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In the news
- “For a while, the price hikes made sense,” writes Juliana Kaplan of pandemic inflation. Years later, consumers are still facing steep prices for basics, and Kaplan reports that one culprit is corporate profit hoarding. / Food inflation is slowing, but online grocery prices remain about 10% over last year.
- A new Oklahoma law requires utility companies to waive credit and deposit requirements for domestic violence survivors. / The Milwaukee Police Department is considering policy changes related to how the agency handles domestic violence situations. That’s in response to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel investigation that found police and prosecutors failed to respond to escalating domestic violation allegations during the 10 months leading up to Bobbie Lou Schoeffling’s murder.
- New York City schools are only supposed to call 911 when students pose a serious safety risk to themselves or others. But an investigation from THE CITY and ProPublica reveals schools still call police thousands of times per year.
- In Wisconsin, dozens of voucher schools that receive state funds have policies that allow discrimination against queer students and those with disabilities.
New from Streetlight
- Criminal records can lock people out of housing assistance. HUD’s creating new rules to help: A Clinton-era policy allowed public housing agencies to deny assistance to people with criminal records. The US Department of Housing and Urban Development and housing advocates say these rejections are still common. “There are instances where there’s no consideration for whether that criminal conviction actually does pose some real and current risk of future criminal activity, but people are just denied,” HUD senior advisor Richard Cho told Streetlight. HUD plans to update its rules for using background checks to evaluate applicants, which the agency hopes will reduce barriers to housing assistance.
- More than 32,000 people incarcerated in the United States were sentenced as kids: That’s according to a new report from nonprofit Human Rights for Kids.
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– Mollie Bryant
Founder and editor, Streetlight
