Washington bishop, interfaith leaders oppose Trump militarization of DC: ‘Fear is not a strategy’; Episcopal News Network (EPN), August 13, 2025

 ENS Staff, Episcopal News Network (EPN); Washington bishop, interfaith leaders oppose Trump militarization of DC: ‘Fear is not a strategy’

 "Washington Bishop Mariann Budde and Washington National Cathedral Dean Randy Hollerith on Aug. 13 joined a group of Christian and Jewish leaders from the nation’s capitol to issue a statement opposing the Trump administration’s temporary federal takeover of the city’s law enforcement, saying, “fear is not a strategy.”

President Donald Trump has said he is deploying National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., because he is unsatisfied with the local police force’s protection of a city he says is “overrun by violent gangs, bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of youth, drugged-out maniacs, and homeless people.” That move, however, comes at a time when the most recent statistics show crime rates are down in Washington, and local officials there have not asked for military assistance.

The president’s administration is able temporarily to take over law enforcement in the city of 700,000 people because of its special status under the U.S. Constitution and the Home Rule Act of 1973, a law originally intended by Congress to give the city more independence from the federal government.

“From the White House, the president sees a lawless wasteland. We beg to differ. We see fellow human beings – neighbors, workers, friends and family – each made in the image of God,” the faith leaders said in their joint statement, which is posted on the National Cathedral’s website. In addition to Budde and Hollerith, it is signed by six Washington rabbis, the region’s United Methodist bishop, and local leaders of the Presbyterian Church and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America.

“Even one violent crime is one too many, and all Washingtonians deserve to live in safety,” they said. “But safety cannot be achieved through political theater and military force. It requires honesty and sustained collaboration between government, civic and private partners – work now being sidelined. Inflammatory rhetoric distracts from that work, even as the administration has cut more than $1 billion from programs proven to reduce crime, including law enforcement support, addiction and mental health treatment, youth programs, and affordable housing.”

They also noted that Trump has threatened to attempt similar military interventions in other U.S. cities.

“As religious leaders, we remain firm in our commitment to serve those in need and to work collaboratively toward solutions to our city’s most pressing problems. We call on our political and civic leaders to reject fear-based governance and work together in a spirit of dignity and respect – so that safety, justice, and compassion prevail in our city.”"

WATCH: How Drones Are Saving Lives in Rural America; Government Technology, August 19, 2024

 Nikki Davidson , Government Technology; WATCH: How Drones Are Saving Lives in Rural America

"Until recently, deputies in rural Manitowoc County, Wis., faced a challenge: responding to calls with limited visibility and resources. Traditional policing methods often left them at a disadvantage in vast, wooded areas. 

In June 2022, the Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office embarked on a mission to integrate unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) into their law enforcement operations to give them an eye in the sky. Two lieutenants, Travis Aleff and Kyle Stotzheim, were tasked with spearheading the initiative, working “non-stop” for half a year to establish a fully operational drone team with 13 FAA-certified pilots.

Initially there were a lot of questions about the program’s cost-effectiveness and whether the investment in drones would yield tangible benefits...

To understand the real-world impact of drones in law enforcement, we requested examples from the sheriff’s office, complete with video footage. They provided three compelling cases, each demonstrating a different facet of how UAVs can revolutionize police work and enhance public safety.

DRONES AS A LIFELINE: ENHANCING MENTAL HEALTH CRISIS RESPONSE

One example highlights the potential of drones to aid in mental health crisis response. The Manitowoc County Sheriff’s Office received a call concerning a suicidal, armed individual who intended to harm themselves in a densely wooded county park. Watch the video below to see how the UAV was used as a tool to defuse and safely resolve the situation."

Secretary of State condemns rash of bomb threats at libraries; NPR Illinois 91.9 UIS, August 22, 2023

Sean Crawford , NPR Illinois 91.9 UIS; Secretary of State condemns rash of bomb threats at libraries

"Several Illinois libraries have been the target of bomb threats in recent days, according to Secretary of State Alexi Giannoulias. He issued a statement Tuesday morning.

"As the State’s Librarian, I strongly condemn these threats of violence and intimidation that are unfortunately becoming all too common at libraries in Illinois and across our nation. The bomb threats received by Illinois libraries during the past several days represent a troublesome and disturbing trend that has escalated from banning books, to harassing and criminalizing librarians and now to endangering the lives of innocent people," he said. 

The Secretary of State's Office did not say how many threats have been reported, but indicated the following libraries, all in northern Illinois, were among those to have received them.

