Category Archives: Intentional Communities

After igniting Sunday afternoon near Bursum Road, 18 miles southeast of Reserve in the Gila National Forest, the quickly growing Turkey Fire expanded by around 350 acres Sunday night and during the day Monday, pushing its total acreage to 800. However, much like the similarly sized Water Fire that firefighters battled near Mimbres at the end of last week, it is being contained.Today and yesterday, they did some strategic burning, so theres some line around the heel of the fire and the two flanks and [much of] the head, said Gila National Forest incident contact Andrew Mitchell on Monday. I suspect we will have a good containment number tomorrow morning right now its zero percent, but it looks like its pretty wrapped up and tight around three different sides.He added that although the total acreage of the fire grew since it started Sunday, some of that growth was intentional on the part of firefighters.Today was more about getting resources in place, finding opportunities to fight the fire directly and continue with hand crews [digging] line, Mitchell said Monday. We saw minimal fire activity maybe just some short runs in the grass so a lot of that new acreage is from the strategic burning.The cause of the fire still has not been determined, but Mitchell said it was definitely human-caused, as there was no lightning in the area when the fire started.Mitchell did not have an exact breakdown of resources currently allocated to the fire, but said that there are around 75 firefighters working on containing it.Another 50 firefighters are still at work monitoring the Water Fire that started 6 miles north of Mimbres last Thursday. That fire has not grown since the weekend, and is currently listed as 60 percent contained.Theres no fire activity on that one, so were just kind of searching out hot spots, Mitchell said. Its moving down in complexity to what we call a Type 4 the higher [the type number], the better.The cause of the Water Fire is also under investigation.Meanwhile, in the midst of an early onset fire season that is devastating forests and communities in other parts of the state, the federal Bureau of Land Management has implemented fire restrictions across public lands in the area.According to a Monday release from the BLM, the bureau is implementing fire restrictions across Doa Ana, Otero, Luna, Sierra, Grant and Hidalgo counties in hopes of reducing the risk of wildfire on public lands.Prohibited acts under the federal order include the building and maintaining of campfires or use of coal and wood stoves, smoking in open areas that are near flammable material, possessing or driving a motor vehicle off roads, except when parking in an area devoid of vegetation within 10 feet of the roadway, and operating a chain saw or similar machine with internal or external combustion engines without taking proper precautions.The purpose of this order is for the protection of public health and safety by minimizing chances for wildfire starts, a spokesperson said in the release. Abundant dry fuels, high fire danger and worsening fire conditions have promoted this action.In late April, the state Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department enacted similar restrictions on non-municipal, non-federal, and non-tribal lands statewide.David Marquez may be reached at [emailprotected] press.com.

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Two fires on the Gila slow down - Silvercity Daily Press - Silver City Daily Press and Independent

St. Anthonys Hospital, Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital, and Bayfront Health St. Petersburg have committed to using their economic power to improve the well-being of surrounding neighborhoods and communities. Pictured, Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg President and CEO Randall H. Russell

ST. PETERSBURG Three major downtown institutions are joining with the City of St. Petersburg to embrace shared, collaborative, and intentional practices focused on moving the needle on race equity.

The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg introduced the idea to these institutions who developed this historic focused effort on their needs coupled with the aspirations of a healthier community by race, Foundation President and CEO Randall H. Russell said. The leadership shown by these entities fundamental to a healthy community advances race equity forward with their focused intent.

In addition to city government, the St. Petersburg Anchor Institution Initiatives inaugural members include St. Anthonys Hospital, Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital, and Bayfront Health St. Petersburg. All three institutions have committed to using their economic power to improve the well-being of surrounding neighborhoods and communities.

The outcome is explicitly directed at improving race equity, impacting the economic well-being of residents, and contributing to transforming neighborhoods and communities. It is also likely that the anchor institutions will experience cost savings, a steadier workforce, and enhanced data enabling smarter approaches to improve population health.

Race equity is required to reach health equity. These leaders have taken a bold step to improve the health of our entire community, Russell said.

This initiative comes as awareness is growing about how systemic bias in institutional and government decision-making over the centuries has resulted in communities being denied many of the opportunities afforded to other neighborhoods. That systemic racially focused bias has led to worse health outcomes for many in these communities after sustained underinvestment that shapes the social determinants of health. Evidence of this reality is that just blocks south of these hospitals, life expectancy at birth is 16 years less than two miles north.

Intentional equity is at the core of my administrations priorities in everything we do. It is not enough to be equitable; we must also be intentional, said Mayor Ken Welch. Im pleased to support and participate in the St. Petersburg Anchor Institution Initiative aimed at just that. The participating businesses employ thousands within our citys workforce, and they set an example for all businesses to ensure fair and accessible hiring practices and equitable access to health care services.

John Moore, president of Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, is also extremely pleased to partner with like-minded organizations on this initiative.

Serving as an Anchor Institution is especially meaningful to Bayfront Health St. Petersburg, which has served the community for more than 100 years. We are excited about how this collaboration dovetails with our own ongoing commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts. We look forward to the positive results that will stem from it, Moore stated.

At St. Anthonys Hospital and BayCare, we believe in continuous improvement, and that includes doing better for and by our community, said Scott Smith, president of St. Anthonys Hospital. Were excited to join with our health care colleagues and the city to develop new, more inclusive ways of serving our community to support racial equity and build a brighter future for our entire city.

As a leader in childrens health and the top-ranked childrens hospital in the state of Florida, Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital understands the critical need to work with others in the community and find ways to eliminate racial disparities and improve access to both basic and specialized pediatric care, particularly in some of our most vulnerable areas.

As an Anchor Institution, it is important for us to bring together the resources to enhance the safety, nutrition, health care, and access to these services in order to improve mental and physical health for families in our community, stated Alicia Schulhof, M.H.A., F.A.C.H.E., president of Johns Hopkins All Childrens Hospital.

The Foundation for a Healthy St. Petersburg fueled a learning partner, Marga, Inc., to bring knowledge from across the country into developing this effort.

The proximity of these four institutions makes St. Petersburg a prime location to initiate an Anchor Institutions Initiative. The intention is to move health equity forward through a focus on race equity. We look forward to the next steps of this fantastic partnership modeling cross-sector collaboration to bring about positive change, said Russell.

David Maurasse from Marga, Inc. added, The St Petersburg Anchor Institutions Initiative is a monumental development that has rapidly taken shape. The participating institutions have demonstrated extraordinary readiness and willingness to collaborate and adapt their systems and thinking toward the well-being of local residents with a race equity lens.

The institutions will continue to be convened by the Foundation as they form a structure, hire staff, and move forward with the launch of this effort. The St. Petersburg Anchor Institution Initiative efforts will continue finalizing plans in 2022.

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Major downtown institutions come together to address race equity and institutional needs - Weekly Challenger

REDWOOD CITY, Calif.

A newreport from O'Reilly and Instaclustr draws a stark contrast between the advantages of open source flexibility compared to software sold under constrictive open core licenses. Instaclustr, which helps organizations deliver applications at scale by operating and supporting their open source data infrastructure, today announced the findings of The Benefits of Open Source and the Risks of Open Core, a report created by OReilly with collaboration from Instaclustr.

