Friday, July 29, 2022

Some Good News for A Change

Funding Awarded for Housing and Community Development Programs

July 28, 2022 at 1:35 pm

 The City of Mesa has received more than $6 million, including over $5.4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for various programs to help people in need during the 2022/2023 fiscal year.

The funds awarded by HUD through its Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) and HOME Investment Partnerships (HOME) programs support housing and community development activities in Mesa that benefit low and moderate-income residents and assist in preventing slum and blighting influences. The City has also announced funding for its Human Services programs, which receive money from the General Fund and contributions from the ABC: A Better Community program.

"The City partners with numerous nonprofit agencies to get input to meet the needs of our residents, and we are grateful for the financial assistance from HUD and from many in our community who want to help those who are struggling," said Natalie Lewis, Deputy City Manager.

The list of funding recommendations was submitted by Mesa City Council to HUD as part of the City's Annual Action Plan, following a 30-day public comment period and City Council and Human Services Advisory Board public meetings earlier this year. Mesa allocated the funding to various programs, including homeless and crisis services, food and basic needs, health services, youth services and education, workforce development and tax and legal assistance.

The City of Mesa received $3 million in CDBG funding for its rehabilitation programs to assist residents with paying for home repairs and renovations and $1 million in CDBG funding for rehabilitation of the Reed Park playground. The City also received $200,000 in HOME funds for its Rental and Utility Deposit Program. Nonprofit agencies receiving funding include A New Leaf, Community Bridges, Central Arizona Shelter Services (CASS) and Save the Family. These are funds traditionally allocated each year and do not include other federal funds awarded during and after the pandemic.
A complete list of agencies and funding allocations is available at https://www.mesaaz.gov/residents/community-development. Click on the "Funding Allocations FY 2022/2023" link.

Funding Allocations FY 2021/2022

The Mesa City Council recently approved the FY 2021/2022 Funding Allocations for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), HOME Investment Partnership Program, Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG) and Human Services. These funding allocations have been provided to non-profit organizations and City Programs that provide programs and services that will assist thousands of Mesa residents that are at risk and in need.

Emergency Rental and Utility Assistance Program

Who Qualifies?
  • Mesa Resident
  • Financially impacted by COVID-19
  • Income eligible
For more information and to apply, visit the Emergency Rental and Utility Assistance Program page.
ERAP English
 ERAP Spanish

 

 

 How to Apply for Funding  Plans, Amendments, & Reports  

 

Community Development provides funding for a variety of programs and services, which assist low-to moderate-income individuals and families. Programs include housing assistance, homeless services, economic development, and improving community facilities. Services help Mesa residents, such as youth, aging, persons with disabilities or experiencing homelessness. This funding is available to non-profits and for-profits, housing developers, and City of Mesa departments.

FY20/21 Funding Awards [PDF]

 

Funding Sources

Community Development Block Grant (CDBG)

Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG)

Human Services (A Better Community (ABC) Program)

HOME Investment Partnership Program

 

Public Notices

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TRANSPARENCY REPORT: Twitter's 20th

 

Sharing our latest transparency update, marking decade long commitment

By
Twitter
Thursday, 28 July 2022

This year marks a decade of transparency reporting for Twitter, and today we are publishing our 20th Transparency Report. 

Why does this matter? Over the last 10 years how governments attempt to control free expression, remove content, and reveal the identity of account owners on Twitter has evolved significantly. Meaningful transparency helps people understand the rules of online services and hold governments accountable for their actions, and in turn, helps keep us accountable for principled content moderation and responsiveness to government demands. Transparency is a key guiding principle in our mission to serve the public conversation, protect the Open Internet, and advance the internet as a global force for good. We have and will continue to fight for the people who use Twitter to raise their voice.

Highlights from our latest report 

We continue to see a concerning trend toward attempts to limit global press freedom, with an increase in government legal demands targeting journalists, as well as an overall increasing number of legal demands on accounts – both represent record highs since reporting began.   

  • Record number of legal demands on accounts (47,572 demands on 198,931 accounts)
  • An increase of 103% in legal demands from governments targeting verified journalists and news outlets since the last reporting period
  • The United States accounted for 20% of all global requests
    Tweet impressions that violated Twitter rules accounted for less than 0.1% of total impressions on all Tweets
  • We objected to 29 US civil requests for account information that sought to unmask the identities of anonymous speakers

See the full report here.


