Last week’s contest was won by Seventy2002. It was Tampere, Finland.

This week’s is another random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

Last week’s contest was unsolved as of Friday night. It was the entrance to Broward College in Davie, FL, where Governor Rick Scott threw a temper tantrum over a fan.

This week’s is a random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by Seventy2002. It was Wichita.

This week’s contest is related to something in the news from October, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by Seventy2002. It was Madrid.

This week’s is a random location somewhere in the state of Kansas, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky. It was Cleveland.

This week’s is another random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

Last week’s contest didn’t have a winner as of Friday night. It was the Philadelphia street where a gang of preppy douchebags allegedly assaulted a gay couple.

This week’s is a random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by Buck T. Trend. It was Carter Lake, IA, an odd section of the state that’s actually west of the Missouri River, surrounded by Omaha.

This week’s location is related to something in the news from September, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by worf. It was the home of the Toledo Mud Hens.

This week’s is a random location somewhere in the state of Iowa, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by scottd. It was near the town of Walterston, Wales.

This week’s is another random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by czechsaaz. It was the Omaha Wendy’s where a COPS crew member was killed by a cop’s bullet.

This week’s is a random location somewhere on earth, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by everyone who didn’t leave racist comments.

This week’s contest is a location related to something in the news in August, good luck!

In the aftermath of Ferguson, it was reported that the St. Louis area has one of the largest gaps between white unemployment and black unemployment in the country. What hasn’t been talked about much is what exactly drives that, other than a general sense of racial bias.

Here are some numbers that help provide some more context on how it happens. These figures are from the ACLU’s 2013 report on the racial disparity in marijuana arrests. These were the 7 worst states (including D.C.) (page 20). The figure is the ratio of black arrests to white arrests

Iowa 8.34
D.C. 8.05
Minnesota 7.81
Illinois 7.56
Wisconsin 5.98
Kentucky 5.95
Pennsylvania 5.19

Now here is the list from the National Urban League [PDF] this year showing the cities with the highest gaps between black employment and white employment (page 43). The cities that are within the states above are bolded

1. Madison, WI
2. Lancaster, PA
3. Milwaukee, WI
4. Minneapolis, MN
5. Des Moines, IA
6. Baton Rouge, LA
7. Cleveland, OH
8. Chicago, IL
9. Washington, DC
10. St. Louis, MO

A city-by-city comparison would be even more telling, since St. Louis by itself was an off-the-charts 18! But just looking at these stats alone makes it awfully clear what causes the employment gap. When police are more aggressively saddling people with criminal records for something as common as marijuana use, it becomes harder and harder for those people to find employment.

Last week’s contest was won by Theophrastus. It was Jeffersonville, Indiana.

About two weeks ago, I picked out the location in Ferguson, Missouri – where Michael Brown had just been killed – to use for the monthly news-related contest. But with the eyes of the world fixated on what’s happening there, it would’ve been an insultingly easy contest.

As the story has unfolded, I’ve found myself using the street views to look up the various locations in and around Ferguson where we’ve seen America’s over-militarized, unaccountable, and wildly racist policing come into clear focus. No contest this week, just a gallery of street views from what is becoming one of the most important news stories of the decade. I don’t plan to police the comment thread, so if you value your sanity, you should probably avoid this one.

The location where Brown was killed on August 9

The Quick Trip convenience store that was burned and looted on August 10

The McDonald’s restaurant where reporters Wesley Lowery and Ryan Reilly were arrested on August 13, next to the Ferguson Market. The Ferguson Market was the store where police allege Michael Brown stole some cigars shortly before the shooting (but whose employees never reported a robbery). In the late hours of August 15, community members stood guard outside the market and other businesses to discourage looting

The location in St. Louis where 25-year-old Kajieme Powell was shot and killed on August 19, in an incident where recorded cell phone footage showed that the original police account was inaccurate.

The Greater St. Mark’s Family Church, where community members have been taking care of wounded protestors, and was visited by police on August 20.

Last week’s contest was unsolved as of Thursday night. It was Glasgow, Scotland.

This week’s is a random location somewhere in the state of Indiana, good luck!

Last week’s contest was won by zzippy. It was Fayetteville, Arkansas.

This week’s is another random location somewhere on earth, good luck!