The Cougar 4×4 Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle weighs 20 tons, can reach speeds of up to 65 miles per hour, and has a range of 420 miles. With a unique V-shaped hull, it was designed to endure explosions from improvised explosive devices in Iraq... More »
Housing affordability has become a hot-button issue in many communities in the United States, particularly in urban neighborhoods, due to rapidly rising rents. In response, some housing activists have advocated for imposing rent control policies in order to pr... More »
Recidivism, a person’s relapse into criminal behavior, is a fundamental challenge in criminal justice. While the issue is widely discussed, few solutions have been shown to keep previous offenders from returning to criminal behavior. Part of the issue is the s... More »
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) is designed to help low-income families, as well as the elderly and disabled, cover the cost of “decent, safe, and sanitary housing.” Participants pay a fra... More »
On October 5, 2018, Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery for the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. While activists and Chicago community leaders have welcomed this convictio... More »
Public discontent with police behavior has crested in the wake of recent high-profile civilian deaths due to the excessive use of force. To address this issue, some have advocated the adoption of body-worn cameras (BWC) that officers wear as part of their unif... More »
2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the Fair Housing Act—an important victory for activists in the Civil Rights era—but this historic legislation did not eradicate discrimination in the housing market. Evidence shows that real estate agents today still steer bu... More »
This article was originally published on February 25, 2013. Link to original article here.Gun sales in the United States are a huge business; the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) ran 19.5 million firearm background checks in 2012 alone. The recent tragedy... More »
The increase in undocumented immigration into the United States over the past two decades has fueled controversies about public safety impacts. President Trump has stated explicitly, both during his campaign and as president, that undocumented immigrants, spec... More »
At one of #MeToo founder Tarana Burke’s first workshops, 30 high-school girls were asked to write “Me Too” on a sheet of paper if they wanted to anonymously record their experience of sexual harassment. Burke was stunned by how many sheets she counted; two-thi... More »
In the early 2000s, police departments across the U.S. began deploying Tasers—devices that deliver an electric current to incapacitate targets—as an alternative use-of-force against civilians. The Taser was considered a non-lethal alternative to firearms and p... More »
Since the introduction of the Kalamazoo Public School District’s Promise Scholarship Program in 2005, public school districts across the country have announced similar initiatives, offering college scholarships for students who have attended its public schools... More »