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Crunching the numbers
- The Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against Kochava, alleging the data broker has sold geolocation data that could be used to track people’s visits to reproductive health clinics, addiction recovery centers, domestic violence shelters and other sensitive locations. The suit says the company sells data on hundreds of millions of mobile devices, which can be used to identify and track specific users.
- Most states have laws requiring prisoners to pay for their time behind bars, with some owing tens of thousands of dollars.
In local news
- From Mississippi Today: The water system in Jackson is failing, leaving residents without reliable access to safe water. Jackson Public Schools and Jackson State University are both holding virtual classes this week due to the water shortage. This Twitter thread from Maisie Brown, executive coordinator for ACLU Mississippi, outlines how you can help organizations assisting residents.
- Oklahoma Watch and KGOU detail how a whistleblower has spent months urging federal authorities to investigate the National Indian Women’s Health Resource Center, a nonprofit facing allegations of mismanagement, fraud and embezzlement.
- After an Arizona Republic report exposed how severe understaffing was leading to prisoner deaths, Arizona lawmakers plan to tour the state facilities.
Listen here
- If you love classic Hollywood and Mae West, you have to check out this episode of Decoder Ring that tells how the star was arrested by New York City’s vice squad in the 1920s on an obscenity charge for a play she wrote about a sex worker.
- Lamont Dozier, a Motown songwriter who co-wrote more than 80 top 40 hits for the R&B label, died in August at the age of 81. In this Fresh Air interview with Dozier and his co-writers, Brian and Eddie Holland, they talk about how gospel influenced their music and how they wrote some of their biggest hits, which include greats by The Supremes, The Four Tops, Marvin Gaye and many others.
New stories from BigIfTrue.org
- In Oklahoma, corporate landlords are filing evictions without the legal right to sue: That’s one finding in a new Oklahoma Access to Justice Foundation report that underscores how some eviction court practices favor landlords. “You really start to feel like you’re not in a courtroom anymore,” the author of the report, law student Adam Hines, told me. “You feel more like you’re in a collection agency, just one that has the power of the state behind it.”
- Covid rent assistance is drawing to a close, highlighting the need for other policies and programs to keep people in their homes.
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Thank you for reading Hard Reset. You can reach me at bryant@bigiftrue.org and 405-990-0988.
– Mollie Bryant
Founder and editor, BigIfTrue.org