The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

The police killing of Breonna Taylor was thrust back in the headlines recently when federal charges were announced against the four current and former Louisville, Kentucky police officers that were involved in the botched raid that led to this tragedy back in March of 2020. So why is this important? What does it mean for police departments, and police accountability? We asked Dr. Jill McCorkel, Pr...

Inflation and gas prices are both down this week, and Philadelphia economist David Fiorenza is optimistic going into the fall. He updates us on job numbers, the housing market, and what we could see as a result of the second round of the American Rescue Plan Act. Plus, we find out what "stressflation" is and what that looks like in our region.

Economy got you down? We get it. Interest rates have soared. Inflation has been surging. A recession could be on the horizon...yet based on the numbers, we're still spending money, despite our decreasing confidence in the economy. What factors are driving this inherently contradictory trend? Which demographics of people are being disproportionately affected the most? Is there any end in sight? La...

Raise your hand if you know someone who was radicalized online during COVID-19. A lot of people have gone down an online video rabbit hole and emerged with some pretty wild beliefs and worldviews. Some situations strain families. Other times, the outcomes can be a lot worse. When we hear about tragedies like mass shootings, we often hear the term online radicalization attached to the person behind...

Kids in the US have had a couple of rough years at school because of the COVID-19 pandemic. One academic year was turned upside down as everyone scrambled to online learning on the fly. The next year was better, but you still had kids in and out of the classroom and there wasn't always consistency. And throughout it all, there has been a lot of concern for how much learning for kids was interrupte...

Political leaders take trips to other countries and areas all the time, and usually they don’t draw a lot of attention. But that was not the case with a recent trip that Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi made. The Speaker traveled to Taiwan on a recent trip through Asia, and that did not sit well with China, which responded with fiery rhetoric and alarming military drills. So what’s the big deal?...

A few months ago we asked Sigal Atzmon, the CEO and founder of medical science & tech company Medix Global to come on the podcast to talk about her concern that the US would emerge from the pandemic weaker than other countries. A lot has happened since then -- new variants, new information about long COVID, and another health emergency in monkey pox. We wanted to follow up with Atzmon, ask if...

There was stunning news out of Afghanistan recently -- the US had killed Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. His name became all too familiar to Americans in the wake of 9/11, and he had been leading the terrorist organization since Osama Bin Laden was killed by US forces back in 2011. So what does his death mean for the terrorist organization? Is the world any safer today than it was a week ago? W...

The most optimistic economists wouldn't have believed these jobs numbers. Are we finally back to pre-pandemic employment figures? We've been overwhelmed the last few weeks with GDP and recession talk -- how do smart people square the strength of the labor market with all the talk of a recession? What's the Federal Reserve going to do next, and which direction are mortgage rates going? Philadelphia...

Terri Hinkley understands and respects why people might be opposed to abortion. But in the aftermath of the Supreme Court overturning Roe v. Wade, the CEO of the Academy of Medical Surgical Nurses is concerned about the unintended consequences she thinks the ruling will cause, particularly for nurses and other health care practitioners. Unprecedented gray areas. Life or death judgement calls. Ment...

Public health has been front and center the last few years during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite its importance, it still doesn't get the respect it deserves and funding is a consistent problem. The non-profit, non-partisan health policy advocacy organization Trust for America's Health is out with its annual report, called The Impact of Chronic Underfunding on America’s Public Health System. We wa...

The Sixers recently announced plans to build a new arena in Center City. It would be located in the Fashion District and right next to Chinatown. It would be called 76 Place, and it's being targeted for a 2031 opening. It's a long time away and a lot can happen between now and then, but we wanted to ask a few questions anyway. What would it look like? How would it change Center City? How would it...

We're seeing another surge of coronavirus cases, nearly two and a half years after we all heard of COVID-19 for the first time. What do you need to know about the new Omicron subvariant? At this stage of the pandemic, should you be worried at all, especially if you are already vaccinated, boosted, and generally doing what the public health officials and doctors say you should be doing? What's goin...

GDP estimates are in and it looks like we could be headed towards the textbook definition of a recession, albeit a very strange one. Have we seen anything like this before, a recession when the labor market and jobs numbers are this hot? We just got another rate increase, could inflation go higher or have we pretty much peaked? And gas prices continue to fall, how low could they go? Philadelphia e...

The tragic school shooting in Uvalde was made more enraging when more and more information come out about how many law enforcement agencies and officers were on site -- and yet no one acted. It was enraging. Police have a responsibility to act in a situation like that, right? Well, there's a Supreme Court decision from 2005 that suggests otherwise. We wanted to better understand what Castle Rock v...

We're already dealing with COVID and monkeypox, and now a new case of polio was reported in Rockland County, New York. Should we be worried about yet another infectious disease spreading, particularly one that is almost eradicated? We talked with Dr. Abby Rudolph, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Temple University College of Public Health, about what polio is, how this case...

When the new James Webb Space telescope came online, it started delivering breathtaking images of faraway galaxies and planets and stars. Already, astronomers and scientists have gotten a tremendous amount of new information to analyze. What could we learn next about the universe? We asked Dr. Eric Jensen, Professor of Astronomy at Swarthmore College about the telescope's biggest implications and...

For three days, Luke Brown was in the most severe pain he’s ever experienced. He had contracted monkeypox, which is now a global health emergency. He tried everything to help ease the pain, and nothing worked. He eventually found out about a drug called TPOXX, normally used to treat smallpox, that can also be effective against monkeypox symptoms. Brown talks with KYW's Jim Melwert about his experi...

Gas prices keep going down pretty consistently, how low could they go? How much do gas prices impact how Americans feel about inflation? And how many more tools does the Fed have to cool down the economy? Philadelphia economist David Fiorenza is back on the podcast to break down the most important economic stories of the week and why they should matter to you. 

According to the ASPCA , 23 million households got a new dog or cat during the pandemic - that’s 1 in 5 households in the country. Now, local shelters have seen an uptick in animals being brought back  because their owners weren't really prepared, or the pets are having behavioral problems when their owners leave the house. For people who want to keep their pandemic pets, how can we help them adju...

There was a lot to take in as a result of this most recent Supreme Court term, so you would be forgiven if, while processing the overturning of Roe v. Wade and some of the other headline making decisions that were rendered, you may have missed a case involving Miranda rights. What did the court decide in Vega v. Tekoh, and why is it important? We asked David Rudovsky, Senior Fellow at the Universi...

Have you ever heard about the Independent State Legislature Doctrine? It's a fringe theory that says state lawmakers should have the exclusive power to manage and oversee elections, even if they want do something that goes against state law. For example, in North Carolina, the state Supreme Court threw out an electoral map it says was so partisan, it violated the state's constitution. North Caroli...

A recent Supreme Court ruling caught our attention because of what it could mean for the 'wall of separation' between church and state in America. The case comes out of Maine and deals with public money and private religious schools. So what happened, and why does it matter? We asked Lisa Tucker, Associate Professor of Law at The Drexel University Thomas R. Kline School of Law.

More than 10,000 people turn 65 every day in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services , and the AARP says most of them would prefer aging in place at home over eventually moving to a care facility. Is that affordable? What would it take to make your home fit for aging in place, and what can home care services offer? If you haven’t thought about the kind of...

Isolation. Depression. Boredom. These were very real ripple effects brought on by the outset of the pandemic. What was one way people tried to cope? By drinking, which led to a spike in alcohol disorders. According to a recent study, the long-term consequences could be serious. Eric Gremminger has battled substance abuse first-hand, and knows how hard it is to stop the cycle. After getting clean,...