Reem Atia’s family arrived in Cleveland just days after a heavy December snowfall in 2016. It was her first time seeing snow and a stark contrast to life in Jordan, where her Syrian family had first sought refuge.

Local municipalities are debating whether to open public pools this summer as the coronavirus pandemic continues in Northeast Ohio. The City of Beachwood is in a “holding pattern,” awaiting guidance from the state, said Community Services Director Derek Schroeder. Current recommendations haven’t been updated since last summer, he said, though more guidance is expected in March.

A new report shows the toll of the pandemic on Northeast Ohio’s arts community last year was severe. Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the agency that distributes cigarette tax revenue to support area arts activities, compiled 2020 data from 65 grant recipients, including ideastream. Executive director Jill Paulsen said the losses were drastic. “We saw almost 3,200 jobs that disappeared, people laid off, canceled contracts,” she said. “And that was quite a bit of money when we think, nearing upwards of $16 million in paychecks for local folks.”

Cuyahoga County plans to address racial inequities during the COVID-19 pandemic by allocating 20 percent of vaccines to people of color and bringing the vaccine to areas with higher numbers of people of color. It's an effort to balance inequitable vaccine distribution. “According to the Board of Health, we’re seeing that 90 percent of the available vaccine are going to white people,” Cuyahoga County Executive Armond Budish said.

The president of the Cleveland Warriors, the local amateur football team made up of police and corrections officers and first responders, appears to have resigned. That’s what team president and coach, Bill Sofranko, texted Randy Knight, an ex-player protesting the team’s inclusion of Timothy Loehmann, the former Cleveland police officer who killed 12-year-old Tamir Rice in 2014.

The Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) is ready to vaccinate thousands of educators starting the middle of next week, including approximately 7,000 district employees, substitute employees and contractors and about 2,000 to 3,000 employees from non-public and charter schools, CMSD CEO Eric Gordon said Thursday. The question remains whether state officials will come through with the number of COVID-19 vaccines needed.

In its six months so far, Cleveland’s Right to Counsel initiative – which guarantees legal representation for eligible residents facing eviction – has been successful in 93 percent of cases hoping to halt an eviction and provided renters with assistance in even more cases.

More people are becoming eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Ohio, with teachers and people over the age of 70 getting the shots this week. But some groups who are at risk – such as police officers, funeral directors, and low-wage essential workers – are still not prioritized in the state’s plans. The COVID-19 vaccines have to be rationed because there is such a limited supply, but some people have questioned how the priority groups were decided and whether the distribution has been ethical thus far.

A 73-year-old married couple from Akron and several others received faulty vaccines at an Ashtabula Walgreens store on Feb. 1 and will have to retake the shots, ideastream has learned. The couple, who asked to remain anonymous, reached out to ideastream after hearing on Feb. 2 that residents at several local nursing homes in the area were given vaccines that may be ineffective due to improper storage.

She appears as a whisper between clouds, a forgotten ghost in the pale blue sky, and yet even still, she never fails to capture my attention. This is an excerpt from a poem titled “Lunarphilia” by Mi Row. It’s about Row’s adoration of the moon. Row is a recent Ohio State University graduate and member of local advocacy organization Ohio Progressive Asian Women’s Leadership – or OPAWL. “Lunarphilia” was created for OPAWL’s latest project – a “QuaranZine.”