The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

A new federal eviction moratorium was put in place by the CDC, and people have a lot of questions about it. Is this the same as the previous moratorium that expired at the end of July? Is money that has been allocated by the federal government to help renters and landlords getting where it needs to go? If not, why? Holly Beck is an attorney in the Housing Unit with Community Legal Services of Phil...

A Temple professor has worked on some fascinating research about the impact of legalization of marijuana on workers' compensation claims. Dr. Catherine Maclean, Associate Professor of Economics at Temple University joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to talk about the study and what it reveals about legal marijuana and worker health.  Check out the research here: https://www.nber.org/papers/w28471

We just saw a fantastic jobs report that pushed unemployment down half a percentage point. Despite all the uncertainty with the virus, the economy is showing its resilience. Almost one million jobs added, especially in the summer, is truly excellent news. The numbers say leisure and hospitality are finally starting to rebound, and governments started hiring again as well. And another week means an...

If you've ever loved someone with dementia, you know what a scary and heartbreaking journey that can be. To make it even scarier, 60% of Alzheimer's cases in adults 65 or older go undiagnosed. Adriana Perez, Nurse Practitioner and Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania joins KYW Newsradio in Depth to talk about some resources that can make that journey just a little bit e...

This year for the first time ever, Juneteenth, a day commemorating the end of slavery in the US, was recognized as a federal holiday. Juneteenth this year also marked the opening of the much anticipated Harriet Tubman Museum down in Cape May, New Jersey. We all know who Harriet Tubman was, and the work she did helping enslaved African Americans find freedom in the mid-1800’s, but did you know she...

Talk of breakthrough COVID-19 infections dominates the news these days. But there are a lot of misconceptions and myths about breakthrough infections, when vaccinated people test positive for COVID-19, so we wanted to ask an expert to break down what they actually are, how common they are, and what people should know about them. Dr. Abby Rudolph, Associate Professor of Epidemiology and Biostatisti...

We are seeing a lot of news about drug companies and manufacturers agreeing to settlements that would see them pay out billions of dollars as a result of the opioid epidemic and their role in it. But is the money enough? These companies in most cases don’t even admit wrongdoing. And how is it that, when these things happen, no one goes to jail? Scott Burris, Professor of Law at Temple Law School a...

The great baseball statistics website Baseball Reference has been a go to resource for fans for years. Recently, the site expanded its coverage of the Negro Leagues, putting the leagues from the 20s, 30s and 40s on equal footing as the National and American leagues as major leagues. Sean Forman, President of Sports Reference, LLC is on the podcast to talk about the work that went into tracking dow...

Good GDP numbers and other economic indicators are painting a pretty good picture for the health of the economy, but the Delta variant and uncertainty with the virus are keeping economists on their toes. People are still concerned about going back to work, jobless claims are going down, and job openings are still sky high -- it's an interesting puzzle worth taking a look at. And consumer confidenc...

We heard some powerful testimony earlier this week in front of the House select committee investigating the insurrection on January 6th at the US Capitol. The committee held its first hearing this week, but there will be many more. We wanted to dig in on what we should expect from this committee and what the committee is hoping to find out. Dr. Joshua Weikert, Associate Professor of Politics at Im...

Benefits Data Trust is an organization headquartered in Philadelphia that helps connect people in Pennsylvania to benefits they may not have known they were qualified to receive. It also helps them navigate the process to get them. We wanted to talk about the work Benefits Data Trust is doing and also talk about some key initiaves they have going on -- one important one being working with Communit...

The housing market is hot right now, and that includes Philadelphia and the suburbs. We wanted to find out where there's high demand and low demand, where the hottest places to buy and sell a house are right now, and even if there are any bubble concerns in the market - so we called Maria Quattrone, CEO and founder of Maria Quattrone & Associates at RE/MAX @ Home in Center City. Quattrone join...

