Tribes around Alaska are trying to find ways to prevent climate change from eroding their ways of life – such as access to traditional foods, clean waterways and infrastructure in small villages.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs recently announced more than $45 million in federal grants for tribes across the country to address problems caused by climate change.

More than a third of that goes to Alaska, which has the most federally recognized tribes in the country.

Alaska is warms faster than any other part of the United States Climate change has forced communities to deal with issues ranging from eroding shorelines and riverbanks to bacteria-infested waterways.

The Biden administration’s climate action grants are partially funded by last year’s bipartisan infrastructure law. They are intended to give tribes an injection of cash to invest in projects that will help fend off the worst impacts.

In the southeast, there is a lot of pressure to ensure that vital waterways remain clean and subsistence foods remain available.

The Indian community of Ketchikan received $246,221 to continue working on the goals set out in their climate action plan. Tribal officials say it is the tribe’s largest federally recognized federal climate grant to date.

Tony Gallegos, cultural resources manager for the tribe, said climate change threatens the native way of life.

“Well, this presents a kind of urgent risk to our traditional resources, the food that our citizens depend on,” he said.

And part of preserving the way of life is understanding the role of traditional foods. The tribe therefore plans, among other things, to interview local elders to find out which traditional food sources are most important to them. Gallegos said the effort is already underway.

“We have already made significant progress (in) collecting and documenting tribal citizens’ reliance on traditional food and priorities, with over 320 responses to our initial survey last year,” explained Gallegos.

Some of the grant money will also be used to collect bacteria samples from local waters. The tribe has been monitoring bacteria levels at local beaches since 2017, and the evidence seems to point to spikes after heavy storms.

“So sometimes they call (it’s the) ‘first flush’ after a rain event, especially when there hasn’t been rain for a while, can often carry pollutants in, in this case, the (Tongass) Narrows where we… have problem bacteria,” Gallegos said. “And we want to start collecting water quality samples, right during and right after these rain events.”

Gallegos said he hopes to test at least 10 samples over the next two years.

Another $15,000 was given to the tribe to fund staff travel costs to attend conferences to learn other ways to adapt to climate change.

Further north, the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe plans to use a $113,830 grant to help deepen local knowledge of tribal lands using LiDAR mapping technology. This will allow the tribe to conduct detailed aerial surveys of their lands.

Andrew Gildersleeve is the tribe’s executive director.

“LiDAR is a very exciting way for us to accurately map tribal lands as they are,” Gildersleeve said. “And that creates a record for us and a baseline that we can use in the future, and hopefully future generations can set and recognize trends.”

With LiDAR, Gildersleeve says the tribe can learn about rising ocean levels, salmon habitat and tidal zones.

Tribe grants consultant Amanda Bremner said the project will be completed in three phases. And it might even help expand ancestral knowledge.

“We have a map of indigenous and traditional place names that for years has just been, you know, a map on the wall of boundaries and areas from a time, you know, decades ago, that , in this ever-changing climate, is not necessarily accurate,” Bremner said. “So we’re looking forward to having those high-resolution images.”

In the Upper Lynn Canal community of Klukwan, a grant of more than $589,000 is planned to fund bank stabilization as the community copes with accelerating glacial runoff and melting permafrost. The tribe hopes Jilkaat Kwaan Heritage Center The bank stabilization project will preserve salmon runs.

The Sitka Tribe of Alaska has received more than $298,000 for its Tribal-Run Research Center Southeast Alaska Tribal Ocean Research. This will support further research on the harmful algal blooms and paralyzing shellfish toxins that thrive in warming waters.

And the Southeast’s largest tribe, the Central Council of Alaskan Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes, is working toward food sovereignty with a region-wide community garden program. This project will be funded by a $2 million grant. Tlingit & Haida did not respond to repeated requests for comment from KRBD.

In Klawock, the only community on Prince of Wales Island to receive a grant, the Klawock Cooperative Association will use $248,206 to implement its own climate action plan. It will be modeled on a adopted by Tlingit and Haida. The Klawock Cooperative Association did not respond to repeated requests for comment.

Elsewhere in the state, a handful of villages have received funding to seek higher ground as they face increasingly brutal storms and erosion.

This includes Unalakleet. With approximately 800 people, it is the largest community to receive a dedicated grant for what is called a “managed retreat” from the Norton Sound coast. A 2019 Denali Commission study found that Unalakleet was the eighth most at-risk community in Alaska for erosion and flood damage.

The local tribe received $290,440 to move the village to a nearby hill.

Kari Duame is the Housing Manager for The Native Village of Unalakleet.

