Photo by Beth Wallis
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Yurok Tribe grows solutions in soil of a crisisA drought, a pandemic and a landslide — three crises that exposed the food insecurity of California’s Yurok Tribe have ignited members to explore their own solutions. Nestled between the Pacific Ocean and the peaks of redwood trees on the mountains, the Yurok Tribe Reservation was declared a food desert by the USDA in 2017. The ongoing food insecurity issue worsened when the coronavirus pandemic, coupled with environmental and infrastructure problems, slammed the reservation and surrounding community.
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Drone footage by Clare Grant
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A taxing divideWhile most municipalities fund their operations with a healthy mixture of sales taxes and property taxes, college towns such as the town of Elon often must rely much more heavily on sales tax revenue since their largest property owner — the university — is tax exempt. Although the university has tax-exempt status, it still uses services provided by the town, which cost money to run. The fire department responding to alarms going off in a dorm, town police being dispatched to an apartment and even the water running through faucets on campus all are services at the expense of the town.
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Photo by Clare Grant
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COVID-19 disproportionately hits Alamance County Latino communityWith the Hispanic population in Alamance County, North Carolina making up 59% of coronavirus cases, but only 13% of the population a Burlington nonprofit helps the community.
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Photo by Beth Wallis
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Solutions and struggle: Native American tribes receive federal reliefCongress allocated a historic amount of federal funds to tribes through the 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act and the 2021 American Rescue Plan Act. For some Indigenous communities, those federal funds were beneficial. For others, the pandemic highlighted deeper systemic complexities federal funding cannot fully address.
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Photo by Mackenzie Wilkes
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Bridging the gap: Expanding Medicaid in NCGRAHAM — There’s a small house with painted hummingbirds on the side in southern Alamance County. It’s a food pantry that’s been around for six years. Lynne Pierce works there. She’s worked different jobs in the nonprofit sector for 20 years, serving the county through drug treatment programs and food pantries. However, Pierce can’t afford health care, and her job doesn’t provide it for her. She’s in the Medicaid coverage gap.
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Photo by Clare Grant
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Navigating faith in a pandemicOver 10 months of masks, limited gatherings and physical distancing have affected aspects of everyday life — work, school, social activity and even how people worship during the coronavirus pandemic. As COVID-19 continues to spread, places of worship and people of faith are learning to worship during a pandemic. Thus leaving spiritual leaders and people of faith to navigate their beliefs and hardships of life during a pandemic.
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Photo by Mackenzie Wilkes
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Some Alamance County Hispanic voters embrace conservative valuesOmar Lugo wants to empower people to help themselves. He realized he wanted to help people after his time spent growing up in Venezuela. Lugo came to the United States as a political refugee from Venezuela. In Venezuela, his father was poisoned for fighting against Hugo Chavez’s regime. The death of his father and growing up in Venezuela encouraged Lugo to be politically active in the United States.
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Drone footage by Clare Grant
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Elon athletics activity suspended due to COVID-19All varsity athletics activities have been suspended until further notice, due to cases of COVID-19 among student-athletes.
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FiveThirtyEight Illustration
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Americans are worried about omicron — and are ready to take precautionsAfter nearly two years of living in a pandemic, many Americans have started to return to “normal” life. In fact, 74 percent of Americans said their lives had returned to normal, according to a November Yahoo News/YouGov poll. But the new COVID-19 variant, omicron, could once again change how Americans feel about getting back to their pre-COVID lives.
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File photo by Kieran Ungemach
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NC extends stay-at-home order, as county officials hope for regional approach to reopeningWhile the new order is set to expire on May 8, Alamance County officials want to see the state work with local leaders going forward.
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