There has been no singular "COVID event" during this pandemic.........nothing on par with what we saw on September 11, 2001, when we watched thousands of people die, all caught on camera in a gruesome spectacle. No, the over 200-thousand victims of the coronavirus died mostly lonely, isolated, agonizing deaths; away from cameras, hidden from crowds and often far away from family and friends. And that might, in part, explain why so many people in this country still aren't willing to take the pandemic seriously, in spite of an awful death toll that shows no signs of slowing down.

Earlier this week, when the country passed that grim 200-thousand death mark, we thought the victims of this virus deserved more than just a statistic; we wanted to hear their stories, how their lives were cut short, and learn about how the families they left behind are coping. So today we bring you an hour-long, commercial free special KNX In Depth: A Time to Grieve. 

We are going to hear the stories of five people who have lost family members to COVID-19........and how they're grieving that loss at a time when grieving is not a straight-forward process. We hope to put names, personalities and emotions to that 200-thousand statistic and get a better sense of the true toll this pandemic has taken on millions of families.

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President Trump has repeatedly been casting doubt on the results of the November 3rd election, with various conspiracy theories about mail-in ballots and counting votes well after election night---- but he upped the ante yesterday....when he said, should he lose, that he wouldn't necessarily commit to a peaceful transfer of power. Could the president, with a lot of help, turn this election into utter chaos? 

Fears were rampant about reopening schools to in-class learning during the pandemic, but something interesting has been happening at the K-through-12 schools: outbreaks have been isolated, and for the most part students and teachers have stayed infection free. We'll take a closer look.

And should we all still be spending all of the time, money and effort wiping down every surface we come into contact with, for fear of picking up the virus?

Peter Strzok had a very unique view on the drama around the 2016 election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Not only did the former FBI agent look into Clinton's use of a private email server, he was an original member of Robert Mueller's team investigating Russia and the Trump campaign.

He was a target of attacks by the president himself, and the center of a scandal within the FBI..........Peter Strzok comes to In Depth to talk about his new book, "Compromised: Counterintelligence and the Threat of Donald J. Trump..."

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One Louisville police officer out of the three that were possibly facing charges in the deadly raid on Breonna Taylor's apartment has been criminally charged; but those charges actually have nothing to do with the fact that Taylor died. Why is it so difficult to charge and convict police officers with misconduct? 

Some sobering news from the CDC director to the Senate this morning: even after nearly 7-million Americans have been infected with the novel coronavirus, and over 200-thousand people have died..........at least 90-percent of the population is still susceptible.  Meaning any idea that we're "rounding the corner" doesn't really match with reality.

Also: we got both some promising and some troubling news on the development of new COVID vaccines........so we'll explain.                    

Safe to say you can find Americans on either side of the partisan divide who would agree that the federal government is broken.  We have a political environment that increasingly discourages compromise, and many of the checks and balances have stopped working.

So can we fix it? Congressman Adam Schiff introduced a new reform package today, and we'll talk to him. Plus, we have questions about the Supreme Court fight. And election interference....

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The fat lady appears to have sung, when it comes to the fight over replacing Ruth Bader Ginsburg's on the Supreme Court.  After Mitt Romney announced that he is ready to vote on President Trump's pick, it doesn't look like there are any other GOP senators willing to buck their own party.  What's next for the Senate.......the court......the campaign trail?  We'll go In Depth.

Black and Latino Americans are nearly 5-times as likely to be hospitalized with COVID 19; so it's with this disproportionate impact that the oldest Black doctors association in the country is forming it's own committee to look over the vaccine process.

And the outbreak in the UK was thought to be largely under control as summer got underway. Fast forward...and i turns out just when you think you've got this virus figured out, it flares up again:  we'll go overseas to get a closer look at their second wave.

Are you still holding onto tickets for that concert, game, or flight....postponed in the Spring?  Chances are it's still postponed, and you're still sitting on essentially useless tickets --- how can you get your money back?

And some breaking news at the end of the show: the FDA says it's slowing down the COVID vaccine testing & approval process.

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As if an already bitterly contested presidential election needed any more fuel for the fire..........Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away on Friday after a long battle with cancer.  And we can now toss into the ring what is sure to be an ugly fight to fill the vacancy: will that help or hurt Biden or Trump?  We'll go In Depth.

Also the timing of Ginsberg's death could not be more delicate:  there are several big cases about to be argued in front of the Supreme Court, including a bid to overturn the Affordable Care Act.  How could a new conservative justice tilt the court's balance?

And some hypocrisy in politics is kind of a given, but this vacancy is showing us that blatant, unapologetic hypocrisy is kind of the rule, not the exception these days.

Tell us if this sounds familiar:  the CDC puts out a set of guidelines over the coronavirus.........then the CDC quickly reverses its position on those guidelines.  It's happened again, this time over the widely accepted belief that coronavirus can be transmitted through the air.

