Researchers say extra money from the U.S. government helped many people rise out of poverty, even during the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. But now much of that stimulus is gone and poverty is rising again.

Teaching is already challenging enough without a pandemic shaking up how the classroom operates. As schools reopen, many districts are focused on keeping their staff and students safe from COVID-19. But the pandemic is also taking a toll on teachers’ mental health. 

On a Friday evening in late June, Liliana Quintero received a call from one of the Spanish interpreters working at a COVID-19 testing site in Goshen, Indiana. The area has one of Indiana’s higher Latinx populations and higher rates of COVID-19 cases, according to state data.

“[He was] saying, ‘Liliana I need to inform you that the nurse who is in charge of this site just told me that each time that she sees Hispanics coming to this site, she's going to call the police,’” recalls Quintero, director of the Northern Indiana Hispanic Health Coalition, an Elkhart-based health education and advocacy nonprofit.

The ¿QPM? team takes some time to reflect at the end of Season 5. They discuss how the episodes impacted them and how they’ve been getting through the year. Esperamos que las historias from this season have been a light during este tiempo difícil.

En este episodio we talk to Antonia Quiñones Peña, Kim Wasserman and John Hazinski sobre la implosión de una chimenea en una planta de carbón en La Villita, la justicia medioambiental y el plan sobre cómo avanzar.

En este episodio we talk to Chef Benoit Angulo about how COVID-19 has brought La Cocinita Restaurant back to its food truck roots and allowed for them to donate over 7,000 meals to date across Chicagoland.