Category: Aktualności

California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed $14 billion in budget cuts on Thursday because of the coronavirus, with more than half coming at the expense of public schools already struggling to educate children from afar during a pandemic.The cuts are part of a plan to cover a $54.3 billion budget deficit caused by plummeting state revenues after a mandatory, statewide stay-at-home order forced most businesses to close and put more than 4.7 million people out of work.On Thursday, Newsom proposed filling that hole through a combination of cuts, tax increases, canceled spending, internal borrowing and tapping the state’s reserves. It also includes a 10 percent pay cut for all state workers, including the governor himself. Overall, the $203 billion spending plan is about 5 percent lower than the budget lawmakers approved last year.”Nothing breaks my heart more than having to make budget cuts,” he said. “There’s a human being behind every single number.”Aid package could helpNewsom said all of those cuts could be avoided if the federal government approves a $1 trillion aid package for state and local governments. The state would need that money before July 1 to avoid the cuts, a daunting task considering the partisan divide between Democrats who control the U.S. House of Representatives and the Republicans in charge of the U.S. Senate.”Depending on the federal government is not going to be a solution,” said Republican Sen. Jim Nielsen of Red Bluff.Public education, which accounts for 40 percent of all state general fund spending, was the hardest hit. School districts get money based on a formula outlined in the state constitution that is based on revenues, per capita personal income and school attendance.That guarantee dropped by $19 billion. But Newsom added a bunch of money to offset those losses. He wants to temporarily eliminate some business tax deductions to create $4.5 billion in new revenue. Plus, he wants to give school districts $4.4 billion from the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund. Even with those changes, schools are looking at a loss of $7.5 billion compared to the budget Newsom proposed in January.”They will be the single largest cuts public schools have ever had in California history,” said Kevin Gordon, a lobbyist who represents most public school districts. “Public school officials do not know where to start when it comes to trying to reopen with so much less money to work with.”$2.8 billion savings from pay cutThe 10 percent pay cut for the more than 233,000 state workers would save about $2.8 billion and includes firefighters and health care workers. The lowest-paid workers would still get planned raises, however, to bring them up to the state’s $15-per-hour minimum wage law.The pay cut proposal is just the starting point for a negotiation with public-sector labor unions. The Service Employees International, which represents about 96,000 state workers, plans to try to negotiate an alternative.”We could put our head in the sand and say, ‘Let’s take it,'” said Yvonne Walker, president of SEIU Local 1000. “But you know what, Local 1000? We’re not head-in-the-sand people.”Just four months ago, Newsom proposed a $222.2 billion spending plan that included a nearly $6 billion surplus and a host of new programs. Thursday, nearly all of that new spending disappeared. That included eliminating plans to give government-funded health insurance to low-income adults 65 and older living in the country illegally. And it cancels a plan to make more older adults eligible for Medicaid.”These potential cuts will be a body blow to the health care system we all rely on, at the very time we need it funded more than ever, in the middle of a pandemic,” said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide health care consumer advocacy group.Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon called the state’s budget picture “grim” but said it was too soon to know which of Newsom’s proposed cuts his Democratic caucus would support. He said education and the social safety net must be priorities, and he, like Newsom, said the state needs the federal government’s help.”We have well-placed Republicans from California in Congress, and we’re going to obviously appeal to them and make sure they remember, obviously, where they got elected from,” Rendon said.$16 billion rainy day fundCalifornia’s financial downturn is cushioned by a $16 billion rainy day fund set aside during the good times. Newsom’s budget, which now must be negotiated with the state Legislature by June 15, calls for spending the rainy day fund down over the next three years, starting with roughly $8 billion in the upcoming year. He’s also tapping two other reserve funds for another $1 billion.The state would also spend more than $200 million to boost the state’s preparations for looming wildfires and other disasters, including hiring another 500 firefighters and 100 support personnel to help make up for the loss of dozens of inmate firefighters who were paroled to ease the risk of coronavirus outbreaks.State officials have furloughed state workers during previous budget deficits and used tricks like paying state employees a day later to save money. But Tim Edwards, president of the union representing state firefighters, said cuts to firefighters didn’t end up saving money because idled firefighters had to be backed up with replacements earning overtime.”Being one of the lowest-paid fire departments already in California (compared to metro fire departments), pay cuts would not go well for us,” said Edwards, president of CalFire Local 2881.  
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U.S. President Donald Trump is saying he is confident there will be a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the year, and mass inoculations of the public will occur quickly.  
 
“I think distribution will take place almost simultaneously because we’ve geared up the military,” Trump explained on Thursday, adding that further details will be released on Friday.
 
The president’s prediction contrasts with testimony heard on Capitol Hill shortly before Trump spoke on the White House South Lawn.  
 
The ousted director of the federal government’s vaccine agency told lawmakers, “We don’t have a plan” to mass-produce and distribute a coronavirus vaccine. Hope for such a vaccine within 12 to 18 months assumes “everything goes perfectly,” Dr. Rick Bright testified. “We’ve never seen everything go perfectly.”  
 
More than 90 vaccines for the novel coronavirus are in development around the world.  German company CureVac said Thursday that one of its mRNA candidate vaccines has protected animals from the virus at low doses. Clinical trials are expected to begin next month.    
 
Bright was removed as the director of the Biomedical Advance Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which is under the Department of Health and Human Services, an action that prompted the immunologist to file a whistleblower complaint.  
 
Trump told reporters he watched some of Thursday’s testimony by Bright and “he looks like an angry, disgruntled employee who, frankly, according to some people, didn’t do a very good job.”Dr. Rick Bright, former director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, testifies before a House panel on the coronavirus pandemic, on Capitol Hill in Washington, May 14, 2020.Bright told a House health subcommittee that higher officials, including those at the White House, ignored his early warning about COVID-19, and the federal government was ill-prepared to respond to a pandemic.
 
The current administration blames any shortcomings on plans and supplies left by the previous administration of Barack Obama, who turned the presidency over to Trump in January 2017.  
 
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said this would be explained “line by line” in a briefing for reporters on Friday.  
 
The president, prior to visiting a medical supply distributor in Pennsylvania, returned to his previous controversial promotion of an unproven malaria drug for treatment of the novel coronavirus.  
 
“We’ve had tremendous response to the hydroxy(chloroquine),” asserted Trump, who also criticized Bright for “fighting it” when he was running BARDA.  
 
Bright and others cautioned about the need for scientific studies about using the drug for COVID-19 treatment and warned of its dangers, including the possibility it could kill people.  
 
Asked by a reporter if the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is over-counting U.S. deaths from the coronavirus, Trump replied, “I don’t know how they’re counting. I never discussed it with them. Death is death. We don’t want people dying in this country. And we’ve done a great job.”  
 
The United States has recorded the most deaths and most COVID-19 cases of any country.  
 