And we are about to pass an awful milestone:  200-thousand dead Americans from COVID.  We'll look at the public health failures and the reality that we're nowhere done with this.

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Calls for transparency in developing a coronavirus vaccine have been growing, and at least two of the pharmaceutical companies behind the effort have answered them:  Pfizer and Moderna have revealed more information about how participants in clinical trials have been selected and the conditions of those trials.........but is there enough information to feel confident?  We'll go in depth.

There is an unprecedented battle underway right now in the federal government......in the middle of a pandemic......between President Trump and his chief medical advisors.  On the same week that the president undercut the leader of the CDC, there are new reports that political appointees have been interfering with coronavirus reports and guidelines.

Medical debt was already weighing on millions of families before all this; now the combination of job losses and mounting bills is making the issue even worse, as millions of Americans are carrying around BILLIONS of dollars worth of debt from medical treatments.

And the clock is ticking for TikTok, the Chinese-owned social media giant.  New downloads...banned this weekend.... the app set to be banished from American phones by November.

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In just about every country across Europe, citizens stayed mostly inside and businesses stayed mostly closed down for months, in an effort to snuff out the coronavirus -- after all, Italy had a horrible time at the start of the pandemic -- but don't look now, as Europe has started to reopen.......the virus is back. 

Here in the US, the virus has never really gone away, and even with sporadic lockdowns, we've tried to keep the economy open where possible.  In the battle of the economy versus the virus, the economy wins.

And we'll go to Berkeley where they're vowing to get tough on mask wearing.

Attorney General Bill Barr, in a single speech to a conservative audience, called coronavirus restrictions the "greatest intrusion on American civil liberties in history"......other than slavery. He attacked his own prosecutors, and Black Lives Matter........is all this in line with being the nation's chief law enforcement officer?

And with Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish new year celebration, tomorrow. But high holidays these days are a challenge. We'll talk with the Rabbi of the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, about doing this in the time of a pandemic and on the eve of a grim anniversary. 

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When the country first went on lockdown back in March, as the coronavirus pandemic hit with full force, crimes of all types plummeted.  After all, we were locked inside and doing our best to stay away from each other.  But as the summer set in, violent crime in most major cities started to spike.  Is the pandemic to blame for all of the violence?

How much would you be willing to pay to get a vaccination against COVID-19?  How does free sound?  The government's vaccine distribution plans include making inoculations free for any Americans who want it.....will that be enough to entice vaccine skeptics?

And we've told you for months that the key to beating COVID might not be a vaccine at all........but a treatment or therapy that would reduce the deadliness of the virus.  Well that treatment might just have arrived, and we'll tell you about it.

The Big Ten conference was adamant, only a few weeks ago:  they wouldn't be playing football this season with no guarantees that they could keep their players safe.  Well that situation changed, and quickly:  crediting the availability of rapid testing, Big Ten football will be returning at the end of October.  Is the Pac-12 next?  We'll talk with a player.....

And if you want to know how one, seemingly innocent event can set off a COVID chain reaction........look no further than an August wedding in Maine that's responsible for well over 100 infections and 7 deaths.........so far.

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When President Trump laughed off the science behind climate change yesterday, as he was being briefed on a record-setting wildfire year, it was representative of something bigger than just the president:  it's the rejection of science and expertise by millions of Americans on a host of topics, from global warming to the pandemic.  Have we become an anti-intellectual country? 

Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain did something today at the White House that would've been unthinkable only a few years ago:  signed a landmark peace deal.  Will this bring stability to the region.......and is Saudi Arabia next? 

Catching COVID is especially bad for people who have all kinds of preexisting conditions; but it might be the worst news for cancer patients.  We're going to look at a clinical trial out of UCLA.

The way the virus has hit tourism and gaming in Las Vegas could be near-fatal for a city that's so reliant on those industries, we'll go to Sin City.

And with so many weird and unexplained symptoms in COVID patients, scientists turned to a supercomputer to  come up with some theories......and that's exactly what it did.

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If life on planet Earth has become too much for you during 2020, perhaps you're in the market for a change. Somewhere with...life. Venus! Maybe. The planet was thought to be completely inhospitable to life -- insanely hot temperatures and acid rain -- .but a new discovery opens up the possibility that there may be *something* there. So we'll go In Depth.

The news that AstraZenaca is restarting its vaccine trial after a well-publicized suspension has some scientists are wondering if we're being told the whole story on how these vaccines are being developed. We'll dig down on that.

And add another high risk group for possible COVID infections:  drug addicts.

Big malls are part of Southern California's identity..........and so it's been a really brutal year.  The indoor malls are now arguing that they're ready to reopen, so we will talk with one of the biggest mall operators in the world.

And historian Jon Meacham will be on the show to help set up the final 50 days of the presidential campaign.

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