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Failure of Power is a production of Texas Public Radio and The Texas Newsroom, a collaboration between public radio stations across the state and NPR.
When the Texas power grid failed during a historic winter storm, millions of people were left in the cold and dark. The operator of that grid, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said they were only moments away from an absolute nightmare scenario: a statewide blackout that could have lasted weeks or months.
The storm was unprecedented but it wasn’t unpredictable. How did this disaster happen, and what can be done to prevent a similar failure?
Mexico will debut against the Dominican Republic in the Guadalajara pre-Olympic
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Coronavirus in Jacksonville: What you need to know for Friday, Feb. 5
11:20 a.m. | Photos: First day of vaccinations at the Clanzel Brown Senior Center on Friday, Feb. 5.
Residents lined up starting at 5:30 a.m. Friday, February 5, 2021, outside the Clanzel T. Brown Senior Center COVID-19 vaccine site on Moncrief Road in Jacksonville, Florida.
9:25 a.m. | Senate clears way to pass COVID relief, Biden to huddle with Democrats
President Joe Biden will meet with House Democratic leaders and deliver remarks on the economy on Friday as his administration presses Congress to pass his $1.9 trillion COVID-relief package.
The Oval Office meeting, which also will include the Democratic chairmen of House committees working on COVID relief, comes just hours after the Senate set the stage for passage of the package, possibly by the end of the month.
A year into the pandemic, thousands of students still can t get reliable WiFi for school. The digital divide remains worse than ever. Erin Richards, Elinor Aspegren and Erin Mansfield, USA TODAY
Here s why access to the internet is not created equal, how COVID-19 made it worse
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In Los Angeles, special education teacher Jaime Lozano strives to keep the attention of his elementary students during online classes.
But no matter the charisma he brings to the screen, it s no match for glitchy internet connections. Every day, about a third of his students experience an outage that cuts into their learning time, Lozano said. Nearly all of his students are from low-income families, and many can t afford wired, broadband service.
In Los Angeles, special education teacher Jaime Lozano strives to keep the attention of his elementary students during online classes.
But no matter the charisma he brings to the screen, it s no match for glitchy internet connections. Every day, about a third of his students experience an outage that cuts into their learning time, Lozano said. Nearly all of his students are from low-income families, and many can t afford wired, broadband service. The system goes down, or someone is working on a tower, or there s too many people on the Wi-Fi hotspot and it cuts out, Lozano said.
Since schools shut down in the spring, districts have scrambled to distribute laptops and internet so students can engage in schooling from home. But almost a year later, with no end in sight for virtual learning, millions of students still lack reliably fast internet or a working computer – the basic tools to participate in live lessons from home.
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