• Park Ridge Public Library
• Morton Grove Public Library
• Wilmette Public Library
• Oak Park Public Library
• Warren-Newport Public Library 

No injuries have been reported and, at least so far, police have been able to determine the threats were not credible.  
The Illinois Library Association put out a statement this week."

Why is AMLO worried about an outsider? She’s funny, profane — and inspiring.; The Washington Post, August 20, 2023

  David Ignatius, The Washington Post; Why is AMLO worried about an outsider? She’s funny, profane — and inspiring.

"“Beware of what is happening in Mexico,” Gálvez warns me at the end of our conversation. “Our president is capable of anything. He has no limits.”

A chilling example of what frightens many Mexicans about López Obrador happened last Wednesday morning at the president’s office, a few miles from where I was talking to Gálvez.

At his regular morning news conference that day, reporters asked López Obrador about five young men from Jalisco who had disappeared a few days before. A horrific video had just surfaced that showed the five, friends since childhood, their bodies battered and bloody, with their mouths taped shut and their hands tied behind their backs. One victim was forced to bludgeon another with a brick and then decapitate him, before he was killed himself. Investigators later recovered their badly burned bodies. The governor of Jalisco said the murders were “clearly linked to organized crime.”

And what did the president say when reporters asked him to comment on this appalling crime? “Can’t hear,” said López Obrador, cupping his hand to his ear. He then told a crude joke about a poor Mexican man who pretended he couldn’t hear a question. And then he smiled and walked offstage."

Libraries are reimagining what public safety and access to resources look like; Prism, May 5, 2022

Tamar Sarai, Prism ; Libraries are reimagining what public safety and access to resources look like

"“People think libraries have changed so much, but really, we’re still doing the same things,” Fewell said. “We are making sure people have access to information and resources… connecting people [with what] they need: food, wound care, connecting to the WiFi because the only device they have to access the internet is their phone… We’re providing resources to get people the next thing that they’re looking for, and I love it.”

As libraries and library staff begin embracing new ways to serve their patrons and in doing so, promote alternative conceptions of public safety, pushback has followed. Local police have decried the initiatives as eroding relationships with law enforcement, and other patrons have argued that their libraries are becoming less safe and that their own needs are being neglected as marginalized community members find themselves increasingly welcome into the library’s branches. However, while providing more social services and even connecting with currently incarcerated people might expand the work of libraries, staff engaging in these initiatives argue that the work is simply a fulfillment of the library’s long-standing purpose to provide information and foster community."

The public library is the latest place to pick up a coronavirus test. Librarians are overwhelmed.; The Washington Post, January 19, 2022

Julie Zauzmer Weil , The Washington Post; The public library is the latest place to pick up a coronavirus test. Librarians are overwhelmed.

"Melanie Huggins, the president of the American Library Association’s Public Library Association, said library leaders have been eager to turn their buildings into test distribution sites: “We’re in neighborhoods. We know these communities. We know the people that are walking in the doors.”"

Narcan or No?; American Libraries, June 1, 2020

Anne Ford, American Libraries; Narcan or No?

Several years into the opioid crisis, public librarians reflect on whether to stock free naloxone

"“I think some libraries are concerned about liability, even though most states have Good Samaritan laws around naloxone,” Duddy says. “And I think some people feel there’s not an [opioid overdose] issue where their library is located.”

The libraries to which American Libraries spoke cited different reasons for not seeking the free Narcan."

Silicon Valley needs a new approach to studying ethics now more than ever; TechCrunch, April 24, 2020

Lisa Wehden, TechCrunch; Silicon Valley needs a new approach to studying ethics now more than ever

"These are fresh concerns in familiar debates about tech’s ethics. How should technologists think about the trade-off between the immediate need for public health surveillance and individual privacy? And misformation and free speech? Facebook and other platforms are playing a much more active role than ever in assessing the quality of information: promoting official information sources prominently and removing some posts from users defying social distancing.

As the pandemic spreads and, along with it, the race to develop new technologies accelerates, it’s more critical than ever that technology finds a way to fully examine these questions. Technologists today are ill-equipped for this challenge: striking healthy balances between competing concerns — like privacy and safety — while explaining their approach to the public...

If the only students are future technologists, though, solutions will lag. If we want a more ethically knowledgeable tech industry today, we need ethical study for tech practitioners, not just university students...

Over half of the class came from a STEM background and had missed much explicit education in ethical frameworks. Our class discussed principles from other fields, like medical ethics, including the physician’s guiding maxim (“first, do no harm”) in the context of designing new algorithms. Texts from the world of science fiction, like “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas” by Ursula K. Le Guin, also offered ways to grapple with issues, leading students to evaluate how to collect and use data responsibly."

