(upbeat music) - Coming up next on News Depth, All Hail Queen Newscat, we learned what makes a monarchy.

Plus the Ohio river is rising and making a mess of multiple states.

We meet an African-American aviator who flies a spy plane, and this guy who coded away to find COVID vaccines online.

NewsDepth, is now.

(upbeat music) Ready, set, reopen.

Hello everybody, I'm Rick Jackson, thank you for joining us.

Some states are removing pandemic restrictions, they're letting folks gather again and not requiring them to wear a mask.

The number of COVID-19 cases has been going down since the peak in January and more people are getting vaccinated, but health experts warn that relaxing restrictions too soon could result in the cases increasing again, Mary Moloney explains.

- [Mary] A celebration for some as more than half of the states in the union roll back coronavirus restrictions.

- It's been a year, I think it's enough.

- [Mary] Mississippi and Texas among those lifting all mask mandates and allowing businesses to operate at full capacity.

- I think it should be effective like yesterday, and a month ago, and hopefully we never have to do this again.

- Well it's kinda kinda scary.

I'm still trying to stay away from too many open places, so I think its too soon.

- [Mary] Business owners also divided.

- I felt like this is where we should have been all along.

- I'm not at that comfort level yet, I don't think our staff is either.

- [Mary] There is light at the end of the pandemic tunnel, more shots are going into arms.

- [Man] Three, two, one, vaccinate.

- [Mary] COVID case levels, hospitalizations and deaths are well below the pandemic peak, but?

- We continue to see troubling signs in the trajectory of the pandemic in the US.

- [Mary] Especially as more transmissible variants could spark a surge in COVID cases.

- But now is not the time to release all restrictions.

- The last, the last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime, everything's fine, take off your mask, forget it.

It still matters.

- [Mary] As scientists study the effects of a booster shot to combat the variance and work towards a universal COVID vaccine, some business owners will keep COVID restrictions in place.

- Nobody wants business to return more than me.

You know, I think we're very close and I would hate to get in the way of the progress we're making.

- I'm Mary Moloney reporting.

- Thanks Mary, restrictions still remain in Ohio including the mandate to wear mask in public.

Governor Mike DeWine has loosened some rules though.

For instance, he's allowing large sport and entertainment venues to reopen, but with limits only 25% capacity for indoor venues, and 30% capacity for outdoor venues.

Capacity means the full amount something can contain.

DeWine also removed a curfew that forced some businesses to be closed overnight.

He's also allowing events like proms, and graduation parties and weddings to be held as long as all other safety precautions are still being taken.

Now for this weeks poll, we wanna know, are you comfortable with pandemic restrictions being rolled back?

Head to our online poll to vote either yes or no.

While restrictions may be rolling back, more vaccines are rolling out.

However, getting signed up for a shot can be a bit confusing.

Most of the time you need to sign up online but there are pharmacy websites, hospital websites, doctor's websites, health department websites, individual county websites, so, so many websites to be checking hoping to find available vaccines.

That's where a Stanford University computer science student has stepped in.

He coded a Twitter bot to help people find appointments in Colorado.

Victoria de Leon shows us how it works.

- [Victoria] Social media can be a powerful thing.

- So I actually first posted on Reddit.

- [Victoria] David Witten would know.

- And really quickly the response is pretty overwhelmingly positive.

- [Victoria] He's a computer science major at Stanford university.

His relatives in Colorado were having trouble getting vaccine appointments, David wanted to help.

- I remember reading about this other vaccine website, turbo vacs, so last week, and I just sat down and tried to make a version of that.

- [Victoria] He ended up creating a code that does the vaccine appointment searching for you.

David says he actually did it with the help of the creator of this website, Nick Mueller.

- The Colorado one also had code to do this, and he put it open to the public.

So it's partially mine and partially I'm using his help.

- [Victoria] David's code automatically tweets updates when there's a new slot available.

- It's the name of the store, the address and the URL.

Instead of people having to search for information, it literally comes to them.

Like they turn on notifications and they find out immediately.

- [Victoria] Since Tuesday, the bot has sent out more than 450 alerts in less than 72 hours, the response has already been released.

- Yeah, so there's one like I've been refreshing vaccine websites for like weeks now, and finally after joining this bot within a few hours I was able to find something in my hometown.

- [Victoria] Finding vaccine appointments might get easier for people everywhere.

The CDC also launched a tool that finds vaccine providers after entering your zip code, there will likely still be challenges ahead, but with people like David, at least there's hope.

