The Covid-19 pandemic has hit countries all around the world hard. Thousands of people every day get infected with the virus as doctors race to treat patients and countries race to vaccine residents.

COVID-19 has been a global pandemic since early in 2019. It is over a year old and has killed over 2 million people, worldwide. It is one of the most infectious diseases in history, requiring several lockdowns and quarantines worldwide. However, hope finally may be coming to the world. Vaccines, developed by the companies Pfizer and Moderna, have been released and are being implemented all around the world. Is the nightmare finally over? Or is it not as effective as it may seem?

On January 6, Congress was holding a meeting at the Capitol Building in Washington D.C. to officially certify Joseph R. Biden as the 46th President of the United States. Right outside the Capitol, was a group of people, supporters of President Trump. The group was coming back from a Trump rally and were protesting against the certification of Joe Biden as President. No one was prepared for what was about to happen next.

A Presidential Election occurs every four years. This year Election Day was on November 3, 2020. It was the deadline for mail-in ballots to be received by the election officials in each state. Most of the states got their results within hours. 

The earliest recording of execution in the United States of America was in 1608. Captain George Kendall in the Jamestown Colony of Virginia was a spy for Spain. To pay for his treason, Kendall was executed by a firing squad. He was the first person to be executed by capital punishment. Around Kendall’s death, the littlest things such as stealing grapes, killing chickens, and trading with Indians could get you sentenced to death. Britain influenced the United States to use the death penalty.

Following a contested election full of false allegations of voter fraud, dangerous partisanism and continuous misinformation, tensions reached a boiling point on January 6 as the Senate met to confirm electoral votes certifying Joe Biden’s November win. 

Going back to school was very questionable this year as  COVID-19 cases rose across the local area, state and country this fall. After many Board of Education meetings, Nutley Public Schools opened to hybrid learning for elementary levels, beginning on October 19th with a phased-in approach. By November 9, the Board of Education voted to not bring back middle and high school students and to keep all students and teachers virtual after Thanksgiving, beginning Monday, November 30.  

The Medal of Honor is the highest military medal awarded by the United States and must be awarded by the President. The requirements for the medal are: “risk of their own life above and beyond the call of duty in action against an enemy of the United States.” This makes it a very rare medal to see on a soldier not to mention on a living one. However on September 11, 2020, Army Ranger Sergeant Major Thomas “Patrick” Payne was awarded the Medal of Honor and still continues to serve to this day. 

November 7, 2020, Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden was officially declared President-Elect. Following a stressful week for the nation and a much more stressful month of ballot counting for poll workers, the call was made by the Associated Press the first Saturday of the month, four days after Election Day. As of a December 9 update made by the Associated Press, Biden received 306 electoral votes, winning over 51.4% of the U.S. population, thus making him the first President-Elect to receive over 80 million votes in a single election.

Tragically, on October 10, 2020 a massive house fire broke out in Nutley causing a death of a 74-year-old man, Joseph Collar. The fire, on Myrtle Ave., killed one while two members of the household were sent to the hospital and taken into immediate care. A bystander, who watched the fire go down, says he “heard a male voice calling help me.” Montclair, Bloomfield and Lyndhurst fire fighters were also on the scene due to the severity of the fire although Nutley was the first to respond.

Since the Coronavirus pandemic started, there has been a total of more than 15 million cases in the United States. The United States has surpassed China, which once had the world’s record breaking amount of Covid-19 cases. Over the past months, there has been a new surge in Covid19 cases. This has led to ICU beds being limited as well as the space in hospitals. All around the world, people have been quarantining and taking precautions.

Since the coronavirus first invaded the country, there have been 303,963 deaths (and counting) and there are 16,771,562 cases currently. As the year has progressed, Americans have seen how the coronavirus has taken over the country and continues to burden daily lives.

On October 22, 2020, the rematch was on in the second Presidential Debate. President Donald Trump vs. Democratic nominee Joe Biden was the main focus in the first second national debate. The first debate took place on September 29. 

*Written prior to the 2020 election

There's a reason why we should vote. I learned about her recently through a local play.  No one made the idea of voting clearer than a woman named Fannie Lou Hamer. 

On November 3, 2020, the nation came out in record numbers to elect the next President of the United States. As the year 2020 has progressed, Americans have been forced to overcome multiple challenges such as dealing with unemployment, national unrest, the spread of COVID-19, and losing loved-ones to the virus. With these challenges, the country has truly been shaken by 2020.  The 2020 Presidential Election will be one of the most significant and life-changing elections any American will ever witness. 

On October 2, 2020, Trump tweeted, “Tonight, @FLOTUS and I tested positive for COVID-19. We will begin our quarantine and recovery process immediately. We will get through this TOGETHER!” This remark sparked controversy among US voters. Just a few days after his diagnosis, the Trump Administration began planning for future rallies.

On September 26, 2020, President Trump nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in the U.S. Supreme Court, who passed away earlier this fall. Amy Coney Barrett is a federal appeals court judge, professor of law at University of Notre Dame, and former law clerk of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. With the 2020 Presidential Election looming around the corner, the U.S. Supreme Court held multiple hearings for Mrs. Barrett’s appointment.

As Nutley High School, transitioned into virtual learning, mental health has been prioritized, more than ever. As students learn from home, it is important that they engage in conversations about mental health, specifically on how to improve and maintain it. Virtual learning may bring various factors that strain mental wellness. Due to this, NHS has provided multiple resources and ways to reach out.

Now that the school year is coming to an end, high school upperclassmen are trying to figure out what to do about their futures. There is a lot more to college acceptances than there used to be. Throughout history there have been changes in how college students are accepted into Universities. 

Governor Murphy announced on May 26th that the New Jersey Department of Education will allow school districts and college/universities to hold in-person graduation on July 6.  Due to COVID-19, all schools have been canceled for the rest of the year which means that graduations, proms, and end-of-the-year functions were canceled or held virtually.