Miami is now the coronavirus epicenter as cases surge, expert says – CNN
Miami is now the coronavirus epicenter as cases surge, expert says – CNN

(CNN)With more than 2,000 patients hospitalized and hundreds in Intensive Care Units, “Miami is now the epicenter of the pandemic,” one infectious disease expert said, comparing the South Florida metropolitan area to the city where the pandemic originated.

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    MUST WATCH

    CNN’s Artemis Moshtaghian, Stephanie Elam, Raja Razek, Sarah Moon, Shelby Lin Erdman, Konstantin Toropin and Matthew Hilk contributed to this report.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/14/health/us-coronavirus-tuesday/index.html

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    We ran the CDC. No president ever politicized its science the way Trump has. – The Washington Post
    We ran the CDC. No president ever politicized its science the way Trump has. – The Washington Post

    The latest: Coronavirus in the U.S.

    Coronavirus maps: Cases and deaths in the U.S. | Cases and deaths worldwide | Which states are reopening and closing again

    What you need to know: Summertime activities & coronavirus | Your life at home | Personal finance guide | Make your own fabric mask | Follow all of our coronavirus coverage and sign up for our free newsletter.

    How to help: Your community | Seniors | Restaurants | Keep at-risk people in mind

    Have you been hospitalized for covid-19? Tell us whether you’ve gotten a bill.

    Show More

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/14/cdc-directors-trump-politics/

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    O’Rourke rips Texas governor: ‘This virus is out of control’ | TheHill – The Hill
    O’Rourke rips Texas governor: ‘This virus is out of control’ | TheHill – The Hill

    Former Texas Rep. Beto O’Rourke slammed Gov. Greg Abbott (R) for his inability to control Texas’s surging case numbers in a Monday interview with MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell. 

    “This is a function of leadership — or lack thereof,” the former Democratic presidential candidate said, before citing the high case, hospitalization and positivity rates Texas is experiencing. “This virus is out of control, with no leadership from our governor, no leadership from the president.”

    Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Texas has now seen a rapid increase in the virus, breaking the 10,000 hospitalizations threshold last week.

    The state health department has estimated there are 124,659 active cases in the state and 3,235 deaths.

    Abbot has come under criticism from Democrats for not issuing an order that people wear masks or face coverings until July 2. 

    They have also said that he should have reopened the state more slowly as cases rose.

    With rising case numbers, Abbott has walked back some of the state’s reopening, closing bars, reducing restaurant occupancy levels and including more counties in executive orders that ban elective surgeries.

    Abbot has also come under the criticism from fellow Republicans, however, who say the steps he has taken to control the virus go too far.

    Republican committees in eight Texas counties have voted to censure the governor for his executive orders mandating face coverings, limiting gatherings and closing bars.

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/507108-orourke-rips-texas-governor-this-virus-is-out-of-control

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    These are the California businesses that must shut down – Los Angeles Times
    These are the California businesses that must shut down – Los Angeles Times

    California on Monday took a major step to close back down parts of the economy as the coronavirus spread continued unchecked.

    Gov. Gavin Newsom already had closed bars and indoor dining in the most populated parts of the state, but a new order makes it statewide. Counties hardest hit by the coronavirus are seeing additional closures.

    As of Monday, California had more than 326,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 7,000 total deaths, according to the Los Angeles Times’ tracker.

    Here are the details.

    Statewide action

    The following businesses must close:

    • Dine-in restaurants
    • Wineries and tasting rooms
    • Movie theaters
    • Family entertainment centers (for example: bowling alleys, miniature golf, batting cages and arcades)
    • Zoos and museums
    • Cardrooms
    • Bars, brewpubs, breweries and pubs must close all operations both indoor and outdoor statewide.

    Localized action

    Counties that have remained on the state’s County Monitoring List for three consecutive days, which includes all Southern California counties and many in the Central Valley, must close the following businesses:

    • Gyms and fitness centers
    • Places of worship
    • Indoor protests
    • Offices for nonessential sectors
    • Personal care services, like nail salons, body waxing and tattoo parlors
    • Hair salons and barbershops
    • Indoor shopping malls

    Source: California Department of Public Health

    Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-13/california-businesses-shut-down-newsom-coronavirus-order

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    Here’s where major cities stand on reopening schools – CNN
    Here’s where major cities stand on reopening schools – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/us/school-reopening-plans-major-cities/index.html

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    Dr. Anthony Fauci says U.S. coronavirus cases are surging because nation didn’t totally shut down – CNBC
    Dr. Anthony Fauci says U.S. coronavirus cases are surging because nation didn’t totally shut down – CNBC

    The U.S. has reported more than 3.3 million Covid-19 cases and at least 135,205 deaths as of Monday, Johns Hopkins data shows. As of Sunday, cases are growing by 5% or more in 37 states and also Washington, D.C., according to CNBC’s analysis of the data. The seven-day average of U.S. cases is more than 59,100.

    In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and some state leaders have downplayed the threat of the virus, tying the surge in new cases to an increase in testing. However, public health officials and infectious disease experts dispute those claims, saying the rate of cases that test positive in the U.S., hospitalizations and deaths remain high in some states. 

