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The Connecticut Examiner •

Fearing Health Insurance Rate Hikes in the Wake of COVID, Senate Democrats Propose Caps, Subsidies

The number of people seeking medical care for COVID-19-related reasons has sparked fears that Connecticut insurance companies, set to file their rates by the end of July, may raise 2021 premiums to astronomical levels. In response, members of the Connecticut State Senate are proposing measures that may offset or prevent some of these potential costs.

In the “Juneteenth Agenda,” unveiled on June 19 of this year, the Senate Democrats offered a list of reforms in policing, education, housing, and
Business Insider •

Read the pledge IBM's leadership team created to promote better work-life balance for its remote employees and working parents

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• Before a call about an important client for IBM iX, Caroline Roche's 10-month-old son rolled off his changing table. She arrived at the call late and stressed, which prompted her team to reevaluate how they supported working parents.
• IBM iX's global managing partner Paul Papas hopped on the chance and created a pledge for all IBM employees working remotely.
• The pledge touches on video call etiquette, asking employees to respect whether people want to turn on their camera and let th
Journal of Political Inquiry •

COVID-19 Presents Challenges for Religious Expression in the U.S.

Religious institutions across the U.S. are filing lawsuits against their state and local governments, arguing that the social distancing rules meant to slow the spread of COVID-19 are depriving them of one of their most basic, and most critical, liberties: the right to worship.

A church in Kentucky filed for a temporary restraining order to hold drive-in Easter services. In Florida, the pastor of a megachurch was arrested for holding a large indoor worship service in defiance of government orde
Pavement Pieces •

A Central American Poet Explores Identity, Race, and Rhythm... Via Zoom

Guatemalan poet Wingston González was supposed to spend a week in New York City in mid-April, presenting his latest work at different venues. After the pandemic cancelled his trip, he started experimenting with something new: live poetry readings via Zoom.

Nor is he the only one. April is National Poetry Month, and many of the poets across the U.S. who would normally be reciting their verse at a cafe’s open mic night have moved their performances to online platforms. Bookstores and universities
New York Transatlantic •

Jet Lag: Season 2, Episode 2—Millennials at the Opera

Famous opera houses are making an extra effort to attract young people to spend an evening at the opera. The discounts, promotions, and behind-the-scenes opportunities have been effective in Europe, but can they do the same in New York? We take a journey to the opera to find out…

Note: The Opera to the People group is sponsored by NYU’s Casa Italiana.

Produced and edited by Emilia Otte. Additional help from Katerina Barton.
Bedford + Bowery •

A Home For Little Wanderers, and the Occasional Arsonist

The Saturday before Christmas, 1921, near Third Avenue and 12th Street, a truck struck and killed little Amelia Laredo, who was on her way to buy a present. She was living just around the corner at the Howard Mission and Home for Little Wanderers, a Protestant-run orphanage housed in the four-story red brick-and-frame townhouse at 225 East 11th Street. On Saturdays, Jennie Hudson, the mission superintendent, would give each child a dime for the movies but that day, Amelia told her friends that s
New York Transatlantic •

The Question of Belonging

“There’s your Bamboula,” coworkers at a factory in Dunkirk in the 1950s would say to Audrey Célestine’s grandmother when her boyfriend, Marcel, would come around. The comment was a French racial term for a black person. People would refer to Célestine’s mother, Chantel, as négresse à plateau—another racial slur. And a child once told Célestine that she is black because “she washes with black soap.”


These phrases represent the generational impact of racism, just one of the themes that appears