying a home, continuing their education, or enterprise.

An extra $50,000 would go a long way toward achieving these milestones, says Mark La Spisa, a certified financial planner and president of Vermillion Financial Advisors. However, guidance is necessary when giving 18-year-olds large sums of money. For example, $50,000 put towards school might be a better idea than $50,000 put toward a house as the money would stretch further, La Spisa says.

"Education is going to pay off more over their lifetime rather than allowing them to buy a house," he says, because you're graduating without debt and hopefully getting a degree that will boost your earning potential.
Video by Euralis Weekes
"The bigger issue is, there is a financial literacy problem," La Spisa says. "If you give people money, it usually doesn't change who they are. If you give money to someone whois controlling, they are going to be unbearable. If you give money to someone who likes to spend, they'll spend it all."

Rowe agrees that while the program has "promise," it needs to be coupled with a campaign that alerts people to what he calls the "success sequence."

"If a young person finishes their education, gets a full-time job of any kind, and then has children after marriage - if they do those steps in that order - 97% of the time they will avoid poverty," he says.

Not everyone might support baby bonds, though, not even progressive lawmakers. "Some people don't like [baby bonds] because it is long term," Rowe says. "It's a future orientation." Critics would prefer a policy with more immediate benefits to families, such as child tax credits, which Biden isinterested in expanding.

The president is calling to raise the child tax credit to $3,000 for kids under age 17 and $3,600 for kids under age 6. Currently, its value is up to $2,000 per qualifying child. Biden also wants to make the child tax credit fully refundable, which means that taxpayers would get a refund even if the credit exceeds their tax liability.

One draft of the stimulus bill requires the IRS to send out recurring payments of $300 per month for every child younger than age 6, as well as $250 per month for every child ages 6 to 17.

Although this plan only calls for payments to be dispensed for one year, Democratic lawmakers hope this will become a permanent fiscal policy.

The bigger issue is, there is a financial literacy problem. If you give people money, it usually doesn't change who they are.

certified financial planner and president of Vermillion Financial Advisors

In total those monthly payments would cost $120 billion a year, according to The Washington Post - double what the American Opportunity Accounts Act costs.

Baby bonds wouldn't offer that immediate assistance to families. However, in the long run, baby bonds would also help more Americans, Rowe says.

"Child tax credit accrues to people who are paying taxes, almost by definition," he says. "The people who get the credit are paying at least a few thousand dollars in taxes, as opposed to the lowest income people who may not pay any taxes at all. With baby bonds, 100% of the people who are low income would get that benefit."
More from Grow:

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Baby bonds proposal in Congress could provide some children with over $46,000 when they turn 18

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In January, Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley, D-M.A., and Senator Cory Booker, D-N.J., urged President Joe Biden to include the American Opportunity Accounts Act into the next economic recovery package. If passed, it would make baby bonds government policy, meaning that U.S. children would receive a set amount of money at birth.

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Nowadays, many left-of-center policy types have been wondering whether we should increase Social Security. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich makes the case - in cartoon form - in the video above. You can read a transcript here.

The basic issue here is that many Americans aren't saving enough for retirement. Optimistic assessments say that nearly one-third of Americans ages 66 to 69 don't have enough saved to maintain their standard of living in retirement. More pessimistic studies argue that fully half of working Americans aren't saving enough to reach that goal.

And our current system of retirement saving isn't helping. The move from defined-benefit pensions to employee contribution-based plans like 401(k)s in recent years has introduced a lot of uncertainty into retirement planning. Many Americans have been stuck with high-fee mutual funds that end up eating into their savings.

Expanding Social Security would be a simple option to boost retirement savings. There are already number of proposals in Congress along these lines, including Rep. John Larson's (D-CT) Social Security 2100 plan and Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-VT) Social Security Expansion Act. Coming soon are plans from Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) and Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH). Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is on board. While the details differ, the plans tend to share a few key points:

Increasing benefits for current and future retirees by $20 to $70 per month.

Adopting CPI-E, an alternate inflation measure focused on goods the elderly buy, which rises faster than the regular inflation rate, enabling bigger cost-of-living adjustments

Providing a larger minimum benefit for the poorest workers, to reduce senior poverty

Financing it all by taxing some or all wages in excess of the current payroll tax cap ($118,500 a year, currently); some plans also tax high earners' investment income

These are big changes, especially the financing mechanism, which would increase the marginal tax rates on rich workers by 12.4 percentage points.

One quibble with the video: it's a little weird to state, as Reich does, that seniors deserve more benefits because they "paid in to Social Security over their lifetimes." The average worker can already expect to get more back in benefits than they pay into the program already, even before expansion. But if you're generally a fan of taxing rich people to improve the lot of poorer people, this is the retirement policy for you.

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401(k)s are failing many Americans. Why not expand Social Security instead?

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Nowadays, many left-of-center policy types have been wondering whether we should increase Social Security. Former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich makes the case - in cartoon form - in the video above. You can read a transcript here. The basic issue here is that many Americans aren't saving enough for retirement.

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When Gonçalo Fonseca was a child, he went to school near Casal Ventoso, a Lisbon neighborhood that also served as the biggest open-air drugs market in Europe. "I have the vivid memory of being a child and seeing someone shoot up in broad daylight," the photographer says. His experience wasn't unusual. In the 1990s, some 5,000 addicts roamed the streets of the hilly neighborhood, searching for their daily fix as dirty syringes piled up in the gutters.

Back then, Portugal was in the grip of heroin addiction. An estimated 1% of the population-bankers, students, socialites-were hooked on heroin and Portugal had the highest rate of HIV infection in the entire European Union. "It was carnage," recalls Américo Nave, a psychologist and President of Crescer, an outreach NGO focused on harm-reduction practices. As the government prepared to demolish Casal Ventoso in 2001, he was working with the addicts living in the neighborhood. "People had sores filled with maggots. Some lost their arms or legs due to overusing."

Over the course of two decades, the government's response had been one that Americans will recognize: it introduced increasingly harsh policies led by the criminal justice system, while conservative critics spoke out against drug use. By the late '90s, about half the people in prison were there for drug-related reasons-creating a large addicted inmate population. Nothing was working. On the other side of the Atlantic, the U.S. was doing the same: spending billions of dollars cracking down on drug users.

But in 2001, Portugal took a radical step. It became the first country in the world to decriminalize the consumption of all drugs.

The War on Drugs

Seventeen years on, the U.S. is suffering its worst addiction epidemic in American history. In 2016 alone, an estimated 64,000 Americans died from opioid overdoses-more than the combined death tolls for Americans in the Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq Wars. In Portugal, meanwhile, the drug-induced death rate has plummeted to five times lower than the E.U. average and stands at one-fiftieth of the United States'. Its rate of HIV infection has dropped from 104.2 new cases per million in 2000 to 4.2 cases per million in 2015. Drug use has declined overall among the 15- to 24-year-old population, those most at risk of initiating drug use.

In 2017, Fonseca spent three months embedded with one of Lisbon's drug outreach teams; he was interested in seeing-and photographing-the kind of help people are getting in Portugal now that drug usage isn't a political priority. "America and Portugal are very different countries," Fonseca says, pointing out that what worked in his home country may not translate to the United States. But at the same time, he says, there are lessons to be learned from the approach of treating drug addiction as a medical issue rather than a criminal problem.

How did Portugal come to see drug addiction that way, when so many other countries haven't? For starters, its crisis escalated extraordinarily quickly. After four decades of authoritarian rule, during which it was impossible to even buy a Coca Cola, Portugal opened to the world in 1974, perhaps embracing freedom and new markets a little too enthusiastically. Soldiers returned to Portugal from ex-colonies with a variety of drugs, just as borders opened up for travel and trade. From the late '70s, heroin was smuggled from India and Pakistan via the former colony of Mozambique, and then landed on the streets of Portugal. So many years of isolation had left the country poorly equipped to tackle the influx of drugs, and it lacked adequate knowledge about the social and health risks of different drugs. The culture of liberation soon spiraled into a crisis.

Although a comprehensive study from 2001 found that the level of drug consumption in the country was among the lowest in Europe at the time, cases of problematic drug use-either by injecting or regular use of opiates, cocaine and/or amphetamines-were especially bad in Portugal. What's more, drug use was unusually visible for such a socially conservative society-plain to see in the streets and bars of Lisbon and other big cities, particularly in the south. Unlike in other Western countries, where certain marginalized groups have been most vulnerable to heroin addiction, Portugal's drug crisis cut across all classes. "It was almost impossible to find a family in Portugal that did not have drug-related problems," said João Goulão, the architect of Portugal's revolutionary drug policy.

In 1998, Goulão was on the panel of experts who recommended a shift in the country's approach. "We realized we were squandering resources," he told Fonseca. "It made much more sense for us to treat drug addicts as patients who needed help, not as criminals." Police could concentrate on traffickers and dealers, freeing up resources for the government to invest in treatment and harm reduction practices. A 2015 study found that since Portugal approved the new national strategy in 1999 that led to decriminalization, the per capita social cost of drug misuse decreased by 18%. And according to a report by the Drug Policy Alliance, a New York-based nonprofit with the goal of ending America's "War on Drugs," the percentage of people in prison in Portugal for drug law violations has decreased dramatically, from 44% in 1999 to 24% in 2013.

Seventeen Years On

Since 2001, the Crescer outreach team has walked the same route on an abandoned construction project in a Lisbon suburb. They provide heroin and cocaine addicts with what they need for safer consumption: clean needles, tinfoil and psychological support. Each year, they help about 1,600 users.

"If we didn't reach out to them or go to the places where they are using, nobody would know they exist," Joana Frias, a 26-year-old nurse working as part of a task force for the Portuguese Harm Reduction Policy, told Fonseca. "We don't judge them in any way. If they want to, in their own time, we can help them stop using."

Under the 2001 law, drug dealers still go to prison. But anyone caught with less than a 10-day supply of any drug-including marijuana and heroin-is typically sent to a local commission, consisting of a doctor, lawyer and social worker, where they learn about treatment and available medical services. And in Portugal, no distinction is made between "hard" or "soft" drugs, or whether consumption happens in private or public. What matters is whether the relationship to drugs is healthy or not.

As well as these programs, Goulão's panel proposed supervised drug consumption facilities, where drug users can consume drugs in safer conditions with the assistance of trained staff. Such facilities have been running in Europe since 1986, when the first was opened in Berne, Switzerland. Other rooms have since been established in several other countries, including France, Germany, Spain, and Greece, while the city of Vancouver in Canada opened North America's first supervised drug injection site in 2003.

Evidence shows these sites can save lives, reduce public disorder associated with drugs, and lead to a drop in the behaviors linked to HIV and Hepatitis C transmission. But in the U.S., they remain controversial-despite several major cities, including Seattle, San Francisco and Philadelphia, considering plans to open supervised injection sites. Legal uncertainty is part of the problem: the federal government is opposed to the opening of such facilities, and state and local lawmakers have clashed over them. Some communities have also raised concerns about the impact on their neighborhoods. According to NPR, although efforts are underway in at least 13 cities and states, all official supervised injection sites remain pending.

In Portugal, too, progress has been slow-although three supervised consumption rooms will finally open in Lisbon at the start of 2019. But the other measures recommended by Goulão's panel seem to have been a success.

"Drug addiction is something that will always exist," Fonseca says, articulating one of the principles underlying Portugal's attitude to drug abuse. But by eliminating the threat of criminal penalties-and along with it, a great deal of stigma-it has become easier for people to seek treatment. Between 1998 and 2011, the number of people in drug treatment increased by over 60%; nearly three-quarters of them received opioid-substitution therapy.

Portugal's policies-and Goulão's role as drug czar-have managed to survive seven conservative and progressive administrations. Some critics have said Portugal's drug culture is too permissive now, with data showing more people have experimented with drugs since 2001. Yet despite some politicians pushing for a return to a more American-style war on drugs, the policies have endured-in part because the broader public supports decriminalization and a health-centered approach.

Some experts say the resounding success of Portugal's approach has been exaggerated. In a 2014 paper, UC Berkeley's Hannah Laqueur found that even before Portugal passed its decriminalization law, it was already loosely enforcing its anti-drug laws. "For years before the 2001 legislation, fines served as the primary sanction for individuals arrested and convicted of drug use," she wrote. "By removing the possibility of criminal sanctions for drug use, the 2001 law primarily codified the existing practice."

While there is still a debate about the policy and how easily it could apply to other countries, it is clear that on the ground in Portugal, healthcare workers feel better equipped to help addicts. Fonseca was surprised and moved by their dedication to people "largely forgotten by the rest of society." That's in spite of austerity measures introduced two years after Portugal's 2010 financial crisis, when the government merged the 1,700 staff of its autonomous drug agency with its national health service. Although Fonseca says centers still lack adequate funding, two state-sponsored outreach teams-made up of psychologists, social workers and nurses-continue to travel each day to find addicts and get them the treatment they need. "The teams would go to the most dangerous parts of Lisbon and create real relationships," he says.

Portugal still has a way to go, with some people continuing to use drugs in terrible conditions. But, Fonseca says, "what America and other countries can learn from Portugal is to treat people with more dignity." Portugal has showed that, without spending significant sums, governments can give drug users the tools to put their lives back on track. But to do so, it will have to stop treating them like criminals.
Gonçalo Fonseca is a freelance photographer based in Portugal. Follow him on Instagram @goncalo.fonseca Naina Bajekal is TIME's Deputy International Editor, based in London. Follow her on Twitter @naina_bajekal Paul Moakley, who edited this photo essay, is an Editor at Large and was previously the Deputy Director of Photography and Visual Enterprise at TIME. Follow him on Twitter @paulmoakley
Write to Naina Bajekal at naina.bajekal@time.com.

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Want to Win the War on Drugs? Portugal Might Have the Answer

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When Gonçalo Fonseca was a child, he went to school near Casal Ventoso, a Lisbon neighborhood that also served as the biggest open-air drugs market in Europe. "I have the vivid memory of being a child and seeing someone shoot up in broad daylight," the photographer says. His experience wasn't unusual.

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Body cameras are seen as key to police reform. But do they increase accountability?

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Despite widespread support for body cameras, the rules for how police use them vary widely from state to state, and department to department.

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Fear of Islam pervades every corner of modern Muslim life. Fotos583/www.shutterstock.com

But the term "Islamophobia" is somewhat confusing: it supports the idea that there is only one "Islam" and implies a "fear" of it. Some have argued for new, more accurate terms such as anti-Muslimism. Like the word itself, the phenomenon of Islamophobia is equally complex, and cannot be put neatly into a box. Here are some of the ways it affects everyday life.

1) It isn't only experienced by Muslims

Cloud Mine Halloween/www.shutterstock.com

2) It is shaped by geopolitics

In addition, our own research has found that the reporting of such events in the mainstream media contributes to the negative stereotyping of Muslims. We interviewed young people, aged 12 to 26, who claimed that references to Muslims as "extremists" and as a "threat" to British ways of life in the media skew the public's perception of Muslim communities - despite frequent campaigns to challenge such negative associations.

3) It ignores the diversity of Muslim communities

4) It's different for men and women

5) It can make Muslims wary of public places

6) Attacks vary in intensity and nature

The responses to these different forms of Islamophobia by those who experience it are also variable. Our research found that young people demonstrate resilience to so-called banter and name-calling. But for others, Islamophobia may mean subtle forms of avoidance and exclusion, such as being stared at, not having someone sit next to you on the bus or experiencing a general sense of social distance.

7) Islamophobia is reproduced institutionally

Anti-Islamic sentiment is also experienced in the workplace - 100% of participants in a small focus group recently said that they had directly experienced, witnessed, or have family members who had experienced discrimination in the workplace. Some Muslims may be reluctant to challenge such forms of discrimination as a result of what they see as aggressive secularism and feel silenced as a result.

8) Young people build new strategies

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Eight ways that Islamophobia operates in everyday life

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But the term "Islamophobia" is somewhat confusing: it supports the idea that there is only one "Islam" and implies a "fear" of it. Some have argued for new, more accurate terms such as anti-Muslimism. Like the word itself, the phenomenon of Islamophobia is equally complex, and cannot be put neatly into a box.

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slavery reparations: how would it work?  - cnn

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People are again talking about slavery reparations. But it's a complex and thorny issue

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If you feel like you're hearing more about slavery reparations, it's not your imagination. The widespread protests against racial injustice following the death of George Floyd have brought a new urgency to the debate around compensating the descendants of American slaves.

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MOBILE, Alabama - Ron Law walked into the break room at work one morning and found a noose hanging from the ceiling.

It was one of eight nooses that black employees reported discovering at the Austal USA shipyard, according to court filings. They were part of a chilling pattern, the workers alleged: Racist graffiti regularly appeared in the men's restrooms - the workers described images of hanging men, threats against specific employees, and Ku Klux Klan references scribbled inside stalls and on mirrors and walls.

Sometimes, workers said, slurs were etched into the ships Law and others helped build for the US Navy. Law also said he heard a white supervisor refer to black employees as "monkeys" over his walkie-talkie. Austal, which denied in court filings that its employees experienced any illegal treatment, did not respond to multiple interview requests.

In late 2006, Law and 18 of his fellow black coworkers sought relief through the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency created to investigate workers' complaints of job discrimination. A year later, their case still not resolved, they gave up waiting on the EEOC for help.

That's how it often goes. Each year, the EEOC and its state and local partner agencies close more than 100,000 cases - but workers receive some form of assistance, such as money or a change in work conditions, only 18 percent of the time. Employees seeking help are even less likely to get it now than when Law went to the agency.

No group of workers alleging discrimination - age, gender, disability, or otherwise - fares well. Race claims, however, are among the most commonly filed and have the lowest rate of success, with just 15 percent receiving some form of relief, often compensation.

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John Hendrickson, who spent 36 years as an EEOC attorney in Chicago before retiring in 2017, said too many cases are falling through the cracks. "In some offices it was really amazing how little discrimination they found," said Hendrickson, who was head of litigation for a six-state region. "Many of [the cases] weren't professionally investigated."

To understand how well the nation protects victims of employment discrimination, the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit investigative newsroom in Washington, DC, analyzed eight years of complaint data from the EEOC as well as its state and local counterparts. It reviewed hundreds of court cases and interviewed dozens of people who filed EEOC claims, which are made under penalty of perjury.

What emerged is a picture of a system that routinely fails workers.

Complaint data obtained from the EEOC for fiscal years 2010 through 2017 - a rare window into a largely obscured problem in America's workplaces - shows that the agency closes most cases without concluding whether discrimination occurred. Sometimes, workers' lawyers say, an EEOC investigation involves no more than asking the employer for a response.

A key part of the issue, according to experts and former EEOC employees, is that the agency doesn't have the resources for its mammoth task. It has a smaller budget today than it did in 1980, adjusted for inflation, and 42 percent less staff. At the same time, the country's labor force increased about 50 percent, to 160 million.

If the agency had additional staff, former EEOC Chair Jenny Yang said, it would likely confirm more workers' allegations of discrimination. It generally takes more time for investigators to make a finding of discrimination than to close a case based on insufficient evidence, she said.

The system's weaknesses disproportionately hurt black workers. Just over a quarter of all EEOC complaints came from black employees alleging racial discrimination.

EEOC Commissioner Charlotte Burrows, appointed by President Barack Obama in 2014, defended the agency's efforts while acknowledging that it is stretched thin. She said it tries to widen its impact through strategic lawsuits and public outreach. Last year, the EEOC filed 199 lawsuits against employers and won $505 million for workers.

The agency isn't even seeing the full picture, Burrows said. "The people who come and report to us," she said, "are sort of a tip of the iceberg of what the problems are."

The EEOC, in short, can't come close to fulfilling the mission Congress gave it more than 50 years ago. The agency was the Civil Rights Act's attempt to eradicate job discrimination from a nation plagued with it, but it's never had the money and support to do it.

Discrimination at work is a problem. It's not being properly addressed.

The problem of workplace discrimination in the US - treating people unequally because of their race, gender, religion, or other fundamental part of who they are - isn't usually expressed through slurs or physical threats of the sort alleged by the Austal workers. Complaint data shows that it can often manifest in more subtle ways, such as the assignments workers are given, the pay or benefits they receive, and the ways their performance is judged and rewarded.

It can also happen in the hiring process, before an applicant even begins a job. A groundbreaking study published in 2003 found that employers were more likely to consider white candidates with criminal records than black candidates with no such history.

Though the law places the burden on employees to prove discriminatory intent or impact, when hard evidence of unequal treatment exists, it is often buried in personnel records only the employer can access. And even making an accusation can come at a price: Almost 40 percent of people who filed complaints with the EEOC and partner agencies from 2010 through 2017 reported retaliation.

"Over time, the way in which people discriminate, what they acknowledge and admit out loud, has changed," said Chicago lawyer Linda Friedman, who represented 700 workers in a race discrimination lawsuit against Merrill Lynch that resulted in a $160 million settlement in 2013. "But the ultimate end, which is differential treatment - treating whites more favorably than African Americans - has not changed."

Black workers are 13 percent of the US workforce, but racial discrimination against this group accounts for 26 percent of all claims filed with the EEOC and its partner agencies.

Some of those claims in recent years came from employees of UPS who went to court after getting nowhere through the EEOC. Their lawsuits alleged discriminatory actions including assignments, discipline, terminations, and promotions - ordinary business practices the workers said were warped to produce unjust results.

Frank Schirripa, a lawyer for one of the UPS workers, said he sees this all the time. "Management will create a fiction to try and make it look like the victim was doing something wrong," he said.

When his client, Jason Jessup, was fired by UPS in 2015, the company pointed to a long list of alleged performance problems. None of them, on the surface, had anything to do with race.

Prior to his termination, Jessup, a black driver based in Uniondale, New York, was regularly disciplined, UPS records show. Among the alleged infractions: failure to take lunch, not wearing UPS socks, making an unsafe turn, absences, and tardiness. One time, he said, a manager called him in for breaking a driving rule that didn't exist. " I would have to always look back and double-check and triple-check," Jessup said. "I knew anything I did, if I did anything wrong, they were looking for it."

Today, as he has all along, Jessup disputes each of the company'sallegations, saying they were either false or the result of misunderstandings. For example, he said, UPS would claim it hadn't received his sick leave notices, even though he'd filed them. He began making copies and saving his fax machine receipts.

He also started keeping a voice-activated audio recorder in his pocket to have proof of what he and anyone else said. When his dolly was stolen, he said, he was accused of pilfering it himself to resell. According to a federal lawsuit Jessup filed against UPS in 2017, a supervisor told Jessup, "I've seen this before. People like you are hard up for cash." Police later identified a nonemployee as the thief.

Four other black drivers who also worked at the Uniondale facility filed suit against UPS in 2016 and 2017, alleging race discrimination. They weren't able to discuss their cases because of confidential settlement agreements or ongoing litigation.

In 2016, UPS settled a discrimination case - similar to Jessup's - brought by a black driver based in Aiken, South Carolina. Brady Kemp, a shop steward and 37-year UPS employee, accused his supervisors of concocting reasons to discipline him and justify his firing after he complained of racial inequity at the company. He alleged, among other things, that they gave him a route so challenging he was virtually guaranteed to make late deliveries.

In an email to the Center for Public Integrity, a UPS spokesperson wrote that while the company couldn't comment on these cases, the workers withheld relevant facts about their situations and the claims aren't representative of UPS's culture or leadership.

"Diversity and inclusion is a core UPS value," the spokesperson wrote. "We do not tolerate hate, bigotry or prejudice. When an allegation of perceived discrimination is reported, UPS completes a thorough investigation and takes appropriate action."

Jessup, however, said he had a different experience.

In 2012, he was appointed assistant union shop steward in Uniondale. One of his duties was to accompany other workers to meetings when they were accused of making mistakes. He and two other former shop stewards said they observed and documented a pattern of black drivers being punished for transgressions that white drivers got away with.

One former steward, Michael Costanza, has worked at three UPS facilities over 17 years. He overlapped with Jessup in Uniondale for seven. "I used to look at [Jessup] and say, 'How does this guy get out of bed every day knowing what he's going to have to deal with day in and day out?'"

Costanza, who is white, said he hopes to testify in court on Jessup's behalf.

After submitting multiple complaints to the EEOC to no effect, Jessup filed his lawsuit in 2017. In June 2018, UPS asked the judge to dismiss the case, a request that is still pending in the Eastern District of New York.

The company denied Jessup's allegations, saying that even if Jessup had been subjected to racist behavior, his allegations were insufficient to bring in front of a jury: Of "approximately 2,261 working days, plaintiff identifies less than 20 allegedly harassing incidents or statements - or less than .009 percent of the time," the company said in the court filing. "Put another way, this amounts to approximately one incident every 113 working days - or about 2 to 3 instances per year. This is not even close to 'pervasive,' or the requisite 'steady barrage' necessary for a viable claim."

More than three years after he was fired, Jessup said he hasn't recovered from his time at UPS. He can't afford to see a therapist. "I'm still a wreck," he said. "I'm still depressed. I'm still stressed."

Research has shown that chronic stress caused by discrimination can contribute to mental and physical health problems. Dr. Monnica Williams, a clinical psychologist and an expert in race-based stress and trauma who counsels people grappling with the fallout from mistreatment at work, said the challenges of reporting such behavior often take an additional toll.

"People think that there's a safety net for them, but there isn't," she said, "and that's pretty difficult to understand and accept."

The EEOC is weak by design

When the EEOC was created under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it was initially given few tools to enforce the law. It could investigate complaints, try to mediate between companies and employees, and recommend cases to the US attorney general for litigation, but it couldn't sue or issue cease-and-desist orders. If an employer didn't want to follow the law, there was little the agency could do about it.

"We're out to kill an elephant with a fly gun," then-EEOC Chair Stephen N. Shulman told the Wall Street Journal in 1967.

Its weakness was by design. Many members of Congress were opposed to instituting broad federal protections against workplace discrimination. More than 200 fair employment measures failed in the two decades before the Civil Rights Act passed.

One opponent of the act was Rep. Howard Smith (D-VA). Two days before the act passed, he inserted sex discrimination into the protections afforded by Title VII - but not for benevolent reasons. A supportive Democratic colleague, Rep. George Andrews of Alabama, explained the logic. "Unless this amendment is adopted," Andrews said on the House floor, "the white women of this country would be drastically discriminated against in favor of a Negro woman."

Another provision made it a criminal offense for the EEOC to reveal the identities of employers accused of discrimination. That restriction remains to this day.

In 1972, though, the EEOC won the power to litigate against employers. At the same time, schools and state and local governments lost their exemption from Title VII, giving coverage to 10 million more workers. Separate laws granted protections against discrimination based on age or disability.

While the EEOC's responsibilities grew, its staffing dropped. Today, workers must wait two to three months for an appointment to file a complaint. The share of EEOC cases in which workers got relief fell from about 19 percent in 2007 to about 13 percent in 2017.

What happens to workers the agency doesn't help is shrouded by a lack of data. But large numbers appear to give up. Many workers who sue - generally permitted only after they seek assistance from the EEOC or its partner agencies - file in federal court, where workplace discrimination cases number less than 15 percent of annual EEOC claims. An increasing share of workers are blocked from suing because their employers require private arbitration, and research suggests that flaws in that system have sharply limited the number of claims filed.

And now, to make matters worse, the EEOC's leadership is in flux. Three of its five commissioner seats are vacant. The Senate has delayed confirming President Donald Trump's nominees for more than a year - prompting one to withdraw - and didn't reconfirm Democratic Commissioner Chai Feldblum when her term expired in December.

That's left the bipartisan commission without the quorum the agency needs to file higher-cost or higher-profile lawsuits against employers. The agency's general counsel nominee is also awaiting confirmation.

But even confirming these nominees may not solve much. Trump's nominee for EEOC chair, lawyer Janet Dhillon, has spent much of her career as a general counsel for corporations. Litigation, she said in her testimony before a Senate committee in September 2017, should be a "last resort."

Civil rights advocates fear that having Dhillon at the helm will further hurt employees' chances at the agency. The NAACP said in a letter of opposition that her record "demonstrates that her priorities lay solely with employers, not with the workers."

"The law was not written for us"

In 2005, the first year he worked at the Austal shipyard in Mobile, Ron Law had no intention of speaking up about the written threats he said he found in the bathrooms or the training opportunities he said he was denied.

Growing up, Law's parents had taught him racism was a reality he would have to deal with. The job itself offered a living wage (though Law said he heard of white apprentices earning $17 per hour, while he initially made $15) and health insurance. He had been honing his craft - shipfitting - for a few years before he got to Austal and could read blueprints to piece together ships out of metal sheets. He wanted to stay.

But by 2006, Law, along with welder Tesha Hollis and a few other black workers at Austal, had had enough. They decided to find a lawyer and report their experiences to the EEOC. The risk of retaliation held back some of their colleagues. "It was so many people that didn't want to get on the lawsuit when they had every right to get on it. They were just job-scared," Hollis said.

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To this day, Hollis can recite the racist jokes and slurs she said she heard and saw at Austal. At one point, a few workers said they saw a picture of Hollis drawn in the men's restroom with a crude caption. She alleged that a supervisor, a white man, told her about it while pretending to masturbate.

"It just got to be too much," Hollis said. "People were just getting up to go to work to make money to take care of their families, and they had to go and be subjected to that."

Soon, 19 workers, including Law and Hollis, had filed EEOC complaints.

The company, in response, denied that it acted illegally in any way. Among its defenses: One-fourth of its workforce was black; the workers hadn't reported the alleged behavior to supervisors; and the company had an equal employment policy, outlined in a handbook given to all employees. The workers who filed complaints had claimed that there were no black supervisors at Austal, but the company corrected them, saying eight of 111 were black.

About a year after they filed complaints with the EEOC, the initial group of employees asked the agency for permission to go to court. Four of their colleagues joined them in the lawsuit.

Austal asked a federal judge to dismiss the cases without going to trial. "When taken as a whole," the company wrote in a filing about Law's claim, the "allegations lack the frequency, severity, threatening nature, and impact required to maintain an action for hostile environment."

US District Judge Kristi DuBose, nominated to the Southern District of Alabama by President George W. Bush in 2005, threw out 13 of the workers' cases, including Law's and Hollis's. The judge said the cases weren't strong enough to meet the legal standard. (The other 10 workers went to trial and lost.)

DuBose supported her decision by citing a 2005 lawsuit that didn't survive the so-called summary judgment stage, when a judge can toss a complaint without a trial. In that older case, she wrote in the Austal ruling, threats to "kick plaintiff's 'black ass'" and the use of racial slurs, including the n-word and "boy," reflected conduct that was "isolated," "sporadic," and "random."

In Law's case, DuBose wrote, the evidence did not show "the conduct - apart from the racially offensive graffiti - was frequent, severe, physically threatening (with the exception of the nooses), humiliating, demeaning and/or unreasonably interfered with his job."

"I don't know what else you have to do to make it hostile," Law said in a recent interview. For him, the nooses at the shipyard posed a palpable threat: After all, one of the last documented lynchings in the United States took place in Mobile in 1981. "That was a kicker for me - like, you know this really could happen," Law said.

When an appeals court reevaluated the 13 workers' claims in June 2014, it agreed with DuBose's judgment for six of them but decided that what the others said they had endured actually did meet that standard.

It didn't make a difference, though. The jury sided with Austal when those seven remaining cases, including Law's and Hollis's, went to trial the following year. Not a single employee was compensated. Most were eventually laid off, workers said.

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Workers face steep odds when employers in the Southern District of Alabama seek summary judgment like Austal did. In 2016 and 2017, 89 percent of employment discrimination cases in which employers requested summary judgment in that district were fully or partially dismissed, a Center analysis found.

Interpretations of hostile work environment standards can differ between courts and judges - in 2017, for example, a Third Circuit Court of Appeals judge in Philadelphia wrote that a supervisor calling a subordinate a slur even once could be sufficient.

Birmingham lawyer Heather Leonard, who has represented workers in discrimination cases in Alabama for 20 years, said it's frustrating to compare notes with lawyers in other parts of the country. "Cases that they get tremendous verdicts on, we're like, 'We wouldn't be able to even accept that here because we couldn't get it through summary judgment,'" she said.

For Ron Law's wife, Marsha, the Austal case's outcome was disappointing but not surprising. "I've said it and I'll say it probably till the day I die," she said. "The law was not written for us."

Their case has had damaging ripple effects for other employees. In 2017, for instance, Judge W. Keith Watkins of the Middle District of Alabama, who, like DuBose, was appointed by former President Bush, cited Austal as he dismissed seven of 12 workers' claims in a hostile work environment case out of Enterprise, Alabama.

Black welders and painters testified to regularly hearing slurs, threats, and other derogatory comments over years of employment at a trailer manufacturing company. Watkins pointed to several Austal employees who had experienced "much worse" but were nonetheless unsuccessful in the appeals court.

What would qualify as hostile? To answer that, he quoted a 1971 appeals court decision: "environments so heavily polluted with discrimination as to destroy completely the emotional and psychological stability of minority group workers."
The code and data behind this story's analysis are publicly available on GitHub Have you experienced discrimination at work? The Center for Public Integrity wants to hear from you Maryam Jameel and Joe Yerardi are journalists at the Center for Public Integrity, a nonprofit, nonpartisan investigative newsroom in Washington, DC. Jameel covers workers' rights. Yerardi is a data reporter. . .

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Workplace discrimination is illegal. But our data shows it's still a huge problem.

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Thousands of people report job discrimination to the government each year. Employers are rarely held accountable.

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Post Opinions blogger Radley Balko visited St. Louis, Mo. where some defense lawyers say their clients are being ticketed for minor offenses in order to fill up city coffers. (Radley Balko/The Washington Post)

On March 20 in the St. Louis County town of Florissant, someone made an illegal U-turn in front of Nicole Bolden. The 32-year-old black single mother hit her brakes but couldn't avoid a collision. Bolden wasn't at fault for the accident and wanted to continue on her way. The other motorist insisted on calling the police, as per the law. When the officer showed up, Bolden filled with dread.

"He was really nice and polite at first," Bolden says. "But once he ran my name, he got real mean with me. He told me I was going to jail. I had my 3-year-old and my one-and-a-half-year-old with me. I asked him about my kids. He said I had better find someone to come and get them, because he was taking me in." The Florissant officer arrested and cuffed Bolden in front of her children. Her kids remained with another officer until Bolden's mother and sister could come pick them up.

The officer found that Bolden had four arrest warrants in three separate jurisdictions: the towns of Florissant and Hazelwood in St. Louis County and the town of Foristell in St. Charles County. All of the warrants were for failure to appear in court for traffic violations. Bolden hadn't appeared in court because she didn't have the money. A couple of those fines were for speeding, one was for failure to wear her seatbelt and most of the rest were for what defense attorneys in the St. Louis area have come to call "poverty violations" - driving with a suspended license, expired plates, expired registration and a failure to provide proof of insurance.

The Florissant officer first took Bolden to the jail in that town, where Bolden posted a couple hundred dollars bond and was released at around midnight. She was next taken to Hazelwood and held at the jail there until she could post a second bond. That was another couple hundred dollars. She wasn't released from her cell there until around 5 p.m. the next day. Exhausted, stressed, and still worried about what her kids had seen, she was finally taken to the St. Charles County jail for the outstanding warrant in Foristell. Why the county jail? Because the tiny town of 500 isn't large enough to have its own holding cell, even though it does have a mayor, a board of aldermen, a municipal court and a seven-member police department. It's probably best known locally for the speed trap its police set along I-70.

