This is our newsletter, Hard Reset. Sign up here.
Crunching the numbers
- A February conference held in Boston for the biotech company Biogen has been linked to an estimated 205,000 to 300,000 covid cases around the world, including 71,500 in Florida. A new study in the journal Science estimates that the conference led to about 2% of all covid infections in the United States.
- In Texas last month, the state attorney general’s office was sued over allegations that it retaliated against whistleblowers who accused the agency’s top lawyer of misconduct. Now the office will pay a Houston law firm $540 per hour for defense in the suit.
- A New York Times analysis of about 7,100 books published from 1950 to 2018 found that 95% of the authors were white.
In local news
- An Indianapolis Star investigation found that the chief executive for a rural county hospital previously made $8 million in a single year. After filing 22 records requests with county hospitals, the paper only received salary information for four of the facilities. IndyStar previously reported that since 2003, those hospitals bought more than 90% of the nursing homes in Indiana. The hospitals’ spending, including whether or not funds connected to the nursing homes were used to pad executives’ salaries, is a closely guarded secret.
- Texas Monthly took a snapshot of the risks wedding photographers undergo to continue working during the pandemic. The piece also hinted at the pressure to hold such events and have them be perfect, alongside a different kind of pressure that you may be familiar with – to accept and be comfortable in large gatherings where many people aren’t wearing masks.
- In its daily newsletter yesterday, Kaiser Health News did a rundown of local news stories from around the country as communities began to receive covid vaccines for the first time. It’s hard to read about people getting the vaccine without feeling some hope.
New on Big If True
This week, journalist Ben Luschen reported that Oklahoma school districts have attendance policies so lax that many students don’t have to attend virtual classes to be counted as present. A few takeaways:
- Educators are worried they’re losing kids, but we don’t know how many students are actually failing their classes this semester. We asked 15 school districts for basic data on student performance and attendance, and most didn’t provide any of the information we requested. Big If True is continuing to pursue this information, because it’s key to understanding how the pandemic has affected students this year.
- Students’ scores on federally-required standardized exams are expected to drop, and the Oklahoma State Department of Education doesn’t plan to cancel testing as it did last spring. Those who support testing say the exams are essential to gauge learning gaps, while others doubt the tests can be fairly administered from students’ homes, which are often chaotic compared to a traditional testing environment.
- At Tulsa Public Schools, the number of chronically absent students – those who miss at least one out of 10 school days – has risen 21% since last year. However, the school district has disciplined far fewer students for attendance issues than it did last fall. Schools are taking into account upheaval from the pandemic, and when a kid misses class, a Tulsa PS administrator said the district’s first concerns are the student’s safety and mental health.
ICYMI: On last week’s episode of our podcast, Hard Reset, we talked to reporter Emma Castleberry about her story examining why women have been more likely than men to leave work during the pandemic.
Thank you for reading and a final note: We have a goal to raise $1,500 this month to support our reporting costs. That amount will ensure we can bring you three in-depth reports next year.
So if you like our work, please donate now so we can keep making journalism in the public interest.
Thank you,
Mollie Bryant
Founder and editor, Big If True
