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Friday, March 6, 2020

First an Opioid Addiction. Then a Life-Altering Criminal Record.
by Michael Cooper
Record expungement would help North Carolinians trapped by the opioid crisis.

Coronavirus Is Spreading. Your Waiter Can’t Stay Home To Stop It.
by Lori Fox
Neither can your grocery store cashier, Uber driver, or pizza delivery guy.

The Poverty Line Matters, But It Isn’t Capturing Everyone It Should
By Areeba Haider and Justin Schweitzer
From our partner, the Center for American Progress: The way poverty is measured in America may seem like just a technical choice, but doing it correctly can improve millions of lives.

Rural Americans Are Vulnerable to the Coronavirus
By Olugbenga Ajilore and Zoe Willingham
From our partner, the Center for American Progress: Rural America has a higher proportion of vulnerable populations and more barriers to much-needed resources to keep its communities healthy.

What We’re Reading

Time For A Checkup. COVID-19 is on everyone's minds. Here's a calm explainer on why we shouldn't pin our hopes on a vaccine. This woman finds it cheaper to travel to Canada for insulin, while another takes journeys of a different nature tracking down medical debt — something she knows well, because she's in mountains of it herself.

Shut The Front Door. We've got an affordable housing problem. But really, it's a constellation of problems with very different fixes. One of them: After the recession, speculators bought up hundreds of thousands of homes and now they're renting them out at a massive profit, but aren't maintaining them. Another: Communities are wooing tech companies with incentives, but they're paying long-term prices in the millions.

What's Cooking? The restaurant industry has always been dicey, but now restaurants are closing up shop from coast to coast, putting people out of work and leaving customers hungry. The rise of “ghost kitchens” is one reason why; these makeshift kitchens are catering to delivery services, not sit-down diners. And that health department letter grade you look for before entering? A well-intentioned program with a dark side.

Sex Work Is Work

Women in the adult entertainment industry live hemmed in by stereotypes. Some hide what they do to avoid stigma, while others are open about it, even if it leads to judgment. It can be especially challenging for parents supporting their families with their work. Photographer Mary Beth Koeth documented mothers — some still working and others out of the industry — in a series of lively, tender, and humanizing portraits with their kids.

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