Saturday, March 14, 2020


Jerry Falwell Jr. just unmasked conservatism — and we should thank him for it


By John Stoehr, The Editorial Board - Commentary
March 14, 2020


I suppose we owe Jerry Falwell Jr. a debt of gratitude. I’m serious.

Falwell is the son of the late Jerry Falwell, the man most responsible for bringing fundamentalist Christianity out of the political wilderness during Ronald Reagan’s presidency. Junior, along with Franklin Graham, himself a scion of a religious dynasty, is perhaps the president’s greatest champion among white evangelical Christians.

He appeared on “Fox & Friends” yesterday. Among other things, he accused Donald Trump’s enemies, including the press, of hyping COVID-19, the new strain of the coronavirus spreading around the world, panicking global markets and closing down entertainment and cultural events here and elsewhere. He, like Tom Cotton, the fascist senator from Arkansas, believes the disease outbreak can be blamed on totalitarian regimes in the east. For Cotton, that’s China. For Falwell, that’s North Korea. (While Falwell was on air, the president announced a state of national emergency related to the outbreak, undermining his and Cotton’s search for a scapegoat for his sake.)

Falwell’s demagoguery isn’t what we should be thankful for. What we should be thankful for is his confessing, without appearing to know it, that a pillar of “principled conservatism” in the United States is no pillar at all. Not in practice. Once you see that this pillar rests on a bed of sand, rather than constitutional bedrock, you start seeing other “conservative principles” do, too. “States’ rights,” “gun rights,” “the right to life” and even “religious freedom” are nearly always about something other than what they seem to be. Falwell and his ideological confederates can’t be honest about it, though. If they were, they’d lose. Dishonesty, fraudulence and bad faith are central to their aims.


What would Jesus do? Not that.


Here’s some context, courtesy of the Christian Science Monitor (my italics):

“As in many states, residents in parts of rural, conservative Virginia say they seem to inhabit an increasingly different daily reality than that of urban and suburban districts. That feeling of separation was compounded by last November’s Democratic sweep of the state’s elected offices. Now residents in Frederick County are mulling a radical proposal: seceding from Virginia and joining neighboring West Virginia.”

Apparently Falwell is part of the effort. He’s the head of something called “Vaxit,” according to Fox & Friends. Whether that’s a real organization I have no idea, but that’s not what I’m most interested in. I’m most interested in expressing gratitude to the good reverend for admitting that “states’ rights” have nothing to do with conservatism.

Think about it.

If the principle of “states’ rights” meant what conservatives have said it meant to them, not one of them, not Jerry Falwell Jr. nor anyone calling him or herself a “principled conservative,” would dare suggest that a county secede from a state. If states are sovereign, as conservatives have alleged since Strom Thurmond ran as a Dixiecrat in 1948, calling for a county to secede from a state is traitorous. If “states’ rights” are as sacred as conservatives have said they are, the idea of secession is an abomination.

In saying counties should leave the state as casually as ordering unsweet tea with his burger and fries, the Rev. Falwell told us without knowing he was telling us that conservatism in theory is authoritarianism in practice. It cannot and will not tolerate democratic change, despite change coming with the blessing of the majority. If the majority rules, Falwell and his confederates will abandon commitments to democracy.


Once you abandon democracy—once you open the door to treason—there’s no end in sight. Once it seceded, “the Confederacy began to deny states’ rights,” wrote James W. Loewen in Lies My Teacher Told Me. “Jefferson Davis denounced states’ rights as destructive to the Confederacy. The mountainous counties in western Virginia bolted to the Union. Confederate troops had to occupy east Tennessee to keep it from emulating West Virginia. Winn Parish, Louisiana, refused to secede from the Union. Winston County, Alabama, declared itself the Free State of Winston. Unionist farmers and woodsmen in Jones County, Mississippi, declared the Free State of Jones.”
By February 1864, Davis despaired: “Public meetings of treasonable character, in the name of state sovereignty, are being held.” Thus states’ rights as an ideology was contradictory and could not mobilize the white South for the long haul.

What mobilized the white South was the defense of slavery. Falwell and his new breed of confederate aren’t doing that, of course, but the spirit of treason, if not the act of treason, is the same. Conservatives tell us they prefer slow and gradual change, and stand united against radical attempts to bring it swiftly. But that’s not their true face. Conservatism in practice is a radical ideology reserving the right to betray its stated principles, and to betray community and brotherhood, if it doesn’t get what it wants.

Thanks to Jerry Falwell Jr., that’s now easy to see.



Schools scramble to feed students after coronavirus closures

ABANDONED BY BETSY DEVOS WHO IS MIA

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Students line up in the cafeteria for lunch at Lincoln High School in Dallas, Friday, March 13, 2020. During the coming extended spring break school closures, this cafeteria and a few others in the Dallas Independent School District will be providing lunches to students despite the closure of the school. (AP Photo/LM Otero)


ELK GROVE, Calif. (AP) — Kiyana Esco needs free school lunches and breakfasts to feed her six children. But with schools shutting down over coronavirus concerns, she’s scrambling to pick up the meals, care for her kids and keep her job.

Esco, a single mother who was just promoted to manager at a Dollar Tree, fears she’ll be fired because she can’t work following school closures in Elk Grove, the fifth-largest district in California. She’s among the parents who are relying on school leaders as they look for ways to keep millions of America’s poorest children from going hungry.

While schools across the U.S. close their doors to try to prevent the spread of the new virus, they’re cobbling together arrangements for grab-and-go lunch bags or setting up delivery routes. Congress is considering making it easier for school meals to be passed out at places like food banks as schools shut down in a growing list of states that included Ohio, Maryland, Michigan, Illinois, Virginia, Oregon, Washington, New Mexico, and South Dakota.

Major cities like Los Angeles, San Francisco, Houston, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., also announced school closures.