- I'm super grateful that people are able to get help from this, and I'm really excited to keep working on this, improving it.

- Thanks, Victoria, Witten hopes to add community clinics to his code and expand to more stores in the future.

Until things are back to normal, live entertainment's mostly on hold in the United States especially on the big stages of Broadway, but let's hop over to Australia where theater performers have found a new stage to call home.

Good day and welcome to Australia, the only country that's also an entire continent.

The country is home to a diverse range of animals from desert dwellers, like kangaroos, to the tropical fish or the great barrier reef.

More than 25 million people live here too.

Australia's government, it's both a representative democracy and a constitutional monarchy, we'll talk a little bit more about that later.

Right now, let's look into the arts scene where performers are still getting to do what they love despite the pandemic, Will Ripley has more.

- [Will] The brilliant lights of Broadway, dark for almost a year.

New York's iconic theaters empty likely for many months to come.

Nearly 10,000 miles away in Sydney, Australia, the show goes on.

Kismet created by Broadway performer, Reed Kelly, and Australian Acrobat Jack Dawson, the aerial straps duo two fathoms.

- Right now, this is really the only place that both of us can be and do what we do.

You're good?

- [Will] What they do takes hours of daily practice, discipline, athleticism, sacrifice.

- I'm away from my family, I'm not at home, I don't get to see my husband, we FaceTime every day but it's been such a challenge.

I'm good, how's your day.

- Kelly's husband, a doctor in Los Angeles.

They've been apart for almost a year.

If Kelly leaves Australia, his visa won't allow him to return.

Sydney, one of the only places in the world where theaters have reopened.

- And we seem to be doing really well, we're really grateful to be here where everything seems to be really under control.

- [Will] Broadway star, Gabrielle McClinton just returned to the US.

She spent months in Australia.

As the lead player in pippin, the Tony award winning Broadway musical was a smash hit in Sydney.

Does that give you hope about Broadway?

- Absolutely, I definitely had its challenges but we got through the season and people came to the show wearing their masks, and we would get COVID tested every week.

And when we were on stage, we were in our masks, and everybody obeyed all the rules, and we did our due diligence when we were outside of the theater to make sure that we weren't putting people at risk.

- [Will] A model for reopening Broadway and beyond says Australian playwright, Tom Write.

- You need political and social leadership to provide a safe set of circumstances for theater to reopen.

- [Will] Sydney's Belvoir street theater has been opened for five months, strict COVID 19 lockdowns worked virtually eliminating local cases.

- The reason why Sydney has been able to reopen is because people at local, state, and federal level took seriously the safety of the most vulnerable people in their society.

And we're a reflection of that.

- [Will] The pandemics devastating toll goes beyond empty theaters.

Artists around the world are struggling.

- It's not just a job for us.

- Yeah.

- This is our lives.

- We wanna do this and we need to keep doing this, so, we're just pushing through and hope for better days.

- [Will] Giving hope to performers everywhere, their future remains up in the air.

- Thanks, Will, okay so let's loop back to that odd thing about Australia being a monarchy and a democracy, the Australian people vote for folks to represent them in the government.

These members then get to vote for the top government leader, the prime minister, so it's a democracy, but Australia is also a monarchy, their queen is actually the queen of England that's because before Australia became a country, it was a group of British colonies.

When they decided to become an independent country they opted to keep the queen.

But there's plenty more to know about monarchies has all the details in this week's Politics On Point.

(upbeat music) - Hear ye, hear ye, by decree of her Meow-Jesty Queen NewsCat, I will now explain to you monarchies.

(cat meows) (upbeat music) That's a fitting way to start talking about Kings and Queens, right?

When you think of monarchies, your mind might automatically go right to medieval times, noble leaders protecting their people, or greedy malicious conquerors, who only look out for themselves.

However, just like other forms of government, monarchies have gone through plenty of changes over the years, and still exist to this day.

A monarchy is a form of government in which power and authority are held by one ruler or Monarch for life.

They've usually get some help through a close knit circle of family members and advisers.

Way back in the day, a monarch would come to power through leadership achievements, such as conquering land and managing resources.

They're supposed to rule that land with their people's best interests in mind.

Once a monarch is set up, the power tends to pass from one generation to the next, from the King to his son, and from that son to the son's, son, and so on and so forth.

This means monarchs were usually born into the position rather than being chosen.

The middle ages shaped monarchies into what many know them as today, heavily influenced by religion, Kings acted as though they were chosen by a higher power to guard their people's wellbeing.