There has been a lot of talk lately about when we will see the FDA give full approval to some of the COVID-19 vaccines. Which begs the question, what exactly is the difference between the emergency use authorization that the vaccines have been distributed under and full approval? How does the process work, and is not having full approval hurting vaccination efforts? Dr. Charles B. Cairns, the Walt...

Truong Vu is a pharmacist at the Walmart in South Philadelphia. He has spent the last several months vaccinating people, actually getting needles in arms. We called him up to ask what he's been seeing, how vaccinations are going at this stage in the pandemic, how many people are coming in, and what the most common questions are that he's been getting from patients about the vaccines and why they s...

We got a bit of a surprise in the jobless claims numbers for the week as the numbers ticked up, but wages are on the rise as well. What do these indicators mean for the health of the economy? Wall Street got a little weirded out earlier this week over Delta variant concerns, and supply chain shortages keep presenting an issue, but how will the positive retail numbers show themselves in the GDP? Da...

We've spent a lot of time on the podcast talking about the unemployment numbers and the layoffs that sadly became a dominant economic theme in this pandemic. But there's another aspect of the jobs world that we need to talk about too -- record numbers of people are quitting their jobs. In April the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that 4 million people quit -- the highest quit rate since they s...

Some really thought provoking survey results were released recently by the management consultant firm McKinsey & Company that looked at how Americans view economic opportunity in the US these days, what they think about their economic standing, how COVID affected their financial situation and much, much more. We wanted to learn more about what was in the inaugural McKinsey American Opportunity...

Voting rights have been in the headlines for months. Many states are passing new laws around the right to vote, and there is a recent Supreme Court ruling that we found interesting out of Arizona for the effect it could have on people being able to cast ballots. Dr. Susan Liebell, Professor of Political Science at Saint Joseph's University joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to break down Brnovich vs. th...

The recent anti-government protests in Cuba led to a lot of headlines, because we don’t see demonstrations against the communist regime on the island nation very often at all. So what drove Cubans to take to the streets? Was it more than just anger at the government’s COVID response? Could change be coming to Cuba? And what role does the ongoing US embargo play in all of this? Dr. Lowell Gustafson...

After the tragic condo building collapse in Surfside, Florida, condo owners and associations across the country are asking hard questions about the condition of their buildings, and a lot of people are taking a second look at inspections and maintenance reports and worrying 'could that happen here?' We wanted to talk about the future of condominiums and what we could see after Surfside. David Wilk...

Don't blink, but the jobless claims report reminds us of a very different time in history when pandemics were just things we read about and didn't consume every part of American life. Child tax credits are going out and we'll be able to see the impact on real families in the data very shortly. Other parts of the economy are on a steady uptick, consumer sentiment appears to be rising, and tourism i...

As more and more people get vaccinated, a lot workers are being asked to return to the office. Others are being given the option to come back. So how are Americans feeling about returning to the office to work? And how much of the population is hoping remote works stays around forever? Morning Consult, a global data intelligence company, recently released the findings of a survey focused on this a...

Food insecurity continues to be a serious problem even as we emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic. But could the expanded child tax credit set to kick in this month with money being sent directly to families be a game changer in addressing that food insecurity? Loree Jones, CEO of Philabundance, a non-profit working to end hunger in the Philadelphia area joins the podcast to talk about the need for f...

It's been a very long pandemic and we're still emerging from COVID-19, but the economy is working its way back and it will eventually get back to the level of strength it was before all of this. But it's not going to look the same. Some aspects of the economy have changed for good since march of 2020. David Fiorenza, economist at the Villanova School of Business joins KYW Newsradio In Depth to tal...

The birth rate in the US has been in decline for several years now. How big of a deal is that? Should we be alarmed? What are some problems this could cause down the road if the trend continues? Dr. Hans-Peter Kohler, Professor of Sociology at the University of Pennsylvania is on the podcast to talk about what happens when a country's birth rate declines and the situation the United States is faci...