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Pandemic, civil unrest likely contributed to more than 50% increase in Chicago homicides in 2020, experts say
CHICAGO – In a year marred by a deadly pandemic and rocked by civil unrest over policing in America, Chicago endured a level of violence in 2020 that reversed recent progress, with homicides increasing by more than 50%, according to official statistics. Through Sunday, Chicago had recorded 762 homicides this year, a 55% jump over the same period in 2019, when 491 people in the city were slain, according to official Chicago police data. It is among the highest year-over-year increases in recent city history. The total number of shootings this year also was up sharply. That figure rose by 53%, t...
Chicago Tribune
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NY prisons see more than 2,000 COVID-19 cases amid calls for greater transparency over coronavirus testing data
NEW YORK – Over 2,000 New York prisoners have tested positive for coronavirus since the onset of the pandemic, state data shows — yet continued confusion over how the Correction Department reports COVID-19 cases has led to fervent calls for more transparency. The Department of Corrections and Community Supervision issues daily reports on the number of people behind bars who have tested negative one time, have tested positive, or have pending test results, among other parameters. Yet those reports do not disclose the total number of tests conducted, according to a spokesman for the agency. With...
New York Daily News
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An urban farm feeding the poorest part of Philly fights to stay alive and growing
PHILADELPHIA — The Life Do Grow Farm on N. 11th and Dauphin Streets in North Philadelphia was carved out of the poorest part of the poorest big city in America.Once an illegal dump, set beside a SEPTA Regional Rail line, the nearly-three-acre plot is studded by trees — some in planters made of painted tires — and lined with beds normally thick with flowers and vegetables in the growing season. Run by a grassroots nonprofit called Urban Creators, it yields needed food in a supermarket desert where hunger proliferated long before the pandemic.The farm also serves as a community commons — a nexus...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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NYC schools could shut down as early as Monday due to COVID-19 spike
NEW YORK — Mayor Bill de Blasio urged New York City public school parents to plan for school closures as early as Monday, as the number of COVID-19 cases continues to surge throughout the Big Apple.The daily percentage of people testing positive citywide shot up to 3.09% Friday, the highest it’s been since June 5, de Blasio said Friday. The weekly average of that number, which is the metric the city applies to closing schools, hit 2.83% — just below the city’s 3% threshold.“People should get ready,” de Blasio said on Brian Lehrer’s radio show Friday. “Parents should have a plan for the rest of...
New York Daily News
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Judge: UnitedHealth must redo 67K claims denied under 'overly restrictive guidelines'
A federal judge has ordered UnitedHealth Group to reprocess tens of thousands of claims from behavioral health patients to remedy its past usage of overly restrictive coverage guidelines — a “fundamentally flawed” approach, the judge ruled last year, that was “tainted” by the health insurer’s financial interests.The order Tuesday came more than a year after Judge Joseph Spero of the U.S. District Court of Northern California ruled that UnitedHealth’s behavioral health division used internal guidelines for denying claims that strayed from the terms of patients’ health plans.The division used th...
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
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Poll: Religious people believe climate change is a real threat, not a controversy
People of all faiths, including white evangelicals, are convinced climate change is real and a threat, according to a new poll, but whether they believe it’s caused by humans depends on the denomination.Further, climate change doesn’t seem to be controversial among Roman Catholics, despite the contention of U.S. Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett, who is Catholic, that the issue was too “controversial” for her to comment on during a recent Senate hearing.A majority of Catholics not only believe that climate change is happening, but that it is caused by humans and they are worried by it, a...
The Philadelphia Inquirer
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Justice Department offers to assist in training Minneapolis police
MINNEAPOLIS — The U.S. Department of Justice has offered to partner with the Minneapolis Police Department as part of a new nationwide program to provide training to police forces across the country, reduce excessive force and build community safety.Justice officials from Washington, D.C., announced the Law Enforcement Training and Technical Assistance Response Center at a news conference Tuesday morning, responding to months of civil unrest that began with the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody last May.Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, appearing at the news confe...
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)