Trump says his comments on injecting disinfectants were “sarcastic.” Let’s review the tape.; Vox, April 24, 2020

Aaron Rupar, Vox; Trump says his comments on injecting disinfectants were “sarcastic.” Let’s review the tape.

Spoiler alert: He’s lying.

"President Donald Trump now claims he was being “sarcastic” when he mused on Thursday about disinfectant injections being a possible miracle cure for the coronavirus.

Unfortunately for him, there’s video.

Asked during a White House bill-signing ceremony on Friday to explain his comments — which were widely mocked for being ridiculous and more than a little irresponsible, became the top trending topic on Twitter, and prompted warnings from health agencies that it’s actually a bad idea to inject or consume bleach — Trump tried to rewrite history.

“I was asking a sarcastic, and a very sarcastic question, to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside,” Trump lied. In reality, he was looking at White House officialswhen he earnestly asked them to investigate whether there’s “a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs, and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.”

Notably, even as he tried to distance himself from his remarks, Trump illustrated his fundamental inability to ever admit a mistake by continuing to defend his premise.

Disinfectant “does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands, and that would make things much better,” Trump said.

Watch the two clips back to back for yourself:"

Putin’s Long War Against American Science; The New York Times, April 13, 2020

William J. Broad, The New York Times; Putin’s Long War Against American Science

A decade of health disinformation promoted by President Vladimir Putin of Russia has sown wide confusion, hurt major institutions and encouraged the spread of deadly illnesses.

"As the pandemic has swept the globe, it has been accompanied by a dangerous surge of false information — an “infodemic,” according to the World Health Organization. Analysts say that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has played a principal role in the spread of false information as part of his wider effort to discredit the West and destroy his enemies from within.

The House, the Senate and the nation’s intelligence agencies have typically focused on election meddling in their examinations of Mr. Putin’s long campaign. But the repercussions are wider. An investigation by The New York Times — involving scores of interviews as well as a review of scholarly papers, news reports, and Russian documents, tweets and TV shows — found that Mr. Putin has spread misinformation on issues of personal health for more than a decade.

His agents have repeatedly planted and spread the idea that viral epidemics — including flu outbreaks, Ebola and now the coronavirus — were sown by American scientists. The disinformers have also sought to undermine faith in the safety of vaccines, a triumph of public health that Mr. Putin himself promotes at home.

Moscow’s aim, experts say, is to portray American officials as downplaying the health alarms and thus posing serious threats to public safety.

“It’s all about seeding lack of trust in government institutions,” Peter Pomerantsev, author of “Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible,” a 2014 book on Kremlin disinformation, said in an interview.

The Russian president has waged his long campaign by means of open media, secretive trolls and shadowy blogs that regularly cast American health officials as patronizing frauds. Of late, new stealth and sophistication have made his handiwork harder to see, track and fight."

Some governors have been leading the way. Others, not so much.; The Washington Post, March 20, 2020

Editorial Board, The Washington Post; Some governors have been leading the way. Others, not so much.

"WHEN NEW YORK and Oregon sent urgent appeals to the federal government for N95 masks, which protect against coronavirus, days passed this month before they finally received shipments — of devices well past their expiration date and therefore useless for surgery and other acute-care settings. That drove home the increasingly clear point that the burden is on states to compensate for the federal government’s sluggish response to the gravest public health crisis in a century.

Some governors have been quick to take that lesson and run with it; others much less so."

Google's Mysterious AI Ethics Board Should Be Transparent Like Axon's; Forbes, April 27, 2018

Sam Shead, Forbes; Google's Mysterious AI Ethics Board Should Be Transparent Like Axon's

"This week, Axon, a US company that develops body cameras for police officers and weapons for the law enforcement market, demonstrated the kind of transparency that Google should aspire towards when it announced an AI ethics board to "help guide the development of Axon's AI-powered devices and services".

Axon said the board's mission is to advise and guide Axon's leaders on the impact of AI technology on communities. The board will meet twice a year and it held its first meeting on Thursday in Scottsdale, Arizona.

"We believe the advancement of AI technology will empower police officers to connect with their communities versus being stuck in front of a computer screen doing data entry," said Axon CEO and founder, Rick Smith, in a statement. "We also believe AI research and technology for use in law enforcement must be done ethically and with the public in mind. This is why we've created the AI ethics board — to ensure any AI technology in public safety is developed responsibly.""