The Week in Philly from KYW Newsradio

What would Muhammad Ali have to say about the protests for social justice happening everywhere right now? KYW sports reporter Ed Benkin got the chance to ask his daughter and grandson that question. Khaliah Ali Wertheimer and Jacob Ali-Wertheimer join KYW In Depth to talk about their memories of Ali, how he would have felt about the protests around the country, how the sports world is tackling rac...

"Defund the police" is a phrase you've probably heard more than a few times after weeks of protests in America over the killing of George Floyd. But what does it actually mean? You're going to hear very different explanations depending on where you get your news. Cherri Gregg, KYW Community Affairs reporter and the host of the KYW Original Podcast 'Flashpoint' interviewed criminal justice experts,...

We've been keeping an eye on the world of agriculture and farming throughout the COVID-19 pandemic with the help of John M. Urbanchuk, Assistant Professor and Chairman of the Agribusiness Department at Delaware Valley University in Doylestown, PA. Urbanchuk joins KYW In Depth to talk about how the ways we get food have been holding up over the past few months, the food prices we're seeing at the s...

We've been fighting COVID-19 for months now, social distancing, wearing masks, washing our hands, staying at home. So, is it working? Are we winning? Why are cases in some states going up? Have we learned anything new since the coronavirus pandemic came to America? We wanted to take a step back and check in with Dr. Krys Johnson, Assistant Professor of epidemiology at Temple University to ask thes...

You can now drink alcohol on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. It's a temporary measure meant to help small businesses that have suffered from COVID-19 restrictions. And it's not just Atlantic City -- North Wildwood and other Jersey shore towns are running their own open container experiments. At the end of last week, Cape May's city council also voted to let people legally drink outdoors in public. Bu...

Nationwide protests have called for police reform in the United States in the wake of the killing of George Floyd. But how would that happen? What would police reform look like in the United States of America? And are we truly in a moment of change in regards to policing? Teri Ravenell, Professor of Law and Associate Dean for Faculty Research and Development at Villanova University joins KYW In De...

We're starting to get a handle on the size of the challenge presented by voting during the coronavirus pandemic. Slower final results are just the tip of the iceberg -- states across the country reported problems and growing pains during their primaries. So what can we learn from these primaries? Will we be prepared for the general election in November? Dr. Jack Santucci, teaching professor of pol...

Unemployment continues to be front and center, Wall Street fell off a cliff on Thursday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell turned some heads, and unemployed workers are nervously looking ahead to when the extra $600 per week in unemployment benefits run out. A lot can happen in a week, so we're checking in with David Fiorenza, Villanova School of Business Economics Professor to get a handle on the economy a...

It has been an incredibly difficult few months for the restaurant industry. Many places had to shut their doors completely, others have had to innovate and adapt to stay afloat. Now, society is slowly opening up -- but we're still far from anything resembling what we're used to prior to COVID-19. So how have restaurants been coping? We took a ride out to the Monarch Diner in Glassboro, New Jersey...

We're getting closer to the return of professional sports as we continue to work our way through the coronavirus pandemic. Major League Soccer and the NBA are both set to return to action next month. But what about college athletics? We asked Dr. Karen Weaver, Associate Clinical Professor of Sport Management at the LeBow College of Business at Drexel University to come back to KYW In Depth to brea...

For the first week of June, Philadelphia was under a city-wide curfew.  And that's a big deal, it's been decades at least since the last time a curfew like that was put in place in Philly. So we wanted to learn more about curfews -- what kind of power local governments have, what the courts have said, how long a city could keep a curfew in place. Dr. Michael Moreland, Professor of Law and the Dire...

Trying to make sense of economic data during the coronavirus pandemic is sort of like trying to look through a pair of cracked binoculars. Millions of people around the US are out of work because of the coronavirus pandemic, and then all of a sudden we also got a jobs report last week that seemed incredibly positive. But, in hindsight, was it actually? And what happens at the end of next month whe...

