The Majority Institute April 11, 2020

TMI and COVID-19

We hope you, your families, colleagues and members continue to be safe and healthy during this difficult time. All three of us are under shelter-in-place orders, but our work continues .  Although much of the news is bleak, there are a few bright spots in the news about pollution rates and air quality:

Himalayan Mountaintops Visible for the First Time in 30... As more and more global communities enforce stay-at-home orders and social restrictions, rates of air pollution have plummeted. Read more www.goodnewsnetwork.org

If you need to mail anything to us, please reach out to us so we can provide a home address and do our part to flatten the curve.   Should you have any questions for us, please feel to reach out. Rick, Jon and Anne rick@majorityinstitute.com jon@majorityinstitute.com anne@majorityinstitute.com

Subscriber News:

At least 15 million have lost their jobs, overwhelming... New unemployment benefits claims in March exceeded 15 million, total, the federal government's Bureau of Economic Analysis said on April 9. That's because there were another 6.61 million claims in the week ending March 28. And the only ... Read more peoplesworld.org

Some Maine state workers get a boost in hazard pay "We are extremely grateful to Governor Mills for taking this immediate action," said AFSCME Council 93 Executive Director Mark Bernard. "Most people in the country are safe at home but our mental health workers and corrections officers ... Read more www.wmtw.com

How online learning may be more than a stopgap in the US This is part of the reason why Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, believes the pandemic will push schools in the opposite direction. “People thought, ‘Online. It’s going to replace teaching and learning.’ ... Read more www.csmonitor.com

Let America Vote Launches Program to Ensure Voting is... SAFE Democracy Program calls on every state to provide no-excuse vote-by-mail option and extended early in-person voting Also calls on Congress to provide funding for states to make voting safe, accessible, and fair Today, Let America Vote (LAV)... Read more endcitizensunited.org

Study: Methane emissions in Permian likely higher than... "The Permian is one of the hottest oil and gas basins in the world, but there's very little methane data," said David Lyon, an EDF scientist who works on the Permian MAP Project. "Many drilling areas are quite remote, so there tends to be pretty... Read more www.abqjournal.com

Climate's on back burner, but advocates see COVID-19... As with climate change, scientists were mocked and early warning signs were dismissed as hoaxes, said Pete Maysmith, senior vice president of campaigns at the League of Conservation Voters. Read more www.rollcall.com

How Innovative Educators Are Engaging Students Online -... When governors and state superintendents closed schools because of the coronavirus, it took teachers and faculty a matter of days-and in many cases a few hours-to move their classes online. Despite the differences between online learning and... Read more neatoday.org

California's Largest Union SEIU 2015 Calls on Federal... April Verrett, president of Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 2015, the nation’s largest long-term care union representing 400,000 nursing home and home care workers throughout California, began the call with an urgent call to ... Read more lasentinel.net

National News & Opinion:

Public Holds Broadly Favorable Views of Many Federal... Republicans' ratings of several agencies rise As the United States confronts the coronavirus outbreak, Americans continue to rate a wide range of federal agencies favorably, including two at the forefront of dealing with COVID-19: the Centers for ... Read more www.people-press.org

U.S. Latinos among hardest hit by pay cuts, job losses... Hispanics are more likely than Americans overall to say they or someone in their household has experienced a pay cut or lost their job because of the coronavirus outbreak, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted March 19-24. Read more www.pewresearch.org

Federal Support Ends For Coronavirus Testing Sites As... Some coronavirus testing sites around the U.S. plan to close as the federal government ends support for them on Friday. In the Philadelphia suburbs, Montgomery County has a drive-through site that has tested 250 people a day since March 21. "It... Read more www.npr.org

Column: Americans were naive to think the coronavirus... Everyone should have known that the coronavirus would come for African Americans ferociously. In this country, black people dwell at the top of the list of everything that is harmful and at the bottom of nearly all that is good. That's the... Read more www.chicagotribune.com

Stop covid or save the economy? We can do both In the first employment report after social distancing measures had taken hold in many US states, the Department of Labor announced that 3.3 million people had filed jobless claims. A week later, in the first week in April, an additional 6.6... Read more www.technologyreview.com