By the time Bolden got to St. Charles County, it had been well over 36 hours since the accident. "I hadn't slept," she says. "I was still in my same clothes. I was starting to lose my mind." That's when she says a police officer told her that if she couldn't post bond, they'd keep her in jail until May. "I just freaked out," she says. "I said, 'What about my babies? Who is going to take care of my babies?'" She says the officer just shrugged.

"It's different inside those walls," Bolden says. "They treat you like you don't have any emotions. I know I have a heavy foot. I have kids. I have to work to support them. I've also been taking classes. So I'm late a lot. And when I'm late, I speed. But I'm still a human being."

That was Bolden's second arrest. In 2009 she was arrested in the town of Bel-Ridge for a warrant on a speeding ticket. On that occasion she remained in jail for three days before Michael-John Voss, co-founder of the legal aid group ArchCity Defenders, helped get her out. This time, Voss couldn't help right away. Foristell holds municipal court only once every two weeks. She would have to stay in jail.

"She was crying as I explained the situation to her," Voss says. "So then I started to cry as I explained it her. One of the really frustrating things about what's happening here is that this system is breaking good people. These are people just trying to get by, just trying to take care of their families." Voss's eyes well up as he talks about Bolden. This isn't just an attorney defending his client. It's a guy who is concerned about what's happening to another human being. Bolden is a single black woman with four kids. She has several tattoos. It's easy to see how cops might target her, or court officials might dismiss her. But Voss points out that she had already earned an associate's degree in medical assistance. And while dealing with all of the arrests and the harassment, she earned another in paralegal studies.

The Foristell warrant stemmed from a speeding ticket in 2011. As mentioned before, Bolden didn't show up in court because she didn't have the money to pay it and feared they'd put her jail. It's a common and unfortunate misconception among St. Louis County residents, especially those who don't have an attorney to tell them otherwise. A town can't put you in jail for lacking the money to pay a fine. But you can be jailed for not appearing in court to tell the judge you can't pay - and fined again for not showing up. After twice failing to appear for the Foristell ticket, Bolden showed up, was able to get the warrant removed and set up a payment plan with the court. But she says that a few months later, she was a couple days late with her payment. She says she called to notify the clerk, who told her not to worry. Instead, the town hit her with another warrant - the same warrant for which she was jailed in March.

Bolden's bond was set at $1,700. No one she knew had that kind of money. Bolden broke down; she cried, she screamed, and she swore. She was given a psychological evaluation, and then put on suicide watch. She finds that memory particularly humiliating. Bolden would remain in jail for two weeks, until Foristell's next municipal court session. She wouldn't let her children come visit her. "I didn't want them to see me like that," she says. "I didn't want them to think it was normal, that it was okay for one of us to be in jail. I missed them so much. But I wasn't going to let them see me like that."

While in jail, she missed a job interview. She fell behind in her paralegal studies. When she finally got her day in court, she was told to change out of her jail jumpsuit into the same clothes she had worn for three days straight, and that had been sitting in a bag for the previous two weeks. She was brought into the courtroom to face the judge, handcuffed, in dirty clothes that had been marinated in her own filth. "I was funky, I was sad, and I was mad," she says. "I smelled bad. I was handcuffed. I missed my kids. I didn't feel like a person anymore."

Voss was able to get Bolden's bond reduced to $700, but that was still too much for Bolden or her family to pay. The judge also told Voss that he wouldn't consider an indigency motion until the next session, which meant another two weeks in jail. Bolden was taken back to her cell. The next day, her mother borrowed against a life insurance policy to post her daughter's bond. "It doesn't just affect you," Bolden says. "It affects your family. Your kids. Your friends. My mother is disabled. And she had to help me out. My sister had to put her life on hold to watch my kids."

Stories like Bolden's abound across the St. Louis area. And despite the efforts of the ArchCity Defenders and legal aid clinics like those at Saint Louis University and Washington University, the vast majority of the people swept up into the St. Louis County municipal court system don't have attorneys to inform them of their rights or to negotiate with judges and prosecutors.

There are 90 municipalities in St. Louis County, and more in the surrounding counties. All but a few have their own police force, mayor, city manager and town council, and 81 have their own municipal court. To put that into perspective, consider Jackson County, Mo., which surrounds Kansas City. It is geographically larger than St. Louis County and has about two-thirds the population. Yet Jackson County has just 19 municipalities, and just 15 municipal courts - less than a quarter of municipalities and courts in St. Louis County.

Some of the towns in St. Louis County can derive 40 percent or more of their annual revenue from the petty fines and fees collected by their municipal courts. A majority of these fines are for traffic offenses, but they can also include fines for fare-hopping on MetroLink (St. Louis's light rail system), loud music and other noise ordinance violations, zoning violations for uncut grass or unkempt property, violations of occupancy permit restrictions, trespassing, wearing "saggy pants," business license violations and vague infractions such as "disturbing the peace" or "affray" that give police officers a great deal of discretion to look for other violations. In a white paper released last month (PDF), the ArchCity Defenders found a large group of people outside the courthouse in Bel-Ridge who had been fined for not subscribing to the town's only approved garbage collection service. They hadn't been fined for having trash on their property, only for not paying for the only legal method the town had designated for disposing of trash.

"These aren't violent criminals," says Thomas Harvey, another of the three co-founders of ArchCity Defenders. "These are people who make the same mistakes you or I do - speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, forgetting to get your car inspected on time. The difference is that they don't have the money to pay the fines. Or they have kids, or jobs that don't allow them to take time off for two or three court appearances. When you can't pay the fines, you get fined for that, too. And when you can't get to court, you get an arrest warrant."

Arrest warrants are also public information. They can be accessed by potential landlords or employers. So they can prevent someone from getting a job, housing, job training, loans or financial aid. "So they just get sucked into this vortex of debt and despair," Harvey says.

The death of Michael Brown at the hands of Ferguson, Mo., police officer Darren Wilson in August and the ensuing protests, crackdowns and violence have drawn lots of attention to St. Louis County, and spawned lots of discussions about issues like race and racism, police brutality, poverty, police shootings, police militarization and the relationship between police departments and the communities they serve.

The Justice Department is launching a civil rights probe into the Ferguson Police Department after the shooting of an unarmed black teen Michael Brown, setting off days of protests. (Reuters)

But these of course are problems that extend well beyond the St. Louis area. Local officials, scholars, and activists say that whatever happened between Brown and Wilson, St. Louis County's unique political geography, heightened class-consciousness, and the regrettable history that created both have made the St. Louis suburbs especially prone to a Ferguson-like eruption.

Locals say the cops and court officers often come not only from different zip codes, but from completely different cultures and lifestyles than the people whose fines and court fees fund their paychecks. "It was always apparent that police don't usually have a lot in common with the towns where they work," says Javad Khazaeli, whose firm Khazaeli Wyrsch represents municipal court clients pro bono. (Disclosure: Khazaeli is also a personal friend.) "But I think Ferguson really showed just how much that can be a problem." A recent St. Louis Post-Dispatch survey of the 31 St. Louis County municipalities where blacks made up 10 percent or more of the population found just one town where black representation on the police force was equal or greater than the black presence in the town itself. Some towns were shockingly disparate. In Velda City, for example, blacks make up 95 percent of the town, but just 20 percent of the police. In Flordell Hills, it's 91 percent and 25 percent respectively. In Normandy, 71 and 14. In Bellefontaine Neighbors, 73 and 3. In Riverview, 70 and 0. Residents of these towns feel as if their governments see them as little more than sources of revenue. To many residents, the cops and court officers are just outsiders who are paid to come to their towns and make their lives miserable. There's also a widely held sentiment that the police spend far more time looking for petty offenses that produce fines than they do keeping these communities safe.

If you were tasked with designing a regional system of government guaranteed to produce racial conflict, anger, and resentment, you'd be hard pressed to do better than St. Louis County. Jack A. Kirkland, a longtime racial justice activist and scholar and a professor at Washington University's George Warren Brown School of Social Work, has lived in the St. Louis area since 1964. He was one of the first black residents of University City, and the first black elected to that town's school board. Kirkland says that the uprising in Ferguson wasn't a direct response to the Michael Brown incident specifically so much as an inevitable reaction to the institutional racism coursing through the area for decades. "I liken it to a flow of hot magma just below the surface," Kirkland says. "It's always there, building, pushing up against the earth. It's just a matter of time. When it finds a weak point, it's going to blow."

Night court on a basketball court

It's a little after 7 pm on a sticky August evening in Florissant, Missouri, when I meet James Wyrsch, Khazaeli's law partner, but I am at first a little confused. Wyrsch and I are supposed to meet for the evening session of the Florissant Municipal Court. I follow Wyrsch down a sidewalk that leads to a gymnasium where the town will be holding court tonight. Until recently, the Florissant court was one of many that had barred outsiders from its proceedings. After critics like the ArchCity Defenders pointed out that this violated the Missouri Constitution, a circuit court judge ordered these towns to change their policies. Defense attorneys say some courts still haven't gotten the message. But in Florissant, the city council had a particularly odd response to the order. Town officials claimed the old courtroom was too small to accommodate all the defendants and attorneys, plus journalists, families, and observers. In addition to moving its municipal court to a gymnasium, just last week the council voted to add a $10 fee to every ordinance violation to fund a new, larger courthouse.

After all the recent national attention on Ferguson, local attorneys are floored. "It's just completely tone deaf," says Khazaeli. "They got caught violating the law. So in response they're going to build themselves a new courthouse, and they're going to finance it on the backs of the poor. It's incredible."

Harvey says there's a much easier way to address the crowded courthouse problem. "They could just hold more court sessions. That would easily take care of the overcrowding. It would also make life a little easier for the people who have to come to court. But that would cost the city money. So instead they're just going to slap a new tax on the poor."

Still, local attorneys say that even before the rule change, the lines for municipal court sessions in these towns - particularly the poorer towns - could often stretch outside the courthouse doors and wind down sidewalks for blocks.

Florissant is one of the larger towns in the county, with a population of about 52,000. It's also a bit more affluent, with an average household income above the state average, although its employment rate is slightly lower. Last year the town issued 29,072 tickets for traffic offenses. Florissant collected about $3 million in fines and court costs in fiscal year 2013, about 13 percent of its 2013 revenue. As of June of last year, Florissant's municipal court also held more than 11,000 outstanding arrest warrants.

For comparison, consider Lee's Summit, a suburb of Kansas City in Jackson County with a population of 92,000. Despite being nearly twice Florissant's size, in 2013 Lee's Summit issued a third as many traffic tickets (9,651), and collected less than half as much revenue from its municipal court ($1.44 million). As of June of last year, Lee's Summit held 2,872 outstanding arrest warrants, only one fourth as many as Florissant.

There are many towns in St. Louis County where the number of outstanding arrest warrants can exceed the number of residents, sometimes several times over. No town in Jackson County comes close to that: The highest ratios are in the towns of Grandview (about one warrant for every 3.7 residents), Independence (one warrant for every 3.5 residents), and Kansas City itself (one warrant for every 1.8 residents).

Just inside the courthouse/gymnasium door in Florissant, two police officers and a court clerk check people in. In the middle of the gym, about 200 chairs sit neatly aligned in rows. Court has been in session for over an hour now, but most of the seats are still occupied. About 80 percent of the people in the gym tonight are black, even though blacks make up just 27 percent of the town. According to statistics compiled by Missouri's attorney general's office, 71 percent of the people pulled over by Florissant police in 2013 were black. The search and arrest rates for blacks were also twice as high as those rates for whites, even though whites were more likely to be found with contraband, a contradiction that has also been widely reported in Ferguson.

According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, blacks make up less than eight percent of the Florissant police force. The judge and both prosecutors are white. In nearly all the towns in St. Louis County, the prosecutors and judges in these courts are part-time positions, and are not elected, but appointed by the mayor, town council, or city manager. According to the recent white paper published by the ArchCity Defenders, the chief prosecutor in Florissant Municipal Court makes $56,060 per year. It's a position that requires him to work 12 court sessions per year, at about three hours per session. The Florissant prosecutor is Ronald Brockmeyer, who also has a criminal defense practice in St. Charles County, and who is also the chief municipal prosecutor for the towns of Vinita Park and Dellwood. He is also the judge - yes, the judge - in both Ferguson and Breckenridge Hills. Brockmeyer isn't alone: Several other attorneys serve as prosecutor in one town and judge in another. And at least one St. Louis County assistant district attorney is also a municipal court judge.

"I had a felony criminal case in state court a few weeks ago," says a local defense attorney, who asked not to be quoted by name. "Sometimes criminal cases can get contentious. You have to do everything you can to defend your client, and sometime your interaction with a prosecutor can get combative. A few days later, I was representing a client who had a few warrants in a municipal court where the same prosecutor I was just battling with is now the judge. Is my client is going to get a fair hearing? You hope so. But it sure looks like a conflict to me."

Brockmeyer did not respond to a request for an interview, but Frank Vatterott, a former municipal judge and former president of the Missouri Municipal and Associate Circuit Judges' Association, says such concerns are unfounded. "I know it probably sounds like a goofy system, but in practicality it really isn't. You can divorce yourself from that, and approach the cases differently."

Vatterott also points out that like Brockmeyer, many of the prosecutors or judges are actually defense attorneys in private practice. "You'll see one of them criticizing a defendant for something the same attorney was just whining to a judge about yesterday," he says.

Many of the appointed judges and prosecutors not only don't reside in the jurisdictions they serve, they have very little in common with the people who do. For example, in the tony town of Clayton, there's a sheen office building on South Bemiston Avenue with darkened, opaque windows. On the second floor, behind a grand oak door, is the law firm of Curtis, Heinz, Garret, & O'Keefe. The firm employs several attorneys who serve as either prosecutor or assistant prosecutor for at least nine different municipalities. One of the firm's attorneys, Keith Cheung, is the municipal prosecutor for the towns of Velda City, Hazelwood, and St. Ann, and is also the municipal judge for the city of Ladue. The firm also includes attorneys who serve as the official city attorney in several more municipalities. Each of these positions has a salary in the thousands of dollars for working only a few court sessions every month. At the same time, the firm lists some of the same lawyers as available to hire as defense attorneys for traffic violations in other courts. (When I visited the firm's offices in person, I was told that no one who could answer my questions was working that day. Subsequent phone calls to the firm and to Cheung were not returned.)

"Our clients haven't been accused of felonies," says Thomas Harvey. "The fines and penalties for these violations aren't set in stone. The courts have leeway to set up payment plans and to work with people. But you need people in these positions who can have some empathy for the people in front of them, who know what it's like to have to prioritize bills, to at least know someone who knows what it's like to, say, let your car insurance expire in order to pay a medical bill."

And Voss recalls one incident in which after successfully negotiating with a prosecutor to reduce his clients' fines, the prosecutor replied, "You're taking money right out of my pocket, here."

"That sounds shocking, right?" Voss asks. "But if you've been in these courts a while, it isn't really all that controversial thing to say."

Vatterott acknowledges the problem, but says there isn't much to be done about it. "These aren't elected positions. They're appointed by the mayor and city council. And the people appointed to these positions have to be attorneys. In some of these towns, you just don't have very many attorneys. The towns also aren't big enough for the positions to be full-time, so you have to look to private lawyers who can fill the positions part-time." That has created an incentive for some private attorneys and law firms to specialize in this peculiar niche of law.

Back in Florissant, the gymnasium gives off a steady hum as the mostly black defendants chat softly, read, and fan themselves as they wait for their cases to be called. As they hear their name, they move to the back of a new line at the far right side of the gym. That line leads to an assistant prosecutor, who is seated behind a table by herself. They then move left along the row of tables to chief prosecutor Brockmeyer, who is seated next to the judge. The prosecutors and judge aren't even hearing the same cases at the same time. Once the judge makes his ruling, the defendants queue up in a final line at the back of the gym that leads to a small office where they can pay their fines and court costs or get instructions on their payment plans. The whole operation looks more like an assembly line than a court of law.

James Wyrsch is here tonight to represent a homeless woman who has old warrants that are preventing her from obtaining housing. In 2011, she was cited in Florissant for driving without insurance. Her failure to pay that fine resulted in a suspension of her driver's license. She continued to drive, anyway. "St. Louis' has a public transportation system, but it's pretty lacking," says Khazaeli. "The light rail system doesn't cover a large percentage of the county, and the buses can be unreliable. It's getting better, but it isn't great. You have to keep in mind that homeless and low-income people are likely to be working retail jobs, jobs that don't tolerate tardiness. If you can't count on the bus to get you to your job on time, you have to drive." The bus system is also impractical for people with children that they may need to get to day care on the way to their jobs.

The homeless woman Wyrsch is representing in Florissant tonight was pulled over again in 2012 in the tiny town of Beverly Hills. She was cited for driving with a suspended license, and again for driving without insurance. Most of the people with outstanding warrants in multiple jurisdictions don't have pro bono attorneys like Wyrsch working for them. It's up to them to get the various courts around the region, often while they aren't legally permitted to drive. In smaller towns, the courts may only meet once a month. Some have strict rules about showing up late. Others are more lenient. Some have court in the evening, some only during the day. Court sessions sometimes get canceled, or moved to another location. Show up at the wrong place, or fail to show up at all, and you're likely looking at an arrest warrant and an additional fine.

"There have been instances where someone will drive to court to clear a warrant for driving with a suspended license. They'll pay the fine, get the warrant removed, and then get pulled over as they're leaving the parking lot, because a police officer in the courtroom overheard why they were there," Harvey says.

Incidentally, Beverly Hills, Missouri has a population of 571. Its City Hall and police station share a building with a pharmacy. Yet in 2013, the town handed out 3,250 traffic tickets, and issued another 1,085 citations for violations of non-traffic ordinances. Total revenue generated by the town's municipal court: $221,164, or $387 for each of its residents.

Vatterott doesn't always see eye to eye with the ArchCity Defenders (in a phone interview he both offered tempered praise and called them "zealots"), but there are issues in which he agrees with them, and this is one of them. "There are now 26 different ways you can lose your license in St. Louis County," he says. "There used to be five. You can now lose your license for things that have nothing to do with driving. We definitely have a problem with over-criminalization." One local attorney pointed to a particularly good example of how poorly-written laws can be self-defeating: In Missouri, you can lose your driver's license for failure to pay child support, a penalty that makes it nearly impossible to get or keep a job. And that of course makes it difficult to resume paying child support. The delinquent parent ends up in jail, and the child is no better off - and is probably quite a bit worse.

Antonio Morgan's ordeal is another example of how the municipal courts can make life difficult for low-income parents. Morgan, 28, is married with two kids: a daughter, 9, and a son, 8. In 2011, Morgan had to show up for municipal court in Hazelwood to appear for some traffic violations. He had been to the court before, and recalled that on a previous occasion he had been told by a police officer that children weren't permitted inside. Having just picked his kids up from school, Morgan spotted the girlfriend of a friend in the parking lot and pulled his truck up next to her. He asked her to keep an eye on his kids while he was in court. She agreed.

As Morgan walked toward the courthouse a police officer asked him the kids in the truck were his. He replied that they were. The officer asked him why he had left them alone. Morgan replied that he hadn't, and that the woman parked next to him had agreed to watch them. By now, Morgan's friend had returned, and started to leave.

"I can't really blame them," Morgan says from his home in Hazelwood. "No one around here wants to attract attention. You don't want a police officer knowing who you are."

Morgan pleaded with the police officer to flag down his friends, who he said would vouch for him. He says the officer then threatened to Taser him. Morgan put up his hands. The officer then arrested him for child endangerment. Morgan's wife had to leave work to come pick up the kids, and Morgan spent the night in jail. He was fined $1,000, though both the fine and the charge were later reduced.

The incident still upsets Morgan - not even the arrest so much as that his children had to see it. "I'm a good father," he says. "I own my own business. I provide for my kids. Do you know what it's like for your own children to see you get arrested? For a cop to say, right in front of them, that he's arresting you because you're a bad parent?"

Drive along an approximately 10-mile stretch along the east-west Route 115 (also known as the Natural Bridge Road), and you'll cross through sixteen different municipalities. At some points along the route, you'll find one town the right side of the road, and a separate town on the left. There are similar stretches along St. Charles Rock Road (also known as Route 180) to the south, along I-70, and along the I-170 bypass. The town boundaries are drawn in such a way that each municipality in the area gets a stretch of highway, which can be a lucrative source of revenue. "Theoretically, you could be driving home from work on this road, and if you have expired tags or no inspection sticker, you could get pulled over 16 different times in 16 different towns, and written up for the same violations each time," Harvey says.

Nicole Bolden, for example, says she was once pulled over twice in the same night on her way home from work, once by a St. Louis County deputy, and once by an officer in Florissant. The St. Louis County officer said he pulled over for not using her blinker. The Florissant officer said he simply didn't like her driving. "He said I was hitting my brakes too much, so he thought I must have been hiding something." In both cases, she was cited for not producing proof of insurance.

"I just didn't have the money at the time," Bolden says. Both charges were eventually dismissed with the help of ArchCity Defenders, but she still had to pay court costs.

"You see that sort of thing a lot," Voss says. "We'll get a client who was pulled over and cited for failure to provide proof of insurance, or driving with a suspended license. But there's no additional citation for a moving violation. So why was she pulled over in the first place?"

Some residents say police pull them over for vague infractions like braking too often or following too closely in order to fish for more infractions like not wearing a seatbelt or failing to have the car inspected. Here too the poor get hit especially hard. Older, shabbier cars get stopped more often because police suspect they're more likely to be driven by people who can't afford insurance or registration fees.

Even with all the different laws on the books that local police can use to cite and fine motorists, they've also been caught fabricating crimes to issue even more, such as in 2011 when a motorist was cited for extending his middle finger at another driver in the town of Ballwin. In 2000, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported in a series of articles that motorists passing through the tiny town of Bel-Ridge (also on Natural Bridge Road) were getting pulled over for running a red light at an intersection where the light had previously always flashed yellow. The complaining motorists reported seeing the light suddenly change to red while they were in the middle of the intersection. After several complaints, an engineer with the Missouri Department of transportation went out to observe what was going on.

As it turns out, in 1998 Bel-Ridge police had received permission from the DOT to install switch at the light that allowed an officer to manually convert it to red. The switch was installed so an officer could allow children from a nearby school to safely cross the road. But the engineer witnessed police switching the light to red when there were no children present at the intersection at all, just as groups of cars were passing through. Another officer would then pull one or more cars over and issue them tickets. Bel-Ridge police denied the allegation, and insisted that officers only switched the light to red when children needed to cross. But the engineer found that most of the morning tickets were issued between 9 and 10:30am, when school was already in session. The Post-Dispatch noted that in 1996, two years before the switch was installed, Bel-Ridge derived 29 percent of its annual revenue from traffic fines. In 1999, the first full year after the switch was installed, that figure jumped to 44.8 percent.

Today, Bel-Ridge has about 2,700 people, 83 percent of whom are black, and 42 percent of whom live below the poverty line. In 2013 the town's municipal court handled 7,706 traffic citations and issued 1,723 arrest warrants. As the ArchCity Defenders report in their white paper, the town estimates that in 2014, "it will collect $450,000 in fine revenue-or, an average of about $450 per Bel-Ridge household - making municipal court fines the largest single source of revenue in the budget." The firm also reports that the Bel-Ridge municipal judge will make $18,600 this year, its prosecuting attorney $25,000, and its court clerks $38,350 - each to work three four-hour evening court sessions per month. The town also has a nine-member board of trustees and a police department. Bel-Ridge is also the town that issued fines to residents who didn't subscribe the one private trash collection service authorized to pick up garbage.

Sales taxes are the primary source of revenue in most St. Louis County municipalities. Wealthier areas naturally see more retail sales, so the more affluent towns tend to be less reliant on municipal courts to generate revenue. In recent years a state pool was established to distribute sales taxes more evenly, but existing towns were permitted to opt out. Most did, of course. Perversely, this means that the collection of poorer towns stacked up along the east-west byways are far more reliant on municipal court revenues. That means they face much stronger incentives to squeeze their residents with fines, despite the fact that the residents of these towns are the people who are least likely to have the money to pay those fines, the least likely to have an attorney to fight the fines on their behalf, and for whom the consequences of failing to pay the fines can be the most damaging.

Those incentives then get passed on to the judges and prosecutors the towns appoint for their municipal courts, and the police officers they pay to enforce the ordinances. "I was representing a client in a poorer town and was negotiating with a prosecutor who was also the municipal prosecutor in a wealthier town," Voss says. "He actually told me that if we were in the wealthier town he could cut my client a deal. But he couldn't do it in the poorer town, because there was more pressure on him to generate revenue."

Here too, Vatterott agrees with critics like Voss. "I was actually let go as a municipal judge from a town because I wasn't generating enough revenue," Vatterott says. That was in St. Ann, a town of 12,978 people by the airport known for ticketing motorists en route to catch a flight. Last year, St. Ann police issued 23,465 traffic citations. The St. Ann Municipal Court brought in $3.42 million dollars from fines, the most of any town in St. Louis County.

"St. Louis is a region of zip codes," says Jack Kirkland, the longtime resident, activist, and Washington University scholar. "Asking someone where they went to high school is shorthand for asking them how long ago their family got out of the city. For a long time, each generation measured its success by whether or not they made it further west than their parents."

Wealthier white families began moving out as early as the 1920s and 1930s, followed by middle class whites, and working class whites. Blacks were the last group to move out. The University of Iowa historian Colin Gordon documented these patterns in his acclaimed book Mapping Decline: St. Louis and the Fate of the American City. In a series of fascinating online maps accompanying the book, Gordon illustrates how white people didn't just flee St. Louis, they used whatever tools were at their disposal to prevent black people from joining them, including race-restrictive deeds and covenants until they were struck down in 1947, segregation until it was struck down in 1954, real estate pacts, and finally zoning laws.

Still, blacks began leaving the city too, beginning in about the late 1950s. According to Kirkland, the area saw a trickle of blacks beginning to move into the suburbs after Brown v. Board of Education in 1954 as blacks followed their children to their new schools. But while the schools may have been open, the neighborhoods were still largely closed.

The first real wave of black migration came after 1967, when the Supreme Court ruled in Jones v. Mayer that the Civil Rights Act prohibited racial discrimination in real estate transactions. Another wave came in the 1980s, after the implementation of a busing plan to integrate schools in St. Louis County, as black families again followed their kids into the suburbs. All the while, white communities tried to keep their distance. As the courts struck down the more blatant discriminatory policies like restrictive covenants and explicit segregation, whites engaged in what you might call a pattern of zone and retreat. It's during these two waves of black immigration that you really begin to see the proliferation of municipalities in St. Louis County.

"Until only relatively recently, the state of Missouri had almost no rules for municipal incorporation," Gordon says. "In just about every other state, when a new subdivision would spring up in an unincorporated area, the state would say, 'If you want public services, you need to be annexed by the nearest town.' In Missouri, you didn't have that."

Instead, developers would create new subdivisions outside a city. White people would move in. As black families moved north and west of the city, these subdivisions would try to keep them out by zoning themselves as single-family housing only. That barred the construction of public and low-income housing.

"The state's one requirement before giving you the power to zone was that you had to incorporate and draw up a city plan," Gordon says. "That plan could be as simple as getting an engineer to slap a 'single family' zone over the entire development. Your subdivision is now a town."

Gordon says this is why the towns in St. Louis can have such unusual names, such as Town & Country or Bellefontaine Neighbors. "Look at a place like Black Jack in North County. It began as a private subdivision in the 1970s. When they saw the looming threat of housing projects, they quickly zoned the neighborhood as single-family and incorporated as a municipality." Today Black Jack is more than 80 percent black. There's a similar town of about 1,200 people near Ferguson, just across the street from the Normandy Country Club. It's 91 percent black, has a 35 percent poverty rate, and has a median household income 40 percent below the state median. Its name? Country Club Hills.

As black families moved out from the city and slowly infiltrated white towns, new white developments would spring up further out still, incorporate, and zone to keep the black population at bay. Blacks would move in to those towns too, and the process would repeat itself. The pattern was most prevalent along the interstate and highways because property values along those routes are lower. White working class people moved in and created affordable , single family housing. As blacks moved closer, the whites moved farther west. Gordon calls it a postage stamp pattern. "You then see blacks moving into the same affordable housing footprint that the white working class abandoned," he says.

Kirkland compares the distribution of the black population around St. Louis County to the path of a river, one the white population has continually attempted to tame. "Rivers flow through low-lying areas. They take the path of least resistance," he says. "Rivers usually have banks that contain them, but sometimes they'll spill out over those banks. The only real protection from a river are bluffs. And so you saw these towns use zoning, housing, and education as bluffs."

Today, there are still a few white and wealthy towns like Clayton in the inner suburbs, but most have moved to the far western end of the county, or next door in St. Charles County. On a modern map of the area, these are the bigger swaths of land. It's in the the middle and northern parts of the county that you see this history, which on the map manifests as a patchwork quilt of tightly packed, oddly drawn multi-hued shapes. In these towns, blacks can make up 60, 80, in some cases more than 90 percent of the population.

Much has been made of the disparity between Ferguson's black population and the lack of black faces in its city government. That's true, and it is a problem that exists in other towns as well. But Gordon points out that Ferguson is an old Missouri River town in the north of the county that predates the subdivision municipalities in the mid-county area. Blacks didn't begin moving to Ferguson in significant numbers until the 1980s, and weren't a majority until around 2000. The black populations of these towns are new, transient, and have no local history of political or institutional power.

In the towns along the interstate and east-west highways, where blacks have been a majority for a longer period of time, they have much more representation in city government. But these are the same parts of the county where, thanks to the area's history, there are just too many towns, too many municipal governments, too many municipal employees, and not enough revenue to support them. It doesn't seem to matter whether those employees are black or white, they're a legacy of segregation and structural racism, so they're still reliant on extracting fines and fees from their residents in order to function. If anything, they're more reliant on those fees, since there isn't enough wealth to generate sufficient revenue from property and sales taxes.

The town of Berkeley, for example, has unusually high black political participation. For about a century, there was a historically black enclave in northwest St. Louis County called Kinloch. In the 1980s, most of Kinloch was erased due to an expansion of the St. Louis airport. Much of Kinloch's population wound up in nearby Berkeley, infusing the town with black residents who had been in the area for generations, and had well-established traditions of political participation and self government. Currently, Berkeley has an all-black city council, a black mayor, a black city manager, and majority-black police force.

If any town could overcome the legacy of structural racism that drew the map of St. Louis County, then, it would be Berkeley. And yet this town of 9,000 people still issued 10,452 traffic citations last year, and another 1,271 non-traffic ordinance violations. The town's municipal court raised over $1 million in fines and fees, or about $111 per resident. The town issued 5,504 arrest warrants last year, and has another 13,436 arrest warrants outstanding. Those are modest numbers for St. Louis County, but they're high for just about anywhere else.

"We've tried to rely on revenue from our municipal court as little as possible," says Berkeley Mayor Theodore Hoskins. "We emphasize that traffic laws and ordinances are about public safety, not about revenue." But there's a cost to that. The town ran a $1.3 million deficit last year, and recently considered dissolving its police department to save money.

There are lots of good reasons why local governments should reflect the demographics of the towns they're governing. But more racially representative governments in St. Louis County's majority black towns haven't diminished the misery that must be inflicted on the residents in order for those governments to exist. Black people in St. Louis County are no longer held back by legalized discrimination, but the turbulent history that drew the area's map still plagues them, even in towns that are now run by black people.

ArchCity Defenders was founded in 2009 by a trio of recent graduates from the St. Louis University Law School - the aforementioned Thomas Harvey and Michael-John Voss, along with John McAnner.

Harvey says the idea came to him while he was working at a legal clinic in law school. "St. Louis has all this federal and state money coming in to address homelessness for things like job training and housing. But nearly every client we met had some sort of muni court issue. The job training programs require a background check. If you have an outstanding warrant, they won't let you enroll."

One of Harvey's first clients was a homeless veteran trying to get back on his feet. He had lined up a job, but hit a snag when the employer ran a background check and found a series of eight-year-old violations in the town of Jennings. Save for one low-level assault, the warrants were for victimless ordinance violations. "We called the court and got the warrant revoked. The next day he got called back for the job. But social service organizations regularly run into this problem. They can't place homeless people or kids just out of foster care into housing or training programs because they have these warrants. Sometimes it's just a matter of calling up a judge or prosecutor. Sometimes it's more complicated. But it's getting in the way of these people putting their lives back together."

One of the groups the ArchCity Defenders work with is the St. Louis Transitional Hope House, which provides housing, child care, and training for homeless people and families. "We try to work with the courts, and sometimes we've had some success," says executive director Bonnie Reece. "But we aren't lawyers. We can't work as fast and cover as much ground as a group like ArchCity Defenders." Reece estimates that about 20 percent of her clients need help clearing warrants, most for offenses like traffic violations, MetroLink violations (not paying the fare on the city's light rail system), and trespassing. Most, she says, are single mothers.

McAnner, Harvey, and Voss continued with ArchCity Defenders part-time until 2013, when the firm won a $250,000 grant from St. Louis City to continue their work with organizations for the homeless. Today McAnner still works part-time, but Voss and Harvey are full-time, along with another full-time attorney and paralegal, and a cadre of part-timers, interns, and volunteers. ACD contracted part of that grant to the firm co-owned by Jim Wyrsch and Javad Khazeali. Those two are now also representing clients pro bono.

"I was drawn into all of this in my first case out of law school," McAnner says from the firm's office in Laclede's Landing. The historical bar and restaurant district is in downtown St. Louis near where the city was founded.

"I had a buddy who was written up on a zoning violations because he had a car up on cinder blocks in his yard. He ended up spending 30 days in jail. It was in this tiny town where the court is literally held in a double-wide trailer. I thought it was just an anomaly. I quickly realized that sort of thing is common."

Earlier this year, the ArchCity Defenders began working on a paper they hoped would throw a spotlight on the municipal court system and highlight the way the system is destroying the lives of their clients. The events in Ferguson went down just before they had planned to release the paper. That gave the firm and the paper more attention than it probably would have otherwise received. But most of the attention focused on Ferguson and Michael Brown and may have obscured the larger issues that affect tens of thousands of people across the entire St. Louis area.

"There are incidents of police brutality here, like anywhere else," says Harvey. "But the anger in Ferguson was driven by something much more common and pervasive. It's the day to day harassment and degradation that this system creates."

The violence in Ferguson also added an element of volatility to the criticisms made in the paper. Just before we arrived at the municipal court session in Florissant, the town's municipal judge reprimanded one of the ArchCity attorneys for releasing the paper and its content.

About 15 minutes down I-64 from the ACD offices, Mae Quinn runs the Juvenile Law and Justice Clinic at Washington University School of Law. A native of Staten Island who practiced in the Bronx, Quinn is tough, occasionally foul-mouthed, and angry about what the area's court system has done to her clients. Because she works with juveniles, she can't discuss most of her clients by name, so she distinguishes them by personality. One case is the "really neat guy," another is the "the smart kid," still another a young mom she calls the "hard worker."

"I've practiced in a lot of places, including five states," Quinn says. "I've never seen anything like what goes on here. Never."

When Quinn started the clinic, she expected all of her cases to be in juvenile court. But most Missouri towns allow defendants to be tried in municipal courts at 17, sometimes even younger. "We kept hearing about all of these problems about kids getting tangled up in the municipal courts. So we started taking them on." Now about half the cases Quinn and her students take are in municipal court.

Quinn describes one homeless girl who had been written up for violating an occupancy permit restriction. To simply reside in St. Louis County, you have to register your residence with the local government. What that entails varies from town to town. In the town of Berkeley, for example, new tenants must obtain an occupancy permit from the Inspections Department of the City of Berkeley. A permit costs $20, and requires a valid driver's license or identification card. If your license has been suspended due to an outstanding warrant, you can't move in. A permit includes the names of the people legally allowed to live at the residence. If you want to add additional names or change a name, it's an additional $25 and a signed authorization from the landlord. And again, you'll need an ID.