Governments’ role in transparency reporting

This update comes at a time when government requests for account information and content removal continually hit new records, including demands to reveal the identity of anonymous account owners. This is why we continue to advocate for greater transparency from governments themselves about how these powers are used. People who use our service should know that we take a principled approach to how we handle government requests and legal demands and how we share information about people who use our service.

  • For July 1, 2021 through December 31, 2021 (the reporting period of the update we’re sharing today) we saw an increase in global legal demands received, a continued upward trend for Twitter.
  • For this reporting period, Twitter received 47,572 legal demands for 198,931 unique accounts, the largest number of accounts we’ve reported in the past 10 years. This number has continued to increase throughout each reporting period, and we also continue to see similar trends in government requests for information. This reporting period, we received 11,460 such requests.

Globally during the latest reporting period:

  • Twitter narrowed (meaning we disclosed some information but not all information demanded in the request) or did not disclose any information in response to 60% of global government information requests.
  • For the latest reporting period, 349 accounts of verified journalists and news outlets located all around the world were subject to 326 legal demands, a 103% increase since the previous reporting period and a record high since we started tracking this important metric, which is all the more important at a time when freedom of the press is strained globally.

From the US during the last reporting period:

  • Government information requests originating from the US made up the highest percentage among requesting countries from around the world.
  • With the exception of the second half of 2020, US information requests have represented the largest share of total global volume in a reporting period since Twitter’s first transparency report in 2012.
  • 20% of all global requests for account information originated from the United States during this reporting period.
  • These requests accounted for 39% of all accounts specified from around the world. Twitter complied, in whole or in part, with 69% of these U.S. information requests.
  • We objected to 29 US civil requests for account information that sought to unmask the identities of anonymous speakers on First Amendment grounds. 

Of those 29 requests, we filed lawsuits to fight back in two instances and succeeded in convincing courts to apply First Amendment protections in one case. The other case remains pending.

As in past reports, Twitter is not reporting on any other requests for information deemed to be related to national security processes because of limitations imposed on us by the U.S. government. We have been fighting for more transparency around this process for years, and continue to fight this issue in our court case, Twitter v. Garland, and are currently awaiting a decision on appeal. 

We strongly believe in providing data and information that is straightforward and provides insights into the types of requests we receive from governments and others around the world. To this end, we also upload legal requests directly into the Lumen Database, a project by the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University. We encourage the public to explore this site to get a sense of the day-to-day queries we receive from governments and other entities around the world.

Investments in technology 

In 2012, we were the first social media company to publish a transparency report, and since then it has become an industry standard. Over the past decade, we have made significant investments and developed our reporting including more data, insights and metrics. Since we first reported data behind our enforcement of the Twitter Rules in 2018, we’ve significantly evolved our approach to how we detect and take down content that is against our rules. The biggest impact we’ve seen in this work is through our use of technology to proactively take down content quickly, oftentimes without that content ever needing to be reported by people on Twitter. 

We’re iterating on the way that we measure our effectiveness and have worked to move beyond the binary “leave up” or “take down” traditional approach to content moderation. For this reporting period, we required the removal of more than four million Tweets that violated the Twitter Rules. We also deploy less aggressive enforcement actions by labeling Tweets to add important context when the information shared doesn’t warrant Tweet deletion, and have improved the way we make certain questionable content from accounts you don’t follow don't appear in replies, search, or on your Home Timeline. In future transparency reporting, we aim to share details on these measures in more specific ways, eventually making this data core to our reporting.

One way we measure the efficacy of our investments in technology is by sharing how many impressions violative Tweets received before they are removed. For this reporting period, impressions on these violative Tweets accounted for less than 0.1% of total impressions on all Tweets. Of the Tweets removed, 71% received fewer than 100 impressions prior to removal, with an additional 21% receiving between 100 and 1,000 impressions. These numbers have remained consistent since we first began reporting this data in 2020, even as the volume of rule-violating content we remove has generally trended upward — indicating that our efforts at proactive detection are keeping pace with changing behavior. We continue to invest heavily in improving both the speed and comprehensiveness of our detections.