Even though most patients infected with the virus have only mild or moderate symptoms such as a fever or cold, school closures are widely accepted as a key way to slow the spread.

Some large districts, including New York City, were staying open for now, with concerns over their mission to provide free or reduced-cost meals to hundreds of thousands of students from lower-income families.

But others, like Los Angeles and San Diego, which had held out on shutting down for the same reasons, on Friday announced they would close.

“There is evidence the virus is already present in the communities we serve, and our efforts now must be aimed at preventing its spread,” Los Angeles Superintendent Austin Beutner and San Diego Superintendent Cindy Marten said in a joint statement.

The urgent decisions have left schools and cities scrambling to figure out how to make sure students don’t go hungry. Local officials have been publishing lists of sites where meals will be distributed within their counties and cities.

In the U.S., more than two-thirds of the 31 million students who regularly eat school lunches, or 22 million, depend on a free or reduced-price school lunch as a main source of their daily nutrition, according to the School Nutrition Association.


The U.S. Agriculture Department oversees food programs in schools, but it has restrictions on how students can get their subsidized meals, and currently can offer only limited waivers to states that allow schools to offer grab-and-go options. Advocates and states are pressing the agency to ease some rules, but USDA leaders say it’s up to lawmakers to loosen eligibility.

Several measures now pending in Congress would offer a nationwide waiver so school meals can be offered in a wide variety of settings, such as food banks, and allow the USDA to grant waiver requests expanding eligibility even if they resulted in added costs to the government.

Late Friday, the House overwhelmingly passed a coronavirus aid package that authorizes the USDA to allow states to provide food stamps to families whose children miss out on free or reduced-price meals when schools are closed because of the outbreak.

Under the deal negotiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Trump administration, families will be eligible for the assistance if a child’s school is closed for at least five consecutive days. The measure now goes to the Senate, where it is expected to be approved early next week.

Meanwhile, states and school districts pushed forward with their own plans.

Seattle Public Schools set up tents to provide food outside the first two schools it closed earlier this week. But after canceling classes at all 104 campuses Wednesday, the 55,000-student district won’t be able to set up dozens of sites for sack lunches for all schools until Monday, spokesman Tim Robinson said.

New Mexico, which has the nation’s second-highest rate of childhood poverty, decided it would close all schools but leave most of their cafeterias open. It’s preparing to deliver meals to children who can’t get to them, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said.

“Kids are going to school today; Monday they’re closed. That’s hard,” she said. “But I will make the decisions that protect the entire state and (arrange) the wrap-around services and supports that make families and businesses as whole as we can.”

States including Oregon and Ohio, meanwhile, obtained waivers to allow districts to give out grab-and-go meals or provide other assistance, such as grocery store gift cards, to lower-income students.

And in Phoenix, where multiple districts announced they would close for at least two weeks, local food banks that stepped up when “Red for Ed” protests shuttered schools in 2018 prepared to fill the void again.

United Food Bank, in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa, handed out emergency food bags Friday morning at its weekly “help yourself” distribution event.

Spokesman Tyson Nansel said he saw a noticeable uptick in demand for the bags of milk, frozen meat, green peppers, fruit, canned soup and ramen. The event normally takes place in a warehouse, but gloved volunteers instead gathered outside and loaded the food into recipients’ cars.

“We just had a lot of people who were very grateful we were doing it today,” Nansel said.

Despite the efforts, many parents still worried and wondered how long the situation would last.

“This doesn’t calm down until May, right?” Sophia Saelee said of the outbreak. On Tuesday, she was among dozens of parents who picked up meals for their kids from Valley High School south of Sacramento in Elk Grove, where the school district was one of the first in the nation to close Monday because a student’s family tested positive for the virus. A day later, schools there began offering drive-thru breakfast and lunch giveaways at a dozen campuses, handing out more than 2,100 meals.

Saelee said her schedule wasn’t interrupted because she works in the evenings, but when she starts an office job next month, it could be trickier.

For Esco, it hasn’t been easy to juggle. She drove to Valley High School this week to pick up free meals, uncertain if she would lose her job because she was looking after her children.

“Let’s just say I didn’t expect it to turn my whole schedule upside down,” she said.

___

Yen reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Kantele Franko in Columbus, Ohio, Terry Tang in Phoenix, Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, and Morgan Lee in Santa Fe., N.M. contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.


AP
AP PHOTOS: Unsettled Tokyo in black and white
SEE MORE HERE
https://apnews.com/f4da60283d0e10d71528e04560a8b1cb

A caricature artist wears a mask jokingly layered with a drawing of exaggerated lips while working in her shop in Tokyo, March 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


A mannequin wears a mask at a souvenir shop near Sensoj
 Temple in Tokyo, March 8, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


A couple embrace while waiting at a pedestrian crossing in 
Tokyo, March 7, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A commuter wearing a gas mask pauses for photos outside a train 
station in Tokyo, Frida y, March 6, 2020. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

IT IS ACTUALLY CALLED A HALF MASK RESPIRATOR
CAPITALIST REACTION TO VIRUS; MASS LOCK OUT 
Virus-related shutdowns bringing US economy to grinding halt

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FILE - This March 12, 2016 file photo shows flyers advertising comedy
 on a light pole on Sixth Street during South By Southwest in Austin, 
Texas. Austin city officials have canceled the South by Southwest arts 
and technology festival. Mayor Steve Adler announced a local disaster 
as a precaution because of the threat of the novel coronavirus, effectively 
cancelling the annual event that had been scheduled for March 13-22. 
(Photo by Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File)


AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — It took 15 minutes for the coronavirus to wreck Shelley Hutchings’ carefully calculated financial plans.