The 40-page report delineates the critical but often misunderstood differences between open source and open core models. It highlights the distinctive and specific advantages of open source, including global communities that collaborate to continually improve software, transparent communications and open archives, and licenses that guarantee the rights to use, change, and share software. Organizations leveraging fully open source technologies also benefit from the ability to own, port, and utilize their code however they like and do so regardless of the vendors they work with. Open core, in contrast, mixes open source and proprietary code into what are ultimately proprietary offerings. While open core vendors often lure customers with the promise of both uniquely valuable proprietary features and open source freedoms, this is most often not the case.

Among the key findings from the OReilly report:

Open source adopters like the flexibility and freedom as much as the free licensing.

Technology leaders with deep software procurement experience tend to prefer free and open source solutions for several reasons. Open source software enables organizations to avoid vendor and technical lock-in. Building their applications around open standards enables strategic shifts to alternative technologies, as needed, without the need to alter code or change established processes. Technology leaders also find that new staff can often work productively with familiar open source tools from day one, eliminating much of the time-consuming training required with less-known proprietary offerings. Community participation to steer healthy open source projects, adaptability, tool compatibility, and freedom from licensing limitations round out the open source advantages cited in the OReilly report.

Customers of open core vendors often take on risks they dont understand.

In part due to the similarity of the two terms, the report found that many organizations actually have trouble understanding whether they have access to open source or open core solutions. While honest presentations of open core offerings simply amount to a legitimate business model, many open core vendors are not as transparent. For example, open core vendors may draw in customers with fully open source community editions that arent actually viable, or suddenly end community edition support in an attempt to force customers into their paid proprietary offerings. Open core licenses then often restrict customers from owning their own code, sealing an intentional trap that captures users with vendor lock-in.

Open core practices have negative long-term impacts on both customers and vendors themselves.

In addition to customers losing out on the open source flexibility and freedom they likely believed they were getting, open core often negatively impacts vendors as well. Open core vendors might begin with good intentions, but fall into their own trap when trying to balance community stewardship and commercial pressures. Those pressures result in incentives that then limit community contributions especially when vendors fear losing control of their solutions to their more innovative communities.

When we say open source software is free, thats not just about the price, said Peter Lilley, CEO and Co-Founder at Instaclustr. The freedoms that fully open source technologies provide enterprises amount to transformative advantages for building powerful and versatile technology stacks. Unfortunately, many open core solutions serve as a cautionary tale on what can happen when end users (and even vendors) dont prioritize freedom, flexibility, and community. The OReilly report digs deep to offer comprehensive clarity on the state of open source vis--vis open core, and is worth a read in its entirety for any technology leadership team.

Read the full report here: https://info.instaclustr.com/OReilly_Open_Source_vs_Open_Core.html

###

Instaclustrhelps organizations deliver applications at scale through its platform for open source technologies such as Apache Cassandra, Apache Kafka, Apache Spark, Redis, OpenSearch, Apache ZooKeeper, and PostgreSQL. Instaclustr combines a complete data infrastructure environment with hands-on technology expertise to ensure ongoing performance and optimization. By removing infrastructure complexity, Instaclustr enables companies to focus internal development and operational resources on building cutting-edge, customer-facing applications at lower cost. Instaclustr customers include some of the largest and most innovative Fortune 500 companies.

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Report Sheds New Light on the Risks of Open Core Software - CIO Dive

"We who believe in freedom cannot rest. We who believe in freedom cannot rest." Women's gospel voices repeatedly sing that refrain in the introductory video to The Women's Project, an online exhibit (womensprojectstory.org) that the Arkansas People's History Project (APHP) launched this spring.

In 1980, women from around the state began coming together to protect women and children as part of a wide-reaching and influential activist organization that would become The Women's Project. Forty-two years later, it's The Women's Project's groundbreaking history and legacy that exhibit co-producers Acadia Roher and Anna Stitt have begun to promote and protect.

Roher is a public historian, and Stitt is a journalist with a background in major podcast production. The two are part of the APHP, an initiative to "research, document and share the state's resistance narratives," to make Arkansas' activism history accessible to a wider and potentially younger audience.

It started in 2015 when they ran into Suzanne Pharr, a grassroots activist and author with a national reputation. Pharr lived in Arkansas for decades and founded The Women's Project, a statewide multiracial network that tackled racism, sexism, homophobia and economic injustice, most actively in the 1980s and 1990s. Stitt and Roher weren't familiar with the project, but their curiosity was piqued.

"Anna and I started this back in 2017, really because we saw this lack of these stories that were available to others," Roher explains. "... Then we realized there was still this really strong network here," Roher says. "Some of the members are in their 80s now. Still friends, still organizing. We started getting curious and asking people about [The Women's Project], then all these stories started coming out, and it was like, 'Whoa.'"

Those stories, told in text, photos, documents, links, videos and audio clips, comprise the new interactive exhibit. They tell of women from radically different backgrounds coming together to stand up to the Ku Klux Klan, teach HIV/AIDS education, organize to help battered women, protect children from sexual abuse, fight racism and homophobia, document hate-based homicides and make minority cultural voices more widely available to Arkansans pre-internet.

Pharr explains, "What we had learned from the '70s was seeing that racism, sexism and social injustice are inextricably connected. We couldn't work on one without working on the others. ... This way we could bring the most people together in a way that would really make change."

Stitt and Roher involved The Women's Project's activists at all levels of their research. Stitt says that often outside documentarians or academics will come in "with their own lens" to mine Arkansans' history for their needs, but that what emerges is rarely made for or with the people who lived it. "The narrative control is taken away," she says. "It ends up taking this whole other turn, and people are like, 'That's not true! That's not how we saw that! That's your story, not our story!'"

Pictured during a leadership transition are Janet Perkins (from left), Kerry Lobel, Damita Jo Marks and Suzanne Pharr. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)YOUR STORIES, NOT OURS

For this exhibit, they sought the opposite. Not only could the participants tell their stories in their own voices (Roher says they often conducted oral histories, story circles and panel discussions with the women via Zoom during the pandemic), they helped shape what the exhibit would be, choosing the aspects of their experiences they felt were most important to share.

An important aspect of the project, Pharr says, was its innovative structure, later modeled by grassroots organizations around the country. The Women's Project representatives traveled across the United States, training others in their methods.

"We thought that in order to make change in the world, you need to have an organization that mirrors that change," Pharr says. To practice the equitable society they sought to create, the Women's Project had an executive director (initially Pharr) in name only; all staff were paid the same wage. Rather than have an organization of majority white, urban, heterosexual women, the project prioritized the traditionally underrepresented, ensuring their board and staff makeup had majorities of rural women and women of color.

Likewise, while all women were welcomed, they actively sought to include gay women and those from religious minorities. Without hierarchical structure for decision-making, they relied on group discussion to reach consensus. And rural organizing, something Phar says is too often neglected by "social justice people" today, was their dominant focus rather than an afterthought.

In an audio clip from the exhibit, Sofia Ali-Khan, a young woman when she got involved, talks about the group's structure. "To be valued that way as a stranger who walked in the door, who didn't look like anybody else in the building, but just had a commitment to the same values that sort of way of putting one's ideological commitments into cold cash practice was something I had never seen anybody do before and haven't seen anybody do since."

Stitt says that while imperfect, The Women's Project tried to be intentional about how power and care looked. "Living out this philosophy gave the project staying power, helped them develop a strong, core group with many arms into the wider community."