    Fauci said Monday that the outbreak in the U.S. hasn’t “even begun to see the end” of the coronavirus pandemic yet as scientists continue to work on potential drugs and vaccines for the virus. He said he’s “cautiously optimistic” scientists will be able to create at least one safe and effective vaccine by the end of the year or early 2021.

    Biotech firm Moderna, which is working with the National Institutes of Health, and Johnson & Johnson are expected to begin late-stage human trials for potential vaccines by the end of this month. It’s a record-breaking time frame to produce a vaccine — even as scientists say there is no guarantee the vaccines will be effective. 

    Fauci also said he expects the public to compare the Covid-19 pandemic to the 1918 pandemic flu, which killed around 50 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

    He mentioned the “extreme” range of symptoms people can experience after contracting the virus, including pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome. PMIS is a rare inflammatory condition found in children with Covid-19 that’s similar to Kawasaki syndrome and has caused neurological damage in some kids.

    “We learn things every week,” he said. 

    The comments by Fauci come as the rift between Trump and the nation’s top infectious disease expert widens. Just last week, the president, who has previously said the pandemic was nearing its end, criticized Fauci’s response to it.

    During an interview Thursday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump said, “Dr. Fauci’s a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/13/fauci-says-us-coronavirus-cases-are-surging-because-nation-didnt-shut-down.html

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    Trump cites game show host on pandemic while undercutting doctors and questioning their expertise – The Washington Post
    Trump cites game show host on pandemic while undercutting doctors and questioning their expertise – The Washington Post

    “Everyone is lying,” he continued in a post Trump shared with his 83 million followers. “The CDC, Media, Democrats, our Doctors, not all but most, that we are told to trust. I think it’s all about the election and keeping the economy from coming back, which is about the election. I’m sick of it.”

    Source Article from https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-cites-game-show-host-on-pandemic-while-undercutting-doctors-and-questioning-their-expertise/2020/07/13/a083ea5c-c51f-11ea-8ffe-372be8d82298_story.html

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    Donald Trump Jr’s new anti-Biden book misplaces apostrophe in title – The Guardian
    Donald Trump Jr’s new anti-Biden book misplaces apostrophe in title – The Guardian

    Donald Trump Jr appears to have forgotten one of the cardinal rules of the apostrophe: it comes after the “s” when the possessive noun is plural.

    The American president’s son’s forthcoming book, Liberal Privilege, is subtitled “Joe Biden and the Democrat’s Defense of the Indefensible”. Unless Trump Jr is referring to only one Democrat, then the apostrophe needs to shift one place to the right to make the title grammatically correct.

    Detail from trailed cover art for Liberal Privilege.

    The book is out in August. Trump Jr said on Twitter that he had been working on it “during the last few months of quarantine”, and that he was “blown away by what Biden has gotten away with”.

    “Libs,” he added, are “already triggered” by the book.

    But Trump Jr was careful to share only a small portion of the book’s cover on Twitter, after Axios broke the news about the title, and he was mocked for the grammar error. His previous book, Triggered, was a New York Times No 1 bestseller, but sales were reported to have been boosted by bulk orders from the Republican National Committee.

    According to Axios, Trump Jr is self-publishing the new book as “a shot across the bow” to traditional publishers, and “partnered” on it with the Trump Victory Finance Committee’s chief of staff, Sergio Gor.

    His girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, an ex-Fox News television personality who is a senior fundraiser for Donald Trump’s re-election campaign, will read the audiobook, and also helped him work on it. Guilfoyle tested positive for the coronavirus last week.

    “That’s how we came up with the idea for her to do the audiobook,” Trump Jr told Axios. “We would take turns reading the chapters out loud for flow … Love in a time of Covid.”

    Biden’s national press secretary, TJ Ducklo, told Axios that Liberal Privilege was “the latest in a series of desperate and pathetic attempts to distract from the president’s historic bungling of the coronavirus response”.

    “Is there anything more on brand than Donald Trump Jr trying to cash in on a book filled with disgusting lies and smears about Joe Biden?” Ducklo added.

    Source Article from https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jul/13/donald-trump-jrs-new-anti-biden-book-misplaces-apostrophe-in-title

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    President Trump talks up Tommy Tuberville on election eve conference call – AL.com
    President Trump talks up Tommy Tuberville on election eve conference call – AL.com

    President Donald Trump spoke on an election eve conference call tonight with Tommy Tuberville, who carries the president’s endorsement into Tuesday’s runoff against Jeff Sessions for the Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.

    “It’s great to be speaking with the people of Alabama, a place I love, a place where we’ve had tremendous success, where they like me, and I like them,” Trump said after an introduction by Tuberville. “Maybe love is a better word, frankly. But it’s been a great state and I love helping you. And I think one of the reasons and one of the ways that we’re going to be helping you is by recommending strongly Tommy Tuberville to be your next senator.”

    The president, never shy about his admiration for the football dynasty Nick Saban has built at the University of Alabama, mentioned Tuberville’s success against the Crimson Tide as Auburn’s head coach, a run that helped bring Saban to Alabama to reverse the trend. But Trump got Saban’s first name wrong more than once on tonight’s call.