Hutchings, a bartender and performer, had lined up gigs in advance of the South by Southwest film, music and technology festival, which draws hundreds of thousands of visitors to Austin each year. She’d expected to earn about $3,000 — enough to pay her taxes and buy a new sewing machine for a tailoring business she runs.

Relaxed, she sat down to watch a movie. Then her phone started vibrating. Cancellations rolled in. One by one, the jobs she’s been counting on were gone. In the face of the spreading coronavirus outbreak, Austin officials had called off the festival just as the first attendees had begun to arrive.


“In 15 minutes, things fell apart,” Hutchings said. “To watch it vanish, all at once, was shocking.”

As Hutchings and hundreds of millions of Americans can attest, damage from the coronavirus has pummeled the U.S. economy with breathtaking speed and force. Hour by hour, day by day, the activities that households take part in and spend money on — plane trips, sporting events, movies, concerts, restaurant meals, shopping trips for clothes, furniture, appliances — are grinding to a halt.



And so, it seems, is the U.S. economy.

Just a month ago, experts had expected any severe economic pain from the outbreak to be confined mainly to Asia and Europe. The U.S. economy, enjoying a record-breaking 11-year-long expansion, would likely keep cruising, it was thought — a bit bruised but not seriously damaged.

Now, forecasters can’t downgrade their outlook for the American economy fast enough.

“The expansion is under threat,” said Philipp Carlsson-Szlezak, chief economist at the Boston Consulting Group. “There’s a very plausible risk this will amount to a recession.”

On Wednesday, Wells Fargo Securities had predicted a slight drop in the nation’s gross domestic product — the broadest measure of economic output — in the April-June quarter. The next day, as the American stock market endured its deepest plunge since 1987, Wells Fargo economist Jay Bryson wrote that it was “painfully obvious that we need to rethink this forecast” and further downgrade the outlook.

A woman wears a face mask as she rides the M42 bus crosstown, Friday, 
March 13, 2020, in New York. New York has more than 400 confirmed
 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. For most people,
 the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as
 fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with 
existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including 
pneumonia, and death. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)


How did the picture darken so sharply, so quickly?

The speed of the virus’ spread appeared to surprise economists as it hopscotched to 117 countries, including the United States, infecting a documented total of roughly 150,000 people worldwide and killing more than 5,500. And what health experts agree was the U.S. government’s fumbling early response to the crisis has undermined the confidence of consumers, investors and businesses. Anxieties have escalated.


U.S. officials are bracing for a dramatic acceleration of cases — beyond the roughly 2,200 that have been documented so far in 49 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

For most people, the coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, like fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.

Yet as the gravity of the crisis had seeped into public consciousness, suddenly everyone is shrinking from public gatherings of any real size for fear of contracting the virus, and organizers can’t call off events fast enough.

The NBA and the NHL suspended the rest of their seasons. The NCAA dropped its wildly popular March Madness basketball tournament. Broadway is closed. St. Patrick’s Day parades are scrubbed. Hunkered down at home, Americans are leaving restaurants empty, hotels vacant and jetliners unoccupied.

The danger to the U.S. economy stems from a fundamental reality: Consumers drive roughly 70 percent of growth. When spending halts, the economy can’t grow. And while online shopping will likely surge as people sequester themselves at home, such purchases still account for just a small fraction of overall consumer spending.

“The economy is doomed to recession if the country stops working and takes the next 30 days off,” Chris Rupkey, chief economist at MUFG Union Bank, wrote in a research note this week.


Compounding the threat, the very measures that are required to contain the outbreak — quarantines, reduced travel, an avoidance of crowds and gatherings — are sure to stifle economic activity.

The resulting slowdown across the globe has undercut the price of oil, intensifying pressure on energy producers and likely reducing business investment. And many U.S. companies, especially in the airline and energy industries, are heavily indebted and might have to respond to financial pressures by cutting expenses — including jobs.

Despite rebounding Friday on President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to try to help stem the health crisis, the stock market remains in a bear market — the Dow Jones Industrial Average has shed nearly 22% in just a month — which stands to further dim the confidence of consumers. Investors whose stock market wealth shrinks typically become less likely to spend much.

“You can take to the bank that we’re going to have negative growth in the second quarter,” said Nathan Sheets, chief economist at PGIM Fixed Income.

Recessions are defined informally as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction. It isn’t yet clear whether the coronavirus inflicted enough economic damage from January to March to turn GDP negative for the quarter or how deeply the harm will spread into the April-June quarter.

“It’s pretty close now to a 50-50 proposition as to whether we see two quarters of negative growth,” Sheets said. “Even if that condition is not technically satisfied, it’s going to feel pretty bad. It’s going to feel recessionary.”

Officially, the U.S. unemployment rate remains just 3.5%, a half century low. During the Great Recession of 2007-2009, companies responded to a deteriorating economy by aggressively slashing jobs. This time, Sheets suspects that most of them will hold off on layoffs in hopes that the virus and its economic damage will subside in just a few months. If, however, many companies across the country were to cut jobs, the blow to the economy would worsen. In addition, the slowdowns in Asia and Europe, which are closely intertwined with the U.S. economy, are sure to weaken growth in the United States.

Intervention by the Federal Reserve, by slashing interest rates, and Congress, by moving toward approving financial aid to people affected by the crisis, could help mitigate the economic hardship. So would a relatively swift containment of the virus.


For now, though, the uncertainty is distressing businesses across the country. When Austin’s South by Southwest gathering was canceled, Brent Underwood’s 20-bed hostel lost about 20% of its annual income.

“I’m not sure how we’ll keep our employees,” Underwood said. “I’m not sure how we’ll keep our manager of four years. I’m not sure how we’ll keep the business open.”

Normally, the hostel also receives bookings from people attending events at the University of Texas, and in the fall, from the annual Austin City Limits music festival. Underwood fears his income will suffer further if the university’s graduation and the festival are canceled. He would like to cut expenses. But most of his costs are fixed, including a property tax bill due this month.

