The Daily Populous

Thursday April 27th, 2017 day edition

image for Billionaire Paul Allen pledges $30M toward permanent housing for Seattle’s homeless

Microsoft co-founder and billionaire philanthropist Paul Allen will donate $30 million toward a permanent housing facility for as many as 100 low-income and homeless families in Seattle.

The donation will help cover design and construction, and Mayor Ed Murray announced Wednesday the city will contribute an additional $5 million.

Mercy Housing Northwest, a local nonprofit, will operate the facility.

The facility will include a service center open to residents and the wider community, said Bill Rumpf, Mercy Housing Northwest president.

Mercy Housing will seek public funding to help defray the cost of running the facility, Rumpf said.

Residents of permanent housing such as this generally pay no more than 30 percent of their income for rent.

“Our vision right now is that it’s in a location where there is access to services and public transit,” said Paul Butler, who oversees homelessness programs for the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. »

Mastodon Bone Findings Could Upend Our Understanding of Human History

Authored by nbcnews.com

Paleontologists have dug up a 130,000-year-old mastodon skeleton that looks like it was smashed apart by humans.

San Diego Natural History Museum Paleontologist Don Swanson pointing at rock fragment near a large horizontal mastodon tusk fragment.

But it's definitely an archaeological site," said Steven Holen of the Center for American Paleolithic Research in South Dakota. »

FCC chair unveils plan to roll back net neutrality

Authored by money.cnn.com
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The net neutrality rules, approved by the FCC in 2015, are intended to keep the Internet open and fair.

Pai and the telecom industry have framed the debate as less about the principle of net neutrality than the mechanism to enforce it.

Pai was vague in his speech on how the FCC would enforce net neutrality without Title II. »

House Democrats Pass Abortion Legislation

Authored by nprillinois.org

As women rallied at the Illinois Capitol Tuesday, the House passed a measure that would allow abortion to be covered by Medicaid and state-employee health insurance.

If it also passes the Senate, it would be the first abortion legislation sent to the governor’s desk in 17 years.

In Illinois, abortion laws have changed very little in the last 40 years. »