    “Really successful coach,” Trump said, speaking of Tuberville. “Beat Alabama, like six in a row, but we won’t even mention that. As he said … because of that, maybe we got ‘em Lou Saban. … And he’s great, Lou Saban, what a great job he’s done.”

    Trump likely mixed up Saban’s first name with longtime college and NFL coach Lou Saban, who died in 2009.

    The winner of Tuesday’s runoff moves on to face Sen. Doug Jones, a Democrat, in November.

    Sessions is trying to recapture the seat he held for 20 years before accepting Trump’s appointment as attorney general in 2017. Sessions was the first senator to endorse Trump during the 2016 campaign and was an adviser for his campaign, but lost Trump’s support after recusing himself from the investigation into whether the Trump campaign was involved in Russian meddling in the election.

    Trump repeated his familiar criticism of Sessions’ recusal decision on tonight’s call.

    “I will tell you, I got to know Jeff Sessions very well,” Trump said. “I made a mistake when I put him in as the attorney general. He had his chance and he blew it. He recused himself right at the beginning, just about on day one on a ridiculous scam, the Mueller scam, the Russia, Russia, Russia scam. And Jeff didn’t have the courage to stay there. He didn’t know about Russia. He had nothing to do, but he immediately ran for the hills. “

    Sessions has said he was bound by the law to recuse because he was part of Trump’s campaign. On Saturday, he answered Trump’s ridicule, calling the president’s tweets “juvenile insults.”

    Sessions campaign spokesman John Rogers, asked for a comment on Trump’s call with Tuberville tonight, said: “Tommy Tuberville is on the ballot, not Donald Trump, and Tommy has a scandal-ridden past that Doug Jones would exploit to the hilt if Tommy were the Republican nominee. Jeff Sessions is completely vetted, and he is the best qualified man to fight for Alabama in the U.S. Senate. Jeff Sessions loves this state and he has the toughness, knowledge, and experience to deliver for Alabama. This election is about Alabama’s future, not who D.C. insiders are backing.”

    Sessions has called on Tuberville to answer questions about fraud at an investment firm where he was a founding partner and his one-game suspension of a football player who was criminally charged for having sex with an underage girl.

    Tuberville said on a talk radio program this morning that he’s been vetted through a 40-year coaching career and is the Washington outsider who can help Trump shake up the establishment.

    “The swamp’s coming, they’re coming hard,” Tuberville said. “You know, I’ve run for almost 500 days now, telling people why I’m doing it, why we need an outsider, a different voice. But they’re fighting back. That’s fine. We’re going to win this.”

    Trump said he expects to Tuberville to win.

    “I will tell you that Tommy Tuberville is going to do a job like you haven’t seen,” Trump said. “He’s going to take over and he’s going to be representing you and representing you well. He’s going to have a cold, direct line into my office. That I can tell you.”

    Related: Why the nation is watching Sessions vs. Coach.

    Can Jeff Sessions roar back into Senate, or will Trump ruin an otherwise perfect political career?

    Tommy Tuberville goes low profile to run out clock in runoff with Jeff Sessions

    Source Article from https://www.al.com/news/2020/07/president-trump-talks-up-tommy-tuberville-on-election-eve-conference-call.html

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    Judge blocks first federal execution in 17 years – CNN
    Judge blocks first federal execution in 17 years – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/politics/daniel-lewis-lee-execution/index.html

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    ‘Glee’ star Heather Morris mourns with Naya Rivera’s family at Lake Piru – Page Six
    ‘Glee’ star Heather Morris mourns with Naya Rivera’s family at Lake Piru – Page Six

    “Glee” actress Heather Morris was seen holding hands with co-star Naya Rivera’s family in an emotional scene at the Southern California lake where her body was recovered Monday, according to reports.

    Morris, who played Rivera’s love interest on the Fox series, was among the friends who joined some of the actress’ relatives at Lake Piru, the Daily Mail reported.

    The group, which also included “Glee” stars Amber Riley, Chris Colfer and Kevin McHale, was captured holding hands facing the shore of the lake, about 56 miles northwest of Los Angeles, and then consoling each other with hugs, news station KABC reported.

    The heartbreaking scene came as authorities announced a body was recovered floating in the northeast section of the lake, where Rivera was last seen, the outlet reported.

    The body was confirmed as Rivera, who went missing Wednesday on a boating trip with her 4-year-old son, Josey, law enforcement sources told TMZ.

    Authorities said Rivera was presumed dead after vanishing beneath the surface of the lake, prompting a six-day search to find her body.

    KABC

    Morris pleaded with authorities on social media to join the search with a “small group of friends” on Sunday, saying she felt “helpless” amid her disappearance.

    “I understand your team is doing EVERYTHING in their power, but we are feeling helpless, powerless and want to help in any way,” Morris wrote to the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office on Twitter.