Andy Cooley has already had to cut the hours of three of the six workers at his printing company, Central Press in Millbrook, New York, because the foundations, hospitals and schools that are some of his major customers are canceling events. He’s lost orders for printing invitations and programs.

“Earlier today, I received a call cancelling all printing related to a fundraiser happening in May,” Cooley said. “I understand they have to do what they have to do, but the ripple effect is exactly that — we all feel the effect.”

Economists say the U.S. economy has never faced a moment quite like this one. The 9/11 terrorist attacks 19 years ago, devastating as it was, caused only a short-lived downturn. And it presented consumers with starkly different challenge:

“Then the patriotic thing was go out and spend,” said Louise Sheiner, policy director for the Brookings Institution’s center on fiscal and monetary policy and a former Federal Reserve economist. “Now, the patriotic thing to do is not go out... It’s like something we’ve never seen.’’

Thomas Grech, CEO of the Queens Chamber of Commerce in New York, urged residents who aren’t quarantined to patronize neighborhood restaurants and corner stores.

“You’ve got to eat,” Grech said. “Keep these guys alive because my fear is, if they close, they may not reopen.’’


Americans brace for new life of no school and growing dread

A line of people waiting to buy supplies amid coronavirus fears snakes through a parking lot at a Costco, Saturday, March 14, 2020, in Las Vegas. For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms. For some it can cause more severe illness, especially in older adults and people with existing health problems. (AP Photo/John Locher)

Millions of Americans braced for the week ahead with no school for their children for many days to come, no clue how to effectively do their jobs without child care, and a growing sense of dread about how to stay safe and sane amid the relentless spread of the coronavirus.

Are play dates for the kids OK? How do you stock up on supplies when supermarket shelves are bare? How do you pay the bills when your work hours have been cut? Is it safe to go to the gym? And how do you plan for the future with no idea what it holds?

“Today looks so different from yesterday, and you just don’t know what tomorrow is going to look like,” said Christie Bauer, a family photographer and mother of three school-age children in West Linn, Oregon.

Tens of millions of students nationwide have been sent home from school amid a wave of closings that include all of Ohio, Maryland, Oregon, Washington state, Florida and Illinois along with big-city districts like Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. Some schools announced they will close for three weeks, others for up to six.

The disruptions came as government and hospital leaders took new measures to contain an outbreak that has sickened more than 150,000 people worldwide and killed about 5,800, with thousands of new cases being confirmed every day.

As the U.S. death toll climbed to 51 on Saturday and infections totaled more than 2,100, President Donald Trump expanded a ban on travel to the U.S. from Europe, adding Britain and Ireland to the list, and hospitals worked to expand bed capacity and staffing to keep from becoming overwhelmed as the caseload mounts.

“We have not reached our peak,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health. “We will see more cases, and we will see more suffering and death.”

Many working parents are scrambling to find child care, even if they are being allowed to work from home. The child care needs are especially dire for the legions of nurses, hospital and health care workers across the country who need to be on the job to deal with the crisis.

Governors drew up emergency plans to find child care for front-line medical workers and first responders, equating it to a wartime effort.

“I would put this as a World War II-capacity daycare for our public health workers because we’re going to need every single body we can get,” said Oregon Gov. Kate Brown.

Parents desperate to get to work with schools closed have jumped on social media boards to seek child care or to exchange tips about available babysitters.

Seattle resident John Persak set up a Facebook group last week for parents with children at home because of school closings. The group exploded to nearly 3,000 members.

“We’re getting about five requests a minute at this point,” said Persak, a father and crane operator at the port of Seattle, who said his work hours have been curtailed for weeks by the coronavirus outbreak, which is affecting cargo deliveries from Asia.

In Maryland, where schools will be closing from Monday through March 27, parents are calling up their kids’ former nannies and babysitters.



“They are desperate,” said Ellen Olsen, who has been a nanny for more than 11 years and co-manages a Facebook group that connects parents, nannies and sitters in Maryland. “We’ve seen a lot of parents posting, ‘Hey, schools are closed, but I still have to work.’”

Olsen takes care of two babies, but starting next week, two girls ages 9 and 11 whom she once watched will also be under her supervision. Olsen said the girls’ parents are doctors and asked for her help after school was canceled.

New York Mayor Bill de Blasio defied mounting pressure to close the nation’s biggest school system, saying shutting the schools for the more than 1.1 million students could hamper the city’s ability to respond to the crisis by forcing parents who are first responders and healthcare workers to cast about for child care or stay home.

“Many, many parents want us to keep schools open,” he said. “Depend on it. Need it. Don’t have another option.”

The cascade of closings upended weekend routines for countless mothers and fathers. Little League and other sports were canceled. Parks were closed. Play dates were upended. The size of the crowd at a public library in suburban Portland rivaled that of the neighborhood Costco as parents scrambled to stockpile books for children.

While some people were opting to isolate themselves, not everyone was ready to put their lives on hold.

Despite the cancellation of St. Patrick’s Day parades around the country and pleas to curtail public gatherings, pub celebrations continued in many places. In Chicago, pub crawls and other revelry went ahead as planned, prompting an angry rebuke from Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker.

“If you are young and healthy, listen up: We need you to follow social distancing, too,” Pritzker said, urging partygoers to go home.

Spring Break partying in Florida also prompted official action, with authorities closing South Beach to prevent the virus’ spread. Miami Beach officials ordered hundreds of college spring breakers and others from around the world off the beach Saturday and eliminated parking on major streets in the city’s entertainment district to cut down on crowds at South Beach clubs and restaurants.

In New York City, where de Blasio called the scramble to fight the coronavirus a “wartime scenario,” a passer-by who noticed relatively light crowds at a Whole Foods supermarket on Manhattan’s Upper East Side remarked: “That’s because there’s no food left!”

