Newsmakers of the Year

WWW.TRIANGLE TRIBUNE.COM State’s new hires not The Triangle eligible for health coverage as retirees By Lynn Bonner RIBUNE THE POLICY WATCH TTHE TRIANGLE’S CHOICE FOR THE BLACK VOICE State employees hired after Jan. 1 will not be eligible for state employee health coverage if they work long enough for North VOLUME 22 NO. 51 WEEK OF DECEMBER 27, 2020 $1.00 Carolina to retire. Eliminating state health insurance coverage for future retirees was part of the state budget passed in 2017 over the objections of the State Employees Association of North Carolina, the N.C. Aggie-Eagle Classic is Association of Educators, and the N.C. Retired Governmental Employees’ Association. Leaders of those groups said cutting good for 10 more benefits would make it harder to hire correctional officers, years. teachers, and others to fill job vacancies. The change will not affect people now working for the state. Senate Republicans pushed for the change to make state employees’ retirement benefits similar to benefits private-sector employees receive. Tamika Walker Kelly, president of the N.C. Association of Educators, said the change will make it hard to attract educators. “It does make it harder to recruit younger millennial teachers Please see STATE/2A COVID Who’s bill NEWSMAKERS OF next to waits for THE YEAR take the Trump vaccine By Andrew Taylor THE ASSOCIATED PRESS shot? WASHINGTON — After months of Washington By John Hanna and gridlock, Congress is set to Mike Stobbe vote on a $900 billion pan- THE ASSOCIATED PRESS demic relief package, finally delivering NEW YORK — A federal ad- long-sought cash to busi- visory panel recommended nesses and individuals as Sunday that people 75 and well as resources to vacci- older and essential workers nate a nation confronting a like firefighters, teachers and frightening surge in grocery store workers should COVID-19 cases and be next in line for COVID-19 deaths. Lawmakers tacked Hospital staff Caregivers shots, while a second vaccine on thousands of pages of began rolling out to hospitals other end-of-session busi- as the nation works to get the ness in a burst of legisla- coronavirus pandemic under tion as Capitol Hill is set to control. close down for the year. The two developments The relief package, came amid a vaccination agreed to on Sunday and program that began only in finally released in bill form the last week and has given Monday afternoon, re- initial shots to about 556,000 mained on track for votes Americans, according to the in Congress on Monday. It Centers for Disease Control would establish a tempo- and Prevention. The COVID- rary $300 per week sup- 19 vaccine developed by plemental jobless benefit Pfizer Inc. and Germany’s and a $600 direct stimulus BioNTech already is being payment to most Ameri- distributed, and regulators cans, along with a new last week gave approval to round of subsidies for the one from Moderna Inc. hard-hit businesses and Retail employees Housekeepers that began shipping Sunday. money for schools, health Earlier this month, the Ad- care providers and renters Whew, 2020 is almost over! visory Committee on Immu- facing eviction. While most of us can’t wait to see the year leave, COVID-19 taught us a lot about ourselves – nization Practices said health care workers and nursing The 5,593-page legisla- the good and the bad. The Tribune salutes those who put their health on the line every day to tion — the longest bill in home residents — about 24 memory and probably ever serve the needs of others. We can’t name you all, but you are an inspiration and the true news- million people — should be — came together Sunday makers of the year. at the very front of the line after months of battling, for the vaccines. Sunday’s posturing and postelection vote by the panel was who negotiating that reined in a should be next in line, and by number of Democratic de- a vote of 13-1, it decided that mands as the end of the it should be people 75 and congressional session ap- older, who number about 20 proached. President-elect million, as well as certain Joe Biden was eager for a front-line workers, who total deal to deliver long- about 30 million. Durham finds code The essential workers in- awaited help to suffering people and a boost to the clude firefighters and police; economy, even though it teachers and school staff; was less than half the size violations in apartment units those working in food, agri- that Democrats wanted in cultural and manufacturing the fall. Biden praised the By Bonitta Best sectors; corrections workers; U.S. Postal Service employ- bipartisan spirit that pro- [email protected] ees; public transit workers; duced the measure, which Residents at Garden Terrace