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This will be the first year that demand for lithium-ion batteries has declined as electric vehicle sales have slowed during the pandemic. But the EV industry is confident that numbers will increase again soon.
The number of residents applying for unemployment aid has slowed down, but more than 2 million Floridians have applied for assistance overall. Many applicants are also still experiencing delayed or missing payments.
Sacramento approved a $2.5 million contract extension for the gunshot detection technology ShotSpotter. For many of the anti-police movement, the action feels like a betrayal. The mayor believes the tech can help.
Officials reported that the issues experienced during the March primary were partially the result of the new $300 million voting system. “The Registrar-Recorder has a lot of work to do regaining the confidence of the public.”
The parks, trails and other outdoor amenities that make up our civic commons are crucial to building stronger, more equitable communities. Transforming them calls for a collaborative effort.
The program, a cluster of tax loopholes, is making fat cats fatter without doing much about racial inequities and urban joblessness. There are ways to reform it to benefit those it was touted to help.
Deputy director of Fight for the Future, Evan Greer, regarding police partnerships with Amazon’s home surveillance cameras, Ring. Concerns have grown that the home surveillance videos will only further exacerbate existing forms of racism and discrimination. (PEW — June 17, 2020)
The amount that Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and his wife, Patty Quillin, are donating to student scholarships at historically black colleges and universities.
The Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission unanimously voted to replace 492 human workers with all-electronic systems. The commission says the layoffs will save nearly $100 million over the next two years.
COVID-19 has transformed telemedicine into a widely utilized option for patients to receive safe health services. However, if patients don’t have computers, Internet or don’t speak English, it doesn’t work.
The coronavirus pandemic has thrown thousands of new applicants into the state’s unemployment system, overwhelming claims processing and phone calls. But these issues have been happening for years.
A study by Vanderbilt University has found that the state’s COVID-19 hospitalizations have increased 30 percent since early June. Between June 15 and June 16, 448 coronavirus patients were hospitalized across the state.
Dramatic increases in suicide rates had attracted attention well before the unprecedented stresses of the pandemic. Legislators are proposing measures to keep a bad situation from getting worse.
Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Annette Ziegler, after a Wisconsin judge became Facebook friends with a woman whose child custody case he was hearing. (AP News — June 16, 2020)
81%
The proportion of Americans who supported removing election and other political information from social media that was intentionally false or misleading, according to a recent poll.
Missouri’s Department of Labor will reinstate unemployment benefit requirements that were waived during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, including a one-week waiting period and required job-seeking efforts.
The city council has approved a slimmer budget as the city expects a $103 million revenue loss for the upcoming fiscal year. Notably, the proposal cuts $23 million that typically goes to law enforcement.
The $1 trillion proposal would jumpstart the U.S. economy after months of shutdowns due to the coronavirus. Though the plan isn’t finalized, lawmakers are wondering where the money would come from.
Once a playground for the rich and famous, Adirondack Park today relies heavily on middle-class visitors for business and sustainability. But now, uncertainty reigns, as COVID-19 puts lives and livelihoods on hold.
There's a good chance that midsize cities and smaller towns in the heartland will see renewed interest from companies looking for places that combine desirable amenities with sparser populations.
Many of America’s founders were slaveholders yet wrote eloquently about the rights of man. To understand Jefferson, Washington and the rest, we need to see them for what they are, not for what we wish they had been.
Raphael Bostic, Atlanta Fed president, regarding the moral and economic impacts that institutional racism has on the country. (Reuters — June 15, 2020)
The number of Clark County, Nev., public school students who were unaccounted for by the end of the school year, with many lacking computers or Internet access, or having gotten a job instead of attending online schooling.
Gov. DeSantis signed the Essential State Infrastructure bill that would establish more electric vehicle (EV) charging stations along state highways, in hopes of reducing the impacts of climate change.
Ohio’s sixth-largest city still does not require police officers to wear body cameras. But, as protests have called for greater police transparency and reform, Mayor Whaley is beginning to reconsider the technology.
500,000 Houstonians lost their jobs as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. As the city begins to reopen, it must establish a new working normal as recovery will still take months or even years.
Mayor Ted Wheeler called for a reorganization of the current civilian oversight system of the city’s police, though many are waiting to see the mayor’s words turn into actions first.
Attorneys general have the power to oversee the police departments in their states that need to be turned around. Solutions handed down from Washington are slow, cumbersome and unevenly applied.
Tim Humphrey, IBM’s top executive in North Carolina, regarding the lack of diversity within tech companies. (The News & Observer — June 10, 2020)
The amount that it cost California to deploy 8,000 National Guard troops across the state during recent protests against police violence, including $18.2 million to deploy troops in Los Angeles County.