As of Thursday afternoon EDT, according to records compiled by Johns Hopkins University, 1.4 million people had tested positive for the virus and more than 85,000 had died in the country.  At a Thursday afternoon event, partly resembling a campaign rally, at a medical supply distribution company in the election battleground state of Pennsylvania, the president promoted the replenishment of the strategic national stockpile.Trump linked the high rate of COVID-19 cases in the United States to the country’s having conducted the most tests.“When you test, you have a case,” the president said. “If we didn’t do any testing, we would have very few cases.”
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A Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling Wednesday rejecting the midwestern state’s stay-at-home order threw communities into chaos as some bars opened immediately and were packed with customers, while some local leaders moved to keep COVID-19-related restrictions in place.The 4-3 ruling essentially reopens the state, lifting caps on the size of gatherings, allowing people to travel as they please and permitting shuttered businesses, including bars and restaurants, to reopen.The Tavern League of Wisconsin swiftly posted the news on its website, telling members, “You can OPEN IMMEDIATELY!”The decision let stand language that had closed schools, and local governments can still impose their own health restrictions.In Dane County, home to the capital of Madison, officials quickly imposed a mandate incorporating most of the statewide order.But elsewhere, bars did not wait. The Iron Hog Saloon in the city of Port Washington opened its doors at 3 p.m. Wednesday. Owner Chad Arndt said his nine employees had not been paid in months.Video taken inside the bar showed customers did not wear masks or practice social distancing. Arndt said he has enhanced cleaning protocols but understands if customers do not want to come back. 
 