Damita Marks joined the Women's Project staff in the late 1980s. She couldn't believe she got a job in the Little Rock office. "I was shocked because I was a young, rural Black woman coming from Gurdon, Arkansas, competing with other women who were more conscious [of women's issues] than I was," Marks says. "But my compassion grew to look at women differently. It increased my strength and awareness."

The Women's Project also founded the Women's Watchcare Network, a key element they trained groups across the country to implement.

WITNESSES TO HISTORY

Initially focused on gender-based violence against women, The Women's Project's growth coincided with another rise of the Klan, which had a compound and training center in Harrison. Black people and communities were being attacked, churches burned. "We said, 'Well, who's monitoring them?' We looked around, and there was nobody. So, we took it on," Pharr says.

The Women's Project created a monitoring program to track activity in Arkansas by the Klan and other hate groups, showing up to protest any pre-announced events. "But what people kept saying to us was, 'This far-right violence is terrible, but what's way worse is the everyday violence,'" Pharr says.

"We decided we would record best we could any violence that was occurring against people of color, against women, against queers, against religious minorities. But in the end we had to limit it to murders. There was just too much violence to keep up with."

Although they were not affiliated, Pharr says the United Methodist Women's groups nationally and locally supported The Women's Project with funds from its earliest days. To track violence statewide, Pharr asked for help. "We'd ask the United Methodist Women in different communities to create small groups that would monitor each of those areas: racism, sexism, anti-gay violence, and expand those networks wherever they could."

Methodists and other Arkansas women clipped and sent to the Women's Project any local news stories of violence toward minorities. The rule was it had to have been reported in print to be recorded, Pharr says. "We knew we wouldn't be believed if these events were not documented somewhere; there were so many clippings." Using any published details to tell the stories, they chronicled each murder in their newsletter, Transformation. (These newsletters can be read online through the exhibit's Resources page.)

Clipping news accounts empowered the volunteers. Pharr says in face of widespread violence, it was something they could do, even if they didn't know how or when it would be used. "We kept saying to ourselves, 'Even if nothing else comes out of this, we will have stood as witness to this time in Arkansas.'"

As different kinds of women joined the project to work on their own particular focus (gender-based violence, HIV/AIDS education, homophobia, racism, etc.), they were exposed to people and perspectives different than they'd known. And they began to learn from each other.

Pharr says growing that mutual respect and understanding was built into the mission. "We knew if they would tell their stories in these small groups, people would begin to understand we are awfully alike," she explains. "We believed greatly in stories."

An audio clip of member Kelly Mitchell-Clark in the exhibit speaks to this personal growth. "When I arrived at the Women's Project, my voice, my understanding of race was very clear. I was raised that way. ... I felt a lived experience. But being at the Women's Project meant I had to overlay those, had to stretch myself, had to understand more about gender and sexism and homophobia. And these were new to me."

The featured voice of another member, Janet Perkins: "I didn't know what homophobia [was], but I was willing to learn. ... And that was one of the commitments that we all had to make, is that you can't just fight for your own issue."

Marks says the women formed real connections. "The women, we groomed each other, we pampered each other. When we were doing good, we stroked each other. When things weren't doing good, we comforted each other. I loved that," Marks says.

It's something she's carried forward in her life: mentoring younger women. Marks' friend and mentee, Carolyn Jefferson, grew from a young certified nursing assistant from Helena with big dreams 14 years ago to being a surgical and oncology nurse and owning a medical staffing agency. Both women say they credit the experience and confidence Marks gained from the project with helping propel their growth.

"Everything I wanted to achieve, Damita has helped me do," Jefferson says, "by encouraging and believing in me."

"I think it is so important," Marks says, "to bring a young woman with me to hand off the baton of this work. If I can be a power to help someone all of this comes from the Women's Project validating who I am."

Board and staff members of activist group The Womens Project pose on steps in Little Rock in an archival photo from 1990. (Special to the Democrat-Gazette)THE EXHIBIT

The interactive exhibit was created with financial support from the Arkansas Humanities Council, Black History Commission of Arkansas, Highlander Research and Education Center and Winthrop Rockefeller Foundation.

For the exhibit, Roher, Stitt and others worked to find photos, documents and videos. The site links to documentation and related materials and includes a Resources page with a discussion guide for educators and other visitors.

Tracking down multimedia from that time was made more difficult by the fact that the Women's Project rarely focused on documenting the project itself. "We didn't seek publicity in the way people do now," Pharr explains. "It didn't occur to us to take pictures of ourselves when we were standing against the Klan and marching in song."

Roher and Stitt led the project, but they credit extensive support by the state's history community and the Women's Project members with making the exhibit possible. They say it's the Arkansas People's History Project's first major project, but not its last.

"As a group, we are very happy with the exhibit, and we think they have done a magnificent job of representing who we were," Pharr says. "We think it also is a gift to other people who are doing social justice work."

Pharr, 83 and once again living in Little Rock, is still one of those people. "Oh, I'm very active," she says. "I don't believe in social justice people retiring."

Marks understands that. "Each one of us that was in the Women's Project, we have a connection to it still. Our passions are still there. It's not like you look at it and say, 'Oh, I used to do so and so.' It's still in you. You still do it.

"I take my hat off to the young women for doing this, revitalizing our work and bringing it back up to the forefront so someone else can pick it up," Marks continues. "That's the whole thing about a 'movement.' Once you've been 'moved,' you're 'meant' to give it to someone else."

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Women's work: 42 years of activism chronicled in new website for The Women's Project - Arkansas Online

OFHE T MONEY TO UPGRADE EQUIPMENT FOR TRAINING AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT MORAY SCOTT SAYS THE MONEY WILL ALSO BE USED FOR PROGRAM. THAT BENEFIT VICTIMS .WEVE GOT TO JUST ADMIT ONE THING. WEING. ARE STILL A VERY VIOLTEN CITY CONGRESSMAN QUITE EASY AND FUMI AND OTHER MEMBERS OF MARYLANDS CONGRESSIONAL DELEGATION CAME TO TOWN ANNOUNCING FEDERAL HPEL IS ON THE WAY. THEY EARMARKEA NRLY 8 MILLION DOLLSAR FOR BALTIMORES CRIME FIGHT. STATE CRISIS HOTLINE HE ERSOME TWO MILLION DOLLARS UP. GOES TOWARD BALTIMORES 911 DIVERSION PROGRAM A PNEHO BANK OF COUNSELING PROFESSIONALS WHO HANDLE MENTAL HEAHLT ISSUES FREEING POLICE TO DEAL WITH VIOLENT CRIME. THATLL TAKE A LOT OFF OF OUR POLICE AND LET THEM DO T JHEOB, YOU KNOW THAT THEY NEED TO DO ANOTHER TWO MILLION WILL GO TOWARD UP. POLICE EQUIPMENT HELPING THE DEPARTMENT WITH CONSENT DECREE COMPLIANCE RECORDS MANAGEMENT IS A CLASSIC EXAMPLE OF US USING A RECORDS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM. THAT WAS 2 300 YEARS OLD NOW, WE HAVE A BRAND NEW ONE THAT BRINGS US OUT OF THE PAPER AGE INTO THE DIGITAL AGE. 650,000 FEDERAL DOLLARS WILL BE SPENT ON POLICE TRAININGO T ENHANCE COMMUNITY RELATIONS. IT WILL ALSO FUND A COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT COORDINATOR TO HELP IN THAT EFFORTOR F THOSE WHO DONT KNOW NEIGHBORHOOD POLICING PLANS ENGAGE COMMUNITY MEMBERS TO DEVELOP INTENTIONAL LARETIONSHIPS WITH OUR LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS SO THAT TOGEERTH TAKEN ADDRESS THE CHALLENGES IDENTIFIED WHERE THEY LIVE NONPROFSIT THAT HAVE ANTI-VIOLENCE INITIATIVES WILL GET FEDERAL FUNDING THIS INCLUDES LIVING CLASSOMROS LIKE BRIDGE HEALTH UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SHOCK TRAUMA ROCA, THATS SELF-BALTIMORES PEACEMAKING PILOT PROGRAM AND MARYLANDERS TO PREVENT GUN VIOLENCE. WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT ADVANCE OUR VISION FOR EQUITABLE AND SUSTAINABLE APPROACHO T PUBLIC SAFETY WITHOUT CENTENGRI OUR COMMUNITIES AND TACKLING VIOLENCE AS A PUBLIC HEALTH. ISSUE, EACH OF THESE INITIATIVES ARE THERE TO HELP US DEAL WITH PUBLIC SAFETY WHEN FAMILIE ARE IN PAIN WHEN COMMUNITIESRE A IN PAIN THAT MIGRATES TO VIOLENCE AND YOU HAVE TO CEOM UP WITH INNOVATIVE STRATEGIES TO RESPOND TO THAT TREO SPOND TO THAT PAIN. MAYOR SCOTT SAYS THE MONEY IS GOING TO PLACES AND PROGRAMS THAT RESIDENTS HAVE CALLED FOR REPORTING LIVE ON THE BISHOP ROBINSON POLICE HEADQUARTER