    Source Article from https://pagesix.com/2020/07/13/glee-star-heather-morris-mourns-with-naya-riveras-family-at-lake-piru/

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    California Coronavirus Update: Governor Gavin Newsom Orders Indoor Service At All Restaurants, Bars, Movie Theaters In State To Close Again; No End Date Given – Deadline
    California Coronavirus Update: Governor Gavin Newsom Orders Indoor Service At All Restaurants, Bars, Movie Theaters In State To Close Again; No End Date Given – Deadline

    The day after California officials revealed that the number of deaths related to coronavirus in the state had passed 7,000, Gov.Gavin Newsom said Monday that there have been 8,358 new cases reported in the state over the past 24 hours. The 14-day trend showed only a slightly lower number.

    As a result, he announced he is requiring all counties to close their restaurants, movie theaters, family entertainment centers, wineries, zoos and bars for indoor service.

    “We’re continuing to see hospitalizations rise and we continue to see an increase in the rate of positivity in the state,” the governor said.

    As a result, “We are moving back into a ‘modification mode’ of our original stay-at-home order,” said Newsom. “This is a new statewide action, effective today.”

    Additionally, L.A. and 29 other counties on the state’s monitoring list must close fitness centers, places of worship, nail and hair salons and indoor malls. Other L.A.-local counties impacted include Santa Barbara, Ventura, San Diego, Orange and virtually every other county in Southern California.

    Hospitalizations in the state over the past 14 days are up 28 percent; ICU admissions have risen 20 percent. Both of those counts are down in comparison to where they were two weeks ago, from 50 percent and 39 percent, respectively.

    The test positivity rate, according to state figures, has risen to about 7.7 percent over the last seven days. That’s up substantially.

    What the orders did not include was an end date. Newsom did not provide a time frame for the businesses to be shut down.

    “We’re staring to see in some rural parts of the state an increase in ICU use,” said the governor. Seeing it in multiple counties had state authorities worried about constraint in resource-sharing as it relates to surging in some counties.

    And it wasn’t just rural counties. On Friday, Los Angeles County public health officials reported that, outside of surge beds that could be converted, the county of 10 million had just 113 ICU beds remaining.

    What’s more, while testing had kept up with demand over the past few weeks, “We’re starting to see delays, once again, in test results,” said Newsom. That does not bode well for the “data-driven” decision-making process that Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti have espoused.

    When asked if the closure order included protests Newsom said, “We have a framework around protests,” indicating that the new restrictions would prohibit indoor, but not outdoor gatherings of that type.

    Watch Newsom’s press conference below.

    The superintendent of L.A. County schools also announced on Monday that none of the students in his district would have in-person instruction to begin the year.

    Newsom on Thursday had announced a record number of daily deaths in the state from COVID-19, with 149 lives lost over the past 24 hours. That’s up about 23 percent from the previous high of 115 deaths. That grim mark was reported on April 22, during the previous peak of the virus in California. The total number of lives lost in the state due to coronavirus is now 6,711.

    Source Article from https://deadline.com/2020/07/california-gavin-newsom-closes-restaurants-indoor-operations-in-state-1202984427/

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    Dr. Anthony Fauci says U.S. coronavirus cases are surging because nation didn’t totally shut down – CNBC
    Dr. Anthony Fauci says U.S. coronavirus cases are surging because nation didn’t totally shut down – CNBC

    The U.S. has reported more than 3.3 million Covid-19 cases and at least 135,205 deaths as of Monday, Johns Hopkins data shows. As of Sunday, cases are growing by 5% or more in 37 states and also Washington, D.C., according to CNBC’s analysis of the data. The seven-day average of U.S. cases is more than 59,100.

    In recent weeks, President Donald Trump and some state leaders have downplayed the threat of the virus, tying the surge in new cases to an increase in testing. However, public health officials and infectious disease experts dispute those claims, saying the rate of cases that test positive in the U.S., hospitalizations and deaths remain high in some states. 

    Fauci said Monday that the outbreak in the U.S. hasn’t “even begun to see the end” of the coronavirus pandemic yet as scientists continue to work on potential drugs and vaccines for the virus. He said he’s “cautiously optimistic” scientists will be able to create at least one safe and effective vaccine by the end of the year or early 2021.

    Biotech firm Moderna, which is working with the National Institutes of Health, and Johnson & Johnson are expected to begin late-stage human trials for potential vaccines by the end of this month. It’s a record-breaking time frame to produce a vaccine — even as scientists say there is no guarantee the vaccines will be effective. 

    Fauci also said he expects the public to compare the Covid-19 pandemic to the 1918 pandemic flu, which killed around 50 million people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

    He mentioned the “extreme” range of symptoms people can experience after contracting the virus, including pediatric multisystem inflammatory syndrome. PMIS is a rare inflammatory condition found in children with Covid-19 that’s similar to Kawasaki syndrome and has caused neurological damage in some kids.

    “We learn things every week,” he said. 

    The comments by Fauci come as the rift between Trump and the nation’s top infectious disease expert widens. Just last week, the president, who has previously said the pandemic was nearing its end, criticized Fauci’s response to it.

    During an interview Thursday with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump said, “Dr. Fauci’s a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.

