LOCAL
Georgia election officials reject proposal to close polls in majority black county
The Randolph County Board of Elections voted on Aug. 24 to not close polling sites in seven mostly black precincts less than three months before midterm elections. It was proposed that the move would save the county money and that the polling places had disability compliance issues. Civil rights and voting rights groups opposed the plan, arguing that it was an attempt at voter suppression.
NATIONAL
American prisoners go on strike in 17 states
Men and women incarcerated across the U.S. declared a nationwide strike that will last from Aug. 21 to Sept. 9. The strike is in response to the riot in Lee Correctional Institution, a maximum security prison in South Carolina. The prisoners have a list of 10 demands. Most notably, they demand an immediate end to “prison slavery,” stating, “All persons imprisoned in any place of detention under United States jurisdiction must be paid the prevailing wage in their st ate or territory for their labor.”
INTERNATIONAL
Arctic’s ‘last bastion’ of sea ice breaking up for the first time
Reports show that the sea ice off the coast of northern Greenland, normally some of the thickest in the entire Arctic, is breaking up for the first time on record. Although climate change poses a grave threat to sea ice across the region, this particular section was expected to be the last to retain year-round sea ice cover. But, satellite imagery shows that some of the Arctic’s oldest ice has been replaced by miles of open water.