That was far from true, though some items -- frozen foods, canned tuna, herbal teas, bagged salad -- were sold out or nearly so. Signs limited customers to two large packs of toilet paper apiece, and few were available. A similar scenario played out at supermarkets all around the country amid a run on household staples that reached a peak Friday.



San Antonio-based H-E-B, a grocery chain with more than 400 stores in Texas and Mexico, is reducing its late-night store hours to discourage hoarding and give it time to restock.

“There is no need for panic buying, this is not like a hurricane,” H-E-B spokeswoman Dya Campos said. “This should not be a ‘stock up’ event.”

Bauer, the photographer in Oregon, said the bans and fear of travel have hit her professional and personal life. First, a photography workshop she was set to attend in Greece was canceled. Now, she and her husband are trying to decide whether to cancel their spring break trip to Charleston, South Carolina, next week.

“We’re worried we’ll get stuck out there or get there and be sick,” Bauer said. “There’s just so much unknown that you don’t know what to do at the moment.”

Keeping occupied was becoming challenging, for both children and adults, with so many businesses closed and uncertainty about whether routines like going to the gym were still advisable.

Minnesota resident Nancy Patton said she was sticking to her yoga class, for now, because it helped her feel mentally and physically healthy.

On Saturday, Patton was leaving a yoga class at a gym in the Minneapolis suburb of Plymouth, where she said “social distancing” was in effect with more space between each person.

She is taking all the recommended precautions, she said, including washing her hands as soon as she finishes the class and wiping down the equipment before and after she uses it.

Seattle resident Marlena Blonsky said she wanted to help friends in need. The 33-year-old sustainability director at a Seattle logistics company has no children and has flexibility at work. She sent out a tweet Thursday that she was available for child care for her working-parent friends, or to run errands for those who have health problems and don’t want to go out in public.

Almost immediately, she had a taker and devoted a few hours last Thursday and Friday to watching a friend’s 3-year-old daughter. The child’s mother is a doctor who has long hours these days at work.

“I feel like this is hitting so many people harder than me, and this is the least I can do,” she said.



In New York, Bonita Labossiere toted a bag filled with toilet paper, snacks and a couple of bottles of pinot noir — the final touches on stocking-up she has done for three weeks.

The singer, voice teacher and director had no plans to flee New York, even as the outbreak grew more deadly there, having seen New Yorkers weather 9/11 and other frightening times.

“People say, ‘Why don’t you get out of there?’” she said. “Because in a crisis, I think this is the best place to be. We will connect with each other.”

___

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

——

Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz in New York, Jeff Baenen in Minneapolis and Regina Garcia Cano in Washington, Margery Beck in Omaha, Nebraska contributed to this report. Gecker contributed from San Francisco, Flaccus from Oregon.


STILL FEELING THE BERN
Sanders wins Northern Mariana Islands caucus, 4 delegates


Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., speaks to reporters about coronavirus Thursday March 12, 2020, in Burlington, Vt. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)


WASHINGTON (AP) —

Sen. Bernie Sanders won the Northern Mariana Islands Democratic presidential caucus, grabbing four of the six delegates Saturday.

Former Vice President Joe Biden won the other two. This shrinks Biden’s lead to 154 delegates in The Associated Press delegate count.

Saturday was the first time Sanders had a bigger delegate day than Biden since Nevada’s caucuses on Feb. 22. Since then, Biden swamped the Vermont senator in South Carolina, Super Tuesday and on March 10, when six states voted.

Nola Hix, chair of the U.S. territory’s Democratic Party, said 134 people caucused Saturday on the Pacific island chain of about 53,000 people.
No fans, no work: Arena workers caught in sports shutdown


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Ushers leave empty Hammond Stadium, after a baseball game between the Minnesota Twins and the Baltimore Orioles was canceled, Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Fort Myers, Fla. Major League Baseball has suspended the rest of its spring training game schedule because if the coronavirus outbreak. MLB is also delaying the start of its regular season by at least two weeks. (AP Photo/Elise Amendola)


MIAMI (AP) — David Edelman can usually be found at a Denver Nuggets basketball game or a Colorado Rapids soccer game. As an usher, he interacts with fans in a role he calls a staple of his life.

But there are no Nuggets games for at least a month. No Rapids games, either. And Edelman has no idea what he’ll do now.

SEE MORE:
– AP PHOTOS: Sports brought to a halt by coronavirus fears

“This is what I do for a living,” Edelman said earlier this week, as the realization hit that sports were going on hiatus because of the coronavirus. “This is my income.”

Thousands of workers would have staffed the 450 NBA and NHL games that will not be played over the next month in response to the pandemic. And then there are the more than 300 spring training and regular-season baseball games, 130 NCAA Division I men’s and women’s tournament games, 50 or so Major League Soccer matches, all international golf and tennis tournaments, and who-knows-how-many high school, small college and other entertainment events canceled or postponed because of the global health crisis.


The total economic impact of the loss of sports and other events because of the pandemic — assuming only a month shutdown — is impossible to calculate but will reach the billions, easily.

Tickets aren’t being sold, so teams and leagues and organizing bodies lose money. Fans aren’t going to events that aren’t happening, so taxi drivers and ride-share operators have no one to ferry to and from those places. Hotel rooms will be empty. Beers and hot dogs aren’t being sold, so concessionaires and vendors lose money. Wait staff and bartenders aren’t getting tips. Without those tips, their babysitters aren’t getting paid.

The trickle-down effect sprawls in countless directions.

“As players, we wanted to do something, along with our ownership and coaches, to help ease the pain during this time,” star guard Stephen Curry said.