    Source Article from https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/13/fauci-says-us-coronavirus-cases-are-surging-because-nation-didnt-shut-down.html

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    L.A. Unified won’t reopen campuses for start of school year – Los Angeles Times
    L.A. Unified won’t reopen campuses for start of school year – Los Angeles Times

    Los Angeles campuses will not reopen for classes on Aug. 18, and the nation’s second-largest school system will continue with online learning until further notice, because of the worsening coronavirus surge, Supt. Austin Beutner announced Monday.

    The difficult decision became unavoidable in recent weeks, Beutner said, as coronavirus cases have skyrocketed in Los Angeles County, and the district cannot come close to protecting the health and safety of some half a million K-12 students and about 75,000 employees.

    “Let me be crystal clear,” Beutner said in an interview with The Times. “We all know the best place for students to learn is in a school setting.” But, he said, “We’re going in the wrong direction. And as much as we want to be back at schools and have students back at schools — can’t do it until it’s safe and appropriate.”

    California

    Should you send your child back to school? Parents are stressed and divided


    California

    Should you send your child back to school? Parents are stressed and divided

    Now the debate is over how and when to reopen schools — parents and teachers are divided and worried.

    More Coverage

    He added that it was important to let families and district employees know so that they could prepare for the rapidly approaching start of the school year, only five weeks away.

    The superintendent also pointedly called for county, state and federal officials to provide leadership and funding for regular coronavirus testing and contact tracing. He said that school districts also needed clearer guidance on when and how to reopen. Beutner estimated it would cost $300 a year per person to test all students and staff members once a week.

    “The dollars pale in comparison to the importance schools will play in reopening what was the fifth-largest economy in the world,” he said.

    California

    How do you feel about L.A. schools not reopening for classes next month?


    California

    How do you feel about L.A. schools not reopening for classes next month?

    How do you feel about the Los Angeles Unified School District decision that schools will remain closed next month due to safety issues related to COVID-19?

    The decision pitted two imperatives against each other: the need to reduce health risks versus the need to return students to classrooms — where, experts say, they will learn more effectively, while also allowing their parents to resume a more routine work schedule, helping to boost a state economy in deep recession.

    Other school systems in disparate regions throughout the country are confronting the issue in different ways — in part because the health situation varies or because of political and philosophical divides over what should take priority. In New York City, the nation’s largest school system, campuses will partially reopen, with students returning fewer than five days per week. In Fairfax County, Virginia, the school system is giving parents the choice of online only or returning to campus two days a week combined with online instruction.

    In California, day by day, more school systems are choosing to keep campuses closed and reopen online only as health officials sound the alarm about the rising number of coronavirus cases.

    California

    The new reality of school at home: Overwhelmed. Isolated. Unfocused. Very Stressed


    California

    The new reality of school at home: Overwhelmed. Isolated. Unfocused. Very Stressed

    School from home is the new coronavirus reality. How are students and teachers doing?

    In Northern California those districts include West Contra Costa County, East Side Union in San Jose and the Oakland Unified School District.

    In Southern California, the San Bernardino City school system cited the “recent and significant rise in COVID cases in our community” in its July 2 announcement that campuses would not be reopen next month.

    “After the beginning of the school year and if and only when we can do so safely, we will begin to offer, in-person check-in and support services for small groups of students and eventually transition to a hybrid or blended learning model,” said interim Supt. Harold Vollkommer in a statement.

    In L.A. County, recorded infections were reaching new daily highs and the infection rate of those tested rose to 10%. It had fallen to 4.6% in May.

    “You wake up each morning and say, well, maybe that was a one-day thing,” Beutner said. “Maybe that was a one-week thing. Well, it’s been a month now… We’ve been deliberating this for some time, since really the middle of June, since the health factors in the community started going in the wrong direction, in a hurry.”

    California

    Pediatricians say kids should be in school despite coronavirus risk


    California

    Pediatricians say kids should be in school despite coronavirus risk

    Research suggests that the risks of COVID-19 transmission among children are lower than for adults.

    In their planning for the fall, school district officials all over the region understood that some parents are not ready to send children back to campus: A distance-learning-only program is necessary for them.

    Still, the recent hope had been that L.A. Unified and other school systems could open for most families using a hybrid schedule, in which students would attend classes part time on campus in small socially distanced groups, using a staggered schedule. They were going to combine this limited on-campus time with an enhanced study-at-home framework that included academic work online and offline.

    Some school districts still have been planning to go that route, but San Diego Unified, which was one of them, announced Monday morning that it, too, would be online-only for the start of the semester. In that school system, the teachers union had pushed back in recent days against reopening plans, dissatisfied with safety measures.

    The teachers union in L.A. was more adamant. Last week, the leadership called for campuses to remain closed. And 83% of teachers agreed in a one-day snap poll; about 56% of union members participated in that survey.

    California

    L.A. teachers union says schools should not reopen next month, citing coronavirus spike


    California

    L.A. teachers union says schools should not reopen next month, citing coronavirus spike

    The main teachers union for LAUSD said distance learning should continue until it is safe to resume in person.

    More Coverage

    But even a staggered, limited on-campus schedule would fall short of demands from President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos. They have threatened to withhold federal funds from school districts that don’t open campuses — although it isn’t clear that Trump would be able to carry out that threat.