There's even a name for it, "The divine right of Kings."

If a monarch were to hold total and complete power on their own, this is known as an absolute monarch.

You might be able to see where this could go wrong.

One person with all the power, the idea of a monarchy is to have one leader that represents the people and acts in their best interests.

But what if the person in charge has some ideals that the people don't like?

Revolutions by the public have resulted in many monarchies changing into limited monarchies.

There is still a monarch, but they don't get to decide everything.

Today, the most well-known monarchy around is the British monarchy.

It's one of those limited kinds technically called a constitutional monarchy.

So they still have a King or queen, but they also have a constitution that outlines the country's rules and laws.

Some people have argued that it's time to do away with monarchies, but based on how the British loved their leader, it seems like a government form that will be around with us for quite some time.

- Thanks, Nick, Sheesh Queen Newscat?

I mean, we all love the little girl but that's a little bit much don't you think?

(cat meows) Oh gosh, Newscat must really thinks she runs the show now, she's cuing herself.

Well, maybe just this once we can see what she's popped up for petting zoo before the end of the show.

(cat meows) - Hey there your royal highness?

Dreaming about being queen?

You know even royals have some work to do so hop to it.

Oh, it looks like she knows what she's doing at least.

Oh, I see she's found a story about animal shelters finding new support during the pandemic, that's nice.

To find out how these animals are getting some extra love head on over to our website and click the Petting Zoo button.

Thank you, Newscat.

Okay, back to the news, if you live along the banks of the Ohio river, you probably noticed some flooding at the end of last week, record rainfall and melting snow caused the river to crest last weekend depending where you are in the river of course.

Crest means to reach the highest point.

Now, once a river crests, it's expected to begin to return to normal levels but it's not just the Ohio river causing flooding, its tributaries are affected too.

A tributary is a stream or river that flows into a larger river.

The Kentucky river is a tributary of the Ohio river, and it goes right through Kentucky's capitol of Frankfurt.

Reporter Phil Pendleton spoke to folks there about their rising concerns.

- [Phil] It brings back memories of what happened in the past.

- No, and I've seen it this way several times, worked it out, cleaned it up, going back to work.

- [Phil] The Judy Penn and others along the Kentucky river in the state's capitol city, know that's going to happen again.

- Amazement, just amazed, I'm looking at it, and I could see my son playing basketball there, and not now.

- [Phil] Bob Rhodes bought this house 10 years ago, and most of the time the river's been great.

- If you're in the summertime, it's really nice, green beautiful rivers going by, boats are going by, you didn't think about nothing.

You looked just now you think, well, you know, that other piece of property wasn't so bad.

Close to his home as the sign of what it was like 43 years ago.

It's unbelievable to think that now, that now that unbelief has turned to planning.

- My washer, dryer, my dishwasher, my stove, refrigerator, everything's up on cement blocks.

- [Phil] Emergency officials have closed more than a dozen roads.

- Probably goes down first.

- [Phil] Their hope also that it won't be bad as before.

- Thanks Phil, for those of you watching from near the Ohio river, I know we've got some viewers in Cincinnati and in Marietta Ohio's first city, we hope you have a speedy cleanup from all the flooding.

Now, if you remember last week's show, we ask all of you to take a look out your windows and see what birds you could find.

Let's look at those poll results.

It turns out 65% of you saw a goose and 65% of you saw a Cardinal too.

The bird that was hardest to come by, was the owl.

Makes sense since most of them are nocturnal.

Nocturnal means they're active at night.

We also asked you last week to give some advice for students returning to school.

Before I read those letters, let's see how our neighbors in my home state of Pennsylvania are prepping to return, Tasha Brown has that story.

- Eda, Eda honey, do you know where to find the link?

- [Natasha] Hope Wiener is back inside her classroom at Chester Arthur Elementary School for the first time in nearly a year.

- For those children that are coming back to school on Monday, there's a special meeting just for you.

- [Natasha] Her kindergarten students have only seen her through a computer screen but several will be back in a classroom for the first time on Monday to begin hybrid learning.

- It will be really nice to see the children that are coming in face-to-face, because we felt wonderful relationships through the computer, but we haven't had a chance to see them in person.

And I'm sure they're feeling the same way about coming in and seeing me.

- Nearly a dozen teachers are back here at the Chester Arthur school in South Philadelphia, getting ready to bring their students back on Monday.

They're preparing their classrooms and getting set for the big day.

(bell rings) - This is our autistic support classroom.