Baltimore's fight against crime gets $7.9M federal shot in the arm

$2M to go toward updating police equipment, which also helps city meet consent decree compliance requirements

Updated: 6:13 PM EDT Apr 29, 2022

The fight against crime in Baltimore City is getting a $7.9 million federal shot in the arm.The Maryland congressional delegation on Friday joined Mayor Brandon Scott and police Commissioner Michael Harrison to detail where the money will go -- and the police department will receive the bulk of the money."We got to just admit one thing: We are still a very violent city," said U.S. Kwiesi Mfume, D-District 7."I think we all know there's no one solution here, but we are working to try to make sure we piece together a series of funds to address the issue of violent crime in Baltimore City, and we all know you need a comprehensive approach here," said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland.City police will use the money to upgrade equipment and for police training and community policing. The balance of the funds will be shared by nonprofit groups for victim-assistance programs.Some $2 million of federal money will go toward Baltimore's 911 diversion program, a phone bank of counseling professionals who handle mental health crises, freeing police to deal with violent crime.| RELATED: Program to allow diversion of mental health calls from 911 to crisis hotline"Police get a lot of calls that are drug-related, mental-health related, those type of things. And, we want those calls to go to people who can handle them the best and shouldn't be in the criminal justice system. That will take a lot off of our police and let them do the job they need to do," said U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-District 2.Another $2 million will go toward updating police equipment, which also helps the city meet consent decree compliance requirements."Records management is a classic example of us using a records management system that was 20, 30 years old. Now we have a brand-new one that brings us out of the paper age into the digital age," Harrison said.Another $650,000 in federal funding will be spent on police training to enhance community relations. It will also fund a community engagement coordinator to help in the effort."Neighborhood policing plans engage community members to develop intentional relationships with our law enforcement officers so that, together, they can address the challenges identified where they live," said Shantay Jackson, director of the Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement."These are all community centered initiatives things that residents are calling for," Scott said.Nonprofit groups that have antiviolence initiatives will also get federal funding, which includes Living Classrooms, LifeBridge Health, Shock Trauma, Roca, the South Baltimore Peacemaking Project Pilot and Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence."Each of these initiatives are there to help us deal with public safety," said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland."When families are in pain, when communities are in pain, that migrates to violence. And, you have to come up with innovative strategies to respond to that pain," said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-District 3.Brooklyn residents wonder what can be done to stop the violenceAs Baltimore City leaders hope the funding will help in crime and violence reduction, police are investigating another homicide.Brooklyn is a neighborhood where police and community groups are working together. But some who live on a block where there were two killings in a matter of months wonder what else can be done to stop the violence.A boarded-up house with crumbling steps is near the corner where multiple shots were fired just after midnight Thursday, killing a man in his 20s. Candles serve as a memorial on Fifth Street in Brooklyn.Dezirey Croley said because of the loudness and rapid succession, she first thought someone set off fireworks."I was petrified," Croley said. "Pop, pop, pop pop. I was shaking."Then, she realized it was gunfire."I grabbed my son and started running," she said.Fellow resident Stacy Cudnik also heard the shots and wondered what it was."It was 18 pops. It was so fast. I can't tell the difference between guns and fireworks. It seemed too fast and too loud that it could have been a gun, but it was," Cudnik said.Croley said police found bullet casings near the side and in front of a parked van.Residents in Brooklyn said another shooting left a person dead about two months ago on the same street less than a half a block away. A memorial also stands at that scene. The residents told 11 News both shooting victims were friends.Baltimore police said, with the latest killing in Brooklyn, the city has had 110 homicides so far this year, compared to 100 at the same time last year.

The fight against crime in Baltimore City is getting a $7.9 million federal shot in the arm.

The Maryland congressional delegation on Friday joined Mayor Brandon Scott and police Commissioner Michael Harrison to detail where the money will go -- and the police department will receive the bulk of the money.

"We got to just admit one thing: We are still a very violent city," said U.S. Kwiesi Mfume, D-District 7.

"I think we all know there's no one solution here, but we are working to try to make sure we piece together a series of funds to address the issue of violent crime in Baltimore City, and we all know you need a comprehensive approach here," said U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland.

City police will use the money to upgrade equipment and for police training and community policing. The balance of the funds will be shared by nonprofit groups for victim-assistance programs.

Some $2 million of federal money will go toward Baltimore's 911 diversion program, a phone bank of counseling professionals who handle mental health crises, freeing police to deal with violent crime.

| RELATED: Program to allow diversion of mental health calls from 911 to crisis hotline

"Police get a lot of calls that are drug-related, mental-health related, those type of things. And, we want those calls to go to people who can handle them the best and shouldn't be in the criminal justice system. That will take a lot off of our police and let them do the job they need to do," said U.S. Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger, D-District 2.

Another $2 million will go toward updating police equipment, which also helps the city meet consent decree compliance requirements.

"Records management is a classic example of us using a records management system that was 20, 30 years old. Now we have a brand-new one that brings us out of the paper age into the digital age," Harrison said.

Another $650,000 in federal funding will be spent on police training to enhance community relations. It will also fund a community engagement coordinator to help in the effort.

"Neighborhood policing plans engage community members to develop intentional relationships with our law enforcement officers so that, together, they can address the challenges identified where they live," said Shantay Jackson, director of the Baltimore Mayor's Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement.

"These are all community centered initiatives things that residents are calling for," Scott said.

Nonprofit groups that have antiviolence initiatives will also get federal funding, which includes Living Classrooms, LifeBridge Health, Shock Trauma, Roca, the South Baltimore Peacemaking Project Pilot and Marylanders to Prevent Gun Violence.

"Each of these initiatives are there to help us deal with public safety," said U.S. Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Maryland.

"When families are in pain, when communities are in pain, that migrates to violence. And, you have to come up with innovative strategies to respond to that pain," said U.S. Rep. John Sarbanes, D-District 3.

