21 March 20
Just want to take a moment to give a special shout out to the people who are responding to the donation appeals for this drive.
When it’s tough sledding the people who step up are the backbone of the organization.
This is one tough fundraising drive, make no mistake about it. But 464 people so far have said Reader Supported News is worth my time and my contribution.
That is inspiring.
Marc Ash
Founder, Reader Supported News
Founder, Reader Supported News
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20 March 20
Garrison Keillor | Life in Lake Wobegon Under Social Distancing
Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "We have been getting some questions about life in Lake Wobegon under social distancing."
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Investment bankers have pressed health care companies to consider ways that they can profit from the coronavirus crisis. (photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
Garrison Keillor, Garrison Keillor's Website
Keillor writes: "We have been getting some questions about life in Lake Wobegon under social distancing."
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Investment bankers have pressed health care companies to consider ways that they can profit from the coronavirus crisis. (photo: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg)
Banks Pressure Health Care Firms to Raise Prices on Critical Drugs, Medical Supplies for Coronavirus
Lee Fang, The Intercept
Fang writes: "In recent weeks, investment bankers have pressed health care companies on the front lines of fighting the novel coronavirus, including drug firms developing experimental treatments and medical supply firms, to consider ways that they can profit from the crisis."
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Sen. Mitch McConnell. (photo: Samuel Corum/Getty)
Lee Fang, The Intercept
Fang writes: "In recent weeks, investment bankers have pressed health care companies on the front lines of fighting the novel coronavirus, including drug firms developing experimental treatments and medical supply firms, to consider ways that they can profit from the crisis."
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Sen. Mitch McConnell. (photo: Samuel Corum/Getty)
The GOP Coronavirus Relief Package Is a Dream for Big Corporations, and a Nightmare for Struggling Americans
Linette Lopez, Business Insider
Lopez writes: "At a press conference on Thursday, President Donald Trump reiterated that his administration wants to put workers first in its efforts to mitigate the economic devastation caused by the spread of coronavirus. And while that is ideal, his party is crafting legislation that does just the opposite."
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Visitors to the Department of Labor are turned away at the door by personnel due to closures over coronavirus concerns on March 18, 2020, in New York. (photo: John Minchillo/AP)
ALSO SEE: US Faces Unprecedented Surge in Unemployment Claims
Linette Lopez, Business Insider
Lopez writes: "At a press conference on Thursday, President Donald Trump reiterated that his administration wants to put workers first in its efforts to mitigate the economic devastation caused by the spread of coronavirus. And while that is ideal, his party is crafting legislation that does just the opposite."
The administration on Tuesday said they were crafting a rescue package of at least $1 trillion which included plans to send checks to Americans "in about 2 weeks," according to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin.
But Mnuchin's two weeks turned into "before the end of April" in a meeting with Senate Republicans immediately following the press conference. After that it went back to early April, but the payment — at least for poor Americans — became less generous.
According to a bill released Thursday, Republicans are now talking about prioritizing money for "taxpayers" (by which they mean only income tax, not things like sales tax which all Americans pay). Under this plan, Americans who make less than $75,000 would get up to $1,200 while poor families who pay less in taxes would get $600.
It's also been reported that GOP Sen. Lindsey Graham and soon-to-be White House Chief of Staff Rep. Mark Meadows are actively trying to convince Trump to reject these cash payments all together.
This idea is ludicrous, stingy, and harmful to our economy and society in crisis.
In fact there are a bunch of ideas in this bill that would do nothing to help struggling Americans:
- The bill waives nutrition requirements for meals for senior citizens — the population most likely to get sick and end up needing care.
- The bill offers a pathetic $10 million for minority businesses, which Business Insider's small business reporter Dominick Reuter roughly calculated, could round out to about $2 a business.
- And of course, in the Senate Republican bill big corporations get a huge tax cut. In fact, they would pay far less tax on their foreign entities. Making them bring cash home from abroad was one of the selling points of the GOP tax cut that was passed at the end of 2017. Corporate lobbyists have been working against it ever since. Now, in the middle of a crisis, they got it.
All of that is stomach churning, but the worst part is what will happen to low income families. Punishing Americas poorest at a time like this is not only callous, but would slow our economy's recovery. If there's anything we've learned from China's experience with coronavirus, it's that you want to keep the economy as going as normally as possible while people are practicing social distancing. That means ensuring that people can pay as many bills as possible and that, when the social distancing period is over, people have money in their pockets to spend again.
We need to be generous to *everyone right now. It's the only way we're going to get through this with minimal damage. Unemployment claims are about to explode, with data from only 15 states putting them somewhere around 600,000 and the possibility that as many as a million people could file for unemployment insurance over the next week. Wall Street is now coming to terms with the idea that this could be the worst global recession since WWII.