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The top U.S. law enforcement agency has seized Senator Richard Burr’s cell phone after serving a search warrant on him as part of a federal investigation into whether he sold stocks after receiving inside information about the coronavirus pandemic.Agents with the FBI took possession of the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman’s cell phone at his Washington area home Wednesday, three months after he sold stock valued between $628,000 and $1.72 million in 33 separate transactions.The day before Burr dumped the stocks on February 13, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high 29,551.42. On February 20, stock prices began to plunge on concern the coronavirus pandemic would severely weaken the global economy.The markets tumbled after Burr received daily coronavirus briefings as Senate Intelligence Committee chairman. The Washington Post reported Burr had access to classified intelligence reports that warned of calamitous consequences from the pandemic.ProPublica reported last week that Burr’s brother-in-law, Gerald Fauth, who was appointed to the National Mediation Board by President Donald Trump, also sold stock on February 13 valued between $97,000 and $280,000.Burr has said he did not act on information he received as a senator. His attorney, Alice Fisher, said her client “participated in the stock market based on public information and he did not coordinate his decision to trade on February 13 with Mr. Fauth.”The federal STOCK Act prohibits legislators from acting on nonpublic information they receive as public officials to personally profit from stock transactions.Then-President Barack Obama signed the prohibition into law in 2012 after the Senate passed it by a 93-3 vote.Burr was among the three senators who voted against the measure. 
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A U.S. appeals court on Thursday handed President Donald Trump a setback, rejecting his bid to end a lawsuit that accused him of violating anti-corruption provisions of the U.S. Constitution with his ownership of a hotel in Washington while in office.The decision by the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sitting as a whole – reversing a ruling in favor of Trump issued by a three-judge panel of the same court last July – was a victory for the Democratic attorneys general of Maryland and the District of Columbia who brought the lawsuit.The lawsuit alleged violations of the Constitution’s “emoluments” clauses – rarely tested in courts – that ban a president from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments without congressional consent.In a 9-6 decision, the 4th U.S. Circuit decided that the Republican president – seeking re-election on Nov. 3 – failed to show the sort of “clear and indisputable right to relief” necessary for an early dismissal of the case.The court found that the narrow view of the emoluments clauses argued by Trump’s lawyers was not clearly the right one in light of past statements by officials within the executive branch.”Given this history, we can hardly conclude that the President’s preferred definition of this obscure word is clearly and indisputably the correct one,” Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote on behalf of the court.The case is now set to return to a judge in Maryland, who has consistently ruled against Trump on preliminary legal questions, for further proceedings potentially including a trial.Trump opened the Trump International Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue just blocks from the White House shortly before he was elected in November 2016.Trump, a wealthy real estate developer who as president regularly visits his own hotels, resorts and golf clubs, maintains ownership of his businesses – unlike past presidents – though he has said he has ceded day-to-day control to his sons. Critics have said that is not a sufficient safeguard.The hotel has become a favored lodging and event space for some foreign and state officials visiting the U.S. capital.In a dissenting opinion, Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson said the decision would open the door for litigation simply meant to harass a sitting president.”It is clear and indisputable that this action should never be in federal court,” Wilkinson wrote. “The legal foundations for this lawsuit are non-existent.”Another appeals court in February dismissed a lawsuit by Democratic U.S. lawmakers also alleging violations of the emoluments clauses relating to the hotel. A different appeals court in New York has allowed a similar case brought by an advocacy group called Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington to continue. 
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A U.S. health official who alleges in a whistleblower complaint he was removed from his position for prioritizing science in the government’s coronavirus response is set to tell lawmakers Thursday that the public must be told the truth and not have information “filtered for political reasons.”“We must know and appreciate what we are up against. We have the world’s greatest scientists – they must be permitted to lead,” Dr. Rick Bright says in text of his opening statement, posted ahead of the hearing by the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Health.The lawmakers want to know more about the federal government’s response to the outbreak, which has killed more than 84,000 people in the United States.f“While it is terrifying to acknowledge the extent of the challenge that we currently confront, the undeniable fact is there will be a resurgence of the COVID-19 this fall, greatly compounding the challenges of seasonal influenza and putting an unprecedented strain on our health care system,” Bright says. “Without clear planning and implementation of the steps that I and other experts have outlined, 2020 will be darkest winter in modern history.”Bright says he began warning leaders at the Department of Health and Human Services in January about a “critical shortage” of protective equipment that health care workers in the United States would need to treat COVID-19 patients.“I pushed HHS to ramp up U.S. production of masks, respirators and other critical supplies, such as medicine, syringes and swabs. Again, my urgency was dismissed and I was cut out of key high-level meetings to combat COVID-19,” Bright says in his statement.He says he was met with hostility by HHS leaders, and that officials repeatedly ignored outreach from at least one mask manufacturer that said it had idle mask production lines that could be reactivated with government help.“HHS strongly disagrees with the allegations and characterizations in the complaint from Dr. Bright,” the agency said in a statement.Michael Bowen, executive vice president of Prestige Ameritech, confirmed he reached out to Bright about his company’s readiness to produce masks, and says in his own statement to the committee that he warned about mask shortages in the United States for 13 years.Bowen says HHS, the Defense Department, Department of Veterans Affairs and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “could have worked together to secure America’s mask supply.”Bright suggests in his statement that the government take several steps now, including educating the public on basics such as hand washing, social distancing and proper use of masks. He also advocates for boosting production of essential equipment and supplies, having a system to fairly share them across the country, and putting in place a national testing strategy. 
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While many of us have been sheltering at home during the pandemic, essential workers such as truckers have not had that luxury. They and the products they transport are in high demand. The drivers spend most of their days on the road. VOA’s hitched a ride with two truckers to see what life is like for them these days.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
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U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday the nation has now conducted 10 million coronavirus tests, amounting to almost 3 percent of the U.S. population. Democrats in the U.S. House of Representatives said the administration’s failure to test early had worsened the crisis and called for more resources as most states around the country begin to relax stay-at-home restrictions. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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The U.S. Navy said on Thursday it had sailed a guided-missile destroyer through the sensitive Taiwan Strait, a week before Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen’s inauguration for a second term in office amid rising tensions with China. China, which considers Taiwan its territory, has been angered by the Trump administration’s strong support for the island, such as increased arms sales. Beijing-Washington ties have also been buffeted by fallout from the coronavirus pandemic. The U.S. Pacific Fleet, in a statement on its Facebook page, said the USS McCampbell had transited the narrow strait that separates Taiwan from mainland China on Wednesday, showing pictures of the ship under way. Taiwan’s Defense Ministry said the ship had sailed south on what it termed an “ordinary mission,” adding it was continuing in that direction. Tsai, who will be sworn in for her second and final term next Wednesday, won re-election by a landslide in January, vowing to defend Taiwan’s democracy and stand up to China. Both China and the United States have ramped up military activities near Taiwan in recent months, including regular U.S. sailings through the Taiwan Strait, and regular Chinese air force drills near the island. Last Friday, Taiwan said a Chinese air force Y-8 aircraft had briefly crossed into Taiwan’s Air Defense Identification Zone, prompting Taiwan jets to warn it to leave. China operates the Y-8 both as a transport and early warning and electronic warfare aircraft. Taiwan has denounced the Chinese drills as attempts at intimidation and has told Beijing it should focus its efforts on fighting the coronavirus rather than menacing the island. China considers Tsai to be a separatist, charges she strongly denies. Late next week, China will open its delayed annual meeting of parliament, where it is expected to release its defense budget for the year, a number closely watched around the region as President Xi Jinping oversees a military modernization plan.  
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As people around the world wonder when the coronavirus might go away, experts say: Maybe never.The World Health Organization warned Wednesday that the new virus, which has infected 4.3 million people worldwide, may become endemic, just like the HIV virus, and that people may have to learn to live with it.It could stay embedded in communities even if a vaccine is found, said WHO emergencies director Mike Ryan during a virtual news conference from Geneva.”HIV has not gone away, but we have come to terms with the virus,” he said.About 100 organizations worldwide are working on developing a coronavirus vaccine. Even if they find one that works, containing the virus will take a “massive effort,” the WHO official said.Meanwhile, the California-based Gilead drug company has reached agreements with several companies to make its antiviral drug Veklury, the brand name of remdesivir, available in 127 countries to help treat COVID-19.After weeks or months under lockdown, people around the world are eager to return to their normal lives, but the pandemic is showing no signs of going away, at least for now. Some countries, like New Zealand and Thailand, reported no new cases Wednesday, and Australia came close. Once hardest hit, Italy and Spain have both slashed the number of new cases.An employee cleans the floor at Riverside Market in Christchurch on May 14, 2020. New Zealand will phase out its coronavirus lockdown over the next 10 days after successfully containing the virus.But Russia has reported more than 10,000 new infections per day for the past 11 days. It has the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases after the United States. The country’s prime minister and the president’s spokesman are being treated for COVID-19. There are fears the situation may worsen because the country’s official nonworking period ended Tuesday.Some countries that seem to have halted the spread, like Germany and South Korea, have seen a resurgence of cases. A spike of new infections in Lebanon prompted the government to reimpose a four-day lockdown Wednesday after it began gradually lifting restrictions earlier this month.Governments are struggling between the need to restart their economies and the necessity to contain the virus. German Chancellor Angela Merkel has instructed local governments to reinstate shutdowns if they record more than 50 new cases per 100,000 residents. Russian President Vladimir Putin left to local governors to decide whether to extend shutdowns or reinstate the ones that have been lifted.In the United States, the government’s top virology expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned the public and leaders of the dangers of reopening too soon. Fauci told a Senate committee Tuesday that premature lifting of restrictions could lead to an outbreak that could be impossible to control.But U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday that people want the country reopened, including businesses and schools.“We have to open our country. Now, we want to do it safely, but we also want to do it as quickly as possible. We can’t keep going on like this,” Trump said.The mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser, extended the U.S. capital’s stay-at-home order, which was to expire Friday, until June 8. She said she wanted to see a steady decline of new cases over two weeks before lifting restrictions. Governors of neighboring states Virginia and Maryland are planning to ease their lockdowns in places where the spread of the virus has halted.Sheila Kelly, center, owner of Powell’s Steamer Co. & Pub, stands behind makeshift barriers as she helps patrons at her restaurant in the El Dorado County town of Placerville, Calif., May 13, 2020.Los Angeles County, California, the most populous county in the U.S., with 10 million residents, is expected to announce a three-month extension of its lockdown.The largest four-year public university system in the U.S., California State University, announced the cancellation of in-person classes in the fall at its 23 campuses, the first large U.S. university to do so. Almost all instruction will be moved online, Chancellor Timothy White said in a statement.Elsewhere in the world, Saudi Arabia announced Wednesday that it would go into complete lockdown for the end of the holy month of Ramadan after a sharp rise in new cases. The Interior Ministry said the measure would be in effect from May 23 through May 27.Worldwide, there were about 4.3 million confirmed infections and more than 297,000 deaths late Wednesday evening EDT, according to Johns Hopkins University statistics. The United States was leading the world in the number of infections, with close to 1.4 million, and the number of coronavirus-related deaths, over 84,000. 