In theory, occupancy permits are to prevent fire hazards and overcrowding. But they can also be another way for towns to generate revenue. Quinn's client, for example, was the victim in a domestic abuse incident. But when the police arrived, they checked her occupancy permit, which only allowed for one person to reside at the apartment. The officers then cited the woman and her boyfriend $74 each for violating the permit. When Quinn protested that the law makes no effort to distinguish visitors from unlawful residents, the municipal prosecutor stated that "nothing good happens after 10pm" when single men and women are alone together - a sentiment later echoed by the judge. Other attorneys say that the permits are sometimes even used to enforce anachronistic laws prohibiting cohabitation of unmarried couples.

Foster kids and homeless kids are particularly vulnerable to racking up warrants stemming from petty crimes. "We also have a lot of what I call 'kids living under the bridge,'" Quinn says. "These are kids who have a stack of warrants for things like Metrolink violations or trespassing, so they just go underground and hide from the police rather than risk an arrest."

One such kid, "Aaron" had recently "aged out" of foster care. When foster kids reach 18, there are generally a series of federal and state programs aimed at helping them transition into adult life. But outstanding warrants, even for minor violations, can make it difficult to access those programs. They can't get jobs or housing. That hopelessness can put them on a path to more serious crimes. "Those kids are at risk of just sliding from the child welfare system into the criminal justice system," Quinn says.

When Quinn met Aaron, he had four outstanding warrants in four different jurisdictions. In one town, the warrant stemmed from a traffic stop in which he was cited for expired plates, failure to display an inspection sticker, failure to wear a seatbelt, and failure to dim his headlights. Two of the other three warrants were for a similar lineup of violations stemming from a single traffic stop. The fourth warrant was for giving false information and a charge akin to disturbing the peace. Quinn was eventually able to get Aaron's warrants cleared, allowing him to get and begin a new job. But Aaron had an attorney. Most juveniles who end up in municipal court don't.

When a police officer apprehends someone with warrants in multiple jurisdictions, that person can then get shuffled from town to town, from jail to jail, as they battle over which court gets first crack at whatever money he may have. Attorneys and families are left to chase clients and loved ones through the fog.

This is especially true with juveniles. Quinn, for example, recently had a client arrested because a "wanted" had been put on him. Different than a warrant, a wanted is basically a "person of interest." It means the police don't have probable cause to obtain a warrant. But it does allow them to snag someone up and hold them for up to 24 hours. Quinn's client had allegedly been identified as an accomplice in a crime. But Quin and her law student assistant couldn't figure out where he was being held. He had been arrested in one town for a wanted placed by another. She eventually found him in the interrogation room in the jail of a third town. It turned out that the town in which the wanted was placed wasn't big enough to have its own jail. He was soon released.

"Many of these 'wanted' cases are just an excuse to catch and release juveniles," Quinn says. "It gives the police a chance to squeeze them for information about other people."

Khazaeli had a similar experience tracking down a client. His client, who was homeless, had been arrested for being a juvenile out after curfew. When the police discovered that Khazaeli's client was actually 18, they charged him with interfering with a police officer, and for wearing "saggy pants." He was arrested by police from the town of Charlack, a town so small that its police department, city hall, and jail are all contained in one modified single-family house. In fact, you can stand on the front lawn of the Charlack City Hall, look across Midland Boulevard, and see the Vinita Park City Hall across the street.

When Khazaeli got to Charlack, he was told his client had been sent to the jail in St. Ann, because the Charlack jail was occupied. "I then had to drive back to Charlack to sign for his release, then drive back to St. Ann to pick him up and take him back to the shelter," Khazaeli says.

Even with ArchCity Defenders, Quinn's clinic, a similar clinic at St. Louis University, and firms like Khazaeli Wyrsch taking some cases pro bono, the lawyers interviewed for this article estimate that only 10-25 percent of the defendants in St. Louis County municipal courts get any sort of legal representation. The rest are on their own. By statute, the St. Louis County Public Defender's Office is prohibited from representing indigent defendants in municipal courts. (Even if it weren't, the office is busy enough in state court with more serious offenses. In 2010, the New York Times pointed out that Missouri ranks 49th in spending on its public defender system.)

Legally, only indigent defendants facing jail time are entitled to a public defender, though local attorneys say even those defendants don't always know to ask, and few of the municipal courts bother to make them aware of the fact. But it's clear that those with legal representation get an entirely different sort of justice from the municipal courts than those without it. "Matt," a white bartender at a trendy restaurant in St. Louis city, has had two experiences in municipal courts in the county. Both were speeding tickets that he had neglected to pay. He showed up for one with an attorney, and one without. Without an attorney, he says it took three court appearances and several hundred dollars to get the warrant cleared. With an attorney, it took one trip to court and a $150 settlement. "My lawyer said hi to the prosecutor. They talked about the last time they played golf together. He brought up my case, the prosecutor asked for 150 bucks, and that was that."

On the same night I attended the municipal court session in Florissant, I stopped by the town of Cool Valley just as court was winding down. Cool Valley is a town of 1,194 people. It is 84.5 percent black. Last year the court issued 1,871 arrest warrants. More incredibly, there are another 5,998 warrants from previous years still pending in Cool Valley, or more than five for every resident. In 2013, the Cool Valley Municipal Court collected $375,425 in fines, or $314 per resident. That's about 34.5 percent of the town's annual budget.

One of those pending warrants was for "Jack" (he asked that I not use his real name), a black man who looked to be in his 60s whom I met briefly at the Cool Valley courthouse. I noticed Jack as he was chatting through a teller's window with the court clerk. He was getting increasingly frustrated. I followed him outside and asked why he had been in court. He said he had recently been stopped by a police officer. He hadn't been issued a citation for the stop, but a search of his name apparently showed a warrant stemming from a 20-year-old speeding ticket. With late fees and added fines, prosecutors said he now owed $615.

But he said he was angry because no one could show him the original ticket. They could only point to the warrant. He believes it was a mistake, and wondered why the warrant wouldn't have shown up the other times he's been stopped over the last 20 years. But the court officers had no time to argue with him. They handed him a piece of paper showing what he owes, with instructions for his payment plan. He is to come back to court each month and pay $50 until the full amount is paid off. If he misses a month, they'll put out another warrant for his arrest.

I showed the form the clerk gave Jack to several local attorneys. Most agreed that a good lawyer could probably get the warrant cleared and the fine dismissed. It's doubtful, for example, that the officer who issued the ticket is still around, and if he is, that he'd remember the ticket. But Jack (he asked that I not use his real name) didn't know any of that. One attorney attempted to look up the Jack's record to find the warrant, but not all the municipalities use the designated legal databases. Cool Valley is apparently one of those that doesn't.

"I've asked prosecutors for a client's file and they've flat turned me down," said one local attorney. "They'll say 'Here's a list of his warrants, but we can't show them to you. Just trust us.' Or they'll just staple a blank form to a manilla envelope, write my client's name on it, and call that his 'file.' They're giving me the runaround, and I'm an attorney. So you can imagine what happens when people try to work within the system by themselves."

Nicole Bolden says she received drastically better treatment once Voss started showing up with her in court. "Oh, they treat people with lawyers completely differently," she says. "For the first time, the judge was actually explaining things to me. He was saying, 'Do not plead guilty unless you're sure you understand what that means. And then he would explain the consequences. No one had ever said that to me in court before."

In most of these courts, the defendants with attorneys get called up first. There's a practical reason for that. The courts don't want to waste the attorneys' time. It also means that attorneys like Wyrsch, Quinn, and the ArchCity Defenders can represent more clients. But it's also another example of two-tiered justice. Defendants fortunate enough to have an attorney representing them don't even have to show up in court. The attorney can stand in for them. And of course the vast majority of people who send an attorney in their stead aren't indigent, but wealthier people who can afford to hire an attorney. That means the indigent defendants have to wait. That means more time away from work, or more money they'll need to pay a babysitter.

But perhaps the most gaping divide between having and not having an attorney is that many people think that if they can't pay their fines, they'll be arrested and jailed the moment they show up in court. So they don't show up. In truth, you can't be jailed if you don't have the money to pay a fine. But you can be jailed for not showing up in court to answer a charge. So under the mistaken belief that showing up in court broke will land them in jail, people chose not to show up . . . which then lands them in jail.

"That's probably the single biggest misunderstanding out there," says Vatterott, the former municipal judge. "We have to do a better job of informing people. I think it should say on the notice that even if you have no money, you need to show up, and it should be made clear that you won't be sent to jail. But when I bring that up, the prosecutors don't like it. The arrest warrants bring more fines and make the towns more money."

"You have to struggle just to catch up."

It's 6 p.m. in the town of Pine Lawn, and it looks as if someone has just rung a school bell. From every direction, a mass of black humanity descends upon the red brick building with a green canopy nestled between Antonio's Beauty College and the Barack Obama Elementary School. The building holds the town's city hall and municipal court. And tonight the court is in session.

Pine Lawn is perhaps the best example of how the problem in St. Louis County extends well beyond the racial disparities in local government. Blacks make up 96 percent of Pine Lawn's 3,216 residents and have been well represented among the town's elected officials. But that hasn't stopped the town from soaking its residents in fines, fees, and warrants. In 2013, Pine Lawn police issued 17,155 traffic citations, or more than five per resident. During the protests in Ferguson, several media reports expressed alarm that there were about two arrest warrants pending in the town's municipal court for every resident. As of June 30 of 2013, there were 23,457 arrest warrants pending in Pine Lawn Municipal Court, or about 7.3 per resident. The court brought in more than $1.8 million for the town, or around $576 per resident. That's about 4.5 percent of the average Pine Lawn resident's annual income. (Pine Lawn is far from the worst. The aforementioned town of Country Club Hills has over 33,000 outstanding arrest warrants, or an astonishing 26 per resident.)

Last year, Pine Lawn installed a speed camera along Natural Bridge Road. When St. Louis County municipalities first began to implement speed cameras, there was some understandable public backlash. In fact, no less than the St. Louis County chief of police publicly stated that the cameras were likely to be used more to generate revenue than for public safety. Those concerns in mind, the Pine Lawn ordinance permitting the use of speed cameras requires that they be positioned near a school crosswalk. (Who could be opposed to slowing motorists down for children?) The ordinance also requires the town to warn motorists when cameras are close by, and that tickets sent to motorists include a photo clearly depicting the driver of the offending automobile.

Last August, TV station KMOV reported that Pine Lawn's speed camera was actually installed in a vacant parking lot, that the city provided no warning to motorists, and didn't include driver photos when sending out tickets. What's more, the city threatened any motorist who refused to pay for a ticket with an arrest warrant. In the first six months of 2013, the camera generated $150,000 for the city, and sent a thousand extra motorists to its municipal court. In 2007, Pine Lawn passed a "saggy pants" ordinance, imposing a $100 fine on the parents of children caught wearing droopy drawers.

Pine Lawn has been plagued by incompetence, corruption, and infighting among its public officials. A 2011 report (PDF) by the Missouri State Auditor found that in violation of state law, the town "does not have written contracts with some of its service providers, such as attorneys, payroll services, and collectors of electronic fines and court costs." The audit found that the town regularly violates the state's open meetings law, and paid salary advances to aldermen and other city employees, also in violation of state law.

One might think that a town with those sorts of problems would at least be hospitable to the businesses in the area, to attract revenue from business licenses and sales tax. But Antonio Morgan says that isn't the case. Morgan - the same man who was arrested for child endangerment for leaving his kids in his car outside the Hazelwood court - owns a car repair shop in Pine Lawn. But here too he says he faces regular harassment.

Morgan says that over the last few months, his employees have been cited and fined by Pine Lawn police five times for operating a business without a license. Morgan has a license for his business, but it's in his name. The citations are happening when he isn't there.

"The police come by and ask to see the license. A couple times, the guy working for me didn't know what they were talking about, so they wrote him up. The other times, they showed the cop the license, but it was in my name."

Attorneys consulted for this article say it isn't uncommon for police in small St. Louis County towns to perform inspections for business licenses. All say that if what Morgan says is true, the citations are illegal and should be easily dismissed in court. But that also requires them to go to court. It probably means they need to get an attorney. And they may need both Morgan and his landlord to vouch for them. It's not only a waste of their time and Morgan's, it can also strain the relationship between a business owner like Morgan and his landlord.

On another occasion, Morgan says he and some friends had gone out to dinner. He returned to his shop later that night to pick some things up. A police officer saw the lights on and demanded to see Morgan's permit. (You need a separate permit to operate a business after dark.)

"I told him that I wasn't working, I was just picking a couple things up. He said I was talking back to him, and that if I kept it up, he'd shut down my shop." The officer ended up having two of Morgan's vehicles towed. He had to pay $200 to get them back. On another occasion, Morgan says two offices and the Pine Lawn municipal prosecutor came to his shop to ask about a new Camaro they were painting for a woman in Clayton. "They thought we were stripping it for parts," he says. "They couldn't believe that a white lady in Clayton would send her car to a black guy's garage in Pine Lawn."

Morgan has been working on cars since he was 16, and quickly decided he wanted to own his own garage. He started working on cars for friends and neighbors, or buying old cars, fixing them up, selling them, saving what he made to open his own business. He's apparently good at what he does, because that didn't take long. In 2005, at the age of 19, he opened his garage in Pine Lawn.

But getting there was difficult. Before he opened the garage, Morgan would work on the cars at his mother's house, or at the houses of friends. He'd have to park the cars in the streets. That led to tickets for not having the cars registered or insured. Those tickets began to add up. They led to arrest warrants and the suspension of his license. It also put him on the radar of the police officers in the towns where he has lived and worked.

Michelle Monahan is a former St. Louis County public defender who now works for the federal public defender's office in St. Louis. She met Morgan in 2008 and has represented him pro bono in several cases over the years. "About 75 percent of the times that I've talked to Antonio in person, he's been wearing work clothes," she says. "He's a husband, a father. I know few people who work as hard as he does. And I know of even fewer people who have had to put up with as much as he has."

Not everyone has handled the indignity as well as Morgan. In 2008, Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton shot up city hall in the town of Kirwood, killing two city council members, a city planner, and two police officers. He also badly wounded the mayor. When the mostly white Kirkwood annexed the unincorporated black community of Meacham Park 15 years earlier, the construction business Thornton had built and run out of his home ran afoul of his new town's zoning regulations. Thornton didn't have the money to move his business to another part of town. Over the next decade, he accumulated $20,000 in fines, lost his business, declared bankruptcy, and was reduced a community punchline. He was the guy with the signs on his van, who interrupted city council meetings with grand conspiracies, and filed lawsuits that were barely readable. His friends and family say the constant harassment cost him his sanity.

Morgan is no Cookie Thornton. For all he's been through, he seems remarkably well-adjusted. But he says he has lost count of the the number of times he's been arrested. He's certain that it's more than 20. Until the incident in Hazelwood with his kids, he had never been convicted of anything more serious than a traffic violation. H has had a couple more serious incidents with police, though neither resulted in charges.

In 2012, Morgan was working on his truck at his mother's house when he heard a loud boom. He assumed it was a car or lawn mower backfiring and continued working. A short time later, he was driving his truck with a friend when a police officer pulled them over and emerged with his gun drawn. Soon, more squad cars showed up, 11 in all.

"A whiteshirt then showed up, and said someone fitting my description had been seen committing a burglary," Morgan says. "They said they saw me kicking down a door, and then my friend driving my truck as we drove away. I had been working on my truck all morning, and my friend had never driven it."

Morgan and his friend were arrested, though the police claimed they had been detained, not jailed. "I couldn't leave, so I'm not sure what the difference is," he says. After about three hours, the police let both men go without an explanation. Morgan's truck had been towed. He says that when he got it back, the seats and upholstery had been ripped out, as if someone had been searching for guns or drugs. Morgan actually did have a gun. He also had a legal concealed carry permit for it.

"They told me they'd have to 'run' the gun to see if it was stolen or had been used in a crime, and that it could take up to 30 days. I told them I hadn't been accused of any crime. When I tried to get it back later, an officer told me they'd have to keep it longer because of my record."

Morgan says when he replied that he had only been convicted of traffic violations, the officer noted that he had recently been arrested for burglary - the same burglary for which the police had wrongly arrested him, confiscated the gun, and released him three hours later. Morgan just got his gun back in February, nearly three years after it was confiscated.

"I'm amazed at how composed he manages to be," says Monahan. "He seems genuinely upset and confused every time something like this happens to him. He's good-natured. So he doesn't see how people can treat him like this for no reason."

Morgan says he has only lost his temper once, during an altercation with a police officer outside his mother's home in the town of Castle Point. The same officer had previously ticketed several cars Morgan was working on for being illegally parked. "I accept that {ticket}," he says. "I understood that it was the cost of doing business. I was polite with the officer." On another occasion, the same officer had one of Morgan's cars towed. And on a third occasion, the same officer had pulled Morgan over and cited him for failing to register the car he was in. Morgan says the officer then told him he had better not see him out driving again.

"None of the neighbors had complained about these cars. They weren't in anyone's way. they weren't a nuisance," Monahan says. "But you have to understand that Antonio is a tall black man with long dreadlocks. He stands out. If you're a police officer who knows that he has a suspended license, he's easy to spot if he's out driving."

Thomas Harvey, who is currently representing Morgan in another matter (which neither he nor Morgan want to discuss while charges are still pending) agrees. "I think he fits a lot of stereotypes. And I think once he became known to some of these officers, they started to have a grudge with him. That said, his situation isn't unique. These incidents happen to a lot of people in these towns."

The final incident with this particular officer took place at Antonio's mother's house. The next door neighbors had called the police to report the theft of an air conditioner. The same officer responded. Morgan says he was sitting in his mother's driveway when the officer confronted him about one of Morgan's cars parked on the street. The officer seemed fed up, and according to Morgan, referred to his mother as "your greasy grandma." Morgan says he lost it, and yelled at the officer, calling him a "cracker."

"I regret it," Morgan says. "I lost control. But he disrespected my family. There was no need for that. You can only take so much."

Morgan insists that he didn't touch the officer, but after the two exchanged words, the officer drew his Taser, Morgan says he backed up and raised his arms. The officer fired the weapon anyway, and Morgan fell to the ground. He says he was Tased several times, but doesn't recall exactly how many.

"I remember telling the neighbors to call the police," he says. "I forgot for a moment that this was police." When he felt he couldn't take any more, Morgan says he reached back, grabbed the Taser wire, and ripped the weapon from the officer's hands. The officer pounced on Morgan and put a knee to the back of his head. Morgan says by the time the paramedics arrived he counted 13 cops with their guns drawn, all pointed at him.

Morgan's neighbors verify his version of the incident. Morgan was initially arrested and charged with assaulting a police officer and resisting arrest. Those charges were later dismissed. The incident left him with a gash in the back of his head and a fractured wrist.

Today, Morgan tries to record all of his interactions with police, city officials, and even the people with whom he interacts for his business. His computer is filled with recorded conversations, photos, and videos. He documents everything. It's time he could spending on cars, or with his wife and kids. But he says it's all necessary. "You have to do more work when you're black around here," he says. "You have to struggle just to catch up with everyone else."

Despite all of this, both Harvey and Monahan say Morgan is one of the most optimistic clients they've ever represented. "I think a lot of people have just resigned themselves to all of this," Monahan says. "They just think the system is too stacked against them, and that their lives are always going to be this way. Antonio doesn't accept that."

Just about everyone agrees on the main cause of this problem in St. Louis County.

"There are too many towns," says Vatterott. There are too many towns, and not enough taxpayers to sustain them. How to fix that problem is another matter. There has long been a movement in St. Louis to merge the county with the city. That movement has picked up steam recent years as advocacy groups like Better Together have pushed proposals to merge a number of public services. But real change would require a good portion of these towns to merge with other towns, or to dissolve themselves entirely. That would require the town councils or boards of aldermen to vote themselves out of a job.

"You have these fiefdoms across the county where a small percentage of people hold power over a small bit of territory," Kirkland says. "They aren't going to let go of that easily." Some towns have begun to share police services, or to contract police services out to St. Louis County. That at least means there are fewer cops per resident to hand out fines. But the cops and courts are still geared more toward generating revenue than promoting public safety.

When I spoke with Antonio Morgan at his home, his muted TV was showing footage of the violence in Ferguson.

He glanced over and nodded. "For so long, nobody has listened to them," he says. "That's what they're angry about. That's why they're lashing out."

Nicole Bolden had a similar reaction. "It's been a long time coming. Ferguson, Dillard, Florissant. Are no white folks speeding or running red lights in these towns?"

Bolden or Morgan don't advocate violence. But they understand the anger behind it. "Nobody knows what happened that day with Michael Brown and that officer," Bolden says. But she draws a sharp distinction between outright brutality, which says is rare, and the every day harassment and degradation. "What happens every day around here is worse. It doesn't matter if you're walking or driving. You're a target. Rioting isn't right. But they just want people to know what's happening."

The events in Ferguson have at least lent a sense of urgency to all of this. Just last week, the ArchCity Defenders petitioned Ferguson Mayor James Knowles to grant a mass clemency for the town's 40,000+ outstanding warrants for traffic and other nonviolent offenses. That isn't a structural change so much as a plea for a sign of goodwill. And it's far from certain it will happen. Vatterott says he's also organizing talks to push for reforms on other points of agreement, like a uniform set of rules for the courts, making notices easier to understand, and making sure defendants know that they can't be jailed for lacking the funds to pay a fine.

But more consequential change may be harder to come by. "What I fear is that the federal government or some private foundations are going to throw a bunch of grants at St. Louis, and the same people who have been sitting at the table for years, contributing to the problem, will be the ones divvying up the money," Harvey says. "There will be a bunch of diversity training, the money will disappear, and things will go back to the way they've been. That's what I fear."

Even something as seemingly simple as making police departments look more like the towns they serve is more difficult than it sounds. Most departments at minimum require a high school diploma and no outstanding warrants. And so already the pool of available black applicants begins to shrink. And if the primary function of police officers continues to be to produce revenue for the town, it's far from clear that adding more black officers will improve relations all that much, anyway. A conscientious officer who doesn't hand out as many fines and citations as his fellow officers probably isn't going to last long.

Until there is real change, people like Bolden and Morgan have no choice but to look for their own solutions to their own problems. Bolden's license is still suspended, though she says it's a clerical error that the ArchCity Defenders are trying to clear up. But she's now employed, and can't afford to miss work or take the risk of showing up late because of a tardy county bus. So she drives.

"I only drive to and from work," she says. "Otherwise my car is parked. All I can really do is say a prayer every time I start the engine. I don't pray for a safe trip. I pray that I don't get pulled over. When I get home, I say another prayer of thanks. That's all I have. I just can't get arrested again. "

Morgan's plan is more concrete. "I need to get out of here," he says. "I'm saving up to move my business out of Pine Lawn. Maybe get a bigger garage. This is just no way to live."

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Opinion | How municipalities in St. Louis County, Mo., profit from poverty

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On March 20 in the St. Louis County town of Florissant, someone made an illegal U-turn in front of Nicole Bolden. The 32-year-old black single mother hit her brakes but couldn't avoid a collision. Bolden wasn't at fault for the accident and wanted to continue on her way.

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By Lynne Peeples, Ensia, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network
Long list of threats

Between 10% and 15% of Americans are on private wells or tiny water systems that serve fewer than 15 residences. The rest of the country relies on community water systems - upwards of an astounding 50,000 in total.

Infernos, infections and chemical cocktails

Beyond Flint

The answer, according to her 2018 study, is clearly the former. In 2015, the same year that the nation learned of Flint's lead contamination, she found that about 21 million other people in the U.S. were receiving water from utilities that violated the Safe Drinking Water Act. People who lived in rural, low-income areas seemed to be most at risk of exposure to contaminants linked to a range of health problems - from a bout of diarrhea to cognitive impairment or cancer. "As we saw in Flint, and have seen repeatedly across the country, nine out of 10 violations don't face any formal enforcement action by the state or federal government," says Erik Olson, senior strategic director for health and food at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). "What we have is comparable to everyone on the interstate speeding and virtually no one being pulled over or getting tickets with any penalty."

Outdated standards

Read more on drinking water on Great Lakes Now:
Message to 2020 Candidates: Focus on water quality in Great Lakes states Michigan's State of the Great Lakes: Drinking water quality garners spotlight Drinking Water News Roundup: Drilling fluid contamination, mining pollution concerns, tribal community grants Climate change threatens drinking water quality across the Great Lakes Whitmer: $600M Flint water deal a step toward making amends This article, first published in Ensia, is republished here through Great Lakes Now's membership in the Institute for Nonprofit News, a network of more than 200 nonprofit newsrooms across the U.S., working to strengthen the sources of trusted news for thousands of diverse communities. Featured image: Concerned about contaminants in her tap water, California resident Florencia Ramos has been purchasing drinking water for herself and her family for more than a decade. (Photo by Gary Kazanjian for Ensia)

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Across the U.S., millions of people are drinking unsafe water. How can we fix that? - Great Lakes Now

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By Lynne Peeples, Ensia, through the Institute for Nonprofit News network Between 10% and 15% of Americans are on private wells or tiny water systems that serve fewer than 15 residences. The rest of the country relies on community water systems - upwards of an astounding 50,000 in total.

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transcript

The Fight to Desegregate New York Schools

Can the largest public school system in the U.S. educate students fairly if it's also one of the most segregated?