House Democrats are trying to put together a more generous plan, offering Americans $2,000 a month with an additional $1,000 for every child until the crisis is over. This is more like it. But all of this needs to move faster. We don't have time for callous proposals, we have to do right by Americans right now.
Trump's party should put our money where his mouth is and actually help all American workers through this calamity, not grandstand on ideology to hurt the poor.
*Except companies that spent all their cashflow on stock buybacks during boom times and are now asking for a bailout. The President said on Thursday that they should be treated differently from companies that invested their money. I agree. They shouldn't be allowed to do stock buybacks if they accept taxpayer money, and their executive compensation should be regulated.
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Visitors to the Department of Labor are turned away at the door by personnel due to closures over coronavirus concerns on March 18, 2020, in New York. (photo: John Minchillo/AP)
ALSO SEE: US Faces Unprecedented Surge in Unemployment Claims
Trump Administration Asks States to Bury Unemployment Claim Figures
Veronica Stracqualursi and Annalyn Kurtz, CNN
Excerpt: "The US Department of Labor sent guidance to state labor agencies on Wednesday, asking them to hold off on releasing unemployment claims data earlier than the regularly scheduled national report on initial claims, according to a state labor agency."
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Veronica Stracqualursi and Annalyn Kurtz, CNN
Excerpt: "The US Department of Labor sent guidance to state labor agencies on Wednesday, asking them to hold off on releasing unemployment claims data earlier than the regularly scheduled national report on initial claims, according to a state labor agency."
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Yazmin Juárez testifies on July 10, 2019, during a House Committee on Oversight and Reform hearing that her 19-month-old daughter, Mariee, died of a viral respiratory infection at an ICE detention facility. (photo: Tom Williams/Getty)
ICE Has Repeatedly Failed to Contain Contagious Diseases, Our Analysis Shows. It's a Danger to the Public.
J. David McSwane, ProPublica
McSwane writes: "The coronavirus is threatening crowded Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities with long histories of mishandling infectious diseases that can rapidly spread outside their walls, a ProPublica review of thousands of pages of death reports found."
EXCERPT:
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J. David McSwane, ProPublica
McSwane writes: "The coronavirus is threatening crowded Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities with long histories of mishandling infectious diseases that can rapidly spread outside their walls, a ProPublica review of thousands of pages of death reports found."
EXCERPT:
At a suburban Denver ICE facility, the Aurora Detention Center, 10 detainees have now been quarantined for potential exposure to the coronavirus. An ICE staffer at a New Jersey detention center has tested positive.
Last year, more than 5,200 detainees were quarantined as ICE tried to contain mumps and chickenpox. An analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last year found mumps cases spiked at the same time the Trump administration packed more and more people into close quarters. Most of those detainees got sick while in federal custody, not before, the CDC found.
Problems with handling communicable illnesses inside packed ICE facilities have festered for years. ProPublica reviewed more than 70 reports detailing the circumstances around detainee deaths over the last decade and found medical staff often don’t follow strict rules for testing contagious diseases.
The response to tuberculosis, a respiratory illness that can spread easily in confined and crowded spaces, is a strong indication of how they’ll respond to other contagious diseases, medical experts say.
In a dozen cases ProPublica reviewed, medical experts who were called in to investigate a death in ICE custody raised alarms that staff had failed to follow nationally accepted standards.
ProPublica identified six cases where failures to address communicable disease risks — such as practical nurses with little formal training waiting far too long to notify doctors of ill patients — were later found to have been contributing factors in the deaths of immigrants.
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Military personnel in protective suits disinfect streets on Wednesday in Santiago de Compostela, Spain. (photo: Lavandeira/EPA)
As Coronavirus Cases Spike Worldwide, We Need Global Cooperation to Halt Spread
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "As the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 10,000, with over 250,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, we speak with Stanford University's global health expert Dr. Michele Barry, an infectious disease doctor."
Democracy Now!
Excerpt: "As the worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped 10,000, with over 250,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19, we speak with Stanford University's global health expert Dr. Michele Barry, an infectious disease doctor."
Seaweed can be seen in clear waters in Venice as a result of the stoppage of motorboat traffic. (photo: Andrea Pattaro/AFP)
'Nature Is Taking Back Venice': Wildlife Returns to Tourist-Free City
John Brunton, Guardian UK
Brunton writes: "Look down into the waters of the Venice canals today and there is a surprising sight - not just a clear view of the sandy bed, but shoals of tiny fish, scuttling crabs and multicolored plant-life."
John Brunton, Guardian UK
Brunton writes: "Look down into the waters of the Venice canals today and there is a surprising sight - not just a clear view of the sandy bed, but shoals of tiny fish, scuttling crabs and multicolored plant-life."
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