U.S. Leaders Divided On Whether Students Should Return to School

Currents News Staff

Many parents are worried about sending their kids back to school. Teachers are also concerned and many are wondering – should schools reopen? Is it safe? There’s been a big jump in cases among children.

Still, as some public health officials have warned about opening schools in states with COVID-19 hot-spots, others want students back in class, including President Donald Trump.

“For the most part, they do very well. I mean, they don’t get very sick. They don’t catch it easily. They don’t get very sick.”

The governor of Florida also made a statement on the return to school.

“In terms of risks to school kids, this is lower risk than seasonal influenza,” Gov. Ron DeSantis said.

However, medical experts say having youth in crowded hallways and classrooms poses a significant threat. A former professor from Harvard Medical School says it’s risky.

“You’re waiting for a second fire to erupt,” William Haseltine said. “You’re pouring fuel on a raging fire.”

More than 800 students in Georgia’s Cherokee County are in quarantine due to possible coronavirus exposure. This comes one week after in-person learning began.

“We are not out of the woods yet and we cannot take our foot off the gas,” Gov. Brian Kemp said. “I’m asking that all Georgians continue to remain vigilant as we continue this fight.”

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, over the past four weeks, there’s been a 90 percent hike in known COVID-19 cases among U.S.

The director at the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy says September might see far more coronavirus cases.

“We think we’re going to see an explosion of cases in September that will far surpass what we saw after Memorial Day,” Michael Osterholm said. “And this is just going to continue increasing, getting higher and higher in terms of numbers.”

Harlem’s Family-Owned Famous Fish Market Defies Odds, Finds Success Through Faith During Pandemic

By Emily Drooby

The moment Famous Fish Market’s doors opened for the day, people were already waiting to enter the Harlem shop. It was a welcome sight, one the long-time owners feared they wouldn’t see again.

“I have seen other businesses fall through this, even my favorite restaurants, it’s tough, it’s tough,” explained Michael Howie. His father owns the shop and he’s also the manager.

The pandemic has crushed thousands of businesses across the country.

According to a study done by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, 41 percent of Black-owned businesses across the country shut down between February and April. That’s compared to 32 percent of Latino businesses, 26 percent of Asian businesses, and 17 percent of white businesses.

Famous Fish Market was started in 1974 by current owner, Eric Strickland’s aunt. He took over in 1998 and now runs it along with his wife, Viola and two children, Michael and Erica.

It has survived a lot, even the gentrification of the neighborhood. But when the pandemic erupted, the family thought this might be it.

“Honestly, I’m like, ‘We are going to do bad going into this.’ I just know it because we have never shut down,” Michael said. “The most we shut down was a day.”

The Black-owned business fought hard to survive.

“Things are starting to open up for us, we did a lot of things to deal with the coronavirus, we had to change our whole system,” Eric explained.

They changed everything; from their hours, to the way they take orders, even to the way customers receive their condiments. They struggled to get a loan and were turned down twice before receiving it.

The hard work paid off. Not only has the 46-year-old business survived, it has thrived.

“When we got back, the amount of love, it was just crazy I did not expect it at all,” Michael said.

Their daughter Erica said the family believes their Christian faith is a big key to their success.

“There’s a higher power, our blessings come from there,” she said. “As long as we do right, put out the right energy. Good things come back in return.”

That faith is coupled with a special family recipe.

“Once you taste it, it’s like no other taste like it, and that’s what keeps people coming back,” Viola told Currents News.

But there’s one more ingredient that makes this place special: family, something you feel the moment you walk through the door.

Fried-up food, faith, fortitude and family, that’s what you’ll find at Famous Fish Market.

Travel ICU Nurse Reflects on Fighting COVID-19 In New York City

By Jessica Easthope

More than 4,000 nurses from across the country came to New York City to fight coronavirus during the height of the pandemic, Janelle Orbon is one of them.

“Watching things unfold on TV it actually was a no-brainer, that’s where I needed to be, I was fully trained and wanted to help and would have felt much worse not being there,” said Janelle, a critical care nurse from Denver, Colorado.

Janelle left Denver thinking she’d be in New York for six weeks, she stayed for three months. What she learned is that medical professionals still don’t know enough about the deadly virus.