he called “just the begin- and grocery store workers. Apartments in Durham got the They are considered at very ning.” chance to have their say before Treasury Secretary high risk of infection be- city officials this week. cause their jobs are critical Steven Mnuchin, a key ne- Members of the Garden Ter- gotiator, said on CNBC and require them to be in race Tenants Union spoke at a regular contact with other Monday morning that the housing code violations hear- direct payments would people. It’s not clear how ing hosted by the Department long it will take to vaccinate begin arriving in bank ac- of Neighborhood Improve- counts next week. Demo- those groups. Vaccine doses ment Services. have come out slower than crats acknowledged it So far, city code enforcement wasn’t as robust a relief earlier projections. But, at officers have found 113 code the same time, some experts package as they initially violations in 17 of the 55 units. sought — or, they say, the noted that not everyone who Residents have complained for is recommended to get vac- country needs. House months about mold, rotting Speaker Nancy Pelosi cinated may choose to get a walls, pest infestations and shot. vowed more to come once other health safety issues. Biden takes office. “It is a The committee also voted “One of the reasons we are FILE first step,” she said. “We that behind those groups here is that we want to con- should be people aged 65 to have to do more.” tinue educating people about Residents at Garden Terrace Apartments rally at the property The final agreement 74, numbering about 30 mil- what we are fighting for as a management’s office in Raleigh last month. lion; those aged 16 to 64 with would be the largest tenant union,” said union spending measure yet. It with us, to promise that he will conditions and racism. Ten- medical conditions like obes- leader Fany Sarmineto. “We ity and cancer who are at combined $900 billion for know there are limits to what not evict a single neighbor and ants say Dayan began to make COVID-19 relief with a $1.4 that he will not raise the rent at some repairs after their ac- higher risk if they get COVID- the city can do to defend ten- 19, numbering as many as trillion governmentwide ant rights. We know that the this time, which is a very diffi- tions caused code enforce- funding plan and lots of cult time for many. We know ment officers to begin 110 million; and a tier of city can force the landlord to other essential workers. This other unrelated measures make certain repairs, but that the city cannot force the land- inspecting the units. He did on taxes, health, infras- lord to make these commit- not attend Monday’s hearing. group of as many as 57 mil- it cannot force the landlord to lion includes a wide category tructure and education. do it in a way that ensures that ments, but we want officials Sarmineto asked NIS staff at The governmentwide and people in NIS to under- the hearing to continue their of food service and utility no one will be evicted. workers but also those in funding would keep the “We know that the city can- stand the importance of our inspections. The worst was yet government open through fight and our efforts.” to come. legal and financial jobs and not protect us from rent hikes the media. September. at a moment's notice, another Garden Terrace landlord Jo- “There are units that you Passage neared as coro- nathan Dayan was confronted have not yet been able to in- The expert panel’s rec- significant threat to us. We ommendation next goes to have asked the landlord to last month in Raleigh by fam- spect that are in worse con- Plase see COVID/2A come to the table to negotiate ilies protesting the unlivable Please see VIOLATIONS/2A Please see VACCINE/2A Index 5007 South Park Drive, Publisher: Gerald O. Johnson Suite 200-G Managing Editor/Sports Editor: Bonitta Best News 1A Religion 5A Durham, NC 27713 Advertising: Linda Johnson Classifieds 4A Sports 6A (919) 688-9408 [email protected] Focus 8A © 2020 The Triangle Tribune www.triangletribune.com 2A NEWS/The Triangle Tribune Sunday, December 27, 2020 Congress rushes toward vote on COVID relief bill Continued from page 1A tion that omitted direct bonus jobless benefit was navirus cases and deaths payments, supplemental half the supplemental fed- spiked and evidence piled unemployment benefits eral unemployment benefit up that the economy was and food aid, among other provided under the $1.8 struggling. The legislation priorities. Negotiations billion CARES Act in March had been held up by only turned serious in re- and would be limited to 11 months of dysfunction and cent weeks as failure was weeks instead of 16 weeks.

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