This week, we bring you two graphs that tell an important story, as new cases of COVID-19 are beginning to rise in many parts of the U.S. The graphs contrast average new cases of the disease in select parts of California and Florida with the averages for each state as a whole. Together, they suggest the impact of local action where national and state leadership in addressing the spread of the pandemic is lagging or absent.

In California, where public health leaders operate largely independently from one another, officials from six counties in the San Francisco Bay Area came together to take dramatic actions. As mid-March approached and the potential scope of the pandemic was just beginning to come into view, these officials banned large gatherings, shut down schools and eventually worked over a weekend to craft a full shelter-in-place order for the region. In ensuing months, as new cases rose across the rest of the state, the curve in the Bay Area quickly plateaued.

In Florida, where a centralized state health department is responsible for most decision-making, it was more difficult for local leaders to act independently absent an aggressive state-level response. Still, officials in South Florida’s Miami-Dade and Broward counties took the lead in implementing measures such as school and beach closures. In late March, the two counties followed several cities in enacting shelter-in-place orders, before the state’s governor put in place a looser statewide order at the beginning of April. Possibly as a result of this local decision-making, new cases in the two counties were dropping as they were rising elsewhere in the state.

Now, states are opening back up, and the local leaders’ decisions will likely play a significant role in determining how their communities fare. For a deep look into how local leaders in Florida and California mobilized around COVID-19, read our full investigation, conducted by Reveal reporters Lance Williams and Laura C. Morel in partnership with reporters from WLRN in South Florida and KQED in San Francisco.
 

When predatory priests are protected

On this week’s episode of Reveal, reporter Emily Schwing updates our listeners on what’s happened at Gonzaga since that investigation. She’s been looking into whether there were Jesuit priests with credible allegations of sexual misconduct against them who worked directly for the university. Among Jesuit schools, we found, Gonzaga has the highest number of such priests who worked as staff and faculty.

Hear more, including the story of a woman’s efforts over nearly three decades to try to convince the university to investigate a priest accused of sexual misconduct, in this week’s episode.  

‘My battle is with society’

Our comic series In/Vulnerable continues to tell visual stories about the inequities exposed by COVID-19. Last week, we shared the story of Leilani Jordan, who worked at a grocery store, and her mother, Zenobia Shepherd, who told us about Leilani’s experience. 

You can keep up with the series by following us on Instagram or visiting the series page at revealnews.org. 
 

What we’re reading

The ‘warrior cop’ is a toxic mentality. And a lucrative industry. (The Trace)

While the warrior narrative has existed in law enforcement circles for decades, it has intensified in recent years, driven by the flood of funding and surplus military equipment made available to police departments following the terror attacks on September 11, 2001. There is now a cottage industry of police consulting firms, which charge departments thousands of dollars to teach tactics more suited for war than for civil society. 

The escalating terrorism problem in the United States (Center for Strategic and International Studies)

Far-right terrorism has significantly outpaced terrorism from other types of perpetrators, including from far-left networks and individuals inspired by the Islamic State and al-Qaeda. Right-wing attacks and plots account for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the United States since 1994, and the total number of right-wing attacks and plots has grown significantly during the past six years. Right-wing extremists perpetrated two-thirds of the attacks and plots in the United States in 2019 and over 90% between January 1 and May 8, 2020.

Members of Congress took small-business loans – and the full extent is unknown (Politico)

At least four members of Congress have reaped benefits in some way from the half-trillion-dollar small-business loan program they helped create. And no one knows how many more there could be.

Fact-based journalism is worth fighting for.