New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy came on KYW Newsradio to talk about the protests over the killing of George Floyd that have swept over the nation. The Governor actually participated in a couple over the weekend. Murphy spoke with KYW's Ian Bush about the crowds of people protesting during the coronavirus pandemic, and the movement that's gained a lot of traction lately calling to defund the police...

The US has a long and disturbing history of racism and racial violence. How did we get here? It's not just one thing, it never is -- but maybe one part of the equation is not learning from history. Too often, that history hasn't even really been told. We asked Dr. Nafeesa Muhammad, Assistant Professor of History at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania to join KYW In Depth to talk about some moments...

Crowds of people have showed up in cities and towns in every state to protest the killing of George Floyd by a police officer. Sadly, the George Floyd protests are not the first demonstrations in response to the killing of an unarmed African American. They’re at the front of a long line of fights for justice and human rights in history. Dr. Michael Hanchard studies social movements through history...

What happens when mass protests occur in the midst of a global pandemic? Dr. Annette Reboli, an epidemiologist and the Dean of Cooper Medical School of Rowan University in Camden, New Jersey joins KYW In Depth to talk about the concerns epidemiologists have right now and how to reduce risk of spreading or contracting the virus in a protest setting. See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy...

Tens of millions of Americans have lost their jobs during the coronavirus pandemic. That doesn't just mean no paycheck, it also means the loss of employee benefits, things like health and dental insurance. Joe DiBella, Managing Director and head of the Employee Benefits Practice at Conner Strong & Buckelew joins KYW In Depth to talk about some really hard decisions employers have had to make d...

We've been keeping tabs on a New Jersey lab called BioAegis because of their work with the protein Gelsolin, which they say has potential to be an effective therapy for very ill COVID-19 patients. When we found out that Dr. John Gallin, Chief Scientific Officer of the NIH Clinical Center and the NIH Associate Director for Clinical Research was also studying the protein, we asked him to join KYW In...

Can you test the air in your workplace for coronavirus? Can tweaking your office's HVAC system reduce transmission of the virus? Are certain types of buildings more at risk for spreading the virus than others based solely on their HVAC system? Michael Calabrese, Senior Project Mechanical Engineer at Burns Engineering in Philadelphia and the President of the American Society of Heating, Ventilation...

The May jobs report was much better than anyone thought it would be (at least in pandemic adjusted terms), so what's actually going on? David Fiorenza, Associate Professor of Practice at the Villanova School of Business joins KYW In Depth to talk about if the economic recovery is happening faster than expected, what new city budgets mean for the arts, and the future of infrastructure projects in t...

Every few days, an independent music venue announces it won't be able to reopen after the coronavirus pandemic. Philadelphia is home to about 20 independent venues -- places that welcome a variety of artists and bands from up and comers to national acts to open mics and garage bands. But since the coronavirus pandemic hit, indie music venues across the country are facing closures. Some have alread...

A huge amount of businesses have been forced to shutter their doors since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and they're in rough shape right now. Right now we're seeing a lot of questions play out in boardrooms and courtrooms alike surrounding their insurance policies. Should insurance cover business losses due to a global virus pandemic? Terry Tracy, Managing Director of Conner Strong &...

A lot of bank accounts are looking pretty rough right now in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic. And for a lot of Americans, what little money they had in savings before all this is gone or being used to survive until workplaces get the green light to open back up. It's an incredibly difficult situation. We wanted to know what the economic fallout looks like from the perspective of someone who...

Philadelphia has seen huge crowds of people demonstrating against the killing of George Floyd since the weekend. The city has also been rocked by vandalism, arson, destruction of property, and looting. In West Philadelphia, the 52nd Street corridor was just one of the areas that suffered major damage during the riots and looting over the weekend. KYW Newsradio's Community Affairs reporter Cherri G...

On Monday, June 1st, a crowd of people protesting the killing of George Floyd by a police officer poured from the streets of Philadelphia down onto I-676, bring traffic to a standstill on the highway. The protesters were tear gassed by police, leading to a chaotic scene as hundreds of people tried to escape. KYW Newsradio's Kristen Johanson was covering the protest when the tear gas was deployed....