A Year of Pandemic

 

President Biden addressed the nation from the White House on the one-year anniversary of the coronavirus pandemic hitting the U.S. and the shutdowns that resulted from the virus. During his remarks, the president announced that he will order states to make all adults in the U.S. eligible for COVID-19 vaccines by May 1. He also discussed reopening schools and increasing the number of vaccination sites across the country. At the beginning of his remarks, President Biden said that to date, the number of Americans who died from the virus is 527,726

Biden Approval

According to FiveThirtyEight’s presidential approval tracker,2 54.4 percent of Americans approve of the job Biden is doing as president, while 37.9 percent disapprove (a net approval rating of +16.5 points). At this time last week, 54.3 percent approved and 37.1 percent disapproved (a net approval rating of +17.1 points).

But despite the increased volume of the debate, public opinion on reopening schools is complicated. The issue is not as black-and-white as many are depicting it, and the variations in wording that pollsters use to ask about it can produce different results. Here’s what the polls over the past month do say.

Do you agree with the polls?  Do you think schools should go back 100%?  Why or why not?  How would this decision affect your approval of the President?

Page One Meeting

Take any WCPO 9 news story and rewind it back to its beginning -- before we shoot a frame of video -- and you'll see reporters, managers and producers debating everything you are about to see and hear.

From the initial pitch, through editorial meetings, to writing, revising, editing and finally airing and publication, our news stories go through a complex life cycle.

We Have Met the Enemy...

Walt Kelly’s phrase, “We have met the enemy and he is us” derives from braggadocio during the War of 1812 in which commodore Oliver Hazard Perry reported, “We have met the enemy and they are ours” to William Henry Harrison after the Battle of Lake Erie. That phrase stands with John Paul Jones’s “I have not yet begun to fight,” and Julius Caesar’s “Veni, vidi, vici” (I came, I saw, I conquered) as one of the most famous battle reports in history.

The phrase lives on, not by constant reuse in similar circumstances, but by clever rephrasing in divergent situations. That is what has kept this phrase from becoming a cliché. As it is artfully applied to different scenarios, it continues to tell us about ourselves—and the world around us.

How can it be applied to the current situation in the US Capitol?  

Who is the 'Enemy' in this circumstance and how can he be defeated?

 

Lame Duck

Once the electorate has voted them out, what have politicians accomplished as they linger in office? And how was the term "lame duck" coined? Correspondent Mo Rocca looks at America's time-honored practice of peaceably handing over the reins of presidential power.

Should President Trump resign?  Why or why not?

Let America Be American Again

Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again" was written more than eight decades ago, but is just as relevant now as our nation struggles to live up to its promise of freedom and equality.

Will you Pay it Forward?

What is the best gift you've ever received? What is the best gift you've ever given? Which is better: to give or to receive?

Pay It Forward is a 2000 American film based on the novel of the same name by Catherine Ryan Hyde. When 11 1⁄2-year-old Trevor McKinney begins seventh grade in Las Vegas, Nevada, his social studies teacher Eugene Simonet gives the class an assignment to devise and put into action a plan that will change the world for the better. Trevor's plan is a charitable pyramid scheme, based on good deeds rather than profit. He calls his plan "Pay it forward", which means the recipient of a favor does a favor for a third party rather than paying the favor back.

Will you Pay it Forward?: "A California man launched a Facebook campaign to get others to Pay it Forward on December 1st. Why not pay it forward every day?"

Your assignment: Devise one way to 'Pay it Forward' in the next week. Carry out your plan and be prepared to share it with the class