As Baltimore City leaders hope the funding will help in crime and violence reduction, police are investigating another homicide.

Brooklyn is a neighborhood where police and community groups are working together. But some who live on a block where there were two killings in a matter of months wonder what else can be done to stop the violence.

A boarded-up house with crumbling steps is near the corner where multiple shots were fired just after midnight Thursday, killing a man in his 20s. Candles serve as a memorial on Fifth Street in Brooklyn.

Dezirey Croley said because of the loudness and rapid succession, she first thought someone set off fireworks.

"I was petrified," Croley said. "Pop, pop, pop pop. I was shaking."

Then, she realized it was gunfire.

"I grabbed my son and started running," she said.

Fellow resident Stacy Cudnik also heard the shots and wondered what it was.

"It was 18 pops. It was so fast. I can't tell the difference between guns and fireworks. It seemed too fast and too loud that it could have been a gun, but it was," Cudnik said.

Croley said police found bullet casings near the side and in front of a parked van.

Residents in Brooklyn said another shooting left a person dead about two months ago on the same street less than a half a block away. A memorial also stands at that scene. The residents told 11 News both shooting victims were friends.

Baltimore police said, with the latest killing in Brooklyn, the city has had 110 homicides so far this year, compared to 100 at the same time last year.

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Baltimore's fight against crime gets $7.9M federal shot in the arm - WBAL TV Baltimore

In an era of surging demand,how will UCLA continue to deliver the high-quality educational experience for which it is known while finding a way to serve more students?

If you want to have the kind of education we provide [with] the traditional residential experience where students spend time on campus doing directed research while they are here and getting to know faculty, there is a limit in physical size, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block told Jeff Selingo and Michael Horn, hosts of the higher educationfocused podcastFuture U.

Selingo and Horn were on campus recently to record an episode of their podcast. While at UCLA, they interviewed Block and led a panel discussion with other school leaders. The episode will be released on May 17.

While increasing access to the school is of great importance, Block said, it cannot be done at the cost of the special combination of academics, campus life, research and community impact that make up the UCLA experience.

At only 419 acres, UCLA is the smallest physical campus within the University of California system;consequently, theres a limit to the number of students it can serve. But, Block said, there are opportunities to expand the campuss reach by reimagining how it uses technology and its academic calendar.

We have to do our part so we are thinking creatively on how to better use summer and spring quarter [and] how to use some remote educational opportunities, Block said about how the UC system can grow to serve more students. The system aims to increase enrollment by 20,000 students across its 10campuses by 2030.

During the last two years, faculty and staff have demonstrated ingenuity and innovation as they transformed traditional in-person lectures to remote and hybrid classes that combined in-person instruction with online components, Block said.

But while UCLA saw successes in remote instruction, Block warned against an uncritical embrace of technology as the only solution. He emphasized the inequalities remote instruction exacerbated among students, especially from underserved communities.

There is a digital divide. [There are] lots of reasons why remote education does not give you the expected outcomes wed like to see, Block said when describing the challenges of fully remote instruction. That doesnt mean throwing it away, but it means being respectful of the fact that it has limitations, figuring out ways to overcome that.

To help close the divide in 2020 and 2021, UCLA provided students with laptops and personal internet hotspots to help increase internet connectivity.

Block also cautioned that even if universities can surmount the digital divide, they must avoid creating a situation whereby students from lower-income brackets choose to save money by learning remotely from home thus missing the rich experience of campus life while other students opt for the traditional, residential environment and the opportunities that come with it.

Following Blocks interview, Selingo and Horn held a discussion with Monroe Gorden, vice chancellor of student affairs, Tracy Johnson, dean of the division of life sciences in the UCLA College, student Sarah Wang, external vice president of the Undergraduate Students Association, and Jason Belland, vice president, Education Cloud GTM at Salesforce.org.

Reed Hutchinson/UCLA

From left: Gene Block, UCLA chancellor; Michael Horn, co-host of the Future U Podcast,; Sarah Wang, external vice president of the Undergraduate Students Association at UCLA, Monroe Gorden, vice chancellor of student affairs at UCLA; Tracy Johnson, dean of the division of life sciences at the UCLA College;Jason Belland, vice president, Education Cloud GTM at Salesforce.org; and Jeff Selingo, Future U co-host.

When asked about education trends they hope will continue well beyond the pandemic, Johnson mentioned broader and more robust instructor use of teaching and learning centers.

The pandemic really engendered a different level of empathy among faculty that has changed how we think about the job, Johnson said. Granted, there are challenges. Weve built in centers for learning and teaching excellence to go from where we were years ago to how we create inclusive classrooms and enhance pedagogy so that students from all backgrounds see themselves in the class and feel like they are welcomed.

In sharing her experiences during the pandemic, Wang said she hopes to continue seeing the prioritization of peoples well-being.

Mental health is the ultimate key to making sure we have a well-rounded and healthy experience, she said. It's important recognizing the humanity we have and build a community with compassion.

After the discussion, audience members had a brief opportunity to ask the panelists questions. When asked about what universities can do to equip students for the workforce, Gorden reinforced the importance of building students learning and life skills and noted how learning can take place outside the classroom.

Many opportunities present themselves in just day-to-day life, he said.

Gorden also emphasized that UCLA needs to be very intentional in its outreach and partnerships with different industries and industry partners.

In noting that students, staff, faculty members and administrators all continue to navigate the unknown future of higher education, Johnson ended the conversation with a simple yet powerful thought. [Lets] encourage the sense that having lived through this challenging time is our superpower and [use]that[as inspiration] to do amazing things.

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UCLA Chancellor Gene Block joins Future U podcast to discuss the future of higher education | UCLA - UCLA Newsroom

A new contribution in a continuing series examining backdraftthe unintended consequences of climate change responsesand how its effects might be anticipated and minimized to avoid conflict and promote peace.

When considering the potential effects of backdraft on climate change responses, the question of the worlds water future may be the most salient of allespecially as we examine water supplies and freshwater ecosystem health.

Large changes are coming to how we store, use, and price water, as well as in how we mitigate environmental harm and adapt to water-related stresses such as drought and flooding. What will those changes look like over the next thirty or forty years?

First, there will be efforts to manage supply more effectively. The ability to harvest and store large quantities of water will be increasingly valuable, as a way to smooth out climate-driven uncertainties. And more water will be recycled, closing the loop on wasteful once through systems of water use.

Those efforts will be important because access to predictable water supplies will become an important part of global economic competitiveness. Efforts to tap new sources will intensify. And managing extremes, particularly around flooding, will become a central principle of planning, in urban settings and for coastal land management.

There is much that is positive in these trends. Water use is growing more efficient and more intentional. It is hard to justify systems that expend vast quantities of energy to purify water and pump it to end users, only to expend several liters to carry away a small quantity of human waste and then either discharge the treated wastewater or fail to treat it entirely.

Yet things dont happen simply because we need them to; witness our sluggish response to the imperative of climate mitigation and adaptation. Still, the incentive to make these adjustments is too strong to ignore. Indeed, each of these shifts is already well underway.

If done properly, sensible adjustments around storing water, pricing water, recycling water, and designing landscapes for flood risk could make communities more climate- and water-resilient. They could also help to forestall the numerous conflict risks around waterthe dangers of which, though sometimes simplified and overstated, are real enough.

