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Hey, welcome! Here’s some great journalism.

Alex Connor   | Paste BN

Welcome to the inaugural edition of Your Week, an exclusive newsletter for Paste BN subscribers like you. We're grateful you're spending your time and money supporting our journalism. 

I'm Alex, an editor at Paste BN. In pre-pandemic days, top editors would huddle in the middle of the newsroom at a focal point we called "the hub." Stories were discussed, breaking news tactically covered. We've shifted to virtual meetings, but this space is still where the magic happens.

Consider this your personal invitation to the hub.

Each Sunday in this newsletter, I'll send you a round-up of the week's most compelling coverage, offered only to Paste BN subscribers. (Translation: It's the best of our best.) I'll also shout out the impact your subscription is helping support, and give a little sneak peek at what's coming.

What's more? I want to hear from you. You can respond to this email or email me at alex@usatoday.com. I might even share what you write at our morning meeting in the (now digital) hub.

OK. Enough from me, here's the news for you.

Rationing insulin, skipping meals: A woman’s struggle to survive on minimum wage

Elsa Romero eyes the $3.38 vanilla pound cake. A tiny bite could save her life. She's not sure she can afford it. There's $90 in her bank account, and her next paycheck arrives in 10 days. As a janitor making minimum wage, she can't afford $110 for her weekly insulin, but a forkful of the dessert whenever her blood sugar drops could keep her out of the emergency room. 

Romero's predicament is dire and tragic – and common. Across the USA, 58.3 million people work for less than $15 an hour. What hope they held out for relief in the form of boosted hourly pay was dashed when a change to make the minimum wage $15 was removed from President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID-19 aid package. For people such as Romero, life continues to be a daily struggle. 

Why tell the story of Elsa Romero? I asked the storyteller, Paste BN national housing and social services reporter, Romina Ruiz-Goiriena: 

"Often when we talk about the coverage of minimum wage, it happens to be incredibly policy driven. But Elsa's one of 58.3 million people. So, I think the perspective changes a lot when you get an intimate portrait of what life is really like on minimum wage. Because I find that there's a big disconnect sometimes from the policies and how we talk about people who may need assistance or who need a wage increase and what life is really like."

📰  Read: The full story in English or in Spanish.

🎧 Listen: Get more with our 5 Things podcast. 

🇺🇸 Learn: Hear voices from across the nation.

The best subscriber-only stories of the week

INVESTIGATIONS | Top Louisiana State University officials conspired to cover up football coach Les Miles’ sexual harassment. Then, they engaged in a years-long retaliation against the employee who reported it. Sharon Lewis, LSU’s associate athletic director of football recruiting, named several senior officials who she claims tormented her and contributed to LSU’s systemic failure to protect students in this exclusive interview with Paste BN. Story by Kenny Jacoby.

NEWS | Up to 50% of fatal encounters with law enforcement involve someone with a mental illness. In turn, a growing number of localities are sending civilian responders on mental health calls. It's working. Story by Ryan W. Miller and Grace Hauck.

ENTERTAINMENT | Hollywood women are fed up. Their pitiful numbers behind the cameras have long agitated for more power. Now, more of the men with clout in showbiz have joined the cause. Story by Maria Puente.

TRAVEL | Not a single oceangoing cruise ship has departed with passengers from a U.S. port in the past year. And that's caused havoc in the cruise world. "Not in my wildest nightmare did I imagine that this would last many months, never mind more than a year," said Richard Fain, CEO of Royal Caribbean Group. Story by Morgan Hines.

Supporting Paste BN is supporting award-winning, change-making journalism

This past week, we learned that Paste BN was named a winner in the Investigative Reporters and Editors national awards for our investigation into sexual misconduct at LSU. Our work on the pandemic's impact on communities of color and a broken foster care system in Florida that put kids at risk also gained national accolades.

"We don't do the work for awards," says Nicole Carroll, editor in chief of Paste BN. "But of course it's great to see that work recognized. It draws attention to the high level of journalism we work to provide our readers every day."

This impactful journalism is possible thanks to your subscription.

Some more of the week’s must-reads

What’s coming next week

We're honored to welcome you into the Paste BN family. That means you will not only have first access to our reporting through your subscription, but I'll offer a glimpse into what's ahead. Coming next week:

  • You'll get a deep dive into President Joe Biden's 'radical shift' in home caregiving.
  • And are vaccine freebies the best way to incentivize COVID-19 shots? We take a look at the status and hurdles of vaccinating the USA.

Until next week, thank you.

Feel free to respond to this email, or you can reach me directly at alex@usatoday.com.

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Featured in the photo collage: (Top left) Paste BN's Jarrad Henderson films in Minneapolis during the trial of Derek Chauvin (Photo: Trevor Hughes, Paste BN); (Bottom left) A Socorro Independent School District Employee Health Clinic worker prepares to administer a COVID-19 vaccine to a preregistered employee (Photo: El Paso Times); (Middle) Cellist Yo-Yo Ma ponders how he could be 'useful' during the COVID-19 panademic (Photo: Paste BN); (Right) Arturo Andrade, 81, holding his granddaughter, Alexia, was one of the many Hispanic victims of COVID-19 in California (Photo: Paste BN).

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