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Daily Archives: November 9, 2017

NYT – The Unsung Role That Ordinary Citizens Played in the Great Crime Decline

NYT The Upshot, : “Local nonprofit groups that cleaned streets, built playgrounds and mentored children had a real effect on the crime rate, a sociologist finds. Most theories for the great crime decline that swept across nearly every major American city over the last 25 years have focused on the would-be criminals. Their lives changed in many ways starting in the 1990s: Strict new policing tactics kept closer watch on them. Mass incarceration locked them up in growing numbers. The crack epidemic that ensnared many began to recede. Even the more unorthodox theories — around the rise of abortion, the reduction in lead or the spread of A.D.H.D. medication — have argued that larger shifts in society altered the behavior (and existence) of potential criminals. But none of these explanations have paid much attention to the communities where violence plummeted the most. New research suggests that people there were working hard, with little credit, to address the problem themselves. Local nonprofit groups that responded to the violence by cleaning streets, building playgrounds, mentoring children and employing young men had a real effect on the crime rate. That’s what Patrick Sharkey, a sociologist at New York University, argues in a new study and a forthcoming book. Mr. Sharkey doesn’t contend that community groups alone drove the national decline in crime, but rather that their impact is a major missing piece….”

Department of Homeland Security 2017 Privacy Office Annual Report to Congress

“The work of the DHS Privacy Office supports all five core DHS missions articulated in the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review: (1) prevent terrorism and enhance security; (2) secure our borders; (3) enforce our immigration laws; (4) safeguard cyberspace; and (5) strengthen national preparedness, as well as the important cross-cutting goal to mature and strengthen homeland… Continue Reading

House Tax Plan sneaks under $1.5 Trillion debt limit – Senate releases two page bill summary

Follow up to previous posting – DavisPolk Posts Updated Tax Bill Navigator Tool – and HR 1 – Tax Cuts and Jobs Act 2017 – via Axios: “The latest version of the House tax bill, passed by the Ways and Means Committee this afternoon, meets Senate deficit requirements, according to a Joint Committee on Taxation… Continue Reading

Wired – Al Franken Just Gave the Speech Big Tech Has Been Dreading

Follow up to previous posting – Senate Intel Cmte Hearing – Social Media Influence in the 2016 U.S. Elections via Wired – Senator Al Franken (D-Minnesota) delivered some of the sharpest criticism yet about the dangers of tech giants like Facebook, Google, and Amazon during a speech on Wednesday, encouraging regulators, as well as lawmakers… Continue Reading

UK environment secretary will back total ban on bee-harming pesticides

theguardian: Research leads environment secretary to overturn government’s previous opposition, making total EU ban much more likely – “The UK will back a total ban on insect-harming pesticides in fields across Europe, the environment secretary, Michael Gove, has revealed. The decision reverses the government’s previous position and is justified by recent new evidence showing neonicotinoids… Continue Reading