Building a better life
Lenard Wells, a resident of Fargo and former prisoner, is proving that people deserve second chances. Wells is a housing coordinator with the F5 Project that helps ex-offenders find housing and jobs to help improve their lives. According to the Grand Forks Herald, Wells has had a long list of convictions including an assault conviction that gave him a ten-year prison sentence. It was after he was released from the ten-year prison sentence in 2015 that Wells first started to volunteer with the F5 Project and was then hired two and a half years later. Now Wells shares his story to inmates as he travels to jails and prisons across the state and states he sees others eager to start a new life once they are released. Because of his impact on the community, Wells was one of three award recipients for the Martin Luther King Jr. Human Relations Award, given out on Jan. 20.
Enforcing themselves
Garrison North Dakota, a city with 1,500 residents, now has to start their own police department after council members rejected renewing the contract services from McLean county Sheriff’s office. AP News reported that Garrison has been contracting services from the Sheriff’s office since 1969, but since the contract ended at the beginning of this year, the city hasn’t had law enforcement presence since Jan. 1. In September, Garrison officials decided to establish their own police force since they were unhappy with the increasing costs from the contract. Officials decided to hire Travis Tesch, a police officer with 20 years of experience in North Dakota, as the new police chief.
American zoos help Australian wildfires
All around the world people and organizations are chipping in money to help fight the wildfires that continue to rage through Australia. American zoos have also started to hold fundraisers in order to provide care for the injured and homeless animals. According to Newsweek, some of the donations have come from San Diego Global which has raised $500,000 and the Denver Zoo that contributed $5,000. Tim Morrow, the president and CEO of the San Antonio Zoo, told Newsweek that people are often more likely to volunteer to their local zoos over outside sources since they know that the money will go directly towards caring for affected animals. Along with the monetary donations, the San Antonio Zoo is also offering to send personnel to Australia in case they need additional help in caring for the wounded animals, though as of right now, no veterinary personal have been called for.
A new way of shopping
New technology is being created to eliminate the amount of time it takes to go shopping, including waiting in line. Smart shopping carts seem like the new and improved way to get in and out in a jiffy as the startups behind the carts, Caper and Veeve, claim its easier to add technology to a shopping cart as reported by CNN. The shopping carts will have cameras and sensors on the carts using AI (artificial intelligence) to tell where in the cart you have placed the items. There will also be a built-in scale allowing you to weigh items that you pay for by the pound. For checking out, customers simply enter their credit cards into the cart or pay through Google or Apple Pay. As a customer leaves the store, a green light on the shopping cart will determine that their order is complete and that they have been charged for everything in their cart. Currently, the shopping carts are still being underworked and it is undetermined when they could be implemented into grocery stores.