The realization that the way nations must manage changes in water supply and usageas well as protect environments from water-driven climate effectsis already upon us.

In the Netherlands, floating office space is being deployed, ready to be moved in the face of flood risk. In Israel, economically competitive desalination plants line the Mediterranean coast. In China, vast engineering works are underway to move water from the more abundant south to the parched north. The Colorado River basin has finally admitted that it allocates more water rights than there is water available, triggering cutbacks for downstream farmers and, looming ahead, for cities.

Yet, given the sheer size of the adjustments ahead and their high stakes for human health, livelihoods, and environmental integrity, there is also great potential for conflict in how these adaptations are carried out.

First, the vast sums of money involved in these transformations, as well as their dramatic implications for land use, livelihoods, and human settlements, create enormous distributive consequences.

Consider the need to enhance water storage. Doing so is an essential tool to smooth out the inconsistencies of climate-driven water extremes of flooding and drought. Yet, as the history of large dams has taught us all too well, storing water upstream can trigger a devastating human and environmental toll downstreamdisplacing people, changing the physical and chemical properties of the water, devastating ecosystem-based livelihoods such as fishing, and increasing disease risks.

Also, if storing water in large quantities locks in the ability of, say, increasingly thirsty cities or globally mobile industries to outbid rural areas for the water, it could do more to reinforce existing water inequalities than to create the resilience for which the storage was allegedly designed.

The same is true of water recycling. As noted above, our once-through, open-ended systems of water use make little sense; provided it is done properly, the economic logic of water recycling is unimpeachable. Yet, it is often the case that someone downstream was replying on that water for their own uses (even when doing so means relying on water of degraded quality). Without attention to the wider patterns of access, the decision to recycle large amounts of water is also a choice to redistribute it, often to the detriment of the poorest and most marginalized users.

As with the uses and reuses of water, so with the threats of harm it brings. Planning for flood resilience is urgently needed in the context of climate change. But distributional controversies abound in how we do so. Coastal flood barriers may protect one community while simultaneously exiling another from the coast.

Flood-sensitive planning attentive to protecting and expanding green spaces is a powerful tool for resilience. But making room for the river can mean less room, or even forced displacement, for existing communities, again with the already vulnerable most likely to feel the pressures.

One key to addressing these challenges is to build out more effective mechanisms for dispute resolution. The high stakes make water ripe for social conflict, but conflict management remains the weak link in water governance. Even where arrangements have been formalized, they may be designed to resolve the problems of an earlier era.

Most existing international river-basin commissions, for example, were created in a historical period when allocation of water supplies and (perhaps) pollution control were the primary considerations. These bodies function on principles closer to contractual arrangements, with largely fixed terms and conditions, than joint schemes for active management. They may create predictability, but they often lack the flexibility to adjust to changing circumstances.

Another challenge is the ability to engage with the full array of stakeholders. Many of the worlds largest cities lie in international river basins, and many are beginning to experience the urban-versus-rural water tensions alluded to above. Treaty-based arrangements typically lack the capacity to engage those subnational and transnational actors in their deliberations.

For instance, when the US agreed with Canada to create the International Joint Commission and with Mexico on the International Boundary and Water Commission, these were seen as innovative, forward-looking mechanisms. Today, both agreements struggle to address tasks for which they were not designed, and to manage tensions their makers did not envision. And perhaps just as important, they struggle to engage stakeholders their formal processes do not acknowledge.

Finally, and most centrally, there is the need for greater attention to questions of justice in water planning. Navigating water conflicts effectively means more than just containing or suppressing them, and thus maintaining in place a status quo that is both inequitable and unsustainable. The principal analytic methods, such as environmental impact assessment, risk assessment, and cost-benefit analysis, typically fail to engage questions of distributive justice. Even when they do nod to these questions, they at best, tag on procedurally thin stakeholder dialogues that fail to grapple with unequal power dynamics or the historical roots of inequality that leave some much more vulnerable than others to change.

Attention to such concerns is sometimes framed as a complication that the climate emergency cannot afford. This is short-sighted, both in terms of managing grievances that fuel conflict and in terms of effectively engaging communities and actors who must buy in if solutions are to be meaningful.

It is easy to be pessimistic about our capacity to navigate this terrain. Each year, the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland conducts a survey on global risk. For several years now, the political and economic elites in attendance have placed water at or near the top of the set of global risks looming aheadeven as they reproduce climate inaction, casino economics, and growing inequality.

Yet, the pressures to create water systems that are more flexible, efficient, and adaptive in the face of uncertainty could open the door to taking a more decentralized, democratic, and environmentally sensitive approach. Innovations in monitoring and communications are making water conditions more transparent and predictable. Traditions of harvesting rainwater and community-scale storage are being rediscovered.

And perhaps most important of all, more people than ever before are participating in water decision makingor fighting for the right to do so, supported by the growing recognition of water as a human right. Disputes about how to manage water may be ubiquitous, but conflict is not inevitable.

Ken Conca is a professor of International relations in the School of International Service at American University. He is the author of Advanced Introduction to Water Politics (2021, Edward Elgar Publishing), which is the foundation for many of the ideas put forth in this essay.

ImageCredit: People in New Delhi, India, using hoses to fill jerry cans with drinking water. Courtesy ofPradeepGaurs, Shutterstock.com.

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Preventing Water Conflict Through Dialogue - New Security Beat

Before the pandemic, political scientist and commentator Dr. Victoria DeFrancesco Soto, 44, never imagined she would take the helm of a major academic institution like the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas.

I was an outsider to the world of higher ed, the MSNBC and Telemundo contributor recently told Know Your Value. The [academic] leadership pipeline for women is leaky and especially so for women of color.

Indeed, the gender gap in academia remains wide. A recent investigation by the Eos Foundation and the American Association of University Women revealed that only 22 percent of higher education institutions had a woman at the top (president, chancellor, system head), despite the fact that there are more women earning PhDs today than men. In fact, one in five PhD earners is a woman color.

Nevertheless, by the start of 2020, Dr. DeFrancesco Soto strategized a way to the position, where she could have maximum impact as the first Latina dean of the esteemed presidential institution. Last month marked her first 100 days in the new role.

She details her nonlinear path into academic leadership and what she wants other women of color to know about ascertaining and thriving in these top jobs.

Know Your Value: In January, you became the first Latina to serve as dean of a presidential school and one of the only women of color in this space. Tell us about your career journey.

DeFrancesco Soto: It was not the traditional one, thats for sure! My path wasnt one where I rose through the ranks of academic leadership, going from graduate studies chair to department chair, to lots of other positions in between.

For a couple of years, I left the academic world and focused on political analysis consulting. I focused on translating research into user-friendly information through various media outlets.

However, the draw of the classroom and the dynamism of college campuses drew me back in. I started teaching part-time and building programming [at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at The University of Texas] that bridged the classroom with the private and public sector.

I was fortunate enough to have a strong female dean who saw the power of this programming and created an office of Civic Engagement there that formalized the space where the classroom meets on-the-ground practitioners. In this role I gained academic leadership skills as an assistant dean.

Know Your Value: What role did mentorship play in your career mobility?

DeFrancesco Soto: I am where I am today because of mentorship. I have an amazing set of parents and have always had a whole lot of ganas (translates into drive), but I was an outsider to the world of higher ed.