    Those siding with Trump include Florida Republican Gov. Rick DeSantis, who also has threatened the funding of school districts that don’t reopen campuses — despite a huge rise in that state’s infections and infection rates. About 90% of school funding comes from state or local sources.

    Proponents of school reopening have pointed to apparently successful efforts in Taiwan, Norway and Denmark. Critics, however, have catalogued notable differences between the management and status of the pandemic in those countries and in the U.S.

    By the start of school, L.A. Unified will have had about five months to improve what it can accomplish online: Students have computers and much-improved internet access and tech support. Teachers have received training for online education. And certain familiar rituals will be restored: Teachers will take attendance and are expected to track student learning every school day; students will receive grades.

    But uneven — often inadequate — study environments at home will persist. Some parents are less able or unable to monitor student schoolwork at home. Experts have warned that the students most likely to fall behind would include those in low-income families, students learning English and students with disabilities.

    California

    We need to prepare for the mental health effects of coronavirus on kids


    California

    We need to prepare for the mental health effects of coronavirus on kids

    More children are likely to experience toxic stress during the pandemic, which could lead to devastating effects in the future.

    And childcare could remain a quagmire. Beutner said calling it a crisis would be an “understatement.”

    Children, he said, “are looking at a lifetime of consequences if we can’t get them back in a school setting as soon as possible, but it’s gotta be safe. And what we can’t do is turn our schools into some giant Petri dish and have irreparable health and life consequences for all of the school community.”

    Beutner said he was particularly struck by a study in Italy that appeared to document the spread of coronavirus infection from people who had not yet exhibited symptoms or who never had noticeable symptoms.

    The school district, he said, was prepared to take the lead on prepping campuses for social distancing and the distribution of masks, but it could not carry the necessary burden for regular coronavirus testing and contact tracing.

    Last week, L.A. County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer warned school districts that they needed to be ready to move 100% online for the start of the school year, but did not issue a directive.

    “We are a passenger on the bus, just like everybody else,” Beutner said. “If the spread is getting worse, if the rate of infection is getting worse, we can watch, we can monitor, but we can’t bend that. All we can do is keep it from getting worse by contributing to it.”

    Source Article from https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-07-13/l-a-unified-will-not-reopen-campuses-start-of-school-year

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    US declares ‘most’ of China’s maritime claims in South China Sea illegal – CNN
    US declares ‘most’ of China’s maritime claims in South China Sea illegal – CNN

    Chat with us in Facebook Messenger. Find out what’s happening in the world as it unfolds.

    Source Article from https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/13/politics/south-china-sea-pompeo-announcement/index.html

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    Can Congress investigate Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence? – NBC News
    Can Congress investigate Trump’s commutation of Roger Stone’s sentence? – NBC News

    House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., last week vowed to investigate President Donald Trump’s decision to commute the prison sentence of his longtime associate Roger Stone.

    “President Trump has infected our judicial system with partisanship and cronyism and attacked the rule of law,” Nadler said.

    Trump on Friday commuted Stone’s sentence, sparing him from having to report to a federal prison in Georgia to begin serving 40 months behind bars. In November Stone was convicted of lying to Congress during the investigation into Russian election meddling.

    But can Congress investigate a president’s grant of clemency?

    As recently as last week, in its decision in the Trump congressional subpoena case, the Supreme Court said Congress’ power to investigate is tied to its power to make laws. It can demand information only if “it is related to, and in furtherance of, a legitimate task of the Congress,” and its investigations must serve a “valid legislative purpose.”

    The court has ruled on this limitation of congressional power repeatedly, a conclusion it first expressed in 1927: that each House of Congress has the power “to secure needed information” in order to legislate. It made the same point in a different way in a 1957 case, ruling that “there is no congressional power to expose for the sake of exposure.”

    Because the Constitution gives the president unlimited power to grant clemency for federal crimes, there’s no legislative hook allowing Congress to investigate.

    This same issue came up in 2001 when Republicans in Congress wanted to investigate President Bill Clinton’s last-minute pardons. As former House general counsel Stan Brand said at the time, “It’s none of Congress’ business.”

    Source Article from https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/can-congress-investigate-trump-s-commutation-roger-stone-s-sentence-n1233660

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    Florida records 12,624 new COVID-19 cases | TheHill – The Hill
    Florida records 12,624 new COVID-19 cases | TheHill – The Hill

    Florida recorded 12,624 new cases of COVID-19 on Monday, a total down slightly from the previous day but still among the highest single-day figures recorded in any state, according to The Miami Herald. 

    The high case numbers come as Florida has supplanted New York as the nation’s epicenter for the virus. The state had recorded 15,300 new cases on Sunday, setting a single-day record for the nation.

    The Florida Department of Health said there were 35 new deaths Monday, the lowest daily death count in more than a week, though deaths have been trending upward over a two-week period. The state has 282,435 cases and 4,277 deaths.

    The state’s positivity rate — or the percentage of tests coming back positive — has continued to decline slightly after the daily average peaked at nearly 19 percent last week.