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Classrooms should reopen quickly, U.S. President Donald Trump said Wednesday.“I think you should absolutely open the schools,” said the president as he hosted the governors of Colorado and North Dakota in the Cabinet Room.“It’s had very little impact on young people,” the president said of COVID-19. “But it’s the governors’ choice.”Trump’s comments came a day after California’s state university system decided that classrooms would not reopen even for the new school year, beginning in the autumn.Schools at all levels of education are closed in nearly every state, as well as in the District of Columbia. Many school districts have already announced they will not reopen for the remainder of the school year, which for most in the United States ends in June.“We’re opening our country. People want it open,” said Trump.’Not an acceptable answer’The president took issue with comments made the previous day during a Senate hearing by one of the most prominent members of the White House coronavirus task force.“He wants to play all sides of the equation,” said the president of comments by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.Fauci had warned the senators that states and cities will face serious consequences if they reopen public activities too quickly amid a viral pandemic.“I think we better be careful we are not cavalier in thinking that children are completely immune to the deleterious effects” of the coronavirus, Fauci said Tuesday.“I was surprised by his answer,” the president told reporters in the Cabinet Room. “To me it’s not an acceptable answer, especially when it comes to schools.” Professors and other teachers over a certain age, however, should perhaps “take it easy” for another few weeks, according to Trump.The president said he has been speaking on the phone with Vice President Mike Pence as they keep their distance as a precaution.“I miss him,” the president told reporters. “He was in the room with somebody who tested positive.”Pence’s press secretary, Katie Miller, last Friday was confirmed to be infected with the coronavirus.Colorado’s actionsTrump asked Colorado’s governor, Jared Polis, to speak about efforts to reopen his state.“We’re doing it in a safe way. All the stores are back,” said Polis, removing his mask as he spoke.North Dakota’s governor, Doug Burgum, said his state was second per capita in the country behind New York in testing for the coronavirus.“We handled the virus and really focused,” keeping 93 percent of business operating in the state, Burgum said.Only three states have less population density than North Dakota.Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said his department was “right on the shoulder of the governors” when it comes to reopening national parks.“I hope everybody is listening. The parks are opening, and rapidly,” said the president.Yellowstone, Grand TetonTwo of the country’s most iconic and popular parks, Yellowstone, located in three western states, and Grand Teton in Wyoming, will begin allowing tourists to return next week.Public health officials caution that infection rates for the virus continue to climb in much of the country, while they decline in the hard-hit metropolitan area in and around New York City.As of late Wednesday evening, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University, COVID-19 had killed more than 84,000 people in the United States. The coronavirus had infected about 1.4 million.  
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They carry high-powered rifles and wear tactical gear, but their Hawaiian shirts and leis are what stand out in the crowds that have formed at state capital buildings to protest COVID-19 lockdown orders. The signature look for the “boogaloo” anti-government movement is designed to get attention.The group, which uses an ’80s movie sequel as a code word for a second civil war, is among the extremists using the armed protests against state-at-home orders as a platform. Like other movements that once largely inhabited corners of the internet, it has seized on the social unrest and economic calamity caused by the pandemic to publicize its violent messages.  In April, armed demonstrators passed out “Liberty or Boogaloo” fliers at a statehouse protest in Concord, New Hampshire. A leader of the Three Percenters militia movement who organized a rally in Olympia, Washington, last month encouraged rally participants to wear Hawaiian shirts, according to the Anti-Defamation League. On Saturday, a demonstration in Raleigh, North Carolina, promoted by a Facebook group called “Blue Igloo” — a derivation of the term — led to a police investigation of a confrontation between an armed protester and a couple pushing a stroller.  Another anti-lockdown rally is planned for Thursday at the state Capitol in Lansing, Michigan, site of an angry protest last month that included armed members of the Michigan Liberty Militia. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, has been the target of violent threats on Facebook forums, including a private one called “The Rhett E. Boogie Group.”One user said Whitmer should be “guillotined” after another suggested another governor should be hanged from a noose, according to a screenshot captured by the Tech Transparency Project research initiative.  The coronavirus pandemic has become a catalyst for the “boogaloo” movement because the stay-at-home orders have “put a stressor on a lot of very unhappy people,” said J.J. MacNab, a fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism. MacNab said their rhetoric goes beyond discussions about fighting virus restrictions — which many protesters brand as “tyranny” — to talking about killing FBI agents or police officers “to get the war going.””They are far more graphic and far more specific in their threats than I’ve seen in a long time,” she said.The violent rhetoric is dramatic escalation for a online phenomenon with its roots in meme culture and steeped in dark humor. Its name comes from the panned 1984 movie “Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo,” which has become slang for any bad sequel. Another derivation of “boogaloo” is “big luau” — hence the Hawaiian garb.Far-right gun activists and militia groups first embraced the term before white supremacist groups adopted it last year. And while some “boogaloo” followers maintain they aren’t genuinely advocating for violence, law-enforcement officials say they have foiled bombing and shooting plots by people who have connections to the movement or at least used its terminology.A 36-year-old Arkansas man whose Facebook page included “boogaloo” references was arrested on April 11 by police in Texarkana, Texas, on a charge he threatened to ambush and kill a police officer on a Facebook Live video.”I feel like hunting the hunters,” Aaron Swenson wrote on Facebook under an alias, police say.  An April 22 report by the Tech Transparency Project,  which tracks technology companies, found 125 Facebook “boogaloo”-related groups that had attracted tens of thousands of members in the previous 30 days. The project pointed to coronavirus crisis as a driving factor.”Some boogaloo supporters see the public health lockdowns and other directives by states and cities across the country as a violation of their rights, and they’re aiming to harness public frustration at such measures to rally and attract new followers to their cause,” the project’s report says.Facebook has since updated its policies to prohibit use of “boogaloo” and related terms “when accompanied by statements and images depicting armed violence,” the company said in a statement.  In March, a Missouri man with ties to neo-Nazis was shot and killed when FBI agents tried to arrest him. Timothy Wilson, 36, was planning to bomb a hospital in the Kansas City area on the day that a COVID-19 stay-at-home order was scheduled to take effect, authorities said. Wilson told an undercover FBI agent that his goal was “to kick start a revolution” and referred to his plans as “operation boogaloo,” according to an agent’s affidavit.Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued an alert that said a white supremacist group was inciting followers to shoot through their doors at FBI agents and police officers, federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing. The warning related to “associates” of Bradley Bunn, a 53-year-old U.S. Army veteran who was arrested on May 1 after FBI agents allegedly found four pipe bombs at his house in Loveland, Colorado, the filing said.Authorities haven’t publicly linked Bunn to any group or movement, but a federal prosecutor said agents intercepted Bunn on his way to an armed protest at the state Capitol against COVID-19 restrictions.  Bunn told investigators that he would be willing to “take out a few” officers to “wake everyone up,” the prosecutor said during a court hearing.While the anti-lockdown protests have provided the spotlight on the “boogaloo” movement, a police shooting in Maryland has galvanized its supporters.Duncan Lemp, 21, was shot and killed by police on March 12 as officers served a search warrant at his family’s home. An eyewitness said Lemp was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house, according to an attorney for his family. Police said he was armed with a rifle and ignored commands.On his Instagram account, Lemp had posted a photograph that depicts two people holding up rifles and includes the term “boogaloo.” His death spawned a hashtag campaign within the movement.  “A lot of individuals are very upset at the way this country is being run and the laws that are getting passed that criminalize law-abiding citizens,” said Mike Harts, a U.S. Army infantry veteran who befriended Lemp through social media.Harts, 27, says “boogaloo” started as a funny meme but has evolved into a deeper symbol for the “liberty movement.”Lemp’s family appreciates the outpouring of support but doesn’t want “any violence or unlawful actions to be taken in his name,” family attorney Rene Sandler said in a statement. 
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The Class of 2020 may as well be dubbed the Class of COVID-19.Graduating seniors said an abrupt and socially distanced goodbye to their campuses in March when classes moved online in a matter of days. The pandemic stripped much of the pomp and all of the in-person options from commencement ceremonies. And the graduates now enter a job market in which unemployment is the highest since the Great Depression. Here is how the coronavirus altered seven students’ futures, according to the Wisconsin State Journal: Emily Gray, 23 Hometown: Mount Horeb Major: Paralegal studies Emily Gray needed 140 hours of internship experience to graduate from Madison Area Technical College’s paralegal program. She had accumulated just 40 of those hours when the spread of COVID-19 led to the Community Immigration Law Center’s closure. Panic immediately set in that she would not receive her diploma this May. But instructors were “wildly accommodating” with makeup work, Gray said. The job search began in the winter. Gray doesn’t remember how many applications she submitted, but it was enough to feel good about her chances of landing a job shortly after graduation. She fielded several calls from firms and was in the early stage of setting up interviews when the coronavirus arrived. Companies’ interest ground to a halt. Gray wants to work in immigration law, but she may temporarily set that interest aside and consider other areas of the law that may see a surge in work as the economy recovers, such as workers’ compensation. She’s also broadening the geography of her search. Gray graduated from the University of Minnesota last spring and would love to return to the Twin Cities, but is now considering jobs in Madison and elsewhere in the Midwest. Gray has put her job search on hold — she can only hear “Sorry, we’re just not hiring right now” so many times — and plans to start applying again when positions pop back up. When the immigration center where she interned opens again, she said leaders would welcome her back as a volunteer to gain the experience she lost out on this semester. “Everything’s sort of in limbo,” she said. In this May 5, 2020 photo, University of Wisconsin Bookstore worker Stephanie Blaser packages GPA honor stoles purchased by UW-Madison graduates at the store’s State Street location in Madison, Wis.Bailey Whiting, 22 Hometown: Cambridge Major: Kinesiology Bailey Whiting received her UW-Madison diploma, but she’s already worried about the next one. She plans to apply in the fall to graduate physical therapy programs, which require at least 40 observational hours, though most successful applicants record upwards of 150 hours. Whiting had an internship lined up at American Family Children’s Hospital this summer, but the facility suspended interns from the hospital because of COVID-19. Volunteers are also temporarily banned, scuttling another avenue for her to accumulate observational hours. Depending on how the pandemic plays out, Whiting said she may not tally enough hours and end up pushing her application to the following year. “I’m just really stuck right now,” she said. Whiting found a different job, providing behavioral therapy for children with autism, but the job won’t count toward her observational hours. And COVID-19 restricts her from working inside homes, so she will provide care via video calls, at least initially. Her final semester was filled with coronavirus cancellations: No spring Varsity Band concert, no traveling to Boston with the band to perform at the women’s hockey Final Four tournament. She toyed with the idea of watching the online graduation ceremony but thought she might just wait for the real one instead. Payton Wade, 22 Hometown: Milwaukee Major: Journalism and strategic communications Payton Wade’s excitement for UW-Madison’s commencement ceremony was so high that she sent save-the-date notes to family and friends. Wade, the first in her family to graduate from a four-year university, instead celebrated by watching the online ceremony in her parents’ living room. Rather than receiving real-life flowers and applause, she collected comments and likes on her social media posts. “I’m not really getting the closure of completing my four years here,” she said. In a few weeks, Wade plans to move to Dallas, where she accepted a position as an agent manager at Liberty National. The insurance industry hadn’t really been on her radar, but after several weeks of hearing little back from other companies to which she had applied, the late April employment offer was met with relief. Wade’s relationship with UW-Madison is complicated. She called out the university last fall for a video featuring a nearly all-white student body, an episode that drew national attention. There were moments throughout her four years where she felt unwelcome and wished she were far from the campus where 70% of undergraduates are white. But she is also proud to be a Badger and perceives an improvement in UW-Madison’s racial climate since she started as a student in 2016. Wade hopes her new work schedule will allow her to return to campus for the in-person commencement ceremony. Alex King, 22 Hometown: Sun Prairie Major: Political science and legal studies Alex King capped off his college career in a large venue — just not the one he imagined. Instead of celebrating at Camp Randall, King, a member of the Wisconsin Air National Guard, is serving at State Fair Park, a COVID-19 isolation facility in Milwaukee. As the university shifted to online instruction, King found himself with more free time, so he answered the Guard’s call for volunteers in April. He is among a group of Guard members on standby there, ready to serve if there’s a surge of patients to care for in Wisconsin. “This was an opportunity to dive in and be part of the state’s