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Good morning, Portland! How are we doing in Week 3?
Social isolation Social isolation
Day 1 Day 23 pic.twitter.com/Dt0XIqN3kx
— Alex Paterson (@AlexPattyy) April 1, 2020
Here are the headlines.
• Gov. Kate Brown issued an executive order yesterday banning commercial evictions for 90 days. Here's more on the order, and how your business can qualify.
• As of yesterday, there were 736 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Oregon, and 19 known deaths. We're approaching one million cases worldwide.
We've been hearing concerns from people in Oregon prisons & jails about the lack of adequate testing, health care, & cleanliness during this pandemic.
I spoke with the state prison systems' top physician to learn (a little) more about their approach: https://t.co/kudyYfkGkg
— Alex Zielinski (@alex_zee) April 2, 2020
• The New York Times has a map detailing where in the US people have and haven't been staying home over the last few weeks, in case you feel like pulling your hair out this morning.
• Meanwhile, new evidence from the state suggests that Oregon's stay-at-home restrictions are paying off.
• Worried about not being able to pay off your student loans because of the coronavirus? You might not have to—here's a handy guide to navigating your payments over the next several months.
• Nearly 10 million Americans filed for unemployment in the last two weeks.
• Unsurprisingly, Travel Portland has seen a big dip in tourism revenue, and has had to lay off 40 percent of its staff.
• Wondering how local theaters are holding up right now? Check out the Mercury's exhaustive roundup of how theaters are coping.
• With more time on their hands and few opportunities to leave the house, Portlanders are doing what they do best: weird crafting.
• Musician and songwriter Adam Schlesinger died yesterday from COVID-19 complications. Schlesinger was a member of Fountains of Wayne, and an Oscar, Tony, and Grammy-nominated artist. He also won an Emmy for his work on Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. Here's just one of the tracks he wrote, courtesy of Bob Ham, furloughed Mercury copy chief and music writer extraordinaire.
Plenty of other great Schlesinger cuts out there but a recent favorite is the tune he wrote for the Monkees. https://t.co/US5gOyuPBB
— Robert Ham (@roberthamwriter) April 1, 2020