- Mary Libby is the school's principal.

She's ecstatic to see a building now bustling with teachers and the tiny voices of students.

- Approximately 85 children coming back, and they're coming in two cohorts.

So, there'll be a Monday, Tuesday cohort of children, and then a Thursday, Friday cohort of children.

- I'm really excited, I got my COVID vaccine today.

- [Natasha] Newly vaccinated teachers will be entering school buildings.

Layers of safety protocols are already in place from desk shields, to social distancing signage, and hand sanitizing stations.

A new energy, a new look, for a new start to a school year like none other.

- I'm thrilled for the young children, for the kindergarten children who Monday will be their first day in the school building for so many of them, and kindergarten is such an important transition for all children.

I can't wait to see you again, I can't not wait to see you.

- Thanks Natasha.

Well maybe some Pennsylvanians are out there watching and can use those tips you sent us on returning to school.

Now, let's open up our inbox.

Ella from Bexley schools in Bexley wrote, "Even though my school was still on hybrid learning, "I still have advice for students going back to school.

"Your school will probably look a little different "in order to keep everyone safe, but don't worry, "it will go back to normal sooner or later.

"At my school we are not allowed "to eat during the school day.

"If your school is doing the same, "I advise you to eat a big breakfast "or else you might get hungry during the day.

"That is just a little bit of advice "for kids returning to school."

Greg, from Old Trail School in Akron wrote, "You might feel a little bit scared, but you will be okay.

"Also make sure you stay safe and most importantly, "make sure you have fun."

Here's some advice from Prathula, at Whitney Elementary in Strongsville.

"If you are doing school online, "you're probably tired of it, right?

"Well, if you're going back to school soon, "here are some tips.

"First, you have to get used to wearing mask "the whole time you're in school.

"Second, you have to use hand sanitizer "at least twice a day.

"Third, you have to stay socially distanced.

"And lastly, if you sneeze do it on your arm "and not on everybody, then go wash your hands with soap.

"So now that you know some tips, "we'll get off those screens and meet someone face-to-face."

Maximus from McCormick middle school in Wellington wrote, "Some advice that I have is that you have to try your best "even if you don't like school at all.

"So more advice that I would give to students "is that if you do not have any friends, "go out there and try to make some.

"Another piece of advice that I would give to students "is that if they feel overwhelmed, "talk to a teacher or friend.

"One last piece of information "that I would get to students "is that if you are scared of trying new things, "just try and you might have some fun."

Finally, here's a letter from Grace from Jefferson Elementary in Jefferson.

"The advice I have for the students returning to school "is to make sure you have plenty of mask in your book bag, "because if one of your mask is too big or broke, "then you can have a backup.

"Also, you should have hand sanitizer "because you never know what germs are in your school.

"And you should also have respect for the teachers and staff "because they are the ones who are helping you "stay safe at school.

"That's the advice for the students returning to school."

Great tips and great encouragement everybody.

Our NewsDepth A plus goes to a group of students at East Academy in Cleveland, who welcomed all Ohio students back to school with a rap video.

There's a sixth, seventh and eighth graders, and Mrs. Tijuana Taylor's English classes.

The video features Mrs. Taylor rapping with the students, masked up dancing with her.

♪ Gotta wear all these masks on our face ♪ ♪ Six feet no one can be in our space ♪ - Yeah, it looks like fun.

Mrs. Taylor said the whole idea started because she wanted to create a way to engage your English language arts class, and to get them to read and write more.

She said, her students all love music, so one day she asked them to bring in the lyrics to their favorite songs that got them excited.

Now they've got freestyle Fridays, when the students write about anything they want in any form they want.

For one assignment, Mrs. Taylor asked her kids to write about their experiences during 2020.

And they began to talk about things like COVID-19 and Kobe Bryant.

Then Mrs. Taylor wrote a rap that incorporated all of the students' experiences and thoughts, and everyone got involved.

She'd share a couple of lines she'd wrote and her students help edit them, so they were more relatable to kids.

The students found the instrumental beat on YouTube, and once it came to making the video, all the students help with dance moves, and choreography.

So big shout out to all the kids in Mrs Taylor's class, we are excited to award you this week's NewsDepth A plus for being creative, working together, and for making a fun video that represents East Academy.

And this A-plus goes to Mrs. Taylor for dropping those fine lines.

Now sticking with ELA for this week's writing question, we wanna know what would you like to be a pioneer in?

Pioneer means someone who is the first to explore a new area or do something.

Here's an example for you.

