Month: January 2021

A joint session of Congress to formally affirm the results of the 2020 presidential election was just getting started on Wednesday when a group of Republicans from the House and the Senate went on record objecting to election results in swing states.

The first objection triggered a debate period with each chamber having hours to deliberate. But those sessions were halted as a mob of Pro-Trump extremists stormed the Capitol grounds and sent the entire complex into a lockdown.

For more on what happened in Washington, D.C., NPR’s congressional correspondent Sue Davis, spoke to All Things Considered hosts Ailsa Chang and Mary Louise Kelly.

The bottom line: Joe Biden will be inaugurated in 14 days. And it looks like he’ll take office with a Democratic-controlled Senate.

Rev. Raphael Warnock spoke with NPR’s Noel King after defeating Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler in one of Georgia’s runoff elections, according to the Associated Press. Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican Sen. David Perdue in the second Georgia Senate runoff, according to an AP race call.

It looks like what helped put the Democrats over the top was Black voter turnout. LaTosha Brown is co-founder of Black Voters Matter, a Georgia group that helped lead get-out-the-vote efforts there. She spoke with NPR about where the fight goes next.

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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Initially, U.S. officials predicted that as many as 20 million Americans would be fully vaccinated before the end of 2020. And while that many vaccine doses were distributed, only a fraction of them have been administered.

The federal government has given states control over distribution plans which has led to different systems with differing levels of success. In one Florida county, Julie Glenn of member station WGCU reports on the haphazard vaccine rollout that has led elderly residents to camp out in tents to get their first shot.

As vaccinations lag behind schedule, a new, more contagious variant of the coronavirus is spreading in many countries, including the U.S. The new variant isn’t thought to be more deadly, and scientists believe the vaccines currently being administered will work against it. Additional good news is that masks and social distancing will still slow the spread of the new variant.

Additional reporting this episode from NPR’s Allison Aubrey, who’s reported on the slow start to vaccinations, and from NPR’s Michaeleen Doucleff, who’s reported on the new coronavirus variant. Reporting on the vaccine rollout at the state level came from Will Stone in Seattle, Nashville Public Radio‘s Blake Farmer, and WBUR‘s Martha Bebinger.

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.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Georgia was already going to be the center of the political universe this week. Now, leaked audio of a phone call between President Trump and Georgia election officials raises new questions about how far he’s willing to go to overturn an election he lost.

NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly reports on how it’s all playing out in Georgia, where control of the U.S. Senate hangs in the balance. She speaks to Fulton County elections director Rick Barron and Emma Hurt of member station WABE.

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.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

Back in November, comedian Robyn Schall found an old list of her goals for 2020. She shared the list in a video that went viral — because it turned out a lot of people could relate to a year that didn’t go as planned.

Gretchen Rubin and R. Eric Thomas have some advice on how to make 2021 a little better.

Rubin writes books about happiness and habits — her latest is Outer Order, Inner Calm — and she hosts the podcast Happier with Gretchen Rubin. Listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Thomas dispenses opinions and wisdom as a senior staff writer at elle.com. He’s the author of the memoir Here For It.

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.

Email us at considerthis@npr.org.

After four and a half tumultuous years in British politics, Brexit is now becoming a reality.

NPR’s London correspondent Frank Langfitt reports on mixed views about the new deal from a highway outside the Port of Dover along the English Channel, where truckers are trying to cross the border before rules change in the new year.

Anand Menon, director of the think tank UK In A Changing Europe, sees the new deal as a win, and says it help avoid further economic disruption.

While it took time for congress and President Trump to agree on the $900 billion pandemic relief bill, one thing has been certain for a while. Many mayors and governors did not get the money they requested.

Tracy Gordon, a senior fellow at the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, explains that while states will get funding for things like public education and vaccine distribution, what mayors and governors really want are unrestricted funds to spend how they’d like.

NPR’s Ailsa Chang reports on how public transit has been hit especially hard during the pandemic. And scaled-back services, while saving some money, hurt passengers who rely on them.

One in every thousand people has died of COVID-19 in the U.S. And California just passed 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases. This surge, likely from Thanksgiving travel, is making contact tracing efforts difficult across the country.

Dr. Christina Ghaly, Director of the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, says hospitals are being forced to treat COVID-19 patients in conference rooms and gift shops as beds fill up.

To help contain the spread, Brett Dahlberg reports that some health officials in Michigan are asking people to do their own contact tracing.

In New York City, WNYC’s Fred Mogul found a contact tracer who is making home visits in an effort to alert people in at-risk categories.

On a crisp morning in late March, health care workers in yellow hazmat suits arrived at St. Joseph’s Senior Home in Woodbridge, New Jersey.

They were responding to an outbreak of COVID-19 at the facility. But that response would make St. Joe’s different than every other long-term facility in the state: it was the only such facility in New Jersey to be completely evacuated.

NPR Investigations correspondent Dina Temple-Raston has been digging into why that happened — and whether some residents of St. Joe’s might still be alive if it hadn’t. More from her reporting is here.

At the end of every year, the hosts of NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour like to look back on some of their favorite things from the last 12 months. In this episode, they revisit some of the TV, film and music that helped us make it through 2020.

Here’s the full list:

1. Moira’s wedding officiant outfit in the series finale of Schitt’s Creek

2. Ted Lasso and the year in escapism

3. Uncle Clifford and Lil Murda in the season 1 finale of P-Valley

4. Michael Jordan watching interviews about him on an iPad in The Last Dance

5. Parasite winning best picture at this year’s Oscars, portending the further rise of non-English-language powerhouses

6. The first 10 minutes of The Invisible Man

7. Kentucky Route Zero

8. “Born Under Punches (The Heat Goes On)” from David Byrne’s American Utopia

9. Fiona Apple chirping like a dolphin on “I Want You To Love Me”

10. Cassidy Diamond (played by Shalita Grant) in the third season of Search Party

11. “Uncle Naseem” (Season 2, Episode 9) of Ramy

12. The Good Place series finale

Nothing could stop Christmas from coming. Not even a pandemic. But this year many of our holiday traditions look a bit different.

NPR business correspondent Alina Selyuk reports on how hand sanitizer and face masks have become popular stocking stuffers this year.

And we asked you to send in stories about how you’re rethinking your celebrations as previous plans have been put on hold.