[car horns honking] [chattering] <i>[haunting music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>- I'm from Bushwick, New York.</i> <i>My neighborhood was what people would consider, like,</i> <i>a very dangerous neighborhood like ten years ago.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[suspenseful music]</i> <i>- I went to PS 321 for elementary school.</i> <i>It's considered to be</i> <i>one of the best public elementary schools.</i> <i>We had tons of resources,</i> two playgrounds, science class. - We had a small facility where classrooms were breaking down. Like literally tiles on the ceiling were falling. <i>DODAI: These two teens</i> <i>grew up just a few miles from each other.</i> <i>But the gap in the quality of their education</i> <i>will likely put them on unequal paths</i> <i>for the rest of their lives.</i> <i>One public school system,</i> <i>two very different experiences.</i> <i>School segregation was supposed to be</i> <i>a problem from the past.</i> <i>Supposed to have ended in the 1950s.</i> <i>Instead, today black children are more segregated</i> <i>in this country than they've been in half a century.</i> ALL: Education is a right, not just for the rich and white. Education is a right, not just for the rich and white. <i>DODAI: Here in the biggest city in America,</i> <i>a decade's old conversation about schools and race</i> <i>has been reignited.</i> - Will you stand for this any longer? ALL: No! <i>- We have a segregated system</i> and we want to integrate the system. <i>DODAI: This new school's chancellor</i> <i>is using language that's rarely heard</i> <i>from city officials.</i> - Ooh. What did you say? Integrate? What does that mean? ALL: Hey-hey, ho-ho, segregation has got to go. <i>DODAI: And there's a growing number of students</i> <i>seizing on this moment.</i> <i>"Metro" reporter, Eliza Shapiro,</i> <i>and magazine reporter, Nikole Hannah Jones,</i> <i>have been closely following the issue</i> <i>of school segregation in New York.</i> ALL: Segregation has got to go! <i>DODAI: It's the first time in years that integration</i> <i>is being spoken about at the highest levels.</i> ALL: Racist Carranza! Racist Carranza! <i>DODAI: But it means both fighting decades in inequality</i> <i>as well as going up against the parents...</i> - This is not the solution. <i>DODAI: Who see steps to integrate schools</i> <i>as a threat to their own children's education.</i> - I want to keep the current specialized high schools as high schools for the best of the best. - Fire that Carranza! - We must fight. We must fight! <i>DODAI: So six decades after segregation</i> <i>was supposed to have ended,</i> <i>can New York create a more equal school system?</i> - Where power is shared by all groups. <i>DODAI: And is this the man who's going to lead the way?</i> ALL: We must fight! We must fight! We must fight! <i>[soft music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[suspenseful music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DODAI: New York City,</i> <i>one of America's most diverse places.</i> [car horn honks] <i>Eight million people, 800 languages.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>And yet...</i> - We're the most segregated school system in the nation. - And we've known about this in a real data based, legitimate and, you know, real way for years. [kids clamoring] <i>DODAI: The city has over a million</i> <i>public school students.</i> <i>It's the largest system in the country.</i> <i>70% of students are black and Latino.</i> <i>The majority are poor.</i> <i>Most attend schools with very few white children.</i> <i>Many of those schools face higher dropout rates</i> <i>and teacher turnover,</i> <i>and have fewer resources.</i> Help people who are not in your shoes, who haven't ever had to sit in the type of schools that you and so many of the kids in your neighborhood across the city have to sit in... Help them understand what's at stake. - What's at stake is an education and-and that's an access to life. If you don't have a proper education, then you don't-you're not motivated to go to school, which can lead you to drop out, and which can lead you to go into issues like-like drugs and-and jail. <i>DODAI: Decades of research shows</i> <i>that black and Latino kids in segregated schools</i> <i>are more likely to remain in poverty,</i> <i>more likely to face unemployment,</i> <i>and more likely to have health problems.</i> - I think Richard Carranza is definitely very passionate about the issue and-and wants to integrate schools, and I'm hoping that he's willing to go to that extra mile to rock the boat to get justice for, uh, black and Latinx students. <i>CARRANZA: I've been very, very transparent</i> <i>about the issue of segregation.</i> <i>DODAI: Richard Carranza was hired out of Houston in 2018.</i> <i>His new boss, Mayor Bill de Blasio,</i> <i>years before had run on a progressive platform</i> <i>to end inequality,</i> <i>but has barely used the word segregation.</i> <i>And when Carranza, in his first month on the job,</i> <i>retweeted a viral video,</i> <i>he immediately became a lightning rod.</i> <i>DODAI: The video captured an angry debate</i> <i>over an initiative to diversify middle schools</i> <i>in one Manhattan district.</i> - You good? - Yeah. - Testing. One, two, three, four. Good to see you. <i>DODAI: It's April 2019, a year into Carranza's tenure.</i> <i>Over the next six months,</i> <i>he would face pressure from the forces for and against</i> <i>integrating New York's schools,</i> <i>and we were there to watch it unfold.</i> - So one of the first public statements you made was via Twitter. Were you trying to send a very early message about the type of chancellor you were going to be. - I wanted to just highlight the fact that this is happening in our city and bring that to people's attention, but it also, I think, was, um, perhaps an insight to the fact that, um, what you see is what you get. - We have, um, had a community that has largely wanted to tiptoe around the issue of inequality and segregation, even in language. - If the Supreme Court of the United States can use the term segregation, then why can't the chancellor of New York City's public schools use the term segregation to describe the real conditions that exist in-in-in the organization and the schools that I visit on a-on a almost daily basis? I think that it makes people uncomfortable, um, and I understand that, but the word is the word and the meaning is the meaning. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>What I'm gonna do this afternoon with you</i> is perhaps speak to you like no chancellor has ever spoken to you before. We have a moment of opportunity here to do the right thing, and we're gonna do the right thing. That means that adults are gonna feel uncomfortable. That means that your voices are gonna get heard. And here is my other promise to you- that when the going gets tough, and people say to us, "We can't do that because we've never done it before." But no, we will not wait to integrate our schools. We will not wait to dismantle the segregated systems we have. We will not wait to make sure that every student, regardless of who they are... group: ♪ We going to school and to get to school ♪ ♪ We shouldn't slow or stop ♪ <i>- I really love the chancellor's speech</i> <i>but it's hard to just believe words</i> <i>when you've been in this space,</i> <i>and you've seen politicians say it.</i> <i>- He talked and then he left. </i>- Right. - How are you gonna hear me if you're not in the same building as me? - What would you guys have asked him? What are some questions you have for him? - What does he have planned for now? What is he doing right now that, like, what does he have planned for the future? - If all these, like, people of high positions care so much, and they're trying to do what they can for change, like, why hasn't change happened yet? <i>REPORTER: May 17th, 1954 was a Monday.</i> <i>The court said separate educational facilities</i> <i>are inherently unequal.</i> <i>[suspenseful music]</i> <i>DODAI: In the decades after</i> <i>the Brown v. Board of Education decision,</i> <i>many schools across the country</i> <i>actually did integrate.</i> <i>White kids in classrooms bring resources and funding,</i> <i>and studies showed that everyone benefitted.</i> <i>Generations of students, black and white,</i> <i>had better outcomes</i> <i>when it came to things like employment, health,</i> <i>or civic engagement thanks to integration.</i> <i>But there was a fierce backlash.</i> <i>White communities violently protested,</i> <i>harassing and attacking black students.</i> <i>Over the ensuing decades,</i> <i>this opposition would dismantle integration.</i> <i>In New York,</i> <i>schools were never integrated in the first place.</i> <i>Black and Puerto Rican children lived in</i> <i>the poorest neighborhoods,</i> <i>and were funneled into the most underresourced</i> <i>and neglected schools.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>MARCUS: It's been 65 years.</i> <i>We are still dealing with segregation</i> <i>in New York City public schools.</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>SOKHNADIARRA: I was surrounded by black people,</i> <i>I've always been surrounded by black people.</i> <i>The only white kids I see are on TV.</i> So how am I supposed to know if what I'm getting is the right education or not? <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>DODAI: To get into New York's</i> <i>highest performing schools,</i> <i>you need to pass through a screening process</i> <i>or qualify for a gifted program.</i> <i>These selective methods</i> <i>largely cut off disadvantaged kids.</i> - I didn't have a choice to go to a gifted middle school because I wasn't labeled as a gifted kid because I didn't get three's and four's on my state test scores, I got two's. - How does that feel as a-a child to be told, "Actually you're not good enough to go to this school"? - It was demoralizing. Like to be told to go back to a place where ceilings are falling down and fights are breaking out all the time was just like- I don't know. I felt like a hole was inside because, like, at this point, what do I do? I feel like once I got into high school, or like during that process, um, I was kind of ashamed of being black. 'cause I tied my low state scores and my socio-economic class to my race. And I took that to high school thinking, "If I got white friends, I would somehow become like them." <i>I hated myself, I hated my race.</i> <i>I hated the people around me.</i> <i>I know I could've gotten a better situation,</i> <i>and I just felt like I was robbed of an opportunity.</i> <i>[somber music]</i> - It really hit for me when I spoke to Coco. <i>She goes to one of the wealthiest schools,</i> <i>Beacon High School.</i> - Have a good day. - Have a good day. <i>If you didn't have certain grades or test scores,</i> it was made explicit that, even though you were getting an interview, your chances of getting into the school were slim to none. <i>DODAI: Screens are admissions requirements.</i> <i>Schools can use test scores, attendance records,</i> <i>and even interviews or portfolios of work</i> <i>to select students.</i> <i>- When these schools are screening,</i> they're only looking for the students that came from privilege and took advantage of that privilege. I cannot take advantage of nothing. <i>- Education is a right, not just for the rich and white.</i> ALL: Education is a right, not just for the rich and white. [cheers] <i>DODAI: These are the reasons Marcus, Coco,</i> <i>and Sokhnadiarra are part of Teens Take Charge,</i> <i>a student group that's been trying to integrate schools.</i> - It shouldn't be 65 years. Dot, dot, dot. Really? - Yeah, something like that. You know? <i>DODAI: They're appealing directly</i> <i>to Carranza and the mayor.</i> - We're going to be hosting a meeting at city hall. with D.O.E. officials and city council members to push them to integrate the school system. <i>DODAI: They have specific demands,</i> <i>including taking away things like screens,</i> <i>demands that they've been pushing the city</i> <i>to take seriously.</i> - Because 65 years... - Is enough. - Is more than enough. <i>- So good morning.</i> This month marks 65 years since the Supreme Court issued the landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education. <i>DODAI: At a city council hearing in May,</i> <i>Carranza faced some of his toughest questions.</i> - What is the department's overarching plan to address segregation in a sustained way? - We have been trying and waiting for 65 years. What you would do differently? - Do you commit to adding metrics? - The overall strategy is to continue to lay a vision for integration of our schools. It's both a bottom up with the coalition of the willing, but it's also a top down where we're pushing, um, the engagement process. <i>DODAI: When he was asked to make specific commitments,</i> <i>Carranza repeatedly deferred to an advisory committee.</i> - The Diversity Advisory Committee is going to be making recommendations. We are going to meet with the School Diversity Advisory Committee. We are going to meet with the School Diversity Advisory Committee. The School Diversity Advisory Committee... <i>DODAI: But the chancellor has the authority</i> <i>to introduce his own policies.</i> - Let me just interject here. Chancellor, I say with respect, I mean, the School Diversity Advisory Group is not a separate branch of government with oversight over this administration. The City Council is. So when we ask questions at an oversight hearing, we expect answers. <i>DODAI: But Carranza didn't seem to have</i> <i>a citywide integration plan,</i> <i>and Mayor de Blasio had not given any indication</i> <i>that he was supportive of any major integration efforts.</i> <i>After five hours of testimony,</i> <i>the next steps were still unclear.</i> - At a hearing on the same issue in 2017, you said, "We do believe that segregation is an issue that needs to be addressed." Needs to be addressed is a passive voice. Addressed by whom? Let me put my skills from English class to use. We, the D.O.E. do believe that segregation in New York City is an urgent issue that we, the D.O.E. need to address. I've heard a lot of adults say how much they love hearing from the student voice, how much they value us. I agree, I agree. The student voice is great. But you know what I prefer? Adult action. So until you start backing up your words, I don't want to hear your compliments. Thank you. [applause] - Throw it down. - The New York City school system will be boycotted when February 3rd arrives. <i>We are mobilizing just as swiftly as we can...</i> <i>DODAI: A decade after Brown v. Board,</i> <i>New York's civil rights leaders</i> <i>were fed up with the city's segregated schools.</i> <i>460,000 black and Puerto Rican children</i> <i>boycotted school for one day.</i> <i>It was the largest civil right demonstration</i> <i>in the city's history.</i> <i>So school officials responded with an integration plan.</i> <i>- The plan to transfer white students by bus</i> <i>to predominantly negro schools,</i> <i>some of them in ghetto areas.</i> <i>DODAI: Thousands came out in protest.</i> [all singing] <i>- Are you against equality?</i> - We are not. We want quality and equality for all children in the city of New York, but forced cross busing will not do it. ALL: No busing! No busing! <i>DODAI: Busing became the codeword</i> <i>to oppose integration.</i> <i>That resistance would break</i> <i>the integration campaign in New York,</i> <i>which leaves us where we are today.</i> <i>- Out of the 895 students</i> <i>admitted to Stuyvesant for next fall,</i> <i>just seven are African American.</i> <i>DODAI: Stuyvesant is one of the highest performing</i> <i>public high schools in the city.</i> <i>In fact, in the nation.</i> <i>It's one of eight specialized public high schools</i> <i>in New York that requires students to ace a test</i> <i>called the SHSAT.</i> <i>It's a test that tends to favor families</i> <i>who can afford or access test prep,</i> <i>and the pipeline of students comes from a small number</i> <i>of elite public middle schools.</i> <i>The specialized schools</i> <i>are roughly 10% black and Latino.</i> - The test has to go! <i>DODAI: Under pressure, Carranza and Mayor de Blasio</i> <i>came up with a plan-</i> <i>drop the test and open enrollment</i> <i>to the top students in all middle schools.</i> <i>They might've been able to implement it,</i> <i>at least in some of the schools themselves.</i> <i>But instead, they asked the state legislature</i> <i>to vote on it as a plan for all specialized high schools.</i> - Will result in specialized schools in which 45% of all students will be black and Latino. - Join the movement. Be on the right side of history. ALL: Racist Carranza! Racist Carranza! <i>DODAI: The reaction from some parents was fierce.</i> <i>Lower income Asian American families and white families</i> <i>are over represented in the specialized schools.</i> <i>Asian students would lose seats under this new proposal,</i> <i>but white students would retain about the same number.</i> - We're raising our voices today against the city's attempt to pit children against each other by race. [cheers] - I have heard from parents over the last many months what a negative impact this proposal will have on their children. <i>DODAI: Maud Maron is a public defender,</i> <i>and is part of the parent's council</i> <i>for one of the wealthiest districts in the city.</i> - It is 100% clear that we need to do better in terms of having more integrated schools, but we also need to do better in meeting the educational needs of all of our kids, um, including high achieving kids. <i>DODAI: She says many people feel this proposal</i> <i>would bring in kids who aren't ready</i> <i>for the demanding curriculum.</i> <i>That's something the city refutes.</i> ALL: Save the school! - I think that's a reasonable point of view to listen to. You can agree with it or disagree with it, but to be called racist to advance that point of view or to be suspected of just trying to keep black kids out of the school seems, to me, really unfortunate because it shuts down the conversation all the time. - What desegregation efforts then would you support? - To have really integrated schools, we need to start at, um, a really young age. - Right, so, you would support rezoning schools for integration? - Um, yes, with a caveat, and the caveat is you have to do that in the exact opposite way than Chancellor Carranza did the specialized high school program, which is that you have to have community buy-in. When people say, "I'm nervous that this, um, is gonna result in my kid getting a less good education," you have to take that concern, um, as a valid concern even if you think it's racist and it may be, but you still have to take it as a valid concern because we live in a choice system, right? <i>DODAI: What Maude's referring to is the fact</i> <i>that wealthier families</i> <i>can opt to leave the public school system.</i> <i>It's a threat that looms over city officials,</i> <i>and it's likely part of the reason</i> <i>that large scale integration has never happened.</i> - Integration is not just about some PC variety of diversity. It's about justice. What are you willing to give up? What are advantaged parents willing to give up for equality? - You're dividing people into buckets and saying, "You folks, you have to give up some. "You have to make do with less so that we can advantage these other people." That's a loser of an argument politically. - I clearly know that the argument I'm making is probably a losing argument, but what I'm saying is that, uh, I don't think you can then claim to have it both ways. You can't say you believe in equality while at the same time trying to sustain a system that is advantaging the same kids who already have advantage. - I would like to see more integrated schools, right? But I think if you go about it by positing it as some people are gonna have to give things up, um, you're not gonna get any closer to integrated schools. MAN: When I say integrate, you say now. Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Integrate. ALL: Now! - Today, we are here to create that tension to prove that we the students will not stop fighting fiercely for our right to an integrated education. <i>DODAI: In June, Teens Take Charge</i> <i>led hundreds of students in a demonstration</i> <i>aimed directly at Mayor de Blasio and Carranza.</i> - We see that eight specialized high schools who have most majority of Asian and white students who have most the resources, whereas schools in the south Bronx barely have computers, laptops, teachers, paper! Paper! [cheers] So I ask you today, will you stand for this any longer? ALL: No! - Will you stand for this any longer? ALL: No! [cheers] <i>- You have been talking about segregation now for a year.</i> When can we expect to see something, and what can you tell us that we're going to see? - Well, in one year, I've done more around this issue than the whole education policy work that's been done for years. Uh, I think no one can deny that. - But when will we see a plan come... - When it's the appropriate time. - Or a policy coming out of the Chancellor's office. - We are continuing to push, even politically, we're continuing to push the questions of the systems and structures that keep kids out of certain schools. Um, we are pushing that. <i>DODAI: But over the summer, Carranza and the Mayor's</i> <i>specialized high school plan failed.</i> <i>The state legislature didn't even bring it up for a vote.</i> <i>But then on August 27th,</i> <i>just a week before the new school year began,</i> <i>the school advisory board announced its recommendations.</i> <i>REPORTER: A panel is now recommending big changes</i> <i>to gifted programs in city schools.</i> <i>DODAI: Eliminate the gifted and talented program</i> <i>and most screens,</i> <i>the two selective methods that heavily contribute</i> <i>to segregation.</i> <i>It was a radical proposal.</i> - The changes coming could really be seismic. <i>DODAI: So would the mayor and Carranza implement it?</i> - Buenos dias! Good morning. I hope you're as excited as we are to start the school year. - First day of school is amazing. It's a time of renewal and endless possibilities. - Can each of you say whether you anticipate approving any of the proposals in this wide reaching plan? - Again, I-we have to make sense of the recommendations very carefully, particularly on the issue of gifted and talented, we've said we are-we know we're going to take the whole school year for deep stakeholder engagement, really think it through. - I want to thank, uh, the School Diversity Advisory Committee for their hard work for over two years. Uh, their work, uh, was not in vain. But again, we owe them the respect to really take a deep dive in what they've recommended, and then have a public conversation about what's the path forward, and that's currently where we are. <i>DODAI: Ultimately, the response is,</i> <i>"We need more time."</i> - This is not what our school system should look like. So how much longer will it take? <i>DODAI: New York City will have to wait another year.</i> ALL: Now much longer will it take? <i>DODAI: Another year of uncertainty.</i> <i>Another year of debate.</i> <i>- I don't think people are afraid to send their kids</i> <i>to school with kids of a different color.</i> I think they feel like it's the job as a parent to get their kids the kind of education that will help them get ahead in the world. ALL: Now much longer will it take? <i>REPORTER: May 17th, 1954 was a Monday.</i> <i>The court said</i> <i>separate educational facilities</i> <i>are inherently unequal.</i> - We are going to do five minutes of silence right now. <i>[somber music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>CARRANZA: There's a lot of work that's happening.</i> <i>We're enlisting people, we're building capacity,</i> <i>we're building the village.</i> <i>Politically, we're continuing to push the questions.</i> <i>So this is a process.</i> <i>SOKHNADIARRA: It's like every second that goes by</i> with them not doing anything, that's a child's future that is being put on the line. - I feel like we're not gonna make anymore progression until we get people who are willing to rock the boat, and willing to give up their positions and fight for what they believe in. Fight for our justice. <i>♪ ♪</i> <i>[uplifting music]</i> <i>♪ ♪</i>

Producer/Director Sweta Vohra

Two teenagers - one black, the other white - growing up a few miles apart have had two very different experiences in the New York City public school system. The gap in the quality of their education has likely put them on unequal paths for the rest of their lives.

It wasn't supposed to be this way in New York, one of the country's most diverse cities with more than 8 million people and 800 languages. And yet, it has one of the most segregated school systems in the nation.

Our reporters Eliza Shapiro and Nikole Hannah-Jones follow a group of students fighting for a better, more just education in a new episode of "The Weekly." And Nikole sits down with the schools chancellor, Richard A. Carranza, who says he's on a mission to finally integrate the city's schools. Can he deliver on a decades-long promise of integration?
[Join the conversation about @theweekly on Twitter and Instagram. #TheWeeklyNYT]

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[CITY SOUNDS] "I'm from Bushwick, New York. My neighborhood was what people would consider like a very dangerous neighborhood, like 10 years ago." "I went to PS 321 for elementary school. It's considered to be one of the best public elementary schools. We had tons of resources, two play grounds, science class." "We had a small facility where classes were breaking down. Like literally, tiles on the ceiling or falling." These two teens grew up just a few miles from each other. But the gap in the quality of their education will likely put them on unequal paths for the rest of their lives. One public school system, two very different experiences. School segregation was supposed to be a problem from the past supposed to have ended in the 1950s. Instead, today, black children are more segregated in this country than they've been in half a century. "Education is a right, not just for the rich and white." "Education is a right, not just for the rich and white." Here, in the biggest city in America, a decades-old conversation about schools and race has been reignited. "Will you stand for this any longer?" "No." "We have a segregated system and we want to integrate the system." This new schools chancellor is using language that's rarely heard from city officials. "What are you saying? Integrate, what does that mean?" And there's a growing number of students seizing on this moment. Metro reporter Eliza Shapiro and magazine reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones have been closely following the issue of school segregation in New York. "Segregation has got to go." It's the first time in years that integration is being spoken about at the highest levels. But it means both fighting decades of inequality, as well as going up against the parents - "This is not the solution." - who see steps to integrate schools as a threat to their own children's education. "I want to keep the current specialized high schools as high schools for the best of the best." "We must fight." "We must fight." So six decades after segregation was supposed to have ended, can New York create a more equal school system? "Where power is shared by all groups." And is this the man who's going to lead the way? "We must fight." "We must fight." "We must fight."

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When Carranza became chancellor of New York City's public school system, the nation's largest, he made desegregation his top priority. One month on the job, he retweeted a video that originally aired on NY1, which documented an angry debate over an initiative to diversify middle schools in one Manhattan district. That move immediately made him a lightning rod.

As he began his second year in charge, he seemed to be resetting public expectations. "If I integrated the system, the next thing I'm going to do is I'm going to walk on water," he told Eliza in an interview.

Stuyvesant High School, one of New York's elite public schools, offered only seven of 895 slots in its 2019 freshman class to black students. This raised the pressure on officials to confront the decades-old challenge of integrating the city's schools, Eliza wrote.

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Credit... Kevin Hagen for The New York Times

Earlier this year, Mayor Bill de Blasio proposed a plan that would have scrapped the specialized entrance exam for Stuyvesant and New York City's other top public high schools. The contentious bill divided many families along racial lines, and in June, the state legislature failed to bring it up for a floor vote.

Nikole shared her personal account of dealing with New York City's segregated school system in a Times Magazine essay about choosing a school for her daughter.

In a news analysis on court-ordered school desegregation and the impact of busing on America's school systems, Nikole wrote that the argument that busing was a failure "is a lie." She wrote that busing, "transformed the South from apartheid to the place where black children are now the most likely to sit in classrooms with white children."

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Segregation isn't just a problem from the Jim Crow era. New York City is home to one of the most segregated school districts in the country, threatening the city's self-image as a progressive bastion.

Students are leading the desegregation movement. Some teenagers with the most at stake have helped force school integration to the forefront of New York's political agenda by confronting Mayor de Blasio, the schools chancellor Carranza and other leaders. Students have introduced their own proposals to help desegregate public schools, and many support eliminating the specialized high school admissions test and overhauling the city's gifted and talented programs.

Resistance to integration is rooted in some parents' fear that integration will take something away from their children. New York has long maintained a two-tiered system in which parents with resources can send their children to the most popular and highest-performing schools, and black, Hispanic and low-income families are mired in under-enrolled and underperforming schools. Integration would mean that students with different academic abilities and strengths would learn together more often. Decades of research have shown that integration has led to improved academic performance for black and Hispanic students, with no harm to white students. And studies show all children benefit from learning in diverse classrooms.

Show Notes

Student protests, now and then.

Marcus Alston is a senior at Pace University High School in Manhattan's Chinatown neighborhood. He's starting his college applications and continues to work with Teens Take Charge to make "education more equitable for all New York City students, no matter their race, class, or neighborhood."

Maud Maron serves as vice president of the Community Education Council for District 2 in Manhattan and is running for a City Council seat in 2021. Maron is a reliable critic of Carranza's education policies, and she has become a target of Teens Take Charge activists like Marcus and Coco. This summer, the group called on Maron to resign her education council post after she criticized the city's proposals for a more culturally diverse curriculum and implicit bias training.

Richard A. Carranza has spoken about the need for integration since he arrived in New York City in April 2018. Now, he faces a high-stakes decision as to whether he and Mayor de Blasio should push ahead with an advisory committee's recommendation to eliminate the city's racially segregated gifted and talented programs. The mayor and schools chancellor are likely to take a year to decide.

Senior Story Editors Dan Barry, Liz O. Baylen, and Liz Day
Director of Photography Vanessa Carr
Video Editors Adrienne Haspel and Pierre Takal
Associate Producer Brennan Cusack

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The Weekly | The Fight to Desegregate New York Schools

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transcript Can the largest public school system in the U.S. educate students fairly if it's also one of the most segregated? [car horns honking] [chattering] [haunting music] ♪ ♪ - I'm from Bushwick, New York. My neighborhood was what people would consider, like, a very dangerous neighborhood like ten years ago.

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For some of the approximately 22 million veterans in the U.S. today, the return to civilian life is met with significant and various struggles. Here are things to keep in mind that will help us support them and show our appreciation for all they do.

Fighting mental health, medical and family issues

With the emotional, physical and personal stress inherent in military service (and especially related to combat-related duty), major concerns for veterans can include:

Mental health issues such as post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from memories of combat violence and other traumatic and life-threatening experiences. At any given time, about 30% of veterans suffer from PTSD, compared to about four % of adults in the general population. About 20% of vets with PTSD also experience issues with alcohol or drug abuse.

Other physical and mental health struggles such as loss of limbs, severe burns, limited mobility or traumatic brain injuries. Veterans with these impairments often face multiple surgeries and grueling rehabilitation sessions.

Homelessness at a higher rate than the general population. Although veterans make up about seven % of the overall U.S. population, homeless veterans represent about 12% of the homeless population. Every night in the United States, about 50,000 veterans are homeless. However, the rate of veteran homelessness has declined by more than 30% since its highest level in 2010.

Education deficits compared to the general population. Since many veterans joined the service right after high school, fewer veterans have college degrees. Only 26% of U.S. veterans graduated from college compared to more than 30% of the general population.

A lack of understanding from loved ones and the general public about what military service was like and the challenges associated with integrating into life back home.

How you can help

If you'd like to help vets or those in active military service, here are five ways you can get involved:

1. Help vets get medical care and other resources.

Disabled American Veterans (DAV) is a nonprofit that drives veterans to medical appointments, assist them in filing benefit claims (e.g., VA health benefits or Medicare health insurance) with the government and helps vets with medical, employment and other general needs. The DAV needs volunteers to:

Drive veterans to appointments at Veterans Affairs hospitals around the country.

Volunteer at VA hospitals.

Assist veterans in your community with needs such as grocery shopping, running errands or helping with yard work.

If you'd like to help a veteran, learn more about opportunities to volunteer at DAV.

2. Build a home for a vet.

A couple of different organizations build new homes or adapt existing homes for veterans with severe injuries. If you're a contractor or tradesman, Building Homes for Heroes and Homes for Our Troops can both use your skills to help build homes for injured vets.If you don't have building expertise, you can still get involved by donating funds, goods and services or land.

3. Provide a service dog for a vet.

Service dogs can help vets who have PTSD, brain injuries, vision impairments and physical injuries. Many communities have organizations that provide service dogs to vets. Some organizations such as the Puppy Jake Foundation in Des Moines, Iowa, use volunteers to raise puppies as service dogs. Other organizations such as Puppies Behind Bars in New York City train prison inmates to raise dogs for vets.

If you're interested in volunteering or donating for a similar organization in your area, search online for "service dogs for veterans" in your community.

4. Help homeless vets.

Stand Down programs for homeless veterans are local one- to three-day events that provide a single spot for vets to receive food, shelter, health screenings and other needs. To volunteer for a Stand Down event near you, check with the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans.

5. Help active troops talk to loved ones.

USO Operation Phone Home allows troops to connect with loved ones through free phone calls and high-speed internet access available at USO service centers. For service members in remote areas who can't access a service center, the USO offers free prepaid international calling cards.

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5 Ways to help veterans with mental health, medical and family issues

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For some of the approximately 22 million veterans in the U.S. today, the return to civilian life is met with significant and various struggles. Here are things to keep in mind that will help us support them and show our appreciation for all they do.

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It is that time of year again - Plastic Free July! In case you missed our previous blog posts on this topic, you can see them here!

We recognize that trying to reduce our plastic consumption during this period in history is tough - Americans are producing 30% more trash this year than the same period last year, and it seems like everything at the grocery store is wrapped in additional layers of plastic. There is growing concern that the increase in plastic consumption is translating to a rise in plastic litter, particularly in single use masks and gloves being discarded in parking lots. This leads to the question:

What can be done about the litter?

If you are interested in picking up litter along a stream bank, road, or around your neighborhood, there are some precautions you need to take to be sure that litter is the only thing you are picking up.

1) Practice social distancing. If you are participating in a clean-up effort with people outside of your immediate family bubble, than be sure to remain at least six feet apart. If you are going to be in an area that has potential hazards, like along a waterway, be sure that you do go with a partner and stay safe six feet apart!

2) Wear bright colors. Florescent colors and reflectors will help people to see you doing the important work of cleaning up litter, especially near high risk areas like roads. If you have extra gloves, you can invite them to join you in your efforts!

3) Wear a mask. If you are in an area where other people might be around, please wear a mask.

Wear bright colors, a mask and gloves.

4) Wear gloves. You should always wear gloves when picking up litter! A pair of disposable nitrile gloves ensures that anything that is transferred from the litter does not collect on your skin. Be sure to practice good glove etiquette and DO NOT TOUCH your face, clothes, exposed skin or water bottle with gloves that have been in contact with unknown litter (here is guide for teaching good glove technique!). It is very important that your gloves are non-permeable and disposable - unfortunately it means generating some waste in order to help reduce waste in our environment. Your personal safety is the most important thing!

5) Use trash pickers. If you have access to an extended grabber/reaching tool (like this one), you can use this to pick up garbage and reduce the contact with the potentially contaminated trash. We purchased the grabbers that we are using at the Trust from the Dollar store. Be sure to sanitize your grabber after using it with hot soapy water or Clorox wipes.

6) Keep an eye on your surroundings. While you are out cleaning up litter, stay alert and pay attention to your surroundings. This will keep you safe and you may notice beautiful details in your environment, like chicory or other native flowering plants.

Chicory at Ashbridge Preserve.

7) Wash your hands. As soon as your gloves come off and are properly disposed of in your garbage bag, use hand sanitizer or wash your hands in hot, soapy water.

Evan Hunt and Lauren McGrath social distanced and ready to clean up the stream!

8) Properly dispose of your collected litter. Check with your local municipality's recycling and hazardous waste ordinances.

9) Celebrate your efforts! Every clean-up effort should be celebrated with pictures, a hearty snack and a delicious cold drink to rehydrate after working hard in the July weather!

As always, when you are in the outdoors, remember to check the weather for any rain or excessive heat warning and plan accordingly (you might want to plan on going out in the cooler mornings or evenings), be mindful of boundaries and do not trespass, and drink plenty of water!

Have you picked up garbage during the pandemic? Send your pictures and tips to land@wctrust.org.

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It is that time of year again - Plastic Free July! In case you missed our previous blog posts on this topic, you can see them here!

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officials are trying to save it with art - cnn

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A St. Louis high school, known for alumni like Tina Turner, was facing closure. Now, officials are trying to save it with art

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Sumner High School, the first Black high school west of the Mississippi River, was once a key landmark in its community.

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Over the past half-century, women have strengthened their position in the labor force and boosted their economic standing by making gains in labor force participation, wages and access to more lucrative occupations. But their progress on some fronts has stagnated in recent years, and large gender gaps persist at the top levels of leadership in government and business.

Here are some key findings about gender gains and gaps in America.

1 Women make up 47% of the U.S. labor force, up from 30% in 1950 - but growth has stagnated. The share of women in the labor force generally grew throughout the second half of the 20th century, but it has since leveled off. Projections from the Bureau of Labor Statistics indicate that in the coming decades women will continue to make up slightly less than half of the labor force.

2 Women have seen steady growth in labor force participation over the past several decades, but that too has leveled off. In 2017, 57% of working-age women (ages 16 and older) were either employed or looking for work. That's higher than it was in 1980 (51%) but down somewhat from its peak of 60% in 1999.

One of the main drivers of increased labor force participation among women over the decades has been the sharp increase in the share of mothers in the workforce. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of mothers with children younger than 18 were in the labor force in 2000, up from 47% in 1975 (the first year for which data on mothers' labor force participation are available). That share has remained relatively stable since about 2000.

Men's presence in the labor force has been on the decline in recent decades. In 1980, 77% of working-age men (ages 16 and older) were employed or looking for work; in 2017, 69% were in the labor force.

3 Growing wages for women have helped narrow the gender pay gap, though women still lag men in pay. Women's median hourly earnings were $16.00 in 2016, up from $12.48 in 1980 (after adjusting for inflation). Men earned a median hourly wage of $19.23 in 2016, down slightly from $19.42 in 1980.

In other words, in 2016, the median working woman earned 83 cents for every dollar earned by men, compared with 64 cents for every man's dollar in 1980. For workers ages 25 to 34, the wage gap is smaller: In 2016, women in this group earned 90 cents for every dollar a man in the same age group made. White and Asian women have narrowed the wage gap with white men to a much greater degree than black and Hispanic women.

Women's increasing wages have been driven in part by their increased presence in more lucrative occupations. For example, women today are just as likely as men to be working in managerial positions. In 1980, men were twice as likely as women to have these types of jobs.

4 Women have made gains in educational attainment, which has contributed to their progress in the workforce at large. Among adults ages 25 to 64, women are now more likely than men to have a four-year college degree. In 2017, 38% of these women and 33% of men had a bachelor's degree.

Women are also outpacing men in postgraduate education. In 2017, 14% of women ages 25 to 64 had an advanced degree, compared with 12% of men. In 1992, a higher share of men (9%) than women (6%) in this age group had an advanced degree.

5 Women still lag in top leadership positions in business and government. Women have made inroads in a wide range of leadership positions in recent decades, but they only account for about 20% of members of Congress and about a quarter of state legislature members. Women made up roughly 5% of Fortune 500 company CEOs in the first quarter of 2017 and about 20% of Fortune 500 board members in 2016. As of March 2018, there are six female governors and five females in executive branch cabinet-level positions.

Most Americans say women are equally as capable of leading as men are. But many say there aren't more women in top business or political positions because women are held to higher standards than men and have to do more to prove themselves (43% say this for business positions, 38% for political offices). Similar shares say the electorate and corporate America are just not ready to put more women in top leadership positions.

6 The role of women as family breadwinners has grown dramatically in recent decades. In 2014, women were the sole or primary financial provider in four-in-ten households with children younger than 18, up from 11% in 1960.

Today, 31% of women who are married to or cohabiting with a male partner contribute at least half of the couple's total earnings, up from just 13% in 1980. But men earn more than women in 69% of married or cohabiting couples.

Despite the increase in women's financial contributions, roughly seven-in-ten adults (71%) say it is very important for a man to be able to support a family financially in order to be a good husband or partner. Just 32% say it's very important for a woman to do the same to be a good wife or partner.

7 Working women are much more likely than working men to say they've faced gender discrimination on the job. Women are about twice as likely as men (42% vs. 22%) to say they have experienced at least one of eight specific forms of gender discrimination at work.

One-in-four working women (25%) say they have earned less than a man who was doing the same job, compared with just 5% of men who say they've earned less than a female peer. Women are also about four times as likely as men to say they have been treated as if they were not competent because of their gender (23% of women vs. 6% of men), and they are about three times as likely to say they have experienced repeated small slights at work because of their gender (16% versus 5%).

8 The public is divided over whether the country has made adequate progress in giving women equal rights with men. Half of Americans say the country hasn't gone far enough, 39% say efforts on this front have been about right and 10% say the country has gone too far. While more than half of women (57%) say the country hasn't done enough to give women equal rights with men, men are split between saying there is more work to be done (42%) and that things are about right (44%).

Men and women have different perspectives on how far the country has come in achieving gender equality, but this gender gap narrows when partisanship is taken into account. Among Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents, a majority of women (74%) and men (64%) say the country hasn't gone far enough when it comes to achieving gender equality. And while Republican and Republican-leaning women are more likely than their male counterparts to share this view, relatively small shares of each group do so (33% of women vs. 20% of men).

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A look at gender gains and gaps in the U.S.

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Over the past half-century, women have strengthened their position in the labor force and boosted their economic standing by making gains in labor force participation, wages and access to more lucrative occupations. But their progress on some fronts has stagnated in recent years, and large gender gaps persist at the top levels of leadership in government and business.

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In the United States, the percentage of children and adolescents affected by obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s. ¹ In 2017-2018, about 1 in 5 school-aged children were affected by obesity (20.3% of all 6-11 year olds, 21.2% of all 12-19 year olds) ¹ . The prevalence of obesity among 2-19 year old children was 25.6% for Hispanic children, 24.2% for Black children, 16.1% for White children, and 8.7% for Asian children. ¹ Many factors contribute to childhood obesity, including: ²⁻⁶

Metabolism-how your body changes food and oxygen into energy it can use.

Eating and physical activity behaviors.

Community and neighborhood design and safety.

Short sleep duration.

Negative childhood events.

Genetic factors cannot be changed. However, people and places can play a role in helping children achieve and maintain a healthy weight. Changes in the environments where young people spend their time-like homes, schools, and community settings-can make it easier for youths to access nutritious foods and be physically active. Schools can adopt policies and practices that help young people eat more fruits and vegetables, eat fewer foods and beverages that are high in added sugars or solid fats, and increase daily minutes of physical activity. 3, 7-9 These kinds of school-based and after-school programs and policies can be cost-effective and even cost-saving. 10,11

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted students' routines and access to the school environment. Children gained weight at a faster rate during the pandemic (June 1-November 2020) compared to pre-pandemic, with younger school-aged children (6-11) experiencing a rate of BMI change that was 2.5 higher than before the pandemic. ¹⁵

Schools are a priority setting for obesity prevention efforts because they reach the vast majority of school-aged youth, provide regularly scheduled opportunities for physical activity, and offer nutritious foods through school meal programs. ³

With a widespread return to in person learning, children can have consistent access to physical activity opportunities, healthy meals, and services provided by school nurses and counselors.

A comprehensive approach is effective at addressing childhood obesity in schools, especially for elementary and middle school students. ¹³⁻¹⁵ Scientists know less about what school-based obesity prevention approaches are effective for teenagers. ¹³⁻¹⁵ A comprehensive approach means directing attention to nutrition and physical activity in schools and even involving school nurses, parents, caregivers, and other community members (e.g., pediatricians, after-school program providers) in the process. This approach aims to support the health and well-being of all students. It does not single out students according to their weight status or body size. Overweight and obesity are sensitive issues for students and families and must be addressed with compassion, understanding, and care. ¹⁶ School-based programs to promote physical activity and improved diet quality do not appear to contribute to increases in depression, anxiety, or body-dissatisfaction; however, many studies do not collect information about these unintended effects. ¹⁵ To avoid embarrassing or shaming students, schools should not emphasize physical appearances or reinforce negative stereotypes about obesity. 17

School nurses play an important role to prevent and reduce student overweight and obesity prevalence. School nurses can address the complex physical, social, and health education needs of children and adolescents who are overweight or who have obesity. 15, 16 School nurses have the knowledge and skills to do the following:

Create a culture of health and wellness in school.

Promote and implement school-based policies and strategies for healthy eating and physical activity.

Coordinate care with families and health care professionals.

Lead the school community to influence policy changes that reinforce healthy eating, physical education, and physical activity before, during, and after school.

For more information about childhood obesity, visit Child & Teen Healthy Weight and Obesity.

1. Fryar CD, Carroll MD, Afful J. Prevalence of overweight, obesity, and severe obesity among children and adolescents aged 2-19 years: United States, 1963-1965 through 2017-2018. NCHS Health E-Stats. 2020. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/hestat/obesity-child-17-18/overweight-obesity-child-H.pdf

2. Swinburn BA, Sacks G, Hall KD, et al. The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments. Lancet. 2011;378(9793):804-814.

3. Institute of Medicine. Accelerating Progress in Obesity Prevention: Solving the Weight of the Nation. Washington, DC: National Academies Press; 2012.

4. Eisenburg LK, can Wijk KJE, Liefbroer AC, Smidt N. Accumulation of adverse childhood events and overweight in children: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Obesity. 2017;25(5):820-832.

5. Danese A, Tan M. Childhood maltreatment and obesity: systematic review and meta-analysis. Mol Psychiatry.2014;19:544-54.

6. Fatima Y, Doi SAR, Mamun AA. Longitudinal impact of sleep on overweight and obesity in children and adolescents: a systematic review and bias-adjusted meta-analysis. Obes Rev. 2015;15(2):137-149.

7. US Department of Health and Human Services. The Surgeon General's Vision for a Healthy and Fit Nation. Rockville, MD: US Dept of Health and Human Services; 2010.

8. Micha R, Karageorgou D, Bakogianni I, et al. Effectiveness of school food environment policies on children's dietary behaviors: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLoS ONE2018;13(3):e0194555.

9. The Community Guide. Interventions to Increase Healthy Eating and Physical Activity in Schools. 2019. Retrieved from https://www.thecommunityguide.org/content/interventions-increase-healthy-eating-and-physical-activity-schoolsexternal icon.

10. Gortmarker SL, Want CY, Long MW et al. Three interventions that reduce childhood obesity are projected to save more than they cost to implement. Health Affairs.2015;11(34):1932-1939.

11. Cradock AL, Barrett JL, Kenney EL. Using cost-effectiveness analysis to prioritize policy and programmatic approaches to physical activity promotion and obesity prevention in childhood. Prev Med.2017;95(S):S17-27.

12. Lange SJ, Kompaniyets L, Freedman DS, et al. Longitudinal Trends in Body Mass Index Before and During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Persons Aged 2-19 Years - United States, 2018-2020. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep 2021;70:1278-1283. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.15585/mmwr.mm7037a3external icon

13. Wang Y, Cai L, Wu Y, Wilson RF, Weston C, Fawole O, Bleich SN, Cheskin LJ, Showell NN, Lau BD, Chiu DT. What childhood obesity prevention programmes work? A systematic review and meta‐ Obes Rev. 2015;16(7):547-65.

14. Sobol‐Goldberg S, Rabinowitz J, Gross R. School‐based obesity prevention programs: a meta‐analysis of randomized controlled trials. 2013;21(12):2422-2428.

15. Brown T, Moore THM, Hooper L, Gao Y, Zayegh A, Ijaz S, Elwenspoek M, Foxen SC, Magee L, O'Malley C, Waters E, Summerbell CD. Interventions for preventing obesity in children. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2019. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD001871.pub4.

16. National Association of School Nurses. Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents in schools -The role of the school nurse (Position Statement). Silver Spring, MD: Author. 2018. Retrieved from https://www.nasn.org/advocacy/professional-practice-documents/position-statements/ps-overweightexternal icon. Accessed November 9, 2021.

17. Brownell KD, Schwartz MB, Puhl RM, Henderson KE, Harris JL. The need for bold action to prevent adolescent obesity. J Adolesc Health. 2009;45(suppl 3):S8-S17.

18. Schroeder K, Travers J, Smaldone A. Are school nurses an overlooked resource in reducing childhood obesity? A systematic review and meta-analysis. J Sch Health. 2016;86(5):309-321. doi: 10.1111/josh.12386

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centers for disease control and prevention

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Most US children spend an average of 6 to 7 hours a day at school, which is a large part of their waking hours. Thus, schools are a priority setting for preventing childhood obesity, a health condition that affects nearly 1 in 5 young people of school age (6 to 19 years) in the United States.

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With daily news reports about the devastating impact on students who have been relentlessly bullied, teachers find themselves on the front line in addressing bullying and intolerance.

It is time to move into action. Not In Our School offers solutions-based strategies and tools for change to a network of schools that are working to create safe, inclusive and accepting climates. The core ideas and actions of Not In Our School include:
Identification of Problems of Intolerance and Bullying
The focus is on problems that result from students bullying, harassing or being exclusionary and hateful. Often, harassment is based on gender, race, religion, sexual orientation, appearance, or disability. The first step is to start with a dialogue about the particular problem. Start with a lesson on mapping bully zones.
Solutions Defined by Students and Peer-to-Peer Actions
Students are supported in defining the problems and solutions needed to incorporate peer-to-peer actions, make their schools safe and help bystanders gather the courage to become "upstanders." A student-led anti-bullying assembly is a powerful way to encourage everyone to get involved.

