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Today’s Top Stories from NBC News THURSDAY, 13 JANUARY, 2022 Good morning, NBC News readers.
Today we look at the political background to two deadly residential fires in New York and Philadelphia, the latest on Democratic plans on voting reforms, plus Joe Jonas goes trainspotting.
Here's what we're watching this Thursday morning. 
Within days of each other, a fire in the Bronx killed at least 17 people, including several Gambian immigrants, and a Philadelphia fire killed a dozen.
And as leaders shift blame from electric space heaters to overcrowded housing, these fires follow a historical pattern in which negligent policymaking and infrastructural decisions can kill Black people at disproportionate rates.
“We’re looking at how land use and zoning policies are used. Because of housing segregation, those policies have been used against communities of color,” said Juanita Lewis, an organizer with the New York social justice group Community Voices Heard.
“We’re still operating under the context of housing segregation and having to prove who is worthy of protection and living in decent housing. The fire was started by a space heater because there was inadequate heat. The situation in the Bronx is extremely sad, unfortunate and disheartening, but it’s not uncommon.”
The legacy of early zoning laws across the country forces Black people into neglected rental units rife with maintenance issues that place them at higher risk for everything from fire deaths to lead poisoning. Though Black people make up about 13 percent of the U.S. population, they represent 25 percent of individuals killed in residential fires across the country, according to the New York State Department of Health.
Read more here. Thursday's Top Stories
Senate Democrats are considering two measures, which advocates say would reverse some Republican-backed state laws.
The Covid omicron variant's rapid spread among workers and a bad stretch of winter weather have made a challenging supply chain situation worse. 
A year after taking office, President Joe Biden has disappointed many prisoners and guards who were hoping for big changes. Now he has a chance to do more. 
OPINION Fauci, forced by the Kentucky senator and the right's disinformation campaign, chose integrity over the the façade of nonpartisanship, writes political analyst Lincoln Mitchell. Also in the News
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It's the collab no one expected.
Francis Bourgeois, a U.K.-based influencer who became popular for his videos enthusing about the railroads that run through the British countryside, and Joe Jonas went trainspotting. And documented it.
Their video, posted Wednesday, both amused and baffled their fans.
"I'm trainspotting on the West Coast Main Line today with my friend Joe," Bourgeois says in the video, which was posted to both their accounts. "Joe's come from America."
Jonas then waves at the incoming train, and Bourgeois launches into his signature exuberant giggling at the trains passed by.
Read more here.
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — send me an email at: patrick.smith@nbcuni.com.
Thanks, Patrick Smith
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