“We don’t know what we’re up against. I don’t think anyone knows a ton about COVID,” Janelle said.

When Janelle arrived in New York City at the end of March, it was the epicenter of the COVID-19 crisis. She wasted no time resuming her role as a critical care nurse at the hospital where she worked for five years.

“When I first got to New York it was the thick of it, that’s when there were still field hospitals across the street, every floor of our hospital had become a giant ICU,” Janelle said.

What struck Janelle wasn’t how many nurses came from other areas of the country, but other areas of medicine to do everything they could to save lives.

“Nurses from pediatrics from obstetrics, oncology, stepped up into roles that normally takes a nurse years to master and train for,” Janelle said.

Now, back home in Denver, Janelle says that her city has control over the big spike it saw when 122 people died on April 24.

On that same day in New York City, 437 people died. Janelle says out-of-town nurses got most of the credit when it came to fighting the virus in New York City, but she says the real heroes are the nurses who were there long before the pandemic.

“We were almost out of ventilators and the nurses on my old ICU unit said they would stay after work and manually bag breaths into patients, these are the true heroes,” Janelle said.

The gravity of Janelle’s time in New York City is still taking its toll and has changed her outlook on nursing.

“I immediately upon returning I actually talked to my boss about transitioning back into critical care full time and I’m doing that now,” said Janelle.

Janelle’s experience has taught her that what’s certain in the fight against COVID-19 is the unknown, she says she would come back in a heartbeat.

Pope Francis Baptizes Formerly Conjoined Twins

Currents News Staff

A happy update on a miraculous story – the Pope himself has baptized two formerly conjoined twins in his own chapel.

The baby girls were separated at the Vatican’s children hospital, Bambino Gesu, in early June.

They are currently still hospitalized there, but their mother “really wanted the pope to baptize them.”

Holy Father Sends Donation to Lebanon, Encourages Others to Do the Same

Currents News Staff

Pope Francis is calling on the world to come to Lebanon’s aid in its time of crisis.

He’s also urging the country’s religious to step up in a special way.

The Holy Father is doing his part to help – sending a donation of almost 300-thousand dollars to Lebanon.

Catholic Aid Worker in Beirut Says Rebuilding the City Could Take Years

Currents News Staff

Charity organizations around the world are stepping in to help Beirut, nearly a week after the explosion.

One of them, the Catholic Near East Welfare Association, is helping those in need despite their own office being damaged by the blast.

The agency’s Regional Director, Michel Constantin, joins Currents News from his home in Beirut.

How the Nuns of Talitha Kum and NYC Artist ESPO Are Teaming Up to Fight Against Human Trafficking

By Emily Drooby

Planes, a faceless nun, a safe house, and a ladder — these are all images crafted into a mural on the corner of Catherine Street and Metropolitan Avenue in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. It was created by artist Steve Powers, also known as Espo.

It’s not just art, it’s a public face in a fight against evil being done by nuns who are part of the Talitha Kum organization that fights human trafficking around the globe.

John McCaffrey is the President of the Galileo Foundation which supports Vatican initiatives. He was first asked by Pope Francis himself to help raise support and money for Talitha Kum. However, there was a problem: keeping the identities of the nuns and the survivors they help secret.

“The nature of their work is pretty confidential and pretty sensitive, so it’s impossible to show their faces in many cases,” John explained.

Staying out of the public eye makes it hard for them to share their success stories and in turn, makes it difficult to fundraise. But they need the help because their work is expensive – it can cost between two-thousand and ten-thousand dollars to rescue a survivor.

This not only includes getting them home, but also providing shelter, recovery treatment and education to get them integrated back into society.

“How we can find a different way of speaking about the reality in the respect of the dignity and the identity of the people also to protect them,” Sister Gabriella Bottani of Talitha Kum asked.

That’s how the idea of the “Super Nuns” initiative was born.

“Ideally it is an animation project that tells the story in real time of these real-life situations that the nuns find themselves in around the world,” John told Currents News.

The initiative uses comic-book-like art to tell their stories safely. It all points people to the SUPER NUNS community on Patreon, where you can donate online at https://www.patreon.com/SuperNuns.

This website allows people to make monthly donations and in return they receive access to special pieces of art and stories.

ESPO helped launch the campaign with prints and the mural.

