Illustration by Vanessa Lovegrove for POLITICO
|
The political excitement for pre-K is missing one key ingredientGovernors have big plans for the nation’s youngest learners, pressing universal pre-K as a way to both get parents back to work and shore up a pandemic-rattled early childhood education system.
What those governors lack are the people to do the job. Although President Joe Biden failed to push pre-K programs through Capitol Hill and later urged a divided Congress to “finish the job” during his State of the Union, a patchwork of state officials are trying to piece things together. — POLITICO |
Photo by Beth Wallis
|
Yurok Tribe grows solutions in soil of a crisisA drought, a pandemic and a landslide — three crises that exposed the food insecurity of California’s Yurok Tribe have ignited members to explore their own solutions. Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the peaks of redwood trees on the mountains, the Yurok Tribe Reservation was declared a food desert by the USDA in 2017. The ongoing food insecurity issue worsened when the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with environmental and infrastructure problems, slammed the reservation and surrounding community. — News21
Watch the video |
Jeffrey Collins AP Photo
|
Americans don't trust their congressional districts to be drawn fairly. Can anything change that? The United States is in the middle of a once-in-a-decade process: redistricting. And although it’s early — 19 states aren’t expected to finalize their maps until next year — a number of states have proposed maps, and there are debates happening all across the country over which ones to pass. But Americans aren’t necessarily confident that the process will be a fair one. That might be one reason why independent commissions, which aim to empower ordinary citizens to draw map lines, have grown in use since the last redistricting cycle. — FiveThirtyEight
|
Drone footage by Clare Grant
|
A taxing divide A cup of coffee from Oak House. A tank of gas from Circle K. While full-time residents and students alike use water to take showers and sidewalks to cross town, the sales tax from shopping locally is largely where students’ financial support ends.
While most municipalities fund their operations with a healthy mixture of sales taxes and property taxes, college towns such as the town of Elon often must rely much more heavily on sales tax revenue since their largest property owner — the university — is tax exempt. — Elon News Network |
Photo by Beth Wallis
|
Solutions and struggle: Native American tribes receive federal reliefCongress allocated a historic amount of federal funds to tribes through the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. For some Indigenous communities, those federal funds were beneficial. For others, the pandemic highlighted deeper systemic complexities federal funding cannot fully address. — News21
|
FiveThirtyEight illustration
|
Americans are worried about omicron — and are ready to take precautionsAfter nearly two years of living in a pandemic, many Americans have started to return to “normal” life. In fact, 74 percent of Americans said their lives had returned to normal, according to a November Yahoo News/YouGov poll. But the new COVID-19 variant, omicron, could once again change how Americans feel about getting back to their pre-COVID lives. —FiveThirtyEight
|
Photo by Clare Grant
|
COVID-19 disproportionately hits Alamance County Latino communityWith the Hispanic population in Alamance County, North Carolina making up 59% of coronavirus cases but only 13% of the population, a Burlington nonprofit helps the community. —Elon News Network
Read in Spanish |
File photo by Kieran Ungemach
|
NC extends stay-at-home order, as county officials hope for regional approach to reopeningWhile the new order is set to expire on May 8, Alamance County officials want to see the state work with local leaders going forward. — Elon News Network
|
Photo by Clare Grant
|
Conflict at Confederate monument causes disputes over law enforcement mutual aidPart 1: Elon University president, Alamance County leaders call on county commissioners to relocate Confederate monument in Graham
Part 2: Elon University Police’s mutual aid agreement, explained Part 3: Committee recommends Elon University stay in mutual aid agreement Part 4: Elon University's proposed amendment to mutual aid agreement leaves law enforcement wary — Elon News Network |