She said an old dyke that surrounds the silty spit on which the village sits spared it from the worst damage caused by ancient Typhoon Merbok in September. But she said it was clear the village needed to move away from the shore to survive the new climate reality.

“The ground itself can be unstable, for the style of construction and the era of construction – a lot of the houses are from, like, the 70s, 80s, or even earlier, like the 40s and 50s,” he said. she declared. “And most concerning is that the dyke is probably not enough in the long term.”

She said a shoreline retreat would also give the village room to grow.

“Plus, there’s very little land to build on — (it’s), like, pretty crowded,” Duame noted.

Duame said the plan is in its early stages. She said the tribe’s goal for this grant was to prepare a comprehensive plan for another grant proposal next year.

Unalakleet is not alone. Kivalina, in the Northwest Arctic Borough, received nearly $250,000 to plan its own managed retreat. Akiak, in the Bethel Census Area, got $150,000 to start moving away from the Kuskokwim River.

And in Nunapitchuk, a nearby river has eroded so much that the waters have risen to the door of the only public security building in the village. This is where the village’s public security officers live and work, and it’s also where the emergency supplies are kept. The village’s $2.2 million grant will help pay for a new building, since the current one is a total loss.

In Chefornak, flooding forces parts of the town to be relocated. The $2.9 million grant will build 19 homes and a new kindergarten away from the water.

Other tribes are just keeping an eye on things – like in Kipnuk and Tuntutuliak, where tribes received grants to conduct permafrost risk assessments.

Full List of BIA Climate Action Plan Resilience Grants Available on the agency’s website.

Raegan Miller is a member of the Report for America body for KRBD. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps him keep writing stories like this. Please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to KRBD.org/donate.

Inmate James Rousseau recalls the last powwow he attended at the Airway Heights Corrections Center, a few miles west of Spokane, Washington.

“I was here in 2019 before COVID hit,” he said. “I was here at the MSU (minimum security unit) camp and we had the powwow. We had a good turnout and a great time. It was good to be with my people.”

Rousseau grew up on the Turtle Mountain Reservation in North Dakota. Little did he know that this would be the last powwow he would attend in three years.

When the pandemic hit, the Washington prison powwow program was suspended, as were some of the other spiritual activities that Native American inmates had access to. It was deemed too dangerous to hold them back.

“We were very quick in 2020 to work with the state, on the advice of aboriginal elders, who realized that COVID and the sweat lodge, or COVID and anything that was done in a circle in confined spaces, wouldn’t be compatible,” said Gabe Galanda, a Seattle attorney and member of California’s Round Valley Indian Tribes.

Galanda is also the founder of Huy (pronounced HOYT), a Seattle nonprofit Indigenous rights group that works with the state to hold powwows behind prison walls.

For the past two and a half years, Washington prisons, like others around the country, have battled COVID outbreaks among inmates and staff. The state Department of Corrections reports more than 16,000 confirmed cases. Eighteen inmates died. Those who tested positive were separated into COVID units on the prison grounds. The most serious cases were evacuated to outside health facilities. The men and women who remained healthy were often isolated in their cells.

This isolation has taken its toll. As COVID became less of a threat, Galanda saw an opening.

“Through Huy, we have been advocating through the Department of Corrections to ease health restrictions as society pitches in around COVID to increase opportunities for worship. indigenous,” he said.

Galanda says correctional officials agreed it was time to start the powwows again. Earlier this year, negotiations began on how and when to do so. Both sides had hoped to bring the celebrations back behind prison walls in late spring or early summer to coincide with the area’s powwow season.

“It really came down to protocols and working with the Department of Health, working with our own epidemiologist and, really, we were threading a needle to make these powwows happen,” the Secretary of State said. corrections, Cheryl Strange.

Strange and Galanda say the negotiations have been difficult at times. They would make progress and then have to postpone their plans until further outbreaks subside, even as late as last summer, Galanda said.

Eventually, the agency agreed to hold about 20 powwows in September and October. The first was on the grounds of Walla Walla State Penitentiary on September 8.

The Airway Heights minimum security unit powwow is one of the last in the series. It’s late October and too cold to party outside, so the inmates gather in a large meeting room.

Prison officials had to work quickly to make this happen. There were a lot of logistical details, said Kay Heinrich, associate superintendent of programs at Airway Heights. Staff conduct background checks on visitors and arrange security measures for foreigners visiting the prison. They also work to ensure the ceremony is culturally appropriate, including the food.

“We have the buffalo stew, the salmon, which are all Native American upgrades that they don’t normally get,” she said.