response to this,” he said. “This is why I joined the Guard: to help people out. It’s an honor to be a part of the effort.” Over the past several weeks, King received personal care assistant training to help the nurses on the front lines of the pandemic. In the future, King plans to serve full time with the Guard as a pilot in the 115th Fighter Wing. His flight training, however, will likely be delayed because of the virus. He is assigned to COVID-19 detail for as long as the Guard needs him. It’s unclear how long that will last, given the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus. “It’s very day-by-day,” he said, referring to his new schedule. In this May 7, 2020 photo, a statue of Abraham Lincoln, a traditional gathering spot for photos of graduates at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in Madison, Wis., remains fenced-off to visitors.Alyssa Allemand, 21 Hometown: Gibson City, Illinois Major: English Alyssa Allemand applied earlier this semester for a job at Isthmus. A few weeks later, the alt-weekly newspaper announced it would “go dark” during the pandemic. Allemand submitted applications to two other news outlets in late February and early March, both of whom informed her they were no longer hiring. The Edgewood College student knew even before the pandemic that jumping into the journalism field would be a challenge, but COVID-19 has only exacerbated her job prospects. Most media outlets have furloughed or laid off employees instead of hiring more. She considered applying for journalism jobs across the country, but she’s a homebody and the thought of moving cross-country in the middle of a pandemic terrifies her. Serving as editor of the student newspaper helped Allemand recognize how much she wants to be a journalist. While she doesn’t have a job lined up yet, she has hope that something will come through. But just in case, she’s applying for jobs in other fields, too. Nikki Johnson, 24 Hometown: Warrens Major: Recreation management Madison Area Technical College student Nikki Johnson landed her dream job working for Destination Madison in December. Travelers arriving at Dane County Regional Airport turned to Johnson, who staffed an informational booth in one of the terminals, for restaurant recommendations and hotel directions. She loved the part-time job so much she hoped it would turn into a full-time gig, but the pandemic twisted Johnson’s hope of a job offer into a layoff. She said Destination Madison told her when the economy rebounds, she will be one of the first hired back. Johnson suspected she would be out of the job even before the call came in late March and had already started looking for work in a sector of the economy seeing growth: groceries. She jumped at a job listing for Walmart, where she spent several weeks stocking shelves. Johnson still has a full-time job lined up with Dane County Parks. But it’s seasonal and only goes through October. “It’d be nice to have a permanent job so when winter comes around I’m not stuck,” she said. Winter also marks when she plans to complete her other degree in hospitality. She is crossing her fingers that the world looks a little different then and she can cross a real stage. Laura Downer, 21 Hometown: Victoria, Minnesota Major: International studies, German and political science Laura Downer labored over her internship application for the U.S. State Department for months. The “intense” process began in September, and the UW-Madison student set her sights on a position at the U.S. Embassy in Berlin. She had spent a year studying abroad in Germany her sophomore year and fell in love with the language and culture. Downer received the internship offer in the winter. The cancellation notification came mid-April. “I saw it coming but it’s also really disappointing,” she said. “It would have been a dream internship — the absolute No. 1 thing I wanted to do.” Downer is unsure how she will spend her summer. She applied for half a dozen positions even before the internship was called off, but hasn’t received so much as a confirmation email. She found some part-time project work in the La Follette School of Public Affairs, where she will finish her master’s degree next year. And her position as student body president was extended through August because elections were postponed this spring. As for the end of her undergraduate career, Downer watched the online commencement ceremony with her parents in Minnesota. A cousin who is also graduating this year may join her on a socially distanced celebration picnic. “We’ll try to find a way to make it special,” she said. “Still, I’m grateful I get a re-do of graduation next year.” 
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Paul Manafort, U.S. President Donald Trump’s former 2016 campaign chairman who later was convicted of tax and bank fraud, was released from prison Wednesday to serve the remainder of his seven-and-a-half-year term in home confinement.The 71-year-old Manafort had served a little more than a year of his term and was not due to be released from a federal prison in the eastern state of Pennsylvania until November 2024.But his lawyers prevailed in their bid with federal prison officials to get him freed to home confinement because they said he was at high risk of contracting coronavirus because of his age and underlying medical conditions, including high blood pressure, liver disease and respiratory ailments.Manafort was convicted during special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into wrongdoing during Trump’s successful 2016 run for the White House. But Manafort’s convictions stemmed from his lobbying and investments in Ukraine that predated his work for the Trump campaign.He joined Trump’s campaign as its convention manager in March 2016 and was its campaign chairman from May 2016 to August of that year before resigning as questions emerged in public accounts about his work in Ukraine between 2006 and 2015.There were no known coronavirus cases at the federal prison in Loretto, Pennsylvania, where Manafort was being held. But the facility was an old monastery with an open physical configuration, which possibly could have made it susceptible to a wide spread of COVID-19.U.S. Attorney General William Barr has directed federal prison officials to consider home confinement for inmates deemed in “at risk” categories for coronavirus, such as medical conditions, and about 2,500 have been moved to their homes to complete their sentences.Manafort’s lawyers said he could move to an apartment in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington where his wife lives. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu discussed plans to annex parts of the occupied West Bank in Jerusalem Wednesday, as Israeli troops fatally shot a Palestinian teenager after clashes erupted in southern West Bank.Pompeo vowed to move forward the Trump administration’s “vision of peace” proposal to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, saying, “There remains work yet to do, and we need to make progress on it.” The two leaders did not mention Wednesday’s violence, a continuation of clashes from the previous day that claimed the life of an Israeli soldier.Israeli soldiers take position as Palestinian demonstrators gather during a protest against expansion of Israeli settlements, in the West Bank village of Beita near Nablus, March 2, 2020.Netanyahu is eager to quickly annex parts of the West Bank, as U.S. President Donald Trump seeks reelection in November. Annexation would likely please Trump’s pro-Israel evangelical supporters and greatly reduce Palestinians’ chances of forming a state on territory Israel seized in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.Pompeo, wearing a red, white and blue face mask, arrived in Tel Aviv and went directly to Jerusalem, bypassing Israel’s two-week coronavirus quarantine requirement for new arrivals.As he stood next to Netanyahu without wearing a mask, Pompeo, the first official to visit Israel since January due to the pandemic, said his visit was a “testament to our alliance.”State Department spokesman Morgan Ortagus said after the two men met, they also “discussed our nations’ ongoing efforts to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and counter Iran’s destabilizing influence in the region, as well as the steadfast U.S. commitment to Israel’s security.”U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo meets with Israeli Speaker of the Knesset Benjamin Gantz, in Israel, May 13, 2020. (Credit: State Department Photo by Ron Przysucha)Pompeo also met with Netanyahu’s new coalition partner, Benny Gantz, and the new government’s incoming foreign minister, Gabi Ashkenazi at the U.S. Chief of Mission Residence in Jerusalem before departing to the airport.Netanyahu and Gantz reached an agreement last month after three parliamentary elections over the past year resulted in deadlock. The pact allows Netanyahu to remain prime minister for 18 months, after which Gantz would also serve as prime minister for 18 months.The deal also specifies Netanyahu can begin executing plans to annex sections of the West Bank on July 1. Trump’s plan, which has been rejected by the Palestinians, would grant them limited statehood, while Israel would annex about 30% of the West Bank.Trump’s likely opponent in the November presidential election, presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden, has voiced opposition to Israel’s annexation plans.As Netanyahu continues to serve as prime minister, he is facing charges of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump has avoided wearing masks, despite his administration recently directing White House staff to wear them, in line with guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For Americans, the decision to mask or not to mask has become a political statement in a brewing coronavirus culture war. White House correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has this story.
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US lawmakers weighed the costs of reopening the American economy Tuesday, asking the nation’s top health experts if the country has the resources to battle the coronavirus while lifting stay at home restrictions. More than two months into stay-at -home orders,  lawmakers are considering yet another massive aid package to address the economic and public health crises and to get the country running again. VOA’s Congressional correspondent Katherine Gypson has more.
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There is another stunning development in the case of President Donald Trump’s former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn.  The federal judge overseeing the case has put the Justice Department’s move to drop the criminal charges against Flynn on hold to give outside legal experts a chance to argue against the department’s decision.  Judge Emmet Sullivan said late Tuesday that “friends of the court” will be able to file briefs and that he will set up a time to hear those arguments “at the appropriate time.”  Sullivan could decide to call witnesses to testify and answer questions about the Justice Department’s extraordinary move last week to drop the charges against Flynn, and possibly reopen the entire case months before a presidential election.  Flynn pleaded guilty to charges of lying to the FBI about his talks with the Russian ambassador to the U.S. about easing U.S. sanctions during the transition period between the Obama and Trump administrations – a crime that carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.  The charges against Flynn were part of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.Former special counsel Robert Mueller, checks pages in the report as he testifies before the House Judiciary Committee hearing on his report on Russian election interference, on Capitol Hill, July 24, 2019 in Washington.Sullivan told Flynn at his 2018 sentencing that lying to the FBI was a “very serious offense.”  Flynn initially said he was guilty, that no one had talked him into admitting his crime and that he had no intention of taking back his plea. But as his sentencing day approached, Flynn appealed to the court for a postponement, claiming that prosecutors set him up.  The Justice Department, led by Attorney General William Barr, shocked and angered the legal community last week when it said the case against Flynn should be dropped. Barr said the lies that Flynn told investigators were immaterial to Mueller’s overall probe.  Others in the Justice Department contended that Flynn never should have been investigated in the first place. The decision opened the floodgates of criticism of Barr and the Justice Department that it is politically motivated and carrying out Trump’s wishes. Barr told CBS that politics had nothing to do with it, saying “A crime cannot be established here. They (the FBI) did not have a basis for a counterintelligence investigation against Flynn at that stage.” There has been no reaction to Sullivan’s decision so far from Barr or the White House. 
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Chinese investment in the U.S. in 2019 dropped to its lowest level in a decade, a new report estimates, reflecting trade tensions between the world’s top two economies even before the coronavirus pandemic took hold.The U.S.-China “Phase One” trade agreement had paved the way for more investment this year, but the COVID-19 pandemic has changed that outlook, said the report released Monday by the independent Rhodium Group and the National Committee on United States-China Relations.In the past year, Chinese direct investment has been flowing to the U.S. on average of about $2 billion every three months. The group said that figure plummeted to $200 million in the first quarter of 2020, which is almost a complete halt. A recovery is likely in the second half of the year, but the full-year numbers are expected to show the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.FILE – President Donald Trump shakes hands with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, after signing a trade agreement in the East Room of the White House, Jan. 15, 2020.Also during the past three months, U.S. firms announced $2.3 billion in new direct investment projects in China. That is down slightly compared to a quarterly average of $2.8 billion in 2019. The report said that so far, most U.S. businesses in China have not made major changes to their operations there.The COVID-19 pandemic led to the exposure of the vulnerability of the global supply chain, which could lead U.S. companies to move more manufacturing capacity out of China. But at the same time, localization of operations could lead to more investment, according to the report.Venture capital saw a steep drop in 2019 as China’s overheated technology market corrected sharply and U.S. regulators were given the mandate to scrutinize early-stage high-tech deals.The trajectory of broader bilateral relations remains important: Coming off the “Phase One” agreement, the COVID-19 crisis presented an opportunity for the U.S. and China to work together on crisis mitigation and scientific solutions to end the virus spread, said the report.However, it warned that intensifying economic competition and a systemic battle of political systems continue to weigh on the relationship as governments blame each other for their struggles.”Our two countries are still far from decoupled, but the trend lines are not pointing in the right direction,” Stephen A. Orlins, president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, said in a statement. 
 