Getting better at tackling platform manipulation and spam

As a result of continued investment in our approach and our ongoing efforts to disrupt spam attacks on our service, for this reporting period, our teams deployed a 2% increase in global anti-spam challenges compared to the last reporting period. When we detect suspicious levels of activity, accounts may be locked and prompted to provide additional information (e.g., a phone number) or to solve a reCAPTCHA. This nominal increase is related to ongoing efforts to disrupt spam attacks on our service. Further, during the second half of 2021, we received 6% more spam reports from people using Twitter compared to the previous reporting period.

During the past 10 years, we’ve made significant investments — and seen significant progress — in how we detect and take action against spam and platform manipulation, and give people on Twitter more context in their experience. One such example is around automated accounts. Automated accounts can be a source of useful, entertaining, and relevant information on Twitter. We launched Automated Account Labels in September 2021 to make it easier for people to be able to identify these “good bots”. As of February 2022, all automated accounts globally have the option to self-identify.

To view more on our work, check out this Tweet thread from Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal:

Transparency with our data

From Twitter’s beginnings in 2006, our uniquely open and public APIs (application programming interfaces) – which, at a high level, are the way computer programs “talk” to each other so they can request and deliver information – have given researchers and developers the opportunity to tap into what is happening in the world. Twitter is the only major service to make public conversation data available via an API, for research purposes. 

Open access to public data is critical for advancing research objectives on a wide range of topics in a safe way that ensures public privacy is protected. It raises general awareness and understanding of the scale and nature of the challenges impacting public conversation online, and it also helps to keep services like Twitter accountable for our own response to these challenges. 

Additionally, throughout the pandemic, we launched a COVID-19 endpoint to empower public health research, and a new academic platform to encourage cutting-edge research using Twitter data. This is one of the reasons you hear more about reports featuring Twitter as core to the research methodology — we intentionally empower this.

What’s next?

Transparency is key to building and sustaining trust, improving accountability, and preserving a free and secure Open Internet. People should understand the rules of online services and the way that governmental legal powers are used. Without transparency, there can be no accountability. 

For our part, Twitter aims to continually evaluate and improve the way we share information with the public. This year, we are launching the Twitter Moderation Research Consortium (TMRC). Through the Consortium, Twitter shares large-scale datasets concerning platform moderation issues with a global group of public interest researchers from across academia, civil society, NGOs and journalism studying platform governance issues. This program will initially focus on sharing data about accounts and networks Twitter has removed in connection with platform manipulation and state-backed information operations, enabling credible, reputable academics and researchers to find insights in and contextualize the data.

While the way that we have reported this information has continually developed and improved over the past 10 years, our commitment to protecting the people who use Twitter remains unchanged. That includes protecting activists and journalists, accounts that wish to remain anonymous, and those who speak up against their own governments. 

To view the full report, click here.

Only on Twitter

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SWEATING THE HEAT

 


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ALITO LETS ANOTHER NO-NO GO AGAIN...

 Conservative life-time member of the highest court in the land-of-the-free and home-of-the-brave knows no limits when it comes time to get involved in politics --- and that is supposed to be a NO-NO

Legal

Alito mocks foreign critics of Supreme Court abortion ruling

The conservative justice made the comments during a surprise visit as a keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Rome

Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito testifies about the court's budget during a hearing.

During a surprise appearance as a keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Rome last week, Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito poked fun at the torrent of international criticism of his opinion overturning Roe v. Wade. | Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

By Josh Gerstein

Updated:

Justice Samuel Alito, the author of the Supreme Court’s earth-shaking decision last month overturning Roe v. Wade, is mocking foreign leaders who lamented his opinion doing away with a half-century of federal constitutional protection for abortion rights in the U.S.

During a surprise appearance as a keynote speaker at a religious freedom conference in Rome last week, sponsored by the University of Notre Dame, Alito poked fun at the torrent of international criticism of his opinion for the five-justice court majority. . .