Some teams and top players are trying to help. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban, within minutes of the NBA shutdown announcement, said he wanted to find a way to help workers who will lose money because games won’t be played. By Friday, he had his plan: “We will pay them as if the games happened,” he told The Associated Press in an email.

The Golden State Warriors’ ownership, players and coaches have pledged to donate $1 million to provide assistance to employees who work games at Chase Center.
Luis Rivera, left, sanitizes seats in Bridgestone Arena after the remaining
 NCAA college basketball games in the Southeastern Conference
 tournament were cancelled Thursday, March 12, 2020, in Nashville, Tenn. 
The tournament was cancelled Thursday due to coronavirus concerns. 
(AP Photo/Mark Humphrey)


Other teams, including the Cleveland Cavaliers, have made commitments to workers at not just NBA events but also the building’s minor-league hockey games. The Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, Washington Wizards and Atlanta Hawks were among the earliest NBA franchises to reveal they’re working on how they’ll take care of arena staffs. So have the NHL’s Washington Capitals, among others, and the ownership group for Detroit’s Pistons, Red Wings and Tigers on Friday said they were setting up a $1 million fund “to cover one month’s wages for our part-time staff for games, concerts and events that they would have otherwise worked.”

“Our teams, our cities and the leagues in which we operate are a family, and we are committed to looking out for one another,” New Jersey Devils owner Josh Harris said.

Cavaliers star Kevin Love pledged $100,000 to help the workers in Cleveland address what he described as their “sudden life shift.” On Friday, reigning NBA MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks made a $100,000 pledge on behalf of his family — and the team said later Friday that fellow Bucks All-Star Khris Middleton also donated $100,000.

“It’s bigger than basketball! And during this tough time I want to help the people that make my life, my family’s lives and my teammates lives easier,” Antetokounmpo wrote on Twitter.

Zion Williamson of the New Orleans Pelicans said he would “cover the salaries” for workers at the team’s arena for the next 30 days. Blake Griffin of the Detroit Pistons pledged $100,000 for workers there, the San Jose Sharks said part-time arena workers would get paid for all games not played and Florida Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky said he was giving $100,000 to workers in that club’s arena -- a donation matched by his teammates and followed by another pledge from the team’s ownership group.

“This is a small way for me to express my support and appreciation for these wonderful people who have been so great to me and my teammates and hopefully we can all join together to relieve some of the stress and hardship caused by this national health crisis,” Williamson wrote on Instagram.



Crews break down the court after the Dallas Mavericks defeated the 
Denver Nuggets in an NBA basketball game on Wednesday, March 11, 
2020 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The NBA has suspended 
its season “until further notice" after a Utah Jazz player tested positive
Wednesday for the coronavirus, a move that came only hours after the 
majority of the league's owners were leaning toward playing games
 without fans in arenas. The vast majority of people recover from the 
new coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization, most 
people recover in about two to six weeks, depending on the severity
of the illness. (Ashley Landis /The Dallas Morning News via AP)

The help — all of it — will go to good use.

At Chicago Blackhawks hockey games alone, about 1,500 workers are in or outside the building on event nights: guest services, concessions, parking, security, box office and so on.

“The per game payroll is more than $250,000,” said Courtney Greve Hack, a spokeswoman for the United Center.

If that’s the NHL norm — no official numbers are available — then workers around the league would stand to lose more than $60 million if hockey does not return this season.

“I get it,” said Chris Lee, who owns a coffee and smoothies franchise in Arizona that draws 70% of its annual revenue sales at spring training and Arizona Coyotes hockey games. “But this is going to be really tough.”

Lee was packing up cups that won’t be used when baseball announced Thursday that spring training was ending about two weeks early. He and his staff — one full-timer, 14 part-time employees — aren’t sure what comes next.

The enormity of the number of people affected stacks up quickly.
Crews remove chairs from the court after the Dallas Mavericks defeated 
the Denver Nuggets in an NBA basketball game on Wednesday, 
March 11, 2020 at American Airlines Center in Dallas. The NBA has 
suspended its season “until further notice" after a Utah Jazz player tested 
positive Wednesday for the coronavirus, a move that came only hours
 after the majority of the league's owners were leaning toward playing
 games without fans in arenas. The vast majority of people recover from 
the new coronavirus. According to the World Health Organization, most
 people recover in about two to six weeks, depending on the severity 
of the illness. (Ashley Landis /The Dallas Morning News via AP)
The group that owns the Raptors and other pro sports clubs in Toronto, Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, says it’s trying to help 4,000 workers in that city. Extrapolate that across other Canadian and U.S. pro sports cities, and those teams could be looking at 100,000 workers feeling some sort of pinch — not counting the impact at college and other levels.

Some events won’t happen, and it is unclear if workers affected by those cancellations will get any help.

The NCAA men’s Division I tournament generates about $900 million annually through television and marketing rights alone. In Albany, New York, which was scheduled to host men’s tournament games for the first time in 17 years, organizers estimated the economic loss from the three-day event to be about $3 million.

Bars and restaurants bought tons of additional stock and perishables to prep for crowds that won’t arrive. It’ll probably take a few years before the NCAA can bring the tournament back to many of the cities slated to host games next week.

“It’s incredibly disheartening. There’s no question about that,” said Mark Bardack, president of public relations and management firm Ed Lewi and Associates, which had worked for more than a year on the planning of the tournament in Albany. “To have it all disappear, though obviously no one’s fault.”

Some arena workers, many not wanting to be identified because of workplace policies about speaking to reporters, said they are living paycheck-to-paycheck. They’re not alone, of course: A study last fall by the American Payroll Association said 74% of workers in the U.S. would “experience financial difficulty” if their usual payday was delayed by as little as one week.

In Philadelphia, Rodney Thompson works on commission selling popcorn and beer at 76ers basketball games, Flyers hockey games and Phillies baseball games. They’re all on hold.