Inmates are also making preparations. As soon as they learned they would be entitled to a pow-wow, Rousseau and other Native inmates set to work making gifts for the visitors.

“I made dreamcatchers. I made medallions. I made earrings,” Rousseau said.

Inmate Jason McIlwain of Forks, Washington, and a member of the Shoshone tribe, worked for weeks to create some of the intricate beaded pieces that now rest on a long table to the side of the room.

“Beading for me is almost like meditation. It’s where I find my happy place when I’m not inside the lodge,” he said.

When the powwow begins, the dancers make their grand entrance into the assembly hall. The first men carry large flags. Several dancers wear colorful badges and shake tiny bells on their costumes as they move to the beat of the small group of drummers in the center of the room. The dancers circle around them, each moving in their own way, some exerting great effort.

McIlwain and Rousseau are more restrained, both in their movements and in their dress. Both are dressed in brown t-shirts and beige pants.

Rousseau watches the others while he dances. At 55, he’s the eldest here and happy to let the younger men strut their stuff.

“Grass dancing and fantasy dancing are for young people,” he said. “Traditional men’s dance, stealth and chicken dance are all more or less for elders. Traditional, you don’t have to move around so much and jump around,” he laughed.

Richard Dennison is one of the youngest. He wears borrowed powder blue and white insignia and a blue bandana. He is from the Spokane tribe and grew up around powwows, but moved away from them as he got older.

“I didn’t really get into dancing and stuff until I got to jail because I was running around doing other things that I shouldn’t have done,” he said, in part for why he was assigned to Airway Heights while incarcerated. in 2019. It is expected to be released in 2026.

Several family members, including Dennison’s children, have traveled to the prison to celebrate the day with him, and he is nervous.

“My kids, my mom and my dad, no one’s ever really seen me dance like that before,” he said.

Dennison’s time behind bars allowed him to break a drug addiction and begin to rediscover his legacy. He says he participates in activities like the sweat lodge and looks forward to more spiritual options as health restrictions ease.

For years, powwows in Washington prisons have been funded by the Department of Corrections. But the state suffered budget cuts at the time of the Great Recession in 2008 and powwows have been eliminated.

Gabe Galanda and Huy stepped in to work with the state to reinstate the program in 2012. Every year since then, Huy has raised the funds to cover the costs of hosting the 22 powwows, or about $35,000 this year.

“We pay for things like food. A lot of these celebrations have salmon and even buffalo served. Wild rice rather than what would be staple food,” he said. “We pay for badges, beads and other things needed to sew and prepare gifts.”

Galanda says it’s money well spent. He was reminded of the value of powwows when he attended the celebration at Walla Walla.

“There were six men who had learned to sing and drum and dance and had sewn their badges for the first time in their lives and here they are in the circle, wearing the badges they had made and dancing the steps that they had learned the songs they had also learned,” he said. “It’s pretty miraculous to witness that kind of growth and rehabilitation, especially in a prison environment. Honestly it’s not something they would experience in the outside world because of the environment they were raised in and live in and it’s the environment that contributed to the error that they have committed.”

Kay Heinrich of the Airway Heights Corrections Center says powwows are an important motivational and behavioral tool.

“They change their behavior to make sure they can participate,” she said. “I just spoke to them a little while ago, they asked if they could do it again next year. And I was like, ‘Are you going to be okay?’ And they’re like, ‘Oh yeah.’ It’s important because their families come. They’re always grateful. They always say thank you.”

Heinrich says powwows have another benefit as well.

“I think it’s helpful for all the staff, custodial and support staff, because I think they see the incarcerated in a different light, how important it is, how their family members come and how they interact in healthy prosocial ways,” she said.

James Rousseau has no visitors at the powwow, but he says he’s happy to see the other men enjoying their loved ones. He assumes his role of elder.

“I encourage young people. I see them and I say: ‘How are you?’ and I shake their hands. ‘Hey, are you doing anything for the powwow?’ ” he said. “I care about them and it makes me happy to be able to do this.”

Huy founder Galanda and Head of Correction Strange said they plan to bring the powwows back in 2023, perhaps closer to the traditional season.

“Fingers crossed we’ll keep going,” Strange said.

Copyright 2022 NPR. To learn more, visit https://www.npr.org.

INDIANAPOLIS — Many people are unable to donate money to charity this year as inflation continues to drive up the prices of basic items.

That doesn’t mean you can’t help at all.

WRTV’s Amber Grigley has reached out to local organizations asking for other ways people can give back.