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President Donald Trump’s years-long refusal to release his tax records came before the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday as justices weighed whether Congress and local prosecutors have the authority to investigate a sitting president.The justices heard oral arguments in two high-profile cases involving subpoenas for Trump’s tax and other financial records issued by three House of Representatives committees and New York City’s top prosecutor to Trump’s accounting firm and banks.Trump, who has doggedly refused to make his taxes public, sought to block the financial institutions from turning over the documents to the investigators, but federal courts in New York and Washington ruled against him last year, prompting Trump’s lawyers to appeal the decisions to the Supreme Court.Three House panels have been investigating Trump and his businesses for the past year. They say they need the information as part of their work. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. wants the records as part of a grand jury investigation of hush money payments Trump’s former fixer made to two women during the 2016 election.President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House, May 11, 2020.This is the third time in nearly 50 years that the high court has considered whether a sitting president must comply with a legal request for documents.In the two previous cases — United States v. Nixon in 1973, and Clinton v. Jones in 1997 — the court unanimously ruled against presidents Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton, respectively.But the high court has taken an ideological turn to the right after Trump appointed conservatives to the bench, raising the likelihood of a split decision, seen in a string of victories the court has handed the president.”My takeaway is that a majority of the justices were troubled by the breadth of the subpoena issued by Congress,” said Saikrishna Prakash, a professor of law at the University of Virginia.The justices offered few clues about how they will come down, reflecting the need to balance competing interests between the various branches of governments.The justices’ questions, however, sparked speculation among some court watchers that instead of ruling for or against Trump, the court will tighten presidential subpoena standards and send one or both cases back to the lower courts to decide.The over three-hours-long argument in the penultimate case of the court’s current term was conducted by teleconference and livestreamed, as justices and lawyers who were sheltering at home during the coronavirus pandemic phoned in.A decision in the cases is expected in the coming weeks just as Trump and the presumptive Democratic nominee, former Vice President Joe Biden, gear up for the party conventions ahead of the November presidential election.The court’s decision carries significant implications for separation of powers. In a polarized political environment, depending on the outcome, it could either strengthen the institution of the presidency or the Congress. “If they rule in the president’s favor, in either case, it’ll make it harder for people to investigate the president,” Prakash said.While similar in scope, the two cases touched on different constitutional questions.Separation of powersThe first case, involving House subpoenas issued to global accounting firm Mazars USA, Capital One and Germany’s Deutsche Bank, revolves around the question of separation of powers and congressional power to investigate a president.Contending that the House subpoenas served no substantial “legislative purpose,” Trump lawyer Patrick Strawbridge said that congressional investigators should not be given a “blank check” to investigate the president.FILE – Justice Neil Gorsuch speaks during an interview in his chambers at the Supreme Court in Washington, Sept. 4, 2019.Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, asked Trump’s lawyer why the House subpoena is not backed by a legitimate legislative purpose.Strawbridge responded in part by arguing that the House has not explained how the requested documents dating back more than a decade have “anything to do with some purpose that would actually be permissible legislation.” Douglas Letter, the chief House counsel, said there is a long history of American presidents going back to George Washington responding to congressional requests for information. He argued that Congress could seek information from the president related to any legislation but struggled when asked about limits on subpoena powers.Presidential immunityThe second case — a subpoena for Trump’s taxes and business records issued by a New York grand jury — concerns presidential immunity from prosecution and whether local prosecutors can investigate a sitting president.Jay Sekulow, another Trump lawyer, argued that the president enjoys “temporary constitutional immunity” from prosecution while in office and that the New York district attorney has no authority to subpoena Trump.If the subpoena is allowed to stand, he said, it would allow any of the 2,300 district attorneys around the country to “harass, distract and interfere with the sitting president.”Carey Dunne, the general counsel for the Manhattan district attorney, countered that presidents, while immune from criminal prosecution, are not excused from responding to a subpoena. In addition, Dunne said, the information his office is seeking predates Trump’s presidential term and is not protected by executive privilege.There “is a risk that American presidents and third parties unwittingly could end up above the law,” Dunne said. 
 