“The more I sell, the more I make,” the 56-year-old said. “The less I sell, the less I make. It would hurt me, financially. I would have no income coming in. ... I make pretty good money. But if there’s no fans, there’s no work.”

_
Crews cover the ice at American Airlines Center in Dallas, home of the 
Dallas Stars hockey team, after the NHL season was put on hold due to 
coronavirus, Thursday, March 12, 2020.
 (Ashley Landis/The Dallas Morning News via AP)

__

AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno in Washington, AP Sports Writers Tom Withers in Cleveland, David Brandt in Scottsdale, Arizona, Josh Dubow in San Francisco, Stephen Hawkins in Dallas and Dan Gelston in Philadelphia, and Associated Press Writers Matthew Carlson and Tim Cronin in Chicago contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
BAD NEWS
Mexico: Monarch butterflies drop 53% in wintering area

FILE - In this Jan. 31, 2020 file photo, monarch butterflies cling to branches in their winter nesting grounds in El Rosario Sanctuary, near Ocampo, Michoacan state, Mexico. The number of monarch butterflies that showed up at their winter resting grounds decreased about 53% this year, Mexican officials said Friday, March 13. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

MEXICO CITY (AP) — The number of monarch butterflies that showed up at their winter resting grounds decreased about 53% this year, Mexican officials said Friday.

Some activists called the decline “heartbreaking,” but the Mexico head of the World Wildlife Fund said the reduction “is not alarming.”

WWF Mexico director Jorge Rickards said the previous year’s large numbers were “atypical” and the monarchs had returned to their average population levels of recent years.

The government commission for natural protected areas said the butterflies’ population was “stable,” even though they covered only 2.8 hectares (6.9 acres) this year. That was down from 6.05 hectares (14.95 acres) the previous year. Because the monarchs cluster so densely in pine and fir trees, it is easier to count them by area rather than by individuals.

“During the most recent wintering season the norm has been for the butterflies to cover an average of about three hectares,” Rickards said.

“The last season, 2018-19, was very good, with 6.05 hectares of forest cover, but it was certainly atypical, thanks to the fact that the first generation of butterflies in the spring of 2018 encountered favorable weather conditions to reproduce,” he said.

In contrast, butterflies in the spring of 2019 encountered colder weather in Texas than the previous year, and thus were less able to reproduce.

Millions of monarchs migrate from the United States and Canada each year to pine and fir forests west of Mexico’s capital.

In contrast to Rickards’ view, Tierra Curry, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity, wrote that “scientists were expecting the count to be down slightly, but this level of decrease is heartbreaking.”

“More protections are clearly needed for this migratory wonder and its habitat,” Curry wrote.

Environmentalist and author Homero Aridjis said that “the decline of over 53% of populations in the butterfly reserve is worrisome, above all because of the effects of climate change on the migration route and on the wintering grounds in Mexico.”

Aridjis said crime and deforestation in Mexico is also a cause for alarm. One butterfly activist and a part-time guide in the reserve were murdered earlier this year.

Last year’s numbers were the biggest since the 2006-2007 season. Two years ago, the butterflies covered 2.48 hectares (6.12 acres), similar to this year’s numbers. The butterflies hit a low of just 0.67 hectares (1.66 acres) in 2013-2014.


Mexico has made some strides against illegal logging in the reserve, but Aridjis said it remains a problem in some areas. Butterflies depend on health tree canopy to protect them from rain and cold.

Some scientists said the approximately 6-hectare (15-acre) coverage of a year ago should be seen as a minimum for the viability of the migrating monarchs in the future.

Loss of habitat, especially the milkweed where the monarchs lay their eggs, pesticide and herbicide use, as well climate change, all pose threats to the species’ migration.
Safety of Fukushima waste water focus of sea release debate

By MARI YAMAGUCHI March 9, 2020

In this Feb. 12, 2020, photo, a worker in a hazmat suit carries a hose 
while working at a water treatment facility at the Fukushima Dai-ichi 
nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. 
Nine years ago, on March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 quake and 
tsunami destroyed key cooling functions at the plant, causing a meltdown
 that leaked a massive amount of radiation and forcing some 160,000 
residents to evacuate. About 40,000 of them still haven't returned. 
(AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

OKUMA, Japan (AP) — Inside a giant decontamination facility at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant, workers in hazmat suits monitor radioactive water pumped from three damaged reactors, making sure it’s adequately — though not completely — treated.

Three lines of equipment connected to pipes snaking around in this dimly lit, sprawling facility can process up to 750 tons of contaminated water a day. Four other lines elsewhere in the plant can process more.

From there, the water is pumped to a complex of about 1,000 temporary storage tanks that crowd the plant’s grounds, where additional tanks are still being built. Officials say the huge tanks will be completely full by the summer of 2022.
In this Feb. 12, 2020, photo, a worker shows a bottle containing treated 
water at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant in Okuma, Fukushima
 Prefecture, Japan. Nine years ago, on March 11, 2011, a magnitude
 9.0 quake and tsunami destroyed key cooling functions at the plant,
 causing a meltdown that leaked a massive amount of radiation and
 forcing some 160,000 residents to evacuate. About 40,000 of them
 still haven't returned. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)


The decontamination process, which The Associated Press viewed on a recent tour, is a key element of a contentious debate over what should be done with the nearly 1.2 million tons of still-radioactive water being closely watched by governments and organizations around the world ahead of this summer’s Tokyo Olympics.

The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Co., or TEPCO, says it needs to free up space as work to decommission the damaged reactors approaches a critical phase. It’s widely expected that TEPCO will gradually release the water into the nearby ocean following a government decision allowing it to do so. The company is still vague on the timing.

But local residents, especially fishermen, are opposed to the plan because they think the water release would hurt the reputation of already battered fisheries, where annual sales remain about half of the level before the nuclear accident, even though the catch has cleared strict radioactivity tests.