Giving Tuesday is a day when many organizations raise funds and donations to set them up for the year. But this year, organizations are getting early onboarding Hoosiers for Giving Tuesday and other ways to do your part this holiday season.

“We started so early because everyone loves Giving Tuesday, and everyone wants to be a part of it,” said Adrianna Foutch, development and communications coordinator at Horizon House.

It’s a simple request for one day of the year to make a difference in your community.

“We post everything on our social media. We’re on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn,” Foutch said.

Associations like Skyline House use Giving Tuesday to fund programs and resources throughout the year.

“It’s pretty much the start of the season for us,” said Judy Neuman, director of development and communications at Horizon House.

But the demand for help has increased in the Circle City.

“That’s a 50% increase over last year, the neighbors we serve,” Neuman said.

The same economic conditions could cause Hoosiers to review their finances,

“When people are going through tough times and they can’t support financially, we don’t want to make them feel like we can’t make a difference. That’s when we say, hey, you can volunteer and do other things,” says Foutch.

“We hear so much about these nonprofits that yes, financial donations are essential to further their mission, but there are so many times for people to get involved,” said Katelyn Sussli, director of the commitment to Indy Hub.

Indy Center is a non-profit organization engaging young professionals to impact their communities.

“So there’s a recent survey that equates for Gen Z and Millennials that they view their network as equal to or greater in value than a financial gift,” Sussli said.

That’s why this year, Sussli said, getting people to think beyond money this Giving Tuesday is the goal.

“These consistent volunteers, whether it’s once a week, once a month, once a quarter. That’s what really drives their mission to make a big impact here in Indianapolis,” Sussli said.

To donate to Horizon House, you can visit them online or text “HHGT” to 44321.

To connect with Indy Hub, you can visit them online for volunteer.

What is a digital nomad?

Is it easy to work for an American company while living abroad?

How long does it take to spend working abroad?

What kind of visa should you get?

Where can you find childcare services in another country?

What if you can’t work remotely?

What are the other options for working abroad?

Challenges Digital Nomads May Face Abroad

Some benefits you will find

KI SAWYER, Mich. (WLUC) — Plans to demolish 13 vacant buildings at the former KI Sawyer Air Force Base are taking longer than expected.

They now belong to Marquette County. In 2020, the county received $12 million in federal CARES Act money to demolish buildings for redevelopment.

However, there was a setback.

“As part of that process, there had to be an assessment by the State Historic Preservation Office,” said state Sen. Ed McBroom (R). “And they said those buildings were valuable to the people of Michigan and couldn’t be torn down immediately.”

Marquette County Administrator Scott Erbisch said that determination pushed back the demolition, putting federal money at risk.

“The dollars we have through CARES need to be spent by May 2024. This process we are in right now could take us into June or July [2024]”, Erbisch said.

Martha MacFarlane-Faes, deputy director of the State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), said the agency was required to review projects receiving federal funding. The KI Sawyer site met the criteria of the National Register of Historic Places.

“Michigan was a very important point of strategy during the Cold War to protect the United States, KI Sawyer plays in that. It’s probably the best example we have in Michigan of a relatively intact strategic airbase,” MacFarlane-Faes said.

MacFarlane-Faes said SHPO would like to document the structures, and that doesn’t stop development.

“We don’t object to that. We understand the community’s interest in economic development,” MacFarlane-Faes said.

However, McBroom said time is running out. The senator said several businesses were looking to expand on the sites after demolition but now had to wait.

“These sites are prime development sites for those looking to move here if they want to be close to an airport, rail services, UP culture,” McBroom said.

The Marquette County Administrator said the vacant buildings posed hazards.

“Lead-based paint problems outdoors, indoors, deteriorated ceilings, mold is a significant hazard,” Erbisch said.

MacFarlane-Faes said SHPO is currently working with the county to further review and investigate the buildings before they can be demolished.

“There are a few extra steps they have to take and some documents they need to produce that they’re working on and we’re helping with that process,” MacFarlane-Faes said.

But, there is no concrete timetable for when it will be finished.

Meanwhile, UP lawmakers say they plan to demand changes to SHPO’s leadership and budget when the legislature returns to Lansing after the election.

Copyright 2022 WLUC. All rights reserved.

I started as commissioner of the New York Department of Corrections in June 2021. In this role, I was responsible for running New York’s prisons, including the legendary brutal Rikers Island. Having spent 42 years in the criminal justice field, I thought I was professionally and emotionally prepared for what I was about to encounter. But even though I had run a probation service and a youth correctional system; served as a lawyer, academic and nonprofit director; and visited correctional facilities around the world, nothing could have been further from the truth.