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Princeton University has announced its first black valedictorian in the Ivy League school’s history.  Salutatorian Grace Sommer of New Jersey. (Courtesy – Princeton University)Sommers will be continuing her studies at Princeton in the fall entering the Ph.D. program. Sommers is also seeking certificates in applications of computing, applied and computational mathematics, and Ancient Rome language and culture.  Along with her academic achievements Sommers is also a member of Butler College and received the Freshman First Honor Prize and the George B. Wood Legacy Sophomore Prize.  Sommer is also a participant in Undergraduate Women in Physics and the Princeton Society of Physics Students.“Congratulations again to Phi Beta Kappa members @NickAGJohnson and Grace Sommers on being named @Princeton’s 2020 valedictorian and salutatorian!” tweeted @PhiBetaKappa about Sommers and Johnson.Congratulations again to Phi Beta Kappa members @NickAGJohnson and Grace Sommers on being named @Princeton’s 2020 valedictorian and salutatorian! Johnson is also the first black valedictorian in Princeton’s history. https://t.co/42M7fzOxBL— Phi Beta Kappa (@PhiBetaKappa) May 11, 2020Although students will not have an in-person graduation this year, the university will hold a virtual commencement and an in-person ceremony will take place next year.
 
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Some American states are holding special elections and primaries during the pandemic. Worries about the possible health risks of standing in line to vote at polling places is making the vote by mail option more appealing to some voters.  These are the requirements to vote by mail in the U.S. 
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U.S. consumer prices dropped by the most since the Great Recession in April, weighed down by a plunge in demand for gasoline and services including airline travel as people stayed home during the coronavirus crisis.
 
