News Day

Photo by 401kcalculator.org, published under Creative Commons license

Stimulus checks and small business relief were prominent parts of the $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed in March. Now some of the less-publicized provisions are coming to light. On April 24, the New York Times reported on tax breaks to the very wealthy embedded in the CARES Act:

“As part of the economic rescue package that became law last month, the federal government is giving away $174 billion in temporary tax breaks overwhelmingly to rich individuals and large companies, according to interviews and government estimates. Continue reading →

Photo at https://www.pikrepo.com/fdihp/raw-meat-in-clear-plastic-pack, used under Creative Commons license

Agustín Rodriguez died in South Dakota, one of more than 640 people infected with COVID-19 connected to the Smithfield pork processing plant near Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Like many other plant employees, he was a refugee who was willing to work long hours in a physically demanding job. They routinely put up with pain, icing sore wrists at night and living on ibuprofen, but glad to have jobs that let them support their families. Then came the coronavirus, sweeping through the ranks of workers cutting meat in close quarters without protective gear.

The New York Times interviewed many of the Smithfield workers, including Achut Deng, a refugee from Sudan who thought the virus could not be worse than what she had already survived: Continue reading →

Newspaper notice asking people not to use the telephone system during the flu epidemic. Found in the 1918 Public Utilities annual report (Record Series 1802-H9), Seattle Municipal Archives.

During our daily phone conversation, my mother said she wished she had more information about the 1918 influenza pandemic and how it compares to today’s COVID-19 pandemic. Mom, this blog is for you!

From 1914 to 1918, World War I killed somewhere between 20 and 22.5 million people, nearly evenly divided between soldiers and civilians. In a single year, the influenza pandemic killed two to four times more people than the war. Continue reading →

pandore – Fotolia.com

The first Minnesota prison inmate tested positive for COVID-19 on March 30 at the prison in Moose Lake. Ten days later, the MN Department of Corrections (DOC) website shows 12 inmates tested at Moose Lake, with nine tested positive, one negative, and two tests still pending results. At least eight Moose Lake correctional officers have also tested positive. The MN DOC website has just added a new column for “Presumed positive” for people “based on symptoms and having close contact to a person confirmed positive through testing.”  There are 23 “presumed positive” inmates in Moose Lake.

The 23 “presumed positive” inmates probably will not be tested at all. Continue reading →

Wisconsin votes today. Milwaukee has 180 polling places, but only 5 will be open. Five polling places in a city of about 600,000. Imagine Minneapolis (population about 422,000) voting at five polling places. With a statewide stay-at-home order in place, Democrats in Wisconsin have tried, over and over, to make this a vote-by-mail election. No dice, say Wisconsin Republicans. Continue reading →

Intelligence community Inspector General Michael Atkinson got fired Friday night, one more target of Trump’s revenge.  Atkinson was fired for doing his job and serving his country. He was not the first, and he won’t be the last.  Continue reading →

Coronavirus from Wikimedia Commons

April 2, 2020: In a crowded, impoverished refugee camp in Greece, one refugee tested positive for Covid-19. The camp immediately tested her 60 contacts, and found 20 more positives, none of whom were showing symptoms. Then they began testing the rest of the camp’s 2,700 refugees, while imposing a 14-day quarantine and lockdown.

In Minnesota’s Moose Lake prison, an inmate tested positive for Covid-19 on March 30. Then two more. On April 2, the fourth prisoner tested positive for Covid-19. All four are in the prison in Moose Lake. So is the second Minnesota Department of Corrections staff member to test positive for Covid-19. (The first was in Red Wing.) The Moose Lake prison is on lockdown, sort of, though correctional officers come in and out daily. When the fourth prisoner was taken out of his cell, the guards gave his cellmate a mask. They did not test him for Covid-19.

Only 7 of more than one thousand inmates at Moose Lake have been tested for Covid 19. Only 31 of more than 9,000 Minnesota prison inmates have been tested for Covid 19. The Minnesota Department of Corrections website lists no plans to test all of the 1046 inmates at Moose Lake for Covid-19.

Coronavirus from Wikimedia Commons

In a “socially distant protest,” people rallied in their cars outside the governor’s mansion on Summit Avenue in St. Paul on Friday, calling for the release of inmates from Minnesota jails and detention centers. They livestreamed the protest to one another and to others in their homes and delivered a petition with more than 800 signatures. The protest is part of a growing national movement to release nonviolent offenders, those on work release, those who are particularly medically vulnerable, those with only a short time left on their sentences, and those who are awaiting trial but cannot post bond.

A prison doctor in Los Angeles wrote that “Prisons are petri dishes for contagious respiratory illnesses.” Continue reading →

This is part of an amazing series created and generously shared by Ricardo Levins Morales for this time of crisis. Check out the whole series on his Facebook page and at his studio https://www.rlmartstudio.com

Coronavirus news and misinformation spreads farther and faster than the virus itself. You could spend all day in complete social isolation, just trying to separate the science from the silliness. Luckily, you don’t have to tackle that alone. Here are some resources and ideas for coping with coronavirus, while remembering and acting as part of a community. Continue reading →

Coronavirus from Wikimedia Commons

As friends left a party today, they offered an elbow bump rather than a hug. That’s just one of many symptoms of how fear of the coronavirus has affected our daily lives. So for all of my friends and family who are not news junkies, here’s the latest and most reliable information I have found on the present state of the coronavirus in the United States.

The first coronavirus (Covid-19) death in the United States was reported today, February 29: a 50-something man in the EvergreenHealth Medical Center in Kirkland, Washington. Two other people in LifeCare Center, a Kirkland, WA long-term care facility, have tested positive, one a resident reported in serious condition and one a health worker reported in stable condition. In the LifeCare Center, 27 of 108 residents and 25 of 180 employees have reported symptoms of the disease. Seattle public health authorities say they are being tested, and that they expect more people to be confirmed with coronavirus by the testing. None of these individuals has traveled abroad recently. Three other people in Washington State have tested positive: one a high school student with no  travel abroad, and two others who had traveled to South Korea or China.   Continue reading →