During my seven months as Commissioner of Corrections, the conditions at Rikers constantly fell below my already low expectations. Staff absenteeism skyrocketed, use of force increased, scheduling and visitation decreased, shanking attacks soared, and fatalities increased. Not much has changed since I left last December. In my view, the chaos reflects our nation’s racist and destructive fixation on imprisonment. This is Exhibit A of why we need to end mass incarceration.

The United States has not always imprisoned or otherwise detained nearly 2 million people. Our unofficial march toward mass incarceration began in the 1970s with President Richard Nixon’s cynical War on Drugs. From 1972 to 2009, the country’s incarceration rate increased more than fivefold. With the passage in 1973 of the New York Punitive Act Rockefeller Drug Laws, the state’s rate exploded alongside the nation’s. In 1996, the rate of people in its jails and prisons exceeded that of the country by 30%.

Between plummeting violent crime rates, sophisticated defense, open-minded officials and a strong service network, New York’s average daily prison population has shrunk – by approximately 22,000 in 1991 at about 5,600 in January 2020. Unfortunately, our willingness to throw money at corrections seemingly knows no bounds. From 2011 to 2021, while the city’s prison population has shrunk by more than 60%, the prison budget grown up $200 million.

And New York prisons have long been brutal. Conditions declined to the point where, in 2015, the city entered into a consent decree requested in Nuñez v. City of New York, a class action lawsuit brought by prisoners. Plaintiffs Nuñez accused the New York City Department of Correction using excessive force, failing to adequately protect inmates from violence, and inappropriately placing adolescents in solitary confinement.

AWhile I haven’t witnessed many outright beatings by corrections staff during my tenure as commissioner, I have heard retired officers brag about brutalizing people they incarcerate. . Most of the atrocities I saw reflected more the banality of evil, the daily, ritualized degradation of people living and working in prisons.

When I set up my office on Rikers Island last June, morale was so low and staff feared so much for their safety that thousands of people called in sick, either because they were really sick or because they pretended to be ill. Others were AWOLing – simply failing to come to work without calling.

Many correctional officers who actually came to work refused to interact with incarcerated people, indicating that they had already been “imprisoned” and now intended to work in civilian positions such as administrative assistant, driver or baker until their retirement. And when ordered to work in prisons, many of those who were healthy moments earlier used their indefinite sick leave to claim their illness and return home.

This created a destructive cycle. Inadequate staffing of living units meant that the people we incarcerated were denied basics like showers, recreation, visitation and housekeeping. Neglect fomented frustration and violence, contributing to already dire conditions and further exacerbating absenteeism.

Absences peaked last summer when thousands of employees were sick – a number that increased on weekends and holidays. Hundreds more were on light duty and still others AWOLed. Despite having the richest squad in the country – and costing almost $557,000 to incarcerate a person in New York for a year – many people worked triple shifts on weekends. Dozens of living units remained unstaffed to the point that inmates could not attend medical appointments. For example, in April of this year, residents of Rikers almost missed 12,000 medical visitsaccording to Gothamist.

In these unmanned units, homemade shanks proliferated, medical needs went unattended, and people died. There was more 400 stabbings and stabbings at Rikers facilities in 2021, more than triple the previous year. Sixteen people died at Rikers last year – at least six by suicide and four by drug overdose. At the time of publication, 17 people have already died there this year, and cuts and stabbings are on the rise.

BOn the other hand, I was proud of the many officers who came to work despite COVID-19, the violence and the risk of working triple shifts. These staff members and many incarcerated people challenged the stereotypes of “Shawshank Redemption”.

The people we were incarcerating were urging me to send their unit officer home because she was exhausted. On several occasions, when staff members have been assaulted, those incarcerated have stood up for them.

Other times, corrections officers would plead for stewardship to be handed over to those incarcerated and for something as simple as haircuts to resume. They also begged us to send people to recreational or religious services.

During midnight shift on the Friday before Father’s Day, I encountered an exhausted correctional officer working a triple while overseeing two separate living areas. The day before, a man from his unit was expecting a visit from his daughter which seemed to have to be canceled because there was no escorting officer. When she informed him of the cancellation, he burst into tears, which is something no one likes to do in prison. She gathered all the men and asked them to “be good” as she left the unit unattended to escort her to her visit. If a fight had taken place, she knew she would be punished, maybe even fired, for this act of insubordinate decency.

Many correctional officers have come to us as honest, hard-working people who want to make a difference. But during my tenure, dozens of officers have been arrested for crimes including drunk driving, dangerously unloading their weapons, and domestic or child abuse. In my opinion, somewhere between onboarding new recruits and these arrests, the trauma they suffered on Rikers contributed to their illegal behavior.

