Month: October 2020

There is no reason to expect we will know the result of the Presidential election on Tuesday night. Wendy Weiser of the Brennan Center and David Scott, deputy managing editor with the Associated Press, explain why.

Part of the reason: a few key states will have millions of mail-in ballots to count after in-person voting has concluded. The Supreme Court ruled this week to allow that counting to proceed in two key states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina. Election lawyer Ben Ginsberg has been following those cases.

NPR’s Joel Rose reports watchdog groups who normally monitor elections abroad for violence and unrest are turning their sights toward the U.S.

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Four years after Donald Trump won, he turned out to be a better president than many of his supporters hoped — and worse one than many of his opponents feared.

That’s what NPR’s Ari Shapiro found as he re-connected with voters who first spoke to NPR in early 2017, just before Trump was inaugurated.

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More than 74 million people have already voted. Michael McDonald of the Florida Elections Project tells NPR that could indicate the U.S. is headed for record turnout in a modern election.

Maya King of POLITICO has been following the early vote in Georgia, where black voters came close to electing the nation’s first black female governor in 2018.

NPR’s Miles Parks and Pam Fessler explain why it may be too late to vote by mail — and how legal challenges are still complicating the rules around early voting in some states.

Additional reporting this episode from NPR’s Greg Allen and Barbara Sprunt; Stephen Fowler with Georgia Public Broadcasting and Jen Rice with Houston Public Media.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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The U.S. looks poised to exceed its summer peak, when the country averaged as many as 65,000 cases a day for a 10-day stretch in late July. The seven-day average of cases is now more than 69,000, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The situation is similar in Europe, which just logged more new cases than any week so far.

Cases are rising in North Dakota faster than any other state. Fargo Mayor Tim Mahoney recently imposed a mask mandate there.

NPR’s Will Stone reports on the growing outbreak in the Midwest, where some hospitals may not be able to handle an influx of COVID-19 patients.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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On Friday, the U.S. hit its highest number of daily coronavirus cases since the pandemic began. Holiday travel could lead to even more drastic and deadly spikes.

As cases surge throughout the country, many people are wondering how to plan for the holidays. Is it safe for kids to see their grandparents? Should people be gathering as usual for big Thanksgiving dinners? How should people travel — to drive or to fly?

You sent us your questions — and we put them to NPR’s Allison Aubrey and David Schaper, who reported out some answers ahead of a usually busy season for gathering and travel.

In participating regions, you’ll also hear a local news segment that will help you make sense of what’s going on in your community.

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Every year, millions of American renters and homebuyers make decisions about where to live. They have a lot of information to help them make a decision — about everything from schools to public transit to lead paint.

But what many never learn, until it’s too late, is that their homes are in areas that are increasingly prone to flooding or wildfires.

This episode contains elements from a special reporting project by NPR’s Rebecca Hersher and Lauren Sommer. You can read an overview of their reporting here. They also have advice for questions to ask about your property when it comes to wildfire and flood risk in a changing climate.

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Listen to Embedded on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Polls show that Joe Biden has strong support among white voters with a college degree, especially white women, young voters, and those who live in cities and suburbs.

That support adds up to record support with white voters for a Democratic presidential candidate. Nearly half of white voters, overall, support Joe Biden.

NPR’s Sam Gringlas spoke with a few of them in battleground states. And NPR’s Domenico Montanaro explains why this shift fits a longer pattern of the Republican party losing college-educated whites.

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Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told NPR this week that he’s “guardedly optimistic” about the prospects of a coronavirus vaccine being approved by the end of the year.

In the meantime, scientists are still learning new things about the coronavirus.

NPR’s Geoff Brumfiel reports on improvements in medical treatment for COVID-19 patients, and NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff explains new research on air travel.

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With two weeks until election day and more than 35 million votes already cast, NPR’s Miles Parks and Pam Fessler answer your questions about voting, ballots and election security.

For more information on voting this year, NPR’s Life Kit has a guide to help you out. Read at npr.org or listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

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Women are dropping out of the workforce in much higher numbers than men. Valerie Wilson of the Economic Policy Institute explains that women are overrepresented in jobs that have been hit hardest by the pandemic and child care has gotten harder to come by.

The situation is especially dire for Latina women, as NPR’s Brianna Scott reports. Last month, out of 865,000 women who left the workforce, more than 300,000 were Latina.

Victoria de Francesco Soto of The University of Texas at Austin explains why it’s not just the pandemic economy hurting women. Some may be left out of the recovery, too.

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