Here’s your daily roundup of all the local and national news about COVID-19. (Like our coverage? Please consider donating to the Mercury to keep it comin’!)
• As of today, Oregon’s number of confirmed coronavirus cases (that we know of) is at 1,736. The death count grew by four since yesterday to 64.
• It’s one thing to feel anxious about “getting back to normal” during this pandemic. It’s another to plan a rally at the Oregon State Capitol like the confederate-flag-draped circus of right-wing Michigan clowns waving guns from their sunroofs yesterday. That’s not the sort of “normal” we need getting back to anytime soon. Our Blair Stenvick has more.
Knott & NE 7th. #SocialDistancing #socialsolidarity pic.twitter.com/I5l77ceE4S
— Samantha Swindler (@editorswindler) April 16, 2020
• Oregon childcare workers protested in Salem yesterday, saying that the state’s new rule allowing “pop-up” childcares for the children of essential workers have put them in a tough position, and that they’re losing revenue from children kept home because of the coronavirus. They’re asking the state to provide relief.
• Oregon’s total layoff count is just under 300,000 workers in the past four weeks, or every one in seven Oregon workers. However, last week’s numbers (54,000 new claims), while still disturbingly large, represent a 30% decline in claims from prior weeks, and is the lowest layoff count since the outbreak began.
NEW from me: Go to grocery stores across Oregon, and despite mask recommendation, you’ll see plenty of people not heeding the advice.
Other states have made masks mandatory.
Oregon hasn’t. Advisor to @OregonGovBrown tells me they’ll consider it.https://t.co/KMeoSpelZH
— Rob Davis (@robwdavis) April 16, 2020
• For the rest of the school year, high school students will no longer be on the letter grading system; they’ll either receive “pass or fail” designations, according to the Oregon Dept. of Education.
• Now entering the boutique free hand sanitizer biz: PopMob, the anti-fascist group behind 2019’s Milkshake Party, partnering with Rosehip Medic Collective. The partnership has already made just under 10,000 bottles of homemade hand sanitzer for frontline medical workers and houseless Portlanders.
IN NATIONAL NEWS:
• Trump had another White House press briefing yesterday, and it was markedly measured and reasonable and—just kidding! He said the United States has passed its COVID-19 peak and should be reopening soon. Well, I guess that’s good news for the thousands of Michiganders who protested their state’s stay-at-home order yesterday.
To say “People will die, so be it” instead of a science & testing-based path to reopening the economy is deeply frivolous & wrong.
Every life is precious. Each death is heartbreaking — for a family & for a community. This is something we are all in together. #FamiliesFirst
— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) April 16, 2020
• Still in a lengthy recess, House Democrats are finally considering remote voting. Hey, if I have to endure interminable Zoom meetings… so do they!
• Glitches in the system are delaying the $1,200 stimulus checks that were promised to Americans. It also didn’t help that Trump demanded that his signature be in the memo line of each one of them. EYE ROLL!
• If you were supposed to get a stimulus check and didn’t, use this Get My Payment tool released by the IRS. Be warned: you might fill it out correctly and still get a “Payment Status Not Available” message.
• ICE announced they’ve released nearly 700 detainees nationwide in response to the virus spreading in their detention centers. Now if only they’d release the other 30,000-plus prisoners they’re keeping, and then cease existing entirely.
• The $350 billion Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) administered by the federal government has already run out of money. Here’s an analysis of the PPP that gets to the root of the problem: Republicans just didn’t want to fully fund it.
Ladies and gentlemen, your Treasury Secretary: Steve Mnuchin. pic.twitter.com/LSO5wNJOG0
— Paul Lidicul (@PaulLidicul) April 16, 2020
• Yesterday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti strongly suggested gatherings of 1000 people or more is probably going to be a 2021 sort of thing, if that. Lending that prediction some credence, Portland Parks and Recreation canceled all their summer programming, including their highly popular free movies and concerts series, and the Washington Park Summer Festival. Money earmarked for those events will now be put towards the organization’s Free Lunch + Play program.
• Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos wrote to his shareholders today to let them know the company has begun building its own medical lab to speed up COVID-19 testing for all Amazon employees. Minimum wage for the company has increased by over $2 per hour, and overtime = double time, or minimum $34 an hour.
• Need a laugh? Get your tickets PRONTO for the live stream edition of the I, Anonymous show on April 24! Check out the details and the KILLER lineup of comedians here!
• And if you’re looking for a fun AND FASHIONABLE way to support the Mercury, how about buying a Mercury “TP” T-shirt? But HURRY! They’re gone forever after tomorrow, Friday April 17!
• And finally, in this scenario, the Mercury are the cows and you’re the cat (after you give a donation to keep us afloat)!
Interspecies love of the day. pic.twitter.com/VJzK0xaxsi
— Dick King-Smith HQ (@DickKingSmith) April 15, 2020