“It’s drops in a bucket,” ESPO said. “It’s just a little bit at a time it’s not really big changes, but it’s little changes until the bucket is full.”

ESPO is a life-long Catholic. His art made it all the way to the Vatican, and was even signed by the Holy Father back in February.

“This dedication to the Talitha Kum sisters and his ability to stop everything he was doing — really multi-task — I’m sure with his many duties, to stop and talk to us and give us a little bit of strength was super humbling and super gracious,” ESPO said of the visit and opportunity to meet the Holy Father.

Over the past two years, Talitha Kum has helped protect more than 15,000 survivors. Money raised on the Patreon site will help fund on the ground work they’re currently doing.

Currents News full broadcast for Mon, 8/10/20 (Catholic news)

Currents News reports secular and religious news from the Catholic perspective.

Some of the top stories on this newscast:

New York City’s schools get the green light, and teachers in the Diocese of Brooklyn are ready to go.

President Trump signed new pandemic relief orders; but what do they really mean for the average American?

Sadness turned to anger as protests break out in Beirut. We’ll speak with a Catholic leader who’s in the city right now.

When St. Patrick Catholic Academy Reopens, Teachers and Students Will Face New Challenges

By Jessica Easthope

Brendan Moloney is an eighth grade teacher at St. Patrick Catholic Academy in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, and he can’t wait to get his students back in the classroom.

“This building was built to fit 60 students a class, two classes a grade and we have about 15 to 20 students in a class, so we’re able to safely social distance and stay six feet apart,” he explained of the school’s layout.

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced the weekend of August 7 that New York’s infection rate is low enough to give schools the green light to reopen.

“Our schools are facing unprecedented challenges, they must now not only educate our students but keep them safe from this deadly virus,” said Gov. Cuomo.

But how schools reopen will be left up to each school district, and parents.

“They have real issues, and real concerns, and there has to be a dialogue, and there has to be a discussion,” the governor added. “Several school districts have sent in plans. Several school districts have updated their plans.”

St. Patrick has already made its plan public, with “some staircases that will only be ones that you walk up and not so students aren’t passing each other,” said Brendan. “Students will wear masks at all times and teachers will wear face shields.”

But it won’t be easy for every school in the Brooklyn Diocese to go back as COVID-19 poses a greater threat in some neighborhoods. Right now, schools are hoping for the best but preparing for the worst.

“I think we really need to give parents hope and our teachers hope,” said Dr. Thomas Chadzutko, Superintendent of Schools for the diocese. “Let’s plan for full reopening and if we have to kick it down a notch to hybrid, I think that’s acceptable.”

According to a new poll that surveyed more than 500 teachers, 82 percent were concerned about returning to in-person learning.

Brendan says he does fear for his health.

“We’ll do our best to wear our masks and face shields but you never know what’s going to happen,” he said.

Though he’s eager to teach in front of his classroom, Brendan says Catholic schools in the Brooklyn Diocese are well equipped for online learning in case schools close again.

“We wouldn’t miss a step, just like we didn’t miss a step back in march because our kids are so used to learning digitally,” he explained.

In order to reopen in September, Catholic schools must have their plans approved first by the diocese, then by the state.

Amnesty International Demands Independent Investigation Into Beirut Blast

Currents News Staff

Humanitarian organization Amnesty International is demanding an independent investigation into the Beirut blast that devastated the country Aug. 4. It wants to ensure the probe is free from any domestic political bias by calling for a worldwide group of investigators to be assembled.

The explosive, ammonium nitrate, was stored unsafely in a Beirut warehouse and could be the cause for the blast, but the organization believes the world needs to know for certain. It argues that it’s the only way to ensure truth, justice and reparations for the victims.

One might wonder what exactly is ammonium nitrate? Scientifically speaking, it’s the ammonium salt of nitric acid, and it’s highly explosive. The material is used in fertilizer and to produce explosives such as bombs. It can explode by adding energy, such as heat or shock, especially when contaminants are present.

Lebanese officials knew for six years that thousands of tons of the volatile material were stored at the Beirut port but didn’t act to remove it or make it safe.

Records show that Lebanese customs officials wrote letters to the courts at least six times from 2014 – 2017 seeking guidance on how to dispose of the highly combustible material.