Cory Goldberg

  “People will call it an anniversary, a memorial, a tribute,” said Harry Ong, Betty’s brother. “To us, it’s just a continuation of 20 years of anguish.”  Betty Ong's brother Harry holds a portrait of her at his home in San Francisco on Sept. 6, 2011. On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Betty Ann Ong was flying from Boston to Los Angeles to meet her sister before heading off for a long-awaited vacation in Hawaii. But within minutes of takeoff, five hijackers on board had overtaken the cockpit and blasted mace into the cabin. Instead of heading southwest, the Boeing 767 turned toward New York City. Ong, 45, had been an American Airlines flight attendant for 14 years. As chaos ensued, she acted on instinct. From the back of the plane, she called the airline’s reservations center in Raleigh, North Carolina, and described the mayhem abroad. “The cockpit’s not answering,” she said in a steady voice. “Somebody’s stabbed in business class and — I think there’s mace — that we can’t brea...

  Despite some evidence that the delta variant may slightly reduce their effectiveness, the shots continue to keep people out of the hospital. A pharmacist administers a Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccination to a customer at a pharmacy in Livonia, Mich., on Aug. 17, 2021. Research published Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that unvaccinated people are significantly more likely to not only become infected with Covid-19, but also die from the virus. Two other reports from the agency, also published Friday, found the vaccines have largely retained their ability to keep infected patients out of the hospital, even amid the highly contagious delta variant. One study found that when the delta variant became dominant in the summer, unvaccinated people were 4.5 times more likely to become infected, more than 10 times more likely to be hospitalized, and 11 times more likely to die of Covid. That CDC research, based on data collected by the agency's hospitalizatio...

  Supporters are trying to get moderate lawmakers to back more spending. A home health care aide steadies her client in Peabody, Mass., on Jan. 25, 2021. WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden asked for $400 billion in new government spending for the care of the elderly and the disabled, but so far, Democrats are looking to give him less than half of that number, highlighting the difficult decisions lawmakers must make.  Democrats in Congress are racing to build a $3.5 trillion spending and tax package and are trying to balance an expansive wish list from the president and progressives with the desire of moderates to shrink the price tag. Not all Democrats are giving up the desire to get to $400 billion in elder care funding. Money for taking care of the elderly has become increasing salient, especially as the baby-boom generation ages. The Covid pandemic has made in-home care more appealing for many people after watching the virus hit nursing home facilities the hardest. Senate neg...