Wait, Below the Fold on a Monday? That’s right. In a recent survey, we heard your request for more stories you can’t discover anywhere else. So for the month of February, we’ll be sending a special edition each Monday called Loving Local News, spotlighting great journalism from across America with lessons we can all learn from. 

We’re hopeful the stories we feature each week will help us all realize how much more we share as Americans than what we are led to believe, and local news helps tell that story. With that, here’s our first peek into what’s happening across the United States.

One Utah resident is allowing his city’s homeless to live on his front lawn

Sun Jan 31

The Covid-19 pandemic has exacerbated America’s growing inequality problems. While almost 600,000 Americans were living through homelessness before Covid-19, that number is expected to grow when the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announces updated 2020 data in a few weeks. 

In Salt Lake City, one man is trying to do his part. Darin Mann, a 31-year-old Utah resident, is allowing the city’s unsheltered to use his front lawn for protection and a temporary place to live. Those living on Mann’s property have access to food, medicine, and a bathroom inside the main house. For some who are living there, Mann’s front yard already feels “like a home” while they search for jobs or more permanent conditions. 

Across the country, new approaches are rising to combat homelessness. Elected officials, non-profit housing coalitions, and private citizens are all experimenting with new solutions to help. 

• In Oakland, California, one organization is giving low-income renters financial and legal support before becoming at-risk of losing an apartment. 
• The Philadelphia Coalition for Affordable Communities is working on an initiative to turn publicly-owned vacant land into housing for the homeless.
• Austin, Texas is using a portion of the city’s police budget to buy a hotel for the homeless.  

Is something innovative happening to end homelessness in your community? Share it with us on this form to help inform reporting in future editions of Below the Fold.

Where did we learn about this? Check out our sources: The Salt Lake Tribune, KQED, The Financial Times, Reuters, Harvard, Philadelphia Inquirer, USA Today

SHARE THIS STORY

Public land is being returned to Indigenous tribes in Montana

Tue Jan 26

We’re entering a new era of public land management in the Western U.S. If Deb Haaland, Joe Biden’s nominee to run the Interior Department, is elected, she will become the first Native American cabinet secretary in U.S. history. This comes at a time where bipartisan support is growing to return land to Indigenous tribes.

In Montana, for example, an 18,800-acre range will be returned to tribes after 113 years. The tribes, Confederated Salish and Kootenai, won a court battle against the United States in the early 1970s declaring the land seizure illegal, but it took almost 50 years for a transfer of the land and its management to occur.

And this restoration is happening with public lands in multiple states. 

• In Utah, the Navajo Nation has asked President Biden to reverse the Trump administration’s decision to reduce the size of Bear Ears National Monument in southern Utah.
• In Oklahoma, a recent ruling declared that most of eastern Oklahoma (three million acres) had always belonged to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation and will restore jurisdiction over the reservation to the Five Tribes.

Where did we learn about this? Check out our sources: The Denver Post, High Country News, Navajo-Hopi Observer, New York Times

SHARE THIS STORY

One man’s deep search to provide grieving families with peace

Tue Jan 19

Thousands of people die by drowning in the United States every year. And one man, Keith Cormican, has become one of the world’s experts in finding drowning victims. The 61-year-old Wisconsin native has plumbed lakes, rivers, and oceans across America, Canada, and Asia for families looking for lost loved ones.

And those who seek him know he returns no survivors. Instead, many families are looking for emotional — and sometimes financial — closure on loved ones who have never been found. 

• In 2016, he recovered two fishermen from Pyramid Lake in California. 
• In 2017 alone, he found drowning victims in California, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota.
• Last year, he recovered the remains of a drowning victim on Lake Tahoe at nearly 1,600 feet below the surface. 

And despite high demand, Cormican doesn’t charge much for his services. His work today is run through a non-profit, and was motivated by the loss of his own brother in a drowning in the 1990s. While he mainly answers calls in the U.S., he’s traveled as far as Nepal to recover a boy from a lake up on a mountain at 18,000 feet elevation.

Where did we learn about this? Check out our sources:The San Francisco Chronicle, Stop Drowning Now, Sierra Nevada Ally, MeatEater

SHARE THIS STORY

Looking for more local newsletters? We'll be spotlighting them all month to help spread awareness of local sources, whether it's your hometown, current city, or just an area you're curious to learn more about.

This week's spotlight? The Wichita Weekly Update, highlighting what makes Wichita special through a weekly email newsletter, podcast, and Instagram page.

This edition of Below the Fold is a part of our four-part series on Loving Local News. Enjoying the stories listed? Let us know. ↓