The entire school community unites to say Not in Our School. This could take many forms -- buttons, banners, slogans, t-shirts, pledges, assemblies and school-wide activities -- but it needs to grow out of authentic discussion and efforts to create a safe and welcoming environment for students of all backgrounds and gender identities. We've created a quick-start download to help launch this effort at your school.

Many activities have been successfully implemented in schools and may be viewed in videos with lesson guides on the Not In Our School website. An array of testimonials from administrators, teachers, and students are available as well.

What is the Urgency?

In three horrifying hate crimes by teens and young adults, a 21-year-old man killed nine African Americans during a bible study group in Charleston, South Carolina in 2015; and high school students murdered a transgender Latina youth in Newark, California in 2002, and a Latino man in Patchogue, New York in 2008. As many as 20 people were involved in or stood and watched the gang rape of a 15-year-old girl outside a Richmond, California high school homecoming dance in 2009. Every day, news outlets report cases of youth who are bullied because they are perceived to be gay.

Bullying can lead to serious emotional problems, multiple school absences, and higher risk factors for suicide. These incidents have raised national awareness with anti-bullying laws in all 50 states that require schools to take immediate action regarding bullying. According to a UCLA psychology study, 70.6 percent of teens have seen bullying occur in their schools. But if someone intervenes, the bullying stops within 10 seconds. Additionally, research from scholars at University of California - Davis found that approaches to bullying and harassment have a better chance of success if bystanders, who make up the vast majority, are the focus of efforts to shift social norms. Interestingly, students seeking to move up the social ladder engage in acts of social cruelty, erroneously believing that it will increase their status. In our PBS film Not In Our Town: Class Actions, middle school students take the lead in educating their peers and their teachers in a NIOS anti-bullying initiative that reached 50,000 students following two suicides of local youth in Lancaster, California.

Five Practical Ways to Stop Bullying and Intolerance
1) Recognize and Respond
Bullying and intolerance manifest as verbal, written or physical acts that harm another person.

Educate students, parents and staff about taking bullying seriously and how to recognize it. Make an action plan to respond swiftly to incidents and daily teasing.

Identify and monitor places where most bullying happens (e.g., on the way to and from school, in the cafeteria, and on the school yard.)

2) Create Dialogue
Create opportunities for open dialogue with youth about bullying and intolerance. Let students lead through peer-to-peer action.

Provide opportunities for students to share their feelings, problems or ideas.

Get students involved in organizing anti-bullying forums where they resolve problems.

3) Encourage Bystanders to Become "Upstanders"
Upstanders are people who stand up for themselves and others.

Model ways for young people to intervene and speak up. Practice with role-playing.

Help youth develop effective phrases to reject negative comments or social media posts.

Have older students help younger students learn to speak up.

4) Foster Safety and Inclusion
Foster identify safe and welcoming environments that promote inclusion and acceptance, places where students feel everyone is respected and their identity is valued.

Connect with young people and create the trust that will help them come forward if they are being bullied.

Listen to them, pay attention and offer support when students are upset or sad.

5) Educate Your Community
Partner with others to take joint action in educating students, teachers and parents about bullying in your school and community.

Create a coalition of elected, school and civic community leaders to sign a school-wide pledge to say No Bullying: Not In Our School/Not In Our Town.

Sponsor a "Not In Our Schools" Week with buttons, banners, slogans, t-shirts and school-wide activities.

A Movement

Not in Our School as a movement and campaign is an effort that asks everyone to change the atmosphere that can lead to bullying and intolerance. Although the process can begin with these five steps, a safer climate for students does not happen overnight. It requires a sustained and collaborative effort of students, parents, educators and community members who work together to model and practice empathy, thoughtful responses and respect for different backgrounds and perspectives. It grows out of authentic discussion and efforts to create a safe and welcoming environment for students of all backgrounds and gender identities. In this lesson idea, " New Immigrants Share Their Stories" students may begin to think about their own relationships in the community.

School needs to be a place where students discover their identities, and where each student feels that a unique identity is an asset to him or her -- and to the world. They need to feel emotionally comfortable in a warm and "identity safe" environment where stereotypes and stereotype threat (the fear of being judged by a negative stereotype) are addressed. Efforts to build empathy and involve students in the process of change can shift the school culture to one where offending or hurting someone else, either in person or online, is not seen as cool. The whole culture can become a warm, caring environment where bullying is much less likely to occur.

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5 Ways to Stop Bullying and Move into Action

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With daily news reports about the devastating impact on students who have been relentlessly bullied, teachers find themselves on the front line in addressing bullying and intolerance. It is time to move into action. Not In Our School offers solutions-based strategies and tools for change to a network of schools that are working to create safe, inclusive and accepting climates.

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Here are 5 issues likely to loom large in Missouri's 2020 legislative session

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Editor's note: This story has been updated to clarify that under Clean Missouri, the 10-person bipartisan redistricting commissions still exist and could override maps drawn by the new "nonpartisan state demographer" with seven of ten votes. In the past week, Missouri lawmakers filed hundreds of bills they hope to make law in the coming session.

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Explained | Racial Wealth Gap | FULL EPISODE | Netflix

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Share On Social!

At least 9.6 million U.S. children (13%) live in poverty.

Among Latino children, poverty rates are even higher (22% vs. 8% white children). These children will often lack quality education and healthcare while suffering trauma and poor health outcomes.

But what if there was a way to fight poverty?

Or better yet, what if you had a road map with the most effective ways to fight poverty?

A new bipartisan report produced by the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM), focuses on 10 big policy areas that could cut the child poverty rate by up to 50%, while at the same time increasing employment and earnings among adults living in low-income families.

Researchers conducted two simulations or projections for each policy area to explore the effects that different versions of the expansion might have.

1. Expand the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)

The EITC provides a subsidy to individuals of low to moderate income and has largely been successful at reducing poverty and increasing employment among single parents.

Option 1: Increase in payments along "flat portions of the EITC schedule." This led to an additional 270,000 workers added to the economy, an increase of $4.9 billion in earnings, and a reduction in child poverty from 13% to 11.8%.

Option 2: Increase EITC payments by 40% across the whole schedule. This led to an additional 541,000 workers added to the economy, $9.0 billion in earnings, and a reduction in child poverty to 10.9%.

2. Expand Child Care Subsidies

Option 1: Expand the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit (CDCTC) to a fully-refundable tax credit focused on families with low incomes and kids younger than 5. This led to an additional 518,000 low-income workers added to the economy, $9.3 billion in earnings, and reduced child poverty to 11.8%.

Option 2: Provide assistance from the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) for eligible families with incomes less than 150% of the poverty line. This results 236,000 low-income workers added to the economy, $4.2 billion in earnings, and a reduction of poverty to 12.4%.

3. Raise the Federal Minimum Wage

Option 1: Increase the minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.25, (with indexing to occur alongside inflation). This would lead to 42,000 lost jobs and an increase in earnings of $3.5 billion.

Option 2: Raise the minimum wage to $10.25 or the 10th percentile of the state's hourly wage distribution (whichever is lowest). This would increase net earnings by $1.9 billion, but lead to 28,000 in lost jobs.

4. Implement the 'WorkAdvance' National Training/Employment Program

These programs would make men with families and an income below 200% of the poverty line eligible for training.

Option 1: Provide training to 10% of eligible men. This would lead to a total of 487,000 men enrolled in the program and an increase in total earnings of $817 million per year.

Option 2: Provide training to 30% of eligible men. This would lead to a total of 487,000 men enrolled in the program, and an increase in earnings of $2.4 billion per year.

Programming would initially incur costs but ultimately lead to savings through increased earnings and tax revenues and decreased benefits from other programs.

5. Expand SNAP

Both policy options proposed would allow benefits to reach teens and address food gaps that exist during summers, when children no longer have access to school-based food.

Option 1: Increase SNAP by 20% and adjust for children ages 12 and older (per household) and Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer to Children (SEBT). Child poverty would decrease to 11.3% (after accounting for employment effects).

Option 2: Increase SNAP by 30% and adjust for children ages 12 and older (per household) and Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer to Children (SEBT). Child poverty would decrease to 10.7% (after accounting for employment effects).

Latino families in particular benefit from SNAP. The program lifted over 1.2 million Latino children out of poverty in 2015.

6. Grow the Housing Vouchers Program

Expansion of the Housing Choice Voucher Program would have the following effects on children:

Option 1: Increase vouchers so that 50% of eligible families not receiving subsidized housing would use them. This would reduce child poverty to 10.9%.

Option 2: Increase vouchers so that 70% of eligible families not receiving subsidized housing would use them. This would reduce child poverty to 10.1%.

7. Expand the Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Program

Policy options for expanding the SSI program would increase benefits to families with children and teenagers with disabilities.

Option 1: Increase by one-third the maximum child SSI benefit (to $977 per month from a current baseline of $733).

Option 2: Increase by two-thirds the maximum child SSI benefit (to $1,222) from a current baseline of $733).

Overall, the simulations showed little changes in child poverty with a decrease to 12.8% (including employment effects).

8. Create a Universal Child Allowance

Option 1: Provide a monthly benefit of $166 per month ($2,000 per year) per child to families with children younger than 17 who have a Social Security number. This also calls for phasing out the child tax credit, additional child tax credit, and child allowance benefits.

Option 2: Provide a monthly benefit of $250 per month ($3,000 per year) per child to families with kids younger than 18 who have a Social Security number. This also calls for phasing out the child tax credit, additional child tax credit, and child allowance benefits for those between 300 and 400% of the poverty line.

The first option would provide almost a universal tax credit in the form of a monthly payment. The second option would phase out benefits at lower income levels than what is established under current laws. Results from option 1 were not large enough to reduce child poverty, and option 2 reduced poverty only slightly by 0.1 percentage points.

9. Create a Child Support Assurance Program

Option 1: Set a guaranteed minimum child support of $100 per month per child.

Option 2: Set a guaranteed minimum child support of $150 per month per child.

Results from this analysis found that child poverty rates were not impacted by much due to the modest amounts of increases to income this would provide.

10. Increase Immigrants' Access to Safety Net Programs

The final set of policy approaches explored expanding benefits to immigrant families.

Simulations showed minimal effects with a reduction in child poverty to 12.9% for the first policy option and 11.9% once employment effects were factored in.

Option 1: Restore program eligibility for non-qualified legal immigrants. This option would eliminate eligibility restrictions for non-qualified parents and children in the SNAP, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Medicaid, SSI, and other means-tested federal programs.

Option 2: Expand program eligibility for all non-citizen children and parents. This option would eliminate eligibility restrictions for all non-citizen parents and children in the SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, SSI and other means-tested federal programs.

A Combination Approach Works Best

Each of the 10 policies independently has the potential to help children and families out of poverty.

But the report makes it clear that no policy alone could achieve the goal of cutting poverty in half. That takes a combined approach.

Researchers went on to conduct a cost-benefit analysis for four different combinations of these policy approaches.

Of the four strategies tested in simulations, a "universal supports and work package"approach appeared to have the greatest potential to reduce both poverty and deep poverty by half. This approach would include expansion of the EITC and CDCTC, an increase in the minimum wage, increased eligibility for immigrants to safety net programs and a new child support assurance program.

It also would increase employment by 600,000 and earnings by $13.4 billion.

Consequences of Child Poverty

The report concludes that there is indeed a causal link between poverty and negative child outcomes.

Poverty during early childhood or throughout large portions of childhood is especially detrimental.

They provide recommendations for how and why communities should move forward by taking action to prevent child poverty.

Costs of Child Poverty

Researchers also found that costs associated with poverty-lost worker productivity, increased crime rates, and increased costs in health care-may amount to nearly $1.1 trillion annually.

That is 5.4% of gross domestic product.

Contrary to what many may think, the report highlights that funding social programs aimed at cutting poverty in half actually costs much less (~$90 billion) than the costs associated with child poverty.

Also, cuts to the federal earned income tax credit and child tax credit would increase child poverty by nearly 4.4 million children. Cuts to SNAP would increase poverty by up to 3.8 million children.

Solutions to 'Deep Poverty'

Although tax credits may help some children, this does not appear to have as large of an impact on families considered to be living in "deep poverty" (an income under 50% of the poverty threshold). This is due to their already low salaries.

Access to financial assistance and SNAP have the greatest potential to alleviate deep poverty.

"Capable and healthy adults are the foundation of any well-functioning society, but because millions of American children are in families living below the poverty line, this future is not as secure as it could be," said Greg Duncan, chair of the committee that wrote the report and distinguished professor of education at the University of California, Irvine, in a news release.

"Evidence suggests a lack of economic resources compromises children's ability to grow and achieve in adulthood, hurting them and the broader society."

Read a summary of the report here. The full report is also available for download here.

How Can You Help Children in Poverty?

Check out our action campaign focused on protecting SNAP.

Send your comment to the federal government now!
protect snap!

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10 Policies to Cut Child Poverty in Half in 10 Years | Salud America

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Share On Social! At least 9.6 million U.S. children (13%) live in poverty. Among Latino children, poverty rates are even higher (22% vs. 8% white children). These children will often lack quality education and healthcare while suffering trauma and poor health outcomes. But what if there was a way to fight poverty?

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Lucky Zip codes | Amy Hunter | TEDxGatewayArch

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The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2020

The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China

March 2021

-- George Floyd

"The scenes (the U.S. Capitol building violence) we have seen are the result of lies and more lies, of division and contempt for democracy, of hatred and rabble-rousing -- even from the very highest levels."

-- German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier

In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc around the world, posing a major threat to human security. The virus respects no borders, nor does the epidemic distinguish between races. To defeat the epidemic requires mutual help, solidarity and cooperation among all countries. However, the United States, which has always considered itself an exception and superior, saw its own epidemic situation go out of control, accompanied by political disorder, inter-ethnic conflicts, and social division. It further added to the human rights violations in the country, the so-called "city upon a hill" and "beacon of democracy."

-- The epidemic went out of control and turned into a human tragedy due to the government's reckless response. By the end of February 2021, the United States, home to less than 5 percent of the world's population, accounted for more than a quarter of the world's confirmed COVID-19 cases and nearly one-fifth of the global deaths from the disease. More than 500,000 Americans lost their lives due to the virus.

-- Disorder in American democratic institutions led to political chaos, further tearing the fabric of society apart. Money-tainted politics distorted and suppressed public opinion, turning elections into a "one-man show" of the wealthy class and people's confidence in the American democratic system dropped to the lowest level in 20 years. Amid increasing political polarization, hate politics evolved into a national plague, and the Capitol was stormed in post-election riots.

-- Ethnic minority groups suffered systematic racial discrimination and were in a difficult situation. People of color made up about one-third of all minors under the age of 18 in the United States but two-thirds of all of the country's imprisoned minors. African Americans are three times as likely as whites to be infected with the coronavirus, twice as likely to die from COVID-19, and three times as likely to be killed by the police. One in four young Asian Americans has been the target of racial bullying.

-- Gun trade and shooting incidents hit a record high, and people's confidence in social order waned. Americans bought 23 million guns in 2020 against the background of an out-of-control epidemic, accompanied by racial justice protests and election-related conflicts, a surge of 64 percent compared with 2019. First-time gun buyers exceeded 8 million. More than 41,500 people were killed in shooting incidents across the United States in the year, an average of more than 110 a day, and there were 592 mass shootings nationwide, an average of more than 1.6 a day.

-- George Floyd, an African American, died after being brutally kneeled on his neck by a white police officer, sparking a national outcry. Widespread protests for racial justice erupted in 50 states. The U.S. government suppressed demonstrators by force, and more than 10,000 people were arrested. A large number of journalists were attacked and arrested for no reason.

-- The gap between the rich and the poor widened, with the people at the bottom of society living in misery. The epidemic led to mass unemployment. Tens of millions of people lost health insurance coverage. One in six Americans and one in four American children were at risk of hunger. Vulnerable groups became the biggest victims of the government's reckless response to the epidemic.

The U.S. government, instead of introspecting on its own terrible human rights record, kept making irresponsible remarks on the human rights situation in other countries, exposing its double standards and hypocrisy on human rights. Standing at a new crossroads, mankind is faced with new, grave challenges. It is hoped that the U.S. side will show humility and compassion for the suffering of its own people, drop hypocrisy, bullying, "Big Stick" and double standards, and work with the international community to build a community with a shared future for humanity.
I. Incompetent Pandemic Containment Leads to Tragic Outcome
The United States claimed to be most abundant in medical resources and healthcare capacity, yet its response to the COVID-19 pandemic was chaotic, causing it to lead the world in the numbers of confirmed COVID-19 cases and related deaths.

Incompetent pandemic response led to dire consequences. A tally by Johns Hopkins University showed that as of the end of February 2021, the United States has registered more than 28 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, with related deaths exceeding 500,000. With a population of less than 5 percent of the world's total, the United States accounted for more than 25 percent of all the confirmed cases and nearly 20 percent of the deaths. On Dec. 20, 2020, CNN reported that the state of California alone had reported 1.845 million COVID-19 cases and 22,599 deaths, which translates to roughly 4,669 known cases and 57 deaths for every 100,000 residents. Even these numbers don't give the whole picture of the state, because many cases, including mild or asymptomatic infections, had not been diagnosed. Had the American authorities taken science-based measures to contain the pandemic, this could have been avoided. But since they had not, the pandemic, as epidemiologist and former head of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) William Foege had put it, is "a slaughter" to the United States.

National leaders ignored warnings from experts and downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic. According to the timeline of COVID-19 pandemic in the United States released by media outlets including The New York Times and The Washington Post, the Trump administration had repeatedly ignored alarms regarding the risks of the pandemic. In early January 2020, a National Security Council office had already received intelligence reports predicting the spread of the virus to the United States. In a Jan. 29, 2020 memo, then White House trade adviser Peter Navarro projected that a coronavirus pandemic might lead to as many as half a million deaths and trillions of dollars in economic losses. A number of health officials, including then Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, and medical experts also warned of the possibility of a pandemic in the United States. None of the aforementioned warnings brought the imminent pandemic to the Trump administration's attention. Instead, the administration focused on controlling the message, and released misleading signals to the public by claiming "the risk of the virus to most Americans was very low," suggesting that the coronavirus is no worse than the common flu, and stating the virus will "miraculously go away" when the weather gets warmer. Thus, the country lost crucial weeks for pandemic prevention and control. An article published on the website of The New York Times on April 13, 2020 commented that, then American leader's "preference for following his gut rather than the data cost time, and perhaps lives."

Government inaction led to uncontrolled pandemic spread. "There's no need for that many to have died. We chose, as a country, to take our foot off the gas pedal. We chose to, and that's the tragedy." So commented David Hayes-Bautista, a professor of medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles, after the pandemic death toll hit 300,000 in the United States. Disease modelers with the Columbia University also estimated that, if the United States had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, 2020, two weeks earlier than most people started staying home, about 83 percent of the nation's pandemic-related deaths would have been avoided. An editorial from the website of medical journal The Lancet, published on May 17, 2020, commented that the U.S. government was obsessed with magic bullets -- vaccines, new medicines, or a hope that the virus will simply disappear. At the same time, it noted that only a steadfast reliance on basic public health principles, like testing, tracing, and isolation, would see the emergency brought to an end. Even when the pandemic is spreading in a vast area in the United States, the administration was hasty to restart the economy due to political concerns. According to news website Vox on Aug. 11, 2020, in April and May last year, several states rushed to reopen and caused the virus to shift to the South, West and eventually the rest of the United States. In addition, despite that experts had recommended people wear masks in public, the then American leader and some state officials had been extremely reluctant to issue any decree to make wearing masks mandatory.

Chaotic pandemic control and prevention measures caused confusion among the public. An article published by CNN on May 9, 2020 called the U.S. response to the pandemic "consistently inconsistent," and noted that there were no national guidelines and no organized efforts to reopen the country beyond what measures states had taken. The article also said that in terms of pandemic control and prevention, public health officials say one thing while governors say another and the national leader says something else entirely. In addition, after the experts called for federal leadership, the then American leader left it to cities and states to solve national problems with testing and hospital supplies by themselves. When the federal government released a phased plan for reopening, the leader called on states to reopen faster. After the CDC recommended that people wear masks in public, the leader refused to do so for months. Even more ridiculously, the leader at one point advocated injecting bleach as a treatment.

National leaders shirked their responsibility out of arrogance. Despite one ludicrous idea after another, the then American leader refused to admit any fault. Instead, the leader invented all sorts of excuses to gloss over his mistakes while shirking from responsibilities. For one, the then leader insisted that the U.S. leads the world in COVID-19 cases because it tested more than any other country in the world. When asked about testing problems and rising deaths, the leader claimed he "doesn't take responsibility at all." However, White House adviser and National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci admitted that the numbers didn't lie and the United States had the worst coronavirus outbreak in the world.

Senior citizens fell victims to the government's incompetent response to COVID-19. Senior citizens are a group more susceptible to the pandemic, yet they have been further marginalized in the U.S. pandemic prevention and control chaos, with their lives becoming valueless and their dignity trampled upon. On March 23 and April 20, 2020, Dan Patrick, the lieutenant governor of Texas, told Fox News that he would rather die than see public health measures damage the U.S. economy and there are more important things than living. Furthermore, an Aug. 18, 2020 report published on The San Diego Union-Tribune website found that residents in long-term care facilities account for less than 1 percent of the U.S. population but more than 40 percent of COVID-19 deaths. A May 9, 2020 article from The Washington Post website called the U.S. pandemic control efforts "state-sanctioned killing," where "the old, factory workers, and black and Hispanic Americans" were deliberately sacrificed.

The poor faced greater threat of infection. Researchers found that the Gini Index, an economic barometer that ranks income inequality from 0 (total equality) to 1 (total inequality), was a strong predictor of COVID-19 deaths. New York State, which had one of the highest Gini Index numbers also had the highest number of fatalities in the nation by a margin. The Guardian website reported on March 21, 2020 that in the wake of the epidemic, it's the wealthy and powerful first get coronavirus tests, while low-paid workers, most of whom have no paid sick leave and can't do their work from home, put themselves at greater risk of contracting the virus in order to earn a living. Public health officials said, in Los Angeles County, residents of low-income communities are three times more likely to die of COVID-19 than those in wealthier neighborhoods, according to a report published on the Los Angeles Times website on May 8, 2020. A Gallup survey revealed that one in seven American adults said that if they or their family members developed symptoms related to COVID-19, they would probably give up medical treatment because they were worried that they could not afford the costs. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, also pointed out that the poor in the United States were being hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic. Low-income and poor people face far higher risks from the coronavirus due to chronic neglect and discrimination, and a muddled, corporate-driven federal response has failed them, he observed.

The handicapped and the homeless were in dire straits. A study released in November 2020 by the nonprofit FAIR Health found that people with intellectual and developmental disabilities are three times more likely to die of COVID-19, compared to the general population. The website of the Los Angeles Times reported on May 14, 2020 that with the coronavirus-induced shock to the economy crippling businesses of all sizes and leaving millions of Americans out of work, homelessness in the United States could grow as much as 45 percent in a year. Many of the homeless Americans are elderly or disabled people. Given their originally poor physical health and bad living and hygienic conditions, they are susceptible to the virus. During the pandemic, the homeless were evicted and pushed into makeshift shelters. The website of Reuters reported on April 23, 2020 that the crowded shelters across the United States made it impossible for the homeless who lived there to maintain social distance, which made it easier for the virus to spread. The New York Times website reported on April 13, 2020 that in the New York City, a crisis has taken hold in homeless shelters, as more than 17,000 men and women are sleeping in group or "congregate" shelters for single adults, with beds close enough for people sleeping in them to hold hands. The Boston Globe website reported on May 4, 2020 that, about one-third of the homeless people who were tested have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

Outbreak in jails threatened lives of inmates. ABC News reported on Dec. 19, 2020 that at least 275,000 prisoners have been infected, of whom more than 1,700 have died, and nearly every prison system in the country has seen infection rates significantly higher than the communities around them. One of every five prisoners in facilities run by the federal Bureau of Prisons has had coronavirus, according to data collected by The Associated Press and The Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization covering the criminal justice system. They also found that 24 state prison systems have had even higher infection rates. Half of the prisoners in Kansas have been infected with COVID-19 - eight times the rate of cases among the state's overall population. In Arkansas, four of every seven have had the virus.

Out-of-control pandemic brought Americans psychological pressure. The Trump administration's reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected Americans more than the virus itself, which has left people stressed and isolated. In a study published by the CDC on Aug. 14, 2020, due to stay-at-home orders, 40.9 percent of adults reported at least one adverse mental or behavioral health condition, 30.9 percent reported either anxiety or depression and those numbers are just the tip of the iceberg. The same CDC study showed that 13 percent of people surveyed by the CDC during the same time said that they started or increased their substance use and 11 percent seriously considered suicide. A separate study released in June 2020 showed calls to suicide hotlines went up 47 percent nationwide during the COVID-19 pandemic with some crisis lines experiencing a 300-percent increase.
II. American Democracy Disorder Triggers Political Chaos
Touting itself as the beacon of democracy, the United States has wantonly leveled criticism against and oppressed many other countries under the guise of upholding democracy, freedom and human rights. However, the U.S. society has been plagued by deep-rooted money politics, unchecked public opinion manipulation and rampant lies, and American democracy has further aggravated social division instead of bridging the increasingly polarized political differences. As a result, the American people enjoy their civil and political rights in name only.

Influence of money in electoral politics essentially makes it a money-led election. Money is the driving force of American politics. America's money politics has distorted public opinion, turning elections into a "one-man show" for the rich. The amount spent on the 2020 U.S. presidential and congressional campaigns hit nearly 14 billion U.S. dollars, more than double what was spent in the 2016 election. The presidential campaign saw a record high of 6.6 billion U.S. dollars in total spending, while congressional races finished with over 7 billion U.S. dollars. According to a Nov. 1, 2020 report on the website of CNBC, the top 10 donors in the 2020 U.S. election cycle contributed over 640 million U.S. dollars. In addition to publicly registered election donations, a large amount of secret funds and dark money flooded the 2020 U.S. elections. According to an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, dark money groups poured more than 750 million U.S. dollars into 2020 elections through ad spending and record-breaking contributions to political committees such as super political action committees.

Public trust in U.S. elections was in crisis. According to Gallup's figures released on Oct. 8, 2020, only 19 percent of Americans say they are "very confident" about the accuracy of the presidential election, the lowest Gallup has recorded in its trend dating back to 2004. According to a commentary carried by the Wall Street Journal on Nov. 9, 2020, the 2020 U.S. election can be seen as the culmination of a two-decade period of decline in faith in the basic building blocks of democracy.

Political polarization grew. Disagreement between Democrats and Republicans has gradually changed from policy differences to identity battles with increasingly obvious political tribalism. The two parties have ended in deadlocks on many major public issues, thus leading to inefficient and incompetent state governance. Power plays between rival politicians in dogfights have become the hallmark of American politics, which saw a variety of shows featuring ugly attacks and vulgar smears. Voters supporting different parties are at loggerheads under the instigation of extreme politicians. Dominated by growing political fanaticism, the two camps are increasingly harder to talk to each other. Hate politics raged through the country and became the root cause of constant social unrest and division. According to a Nov. 13, 2020 report by Pew Research Center, America is exceptional in the nature of its political divide. There has been an increasingly stark disagreement between Democrats and Republicans on economy, racial justice, climate change, law enforcement, international engagement and a long list of other issues. The 2020 presidential election exacerbated these deep-seated divides. A month before the election, roughly 80 percent of the registered voters in both camps said their differences with the other side were about more than just politics and policies, but also about core American values, and about 90 percent in both camps worried that a victory by the other would lead to "lasting harm" to the United States.

Power checks and balances have mutated into veto politics. The bipartisan divides intensified the veto practices inherent in the American system. The separation, check and balance of power have turned into vetoing each other. The two parties engaged in ferocious battles, paralyzing the Congress and deadlocking the decision-making. While the outbreak of COVID-19 went out of control, the two parties not only brawled with each other on multiple issues, but also took the bill for the second round of COVID-19 relief measures as their campaigning tool for election. The two parties filibustered and stalled each other for votes, leaving millions of grassroots people in livelihood predicament. The veto politics has caused acute confrontations between the Congress and the administrative system, as well as between the federal and state authorities. During the COVID-19 pandemic, frequent contradictions have taken place between the Republican president and the Democrats-dominated House of Representatives, and between the federal government and Democratic "blue states." The federal government competed with the states in the scramble for anti-virus supplies, and was often at odds with the "blue states" in epidemic response policies, thus causing people to be at a loss. Massachusetts once arranged to buy 3 million N95 masks for urgent needs, but federal authorities seized them at the Port of New York.

The post-election riots highlighted the American democracy crisis. The election did not resolve the political differences in the United States, but heated up social confrontation. A Nov. 4, 2020 report on the website of the Guardian noted that whoever won the 2020 election, America would remain a country bitterly divided and the politics of anger and hatred would be the legacy. Claiming that the election was tainted by fraud, the defeated Republican camp refused to accept the presidential election results and filed lawsuits in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Georgia, calling for a recount of ballots to overturn the election by pressuring and intimidating local election officials. Donald Trump repeatedly insisted that he would never accept the election defeat, calling on his supporters to protest against the congressional certification of the election result in Washington, D.C. The election dispute eventually turned into riots.

On Jan. 6, 2021, tens of thousands of protesters who refused to accept the election defeat staged a "Save America" rally in Washington, D.C. A large number of protesters breached security and stormed into the Capitol building, where they tussled with police officers. Members of the U.S. Congress were hurriedly evacuated wearing their gas masks, as the police fired tear gas and shot to disperse the protesters. Protesters acted recklessly after occupying the venue. The riots resulted in multiple injuries and an interruption of the congressional certification of the electoral victory. Washington, D.C. imposed curfew and entered a state of emergency. On Jan. 7, 2021, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund said that thousands of individuals involved in violent riotous actions attacked officers with metal pipes, chemical irritants and other weapons, injuring more than 50 police officers. The police arrested more than 100 people in total. On Jan. 7, 2021, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a statement that the attack on the U.S. Capitol demonstrated clearly the destructive impact of sustained, deliberate distortion of facts, and incitement to violence and hatred by political leaders.

The political chaos in Washington shocked the world. American media called it the first time in modern American history that the power transfer has turned into a real combat in the Washington corridor of power. They blamed that violence, chaos and vandalism had shaken the American democracy to the core, dealing a heavy blow to America's image as a democratic beacon. The French daily Le Figaro commented that the violent incident stoked up the resentment and distrust among different camps in American society, plunging America into an unknown situation. The Foreign Policy said in a commentary that the United States has become what its leaders used to condemn: being unable to avoid violence and bloody destruction during transfer of power. Lebanese diplomat Mohamad Safa commented via social media, "If the United States saw what the United States is doing in the United States, the United States would invade the United States to liberate the United States from the tyranny of the United States."

III. Ethnic minorities devastated by racial discrimination

In the United States, racism exists in a comprehensive, systematic and continuous manner. Former U.S. President Barack Obama said helplessly that "for millions of Americans, being treated differently on account of race is tragically, painfully, maddeningly 'normal'." In June 2020, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet made two consecutive media statements, emphasizing that the protests triggered by the death of George Floyd, an African American, highlighted not only the issue of police brutality against people of color, but also inequality and racial discrimination in health, education, and employment in the United States. The grievances need to be heard and addressed if the country is to move on from its tragic history of racism and violence. On June 17, 2020, the 43rd session of the UN Human Rights Council held an urgent debate on racism. This was the first time in the history of the Human Rights Council that an urgent meeting on the human rights issues of the United States was held. On Nov. 9, 2020, the United States was severely criticized by the international community for racial discrimination when it was in the third cycle of Universal Periodic Review by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination of the United Nations and other institutions pointed out that racism in the United States is horrific. The white nationalists, neo-Nazis, and the Ku Klux Klan overtly use racist slogans, chants and salutes to promote white supremacy and incite racial discrimination and hatred. Political figures increasingly use divisive language in attempts to marginalize racial, ethnic and religious minorities, which amounts to inciting and fueling violence, intolerance and bigotry. Tendayi Achiume, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, believes that for black people in the United States, the domestic legal system has utterly failed to acknowledge and confront the racial injustice and discrimination that are so deeply entrenched in law enforcement.

Rights of the American Indians were violated. The United States has carried out systematic ethnic cleansing and massacres of Indians in history, and committed countless crimes against humanity and genocides. American Indians still live a life like a second-class citizen and their rights have been trampled over. Many indigenous peoples, such as the American Indians, who live in low-income communities in the United States, suffer from higher rates of cancer and heart diseases from toxic radioactive environments. Many indigenous people live near hazardous waste disposal sites and have an abnormally high rate of birth defects. On Aug. 5, 2020, the report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances and wastes, submitted pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 36/15, decried the situation of indigenous peoples in the United States. They are exposed to toxic pollutants, including nuclear waste, released or produced by extractive industries, agriculture and manufacturing. The soil and lead dust pollution from mining waste poses a more significant health threat for indigenous peoples in the United States than other groups. The report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief in accordance with General Assembly resolution 74/145 found out that the United States had opened up the lands of indigenous communities, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, to investment without the communities' consent or in contravention of their customary and collective land ownership. The report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living, released in accordance with Human Rights Council resolution 43/14, said that some of the most devastating effects of COVID-19 had been felt by racial and ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples. The hospitalization rate of Native Americans was five times that of non-Hispanic white Americans. The death rate of Native Americans also far exceeded that of white Americans.

Bullying against Asian Americans escalated. Since the pandemic began, the incidents of Asian Americans being humiliated and even assaulted in public have been found everywhere, and some American politicians have misled the public on purpose. "It's very lonely to be Asians in the United States during the raging pandemic," said a report published on the website of the New York Times on April 16, 2020. A survey of young Asian Americans showed that in the past year, a quarter of young Asian Americans became targets of racial bullying; fueled by the racist remarks of the then American leader, nearly half of the respondents expressed pessimism about their situation, and a quarter of the respondents expressed fear about the situation of themselves and their families, according to a report published on the website of the National Broadcasting Corporation on Sept. 17, 2020. Tendayi Achiume, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, said on March 23 and April 21, 2020, that politicians of relevant countries took the initiative to make open or suggestive xenophobic remarks, adopting alternative names with ulterior motives for the novel coronavirus. Their remarks that associated a specific disease with a specific country or ethnicity were irresponsible and disturbing, according to the Special Rapporteur. U.S. government officials openly incited, induced, and condoned racial discrimination, which was tantamount to humiliating modern human rights concepts.

The high level of hate crimes highlighted the deterioration of race relations. An FBI report released in 2020 showed that 57.6 percent of the 8,302 single-bias hate crime offenses reported by law enforcement agencies in 2019 were motivated by race/ethnicity/ancestry. Of these offenses, 48.4 percent were motivated by anti-black or African American bias; 15.8 percent stemmed from anti-white bias; 14.1 percent were classified as anti-Hispanic or Latino bias; 4.3 percent resulted from anti-Asian bias. Among the 4,930 victims of racial hate crimes, as many as 2,391 were of African descent. Some Americans blamed the outbreak of the pandemic on Asian Americans, and there had been an increase in the number of hate crimes and incidents of harassment and discrimination against Asian Americans, according to a report published on the website of USA Today on May 20. Statistics from the civil rights organization Stop AAPI Hate showed there were over 2,300 anti-Asian hate crimes in the U.S. during the first seven months of 2020.

