250 leaders of Southern Arizona Interfaith assembled at St. John the Evangelist Catholic with the Tucson Police Department, Monsignor Raul Trevizo, Representative Macario Saldate, the Deputy County Attorney, and a representative of the US Dept. of Justice for a civic academy on 'spice.'

The synthetic drug is considered to induce young users to roam neighborhoods in an unnaturally hungry and thirsty state; officers responded to 930 calls involving spice over the previous 18 months, many involving overdoses.

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With City Council signalling support for significant reforms in the Dallas rental housing code, Dallas Morning News gave kudos to Dallas Area Interfaith for keeping "these issues on the council's radar and set the stage for many of the most important tweaks in the code." For the first time, the Dallas code would require inspections of the insides of single-family rentals and more frequent inspections of multi-family housing complexes.

Towards that end, the city manager's proposed budget calls for hiring 15 additional code enforcement officers to handle the exapnded responsibilities.

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200 Northern Arizona Interfaith Council (NAIC) leaders, with the Prescott College Social Justice Human Rights Program, assembled with all six candidates of Arizona Legislative District 1 to push for increased funding of public schools across the state. Said Tom Benson, "If we want our community and state to be a desirable place to work, raise a family, as well a retire it must be supported by a strong education system from Pre-K through college."

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After a campaign that included educating County Supervisors about the economic (and life) impact of JobPath workforce development program, leaders of Pima County Interfaith won a 18% increase in funding for the program, from $423 thousand to $500 thousand. Pima County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 for the increase after Pastor Steve Springer of Dove of Peace Lutheran Church and Lindsay Leonard, a JobPath graduate, spoke.

Former students like Patty Popp credit JobPath for helping them bridge the gap between minimum wage work and a living wage career. After training for an associate's degree in radiologic technology, she kept on advancing to her current position as Director of Clinical Operations at Radiology Limited. Her story can be read in the first article below.

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Mon., Nov. 14th at 3:30pm - Fri. Nov. 18th at 12pm

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Religious leaders from Northern & Central Louisiana and Together Louisiana hosted a press conference to refocus the public conversation on to work, policing and taxes. Citing the successes of labor market intermediary NOVA, Rev. Theron Jackson declared the organization was working to help people find "good jobs" in contrast to "people working 40 hours a week just to starve." Said Lead Organizer Lady Carlson, "We don't want the death of Alton Sterling to get lost in other events that have happened." She cited collaboration with Attorney General Loretta Lynch to look at local policing practices, federal support for community policing and ways to deescalate tensions." Leaders pointed to changes in the state's Industrial Tax Exemption Program, recently achieved with the support of Governor Edwards, as a way to bring back local tax dollars for workforce development, education, public defenders' offices and more.

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Leaders of Austin Interfaith joined a press conference hosted by Councilmember Delia Garza to demand the inclusion of priorities like job training, parks and after-school programming for children.

Said Tom Mendez, "We do not want to hear that the budget is tight -- if it's so tight you should not have given a tax break to the few."

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At Governor Bel Edward's request, Together Baton Rouge will lead a discussion on police tactics and race relations, a conversation the Times-Picayune editorial board says "is important to have." Towards that end, the governor arranged a meeting between the organization and the Department of Justice Community Relations Service, which will convene public meetings to get input on what needs to change.

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At St. Joseph's Catholic Catholic Church, Border Interfaith leaders brought in voting machines for a hands-on lesson on the mechanics of voting. Click below for video in Spanish.

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Together Baton Rouge says there are "two versions of 'community policing.' One of them is a powerful tool for change. The other is an exercise in public relations. Over the next few months, we'll have to draw some hard distinctions to bring about the real thing, and not the PR version." Read more