A Sacramento-area mom is the only black woman to ever fly the military's U-2 plane.

She's retired now, but serving in other ways.

Marlee Ginter has her story.

- [Marlee] The U-2 aircraft nicknamed the dragon lady earned a reputation as a difficult plane to fly but that didn't stop Merryl Tengesdal.

- So getting in that aircraft, oh, it's great.

It's not intimidating, but you're excited, and then now it's like, okay let's try and be the best that we can.

So it's, I like challenge.

- [Marlee] She likes challenges and she rises to the occasion.

Raised by a single mother, she put herself through college earning a degree in electrical engineering.

She went on to become the first and only black female to fly the U-2, retiring as an air force colonel, she's now a mom who's also doing foster care.

- Nothing that Merryl does anymore surprises me.

- [Marlee] Ken Hall, director of manpower, personnel and services at Beale Air Force Base has been with Merryl from the beginning, training her on the U-2.

- She has worked her tail off to get where she's at, and done it with grace, - [Marlee] And if Marlee looks familiar, you may have seen her on the CBS show, "Tough as Nails."

- It was like getting a golden ticket to Willy Wonka's factory, so it was just Phil Cogans, you know, tough house, tough as nails.

- [Marlee] Clearly a tough one, but with the soft side now paying it forward as a foster mom.

- I wanna be the one that steps up and be an example, I'm giving someone else an opportunity.

Can everyone else do that, regardless of what they look like, what their gender is?

Give them an opportunity to see what happens.

- Thanks Marlee, I can't wait to read about what kind of pioneers you all wanna be, and it's never too early to set your sights sky high.

That's the lesson being learned by the students at the Davis Aerospace and Maritime High School.

Dan Polletta takes us to the unique school, right a couple of blocks away from me here in Cleveland.

- [Dan] In 2017, the Cleveland metropolitan school district opened a new high school that honors the hero of world war II.

The school prepares students to enter the field of aviation to work in the shipping industry, or to go to college.

The Davis aerospace and Maritime high school at East 14th and Lakeside Avenue in downtown Cleveland, takes its name from Benjamin O. Davis, the air force's first black general.

He was a decorated army veteran who entered the military in 1936 at a time when the service resisted African-Americans from enlisting.

- [Man] Benjamin O. Davis is a graduate of CMSD public schools.

He was a pilot in world war II, he was first African-American air force general, and the led the Tuskegee airmen, which was an all African-American group of pilots that fought in the war.

- [Dan] Through internships, field trips, and high-tech simulators, students learn to operate and work on planes and boats.

They bring these experiences into the classroom and explore them to science, math, literature, and history.

- We use planes for like our math problems, our math equations, our bowls for math problems and math equations.

Also we have an aviation in Maritime class or a science class.

So we study commercial aviation, general aviation, fighter aviation, and we studied boats like cruise ships, both like that.

- All ninth graders take a maritime science course where they learn about a boat design, buoyancy, density, what makes boats stable?

What makes them sink?

All kids in that class learned to swim so that their water safe.

Kids get out on the water, they learn how to test water and learn about the health of our local ecosystem in the great lakes, and our aviation science course is a followup for 10th graders and kids learn about airplane design, wing design, Bernoulli's principle, along with some critical issues that face the airport industry.

We are right here on Lake Erie, we're right next to Burke airport in our new location and shipping on the great lakes is a huge part of the local economy.

There are two airports in Cleveland, and the airport employees about 7,000 individuals in the city, so it's a huge piece of the local culture here.

And it made sense for a school to be built to take advantage of of that culture and to help bring it alive.

- [Dan] What the staff at Davis Aerospace and Maritime high school hopes to provide students, is an entry into the field of aviation and maritime.

Something for which general Benjamin O. Davis had to fight.

- It's important to me, it's important to the district, it's important to our families 'cause Benjamin O. Davis is from here, he's from Cleveland.

And I think it's important for our students to know, that one of the most famous pilots ever from the United States was one of them.

- Thanks, Dan, I'm gonna leave you on that note of dreaming big, but of course not before I say that, we wanna hear from you and there are plenty of ways to stay in touch.

You can write to us, we're at 1375 Euclid Avenue, that's Cleveland, Ohio, our zip code 44115, you can email us at newsdepth@ideastream.org, or you can tweet us, our handle is @NewsDepthOhio.

Thanks for joining us, I'm Rick Jackson, we'll see you right back here, next time.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] NewsDepth is made possible by grant the Martha Holding Jennings Foundation.

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