Unchecked police violence led to frequent deaths of African Americans. On March 13, 2020, Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old African-American woman, was shot eight times and killed by police in her own home. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old African American was killed after a white policeman kneeled on his neck in the street. On Aug. 23, 2020, Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old African American, was severely injured after police officers shot him seven times in the back when Blake was getting into a car. At the time, Blake's three kids were in the car, witnessing the horrible act. American police shot and killed a total of 1,127 people in 2020, with no killing reported in just 18 days, according to Mapping Police Violence. African Americans made up 13 percent of the U.S. population, but accounted for 28 percent of the people killed by the police. African Americans were approximately three times more likely than white people to be killed by police. From 2013 to 2020, about 98 percent of the police involved in shooting cases were not charged with a crime, and the number of convicted was even smaller.

People of color were more harmed by the epidemic. The infection rate and death rate of COVID-19 in the United States showed significant racial differences, with the infection rate, hospitalization rate and death rate of African Americans being three times, five times and twice that of white people respectively, according to a report delivered by the Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent to the UN Human Rights Council on Aug. 21, 2020. "Nothing brings into sharper relief America's color disparities than life and death in the Great Lockdown," said a report published on the website of the Financial Times on May 15, 2020. Racial disparities in the epidemic extend to children, according to a report released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Aug. 7, 2020. Latino and black children were hospitalized with COVID-19 at a rate nine times and six times that of white kids, respectively. Barbara Ferrer, director of public health for Los Angeles County, said the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus on black and Latino residents is rooted in the impact of racism and discrimination on the access to the resources and opportunities that are needed to good health, according to the website of the Los Angeles Times on July 10, 2020. COVID-19 kills far more people of color than white Americans, which could be attributed to America's unequal education and economic systems that disproportionately leave people of color out of higher-wage jobs, discrimination in housing that corralled people of color into tightly packed neighborhoods, and environmental policies designed by white power brokers at the expense of the poor, an article by USA Today said. Of the 10 U.S. counties with the highest death rates from COVID-19, seven have populations where people of color make up the majority, according to data compiled by USA Today. Of the top 50 counties with the highest death rates, 31 are populated mostly by people of color.

People of color faced an even greater threat of unemployment. The Guardian commented in an article on April 28, 2020 that the "last hired, first fired" phenomenon was the most frustrating reality for African Americans. A report released by the U.S. Department of Labor on May 8, 2020 revealed the unemployment rate of African Americans and Latinos soared to 16.7 percent and 18.9 percent respectively in April, both the highest on record. The Washington Post reported on June 4, 2020 that after the Great Lockdown in spring, fewer than half of all black adults had a job. Figures released by the U.S. Department of Labor in September showed the jobless rate for the black people almost doubled that for the white. The Christian Science Monitor reported on July 20, 2020 that trade union leaders called for a national workers strike in more than two dozen U.S. cities to protest systemic racism and economic inequality that had only worsened during the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Systemic racial discrimination existed in law enforcement and justice. The Courier Journal reported on its website on Dec. 17, 2020 that although black people make up about 20 percent of Louisville's driving-age population, they accounted for 57 percent of police searches, even though the police were far more likely to find contraband in searches of white people than black people. In the past three years, black people made up 43.5 percent of arrests by the Louisville Metro Police Department. African Americans made up around 13 percent of the U.S. population, but represented almost a third of the country's prison population, which meant that there were more than 1,000 African-American prisoners for every 100,000 African American population. People of color constitute approximately one-third of the U.S. population under 18, but two-thirds of incarcerated minors, according to a report by the National Conference of State Legislatures on July 15, 2020. Iowa Public Radio News reported on Dec. 18, 2020 that in Iowa's prisons, black Iowans were imprisoned at a rate 11 times that of white Iowans. Black people were probably sentenced to a longer jail term for the same offense. The Los Angeles Times reported on Sept. 15, 2020 that black people have been over-represented on death rows across the United States and killers of black people are less likely to face the death penalty than people who kill white people. Davis Vanguard reported on Dec. 4, 2020 that people of color account for a disproportionate 43 percent of executions in the U.S. since 1976, and 55 percent of defendants currently awaiting execution are people of color. "We live in a country where our criminal justice system is defined by the size of your wallet and the color of your skin," said an article published by the Miami Herald on Dec. 18, 2020.

Workplace racial discrimination was deeply rooted. According to a CBS News report on Oct. 7, 2020, over 20 current and former black agents interviewed all described some sort of racial discrimination while in the FBI. Of the top 10 leadership positions in the FBI, all are currently held by white men. Currently, only 4 percent of the 13,000 FBI agents around the world are black, and black women only account for 1 percent, a number that has stayed virtually the same for decades. There were long-standing problems at the FBI such as the disproportionate weeding out of black applicants during the training process. As head of the FBI's Black Affairs Diversity Committee, Eric Jackson called it "institutionalized racism." According to a report by the Los Angeles Times on July 2, 2020, Facebook Inc. was accused of systemic discrimination in hiring, compensation and promotion of black people. Facebook's own figures showed just 1.5 percent of employees in technical roles in the U.S. were black in 2019, and 3.1 percent were black among senior leadership. Those percentages have barely budged even as the company's employees grew by 400 percent over the past five years.

Social discrimination against ethnic minorities was widespread. A poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal and NBC News on July 9, 2020 found that 56 percent of the U.S. voters believe American society is racist and blacks and Hispanics are discriminated against. The Los Angeles Times reported on July 14, 2020 that after the death of George Floyd, more white Americans recognized the serious racial discrimination in the United States. A July 2020 survey showed that compared with February, white respondents are 18 percentage points more likely to believe black Americans are discriminated against frequently (from 22 percent to 40 percent), 10 percentage points more likely to believe Latinos are discriminated against frequently (from 22 percent to 32 percent), and 13 percentage points more likely to believe Asians are discriminated against frequently (from 7 percent to 20 percent).

Inequality between races worsened. According to researchers from the University of Chicago and University of Notre Dame, the U.S. poverty rate jumped by 2.4 percentage points from June to November 2020, while the poverty rate among black Americans went up by 3.1 percentage points. Statistics showed the median white household has 41 times more wealth (measured as the sum of assets held by a family minus total household debt) than the median black family and 22 times more than the median Latino family. Citing data released by the Federal Reserve, the Associated Press reported on Oct. 13, 2020 that only 33.5 percent of black households owned stocks in 2019, compared with 61 percent for white households. USA Today reported on Oct. 23, 2020 that in the first quarter of 2020, the national homeownership rate for white households was 73.7 percent, but only 44 percent of black households owned a home. The Washington Post reported on June 4, 2020 that more than one in five black families now report they often or sometimes do not have enough food -- more than three times the rate for white families. ABC News reported on Oct. 11, 2020 that 15.7 percent of Latinos lived in poverty in 2019, a percentage more than double that of the white people.
IV. Continuous Social Unrest Threatens Public Safety
The government failed to maintain proper law and order, and shootings and violent crimes, which were already high in incidence, recorded new highs during the COVID-19 pandemic, causing panic among members of the public. The police's unrestrained use of violence in law enforcement triggered waves of protests that swept across the country. The police had abused their force to suppress protesters, and attacked and arrested journalists on a large scale, further fueling public anger and continuous social unrest.

Crime rates were on the rise amid the pandemic. While outdoor activities were down drastically as a result of various epidemic response measures, the crime rates were up in large cities amid the pandemic. According to the FBI's Preliminary Uniform Crime Report released in September 2020, in the first half of 2020, the number of murder and nonnegligent manslaughter offenses increased 14.8 percent year on year, with cities with populations of 250,000 to 500,000 reporting an increase of 26 percent. During the same period, the number of arson offenses increased 19 percent year on year, while such offenses rose 52 percent in cities with populations of 1 million and over. Murders in Chicago spiked by 37 percent, while arson in the city was up 52.9 percent. New York City recorded an increase of 23 percent in homicides, while Los Angeles saw murders rise by 14 percent.

The number of violent crimes remained high. According to FBI reports released in 2020, more than 1.2 million violent crimes occurred in the United States in 2019, including 16,425 murders, 139,815 rapes, 267,988 robberies, and 821,182 aggravated assaults, translating to five murders, over 40 rapes, 80 robberies and 250 aggravated assaults per 100,000 inhabitants.

Gun sales and shootings hit record high. A study from the University of California, Davis found a significant increase in firearm violence in the United States associated with the coronavirus-related surge in firearm purchasing. A new destabilizing sense as virus fears spread had been motivating even people who had considered themselves anti-gun to buy weapons for the first time. The Washington Post reported on its website on Jan. 19, 2021 that, COVID-19 lockdowns, anti-racism protests and election strife had led to record gun sales of about 23 million in 2020, a 64 percent increase over 2019 sales. The 2020 numbers include purchases by more than 8 million first-time buyers, according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation. USA Today reported on its website on Dec. 18, 2020 that, with regard to gun homicides, the United States has historically reported a rate about 25 times higher than other wealthy nations. According to data from Gun Violence Archive, more than 41,500 people died by gun violence in 2020 nationwide, an average of more than 110 a day, which is a record. There had been 592 mass shootings nationwide, an average of more than 1.6 a day. Shootings in Chatham County of North Carolina, Riverside County of California, and Morgan County of Alabama each claimed seven lives. A deadly weekend in Chicago came at the end of May, when 85 people were shot, 24 fatally. In the afternoon of Jan. 9, 2021, 32-year-old Jason Nightengale went on a random shooting rampage in Chicago, leaving three people killed and four others wounded.

George Floyd's death from police brutality sparked unrest. On May 25, 2020, George Floyd, a 46-year-old African-American man from Minnesota, died after a white police officer kneeled on his neck for eight minutes during an arrest for forgery. Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey said what he saw was "wrong on every level," noting, "Being black in America should not be a death sentence." Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement, "This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a non-violent charge." Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the National Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said, "The depths of despair are enormous right now for black people in this country. You pile on unchecked police violence and it makes for a perfect storm." The police brutality sparked visceral outrage, leading to protests in support of Black Lives Matter throughout the United States, as well as in other countries. The unrest escalated across the nation, with protesters blocking the streets and building barricades to confront the police. A large number of police stations, public institutions and shopping malls were looted. The Guardian reported on its website on June 8, 2020 that, since George Floyd's death at the hands of police, about 140 cities in all 50 states throughout the United States have seen protests and demonstrations in response to the killing.

The demonstrators were suppressed by force. In the face of visceral public grievances, the then U.S. administration leader added fuel to the fire by deploying a large number of National Guard soldiers across the country and calling for shooting. Targeted with flying rubber bullets and tear gas on site, the public were horrified and the society fell into chaos. U.S. federal agents had been grabbing protesters seemingly without cause. More than 10,000 individuals had been arrested, including many innocent people. The disclosure of the shooting death of Breonna Taylor, an African-American woman, during a police raid fueled a renewed wave of Black Lives Matter protests in 2020, with the city of Louisville alone reporting arrests of 435 individuals during the movement. The Guardian reported on its website on Oct. 29, 2020 that, at least 950 instances of police brutality against civilians and journalists during anti-racism protests had occurred since May 2020. The police had used rubber bullets, tear gas and "unlawful lethal force" against protesters.

Journalists had been subject to unparalleled attacks by law enforcement. There were at least 117 cases of journalists being arrested or detained while on the job covering anti-racism protests in the United States in 2020, a 1,200-percent increase from the figure in 2019. The Guardian reported on its website on June 5, 2020 that, reporters were beaten, pepper-sprayed and arrested by police in numbers never before documented in the United States. There were 148 arrests or attacks on journalists in the country within one week after the George Floyd incident, which was more than what was recorded during the previous three years combined. The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a statement on Dec. 14, 2020 that, U.S. journalists faced unprecedented attacks in 2020, the majority by law enforcement.

V. Growing Polarization Between Rich and Poor Aggravates Social Inequality

The COVID-19 epidemic plunged the United States into the worst economic downturn since World War II. A large number of businesses shut down, workers lost their jobs, the gap between rich and poor widened, and the lives of the people at the bottom of society were miserable.

The rich-poor divide further widened. The website of Bloomberg reported on Oct. 8, 2020 that the 50 richest Americans now hold almost as much wealth as the poorest 165 million people in the country. The richest 1 percent of Americans have a combined net worth that is 16.4 times that of the poorest 50 percent. The epidemic has aggravated wealth inequality. The website of Forbes reported on Dec. 11, 2020 that over the past months of the pandemic, the collective net worth of America's 614 billionaires has increased by 931 billion U.S. dollars. America's poverty rate jumped to 11.7 percent in November 2020, up from 9.3 percent in June, according to researchers from the University of Chicago and University of Notre Dame.

Out-of-control epidemic led to mass unemployment. The speed and magnitude of business closures and job losses defied comparison, according to a report on the website of The Washington Post on May 9, 2020. Some 20.5 million people abruptly lost their jobs, which was roughly double what the nation experienced during the entire financial crisis from 2007 to 2009. In April 2020, the unemployment rate soared to 21.2 percent for people with less than a high school degree, surpassing the previous all-time high set in the aftermath of the Great Recession. The website of USA Today reported on Aug. 8, 2020 that 33 U.S. metro areas had a jobless rate of over 15 percent in June 2020. About 11.5 million American women lost their jobs between February and May 2020.

Tens of millions of people were in food crisis in the epidemic. More than 50 million people -- one in six Americans, including one in four children -- could experience food insecurity in 2020, according to an analysis report updated in October 2020 by Feeding America. The website of the Guardian reported on Nov. 25, 2020 that nationwide, demand for food aid has plateaued at about 60 percent higher than pre-pandemic times. Millions of Americans must rely on charity to put Thanksgiving dinner on the table in 2020.

Health insurance coverage plummeted. America has no universal health insurance because of political polarization and the number of people enjoying health insurance has shrunk sharply due to the epidemic. From March to May 2020, an estimated 27 million Americans have lost health insurance coverage in the pandemic. In Texas alone, the number of uninsured jumped from about 4.3 million to nearly 4.9 million, which means that three out of every 10 Texans are uninsured.

The digital divide aggravated educational inequality. In 2018, nearly 17 million children lived in homes without internet connection, and more than 7 million did not have computers at home, according to a report that analyzed census data for that year. The website of Politico reported on Sept. 23, 2020 that one in three students in Baltimore city, which is only an hour's drive from the U.S. Capitol, has no computers. One in three African American, Latino or American Indian families do not have home internet. Virtual learning became a mainstream education pattern during the epidemic. Compared with their wealthier peers, low-income and minority children are less likely to have appropriate technology and home environments for independent study because of their family backgrounds and therefore are at a disadvantage in e-learning, further aggravating the educational divide caused by poverty and racial inequality.

VI. Trampling on International Rules Results in Humanitarian Disasters

At a time when global unity is needed to fight the pandemic, the United States, however, persists in pursuing an agenda of "America first," isolationism, and unilateralism, imposing sanctions wantonly, bullying and threatening international organizations, and treating asylum seekers cruelly, thus becoming the biggest troublemaker to global security and stability.

The United States withdrew from WHO. In order to shirk its responsibility for its disastrous anti-pandemic measures, the Trump administration tried every means to scapegoat the World Health Organization (WHO) by fabricating false charges against the organization. On April 14, 2020, the U.S. government announced its suspension of paying dues to the WHO, which was widely criticized by the international community. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement on April 14, 2020, saying that when the world was fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, it was inappropriate to reduce the resources required by the WHO or any other humanitarian organization for operations. President of the American Medical Association, Patrice Harris, stated on April 15, 2020 that combating the pandemic required international cooperation and halting funding to the WHO at this critical moment was a dangerous step in the wrong direction. On April 15, 2020, an online article of the Guardian commented that when the world desperately needed to jointly overcome this threat that the world had never experienced before, the suspension of the WHO dues by the U.S. government was an act that lacked morality and disrupted the international order, and was a horrible betrayal to global solidarity. In July 2020, the U.S. government brazenly announced its withdrawal from the WHO despite the opposition of the international community.

The United States walked away from its commitments to and withdrew from the Paris Agreement. The United States, as the largest cumulative emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, should bear the greatest share of emission reduction based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities. However, the United States ran counter to the trend of the times and officially withdrew from the Paris Agreement on Nov. 4, 2020, becoming the only country among the nearly 200 contracting parties to quit the treaty. The international community generally believed that the U.S. move was politically short-sighted, unscientific, and morally irresponsible. "Having the U.S. pull out of Paris is likely to reduce efforts to mitigate, and therefore increase the number of people who are put into a life-or-death situation because of the impacts of climate change," said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, a coauthor of UN science reports on global warming.

Bullying actions threatened international organizations. On June 11, 2020, the U.S. government authorized economic sanctions and travel restrictions against workers of the International Criminal Court (ICC) and their family members for investigating American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan and elsewhere. The U.S. sanctions targeting ICC staff were "a direct attack on the institution's judicial independence," according to an article on the website of UN NEWS on June 25, 2020. On June 19, 2020, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted a resolution strongly condemning police brutality that led to the death of African American George Floyd. Citing remarks from human rights groups, the AFP said that the final version of the resolution removed the call for further investigations and stripped away any mention of the racism and police brutality in the United States due to "hard lobbying." By bullying other countries, the United States watered down the text of the resolution, escaped from international probes for another time, and ran counter to the African descent in the United States and victims of police violence, said the American Civil Liberties Union.

Unilateral sanctions aggravated humanitarian crisis. At a critical time when COVID-19 spread globally and endangered human life, health, and wellbeing, all countries should work together to respond to the pandemic and maintain global public health security. However, during this pandemic, the U.S. government still imposed unilateral sanctions on countries such as Iran, Cuba, Venezuela, and Syria, which made it difficult for the sanctioned countries to obtain needed anti-pandemic medical supplies in a timely manner. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said on March 24, 2020, that in the case of a global pandemic, sanctions would hinder medical work and increase risks for everyone. She argued that to maintain global public health security and protect the rights and lives of millions of people in sanctioned countries, sanctions should be relaxed or suspended in certain sectors. A group of 24 senior diplomats from various countries urged the U.S. government to ease medical and humanitarian sanctions on Iran, noting that such move "could potentially save the lives of hundreds of thousands of ordinary Iranians," according to a report on the website of the Guardian on April 6, 2020. On April 30, 2020, UN human rights experts said that the U.S. embargo on Cuba and sanctions on other countries seriously undermined international cooperation to curb the pandemic and save lives. The experts called on the United States to implement UN resolutions, lift its economic and financial embargo on Cuba and withdraw measures that prevent Cuba from financing the purchase of medicine, medical equipment, food and other essential goods. The United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, the Special Rapporteur on human rights for safe drinking water and sanitation, and the Special Rapporteur on the right to education issued a joint statement on May 6, 2020, saying that the U.S. sanctions on Venezuela were seriously harming the human rights of the people in the country. They urged the United States to immediately lift sanctions that exacerbated the suffering of the people when the pandemic raged in the country. On Dec. 29, 2020, Alena Douhan, United Nations Special Rapporteur on human rights, called on the United States to remove unilateral sanctions against Syria, noting that the sanctions would exacerbate the already dire humanitarian crisis in Syria and run roughshod over the Syrian people's rights to live, health, and development.

Asylum seekers were treated cruelly. According to a report of CNN on Sept. 30, 2020, in the 2020 fiscal year, 21 people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody, which was more than double the number of deaths in the fiscal year 2019 and marked the highest annual death toll since 2005. A report published on the website of the Los Angeles Times on Oct. 30, 2020 noted that a huge number of migrant children were stranded in custody for the long haul. Data showed that of the 266,000 migrant children held in government custody in recent years, over 25,000 had been detained for longer than 100 days, close to 1,000 migrant children had spent more than a year in refugee shelters, and some of them had spent more than five years in custody. As reported by multiple U.S. media outlets, dozens of women from Latin American and Caribbean states have filed a class action lawsuit in federal court in Georgia, claiming that they were subjected to unnecessary gynecological surgeries without their consent while in ICE custody, including uterus removal in some cases. They said these unwanted surgeries caused severe harm to their physical and mental health. The Guardian website reported on Oct. 22, 2020 that Cameroonian asylum seekers were threatened and forced to sign their own deportation orders. Those who refused to sign were choked, beaten, and pepper-sprayed, with some put in handcuffs to have their fingerprints forcibly taken in place of a signature on orders of removal, by which the asylum seekers waive their rights to further immigration hearings and accept deportation.

Forced deportation of immigrant children continued during the COVID-19 pandemic. According to data tallied by the ICE, as of Jan. 14, 2021, a total of 8,848 detainees had been confirmed as COVID-19 cases. According to a report on the website of the Los Angeles Times on Nov. 18, 2020, the U.S. government had expelled at least 8,800 unaccompanied immigrant children despite serious protection risks during the COVID-19 outbreak. According to UNICEF, migrant children who returned from the United States to Mexico and Central America were facing danger and discrimination.

The United States pardoned criminals slaughtering civilians in other countries. On Dec. 30, 2020, the Working Group on the use of mercenaries, a mechanism of the United Nations Human Rights Council, issued a statement, saying that the then U.S. President's pardon of four Blackwater contractors convicted of war crimes in Iraq violated U.S. obligations under international law. The statement called on all states to the Geneva Conventions to condemn the U.S. action. The four Blackwater contractors were found to have committed a massacre at Nisour Square in Baghdad in 2007, which left 14 unarmed civilians dead and at least 17 people wounded, according to the statement. Pardoning the Blackwater contractors was an affront to justice and the victims of the Nisour Square massacre and their families, said the Chair of the Working Group. Pardoning them "contributes to impunity and has the effect of emboldening others to commit such crimes in the future," said Marta Hurtado, a spokesperson with the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

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Full text: The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2020

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The Report on Human Rights Violations in the United States in 2020 The State Council Information Office of the People's Republic of China March 2021 -- George Floyd "The scenes (the U.S. Capitol building violence) we have seen are the result of lies and more lies, of division and contempt for democracy, of hatred and rabble-rousing -- even from the very highest levels."

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How Police Departments Use Civil Forfeiture to Collect Billions

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The number of Americans 60 and older is growing, but society still isn't embracing the aging population, geropsychologists say. Whether battling "old geezer" stereotypes or trying to obtain equal standing in the workplace, those who are 60 or older may all too often find themselves the victims of ageism.

In fact, in a survey of 84 people ages 60 and older, nearly 80 percent of respondents reported experiencing ageism--such as other people assuming they had memory or physical impairments due to their age. The 2001 survey by Duke University's Erdman Palmore, PhD, also revealed that the most frequent type of ageism--reported by 58 percent of respondents--was being told a joke that pokes fun at older people. Thirty-one percent reported being ignored or not taken seriously because of their age. The study appeared in The Gerontologist (Vol. 41, No. 5).

And what's worse, ageism also seeps into mental health care. Older patients are often viewed by health professionals as set in their ways and unable to change their behavior, aging experts say. Mental health problems--such as cognitive impairment or psychological disorders caused at least in part by complex pharmacological treatments--often go unrecognized and untreated in this growing demographic, many researchers believe.

The deficit in treatment comes at a time when those over the age of 85 make up the fastest-growing segment of the U.S. population. Nearly 35 million Americans are over 65 years old, according to the 2000 U.S. Census, and that number is expected to double by 2030 to 20 percent of the population.

Those numbers come as no surprise to geropsychologists, who--as they mark Older Americans Month this May--continue working to get the word out about the need for better elder care. Their ultimate aim is to expand training and research opportunities in this area and eliminate ageism in all facets of society--from demeaning stereotypes portrayed in the media to the public's personal biases.
The effects of ageism
Not only are negative stereotypes hurtful to older people, but they may even shorten their lives, finds psychologist Becca Levy, PhD, assistant professor of public health at Yale University. In Levy's longitudinal study of 660 people 50 years and older, those with more positive self-perceptions of aging lived 7.5 years longer than those with negative self-perceptions of aging. The study appeared in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology (Vol. 83, No. 2).

On the other hand, people's positive beliefs about and attitudes toward the elderly appear to boost their mental health. Levy has found that older adults exposed to positive stereotypes have significantly better memory and balance, whereas negative self-perceptions contributed to worse memory and feelings of worthlessness.

"Age stereotypes are often internalized at a young age--long before they are even relevant to people," notes Levy, adding that even by the age of four, children are familiar with age stereotypes, which are reinforced over their lifetimes.

Fueling the problem is the media's portrayal of older adults, Levy says. At a Senate hearing last fall, Levy testified before the Special Committee on Aging about the effects of age stereotypes. Doris Roberts, the Emmy-award winning actress in her seventies from the T.V. show "Everybody Loves Raymond," also testified at the hearing.

"My peers and I are portrayed as dependent, helpless, unproductive and demanding rather than deserving," Roberts testified. "In reality, the majority of seniors are self-sufficient, middle-class consumers with more assets than most young people, and the time and talent to offer society."

Indeed, the value that the media and society place on youth might explain the growing number of cosmetic surgeries among older adults, Levy notes. Whether this trend is positive or negative in combating ageism is one of many areas within geropsychology that needs greater research, she says.
What can psychologists do?
Psychologists need to respond to ageism the same way they do when a person is discriminated against because of race or a disability, says Jacqueline Goodchilds, PhD, a psychology professor at the University of California, Los Angeles.

Goodchilds, on behalf of APA's Committee on Aging (CONA), drafted a resolution against ageism that was approved by APA's Council of Representatives in February 2002. The resolution says that APA is against ageism "in all its forms" and emphasizes APA's commitment to support efforts to eliminate it.

"APA was against racism, sexism and all the other 'isms'--it made sense to be against ageism too," Goodchilds says of the resolution.

Other APA groups are also working to combat ageism through funding, training and federal policies supporting geropsychologists. For example, one APA initiative--through the Graduate Psychology Education (GPE) program--recently received $3 million for geropsychology training this year. The funding will be devoted exclusively to training geropsychologists in mental and behavioral-health services for older adults through APA-accredited programs.

Increasing the number of doctoral-level trained geropsychologists as well as making age-related information more available to researchers, practitioners and students are top objectives for CONA. One of the group's recent efforts is to get more aging content incorporated into all levels of schools' curricula.

"We need to raise the consciousness of the need for aging material," says CONA chair Forrest Scogin, PhD, a University of Alabama psychology professor. "There needs to be a greater awareness of who the older adults are--they are a diverse group. Ageism and stereotypes just don't work."

The workplace also needs psychologists' attention, says Harvey Sterns, PhD, president of APA's Div. 20 (Adult Development and Aging) and director of The University of Akron's Institute for Life-Span Development and Gerontology. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has reported a more than 24 percent increase in the number of age-discrimination complaints filed this year compared with the previous two years. Employees over the age of 40 are often considered "old" and not offered the same training, promotion opportunities and pay as younger colleagues, Sterns says.

Div. 20 is working to counteract such workplace and other age stereotypes by addressing the need for more trained geropsychologists and promoting age-friendly environments for the growth and development of older adults. "There is a long tradition within APA of dealing with these issues, but that doesn't mean they don't have to be revisited with intensity over and over again," Sterns says. "This doesn't go away."

The key, Scogin notes, is educating psychologists and the general population alike about America's growing elderly population. "If we have people--from secondary education to continuing education, to professionals--with a greater awareness of aging as an important component, then that could have an impact on reducing ageism."

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The number of Americans 60 and older is growing, but society still isn't embracing the aging population, geropsychologists say. Whether battling "old geezer" stereotypes or trying to obtain equal standing in the workplace, those who are 60 or older may all too often find themselves the victims of ageism.

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40% of Homeless Youth Are LGBTQ – What We Can Do | Melissa Moore | TEDxCharleston

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What to know about the latest breakthroughs in breast cancer research

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An infographic from the National Cancer Institute (NCI) describing the four broad categories of cancer research: basic research, clinical research, population-based research, and translational research.

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7 Ways You Can Help Undocumented Immigrants In The US Right Now

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Here are seven ways that you can help undocumented immigrants in the US.

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Nowadays, writing a letter can seem completely archaic. I mean, do people even send mail anymore? Or do they only communicate through email and messaging?

In the business world, though, letters are actually still crucial for collaboration. To convince someone to offer you a job, you need to write them a compelling cover letter. And to persuade someone to speak at your company's event, you need to write a gripping pitch.

A lot of professionals overlook the importance of writing high-quality business letters because they seem outdated. As a result, most people don't actually know how to write one.

Fortunately, if you're in the same boat, we've got you covered . Below, we'll teach you how to craft a persuasive business letter for any purpose and situation.

How to Format a Business Letter

1. Write the date and your recipient's name, company, and address.

2. Choose a professional greeting, like "Dear,".

3. Craft a compelling introduction.

4. State your intent in the letter's body text.

5. End your letter with a strong call-to-action.

6. Choose a professional closing, like "Sincerely,".

7. Physically sign the letter with your signature.

8. Type your name, address, phone number, and email address.

To teach you how to write a business letter in more detail than the snippet above, let's take a look at a letter I wrote to Dharmesh Shah, HubSpot's CTO, when I was a wide-eyed college student trying to convince him to speak at my school.

I'll analyze the most important parts of my letter -- the introduction, body text, and call-to-action -- and explain how and why they can strengthen your own business letters.

Business Letter Example

October 1, 2016

Dharmesh Shah

HubSpot

25 First Street,

Cambridge, MA 02141

Dear Mr. Shah,

When my freshman year of college ended, I was fortunate enough to work as a digital marketing intern at a startup called SlideBatch. They were introducing a new content marketing tool to the market, and my job was to apply that tool to their clients' social media marketing campaigns and prove that SlideBatch was an effective marketing solution. I was so excited to get to work, but I had one small problem. I didn't know what content marketing was. So, I did some research on the Internet and discovered HubSpot's Marketing blog.

Fast forward a year and half, and I'm still reading HubSpot's Marketing blog and leveraging its insights at my third digital marketing internship. Reading your blogs changed my life. I entered college believing financial advising was my destiny. But, after learning about HubSpot's inbound marketing philosophy -- how helping people is the ultimate way to increase brand trust and engagement -- I was hooked. Shortly after my internship with SlideBatch ended, I decided to pursue digital marketing instead of financial advising. I've haven't looked back since.

HubSpot's influence on my life is the reason I'm writing to you today. I'm certain if you spoke at my school, DePauw University, about your life, HubSpot, and the inbound marketing philosophy, there would be hundreds of undecided students who start pursuing digital marketing. I know this because DePauw's McDermond Speaker Series is one of the best platforms for business leaders to showcase their passion for their industry, company, and work. Brad Stevens of the Boston Celtics, Angie Hicks of Angie's List, and Bill Rasmussen of ESPN have all successfully used the McDermond Speaker Series to inspire the world's next generation of business leaders, and I know you could, too.

We would be honored if you spoke at our school. Thank you for your time and consideration, and we look forward to hearing from you!

Sincerely,

Clifford Chi

313 South Locust St.

Greencastle, IN 46136

555-555-5555

cliffordchi@aim.com

Introduction (first and second paragraphs)

To instantly grab Dharmesh's attention and entice him to read the rest of my letter, you'll notice I didn't lead with the standard "I'm writing to you today because..." introduction. Instead, I engaged him with a story about how I discovered HubSpot and how his company changed my life. I thought this would strongly resonate with him because I assumed, as a co-founder of HubSpot, he would love to see how his life's work has benefited others.

In your own business letters, you don't necessarily need to tell a story to immediately hook your reader and persuade her to read on. But you should definitely describe how she's made an impact on your life. This is what will truly grab and hold her attention.

Body text (third paragraph)

After my introduction, I swiftly segued into why I was writing to Dharmesh -- to ask him to speak at my school. Personal anecdotes are an effective way to engage readers, but I'd lose Dharmesh's attention if I didn't cut to the chase.

Once I stated my letter's intent, I quickly pitched the benefits of speaking at my school and bolstered the reputation of my school's speaker series. By emphasizing how speaking at my school could inspire hundreds of students to pursue digital marketing and highlighting the group of impressive speakers Dharmesh could join, I focused on the dividends he would reap from being a McDermond Series Speaker, rather than how my school would benefit from his guest appearance.

So whether you're trying to convince someone to hire you or speak at your school, you must first persuade your reader that doing what you ask of them will ultimately benefit them and be in their best interest.

Call-to-action (fourth paragraph)

In my last paragraph, I politely ask Dharmesh to speak at my school again. Even though I already asked him this earlier, it's important I end my letter with a clear next step. It packs more of a punch and crystalizes the desired action in his mind.

Strong call-to-actions are a crucial element of a persuasive business letter. Because if you don't tell your reader what to do next, you might as well have never written your letter in the first place.

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How to Write a Business Letter That Won't Get Ignored

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Even though writing a letter can seem completely archaic nowadays, letters are still crucial for collaboration in the business world. If you need to write a business letter, but don't how to get started, check out our guide on how to craft persuasive letters for any purpose or situation.

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Interview by

Jason Farbman

It seems increasingly likely the United States will blow its own deadline for a final withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan. White House press secretary Jen Psaki recently admitted that President Joe Biden "has conveyed that it would be difficult operationally to meet the timeline of getting all troops out by May 1." This has put the US occupation back in the headlines, with many openly speculating whether US troops will ever fully leave the country.

But as journalist Anand Gopal tells Jacobin 's Jason Farbman, we can no longer measure the footprint of American imperialism by looking at the number of troops on the ground. US wars have evolved into neoliberal forever wars, where America outsources its projection of brute force.

In the following interview, Gopal explains the changing shape of America's conflicts, why the antiwar movement is dormant, and why anti-imperialism remains a crucial piece of socialist politics.

While the United States has been in Afghanistan for two decades, there are now just 2,500 or 3,500 US troops there. How should we think about the US's military footprint? That doesn't seem like a forever-war number.

When we talk about a "forever war," we're not talking about massive troop numbers. That's the major difference between the current mode of American warfare and the previous mode - in Vietnam and elsewhere.

For most of the history of the Afghan war, the United States has had a few thousand troops, except for a couple years around the Obama surge. Those years saw as many as 130,000 troops. But for much of the last twenty years, there have been under 10,000 American troops on the ground.

Afghanistan has a population of 30 million and, at the height of the war, had 130,000 soldiers on the ground. By comparison, Vietnam in the 1960s was also a country of 30 million people, and in 1968, there were 500,000 US soldiers there. So the extent of the US military presence in Afghanistan was never anything like in previous wars.

The invasion of Iraq had a lot of troops in March-April 2003, and at various points, there have been 100,000 to 150,000 troops. But today, the United States is still in Iraq and has maybe less than 3,000 soldiers there. And if you look around the world, in all the places the United States participates in the "war on terror" (Somalia to Syria and beyond), it doesn't have more than a few thousand troops in any one country.

For those on the receiving end, there are no great consequences to this shift - the new mode of warfare is just as deadly as the old mode. The main consequence is here at home. Today, ordinary Americans are more insulated from the effects of warmaking than ever before.

Previously, large parts of society were militarized during American wars. The US military required massive troop numbers. It obtained many of those soldiers through a national draft. During World War II, there were even industries that were quasi-nationalized in the name of defense. Every aspect of American lives was touched by those wars.

There was a very powerful antiwar movement in the 1960s, which was one of three reasons why the United States was defeated in Vietnam (the other two being the Vietnamese resistance and a rebellion within the US military). After the 1970s, the United States took a radically different tack. This has been called the "Vietnam Syndrome," but I think that's not the best way of describing it. What happened is that US war planners got rid of the draft. They shifted away from large standing armies and large occupying forces and toward a lean army. They began outsourcing most of the key functions of war fighting to third-party actors, like private firms and non-Americans.