The coronavirus recession is unlike any economic... The coronavirus pandemic is putting an end to the longest economic expansion in U.S. history. After expanding for a record 126 months as of December, economists now predict GDP growth will plummet in the first and second quarters of the year as... Read more www.cnbc.com

Democratic Senators Demand Answers on Trump's Secretive... Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are demanding information about what they call an "unprecedented expansion of executive power" by the Trump administration at the the U.S.-Mexico border, after a ProPublica story revealed how... Read more www.propublica.org

Failing small business The coronavirus pandemic has devastated millions of small businesses. An April 3 survey found that 24% of small businesses have already temporarily shut down. Among those businesses still open, "40% report it is likely they will shut temporarily... Read more popular.info

2020 Election News & Opinion:

In Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, Republicans will... It's become fairly common in the 21st century to talk about "a life-and-death election," and the performance of President Trump these recent months as the coronavirus crisis came to America proves that's not always hyperbole. But as I write this... Read more www.inquirer.com

Bernie Sanders and the Promised Land For half a decade and counting, American politics has been dominated by the ideas, personalities, and followings of two geriatric outer-borough New Yorkers. Read more www.newyorker.com

Sherrod Brown on the influence of Bernie Sanders'... Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders suspended his campaign for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on Wednesday after enduring a series of disappointing results in state primary elections. But many of the positions on which Sanders campaigned... Read more www.pbs.org

Parkland father: Only Joe Biden has the ability now to... The current occupant of the White House ignored warnings from experts. He has refused to listen to scientists and doctors. He has failed to act. And now, the U.S. death toll of the coronavirus pandemic climbs exponentially with each day that passes. Read more www.newsweek.com

This is what it looks like when Republicans use a... For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters. On Monday, Wisconsin's Republican-controlled Supreme Court struck down an emergency order from Democratic Gov. Tony Evers to suspend in-person ... Read more www.motherjones.com

Inside Brad Parscale's 2020 plan: Reelect Donald Trump.... For indispensable reporting on the coronavirus crisis and more, subscribe to Mother Jones' newsletters. On the night of the 2020 Iowa caucuses, Brad Parscale, President Trump's campaign manager and technology guru, arrived at an elementary school ... Read more www.motherjones.com

How to save the 2020 election It is not too early to plan for how to conduct the 2020 presidential election in the event that today's pandemic still requires Americans to stay at home. Tuesday's primary in Wisconsin demonstrates that business as usual simply will not do. Read more thehill.com

Democrats should make voting reform a nonnegotiable... The political climate in the US is tumultuous. The Covid-19 pandemic hangs over everything even as a dozen other issues - an oil crisis, a divided Democratic Party, and a corrupt, impeached president - compete for our scant remaining attention. Read more www.vox.com

State News & Opinion:

AZ - GOP senator caught lying about her efforts to take... Sen. Martha McSally claimed to support protections for people with preexisting conditions despite voting against them. During an April 2 tele-town hall, Sen. Martha McSally (R-AZ) lied about supporting protections for people with preexisting... Read more americanindependent.com

CA - Court Leaders Suspend Evictions Amid Pandemic ... The rule will remain in place for up to 90 days after Newsom lifts the state's emergency declaration that he issued in early March. The council, the rule-making arm of the judicial system, also set bail statewide at $0 for misdemeanors and... Read more www.kqed.org

CO - Trump says he only gave Colo. 1% of the ventilators... President Donald Trump was accused of political favoritism in the administration's coronavirus response after only sending a fraction of the ventilators sought by Colorado's Democratic governor "at the request" of the state's Republican senator.... Read more www.salon.com

FL - Medicaid debate recharged amid coronavirus... Florida spends a little less than $9 billion in state funds each year on Medicaid. It spends $14 billion in federal dollars. By comparison New York, an early expansion state with a comparable population, spends $34.2 billion in state and $40.6... Read more www.tampabay.com

GA - Democrats launch program to boost vote-by-mail With the coronavirus crisis throwing Georgia's election calendar into disarray, Democrats are preparing to launch an aggressive texting campaign to encourage voters to cast their ballots by mail. The Democratic Party of Georgia and the Democratic ... Read more www.ajc.com

IL - Judge Says Cook County Doesn't Have To Release ... A federal judge ruled Thursday that Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart does not have to grant the immediate mass release of people from the county jail to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the facility, but U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly did... Read more www.wbez.org

