Latest Stories By Samantha Putterman

2020 has been quite a year of history and news: a presidential impeachment, the coronavirus pandemic, racial justice protests, economic hardship, rampaging wildfires and hurricanes. Now, as the year enters its final months, another potentially seismic moment: a potentially chaotic Election Night that might turn into an Election Week. Some states (though not all) have […]

Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the people who benefited from Joe Biden’s political career “are his family members, not the American people.” Her speech at the Republican National Convention has roots in the January impeachment trial where she defended President Trump. Business dealings by Biden’s younger son, Hunter, have raised many ethical […]

President Donald Trump is distancing himself from a private border wall project after federal prosecutors allege that some of those involved defrauded hundreds of thousands of donors and used the money on lavish purchases and personal expenses. “I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like when I read about it, I didn’t […]

The internet responded to Joe Biden’s selection of Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate with heaps of misinformation about her mixed-race heritage and personal biography. Harris is the first Black woman and first person of Indian descent to be nominated on a major party’s presidential ticket. Since Aug. 11, the day Biden announced Harris […]

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, voters in many states are preparing to vote by an unfamiliar method: by mail. Traditionally, most of the voting in most states is done in person, either before or on Election Day. But in recent months, health officials have encouraged voters to cast their ballots by mail so they can […]

In a joint speech delivered in Wilmington, Del., former Vice President Joe Biden and Sen. Kamala Harris made their campaign debut as running mates. The pair highlighted the historical significance of Harris being the first Black woman, and first person of Indian descent, to be nominated for national office by a major party in the […]

Amid gridlocked negotiations on a new coronavirus stimulus package, President Donald Trump is trying to partially extend more unemployment dollars to those out of work because of the pandemic. Unemployed workers received a $600 weekly supplement starting in late March, but it expired July 31.  The measure Trump signed would provide a reduced weekly benefit […]

Mid-to-late July is usually a time when American families gear up for a new school year. It’s filled with back-to-school sales, supply lists and a return to the structure an eight-hour school day provides. But as the U.S. grapples with escalating confirmed daily cases of COVID-19, parents, teachers and lawmakers are wrestling instead with questions […]

Coronavirus testing, and everything that goes along with it, has permeated the news cycle. That’s because the testing situation — in the United States and abroad — is complicated, and  continues to change.  Health officials say that adequate and rapid testing, as well as contact tracing, are paramount to slow the spread of COVID-19 and […]

It’s been over three months since the first COVID-19 case was confirmed in the United States, yet the country still continues to struggle to bring testing up to scale. Some labs don’t have the supplies they need to complete tests. Part of the problem is that the U.S. has outsourced production of some testing materials […]

President Donald Trump continues to tout the country’s increased testing capabilities in his coronavirus briefings.  He says that there’s a “tremendous amount” of unused testing capacity in states available for governors to tap, and that swabs and reagents — the materials needed to conduct the tests — are “so easy to get.”  But several governors […]

As government officials assess when and how to reopen the United States economy, health experts say there needs to be more widespread coronavirus testing. Opening back up amid a testing shortage will limit officials’ ability to detect and subsequently contain future outbreaks. There are many reasons why COVID-19 testing in the U.S. has been met […]