It means taking the work that was once done by an American soldier and giving that job to a local actor. It is very expensive to support an American soldier: their salary, protecting and feeding them, veterans benefits, and so on. You can hire twenty-five Afghans for the cost of one American soldier.

This outsourcing lightens the US military's footprint. In Afghanistan, you have only 2,500 American soldiers, but you have tens of thousands of Afghan militia men, who are paid for by the United States and are in some cases directed by the CIA. These are local forces tasked with everything from protecting American convoys to transporting materiel. The logistical tasks that were once performed by US soldiers are now being done by locals.

The United States has also outsourced much of its violence, its actual war fighting. Most of the day-to-day combat is done by locals (in Iraq and Syria and Afghanistan and elsewhere).

This is an outsourcing of labor through a form of globalization, accompanied by a privatization of many military services. What does that sound like? It's neoliberalism.

Exactly. When Afghan militias or CIA-backed death squads commit atrocities, these aren't technically American atrocities, so they aren't going to appear on the evening news the way the Mỹ Lai massacre was beamed into every American's living room in the 1970s.

Just as important, with so few US troops on the ground, there aren't body bags coming back to this country, like we had in Vietnam.

These wars are actually quite cheap, from the perspective of the US ruling class.

That seems counterintuitive, because we think these wars cost billions of dollars. The Afghan war has cost over a trillion dollars. But think about this from the perspective of the American ruling class. The military/defense budget is 15 percent of the federal budget. That compares to 50 to 60 percent of the budget for social services.

Money that's spent on social services is tax money that is ultimately a transfer of wealth, from the wealthy to the poor. The money spent on defense isn't really a transfer of wealth from rich to poor - money spent on defense goes back into the coffers of corporations. So the US ruling establishment is able to spend money - federal money, on war - that doesn't run against the interests of the business class (or at least an important sector of that class).

So there is no amount of money for defense that is too much. The low political and financial costs are what make these wars forever wars.

No, you can't. Eugene Debs famously said, "The master class has always declared the wars; the subject class has always fought the battles." I'm not sure how true that is anymore. The master class still declares the wars. Who fights the wars? You have college graduate officers dropping bombs from F-35s, and you have drones. You don't need an enormous military to take on an enemy of this nature.

Even if Biden removed all the forces, he'd still support the Afghan government with funding. And let's remember, the Afghan government only exists because the United States and other countries are paying for it. Only around 50 percent of its revenue comes from taxes. The rest comes from foreign aid. The government only exists because foreign powers prop it up, and because there are tens of thousands of men armed and being paid directly or indirectly by the United States. That's what matters, at the end of the day.

The question isn't "Is Biden going to withdraw troops in May 2021?" The question is "What interest would Biden actually have to do so?" It seems to me, given the financial benefit at no political cost, he has no interest. It's why the US military is in Afghanistan in 2021, and it's why they'll probably be there in 2031.

Anti-imperialism has been such an important part of socialism throughout its history. Today, we have a resurgent socialist movement, with close to 100,000 members of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) and millions more supporting socialist candidates or initiatives. One noticeable absence is a strong anti-imperialist current. This seems to be a very tricky thing to do, given how off the radar questions of war are for most Americans.

The "war on terror" has worsened the lives of ordinary Americans in demonstrable ways. On the one hand, even 15 percent of the federal budget devoted to military spending is far too high, and that is money that can be used to help solve the major problems our country faces. But beyond dollars and cents, the permanent wars have degraded our society and our democracy.

There has been a steady whittling away of democratic freedoms over the past twenty years. After 9/11, the "war on terror" inaugurated such measures as the Patriot Act, and civil liberties have been curtailed in myriad ways. All of that is the backdrop to a phenomenon like Donald Trump: twenty years of dog-whistle politics against Arabs and Muslims, and of a bipartisan process that normalized the use of the courts to attack democratic rights.

What's worse, the language of the forever war has aided brutal regimes around the world, who have used terrorism to justify repressing their people. This is the story from Syria to Saudi Arabia to Israel and elsewhere.

There is an absolutely correct focus on voting rights in Georgia and elsewhere. But it's important not to lose sight of the other ways democracy is being attacked.

When the FBI was investigating domestic, right-wing terrorism, one of the things they pointed to as definitional of terrorism was "groups that oppose legislative actions, who have underlying disagreements with our current political order." That is the type of broad remit that will certainly come down on the Left.

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The US Is Waging Neoliberal Forever Wars

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As the US military increasingly outsources the most important parts of war, American imperialism has evolved into something that can't be measured merely by counting the number of boots on the ground. But it's still highly profitable for corporate elites and spreads death and misery around the globe - and it still must be dismantled.

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Blessing Bags are a simple way to give necessary, everyday items to people experiencing homelessness. Here's a do-it-yourself guide to making them.

The holiday season is here, and one of the best ways to get into the spirit is to do something special for others.

My young daughter reminded me of that one day when we pulled up to a stoplight and noticed a man holding a sign that read, "Anything helps."

She read his sign out loud and then told me about an activity at her school where they put together gift bags, called "Blessing Bags," to hand out to people experiencing homelessness. She wanted to have bags on-hand, especially to share during the holidays and cold months.

That's exactly what we set out to do.

Blessing Bags are easy to make, and you can make as few or as many as you want. You can also put anything you want in them -- the key is to think about everyday items people need.

Travel-size shampoo/conditioner and lotion.

Travel-size wet wipes and hand sanitizer.

Toothbrush, razor, bar of soap, comb and a loufa.

Granola and cereal bars.

Socks, gloves, hats.

You can also throw in a gift card to a local grocery store or restaurant.

The bags are something we have on-hand in the backseat of the car to hand out when necessary, and they're a simple, important way to help the less fortunate.

SUGGESTED VIDEOS | Colorado Guide

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DIY: How to make Blessing Bags for the homeless

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Blessing Bags are a simple way to give necessary, everyday items to people experiencing homelessness. Here's a do-it-yourself guide to making them. The holiday season is here, and one of the best ways to get into the spirit is to do something special for others.

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Why does the gender wage gap still exist? And what can be done to close it? We unpack the issue.

Megan Rapinoe of the United States women's soccer team, testified virtually during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Equal Pay Day. Credit... Drew Angerer/Getty Images

- Megan Rapinoe, a professional U.S. Soccer player
Megan Rapinoe is a two-time World Cup champion who has played to sold-out stadiums around the globe; what she has in common with nearly every American woman is that she's underpaid.

On Wednesday, Ms. Rapinoe testified during a hearing held by Representative Carolyn B. Maloney to examine economic harm caused by gender inequalities, particularly for women of color.

Today is All Women's Equal Pay Day, Ms. Maloney said. But it's not Equal Pay Day for all women.

Black women would have to work until Aug. 3, 2021, to earn what men made in 2020. For Latina women, the date doesn't come until Oct. 2.

"This is a disgrace," Ms. Maloney said. "And it has long-term consequences for women and families."

Wage discrimination isn't limited to any one sector or income level.

Take Ms. Rapinoe, whose fight for equal pay has become something of a calling card for the U.S. women's team, and who played a central role in the team's lawsuit on unequal pay filed in 2019.

"One cannot simply outperform inequality," she said. "Or be excellent enough to escape discrimination."

If it can happen to me, she said, "it can - and it does - happen to every person marginalized by gender."

In Her Words looked at the history of Equal Pay Day, the reasons for the wage gap and what can be done to close it.

What is Equal Pay Day?
It's a symbolic day that illustrates how far into the current year American women would need to work to earn what their male counterparts earned last year. Put another way, because there is a disparity in what women and men are paid, women would need to work 389 days to earn what men earn in just 365 days.

Race plays a part, too: For Black and Hispanic women, the numbers are worse. For Asian women, the numbers skew a bit better.

Estimates vary on how much the wage gap will cost an American woman over the course of her career. The National Women's Law Center puts it at $406,280 in lost income on average, but that number can top $1 million for Hispanic women and is just shy of $1 million for Black and Native American women.
How did it become a thing?
Equal Pay Day was established in 1996 by the National Committee on Pay Equity. Today marks the 25th. But debates around pay equity date back much further than that.

Carolyn York, secretary-treasurer of the National Committee on Pay Equity, pointed out in an email that in 1942, as huge numbers of women began replacing men in the work force, the National War Labor Board urged employers to make "adjustments which equalize wage or salary rates paid to females with the rates paid to males for comparable quality and quantity of work on the same or similar operations." But two decades on, in the 1960s, women were still earning only around 59 cents for every dollar a man made.
Do other countries have a gender wage gap?
Of course they do. According to this O.E.C.D. study, the United States falls behind Canada and ahead of Mexico. In addition to Canada, other countries that have a smaller pay gap than the United States are Romania, Colombia, Belgium, Costa Rica, Denmark, Norway ... the list goes on. And on.

Has the pay gap narrowed over time?
Yes, but not by much. We're talking pennies. This year, it's estimated that American women will earn around 82 cents for every dollar that a man earns. A decade ago in 2011, it was 77 cents. In 1996, the first "official" Equal Pay Day, it was around 74 cents. And this top-line number doesn't account for differences in earnings among different racial groups.

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Credit... By The New York Times | Sources: Institute for Women's Policy Research, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

How is the wage gap number calculated?
The pay gap refers to the ratio of female to male median annual earnings for full-time workers. Think of it as a fraction: The numerator is the difference between male and female median earnings, and the denominator is male median earnings. The actual number might look different depending on the source it's coming from, because some sources factor in characteristics like age, family size, education level and industry.

"We treat this issue as if you could summarize it in one number," said Claudia Goldin, an economics professor at Harvard University. "It's the headline," not really the full picture.
Are there jobs where women are better paid than men?
Not according to C. Nicole Mason, president of the Institute for Women's Policy Research. When men enter female-dominated sectors like nursing or education, the job begins paying more, she explained. But the inverse is not true: "When women enter male-dominated spaces, they don't get paid more than men."

Credit... By The New York Times | Sources: Institute for Women's Policy Research, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

How long will it take to close the pay gap if we do nothing about it?
Mark your calendars for 2059; if current trends continue, the gender wage gap is expected to close in a mere 38 years. For Black and Hispanic women, the deadline is a whole century away. If we do nothing, "my daughter, and daughter's daughter, will not see pay equity in their lives," Dr. Mason said.

So what exactly explains the gap?
There are many factors at play, according to the American Association of University Women.

One of them is that the fields in which women dominate tend to pay less than fields dominated by men. This is irrespective of education or skill required.

The "motherhood penalty" also complicates the wage gap. Moms are less likely to be hired, they receive lower salaries when they are, and are less likely to be tapped on the shoulder for promotion. (Ironic given research suggests moms are some of the most productive employees.)

And women work around two-thirds of the low-paying jobs in the United States; jobs that not only put workers at an economic disadvantage, but also tend to be more unstable.

There is also "invisible labor" - things like caregiving responsibilities and household chores - that women do in addition to their full-time work. "Women perform up to 30 percent more unpaid labor," Dr. Mason said. Not to put too fine a point upon it, but "unpaid labor is unpaid." And it's very hard - if not impossible - to do both your job and take care of the household at the same time.

There's also good old-fashioned sexism at play: Even when men and women are performing the exact same jobs, women tend to receive less compensation thanks to overt or unconscious biases, as well as stereotypes that make it more difficult for women to negotiate.

The pay gap is caused by a "layering effect" of all of these things, said Kimberly Churches, the CEO of the American Association of University Women. Ultimately, "this really is how we value women and how we value women of color in our society," she said.

Did Covid make it worse?
In a year of devastating job loss, especially for women - hence the talk of a "she-cession" - the Institute for Women's Policy Research released a piece of research that seemed, on its face, like good news. In 2020, it found the weekly gender wage gap for full-time workers shrunk to 17.7 percent from 18.5 percent. Seems positive, right? Not so fast.

As Ms. Goldin of Harvard explained, if the female labor force is reduced, but most of those reductions are from the bottom part of distribution (restaurant servers and retail workers, for instance), then women's wages relative to men's will rise.

This manifests as an overall rise in women's wages. And that's what happened here.

But underneath the top-line number, Dr. Mason pointed out, many, many lower-paid female workers are struggling.
What should companies do about it?
Closing the wage gap demands an investment of time and resources.

First, companies can audit workers' pay and collect data to determine the levels of disparity between their male and female workers, said Seren Fong, a vice president at Catalyst. Salesforce, for example, committed to reviewing all its workers' salaries in 2015, and over the following years spent more than $9 million on adjustments to give women equal pay.

Salary bands, which give the range of pay for a given role, can also help level the playing field between male and female workers in salary negotiations. (Though broadly speaking, a wide salary band can provide "too much range to pay people unequally," Dr. Mason said.)
And governments?
The Equal Pay Act, passed nearly 60 years ago, made it illegal to discriminate by sex in setting wages. But in practice, it can be hard for women to know whether they're actually being paid equally. It's not common to ask your colleagues what they make while you're chatting by the water cooler.

In the last decade, more than a dozen states and the District of Columbia have adopted legislation prohibiting pay secrecy in the workplace. Still, a 2017-18 survey found that nearly half of full-time workers were discouraged or prohibited from talking about their pay, meaning more legislation and enforcement is needed.

Ms. Churches also supports passing the Paycheck Fairness Act at a federal level, "so we can ban the use of salary history questions in the hiring process." Such questions "just compound women's lack of earnings going forward as they negotiate their salaries."
And individuals?
Ask your colleagues how much they make, as awkward as that may sound.

Negotiation is also key. Research shows that women who consistently negotiate their salaries make more than $1 million more over the course of their lifetimes, compared with those who don't. But of course, Covid hasn't helped: A new survey from AnnElizabeth Konkel of Indeed suggests women feel even more uncomfortable asking for a raise or promotion than they did prepandemic.

Charts by Lalena Fisher
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In 25 Years, the Pay Gap Has Shrunk by Just 8 Cents

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Why does the gender wage gap still exist? And what can be done to close it? We unpack the issue. - Megan Rapinoe, a professional U.S. Soccer player Megan Rapinoe is a two-time World Cup champion who has played to sold-out stadiums around the globe; what she has in common with nearly every American woman is that she's underpaid.

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By Ana Hernández Kent, Policy Analyst, Center for Household Financial Stability

In 2014, I was a graduate student studying psychology at Saint Louis University. That year, the issue of psychological racial biases came to the forefront in the national conversations that followed the shooting of Michael Brown Jr., a young Black man, by a police officer for the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson.

Today, I'm a policy analyst at the St. Louis Fed's Center for Household Financial Stability. Instead of focusing on psychological biases, I study economic disparities among Black and white people at a time when recent events again have brought racial inequities to the forefront of many conversations.

Studies have suggested that psychological racial biases and economic disparities may be connected. The economic disparities also may partly reflect a long history of interpersonal, legal and structural discrimination (e.g., redlining and the impeding of access to GI Bill benefits) that has made it more difficult for Black people than white people to attain wealth.

Historical Roots for Inequity

The deep roots of structural racism appear to contribute to unequal income, employment and housing and poorer health for Black people relative to white people.

The Center expands on the role of economic racial disparities and relevant resources in a statement. For example, we find that in the U.S., Black households earn 61 cents per dollar of white household median income, but own just 10 cents per dollar of white family wealth. Education actually widens racial wealth gaps.

How Missouri Compares on Disparities

However, are racial economic disparities in my state, Missouri, better or worse than for the U.S. as a whole? (If you are curious about your state, you can find that information in an article in our Bridges publication that maps it out.)

In true "Show-Me State" fashion, here are Missouri's data from the 2018 American Community Survey.

Black Missourian households earned 62 cents per dollar of white Missourian income at the median. The typical (or median) white household had an income of $58,000, whereas the typical Black household had $36,000.

Over a quarter (26%) of Black Missourians were in poverty in 2018, a figure over twice as high as that for white Missourians (11%). Nationally, the racial poverty gap was smaller: 13 percentage points.

At 4 percentage points, national and Missouri-specific racial health insurance gaps were the same. However, both white and Black Missourians were slightly more likely to be uninsured (8% and 12%, respectively) than people in those groups were nationally. These gaps have potential consequences-they could contribute to disproportionate loss of life in Black communities due to COVID-19.

Black Median Household Income per $1 of White Household Income

Movements Focus on Equity

The trends in Missouri closely replicate those in the greater U.S. Median household income gaps for each state can be found in the figure above. You also can see figures for poverty and health insurance in the Bridges article. Note that if you're hoping to find your state has achieved racial economic equity, you will be disappointed. In every state with sufficient data, white people had more favorable outcomes than Black people.

State-level variation may reflect, in part, differences in state-level policies toward disproportionately Black low-income residents. For example, research has found that states with larger Black populations generally have less generous and more restrictive welfare policies.

Various social movements have started to place a focus on racial equity. Forward Through Ferguson, for example, resulted from organization surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown Jr. Then, as today, people pushed for change and encouraged national conversations on racial equity.

These conversations have prompted many to tune in, including leaders within the Federal Reserve System. They have argued that inclusive opportunity and success are critical to a stronger economy, and have called ending racism both a moral and economic imperative. And I am encouraged by my colleagues' related efforts, which strive for a strong economy that benefits all Americans.

Notes and References

¹ One paper that outlines some of those findings is "Across the Thin Blue Line: Police Officers and Racial Bias in the Decision to Shoot," which was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology in 2007.

² Research from the Center suggests that structural and historical factors have contributed to wealth gaps. For example, see the 2017 article " College Is Not Enough: Higher Education Does Not Eliminate Racial and Ethnic Wealth Gaps."

³ For example, see "Institutional Racism against African Americans: Physical and Mental Health Implications" in the 2006 book "Addressing Racism: Facilitating Cultural Competence in Mental Health and Educational Settings."

⁴ See the 2017 research report "Why Does Cash Welfare Depend on Where You Live?"

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Racial Inequality in Missouri and Other States | St. Louis Fed

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By Ana Hernández Kent, Policy Analyst, Center for Household Financial Stability In 2014, I was a graduate student studying psychology at Saint Louis University. That year, the issue of psychological racial biases came to the forefront in the national conversations that followed the shooting of Michael Brown Jr., a young Black man, by a police officer for the St.

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Voting rights advocate Nsé Ufot has been fighting for a week like this all year.

For months, more than a half-dozen activist groups, including her own New Georgia Project, had urged business interests to denounce Republican-led efforts to restrict voting access in Georgia, she said. Billboards had gone up across the state that parodied corporate slogans, urging action. Advocates projected campaigns on the side of a hotel hosting attendees for the NBA All-Star weekend in early March.

The companies had offered cautious statements, and what Ufot calls "hand-wringing" and "shoulder shrugging." That is, until Wednesday, when Atlanta-based Delta Airlines and Coca-Cola issued forceful condemnations of Georgia's new restrictive voting law, enacted last week. From there, corporate criticism of Republican voting bills seemed to spread like wildfire - moving across state lines and morphing into a national trend that activists say finally reflects the urgency of the sheer number of restrictions under consideration across the U.S.

"There's a clarity about January 6 that people get, that that was an attack on our democracy," Ufot said. "If you understand that the attack on the Electoral College vote was unpatriotic and anti-democratic, then you need to continue down that same logical street until you get to these 360-plus bills in 47 states that are trying to make it more difficult for Americans to vote."

Major corporations' foray into the election policy debate, which experts called unusual, comes as Republicans across the country work to advance hundreds of restrictions, changes that voting rights advocates and civil rights groups argue would disproportionately affect voters of color.

By March 24, lawmakers had introduced 361 restrictive election bills in 47 legislatures, according to the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, which has been tracking the legislation. That's 108 more than in the center's last count, on Feb. 19, a 43 percent increase.

GOP lawmakers say these bills are needed to improve public confidence in the results, even as they cast doubt on the outcome of the 2020 elections themselves. By all non-partisan accounts, the 2020 election was secure and the results accurate, despite former President Donald Trump's repeated and false claims otherwise. His own attorney general, William Barr, said there was no evidence of widespread voter fraud, and the then-president's legal efforts to overturn the results failed in courtrooms around the country.

Advocates said the last year of speaking up - about civil rights and the pandemic particularly - primed companies to get involved on this issue, too.

"This week was really the week that corporate America stepped back up," said Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, vice president for development at the Brennan Center. "And really, I think was called to task to put their money where their mouth was for all the things they said they were for in 2020."

Weiss-Wolf works with corporations in fundraising at the nonpartisan organization but said in the last year she started helping companies find their civic voice, too. In 2020, hundreds of companies committed to giving employees time to vote or paid time off to serve as poll workers. Amid a racial reckoning inspired by George Floyd, a Black man who died last May after a white police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes, many issued statements underscoring their support of civil rights and committing to anti-racist action.

After a pro-Trump mob fueled by Trump's stolen election lie attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, dozens of corporations paused donations from their political action committees, with some saying they wouldn't give to Republicans who challenged the results of the election.

The Civic Alliance, a nonpartisan group that encourages civic participation from businesses, put out a letter Friday condemning any effort to restrict ballot access, with nearly 200 companies, including Salesforce, ViacomCBS and The Estée Lauder Companies, as signatories.

"Companies have their fingers on the pulse of what's going on with their consumers and employees and this is a priority for folks and so companies are making it a priority for themselves," said Mike Ward, co-founder of the Civic Alliance.

A letter from Black business leaders - published on Wednesday in a full-page ad in The New York Times and signed by more than 70 Black business executives - made his group's action imperative, he said.

"That was the moment, it was like, yup, this is an urgent priority and we're going to release something as soon as possible," he told NBC News. "It went from being something that was taking days long to work toward to being hours long to work toward."

Lisa Cylar Barrett, director of policy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said the letter was a "really critical turning point."

She said the trick now is to stay in the game.

"It's really important that they remain involved, so this can't just be - make a statement and disappear," she said. "We've got to see this through."

Ufot said she was heartened by the momentum, but said it's not enough. The Georgia law is still on the books.

"We don't feel like we've won yet," she said. "Symbols matter, but in what way does this prevent us from going to jail for handing out bottle water to voters in line?"

Republicans have responded forcefully to corporations' new-found outspokenness. In Georgia, the state House immediately set about repealing a tax credit the legislature afforded Delta.

"You don't feed a dog that bites your hand. You got to keep that in mind sometimes," said Georgia state House Speaker David Ralston, a Republican, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. (The effort died in the state Senate.)

Elsewhere, Republicans have blasted criticism of their election policies as the latest issue in the so-called culture wars.

"Cancel culture and woke political activists are coming for every aspect of your life, sports included," Republican Gov. Brian Kemp said in a statement Friday after Major League Baseball announced it would move the All-Star Game out of Atlanta in protest of the state's law.

Texas Lt. Gov Dan Patrick, a Republican, tried to tie it to ongoing legislative fights over transgender students participating in sports, around the country and in Texas, too.

"Texans are fed up with corporations that don't share our values trying to dictate public policy," he said in a statement.

Harvard Kennedy School professor Alex Keyssar, author of the "The Right to Vote: The Contested History of Democracy in the United States," said he'd seen companies mobilize on LGBTQ rights, but never around voting rights.

"What makes this complicated is that in this case, it's not just the issue. It's the fact that these laws are being justified in the name of the 'Big Lie' and thus it's a repudiation of the Republican Party as it exists today," he said, referring to how Democrats have described Trump's stolen election lie.

Dale Ho, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Voting Rights Project, said the moves were indicative of a much greater change.

"It's both a good and a bad sign. It's a good sign in that voting rights is getting the kind of visibility as an issue that I think it's long deserved - then years ago when I was working in this space, I couldn't get people to think about it," he said in an interview Friday. "The fact that it's all happening is a bad sign because it means voting rights is very much a part of the culture wars."

Historian Michael Beschloss said the week's political groundswell fit right into the nation's civil rights history and pointed to Martin Luther King Jr.'s final speech, delivered on April 3, 53 years ago.

In it, King vowed to use boycotts and corporate power to fight for justice, listing companies like Coca-Cola and Wonder Bread as targets and arguing that these companies needed to get involved in an ongoing union strike.

"I don't see how anyone can say this is radical or out of keeping with American tradition," Beschloss said of the corporations answering calls to come off the sidelines on the issue of voting. "This tool is an old tool in American history."

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Major companies are suddenly denouncing GOP-led voting bills. Why now?

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Voting rights advocate Nsé Ufot has been fighting for a week like this all year. For months, more than a half-dozen activist groups, including her own New Georgia Project, had urged business interests to denounce Republican-led efforts to restrict voting access in Georgia, she said.

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I am pleased to have the opportunity to testify before you on the important and difficult issue of campaign finance reform. While I have been asked to share my ideas for new approaches to reform, I first want to take this opportunity to tell you about a new experimental effort we have launched to conduct a deliberative exercise on the Internet over the next several months designed to improve the quality of debate on campaign finance reform. Sixteen well-known experts on campaign finance reform, including scholars and activists representing a range of perspectives on the issue, have agreed to participate in a conversation moderated by me, communicated by E-mail, and made available to all interested public officials and private citizens on the World Wide Web.

Initial rounds of conversation are focusing on the legislation introduced by Senators Feingold and McCain, since it has attracted bipartisan co-sponsorship in both the House and Senate. The purpose of the exercise is neither to praise this particular approach to campaign finance reform nor to bury it, but rather to ensure that those engaged in the debate have thought through the implications of the proposed reforms, calculated as best as possible the benefits and costs, considered possible unintended consequences, weighed alternative approaches and, more generally, clearly explicated the desired objectives and the means for achieving them. Past debates on campaign finance reform have suffered from a failure to move beyond long-held, sharply polarized views on various approaches to reform. We hope to overcome this problem by conducting a serious deliberative exercise that operates in tandem with legislative efforts on Capitol Hill.

The first two rounds of conversation by the Brookings Working Group on Campaign Finance Reform are posted on our Web site at:

http://www.brook.edu/gs/cf/workgrp.htm

We will be discussing other aspects of the proposed legislation as well as alternative measures in the weeks ahead. I hope you will consider our Working Group a resource to draw upon as you schedule additional hearings and begin to mark up legislation.

Now let me turn to the substance of the issue before your Committee. I will begin by summarizing my own view of the problems with the present system of campaign finance. Then I will briefly evaluate the approach taken in the legislation introduced by Senators Feingold and McCain. Finally, I will suggest some alternative approaches to reform that merit your attention.

The present system of congressional campaign finance has three serious deficiencies. The high cost of running a serious campaign for the House and Senate shrinks the pool of able individuals willing to become candidates, limiting the field to those with personal wealth or the stomach for nonstop fundraising. Expensive campaigns also lead members of Congress to become consumed (if not obsessed) with raising money. Fundraising has become a way of life for members, adding to the frenetic quality of their schedules, distorting how they would otherwise allocate their time, and diminishing opportunities for face-to-face deliberation on serious problems confronting the country. The money chase has added to the tendency of members to commit to positions early, often eliminating the prospect of debate and deliberation changing minds or shaping outcomes.

A second problem with the system is the conflict of interest, real and perceived, that results when members seek and receive campaign contributions from individuals and organizations with direct interest in matters pending in Congress. The populist version of this critique, drawing its strength from the regular diet of stories on PAC contributions, national party soft money, and Washington fundraisers, is that politicians are routinely bought and sold by special interests. But one needn't be a complete cynic to sympathize with those who argue that monied interests are more likely to attract the attention and energy of members of Congress than ordinary constituents. Indeed, one of the most distasteful aspects of the present system is the brazenness with which some politicians pressure lobbyists for campaign contributions, a practice it is not unreasonable to label "legal extortion."

A third deficiency with the present system of financing congressional campaigns is its failure to generate adequate information about the choice of candidates in House and Senate races across the country. Most Americans know precious little about their representatives in Congress; they know even less about the men and women who challenge these elected officials. While some inequality in resources between incumbents and challengers is inevitable, campaigns have no hope of fulfilling their proper role in our democracy if the means are not present to convey to the electorate the most basic information about the candidates and their platforms.

Identifying the problems with the campaign finance system is infinitely easier than fashioning effective and acceptable solutions. There are clear limits to what is permissible under the prevailing constitutional ruling that equates campaign spending with speech. No measure regulating money in campaigns can (or should) fully compensate for the other sources of inequality between incumbents and challengers and among individuals and groups in society. Banish every private dollar from campaigns and those inequalities would persist. Slowing the money chase and reducing the amount of "interested money" in congressional campaigns requires identifying new, acceptable sources of funds that candidates can more easily tap. But what other than public financing-about which the public has some serious reservations-fits the bill?

These complications (and they are only the beginning) suggest that those who believe a simple solution to campaign finance reform is at hand are badly mistaken. To (mis)quote Ross Perot, "It's definitely not that simple." On the other hand, those who see only virtues in the present system and direct all their energies toward protecting the status quo are equally misguided. I have enormous respect for those who are making good-faith efforts to deal with the complexities of this issue, even when I believe their solution falls well short of the mark.

Such is the case with the legislation proposed by Senators Feingold and McCain and, in the House, Representatives Smith, Shays, and Meehan. I am sympathetic with their goals but skeptical of the means identified for achieving them. My concerns are based on the questionable constitutionality of some of the provisions (most importantly, the abolition of PACs); the inadequacy of the incentives for enticing candidates to comply with voluntary limits on overall and personal spending; the ease with which some of the limits (e.g., on spending and on out-of-state and special interest contributions) can be evaded; the extent to which new limits on contributions will intensify the money chase, increase the leverage of savvy contributors, and further diminish the prospects of challengers; the inadequacy of a single spending limit for a highly diverse set of House districts; and the difficulty of administering a system of congressional spending limits, especially given the structure and resources of the FEC.

It is possible to deal with some of these concerns but in most cases it requires an expenditure of substantial public funds not anticipated in this legislation. Given the political as well as substantive obstacles, it is worthwhile considering some alternative approaches, less comprehensive in character, that might begin to improve the way in which congressional campaigns are financed and conducted. Here are a few ideas:

1. Increase the role of political parties in congressional campaign finance. Simplify, increase, and index the limits on direct contributions and coordinated spending by political parties on behalf of congressional candidates. But at the same time change the mix of funds available to parties by bringing all soft money under federal contribution limits. Parties ought to play a more central role in allocating resources to shaky incumbents and promising challengers, but to earn the necessary legitimacy with the public they must end their dependency on very large donations from corporations, unions, and wealthy individuals. Public funds, in the form of cash or credits with broadcasting outlets, might also usefully be distributed through the political parties.

2. Use the congressional frank to distribute information from all major candidates during election years. Efforts are underway in both houses to prohibit franked mass mailings during election years. Instead, the resources should be used to finance one or two joint mailings by major general election candidates in every House and Senate contest. Rather than reducing the amount of information about incumbents available to voters, reformers should seek ways of increasing what citizens know about all candidates.

3. Institute a 100% tax credit for small in-state contributors to congressional candidates. Congressional candidates should be encouraged to expand the base of small donors in their constituencies. A tax credit would maintain market discipline for candidates but greatly increase the number and diversity of potential contributors.

4. Provide broadcast vouchers for purchase of television or radio time to qualifying candidates. As new digital channels are distributed to broadcasters, commitments should be secured to provide television and radio time to candidates for Congress. These commitments can be distributed in the form of vouchers to candidates who qualify by raising a minimum amount ($25,000, $50,000?) in small, in-state contributions.

5. Ease the raising of seed money by challengers through higher individual contribution limits. Individual contributions limits of $1,000 (already devalued 75% by inflation over the two decades since they were set in law) should be raised to $10,000 for the first $100,000 raised by congressional candidates. This would lower the barrier to entry for potential challengers who could persuade ten well-to-do donors to give them a chance.

6. Adopt provisions, in law and congressional rules where appropriate, that explicitly separate fundraising from lawmaking. Members of Congress should be prohibited from requesting campaign contributions from registered lobbyists or from discussing with them contributions from their parent organizations or clients. If constitutional, lobbyists should be prohibited from contributing to any member of Congress. (There is some precedent for treating registered lobbyists differently in new gift rules.) No fundraising activities of any kind should be permitted in public facilities (including the use of congressional office phones) and congressional staff members should be prohibited from engaging in fundraising for their employer, even in their off hours. Other means should be sought for dealing with conflicts of interest that arise when contributors seek legislative remedies and when legislators seek contributions from those with direct interest in legislation.

I am fully aware of the controversial and problematic nature of many of these ideas, especially the last, but I believe it is important to put them on the table for your serious consideration.

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I am pleased to have the opportunity to testify before you on the important and difficult issue of campaign finance reform. While I have been asked to share my ideas for new approaches to reform, I first want to take this opportunity to tell you about a new experimental effort we have launched to conduct a deliberative exercise on the Internet over the next several months designed to improve the quality of debate on campaign finance reform.

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No matter what age your students are, learning how more than 6 million animals end up in shelters across the country every year-and why they face an uncertain future-can lead students to make lifesaving decisions in the future. Whether it's talking to their parents about adopting only from shelters and rescues (and never buying any animal from a pet store or breeder) or volunteering to walk, groom, or play with a lonely dog or cat, every student can be a hero for animals in shelters.

Teaching kids why they should care about others and make kinder choices to reduce suffering is an invaluable lesson that can help your students realize their place in your community and our world. Empower them with these fun activities:

Make (and Deliver) Gifts

What can you make with pieces of old fabric, catnip, and yarn? Catnip toys that cats adore! You probably already have most of these items in your spare closet or junk drawer at home, and you can pick up catnip on the cheap online or at your local pet-supply store (just avoid Petco, PetSmart, and any other store that sells live animals).

DIY dog treats are also easy to make and can help students learn math, measuring, and home economics skills. Have your class whip up some heart-shaped doggy biscuits with an inexpensive cookie cutter (you can find them at any craft store). We love these three-ingredient treats.

There are also many DIY dog toys that are a snap to make-like these braided toys made of old T-shirts. The best part? Dogs in animal shelters will be grateful for every single second of work, and they'll show it!

When you're done DIY-ing it up in class, deliver the treats or toys yourself or do it as a class-and be sure to snap lots of photos of the animals as they enjoy the goods. Post the photos in the classroom to keep your students thinking about what they've done to make the world a kinder place.

Tell Your City to Make a BIG Change

Have high school students who are eager to make a difference for animals? The most effective way to help homeless animals is to prevent them -and asking your city to enact a mandatory spay and neuter law is a great way to do that.

Explain the importance of spaying and neutering, check out the current legislation in your area, and work with your students to draft letters to local decisionmakers. Here's an to working on lifesaving legislation.

Need more guidance? TeachKind is here to help! Just e-mail us at [email protected] .

Hold a Blanket Drive

These are popular around the holidays, but shouldn't every day be a day of giving? Your students can play Santa any day of the year by providing vulnerable animals with warmth and comfort. The world can always use a little more of those. And this activity is really easy-all you need is a box. Then have your students ask their parents for old T-shirts, blankets, or towels to donate to your local open-admission animal shelter (a shelter that accepts every animal and never turns animals away for lack of space).

Be sure to lead by example by donating a few old things of your own to get started.

Take a Field Trip

After using TeachKind's lesson plans focusing on adopting and never buying companion animals as well as the importance of taking proper care of them, contact your local open-admission shelter and try to set up a trip for your students to visit it.

This may seem like a sad lesson, but it's an important one. Seeing the animals firsthand can make a lifelong impression on your students. When their family decides to add a new cat or dog or when they graduate from college and get their first apartment, they'll think about the animals they saw in the shelter and be more likely to make the compassionate choice and adopt a homeless cat or dog instead of buying one from a pet store or breeder.

This is one school lesson that can truly save lives.

Host an Animal Shelter Worker

Most kids care about animals-and they want to help them. We bet you have more than one student who wants to be a veterinarian or a marine biologist, and teaching them how to help animals in their own community is a great first step.

