Community and Family

How the pandemic response has failed young people: Unemployment, caregiving and education

I wasn’t sure what to expect while applying for unemployment, but I did expect to be called lazy, entitled, and good-for-nothing by people who judge others based on what and how much they earn. Contrary to these judgmental beliefs, I survived a pandemic this long while being immunocompromised, caring for three people, searching for employment, battling with my mental health, all while being a fulltime student. | From: Generocity (Read more.)

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Tyree Wallace: “I want to get to work on how we change the system”

In 2017, the only eyewitness to the murder of Jhon Su Kang—the much-beloved owner of Point Breeze’s Salt & Pepper Deli—came forward to exonerate Tyree Wallace. Almost two decades earlier, a court found Wallace guilty of second-degree murder, sentencing him to life in prison based on now-recanted or disproven testimony, which witnesses state was the result of police intimidation and overzealous prosecution. | From: Metro Philly (Read more.)

Community and Family

All-Black ‘Nutcracker’ ballet coming to Philadelphia this winter

Philly resident Raegen Coby doesn’t remember which city her mother took her to for an all-Black production of the “Nutcracker,” but she vividly remembers everything else. She gazed on as a Black girl danced “Clara,” the story’s heroine, and paid rapt attention as a Black woman danced the part of the Sugar Plum Fairy. “I just wanted to do ballet since I was younger,” said Raegen, now 9 years old, “so for me to see different people do it, it just inspired me to do it.” | From: WHYY (Read more.)

Community and Family

For 30 years, she has fought a waste-to-energy plant in Chester City: ‘We don’t have a choice’

Zulene Mayfield, who raised a family in a two-story rowhouse in that neighborhood at Front and Thurlow Streets off the Delaware River, has been fighting for 30 years against what she and other residents see as the industrial scarring of her hometown. Mayfield said that home, assessed at about $17,000, is now worthless because of all the industry surrounding it, and she has since moved. | From: The Inquirer (Read more.)

coronavirus

Pfizer BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine gets full FDA approval, and mandates could be on the way

On Monday, Aug. 23, nine months after receiving emergency authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the Pfizer BioNTech two-shot COVID-19 vaccine became the first of three vaccines to get full approval for usage in the country.

Back in December 2020, the Pfizer vaccine was the first authorized by the FDA for emergency use to combat what was then a dire COVID-19 situation heading into Christmas. | From: AL DÍA (Read more.)

coronavirus

COVID-19 vaccine is free, but medical bills or fear of cost a barrier to vaccination for some

Martin Gola knew the COVID-19 vaccine was supposed to be free. So he was surprised when, in July, he received a $32 bill from Nazareth Hospital in Northeast Philadelphia, where he’d gotten the two-dose Moderna vaccine. A few days later came another bill, this one for $79.

The 59-year-old Philadelphia resident ignored the bills, but he got worried when weeks later Trinity Health, which owns Nazareth, called to collect on his overdue account. | From: The Inquirer (Read more.)