Similarly, research by the Center for Court Innovation found that sentencing people to New York prisons increase the likelihood of being arrested again within two years of 7%compared to others with similar charges and backgrounds who have not been imprisoned.

Rikers aggravates almost everyone who encounters him.

AAfter years of rampant brutality, deplorable conditions, stark racial disparity and high costs, Rikers Island is set to close in 2027. The current plan is to replace the sprawling island complex of eight prisons with four smaller, more decent prisons in all the city. But we need to radically change the culture of violence and apathy that pervades Rikers Island so that it does not migrate to these borough jails.

Decades of freebies to corrections officers’ unions — like unlimited sick leave and a ban on hiring supervisors from outside the city’s Department of Corrections — have contributed to the destructive culture. The only path I see to real change is for the federal court that is already overseeing the Rikers Island Consent Decree appoint a receiver run the system while we reduce its population.

As the city’s prison population declines, officials should reinvest money from the corrections department’s bloated budget into the communities hardest hit by crime. Imagine if we spent the nearly $557,000 a year it takes to incarcerate a neighbor as part of community safety and rehabilitation efforts. And if even a part of the $1.34 billion the city budgeted for corrections in 2022 has been reallocated to communities heavily impacted by incarceration?

We must also pay attention to the shocking racial disparities in our city’s prisons. Blacks and Latinx make up 52% ​​of New York’s population but about 90% of prison admissions. Building resources in neighborhoods of color disproportionately impacted by incarceration will help those communities support their returning neighbors as we reduce incarceration.

Elie Wiesel once wrote: “The opposite of love is not hate, it is indifference. Rikers and prisons like that all over the country are indifferent. It’s time for the city I love to close this place and treat the staff and incarcerated people as we would want our own sons or daughters to be treated if they were working or confined on Rikers Island.

The New York City Department of Corrections Public Information Office did not respond to questions about staffing at Rikers Island at the time of publication. No more than a spokesperson for the Correction Officers’ Benevolent Association.

Vincent Schiraldi is a senior researcher at Columbia Justice Lab and Senior Fellow at the Columbia School of Social Work. He served as Commissioner of the New York City Probation and Corrections Departments.

• Merchandise startup Spring offers print-on-demand services for designers.
• But some of the company’s best-selling creators have been spreading misinformation.
• Insider spoke with former employees who said Spring was willing to ignore problematic designs.

QAnon conspiracy theorist Philip Godlewski started working with start-up Spring last year. He quickly generated a healthy business and was assigned a dedicated “partner manager”.

At the time, The daily beast recently reported that Godlewski admitted bribing a miner.

It didn’t take long for the employees to start talking. Rather than using the company’s Slack account, they texted each other to express concerns about its store.

“This is bad,” a former employee wrote to coworkers, according to a screenshot seen by Insider. This person was linked to the Daily Beast story and Godlewski’s storefront, which featured products like a mug that said “Trump was right,” as well as a t-shirt that read “I told you so. , signed, conspiracy theorist”.

A second former Spring staffer echoed the first’s concerns, telling Insider they weren’t comfortable with the company letting Godlewski earn revenue using Spring’s services. Godlewski did not respond to a request for comment.

Godlewski wasn’t the only person Spring staffers objected to working with. Spring, formally Teespring, has a history of allowing far-right creators to use his platform to spread misinformation, hate and QAnon conspiracy theories through products such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, posters and mugs.

Spring gained national attention for it after the January 6 Capitol Riot, when the company was among several online marketplaces that sold T-shirts with designs associated with the riot. For example, the platform sold a t-shirt that read “Biden loves minors.” according to CBS News, with the letters B, L and M in bold in a reference to Black Lives Matter. He also sold a shirt worn by a rioter that read “Camp Auschwitz.”

Five former Spring staffers told Insider that it’s an open secret that the platform works with problematic creators, often because those creators make a lot of money for the company. Two former employees said this often caused unease among staff. All former employees Insider spoke to spoke on condition of anonymity to protect career prospects.

In an emailed statement to Insider, a Spring spokesperson said, “At Spring, we do not allow or condone any content on our platform that promotes hate, harassment, or violence (our guidelines policies can be found here).”

“With thousands of designs uploaded daily by independent creators, we use our technology platform, community, and teams to flag and remove designs that violate our policies and disable accounts of users who violate our policies.”

