By Deidre Williams
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Noting a series of alarming incidents around the country, members of a citizens police oversight panel that reports to the Buffalo Common Council on Wednesday questioned Police Commissioner Byron C. Lockwood on the steps being taken to prevent a white supremacist from infiltrating the department’s ranks.
By Tara Parker-Pope
Read the full article from The New York Times, here.
Although studies of a third dose are underway, experts agree that the vaccines are still working well, even against the Delta variant, and that booster shots are not necessary right now.
By Yonah Freemark, Eleanor Noble, Yipeng Su, and Kimberly Burrowes
Read the full article from Housing Matters, here.
But deep structural racism and classism have made access to homeownership inequitably distributed along racial and class lines. Nowhere in the US is this inequity greater than in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, a region encompassing Minneapolis, Saint Paul, and their suburbs, where Black families own homes at less than one-third the rate of white families—the largest gap in the nation.
By Dale Anderson
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Only one person died statewide from Covid-19 on Saturday, Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo reported Sunday, matching the lowest number New York State has registered since the pandemic began.
By Russell Weaver
Read the full article from Jacobin, here.
As clichéd as it sounds, Buffalo’s historic June 2021 primary, in which democratic socialist India Walton won a major upset over four-term incumbent Byron Brown, is something of a tale of two cities. And it’s the same tale that Buffalonians have discussed for generations: the “East-West divide” carved by Main Street through the heart of the city.
By Barbara O’Brien
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
The state Health Department updated the guidance because of the “current low rates of Covid-19 transmission,” it said in an email to school districts.
Schools and districts may implement the masking policies for child care, day camp and overnight camp programs, the state said. That guidance says that unvaccinated children “are strongly encouraged but not required to wear face coverings indoors as feasible.”
By Robert J. McCarthy
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
Walton cruised to victory last month by emphasizing new ways to solve old problems, especially in policing. She reiterated on Wednesday her plan to reallocate $7.5 million of the Police Department budget to programs that link usual subjects of police attention to mental health services. Her Wednesday event also marked the first of many in which she is expected to highlight her proposals, backed by high-profile figures like Williams. Others with similar socialist philosophies – such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of the Bronx and Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont – are mentioned as other potential campaign allies.
By Sandra Tan
Read the full article from Buffalo News, here.
The Democratic majority of the Erie County Legislature stands poised to approve County Executive Mark Poloncarz’s $123.7 million spending plan Thursday, which would take one of the biggest windfalls in decades and use it to boost a variety of infrastructure and community improvement projects, as well as county payroll.
But the Republican-supported minority caucus is gearing up to wage a battle on the Legislature floor. They will push to sidetrack the county executive’s spending plan and replace it with a different plan that they say offers more public input.
By Daniel E. Slotnik
Read the full article from The New York Times, here.
The world’s known coronavirus death toll passed four million on Thursday, a loss roughly equivalent to the population of Los Angeles, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
By Ben Dooley
Read the full article from The New York Times, here.
Tokyo reported 920 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, the highest number since May, when the case count briefly rose over 1,000. The state of emergency will start on Monday and be in effect for the duration of the Tokyo Olympics, which begin on July 23.