Search results for

The 2021 MacArthur Fellows were recently announced and the list of recipients of the so-called “Genius Grant” include Desmond Meade, President of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition which spearheaded the 2018 Amendment 4 ballot initiative. Its successful passage led to the largest expansion of voting rights in the U.S. in 50 years. We’re revisiting a conversation we had with Mr. Meade about his book “Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens.”

We speak with Desmond Meade, he was a driving force behind the passage of Amendment 4 to the Florida constitution passed by 65% of voters in 2018. Meade is President of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, Chair of Floridians for a Fair Democracy, and author of the book “Let My People Vote: My Battle to Restore the Civil Rights of Returning Citizens” which recounts his struggles with addiction and homelessness before turning his life toward public service and the Amendment 4 campaign.

There is an exhibit on display now at the Barron Library in LaBelle called Water/Ways which explores the relationship between people and water. It explores the centrality of water in our lives including its effect on the environment and climate, its practical role in agriculture and economic planning, and its impact on culture and spirituality. We learn about it with Nicole Hellard, director of the Barron Library; and Dr. Brandon Jett, professor of history at Florida SouthWestern State College.

How different news stories are presented by various news sources is rarely uniform. Different news outlets have different takes, or present different aspects of a story or highlight different facts about it, and this shapes what consumers of that news take away from the story. Add the internet and social media algorithms and you wind up with what are referred to as "filter bubbles" where, depending on which news sources you pay attention to, different people develop fundamentally different understandings of the same events or stories. We learn about AllSides Technologies, whose team uses various methods to estimate the perceived political bias of news outlets and then presents different versions of similar news stories from sources they’ve rated as being on the political right, left, or center, with a mission to show readers news outside their filter bubble and illustrate media bias.

Burns made a name for himself by finding the small stories that lend perspective and emotion to larger narratives. Critic David Bianculli says his latest effort is "compelling from the start."

Stanley Martin wants to rethink Rochester police — a radical new plan to abolish the police gradually. Others also talk about "reimagining" police, though they mean the same word very differently.

Author Gary Rivlin says regulation can help control how AI is used: "AI could be an amazing thing around health, medicine, scientific discoveries, education ... as long as we're deliberate about it."

A new study from Pew found that while people of color regularly see and share content on social media about race, white people rarely do.

Government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said Sunday that around 40 people are missing after the flash flooding late Saturday night in the Jalrez district of Maidan Wardak province, west of Kabul.

NPR's Kelly McEvers asks people waiting at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception: How has your thinking about the Church changed since Francis became Pope?"