Top stories

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito mocks foreign critics of abortion ruling

By Lawrence Hurley - Yesterday 12:57 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Conservative U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has brushed off criticism from prominent figures around the world of last month's blockbuster ruling he authored that overturned Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 abortion rights decision.

In his first public remarks since the decision, which has led to various conservative U.S. states imposing abortion bans, Alito dismissed criticism of the ruling, which has come from the likes of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

In addition, Alito took aim at Britain's Prince Harry, also known as the Duke of Sussex, who referenced the abortion ruling in a speech at the United Nation's last week.https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-supreme-court-justice-alito-mocks-foreign-critics-of-abortion-ruling/ar-AA104D6hhttps://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/us-supreme-court-justice-alito-mocks-foreign-critics-of-abortion-ruling/ar-AA104D6h



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NO 'FIST-BUMP' THERE

 Diplomacy appears in all kinds of guides that's for sure! Biden fist-bumped MBS in a gesture that was seized on by critics, while Macron shook hands on the steps of the Elysee Palace as he welcomed the prince.

Allies of the French president defended the meeting as a demonstration of “realpolitik” – putting practical needs above principles in foreign policy.

Public services minister Stanislas Guerini, a close ally of the president, told Europe 1 radio on Friday that the role of the president was “to protect the French people” and that he believed that service had been carried out.

Source: Al Jazeera and news agencies

News

France’s Macron talks energy with Saudi Crown Prince MBS in Paris

MBS’s visit to France has been controversial, with President Macron criticised by some in his country


French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman shake hands at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Thursday [Benoit Tessier/Reuters]
Published On 29 Jul 2022

Energy was the main topic on the agenda between French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, during talks in Paris seen as a diplomatic rehabilitation of the de facto leader of the Saudi kingdom.

Aides to the French president had indicated ahead of the talks on Thursday that Macron would urge Saudi Arabia to increase its oil production to help bring down crude prices, reiterating a request made by United States President Joe Biden during a visit to Riyadh earlier this month.

A statement by the presidential office on Friday made no explicit reference to oil or gas, but said Macron had “underlined the importance of continuing the ongoing coordination with Saudi Arabia with regards to the diversification of energy supplies for European countries”.

With Russian oil and gas supplies either unavailable to European Union nations due to sanctions or being withheld by Moscow, European countries are desperately seeking alternative sources of fossil fuels.

Saudi Arabia is one of few countries worldwide with the capacity to increase its output.

The French statement said that Macron and MBS also discussed food security amid fears of famines caused by the loss of Ukrainian grain, and agreed to work “to ease the effects” of the war in Ukraine

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City of Mesa Newsroom

 

TOP NEWS

Funding Awarded for Housing and Community Development Programs

 July 28, 2022 at 1:35 pm
The City of Mesa has received more than $6 million, including over $5.4 million in funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), for various programs to help people in need during the 2022/2023 fiscal year. The funds...

Scott Butler Appointed as Assistant City Manager

 July 27, 2022 at 11:23 am
Mesa City Manager Chris Brady has appointed Scott Butler as Assistant City Manager. Mr. Butler has served the City of Mesa for 18 years, beginning his career as a Council Assistant in 2004. He was named Government Relations Director in 2008, and in...

Back to School Traffic Enforcement

 July 26, 2022 at 11:30 am
With the 2022-2023 school year approaching, the Mesa Police Department (MPD) wanted to remind the public that we will be out conducting school zone enforcement. The MPD Traffic Unit, as always, will continue its support of the Governor’s Office of...

Mesa Names Simon Tipene Adlam as New Director of Arizona Museum of Natural History

 July 25, 2022 at 12:39 pm
Following a highly-competitive international search, Mesa has appointed Simon Tipene Adlam as the new Arizona Museum of Natural History Director (AZMNH). A seasoned museum administrator, Mr. Tipene Adlam served the Natural History Museum of Los...

Waitlist to Open for Housing Choice Voucher Program

 July 20, 2022 at 4:00 pm
The City of Mesa Housing Authority will be accepting pre-applications for the tenant-based Housing Choice Voucher Program (Section 8) online from Wednesday, Aug. 17 at 10 a.m. through Tuesday, Aug. 30 at 5 p.m. This will be a fully web-based...
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