My dean and leadership team at my previous institution were key in my development of the hard and soft skills to move forward. Given the small number of fellow women of color in higher education, I cultivated close relationships with those who had served in high-impact leadership roles (e.g. presidential administrations, business, philanthropy). Those trailblazers helped me navigate my big picture career goals and risk-taking.

Know Your Value: Beyond representation, why is it so important to provide a pipeline for more women to move into academic leadership?

DeFrancesco Soto: While women are killing it when it comes to educational attainment, their numbers are far from reflective of the higher ed leadership ecosystem. If women and women of color dont see people who look like them in leadership roles then the envisioning of these positions is just that much harder.

Beyond the descriptive representation of having them in these traditionally white male positions, it is the lived experience they bring to these majority institutions that can mobilize tangible steps to uplifting under-served students.

For me, it starts with first-hand experiences building an inclusive approach through what I call the three Cs: Composition, Culture and Curriculum.

For example, student retention is a major issue! Traditional 4-year colleges are frequently not intentionally supportive of first-generation and under-served students, both in terms of academic and socio-cultural support.

And when it comes to curriculum, often times the same material has been taught the same way for decades and does not include more recent work from a diversity of scholars.

Small changes in these areas lead the way toward greater success among first-generation and minority students.

Know Your Value: How can higher ed administrations better support and retain women in these top spots?

DeFrancesco Soto: Let me start with the numbers. Less than half of tenure-track professors are women. In terms of full professors the traditional stepping stone for advancement within higher ed leadership only about a third are women. To further drill down, Black and Latino faculty make up just 4-6 percent of all tenured faculty.

We address this very leaky pipeline by supporting women with their care responsibilities. We know they are the overwhelming majority of primary caregivers for young children, aging parents and special needs family members.

The lack of robust parental leave policies in much of higher education together with a tenure clock that is not accommodating to these caregiving realities keeps women from reaching that next step.

Universities must support women structurally through better parental and family leave. On a parallel track, these academic institutions must be intentional in the construction of peer mentorship pipelines.

For instance, the Volcker Alliances Dean Summit establishes a pipeline organization to actively recruit women and faculty of color to higher ed leadership, and then gives them the mentorship and support to take on these roles.

Know Your Value: What is your guidance for women of color who may not realize they can aspire to top university positions?

DeFrancesco Soto: Dont be afraid to ask! Even if you get a no at least folks know where you stand and where you want to head. And Im not just saying this Ive done it myself.

After a couple of years engaging in higher ed administrative projects, I knew I was ready for a more expansive leadership role. I approached my schools dean and point blank asked her if we could transition this role that I had greatly expanded into one of an assistant dean. She agreed.

This isnt to say that I wasnt apprehensive about the ask, but I had a network of mentors and professional support that pushed me forward. I felt empowered to ask that my value be recognized in an appropriate role.

Know Your Value: How has the scope of public service changed over the years and what should women consider about their potential impact here?

DeFrancesco Soto: The meaning of public service has become much broader and more diverse. Traditionally folks think of local, state or federal government roles. While thats one component, weve also come to see the private sector intentionally grow its public service footprint as part of sustainable business models.

For example, one of our graduates from the Clinton School co-founded a community bank that provides targeted development resources for its members.

A public service education is one that brings the tools of data, impact analysis and leadership to any and all professions, including medicine, business and philanthropy.

Today, public service applies to all sectors. Weve lived through the Great Resignation and see how younger generations want fulfillment beyond a paycheck. A public service education meets that ambition, enabling individuals to find their impact and improve their communities.

Victoria DeFrancesco Soto is the Dean of the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas and a political analyst for MSNBC, NBC News and Telemundo. Previously, she was the inaugural Dean of Civic Engagement at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas. Victoria received her Ph.D. from Duke University and was named one of the top 12 scholars in the country by Diverse magazine. She previously served on the faculty of Northwestern University. Her research on political behavior has been widely published in scholarly journals and cited in the New York Times, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Time, and POLITICO.

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How I became one of the only Latina deans in the world of higher ed - MSNBC

Former Homeland Security Acting Secretary Chad Wolf changed and delayed an intelligence report detailing Russian interference in the 2020 U.S. presidential election, according to a new review by the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) top watchdog.

The decision to deviate from DHS standard review procedures "rais[ed] objectivity concerns," according to the report, and led to the perception that unorthodox interference by a top DHS official was intended to help Donald Trump's reelection bid.

The Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at DHS, through its Office of Intelligence and Analysis (I&A), released the redacted results of its investigation into Russian interference in the election "DHS Actions Related to an I&A Intelligence Product Deviated from Standard Procedures" on Tuesday.

"We found that DHS did not adequately follow its internal processes and comply with applicable [intelligence community] policy standards and requirements when editing and disseminating an I&A intelligence product regarding Russian interference with the 2020 U.S. Presidential election," the DHS OIG report states, in part.

"The acting secretary participated in the review process multiple times despite lacking any formal role in reviewing the product, resulting in the delay of its dissemination on at least one occasion," the DHS inspector general report continued. "The delays and deviation from I & A standard process and requirements put [them] at risk of creating a perception of politicization."

Analysts in DHS' Cyber Mission Center (CYMC) began drafting the original intelligence product titled, "Russia Likely to Denigrate Health of US Candidates to Influence 2020 Electoral Dynamics" in April 2020, to warn state and local governments of a noticeable uptick in Russian state media efforts to question then-candidate President Joe Biden's mental health after Super Tuesday.

The DHS analyst who first raised the concern "believed foreign efforts questioning a candidate's health were worth exploring because they could impact voters' willingness to vote for that candidate and began drafting the product," the OIG report read. "In its initial form, the product was approximately two pages in length and included information relating to one 'current Democratic presidential candidate' and to Russian activities to influence the 2020 U.S. Presidential election."

At a July 8, 2020, meeting, Acting Secretary Chad Wolf who is referenced to by his title but never named in Tuesday's OIG report determined that the intelligence document should be "held" because it "made the President look bad," according to a whistleblower complaint.

The whistleblower, Brian Murphy, who was then principal deputy under secretary at I&A, also alleged that Wolf ordered him to shift the focus of future assessments to interference efforts by China and Iran, and that instructions to do so had come from White House national security adviser Robert O'Brien. Murphy declined to comply, he said in the complaint, because "doing so would put the country in substantial and specific danger."

"Russian disinformation was something [DHS leadership] didn't want to report on," Murphy previously told CBS News, in an October 2021 interview. "It mattered. It had a material impact on life and safety of how the events unfolded during 2018 and forward."

"Wolf told me that the plan with respect to the administration was to downplay Russian disinformation, that was supporting the Democrats and instead, upscale the threat from China," Murphy continued. "That's where the real manipulation by the politicals came into effect. The same thing with Iran. I'm not dismissing China and Iran as threats, particularly in the disinformation space, but they differ on scale and their objectives. The Russians are the best at it. There's no one that even comes close."

Murphy was later reassigned amid reporting that his office compiled "intelligence reports" about journalists and protesters in Portland.

Tuesday's report found that, after months of delay, analysts inserted a "tone box" a highlighted section of text detailing efforts by Chinese and Iranian influence actors to amplify unsubstantiated narratives questioning the mental health of former President Donald Trump.

When watchdog investigators probed the CYMC manager on why the additional material outside the scope of the initial report was added, the DHS officials contradicted themselves.

