Meet reporter Sophie Kasakove, covering COVID-19 recovery at the N&O, Report for America
Hello, readers. I recently joined the team at The News & Observer and The Herald-Sun to cover the economic impacts of the coronavirus in partnership with Report for America. I’d like to introduce myself.
I previously reported on the environment, big industry and development as a freelance reporter in New Orleans, writing for publications including The Guardian, Huffington Post, VICE, and The Lens, a New Orleans-based investigative non-profit. My most recent reporting focused on the economic impacts of the climate crisis. Before that, I was a contributing writer at Pacific Standard, where I covered housing issues.
Throughout my reporting, the stories I care most about are the ones that get deep into decisions that are often made out-of-sight by governments and by big business — and how they affect our daily lives. The coronavirus and resulting economic recession are inspiring a lot of big decisions. In the early weeks of the pandemic, the government passed the largest-ever stimulus package in American history, instituted an unprecedented mortgage relief, and provided hundreds of billions of dollars to businesses.
I’ve reported on some of the ways these programs have affected people in North Carolina already. This week, I started combing through the massive database released by the federal Small Business Administration to find out which businesses in North Carolina got loans through the Paycheck Protection Program. Who’s benefited most from this program? Who’s benefited least?
The week before, I dug into the latest unemployment numbers to see how many workers have been able to access benefits and how the state has struggled to work through the backlog. But what will happen to North Carolina workers when additional federal benefits run out this summer? How will people live on North Carolina’s average weekly benefit of $277 a week, and how did North Carolina’s benefits get so low, anyway? I’m going to keep working to find out.
Four months into the pandemic, it’s clear that the economic “recovery” from COVID-19 is going to be long, messy and painful. A lot of people are going to be left out, and a lot of them will be the people who were already struggling: the worker at a meatpacking plant or construction site, the owner of a local restaurant or barber shop, the family farmer. I’m really grateful for the opportunity to document these experiences and to hold the powerful accountable for the ways their decisions impact North Carolinians every day.
Are you a worker worried about safety on the job? A small business owner worried about keeping the doors open? Or someone who’s applied for unemployment benefits but haven’t gotten that check yet? I’d love to hear from you. My email inbox is open for your comments and ideas: skasakove@newsobserver.com.
And I hope you’ll consider supporting my work through a subscription to The News & Observer or The Herald-Sun at newsobserver.com/subscribe. You can also contribute directly to the non-profit Report for America, an organization that places professional journalists in local newsrooms around the country. Use this form: bit.ly/NandORFA.
I’m looking forward to hearing from you and writing for you as the Triangle and all of North Carolina works to recover from this pandemic.
This story was originally published July 15, 2020 at 3:55 PM with the headline "Meet reporter Sophie Kasakove, covering COVID-19 recovery at the N&O, Report for America."
