“The governor announced the extensions of the state’s stay-at-home advisory and nonessential business closures to May 18.”
(https://www.boston.com/news/coronavirus/2020/04/28/massachusetts-coronavirus-update-tuesday-april-28)
Category: Current Events
“Trump on Monday urged the nation’s governors to “seriously consider” reopening schools as part of his push to restart the economy, though many states have already recommended against resuming the school year.”
“43 states as well as Washington, DC, have ordered or recommended that schools don’t reopen this academic year.
“Other states have only recommended that local officials continue supporting students through distance learning models. Those states are California, Idaho, Kentucky, Maine, South Dakota and Tennessee.
“The Montana governor has given school districts the option to begin in-classroom learning as early as May 7.”
(https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/trump-governors-call/index.html)
“The count represents nearly one-third of the world’s reported covid-19 cases and includes more than 57,000 deaths since February, though experts call those numbers an underestimation.”
(https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2020/04/28/coronavirus-latest-news/)
“Vice President Mike Pence went on a tour of the Mayo Clinic’s coronavirus testing labs Tuesday — and ignored the prestigious Minnesota hospital’s rules that all occupants wear masks.
“Mayo Clinic had informed @VP of the masking policy prior to his arrival today,” the clinic tweeted while Pence was still inside meeting with doctors and patients.
“The tweet was later deleted. Asked for comment, the clinic said only that it had “shared the masking policy with the VP’s office.”
“Vice President Pence visited the Mayo Clinic on Tuesday and spoke with patients and staff while not wearing a face mask, an apparent violation of the medical center’s policy during the coronavirus pandemic and a decision that also appears to run contrary to the Trump administration’s recommendations for combating the outbreak.”
“In addition to the action, which was taken under the Defense Production Act, a Korean War-era law, the Labor Department and OSHA issued guidance that would provide additional liability protections for companies seeking to operate amid the risk of outbreaks.
“In its statement, the agencies said the United States would weigh in on the side of companies who were facing litigation for reported workplace exposures to the coronavirus, as long as the companies were following the standards that the C.D.C. and OSHA had issued for meat processing facilities.
“As states begin reopening, businesses have begun pushing the Trump administration and Congress to shield American companies from a wide range of potential lawsuits related to restarting the economy.
“Companies want assurances that they will not be held legally liable if a worker or customer contracts the virus at their warehouse, coffee shop or grocery store.
“That issue is expected to come to a head during the next round of congressional negotiations, with Republican lawmakers suggesting that any further aid to states would be conditioned on indemnifying businesses against lawsuits.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/business/economy/coronavirus-trump-meat-food-supply.html)
“The government started taking applications Monday for a further $310 billion in emergency funds, and quickly ran into technical problems.”
“Minutes after a $310 billion aid program for small companies opened for business on Monday, the online portal for submitting applications crashed. And it kept crashing all day, much to the frustration of bankers around the country who were trying — and failing — to apply on behalf of desperate clients.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/business/sba-loan-system-crash.html)
“A narrowly divided US Supreme Court on Monday upheld the right to freely share the official law code of Georgia. The state claimed to own the copyright for the Official Code of Georgia Annotated and sued a nonprofit called Public.Resource.Org for publishing it online. Monday’s ruling is not only a victory for the open-government group, it’s an important precedent that will help secure the right to publish other legally significant public documents.”
“The Congressional Budget Office said Friday that it expected the federal budget deficit to hit $3.7 trillion for the 2020 fiscal year, which would be its largest size as a share of the economy since World War II.”
“…the budget office said it expected the economy to shrink by 5.6 percent over the course of this year, ending 2020 with an unemployment rate of nearly 12 percent.”
“It projected growth of 2.8 percent in 2021 — which would be nowhere close to the sharp rebound that some Trump administration officials have said they expect — and a budget deficit of more than $2.1 trillion for the 2021 fiscal year.”
“By the close of the 2020 fiscal year, which ends in September, the budget office now expects the size of the national debt to exceed the annual output of the economy, with debt to gross domestic product at 101 percent.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/24/business/stock-market-live-coronavirus.html)
“Chills, muscle pain, sore throat and headache are among the ailments now considered potential indicators of the disease.”
“Previously it had listed just three symptoms: fever, cough and shortness of breath.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/health/coronavirus-symptoms-cdc.html)
“The coronavirus recession has exacerbated the racial and income divides in America. Lifting restrictions too soon will make them worse and leave workers with a bleak choice.”
“Efforts to quickly restart economic activity risk further dividing Americans into two major groups along socioeconomic lines: one that has the power to control its exposure to the coronavirus outbreak and another that is forced to choose between potential sickness or financial devastation.”
“That push is likely to exacerbate longstanding inequalities, with workers who are college educated, relatively affluent and primarily white able to continue working from home and minimizing outdoor excursions to reduce the risk of contracting the virus.”
“Those who are lower paid, less educated and employed in jobs where teleworking is not an option would face a bleak choice if states lift restrictive orders and employers order them back to work: expose themselves to the pandemic or lose their jobs.”
(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/business/economy/coronavirus-economic-inequality.html)
danelabonte 