Community Corner

Week In Photos: Synagogue Standoff; Philly Fire Victims Mourned

Americans celebrate MLK Day, key voting rights bill stalls in the Senate, government offers free N95 masks, and Meat Loaf dies.

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Mourners embrace during funeral services Monday at Temple University for the victims of a deadly row house fire in Philadelphia. Officials said it was the city's deadliest single fire in at least a century.
Mourners embrace during funeral services Monday at Temple University for the victims of a deadly row house fire in Philadelphia. Officials said it was the city's deadliest single fire in at least a century. (Matt Rourke/AP)

ACROSS AMERICA — The week began with the somber remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr. and a reflection on how Black rights have evolved in the United States since the 1960s and how much work still needs to be done.

At the same time, sweeping voting rights legislation collapsed in the U.S. Senate after two Democratic senators refused to vote along with their party contemporaries.

Also, NBC announced it will not send announcers and most hosts to the Beijing Winter Olympic Games due to continued concerns over the rising COVID-19 cases worldwide.

Find out what's happening in Across Americafor free with the latest updates from Patch.

The Biden administration is making 400 million free N95 masks available to Americans as the country continues to deal with the omicron coronavirus variant.

As the week drew to a close, the deaths of rock legend Meat Loaf and comedian Louis Anderson were announced.

Find out what's happening in Across Americafor free with the latest updates from Patch.

Visitors gather at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial as snow falls in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. Ceremonies scheduled for the site on Monday, to mark the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday, were canceled because of the weather. (Carolyn Kaster/AP)
Law enforcement officials gather at a local school near the Congregation Beth Israel synagogue on Saturday in Colleyville, Texas, where a gunman held four hostages. The 10-hour-long standoff ended after the hostages escaped and the gunman was shot to death. The FBI was investigating the incident as a "terrorism-related matter." (Gareth Patterson/AP)
Linsey Jones, a medical assistant working at a drive-up COVID-19 testing clinic, wears an N95 mask in Puyallup, Washington, south of Seattle. The Biden administration launched a website for Americans to place orders for the 400 million N95 masks the federal government is offering free to Americans . The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says N95 and KN95 masks better protect against the omicron variant of COVID-19 than cloth face coverings. (Ted S. Warren, File/AP)
In this image from Senate Television, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) speaks Wednesday on the floor of the U.S. Senate at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Voting legislation that Democrats and civil rights leaders say is vital to protecting democracy collapsed when Manchin and Sen. Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) refused to join their own party in changing Senate rules to overcome a Republican filibuster after a raw, emotional debate. (Senate Television via AP)

A member of the media picks up a shredded box at a section of the Union Pacific train tracks in downtown Los Angeles on Jan. 14. Thieves have been raiding cargo containers aboard trains nearing downtown Los Angeles for months, leaving the tracks blanketed with discarded packages. The sea of debris left behind included items that the thieves apparently didn't think were valuable enough to take, CBSLA reported Thursday. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)
A person wearing a face shield walks past the Olympic rings inside the main media center at the 2022 Winter Olympics Wednesday in Beijing. NBC will not send its announcers and most hosts to the Beijing Olympics due to continued concerns about rising COVID-19 cases worldwide and China's strict policy about those who test positive. (David J. Phillip/AP)
Penn swimmer Lia Thomas, a transgender athlete, competes in a 500-meter race in Philadelphia. The NCAA has adopted a sport-by-sport approach for transgender athletes, bringing the organization in line with the U.S. and International Olympic Committees. Thomas started smashing records this year. (Heather Khalfia/The Philadelphia Inquirer via AP)
Louie Anderson appears during the 2017 Winter Television Critics Association press tour in Pasadena, California, on Jan. 12, 2017. Anderson, whose four-decade career as a comedian and actor included his unlikely and Emmy-winning performance as mom to twin adult sons in the TV series “Baskets,” has died at age 68. (Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
A jury of 18 people who appeared to be mostly white was picked Thursday for the federal trial of three Minneapolis police officers charged in George Floyd’s killing, a case that the judge told potential jurors has “absolutely nothing” to do with race. In this image from surveillance video, Minneapolis police officers (from left) Tou Thao, Derek Chauvin, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane are seen attempting to take George Floyd into custody in Minneapolis on May 25, 2020. (Court TV via AP, Pool, File)

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