Noelle E. C. Evans

Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) urged the Trump administration and Congress to negotiate a new coronavirus relief bill and provide emergency funds to the United States Postal Service. 

During a stop in Rochester on Thursday, the Senate Minority Leader said that without $25 billion in emergency funding, vital mail delivery of medications, paychecks, and mail-in ballots would be compromised.

Sonia Hadchity said she was about 20 miles south of Beirut when she heard the explosion and saw the billow of smoke on Tuesday.

“I was at the beach with my family when we heard the very big explosion,” said Hadchity, a Lebanese filmmaker. “It was so loud, we thought it was close to us. So we looked and we saw the big mushroom-like cloud and we knew it was something in Beirut.”

Speaking after attending the funeral of a friend’s sister who died from the explosion, she said that many are angry with the government for letting this happen.

Libraries that closed in response to the coronavirus pandemic are offering curbside pickup and online options for community members. Some Spanish-speaking residents, however, are struggling to access library materials. 

Myrna Gonzalez said even before the pandemic, Spanish-language resources and books were limited at the Lincoln Branch Library on Joseph Avenue in the city of Rochester. Now options are even more restricted, she said. 

The New York Civil Liberties Union has reached a settlement with Immigration and Customs Enforcement over coronavirus protections for detainees being held in Batavia.

The settlement assures that detainees at the Buffalo Federal Detention Center who are at high-risk of health complications if they contract the virus, will be given protections that are in line with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

When the first COVID-19 cases were reported in Monroe County in March, Penny Sterling was struck by a detail.

The reports were broken down by a gender binary: male and female. Sterling, a transgender woman, was left with an unsettling question: If she died of the coronavirus, how would she go down in the records?

“Would they let me be the gender that I am or the gender that I was assigned at birth?” Sterling said. “Because I have very strong views on that. And furthermore, what about the nonbinary folk?”

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to halt a public charge rule in light of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The rule is also known as a “wealth test,” since any immigrant who qualifies for and relies on public assistance like Medicaid or food stamps could be denied a green card or visa. It had been in effect since February.