TEPCO Chief Decommissioning Officer Akira Ono says the water must be disposed as the plant’s decommissioning moves forward because the area used by the tanks is needed to build facilities for the retrieval of melted reactor debris.

Workers are planning to remove a first batch of melted debris by December 2021. Remote control cranes are dismantling a highly contaminated exhaust tower near Unit 2, the first reactor to get its melted fuel removed. At Unit 3, spent fuel units are being removed from a cooling pool ahead of the removal of melted fuel.

The dilemma over the ever-growing radioactive water is part of the complex aftermath of the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami that hit on March 11, 2011, destroying key cooling functions at the Fukushima Dai-ichi plant. Three reactors melted, releasing massive amounts of radiation and forcing 160,000 residents to evacuate. About 40,000 still haven’t returned.


Except for the highly radioactive buildings that house the melted reactors, most above-ground areas of the plant can now be visited while wearing just a surgical mask, cotton gloves, a helmet and a personal dosimeter. The area right outside the plant is largely untouched and radiation levels are often higher.

The underground areas remain a hazardous mess. Radioactive cooling water is leaking from the melted reactors and mixes with groundwater, which must be pumped up to keep it from flowing into the sea and elsewhere. Separately, even more dangerously contaminated water sits in underground areas and leaks continuously into groundwater outside the plant, experts say.

The contaminated water pumped from underground first goes through cesium and strontium removal equipment, after which most is recycled as cooling water for the damaged reactors. The rest is filtered by the main treatment system, known as ALPS, which is designed to remove all 62 radioactive contaminants except for tritium, TEPCO says.

Tritium cannot be removed from water and is virtually harmless when consumed in small amounts, according to Japan’s industry ministry and nuclear regulatory officials.

But despite repeated official reassurances, there are widespread worries about eating fish that might be affected if the contaminated water is released into the sea. Katsumi Shozugawa, a radiology expert at the University of Tokyo who has been analyzing groundwater around the plant, said the long-term consequences of low-dose exposure in the food chain hasn’t been fully investigated.

“At this point, it is difficult to predict a risk,” he said. “Once the water is released into the environment, it will be very difficult to follow up and monitor its movement. So the accuracy of the data before any release is crucial and must be verified.”

After years of discussions about what to do with the contaminated water without destroying the local economy and its reputation, a government panel issued a report earlier this year that narrowed the water disposal options to two: diluting the treated water to levels below the allowable safety limits and then releasing it into the sea in a controlled way, or allowing the water to evaporate in a years-long process.

The report also urged the government to do more to fight the “reputational damage” to Fukushima fishing and farm produce, for instance by promoting food fairs, developing new sales routes and making use of third-party quality accreditation systems.

TEPCO and government officials promise the plant will treat the water for a second time to meet legal requirements before any release.

At the end of the tour of the treatment facility, a plant official showed a glass bottle containing clear water taken from the processing equipment. Workers are required to routinely collect water samples for analysis at laboratories at the plant. Radiology technicians were analyzing the water at one lab, where AP journalists were not allowed to enter. Officials say the treated water will be diluted with fresh water before it is released into the environment.

Doubts about the plant’s water treatment escalated two years ago when TEPCO acknowledged that most of the water stored in the tanks still contains cancer-causing cesium, strontium and other radioactive materials at levels exceeding safety limits.

Masumi Kowata, who lives in Okuma, a town where part of the plant is located, said some of her neighbors are offering their land so that more storage tanks can be built.

“We should not dump the water until we have proof about its safety,” she said. “The government says it’s safe, but how do we know?”

___

Follow Mari Yamaguchi on Twitter at https://www.twitter.com/mariyamaguchi


AP
DOT DASH DOT, DOT DASH DOT STOP
Image result for telegraph
End of telegraph era brings question: What’s a telegraph?


By BRENDAN FARRINGTON March 12, 2020


TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — The telegraph era in Florida is ending without a flash. Not even a flicker, really.

It’s more like a snicker.

The Florida Senate sent Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis a bill Thursday that removes an entire chapter of state law regulating the telegraph industry, including $50 penalties for not promptly delivering messages.

In the days before hashtags, texts and FaceTime chats, telegraphs were a big deal. Western Union completed the first transcontinental telegraph line in 1861, dealing a death blow to the struggling Pony Express, which began operations the year before.

Florida laws regarding telegraphs haven’t had any substantial changes since 1913, and there haven’t been any court opinions involving the statutes since 1945, according to a legislative staff analysis.


THE ORIGIN OF TEXTING
Image result for telegraph


And when Republican Sen. Ben Albritton presented his bill Thursday, his colleagues couldn’t resist having a little fun just before he presented his closing arguments for the legislation.

“There are a number of school-age children in the West Gallery, so if Senator Albritton in his close can address what telegraphs are,” said Democratic Jason Pizzo.

Democratic Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez quickly piled on.

“There are also middle-aged people in the entire Capitol. Can you also explain to us what a telegraph is?” Rodriguez said.

Stifling his laughter, Albritton carried on.

“I appreciate the opportunity to clarify what telegraphs were. Just Google it,” Albritton said. “Next year we’re going after carrier pigeons and Morse code.”

The bill passed unanimously. If DeSantis signs the bill, the telegraph regulations will be removed from law on July 1.

Until then, telegraph operators can still be held liable for any mental anguish or physical suffering caused by a delayed delivery of a message.
Image result for telegraph






AP
AS DISAPPOINTING AS THIS ORIGINAL FILM VERSION OF DUNE WAS TO MANY SF FANS, THE SOUNDTRACK GOT OVERLOOKED BY MANY, WHILE IT IS A STUNNING PIECE OF WORK BY TOTO AND ENO.