"He told us it was a feature intended to draw a contrast between the actions of Russia and those of Iran and China, but also described the tone box as a 'blunting feature' meant to balance the product. When asked whether intelligence products require balancing, he said the addition of the tone box was not politicization, yet also said it showed I & A's political savviness, as the state and local customers of their products tended to be political," the OIG report reads.

The analytic ombudsman from I & A flagged serious concerns with the September version of the intelligence product, noting in his review that "problems with the piece undermine the original message and give the perception of a lack of objectivity or an attempt at political influence."

That assessment also suggested the addition of Iran and China "[seem] to almost avoid the main message that is made explicit in the key judgment that Russian influence actors are targeting the Democratic candidates in 2020 The tone box on Iran/China seemingly unrelated to the main message are all areas that could be seen as 'being political,' whether intentional or not," the assessment read.

DHS' top watchdog determined that DHS deviated from its own internal requirements for editing and disseminating the report to state and local partners.

"Since January 2021, the [Office of Intelligence and Analysis] has renewed its commitment to continually assess the policies, guidelines and processes that govern the review and dissemination of its finished intelligence products, including to identity and implement and necessary improvements," wrote John Cohen, senior official performing the duties of the under secretary for the office, to Joseph Cuffari, DHS inspector general, in a memo responding to the report.

Cohen has since left his role, which is currently being filled by Melissa Smislova. President Biden's nominee to lead the office, Kenneth Wainstein, is awaiting Senate confirmation.

"This troubling report raises concerns over the prior Administration's inappropriate interference in the review and clearance process for an intelligence product," a DHS spokesperson said in a statement to CBS News. "Under the Biden-Harris Administration and the leadership of Secretary Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security is focused on ensuring the safety and security of communities across our country, while conducting our work with integrity and in ways that protect privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties. Since January 2021, DHS has renewed its commitment to providing accurate, timely, and actionable information and intelligence, free from politicization and bias, to the public and our partners across every level of government, in the private sector, and local communities."

Describing its methodology, the DHS watchdog wrote that Wolf requested an interview in writing rather than orally or in-person. According to the report, DHS Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Deputy Secretary Ken Cuccinelli "did not provide any responses despite agreeing to do so."

Wolf resigned his post in January 2021, after the Government Accountability Office and several federal judges deemed that he had served illegally, a judgment that he disputes.

In March 2021, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a report on the 2020 elections that found Kremlin-backed agents authorized by President Vladimir Putin tried to use President Trump's inner circle and right-leaning media to undermine his opponent. The report also concluded that while Iran had expanded its efforts to meddle in the 2020 presidential election, China fell short of interfering after determining it was not worth the risk.

The intelligence community found "no indications" that any foreign actor made attempts to alter technical aspects of the voting process, despite making false claims meant to undermine confidence in election results.

CBS News reporter covering homeland security and justice.

Originally posted here:

DHS watchdog says Trump's acting DHS secretary changed intel report on Russian interference in 2020 election - CBS News

To support Black and Hispanic women in the workplace, we must understand the unique challenges they face and advance solutions. Young Black and Latina girls are more likely to identify as leaders than girls of other races. However, when they grow up, the pay and opportunity disparities are jarring. In fact, according to the US Census, Black women were paid 63% of what non-Hispanic white men were paid. That means it takes the typical Black woman 19 months to be paid what the average white man takes home in 12 months. And Latinas endure the widest pay gap of any group, earning just 57 cents on the dollar compared to non-Latino white men.

Its no secret that gender bias plays a role in income disparities, and unfortunately, these inequities intensify when considering compounding factors like race and ethnicity. JPMorgan Chase is increasing awareness around these inequalities and is committed to using its resources to make real change not just during Womens History Month, but every month.

Silvana Montenegro, Head of Advancing Hispanic & Latinos and Byna Elliott, Head of Advancing Black Pathways at JPMorgan Chase recently discussed their perspectives on women in the workplace, and how the company is helping to create an equal playing field.

Q: How is JPMorgan Chase working to tackle income inequity for Black and Hispanic/Latina women?

Silvana: Tackling income inequality requires consistent programming that focuses on inequity both in the workplace and in the educational environment Black and Hispanic/Latina women are in before they start working. Advancing Black Pathways (ABP) and Advancing Hispanic & Latinos (AHL) were born out of recognition that, while our company has made efforts to be inclusive and impactful in all activities, we must be intentional in our approach. ABP was established to help the Black community chart stronger paths toward economic success and empowerment, while AHL is a way for us to drive meaningful and sustainable change for the Hispanic and Latino communities.

Through these initiatives, weve created activities focused on entrepreneurship, career readiness and support, financial health, and community development. Women are a core audience for all of our efforts.

Q: How is JPMorgan Chase helping Black and Hispanic/Latina -owned businesses grow and expand?

Byna: The number of Black and Latina women becoming entrepreneurs is accelerating. Black business ownership is up by almost 30% on pre-pandemic levels and Black women are the fastest-growing group of female entrepreneurs. Similarly, Latinas are more likely to own or plan to own their own businesses than non-Hispanic women. We want to see entrepreneurs not simply do well, but thrive!

Partnership is key in helping to reach Black and Latina entrepreneurs with helpful resources. Internally, we partner across our business including with our community and consumer branch colleagues who are often the face of the company to entrepreneurs to offer business education, coaching and banking solutions to business owners. External partnerships are also critical.

For example, ABP partnered with digitalundivided to launch BREAKTHROUGH, a business-intensive program designed to help women of color entrepreneurs propel their businesses. The curriculum includes programming on strengthening customer engagement and banking relationships, as well as identifying and implementing business models. Upon completion, each participant receives a $5,000 grant to invest in their business.

Silvana: Weve also introduced a new partnership with Elevate Together a program designed to support the growth and prosperity of Black and Hispanic-and Latino-owned small businesses in collaboration with U.S Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and The ODP Corporation. We are supporting this years expansion by being the exclusive provider of bilingual financial education content through Chase for Business modules and supporting the creation of an online platform where participants can register to access materials for free.

Byna: Both ABP and AHL offer fellowship programs, which aim to increase opportunities for underrepresented communities in the financial industry. The ABP Fellowship Program launched in 2019 and the AHL program will commence this year. Nearly 700 students have participated in the programs, more than half of which identify as female. The programs provide a six-week paid, full-time fellowship held during the summer for rising sophomore college students who identify as Black and Hispanic and Latino. This opportunity exposes students to hands-on experience, mentorship, and a project-based curriculum, designed to help build a pathway to future opportunities.

Silvana: Additionally, we recently established a partnership with the Hispanic Scholarship Fund one of the nations largest non-profit organizations supporting higher education for Hispanic and Latino students to grow the entry-level pipeline of Hispanic and Latino employees, expand campus recruiting opportunities and provide financial education for Hispanic and Latino students.

Silvana: Absolutely! For example, last year, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management hosted Building A New Legacy: A Summit for Black and Latina Women. The virtual celebration of sisterhood provided a unique space for Black women, Latinas and all allies to take an investing journey together. Through live discussion panels, one-on-one sessions with celebrities and on-demand conversations, the event served as a platform to help promote education on building and retaining wealth.

Sponsored content from JPMorgan Chase & Co

For more, visit https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact. You can also learn more about both ABP and AHL at: https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact/people/advancing-black-pathways https://www.jpmorganchase.com/impact/people/advancing-hispanics-latinos.

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Sisterhood in the Workplace: Supporting Black and Latina Women beyond Women's History Month - The Chicago Cusader