Hundreds of South Carolina schools shut down because of the coronavirus right after the school year kicked off.

Students were thrown back into virtual learning, and parents feared for their children’s health as infections skyrocketed across the state.

Districts struggled with how to protect the children and their staff from the delta variant, a new coronavirus variant that causes more infections and spreads faster than earlier forms of coronavirus, according to the Centers for Disease Control’s website. Vaccinated people can also spread the delta variant to unvaccinated people.

But district’s hands were largely tied: They could not mandate masks.

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The Post and Courier spoke with dozens of S.C. education administration officials, teachers, parents and students, including people desperate for mask mandates and vaccine incentives and those who adamantly oppose them.

These are their stories.https://t.co/c7YJeiKMD8

— The Post and Courier (@postandcourier) October 10, 2021

As relationships, living arrangements and family life continue to evolve for American adults, a rising share are not living with a romantic partner. A new Pew Research Center analysis of census data finds that in 2019, roughly four-in-ten adults ages 25 to 54 (38%) were unpartnered – that is, neither married nor living with a partner.¹ This share is up sharply from 29% in 1990.² Men are now more likely than women to be unpartnered, which wasn’t the case 30 years ago.

The growth in the single population is driven mainly by the decline in marriage among adults who are at prime working age. At the same time, there has been a rise in the share who are cohabiting, but it hasn’t been enough to offset the drop in marriage – hence the overall decline in partnership. While the unpartnered population includes some adults who were previously married (those who are separated, divorced or widowed), all of the growth in the unpartnered population since 1990 has come from a rise in the number who have never been married.

This trend has broad societal implications, as does the growing gap in well-being between partnered and unpartnered adults. Looking across a range of measures of economic and social status, unpartnered adults generally have different – often worse – outcomes than those who are married or cohabiting. This pattern is apparent among both men and women. Unpartnered adults have lower earnings, on average, than partnered adults and are less likely to be employed or economically independent. They also have lower educational attainment and are more likely to live with their parents. Other research suggests that married and cohabiting adults fare better than those who are unpartnered when it comes to some health outcomes.

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NEW: As relationships, living arrangements and family life continue to evolve for American adults, a rising share are not living with a romantic partner. https://t.co/iPIpbevBxo

— Pew Research Center (@pewresearch) October 5, 2021

Holy Father, We bless thee that the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost; that he is come that we might have life, and that we might have it more abundantly, and that for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that by the power of the Holy Spirit he might destroy the works of the devil.

Good Morning! Saturday’s sunrise from Nauset Light beach – Cape Cod National Seashore. #capecod #sunrise pic.twitter.com/xasw0aAg7S

— Darius Aniunas (@dariusaniunas) October 9, 2021

Then the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah: “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Go and say to the men of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, Will you not receive instruction and listen to my words? says the LORD. The command which Jon’adab the son of Rechab gave to his sons, to drink no wine, has been kept; and they drink none to this day, for they have obeyed their father’s command. I have spoken to you persistently, but you have not listened to me. I have sent to you all my servants the prophets, sending them persistently, saying, ‘Turn now every one of you from his evil way, and amend your doings, and do not go after other gods to serve them, and then you shall dwell in the land which I gave to you and your fathers.’ But you did not incline your ear or listen to me. The sons of Jon’adab the son of Rechab have kept the command which their father gave them, but this people has not obeyed me. Therefore, thus says the LORD, the God of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold, I am bringing on Judah and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem all the evil that I have pronounced against them; because I have spoken to them and they have not listened, I have called to them and they have not answered.” But to the house of the Re’chabites Jeremiah said, “Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Because you have obeyed the command of Jon’adab your father, and kept all his precepts, and done all that he commanded you, therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Jon’adab the son of Rechab shall never lack a man to stand before me.”

–Jeremiah 35:12-19

The Cliffs of Moher, Ireland🇮🇪 ☘️pic.twitter.com/lDhnljJBZF

— Travel Nature (@othingstodo) October 9, 2021