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Utah’s safety net for the poor is so intertwined with the LDS Church that individual bishops often decide who receives assistance. Some deny help unless a person goes to services or gets baptized. (Hager, 12/2)

More than 5,000 public housing apartments in buildings long ago deemed “lead free” contain lead paint, THE CITY has learned. And that number is likely to grow. Meet a resident of one of those complexes: Mikhaila Bonaparte, who was born in 2013, just days before NYCHA falsified its lead report to the feds. (Smith, 11/28)

On Sunday, THE CITY revealed that at least 5,000 public housing apartments in complexes long ago deemed “lead free” contain lead paint — and introduced Mikhaila Bonaparte, who was born days before the New York City Housing Authority launched its lead coverup. Today we detail her mother’s fight to help her lead-poisoned daughter — and to wring the truth from NYCHA in the wake of a history of lies. (Smith, 11/29)

Black youths make up the majority of kids on the receiving end of police violence — and a striking number of them are girls, an investigation by The Marshall Project found. There is no comprehensive national database of violent interactions between police and civilians. But when we looked at data for six large police departments that provided detailed demographic information on use-of-force incidents, we found nearly 4,000 youngsters 17 and under experienced police violence from 2015 through 2020. Almost 800 of the children and teens — roughly a fifth of the total — were Black girls. White girls were involved in about 120 cases, representing only 3% of use-of-force incidents involving minors. (Vansickle and Lin, 12/2)

How an Alabama teen sought justice after a violent police encounter upended her life. (Ruderman and Van Sickle, 12/2)

If it doesn’t happen with this variant, it’ll happen with the next one, or maybe the next. Some version of this coronavirus is bound to flummox our vaccines. In the past two years, SARS-CoV-2 has hopscotched across the globe, rejiggering its genome to better coexist with us. The latest coronavirus contender, Omicron, has more than 50 mutations, making it the most heavily altered coronavirus variant of concern that researchers have identified to date. Even in the fully vaccinated, at least a few antibodies will likely be stumped, and at least a few cells infected. Our collective defenses may soon bear an Omicron-shaped dent. (Wu, 12/2)

The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, perhaps more than any other COVID shot, knows what it is to be bullied by the American public. Since the spring, the shot’s been roasted, and roasted, and roasted again—first for its late arrival and its imperfect performance in trials, then for a rare but concerning side effect that temporarily halted its distribution in April. Tweets, memes, and listicles dragged it. SNL skewered it. CVS pharmacies stopped offering it. Then, in October, federal officials urged everyone on Team J&J to get another shot—any shot (but also, maybe try Moderna this time?)—rendering the vaccine’s one-and-done protection, its clearest advantage over its mRNA competitors, just about moot. The underdog dose, the “second class” shot, the nation’s vaccine-a non grata, seemed as good as dead. (Wu, 12/1)

Decisions by top officials responding to President Donald Trump’s edict to protect “America first” contributed to a global delay in Covid-19 vaccine donations and a lack of effort to assist low- and middle-income countries, according to five current and former U.S. officials who worked under Trump on the federal pandemic response. The failure to view the Covid threat in global terms left some nations — including those where the Omicron variant emerged in recent weeks — lacking inoculation and much more vulnerable to mutations, the officials said. (Banco, 12/1)

Amid deep frustration over widespread, visible homelessness, Los Angeles voters want the government to act faster and focus on shelter for people living in the streets, even if those efforts are short-term and fall short of permanent housing, a new poll of county voters shows. Most voters continue to express empathy for homeless people, but also impatience and disappointment with the region’s leadership, according to the poll, conducted by the Los Angeles Business Council Institute in cooperation with The Times. (Oreskes and Lauter, 12/1)