    Monday’s reported positivity rate for new cases was 11.5 percent, up slightly from 11.25 percent the previous day. A month ago, the positive rate hovered around 5 percent. 

    Florida has tested more than 2.6 million people, with 1.6 million tests administered since May 31. 

    The state has continued to pursue reopening. Disney’s Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom opened Saturday, and Epcot and Disney’s Hollywood Studios are slated to open Wednesday. 

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/507036-florida-records-12624-new-covid-19-cases

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    ‘Everyone is lying’: Trump questions public health experts on Twitter – POLITICO
    ‘Everyone is lying’: Trump questions public health experts on Twitter – POLITICO

    The White House reportedly told various news outlets Saturday and Sunday that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things,” and furnished a lengthy list of statements the widely respected immunologist made in the early days of the outbreak.

    The type of smear effort directed by the Trump administration against one of its most public-facing, trusted members is traditionally reserved for political rivals, and came after the president expressed public dissatisfaction with Fauci for his dire assessments of the outbreak in congressional testimony and media interviews.

    Fauci, who told the Financial Times last Friday that he had not briefed Trump for at least two months, warned at a Senate health committee hearing in late June that the U.S. could register as many as 100,000 additional cases per day if further safeguards were not put in place.

    In a livestreamed conversation last Monday with his boss, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins, Fauci said the U.S. was still “knee-deep” in its first wave of coronavirus infections, describing the outbreak as “serious situation that we have to address immediately.”

    But Trump was dismissive of Fauci in an interview last Tuesday with Gray Television’s Greta Van Susteren, saying: “I think we are in a good place. I disagree with him.” And speaking with Fox News’ Sean Hannity last Thursday, Trump remarked that “Dr. Fauci is a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.”

    Top administration officials have begun to follow the president’s lead in piling on Fauci, including White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, who memorably sparred with the doctor in April over the efficacy of the controversial antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a potential coronavirus treatment.

    “Dr. Fauci has a good bedside manner with the public but he has been wrong about everything I have ever interacted with him on,” Navarro told The Washington Post in a story published Saturday, adding: “So when you ask me if I listen to Dr. Fauci’s advice, my answer is only with caution.”

    Appearing Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Adm. Brett Giroir, the administration’s coronavirus testing czar, said that while “I respect Dr. Facui a lot,” he is “not 100 percent right, and he also doesn’t necessarily … have the whole national interest in mind. He looks at it from a very narrow public health point of view.”

    White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany addressed the friction between Fauci and his administration colleagues Monday on “Fox & Friends,” echoing Giroir and arguing that Fauci considers the pandemic response only through the lens of a “public health standpoint.”

    “Dr. Fauci’s one member of a team. But rest assured, his viewpoint is represented, and the information gets to the president through” the White House coronavirus task force, McEnany said.

    Fauci is not the only senior health official within the administration to have drawn the president’s ire in recent weeks. Trump similarly targeted CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield in a tweet last week that accused the public health agency’s guidelines for reopening schools of being “very tough & expensive.”

    The president’s push to return students to classrooms in the fall represents the latest front in his pressure campaign for a broad-based economic reopening, in spite of surging Covid-19 caseloads.

    The U.S. has notched records for new infections in late June and early July, with daily cases reaching 60,000 for the first time. On Sunday, Florida logged 15,000 new cases, surpassing the daily record reported by any single state since the start of the outbreak.

    Although Trump ceded to bipartisan calls to wear a mask in public for the first time Saturday, during a visit to Walter Reed National Medical Center, he has remained reluctant to acknowledge the coronavirus’ threat as hot spots continue to emerge across in communities across the South and West.

    He claimed in an interview with Fox Business earlier this month that the highly contagious disease is “at some point … going to sort of just disappear,” and asserted during an address at the White House marking Independence Day celebrations that “99 percent” of cases are “totally harmless.”

    Source Article from https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/13/trump-questions-public-health-experts-twitter-359388

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    Most voters in areas hardest hit by new coronavirus surges think states opened too quickly: poll | TheHill – The Hill
    Most voters in areas hardest hit by new coronavirus surges think states opened too quickly: poll | TheHill – The Hill

    Most voters in Texas, Arizona and Florida, three states hit hardest by the new surge in coronavirus cases, said their states reopened economies too quickly. 

    Six in 10 voters in the three states said their states reopened the economy and lifted stay-at-home restriction too quickly, according on a CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday. 

    The majority of voters who said states opened too quickly said they think it was because of pressure from the Trump administration to reopen state economies. 

    In Texas, 61 percent of voters said the state reopened too quickly, based on the poll. Of those respondents, 63 percent said Texas moved too quickly because of pressure from the Trump administration. 

    In Florida, 64 percent of voters said the government moved too quickly, with 68 percent of them saying it was because of Trump administration pressure.

    In Arizona, 60 percent of voters said the government moved too quickly to reopen the economy, with 70 percent of them saying it was because of pressure from the Trump administration. 