Shelter workers do more than just play with cute dogs and cats-they work on socializing animals who come from abusive situations, counsel guardians on how to take better care of their companions, screen potential adopters, coordinate fundraisers, and more. Younger students will love hearing about how to be better friends to cats, dogs, and other animals, and older students can learn about the importance of cruelty case investigations, humane laws, open-door policies, spaying and neutering, and more.

Extra Credit

Work with your local animal shelter to get your students trained to volunteer (each shelter has different requirements, so be sure to check in advance), and then offer students extra credit for volunteering throughout the school year. Giving awards such as "Hero for Homeless Cats" or "I'm a Dog's Best Friend" is a great incentive, too, and can get your kids excited to make a difference.

Have some teacher friends who may be interested in these ideas?

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6 Ways Your Class Can Help Homeless Animals | PETA

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No matter what age your students are, learning how more than 6 million animals end up in shelters across the country every year-and why they face an uncertain future-can lead students to make lifesaving decisions in the future.

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The United States has a long, proud tradition of giving families fleeing war and persecution a chance to rebuild their lives in safety.

After refugee arrivals declined by over 85% under the Trump Administration, President Joe Biden has a chance to rebuild the bipartisan, lifesaving refugee resettlement program. The International Rescue Committee (IRC) is eager to work alongside the new administration, communities across the country, and both Republican and Democratic leadership to once again welcome refugees as new and valuable members of American society.

You can help at this critical moment. Find out all the ways to support refugees in your community and around the world:

1. Donate online

The IRC works in over 20 offices in the U.S. and more than 40 countries worldwide to help refugee families survive and rebuild their lives.

Donations help us to continue this critical work. Monthly donations are the best way to help our programs continue uninterrupted, and to ensure our teams can respond to emergencies in the world's toughest places and stay for as long as we are needed. Thanks to a special, limited time offer, your first 12 monthly gifts will be matched, making an even bigger difference. Make a monthly donation today.

You can also donate to your local IRC office ( search for an office in your community here). And don't forget: You may be able to double-or even triple-the impact of your generous donation with a matching gift from your company.

2. Donate goods

Some IRC U.S. offices welcome in-kind donations such as household goods, furniture, school supplies and gift cards to support arriving refugees. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many offices have been in need of masks to help refugees stay safe in their workplaces and schools.

For example, the IRC's San Diego office recently put a call out to the community featuring wish lists for asylum-seeking mothers and their babies, Target gift cards and hand soap, cleaning supplies and other items for "health and safety kits." The office also noted that donated cars in good working condition could be a big help to a newly-arrived refugee family.

If you are interested in making an in-kind gift or organizing a donation drive, please contact your nearest office to find out about their current needs.

3. Speak out

As a candidate, President Biden committed to admitting 125,000 refugees in his first year in office. He's begun the process by raising the Trump Administration's record-low Fiscal Year 2021 admissions goal of 15,000 to 62,500. The president's decision came after Americans across the country called on him to restore America's legacy of welcome.

Join us today in thanking President Biden for upholding his promise to refugees.

4. Spread the word

Make your values clear to the world by sharing this post on Facebook, Instagram or on Twitter.

You can also get the facts on refugee resettlement and share with your friends and family.

5. Volunteer

During the coronavirus pandemic, volunteers have continued to be an integral part of the IRC's work. Many IRC volunteer positions are now done remotely; they include mentoring a family, tutoring a student, or even joining a "tech squad" to provide digital literacy education and general tech support.

Find IRC volunteer opportunities near you.

6. Help a refugee with their taxes

Taxes may not be the first thing that come to mind when you picture supporting refugees but you can make a big difference by assisting new taxpayers in filing their returns remotely.

Refugees and immigrants make every effort to learn and adapt to American systems for essential services, and paying taxes is no exception. Unfortunately, some IRC clients may not be able to afford the tax preparation services that many Americans use or, for some, language barriers may make it a challenge to figure out which services they really need and which are optional.

You don't need any experience for this opportunity-training will be provided-and you can sign up from anywhere in the country. Learn more here.

7. Fundraise

Let your community know you care-by setting up a Facebook fundraiser. It's easy: just set a goal and reach out to your networks explaining why supporting refugees, asylum seekers and other displaced people is important to you.

8. Share refugee stories

Refugees and asylum seekers are people with lives we can all recognize. They are mothers and fathers, daughters and sons. They are neighbors, teachers, students, business owners and employees-including the essential workers keeping us safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are just a few stories to explore and share:
Explore powerful stories of the refugee and immigrant leaders who are helping to build back America "Your voice has so much power." Refugees describe voting for the first time Stories of welcome: Refugees and their fellow Americans share how they have changed one another's lives
9. Welcome a refugee

Refugees moving to a new city face many challenges and stable housing can be hard to come by. Open your home to refugees in the U.S. in temporary need of shelter through IRC partner Airbnb.

10. Invest in a refugee's future

Refugees are entrepreneurs, consumers and taxpayers, contributing to economic growth and creating jobs. Entrepreneurship among refugees is nearly 50 percent higher than among people born in the U.S.

You can lend your support by frequenting local businesses run by refugees or by employing a refugee in your company and encouraginge other businesses to do the same.

Learn about supporting refugees as an IRC corporate partner.

11. Learn about solutions

Refugee resettlement is just one of many areas President Biden has the opportunity to transform; his administration can also make a difference on issues such as COVID-19 globally, climate change, and the asylum system at the U.S. southern border.

Explore seven executive orders and other concrete actions the new administration can take -and, in some cases, has already committed to-within its first 100 days.

12. Stay informed

Sign up for updates from the IRC or follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Thank you!

With nearly 80 million people displaced by violence in the world today, the need to provide refuge is more urgent than ever. All of us at the IRC thank you for your compassion and your commitment to the cause of refugees.
The IRC is consistently awarded high marks by charity watchdog groups for our efficient use of financial support and the effectiveness of our work.

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How to help refugees in the United States: 12 ways to stand for welcome

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Under the Biden Administration, we have a chance to rebuild the United States's proud tradition of giving families fleeing war and persecution a chance to live in safety. Here are 12 ways to help refugees in the U.S. right now.

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A dozen pages into the fact sheet for President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan, he marks a growing shift in Democratic orthodoxy and a new plan for zoning reform:

Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies. For decades, exclusionary zoning laws - like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and prohibitions on multifamily housing - have inflated housing and construction costs and locked families out of areas with more opportunities. President Biden is calling on Congress to enact an innovative, new competitive grant program that awards flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing.

You'd be forgiven if your eyes glazed over at "minimum lot sizes" and "mandatory parking requirements," but in this paragraph is an acknowledgment that the seemingly mundane local rules that govern what and where houses can be built have had devastating effects on the American people.

In the past year, the housing market has laid bare the harms of these rules. As mortgage rates bottomed out, would-be homeowners flooded the market only to find they were fighting over scraps. Tales abound of these people desperately shoving all-cash offers well over the asking price to sellers and increasingly making offers on homes sight unseen. Middle- and low-income renters watched from the sidelines, their hopes of homeownership dashed as they shell out dangerously high proportions of their income to rent.This frenzy leads many to a simple question: Where are all the homes?

While the pandemic and low interest rates certainly played a large role, America's housing supply problem is long-running.

"Even going into the pandemic, there was a shortage of homes for sale," Redfin's chief economist Daryl Fairweather told Vox. "From 2010-2019, [we] had the lowest amount of homes built than in any decade since the 1960s."

Restrictions like minimum lot sizes, mandatory parking requirements, and other prohibitions on multi-family housing that Biden's plan references have the effect of reducing the supply of housing. For example, if there is a requirement that for every unit a developer has to provide two parking spaces, that ensures they have to set aside land for parking that could otherwise have been used for building more homes. Frequently, this leads developers to build fewer units - and more expensive ones at that.

According to the Urban Institute, by the end of 2020, there was only 2.5 months' supply left of housing, meaning "at the current sales pace, the inventory of homes nationwide will be exhausted."

The economic effect of these rules has been well documented. In a 2015 study by University of Chicago economist Chang-Tai Hsieh and UC Berkeley economist Enrico Moretti, researchers find that because metropolitan areas have made it prohibitively expensive for middle- and low-income Americans to move to high-productivity areas, US aggregate economic growth was lowered by more than 50 percent from 1964 to 2009.

These rules are also the outgrowth of explicitly racist desires to keep white neighborhoods from being integrated. Now they function as clear class divides ensuring that less well-off Americans are essentially barred from finding affordable living spaces in high-demand regions with good jobs.

While President Barack Obama made overtures late in his second term toward a federal response to these rules (most notably with the implementation of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule), Biden is proposing something new: a competitive grant program for localities that repeal these rules.

Biden's "purely carrot and not stick" plan for federal zoning reform

In 2009, as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, Obama announced a $4.35 billion competitive grant to be awarded by the Department of Education. The goal, according to a report by the Center for American Progress, was "to kick-start key education reforms in states and districts." By 2012, 40 states and DC had applied for the funding.

The report found that the initiative's design "scored some significant victories even before any of the money was awarded." That's because states were competing with one another in order to win the grant, leading more than 25 of them to reform their education policies in advance of the competition.

Just over a decade later, Biden has a similar plan for zoning reform. The president's plan is to allocate $5 billion to a new competitive grant program that "awards flexible and attractive funding to jurisdictions that take concrete steps to eliminate such needless barriers to producing affordable housing."

"This is a new approach. It's ultimately a process to incentivize communities to end exclusionary zoning that is purely carrot and not stick," an administration official told Vox. "Cities need to demonstrate that they are taking down some of their exclusionary zoning requirements and then they will be able to access this separate pot of money for whatever they want to use it for - transportation, parks, schools."

The Department of Housing and Urban Development would be in charge of administering the funding. While details are still in flux, the general idea is that localities would be able to apply for this funding by showing that they are removing existing requirements like height restrictions and bans on duplexes and fourplexes.

In some ways, modeling zoning reform similarly to education reform makes sense - both have been designated as local issues, and a lot of the infrastructure for direct reform exists at the local level. But a program that is "purely carrot" can only do so much if the federal government doesn't make localities eat their vegetables.

Abundant housing isn't a universal goal

How the program is designed matters a lot for how impactful it will be. But regardless of design, there's only so much that incentives can do when it comes to localities that are fiercely protective of their zoning ordinances.

Emily Hamilton, a senior research fellow and director of the Urbanity Project at the Mercatus Center, has previously supported a "race to the top" program.

An effective program should be structured as a "race to the top" that rewards localities based on how much they do to allow more, lower-cost housing to be built.
- Emily Hamilton (@ebwhamilton) November 19, 2020

"In general, I am more optimistic about state or local efforts to reform zoning," Hamilton told Vox. "Any type of grant program is not going to be as attractive to the wealthiest, most exclusionary jurisdictions." However, she added that the White House and Congress drawing attention to this issue was "very important."

Hamilton hopes the program will be focused on outcomes rather than localities just showing that they changed their zoning laws.

"Sometimes when localities just focus on tweaking their zoning ordinances, adding something like the opportunity for homeowners to build accessory dwelling units, that doesn't always result in accessory dwelling units (ADUs) getting built," she explained.

Even if a jurisdiction were to legalize ADUs (small detached dwellings on existing properties, such as a converted garage, a basement apartment, or a tiny house in the backyard), it could enact parking minimums that require two parking spaces per structure - in effect making it extremely unlikely anyone would actually build this kind of dwelling.

Jason Furman, who served as chair of the Council of Economic Advisers under Obama, disagrees with an outcome-based approach.

"The problem with outcomes is they're partly a function of policy and partly a function of a whole lot of things outside of policymakers' control and the outcomes can happen years later. So I much prefer you, as a governor or mayor, know what you need to do in order to get this money." he explained. "Saying you might get the money five years from now and whether or not you get it depends partly on your actions, but also partly on all sorts of factors outside of your control. I think that greatly diminishes the incentive."

It's hard to see a race-to-the-top proposal making a dent in the most exclusive jurisdictions where the lack of housing is the most pronounced. Unlike with education reform, where people generally agree on the outcome (better-educated children) even if they disagree with the methods, with zoning reform there are plenty of jurisdictions that don't want the same outcome (abundant housing) that advocates, the Biden administration, and would-be residents do.

Furman noted these obstacles, adding: "The reason we have these rules isn't because people don't know what they're doing, it's because a subset of people know exactly what they're doing."

Many jurisdictions are keenly aware that their policies necessarily reduce the number of homes available, thereby driving up the price of homes and rents for everyone. They keep them in place because some existing residents are either willing to pay through the nose if it means keeping their "neighborhood character" intact or unaware of the trade-offs of low-density development.

One of the most significant aspects of Biden's infrastructure agenda could be the ability to influence Democratic policymakers and voters' opinions on how their local zoning rules come into conflict with economic growth and equality of opportunity. Places like New York City and the Bay Area, with the greatest gains to be had in zoning reform, are overwhelmingly Democratic; having the leader of your party draw a clear line about where he stands is no small thing.

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Biden's innovative idea for tackling skyrocketing housing prices

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A dozen pages into the fact sheet for President Joe Biden's infrastructure plan, he marks a growing shift in Democratic orthodoxy and a new plan for zoning reform: Eliminate exclusionary zoning and harmful land use policies.

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While it was distressing to see two articles in two days about the mental health crisis among youth ( "The kids are not OK," Opinion, April 5; "Waits reportedly longer in ER for children's mental health issues," Business, April 6), I'm grateful the media continue to educate the public and sound the alarm bells.

Mental health (for all ages) has been an escalating crisis in the United States for years, with no substantial plan to address it. Mental health should be given the same priority as physical health; it shouldn't be a line item on a list of questions asked at annual physicals or by a school nurse. At the very least, there should be yearly appointments for mental health checkups, as there are for other aspects of our health, such as dental care.

A first step in managing this crisis is to establish partnerships between schools and community-based mental health agencies so that youth have easy access to therapeutic supports and at no cost. Long term, we need a more centralized system that triages cases to the appropriate levels of care and provides adequate funding for community-based crisis support alternatives over emergency department visits and hospitalizations.

Integrating mental health care into our health care system as a priority will offer remarkable preventive and curative benefits that will elevate the quality of life for all.

David Cohen

Doc Wayne Youth Services

Doc Wayne is a Boston nonprofit that focuses on the social, emotional, and behavioral well-being of at-risk youth with a combination of sport and therapy.

Re "The kids are not OK" by Taylor Trudon: Younger generations' concerns are often invalidated, and we are told to toughen up, or that the generations before us had it worse. But when we reflect on the differences in lifestyle between the older and younger generations, we may realize that this might not be true.

The modern world is filled with new technology, and everything is posted to a screen for the world to judge and envy. On top of the negative effects social media have on children, desensitizing them or teaching them to hate who they are, the coronavirus pandemic only makes this worse. We spend our days on a screen, being taught what we "need" to know for a test that defines the outcome of the rest of our lives. We cannot see each other in person without risking all our safety, and yet we are still expected to work, exercise, learn, study, and more in isolation.

The truth is, the world is suffering together at this moment, but to ask young adults to merely sit back and stay silent while others get to advocate for what they want is ignorance.

Nolan Johnson

East Longmeadow

The writer is a student in the East Longmeadow Public Schools.

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Young people's mental health must be addressed - The Boston Globe

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While it was distressing to see two articles in two days about the mental health crisis among youth ( "The kids are not OK," Opinion, April 5; "Waits reportedly longer in ER for children's mental health issues," Business, April 6), I'm grateful the media continue to educate the public and sound the alarm bells.

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Making mental healthcare accessible and affordable for everyone

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0:00 / 10:05•Watch full video

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Universal Basic Income Explained – Free Money for Everybody? UBI

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St. Louis Jail Detainees Protest 'Inhumane' Conditions

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Top 5 Overlooked Areas of Criminal Justice Reform

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Roughly 850,000 people are facing food insecurity in the state of Missouri alone - and that includes about 220,000 kids.

"We estimate roughly one in five kids in the state of Missouri [are] hungry or at risk of not knowing where their next meal is going to be coming from," Operation Food Search's Lucinda Perry said Tuesday on St. Louis on the Air.

Perry, who is director of strategic initiatives for the nonprofit, joined host Don Marsh alongside guests from two other St. Louis-area organizations that focus on addressing food insecurity: Food Outreach and the St. Louis Area Foodbank.

Meredith Knopp, president and CEO of the St. Louis Area Foodbank, noted that the staggering number of Missourians struggling with hunger is also occurring in a "land of plenty" where 70 billion pounds of edible food ended up in landfills last year.

"We have too many children, too many seniors, too many veterans, too many families going to bed hungry all across our region," Knopp said. "This is not something that is happening in far-off different countries - it's happening right here in our region locally. People are usually astounded when I tell them that the county with the third-largest food-insecurity population for us is St. Charles County."

Knopp said her organization last year distributed 43.5 million pounds of food, with 11.6 million pounds of that being fresh produce, to the 26 counties the foodbank serves in the bi-state region.

Operation Food Search seeks to end child food insecurity and family food insecurity, with programs ranging from what Perry described as "afterschool refuel," to nutrition-education efforts, to "championing change" and looking at the root causes and implications of hunger.

"We can't be successful at school, at work, within our own family structures," Perry explained, "if we don't have the nutrition that we need to for us to be able to be the best that we can be."

Julie Pole is the executive director of Food Outreach, which provides nutritional services to men, women and children diagnosed with HIV/AIDS or cancer living at or below 300 percent of the federal poverty level. The organization serves nearly 2,000 clients a year with everything from food and private, dietetic counseling to communal meals once a week and cooking classes.

Food Outreach relies on volunteers, Pole said, to complete its work.

"We would probably close our doors in about two days [without volunteers] - we're completely dependent on the work of about 700 volunteers a year," she said.

When Marsh remarked on the large number of people, even in 21st-century America, who are dealing with food insecurity, Pole noted that privilege is present in "the idea that we can eat what we want when we want."

"Food insecurity points to something that all of our team members and volunteers understand profoundly relates to - I can state it in the positive - [to] privilege and access in one way, and hunger relates enormously to being under-resourced and having a lack of access in a lot of different ways," she said.

Among a variety of challenges the three guests discussed were the issues that often surround transportation - particularly among people living in food deserts, areas that lack grocery stores, and other ways to access nutritious food.

Perry said she and her colleagues at Operation Food Search hear about such challenges often, and Knopp said the St. Louis Area Foodbank works to meet people where they are on a regular basis.

"We drive out to these areas where those food desserts exist, where there might be problems with public transportation [as well as] private transportation," she explained. "So we go out to these parking lots with our volunteers and our staff, and we literally load cars for a few hours every day."

"St. Louis on the Air" brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. St. Louis on the Air host Don Marsh and producers Alex Heuer, Evie Hemphill, Lara Hamdan and Jon Lewis give you the information you need to make informed decisions and stay in touch with our diverse and vibrant St. Louis region.

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'Too Many Families Going To Bed Hungry': A Look At Food Insecurity In The St. Louis Region

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Roughly 850,000 people are facing food insecurity in the state of Missouri alone - and that includes about 220,000 kids. "We estimate roughly one in five kids in the state of Missouri [are] hungry or at risk of not knowing where their next meal is going to be coming from," Operation Food Search's Lucinda Perry said Tuesday on St.

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Climate Change: Vital Signs of the Planet

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national aeronautics and space administration

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NASA Global Climate Change - Interactives

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Vital Signs of the Planet: Global Climate Change and Global Warming. Current news and data streams about global warming and climate change from NASA.

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How to Contact Your Congressman - They Work For Us!

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ST. LOUIS - A collection of 50 "tiny" homes will begin sheltering some of St. Louis' homeless population as soon as next month, Mayor Lyda Krewson announced Tuesday.

The city plans a 29-month lease of property for the new community at 900 N. Jefferson Avenue on the edge of Downtown West, the site of the former St. Louis RV Park. There the rows of colorful, simple homes ranging from 80 to 96 square feet will serve as transitional housing for residents for about four to five months while case workers try to find them permanent shelter.

"Tiny houses are a lot safer, more secure and comfortable than living in a tent," Krewson said during a news conference, adding that the homes will create a "stronger foundation" for homeless people to rebuild their lives.

The mayor will request $600,000 to fund the construction of the homes and the first year of the land lease from the approximately $35 million in federal coronavirus relief funding St. Louis received this spring to address the impact of COVID-19.

"Folks are much more vulnerable to COVID if they're living on the street, if they are living in a group setting," Krewson said. "So this is assistance to prevent COVID transmission."

Krewson's chief of staff, Steve Conway, said the city is also concerned that there may be an increase in the homeless population caused by the economic fallout from the pandemic.

The city has a freeze on evictions through Dec. 31 and has already dedicated $7.4 million of CARES money for rental and mortgage assistance, but in the coming months people still may lose housing, Conway said.

With the tiny homes included, the city has created 385 new beds to house the homeless population since the start of the pandemic, Conway said. The additional beds were needed when area shelters had to cut down on the number of people they could serve to prevent the spread of COVID-19, he said.

Earlier this year the city also removed several homeless encampments around downtown, including one with about 50 people living in tents on Market Street near City Hall. The mayor said the encampment was a risk for the spread of the virus and other health issues, and offered to move people living there into the city's temporary shelter beds when the site was shut down in May. The move was opposed by some advocates for the homeless population in the city.

The small homes on North Jefferson will be across the street from the St. Louis Police Department Central Patrol building and about a mile from two of the city's other major resources for the homeless, the city-owned Biddle House men's shelter and the homeless services agency known as the St. Patrick Center.

Krewson said the site was chosen in part because it already had showers, laundry facilities and bathrooms in place from the RV park.

The park stood out among its urban surroundings from the time it opened in the 1980s. The asphalt lot, which featured a pool, served temporary and traveling workers along with vacationers for decades as an unusual urban RV spot near downtown until this fall.

The Post-Dispatch wrote in 2004 that the park became a place where many people waiting for lung transplants at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, then the busiest lung transplant facility in the world, would stay while waiting for new organs and recovering from surgery.

Now the North Jefferson site will include 40 single homes, eight doubles and two homes compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act, according to Krewson's office. Each will have a bed, desk, chair, shelving unit, heat and air conditioning, and a charging unit for electronics. The community will also have on-site case management, Wi-Fi and 24/7 security, Krewson said.

The city is in negotiations to contract with a local service provider to manage the village, but has not yet publicly named the organization.

Krewson will request final approval for the lease and the service provider contract Wednesday at a virtual meeting of the city's top fiscal body, the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. The board approves all federal relief funding allocations.

If approved, Krewson's office expects the first residents will be able to move into the homes by Dec. 1.

The project marks the second tiny house concept for homeless people in St. Louis, and the first fully funded by the city.

The first project, announced last month, will provide 50 homes to veterans in north St. Louis' Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood at North Grand and Aldine Avenue.

That effort, funded largely by the Kansas City nonprofit Veterans Community Project, is intended be built primarily on 31 parcels of land purchased from the city's Land Reutilization Authority, which takes ownership of abandoned property.

New renderings for Veterans Community Project - St. Louis. The campus will be located near the corner of Grand and Aldine in north St. Louis. Special thanks to Remiger Design for capturing our vision. 🇺🇸🏠🇺🇸
Posted by Veterans Community Project on Saturday, October 17, 2020

Those homes, the majority of them totaling about 240 square feet, are modeled after a similar project started in Kansas City in 2018 by the same nonprofit, which has gotten national attention for its approach.

Other cities have embraced the idea of small homes as a way to give shelter to homeless people, including Seattle; Detroit; Nashville, Tennessee; and Austin, Texas.

Another significant project was announced Tuesday to benefit the homeless in St. Louis.

The nonprofit Doorways, an interfaith agency providing housing and support to people at risk of homelessness due to HIV and poverty, will break ground on a $22 million development Wednesday.

The development will be located at 1101 N. Jefferson Avenue, about a four-minute walk from the tiny house community.

Construction of the three-acre campus is expected to be completed by Spring 2022.

The nonprofit so far has raised $18 million for the project through private donations, grants and government subsidies. About $1.4 million in funding for the project comes from the Missouri Foundation for Health.

Doorways has experienced a 10-fold increase in demand over the past decade and will be able to offer counseling and a full range of services out of the new location, according to the nonprofit.

City approves four projects for New Market Tax Credits.

Landlords have filed for almost 5,000 evictions since March 19, when local courts suspended them

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'Tiny' house village for St. Louis homeless coming to Downtown West, mayor announces

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ST. LOUIS - A collection of 50 "tiny" homes will begin sheltering some of St. Louis' homeless population as soon as next month, Mayor Lyda Krewson announced Tuesday. The city plans a 29-month lease of property for the new community at 900 N. Jefferson Avenue on the edge of Downtown West, the site of the former St.

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Meeting Materials

View Commission's Agendas, and Supporting Documents

"How to Apply For Funding" from the Affordable Housing Commission

The Affordable Housing Commission will make available presentations titled, "How To Apply for Funding" at 8 a.m., Wednesday, September 16, 2020. The information will focus on applying for Affordable Housing Trust Fund grants and loans.

Find the presentations on "how to apply", and answers to your Frequently Asked Questions here.

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View Commission's Agendas, and Supporting Documents The Affordable Housing Commission will make available presentations titled, "How To Apply for Funding" at 8 a.m., Wednesday, September 16, 2020 . The information will focus on applying for Affordable Housing Trust Fund grants and loans. Find the presentations on "how to apply", and answers to your Frequently Asked Questions here.

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Key Takeaways

How Universal Health Care Works

Universal health care (UHC) comes in several different forms, but the basic idea is the same across the board: The government steps in with taxpayer money to ensure that every citizen has access to the medical care they need. With universal health care, no citizen is denied coverage based on their ability to pay.

The sheer cost of providing quality health care makes universal health care a large expense for governments. Medical coverage must be paid for by taxpayer-funded programs.

A substantial portion of countries around the world have UHC, including Canada, much of Europe, Asian countries such as Japan and South Korea, along with Australia and New Zealand. The U.S. has the distinction of being the only wealthy, industrialized nation without universal health care.

Note

Types of Universal Health Care Models

Universal health care can work in several different ways, depending on the exact system. There are three main universal health care models: single payer, mandatory insurance, and national health insurance.

Single-Payer Model

In a single-payer system, the government provides free health care paid for with revenue from income taxes. Services are government-owned and service providers are government employees. Every citizen has the same access to care. This is called the Beveridge Model.

When governments provide health care, they work to ensure doctors and hospitals provide quality care at a reasonable cost. To do this, government agencies must collect and analyze data and use their purchasing power to influence health care providers.

The United Kingdom helped advance the single-payer health care system with its National Health Service, in which the government not only pays for health services, but runs hospitals and employs doctors. Other single-payer-based countries include Spain, New Zealand, and Cuba. The United States offers it to veterans and military personnel with the Department of Veterans Affairs and the armed forces.

Note

Social Health Insurance Model

Countries that use a social health insurance model require everyone to buy insurance, usually through their employers. Employers deduct taxes from employee payrolls to cover the costs, and the taxes go into a government-run health insurance fund that covers everyone. Private doctors and hospitals provide services. The government controls health insurance prices. It also has a lot of clout to control the private providers' prices.

Germany developed this system, which is also known as the Bismarck model. France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Japan, and Switzerland also use it. In the U.S., meanwhile, the Affordable Care Act, also known as " Obamacare," also requires insurance, but there are many exemptions, and this rule is no longer enforced by penalties. It is also similar in that it provides subsidies to health insurance companies for low-income enrollees.

National Health Insurance

The national health insurance model uses public insurance to pay for private-practice care. Every citizen pays into the national insurance plan. Administrative costs are lower because there is one insurance company. The government also has a lot of leverage to force medical costs down.

Canada, Taiwan, and South Korea, for instance, all use this model. The U.S. Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE systems are based on a national health insurance approach.

Pros and Cons of Universal Health Care

Pros Explained

Lowers overall health care costs: The government controls prices through negotiation and regulation. Certain costs can also be lowered because of universal access to preventive care, which can head off problems before they become serious and much more expensive to treat. It reduces the need for expensive emergency room usage, which some patients are forced into when they have no access to preventive care. This health care inequality is a big reason for the rising cost of medical care.

May lower administrative costs: If doctors only deal with one government agency, their costs can be a lot lower. For example, a 2011 study found that U.S. doctors spent four times as much as Canadians dealing with insurance companies.

Standardizes service: In a competitive environment like the U.S., health care providers must also focus on profit. They do this by offering the newest technology. They also offer expensive services and pay doctors more, which drives up costs and can limit health care for the less wealthy. A universal system takes away the profit motive and focuses on providing equal care for all.

Prevents future social and health costs: Preventive care can prevent future health issues and improve outcomes in the most vulnerable communities.

Guides the population toward healthier choices: Better investment in health care, health infrastructure, and public education can help push the population toward healthier choices and lifestyles.

Cons Explained

Healthy people pay for the care of the sickest: Chronic diseases and mental illness make up 90% of health care costs. According to Brookings research, the half of the population that uses the least health care accounts for only 3% of total (including out-of-pocket) expenditures (excluding long-term care and some other components of spending), while the top 1% accounts for 22%. However, this is true to some extent even outside of universal health care systems, as spending on chronic diseases will raise the cost of private health insurance plans as well.

Possibly less financial incentive to stay healthy:In systems where this is no copay, people might overuse emergency rooms and doctors.

Long wait times: The government focuses on providing basic and emergency health care, so wait times for elective procedures can be much longer. Some care might have to be foregone.

Doctors incentivized to cut care to lower costs: Government cost-cutting can lead to reduced availability of care. For example, doctors reported Medicare payment cuts in 2018 would force them to close many in-house blood testing labs.

Costs may overwhelm government budgets: Health care costs make up a significant portion of government budgets. For example, on average, Canadian provinces spend almost 40% of their budgets on health care.

Government may limit services with a low probability of success. This includes drugs for rare conditions and expensive end-of-life care. In the United States, care for patients in the last year of life makes up between 13% and 25% of the Medicare budget.

Examples of 6 Developed Countries With UHC

Here is a look at the UHC systems in some of the world's developed nations, and their costs.

Australia has a mixed health plan. The government provides public health insurance, called Medicare, and runs public hospitals. Everyone receives coverage, and people must pay deductibles before government payments kick in. If you earn above a certain level of income, you must also purchase private hospital coverage or pay a tax surcharge.

Many residents are willing to pay for additional private health insurance to receive a higher quality of care. Government regulations protect seniors, people considered economically disadvantaged, children, and rural residents.

As of 2020, health care cost 10.6% of Australia's gross domestic product (GDP). The per capita cost was US$5,627, slightly above average for developed countries. Wait times for elective surgeries ranged from 17 days for a coronary bypass to 209 for knee replacement. Australia's infant mortality rate is 3.2% in 2020.

Canada has a national health insurance system. The government pays for services provided by a private delivery system. Private supplemental insurance pays for vision, dental care, and prescription drugs. Hospitals are publicly funded. They provide free care to all residents regardless of their ability to pay. The government keeps hospitals on a fixed budget to control costs, but it reimburses doctors at a fee-for-service rate.

In 2021, health care cost 11.7% of Canada's GDP. The cost per person was US$5,905. Wait times for elective surgeries ranged from six days for a coronary bypass to 122 for knee replacement. The infant mortality rate was 4.5% in 2020.

France has a social health insurance system that provides care to all legal residents. That includes hospitals, doctors, drugs, and some dental and vision care. It also pays for homeopathy, spa treatments, and nursing home care. As of 2016, payroll taxes funded 64% of the costs, income taxes paid for 16%, and 12% came from taxes on tobacco, alcohol, the pharmaceutical industry, and private voluntary health insurance.

As of 2020, health care cost 12.2% of GDP. That was US$5,468 per person. The infant mortality rate was 3.6%. These statistics are all in the middle of the pack for developed nations.

Germany has a social health insurance program. Everyone who earns less than a certain amount must have public health insurance, but people earning more can choose private insurance instead. The state-sponsored insurance covers hospitalization, except for meals and accommodation. It also covers rehab for hospital stays, mental health, addiction, and long-term care. Funding comes from premiums paid by employees and their employers.

As of 2021, health care cost 12.8% of GDP. It averaged US$7,383 per person. Both figures are the highest among industrial countries outside of the U.S. In addition, most Germans can get next-day or same-day appointments with general practitioners. The infant mortality rate was 3.1%.

Switzerland

Switzerland has a social health insurance system for all residents. Coverage is provided by competing private insurance companies. Residents pay premiums, and the government provides income-based subsidies to some. People can buy supplemental insurance to access better hospitals, doctors, and services not covered by mandatory insurance.

As of 2020, health care spending was 11.8% of GDP. It was USD $7,179 per person. In 2021, the infant mortality rate was 3.2%.

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom has single-payer health care that covers all residents. The National Health Service (NHS) runs hospitals and pays doctors as employees. As of 2016, the government paid nearly 80% of costs through income and payroll taxes. The rest was paid from copayments and people paying out-of-pocket for NHS services. The NHS pays for most medical care, including some dental and eye care, hospice care, and some long-term care. Copays are required for outpatient medications.

As of 2021, health care costs accounted for 11.9% of GDP. The cost was US$5,387 per person. Wait times ranged from 55 days for a coronary bypass to 98 days for knee replacement. The infant mortality rate was 3.6% in 2020.

Comparing Universal Health Care to the U.S. System

The United States has a mixture of government-run and private insurance.

As a result, in 2021, 66% of Americans had private health insurance, mostly from their employers. The government subsidizes private health insurance through Obamacare. Another 35.7% of Americans had public government coverage. This includes Medicaid, Medicare, Children's Health Insurance Program, and military coverage including the Veterans Administration (VA). Only 8.3% had no coverage at all.

All health care service providers, except for the VA, are private. Some democratic candidates have promoted universal health care under the title "Medicare for All."

In 2021, health care cost a staggering $12,318 per capita in the U.S., or 17.8%. These costs are the highest of those reported in 53 countries by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.

The U.S. infant mortality rate was 5.4% in 2020, significantly higher than that of countries such as Australia, Germany, and all other developed countries reported on by the OECD.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Why are Americans against universal health care?

Is universal health care free?

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Universal health care is a system in which the government provides health care to all citizens regardless of their ability to pay. Learn the pros and cons, and how it works.

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Children share their experiences of cancer | Cancer Research UK Kids & Teens

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Residents in north St. Louis are concerned about people freely littering in their neighborhood.

Elizabeth Henderson says littering is a big problem close to her home near the intersection of Ferry Street and Blair Avenue. She said she has spotted people throwing trash out of car windows.

"They shouldn't be doing that! They do it because maybe it's easy, it's convenient. Instead of having your car junked up, why not put it in the streets," said Henderson. "My thing is I just pick it up and be quiet. I'm not going to stop them and say 'why are you doing that?' I might get shot."

A spokesman for the City of St. Louis says residents can report litterbugs to police using SLMPD's mobile app or call the Citizens Service Bureau for cleanup.

One south St. Louis man told News 4 he cleans up the street trash himself.

"No matter who you are, you'll always pass a trash can within ten feet, its common. We are 15-20 feet away from a can as we speak," said Ed White.

To contact the Citizen Service Bureau, click here.
Copyright 2016 KMOV (Meredith Corporation). All rights reserved.

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Residents of north St. Louis neighborhood concerned about littering

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Residents in north St. Louis are concerned about people freely littering in their neighborhood. Elizabeth Henderson says littering is a big problem close to her home near the intersection of Ferry Street and Blair Avenue. She said she has spotted people throwing trash out of car windows. "They shouldn't be doing that!