Insider found dozens of products on Spring creators’ storefronts spreading hate and misinformation, including merchandise with phrases referencing QAnon conspiracy theories, such as “I told you so” and “Where are the children? Stop human trafficking!”

Insider emailed Spring in late September asking about these products and Godlewski’s showcase. The items have since been removed, as has Godlewski’s display case.

Spring isn’t alone in selling merchandise with phrases that spread misinformation or hate. Other print-on-demand companies and e-commerce platforms, including Amazon, Walmart and Etsyhave a habit of selling merchandise peddling QAnon conspiracy theories and other extremist views.

But what set Spring apart from other print-on-demand companies was its team of partner managers – Spring employed multiple partner managers. before layoffs in July – who has worked closely with top content creators, influencers and other personalities in the business, offering personalized support.

“I tried to get them off the platform as much as possible, and I was told no,” a third former Spring staffer told Insider, referring to creators who spread misinformation. .

“Even if they were making a lot of money, I didn’t want the team to put up with that,” added this former employee. “The majority of them were bad actors selling bad products but not enough to be deactivated and removed from the platform entirely.”

Spring Screenshot

“They were making us money”

Spring’s willingness to overlook some of these problematic designs and creators was something of an open secret among staffers, former employees who spoke with Insider said.

It “has always been uncomfortable,” said the third former Spring staffer.

The second former staffer said many of these designs — and others that violated Spring’s copyright guidelines — “have slipped through the cracks” of the company’s content review protocols. company. The product quality and content moderation team was manually reviewing thousands of images a day and was “understaffed,” the former employee said.

“There were creators that we were willing to turn away slightly from because they were cashing checks for us,” the second former staffer said. “They were making us money.”

Take the far-right blog We Are Change, founded by creator Luke Rudkowski. Rudkowski is known to spread misinformation online. For example, he shared tweets saying Vaccinations against COVID-19 can lead to HIV and that Google hides search results for vaccines being linked to heart attacks.

Five former employees told Insider that We Are Change, and other similar storefronts, were among the platform’s bestsellers.

The third former staffer said We Are Change’s store “promotes absolutely despicable content under the guise of political freedom” and that many far-right creators use Spring to “vomit hate and violence”.

That same person said they raised concerns about We Are Change with Spring’s head of trust and safety, Tracy Reeves, CEO Chris Lamontagne, and Chris Elsheikhi, VP of business and director of creator growth.

“I showed them the store, and I gave them examples of why it was problematic with screenshots and research papers. And Chris Elsheikhi told me not to worry about it and that’s it. It was his job to make money for the company, and for these people to make money for them,” the third former staffer said of the We are Change store.

Reeves and Elsheikhi did not respond to Insider’s requests for comment.

Screenshot by Spring/Amanda Perelli

Partner managers have been ordered not to discuss ‘sensitive creators’

Prior to the July layoffs, Spring had a team of partner managers who worked directly with top sellers to generate promo codes, offer one-on-one support, and help develop storefronts.

The third former staffer said partner managers were instructed not to chat in forums like Slack or email problematic products they encountered.

“We weren’t supposed to discuss creators or sensitive content in a documented location. It usually happened over video calls,” the third former staffer said. “Leadership was playing favorites, picking and choosing which problematic material we would leave on site. That meant we couldn’t get any sort of trail as to what had been decided and why.”

When employees flagged certain products as problematic, they said senior managers took little or no action.

The third former employee said some people were so frustrated with the inaction of their senior colleagues that some partner managers eventually refused to work with specific creators assigned to them.

Taking matters into their own hands, the team of partner-managers created an unofficial program called the “Do Not Engage Group”, which they used to flag any creators they didn’t want to engage with for support. individual. Most of the staff knew about it, the first former employee told Insider, and hid it from management.

“Basically just let them be in the shadows,” said the third former staffer.

Learn more about Spring’s activities below:

WEST ALLIS, Wis.—Wisconsin Democratic Senate candidate Mandela Barnes was shaking hands with supporters at a campaign event outside Milwaukee on Wednesday when a middle-aged man wearing a veteran’s jacket Vietnam fighter approached him with unsolicited advice: Talk more about inflation.

“How many Democrats have I heard of this? Zero,” the frustrated man told the Democratic candidate.

“I appreciate the advice,” Barnes said politely. Then he quickly ignored it, walking to the back of the room and delivering a speech focused on the same topic his campaign hammered relentlessly in the final weeks of the election: abortion.

Wisconsin Democrats bet Supreme Court ruling overturns deer v. Wade will both energize their base and train new supporters concerned about abortion restrictions. Barnes fully embraced this strategy, making unrestricted abortion his main closing argument in his competitive run against Senator Ron Johnson.

