Intro: Hey everyone, welcome back to What a week!, I’m your host, Olivia Lee, here to deliver your weekly dose of the news. Let’s get started!
In Local News:
https://www.kgw.com/article/news/local/homeless/dual-plans-to-house-portlands-homeless-promise-to-get-1000-off-the-streets-in-the-next-year/283-43194cf0-f1fe-4495-ba50-699d96949912
The city of Portland and Multnomah County announced in a joint press release last Thursday stating officials are working on two separate, coordinating plans that would allocate historic amounts of funding towards housing services. Multnomah County is planning to spend up to $1 billion over the next ten years. The city of Portland is adding an additional $20 million to create multiple outdoor camps that would provide those experiencing homelessness with shelter and services. The officials stated that the goal is to have six up and running designated outdoor camps by this September. The city's $20 million would come from money received from the federal government for COVID-19 relief. The county's $1 billion dollars could come from
homeless services tax measure voters passed in May of last year.
In-state news:
https://www.koin.com/news/health/coronavirus/declines-continues-as-oregon-covid-cases-hospitalizations-again-fall/
The Oregon Health Authority reported just 257 cases this past Sunday, continuing a downward trend of positive cases of the coronavirus around the state. The latest infections brought Oregon’s total number of cases to 201,260. Two more Oregonians died from the virus–two men from Marion County, a 44-year-old and 57-year-old. OHA said the older man had underlying medical conditions. Week-to-week hospital data showed COVID-19 hospitalizations were down 11.3% from two weeks ago. The OHA issued a statement this past Sunday saying quote“As of today, 1,843,416 people have completed a COVID-19 vaccine series…. There are 2,237,342 people who have had at least one dose.” The seven-day running average of doses being administered throughout the state is about 26,000 per day.
In National News:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/24/health/us-coronavirus-monday/index.html
https://www.npr.org/sections/coronavirus-live-updates/2021/05/25/1000171685/half-of-all-u-s-adults-will-be-fully-vaccinated-against-covid-19-as-of-tuesday
The U.S. COVID-19 vaccination program has gone from zero to 50% in less than six months. As of last Tuesday afternoon, the Biden administration stated that half of the country's adults are now fully vaccinated against the coronavirus. Andy Slavitt, a White House senior adviser on the COVID-19 response, said during a briefing quote "This is a major milestone in our country's vaccination efforts… The number was 1% when we entered office Jan. 20th. End quote. As of present, nearly 130 million people age 18 and older have completed their vaccine regimens since the first doses were administered to the public in December, the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. Another 70 million vaccine doses are currently in the distribution pipeline, according to the agency. Vaccinations have risen sharply in children 12 years and older, weeks after
the Food and Drug Administration said that these cohorts are eligible to receive the COVID-19 vaccine made by Pfizer-BioNTech. Nearly 5 million adolescents have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to the
CDC's latest data.
In International News:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57291530
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/may/28/canada-remains-indigenous-children-mass-graves
Last week, a mass grave containing the remains of 215 children was found in Canada at a former residential school set up to assimilate indigenous people. The children were students at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia. The Kamloops Indian residential school was established in 1890 under the leadership of the Roman Catholic church, and closed in 1978. It was part of a cross-Canada network of residential schools created to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children by removing them from their homes and communities, and forbidding them from speaking their native languages or performing cultural practices. Physical, emotional and sexual abuse were widespread within these institutions, and so was forced labour. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said it was a quote "painful reminder" of a "shameful chapter of our country's history." The First Nation is working with museum specialists and the coroner's office to establish the causes and timings of the deaths, which are not currently known. Rosanne Casimir, the chief of the community in British Columbia's city of Kamloops, said the preliminary finding represented an unthinkable loss that was never documented by the school's administrators.
Lastly here is the wildcard news for the week:
https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/world/spain-stamps-skin-color-trnd/index.html
Last week, Spain's postal service ended a
widely criticized stamp campaign inspired by different skin tones, just three days after its launch, following criticism that it perpetuated racism. The government-run postal service earlier last week debuted "Equality Stamps," a collection of four stamps meant to represent different skin colors. The palest of the stamps cost 90 cents more than the darkest stamp -- a price difference meant to reflect the value Spaniards place on people based on their skin color, according to an ad campaign for the stamps. The online response to this new campaign was extremely negative. Thousands of Twitter users criticized the campaign upon its launch, calling it tone-deaf or "accidentally racist." Many users expressed shock that a government-run service would approve such a product. Sales of the stamps ended last Friday morning, a spokesman for Spain’s postal service told CNN. He said the postal service quote "will not make comments" about the criticism the campaign received.
Closing: Well that wraps up What a Week! Stay safe and see you guys next week.