The Labor Department said on Tuesday its consumer price index tumbled 0.8% last month after falling 0.4% in March. That was the largest decline since December 2008 when the economy was in the throes of a recession, and marked the second straight monthly decrease in the CPI.
 
In the 12 months through April, the CPI gained 0.3% after increasing 1.5% in March.
 
Economists polled by Reuters had forecast the CPI falling 0.8% in April and rising 0.4% year-on-year.
 
The Labor Department said in-store data collection has been suspended since March 16, because of risks of exposure to COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the coronavirus.
 
The department added that data collection last month was also impacted “by the temporary closing or limited operations of certain types of establishments,” leading to “an increase in the number of prices being considered temporarily unavailable and imputed.” That resulted in many indexes being based on smaller amounts of collected prices than usual, and a small number of indexes that are normally published were not published in April
 
Excluding the volatile food and energy components, the CPI dropped 0.4% in April, the largest decline since the series started in 1957. The so-called core CPI dipped 0.1% in March, which was the first drop since January 2010.
 
In the 12 months through April, the core CPI rose 1.4% after advancing 2.1% in March.
 
The Federal Reserve tracks the core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index for its 2% inflation target. The core PCE price index increased 1.7% year-on-year in March after rising 1.8% in February. April’s core PCE price index data will be released at the end of the month. (Reporting by Lucia Mutikani; Editing by Andrew Heavens and Andrea Ricci)
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The Trump administration is pressing a board charged with overseeing billions in federal retirement dollars to halt plans to invest in Chinese companies that Washington suspects of abusing human rights or threatening U.S. security.
 
On Monday, U.S. National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien and White House Economic Advisor Larry Kudlow sent a letter to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia opposing plans by the Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board (FRTIB) to allow a pension fund it oversees to track an index that includes some China-based stocks of companies under scrutiny in Washington.
 
The same day, Scalia wrote to Board Chair Michael Kennedy, urging him to “halt all steps” associated with the investment change, according to documents seen by Reuters and previously reported by Bloomberg and Fox Business News.
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Twenty-year-old Leo Canty says he was worried less about himself and more about the people around him when he tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus, in late March.“The scariest part was that thought in my mind, that like hurting someone else, hoping that people I’ve been in contact with, specifically my family, were all OK,” the New York college student said via Skype from his home in Washington.Canty lives with his parents and three siblings in the home, where he quarantined himself in his room. His mother, Michelle Cochran, also tested positive in early April.“We were all quarantined to the house for two weeks. It was about four weeks, of all us inside the house, all the time, in different quarantines,” she said.Leo and his mother, Michelle Cochran. (Photo courtesy Canty family)Social distancing at homeCochran, a nurse practitioner, says she is certain she was not infected by her son but was exposed to the virus elsewhere, noting she tested negative for the virus after her son tested positive. Her employer wanted her to be tested before she could come back to work as well. And when her son Leo was recovering, her results came back positive.During that time, to keep the rest of the family safe, the Canty family practiced strict social distancing at home. Cochran was confined to her room for almost two weeks, until she felt better, and seeing her family only through Zoom meetings.  At the same time her son Leo was quarantined in his room, while the rest of the family avoided physical contact like handshakes and hugs.  “A terrible feeling to feel like you are kind of toxic and that you could infect your loved ones. It’s a really awful feeling,” she said.Leo Canty works in his home lab in Washington. (Photo courtesy Canty family)Plasma donation & antibodies testingCanty tested negative in mid-April. And in early May, he donated his plasma for potential therapy for both prevention and treatment in the fight against the coronavirus.  The college student said he was determined to do this, as health officials and those from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention were in constant contact with him from the beginning.“It seemed selfish not to. If there is any possibility of helping someone like it’s something you got to do. If you can help people, you should, It’s just basic,” he said.Dr. Arturo Casadevall chairs the Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is leading a national effort to test whether the use of blood plasma from recovered patients might help prevent COVID-19 or lessen the chance of progression to this severe disease.“Antibodies recovered from COVID-19 patients might be a potential therapy for both prevention and treatment in the fight against coronavirus until a vaccine becomes available”, said Dr. Casadevall during an online briefing  What are antibodies?Antibodies are specialized proteins in the blood that are produced by the body’s immune system to help fight off a new infection. These proteins bind to the invading foreign bacteria or virus, then neutralize, destroy and ultimately remove it from the body.  What is plasma?Blood plasma is the liquid part of blood, where antibodies can be found.“So, if I was to take a sample of your blood, in it you got red cells, you got white cells, you got platelets, and they’re floating on liquid. The liquid is the plasma. And that’s where the antibodies are. The antibodies are floating in the liquid,” said Casadevall.Sorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
Leo Canty with his siblings at their home in Washington. (Photo courtesy Canty family)Good news Cochran is a registered bone marrow donor and all her children are blood donors. She says she wants to find out if anyone else in the family has antibodies so that person can donate his or her plasma for research.The Canty family says they are happy they were able to help by providing Leo’s plasma, and that everyone is doing okay now.“I feel incredibly fortunate that, knock on wood, we both recovered and nobody else has gotten sick,” his mother said with a smile on her face.  Leo’s father, Brendan Canty, says the experience has brought the family together.  “I think ultimately the experience probably will make us a much tighter family. It’s something that I have never expected to have – this much time together.”
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Doctors and medical researchers are studying whether antibodies in plasma from recovered COVID-19 patients are effective in treating the disease until a vaccine against the virus becomes available. A family in America’s capital that has recovered from COVID-19 is now helping to make a difference by donating plasma for research. VOA’s Saqib Ul Islam has the story.
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