But the narrow focus also carries a big risk, according to political watchers, who say undecided, independent voters — those who determine elections in swing states like Wisconsin — are much more concerned about issues like inflation and schools than through abortion.

“I understand [abortion] be a grassroots issue that will help drive turnout, but you’re still leaving a segment of voters who are likely to be the ones deciding who’s the next governor, who’s the next U.S. senator,” said Keith Gilkes, a Republican strategist from Wisconsin “They’re worried about crime, they’re worried about inflation, the economy, and are we heading into a recession.”

Gilkes said he thinks Democrats were making a similar mistake to Republicans in 2006, when the party campaigned on a statewide referendum against same-sex marriage, which passed but lost the votes. gubernatorial and Senate races in the process.

“We haven’t made it easy on ourselves … spending all of our time focusing on culture war issues, as opposed to the broader concerns of the electorate about health care, the economy and the recession,” said Gilkes.

In Wisconsin, the all-abortion strategy has yet to pay off for Democrats. Barnes is now trailing Johnson by 6 points, according to a Marquette Law School poll this week, a change from September, when the Democrat trailed by just one point.

While Democratic voters see abortion as the election’s most pressing issue, that view is not shared by other groups, according to the Marquette poll. Likely voters, including independents and women voters, say they are more concerned about inflation, schools and gun violence.

This gap in enthusiasm between the progressive base and more moderate voters was evident during Barnes’ “Ron Against Roe” tour this week. In the deep blue of Milwaukee last weekend, more than 100 energetic fans gathered in a small high school gymnasium to hear Barnes speak alongside Alexis McGill Johnson, the head of Planned Parenthood.

The political arm of Planned Parenthood, which helped organize the event, poured millions into midterm races to help elect Democrats. Organizers with clipboards stood at the entrance, trying to recruit attendees to survey neighborhoods with pro-Barnes literature.

The speakers did not pretend to try to seduce the moderates. “When Ron Johnson talks about ‘freedom,’ he’s talking about rich old white guys,” the leader of a group called Moms for Mandela announced to the cheering crowd. Democratic Rep. Gwen Moore, who represents most of Milwaukee, read an unflattering poem about Johnson – ‘He’s an insurrectionist. / A Donald Trump worshiper’ – before leading the audience in a chant from “RoJo Gotta Go”.

Barnes took the stage and called for an end to Senate filibuster rules — an idea popular among progressives but opposed by the vast majority of Americans, according to vote.

“This zero-seat majority [for Democrats] is not enough. If we get rid of Ron Johnson, if we get more Senate seats, we can get rid of the filibuster,” Barnes said to applause.

Such messages are less likely to resonate in places like West Allis, a moderate working-class Democratic town just east of Milwaukee, where Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by just 3 points in 2016.

On Wednesday, Barnes’ “Ron Against Roe” tour stopped at a no-frills West Allis sports bar, hosted by a much smaller group of a few dozen supporters and far less fanfare.

At the Pallas restaurant, there was no talk of “old whites” or ending the filibuster. Democratic Senator Tammy Baldwin introduced Barnes softly, saying he would be a “partner in the United States Senate who cares deeply about us and understands us.”

Barnes took aim at Johnson’s values, arguing that Republican opposition to abortion “doesn’t really represent who we are as a state.” But while his speech was more low-key, he still remained narrowly focused on the issue of abortion.

Shanon Frakes, a Vietnam War veteran who attended the event, told the Free Washington Beacon that he would like to hear the Lieutenant Governor talk more about inflation.

“You don’t hear any Democrats talking about this,” said Frakes, who has described himself as a swing voter over the years.

“I was a Republican, [now] I’m a Democrat, but I’m really independent,” Frakes said.

Nikki Bender and Shari Young, two Barnes supporters from nearby Wauwatosa, told the Free tag that they hope the abortion issue will be effective in attracting new voters for Barnes.

“I don’t think that’s the only progressive issue we’re talking about. But I think it’s a motor issue,” Young said. “An entire generation of men and women grew up assuming their reproductive choice rights were in place and guaranteed, and finding out that’s no shock to a very large number of young people who I think , will get people out.”

But even Bender, who sees deer v. Wade as “one of the biggest issues” in the race, said it would be nice to hear the Barnes campaign address issues other than abortion. When she welcomed Barnes at the event, she asked him to talk more about economic inequality without demonizing the wealthy.

“I know you kinda say that [already]”, Bender told Barnes. “But I want to hear the words that say it: ‘We don’t hate you because you’re rich.'”