IA - Democratic Party county conventions to be held remotely The Iowa Democratic Party on Wednesday announced it will hold its county conventions this monthly remotely because of the pandemic. Officials said that county party leaders have been briefed on options on how to hold their convention and receive... Read more fox42kptm.com

KY - Beshear vetoes voter ID bill, says it would 'create ... Lexington polling place File photo Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear on Friday vetoed a controversial bill that would have required people to show photo identification before they could vote in Kentucky elections. In his veto message, Beshear wrote... Read more www.kentucky.com

ME - Mills eliminates 'subminimum wage' for people with... A new law will eliminate subminimum wages for people with disabilities in Maine. On March 18, Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill, sponsored by Assistant House Majority Leader Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, forbidding employers from paying workers less... Read more bangordailynews.com

MI - Benson, election chiefs push for mail-in voting amid... Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson and two of her national colleagues on Wednesday pointed to voting by mail as the way to ensure the right to vote during the COVID-19 crisis. "That, to me, is the best way of making sure our voter rolls... Read more www.michiganadvance.com

MN - DFL Legislators Announce Plan to Protect Elections ... Today, Representative Jamie Long, Senator Nick Frentz, and DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin announced their "Defending Democracy" plan, a set of legislative proposals designed to ensure that all eligible voters can safely cast ballots during the... Read more www.dfl.org

MO - Health Care Workers Lack Legal Protections For... With COVID-19 cases yet to peak locally, health care workers on the front lines of the growing outbreak face the possibility of having to make excruciating decisions about who gets care and who doesn't. And in Missouri at least, doctors, nurses... Read more www.kcur.org

MT - How Do You Fight Wildfires While Social Distancing?... Traditional wildland firefighting is defined by women and men working, eating and sleeping shoulder to shoulder for days on end. That close-quarters work could endanger firefighters during the ongoing pandemic. Edward O'Brien reports on how... Read more www.mtpr.org

NV - Supreme Court orders significant limits on cash bail In a 6-1 ruling published Thursday, justices authored a majority opinion that created a new three-tiered process for lower-court judges and prosecutors to follow before requiring a person to pay cash bail in order to be released before trial. It... Read more thenevadaindependent.com

NH - Superior Court judge strikes down SB 3 voting... A 2017 Republican-authored law that tightened the identification requirements for registering to vote and ultimately voting in New Hampshire was struck down as unconstitutional by a Superior Court judge in a ruling made public Thursday. Read more www.wmur.com

NM - Democratic leaders at forefront of virus... Over the last several weeks, the Democratic Party of New Mexico has heard from countless New Mexicans who want to know what they can do to support their communities during the coronavirus outbreak. I'm so proud to have seen so many of our friends ... Read more www.abqjournal.com

NC - Lawsuit seeks to ease new limits on voting by mail Calls have grown louder for states to allow more voting by mail as the coronavirus pandemic spreads. Read more www.facingsouth.org

OH - Despite Trump's claims, officials say Ohio's mail-in... With in-person voting an untenable option during the ongoing health pandemic, Ohioans will instead vote by mail this month as part of an "extended" primary election. Citizens still have a few more weeks - through April 28 - to apply for an... Read more ohiocapitaljournal.com

PA - House Dems join Gov. Wolf to get vital funding to... House Democrats supported action by the Pennsylvania Infrastructure Investment Authority to deliver up to $450 million in immediate financial relief to the state's hospitals caring for people during the COVID-19 crisis.... Read more www.abc27.com

TN - For Nashville's Homeless, Finding A Hot Meal Is ... Typically in Nashville, nearly a dozen group meals are available every day for people who are homeless. But COVID-19 has changed everything. During social distancing, major shelters remain open, but many of the standalone meals have closed. Read more wpln.org

TX - Legal Fight Heats Up In Texas Over Ban On Abortions ... Governors across the country are banning elective surgery as a means of halting the spread of the coronavirus. But in a handful of states that ban is being extended to include a ban on all abortions. So far the courts have intervened to keep most ... Read more www.npr.org

WI - Democrats introduce bill that would move all... Just two days after thousands in Wisconsin cast their ballots in person amid the coronavirus pandemic and confusion bloomed over the state of some absentee ballots, Democrats say the bill will "preserve voter rights while keeping voters and poll... Read more www.tmj4.com

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