    The same poll found Trump is tied with presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe BidenJoe BidenDavis: Supreme Court decision is bad news for Trump, good news for Vance Teachers face off against Trump on school reopenings Biden wins Puerto Rico primary MORE in Arizona and Texas. The poll found Biden leading Trump in Florida by 6 points. Biden also had overwhelming support among voters in the states who are “very concerned” about the COVID-19 pandemic. 

    Texas has reported a total of 250,462 COVID-19 cases and 3,112 fatalities, Arizona has reported a total of 122,467 cases and 2,237 fatalities, and Florida has reported a total of 269,811 cases and 4,346 fatalities, based on state data.

    Source Article from https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/506969-most-voters-in-areas-hardest-hit-by-new-coronavirus-surges-think-states

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    U.S. judge delays first federal executions in 17 years – Reuters
    U.S. judge delays first federal executions in 17 years – Reuters

    TERRE HAUTE, Indiana (Reuters) – A U.S. federal judge issued an injunction on Monday delaying what would have been the first federal execution in 17 years, scheduled for later in the day, thwarting at least for now the Trump administration’s goal of reviving capital punishment at the federal level.

    Judge Tanya Chutkan of the U.S. district court in Washington ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to delay four executions the department had scheduled for July and August to allow continuation of the condemned men’s legal challenges against a new lethal injection protocol announced in 2019.

    “The scientific evidence before the court overwhelmingly indicates that the 2019 Protocol is very likely to cause Plaintiffs extreme pain and needless suffering during their executions,” Chutkan wrote in her order. She said the inmates were likely to succeed in their challenge to the protocol on the grounds that it breached a constitutional ban on “cruel and unusual” punishments.

    The Justice Department told the court it would appeal the injunction.

    Her order came down less than seven hours before Daniel Lewis Lee was due to be put to death at 4 p.m. using lethal injections of pentobarbital, a powerful barbiturate, at the Justice Department’s execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana.

    Lee was sentenced to death for his role in the murders of three members of an Arkansas family, including an 8-year-old child, in 1996.

    “The government has been trying to plow forward with these executions despite many unanswered questions about the legality of its new execution protocol,” Shawn Nolan, one of the public defenders representing the death row inmates in their lawsuits, said in a statement.

    Efforts to resume capital punishment at the federal level were underway within a few months of President Donald Trump’s inauguration in 2017, ending a de facto moratorium that began under his predecessor, Barack Obama, due to problems getting execution drugs and while long-running legal challenges to lethal injections played out in federal courts.

    The department had scheduled two more executions for later in the week and a fourth in August, of Wesley Purkey, Dustin Honken and Keith Nelson, all convicted of murdering children.

    The coronavirus pandemic has prevented some of the lawyers of inmates on death row from visiting their clients. At least one employee involved in the executions tested positive for COVID-19, the Justice Department said over the weekend.

    FEDERAL EXECUTIONS RARE

    While Texas, Missouri and other states execute multiple condemned inmates each year, federal executions are rare: only three have occurred since 1963, all from 2001 to 2003, including the 2001 execution of Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh.

    There are currently 62 people on federal death row in Terre Haute.

    Opposition to the death penalty has grown in the United States, although 54 percent of Americans said they supported it for people convicted of murder, according to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center.

    In announcing the planned resumption of executions, Attorney General William Barr said last year: “We owe it to the victims and their families to carry forward the sentence imposed by our justice system.”

    Slideshow (4 Images)

    A European Union ban on selling drugs for use in executions or torture has led to pharmaceutical companies refusing to sell such drugs to U.S. prison systems.

    The Justice Department spent much of 2018 and 2019 building a secret supply chain of private companies to make and test its drug of choice, pentobarbital, which replaces the three-drug protocol used in previous executions. Some of the companies involved said they were not aware they were testing execution drugs, a Reuters investigation found last week.

    As with Texas and other states, the Justice Department has commissioned a private pharmacy to make the drug.

    Reporting by Bryan Woolston in Terre Haute, Indiana, and Jonathan Allen in New York; Writing by Jonathan Allen; Editing by Peter Cooney and Dan Grebler

    Source Article from https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-executions/us-judge-delays-first-federal-executions-in-17-years-idUSKCN24E1A8

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    Coronavirus updates: Trump RTs tweet saying CDC ‘lies’; NYC reports zero deaths; Florida logs second largest number of cases – USA TODAY
    Coronavirus updates: Trump RTs tweet saying CDC ‘lies’; NYC reports zero deaths; Florida logs second largest number of cases – USA TODAY

    As the pandemic reached new highs in Florida and across the world, New York City provided a glimmer of hope: zero deaths for the first time in four months. 

    Total confirmed cases across the nation surpassed 3.3 million – about 1% of all Americans have now tested positive since the outbreak began racing across the nation just a few months ago. More than 135,000 Americans have died.

    Florida reported more than 12,000 new cases Monday, one day after its 15,000 new cases smashed the daily record for any state since the pandemic began. Florida’s infection total now stands at 282,435 – more than all but eight countries.

    In Washington, President Donald Trump showed little faith in the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, retweeting a social media post accusing the agency of “outrageous lies.”

    Source Article from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/health/2020/07/13/covid-19-new-york-city-florida-oklahoma-who/5424429002/

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