San Francisco becomes 1st U.S. city to ban facial recognition technology

The city council voted in favor of the ban by a margin of 8 to 1.


Photo credit: Steffi Loos / Stringer
  • Supporters say the surveillance technology helps law enforcement do its job.
  • Critics say the technology could be used to target minorities, or lead to the implementation of a policy state.
  • Dozens of U.S. police departments are currently using facial recognition technology, though it's unclear exactly how many.
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Politics & Current Affairs

Mexico plans to decriminalize all illegal drugs

"Prohibitionist strategy is unsustainable," reads the policy plan.

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  • Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has long called for reformations to the nation's drug laws.
  • The five-year policy plan calls for prescribing treatment programs instead of punishments to drug users.
  • It's unclear what effects the laws would have on Mexican cartels, which make the bulk of their money selling drugs in the U.S.
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Politics & Current Affairs

NASA uncovers a 19-year fraud that caused failed missions

An investigation finds the cause of failed NASA launches and $700 million in losses.

NASA's Orbiting Carbon Observatory on the launch pad at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Image credit: NASA/Randy Beaudoin
  • An Oregon company provided falsified tests to a NASA rocket builder for almost two decades.
  • The company is now liable for $46 million in payments and the lab manager went to prison.
  • NASA can't test every single component itself, making it important the supply chain is protected.
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Technology & Innovation

700,000 people get out of prison each year. Let’s hire them.

The U.S. has a talent shortage and the formerly incarcerated have paid their debt to society. Let's solve two problems with one idea.

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  • The U.S. has a talent shortage. There are 7.3 million open jobs, and only 6 million people currently looking for jobs, says President and CEO of SHRM Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.
  • The solution? Let the formerly incarcerated work good jobs that contribute to the economy.
  • SHRM research shows that 80% of HR managers are interested and willing to hire the formerly incarcerated. The bias exists at the employee and customer level – but that bias is changing fast for the better.
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Videos

Old hotels are being converted to affordable housing — and it's changing communities

Healthy Housing Foundation has purchased four properties in Los Angeles, with more planned.

Homeless residents chat beside their tents on a street in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 25, 2018, as a United Nations report on poverty and inequality says 185 million Americans are living in extreme poverty. (Photo by Frederic J. Brown / AFP / Getty Images)
  • Los Angeles' homeless population has swelled to over 50,000 in recent years.
  • While the local government has dedicated $138M to combat the problem, progress has been slow.
  • Charitable organizations are stepping in to house as many people as possible.
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Politics & Current Affairs