Month: July 2020
Top State Stories 7/31
FL: Third record day in a row for Florida deaths miamiherald.com Florida’s Department of Health confirmed 253 resident deaths, breaking a fatality record for the third day in a row. The statewide resident death toll is now at 6,586. WI: Wisconsin governor issues a statewide mandate to wear masks indoors through the end of September […]
Patients Fled Primary Care During COVID-19
Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus. If Dr. Erica Swegler, a solo primary care doctor in Austin, Texas, hadn’t gotten her bank to delay payments on one of the loans she had taken out to open her practice five years ago, she said, “I would have been out of business in […]
Top State Stories 7/30
OR: Oregon’s governor announces phased withdrawal of federal officers from Portland oregonlive.com Oregon Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat, announced that federal officers will start pulling out of Portland in a phased withdrawal and state troopers will arrive instead to help safeguard the federal courthouse downtown that has become a national symbol of political conflict. Brown […]
Searing Heat Will Make COVID-19 Racial Disparities Worse
Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus. Scientists say the nation is experiencing another public health emergency that will further exacerbate the coronavirus crisis: extreme heat. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is predicting the next three months will be hotter than normal for much of the country; 2020, it says, likely […]
Nevada, Virginia See Unemployment Spikes
Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus. Nevada, Virginia and New Mexico are seeing the biggest jumps in new unemployment claims as a new wave of closings prompts more layoffs, according to figures released today by the Department of Labor for the week ending July 25. Nevada claims rose almost 50% in […]
Top State Stories 7/29
NJ, NY, CT: New Jersey, New York, Connecticut quarantine expands to 34 states nj.com New Jersey, New York and Connecticut added three states to their coronavirus quarantine travel advisory, bringing the list to 34 states that qualify as COVID-19 hotspots. The three new states are Illinois, Kentucky and Minnesota. They also added Washington, D.C. SD: […]
Virtual Learning Means Unequal Learning
Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus. Karen Reyes, who teaches deaf and hard-of-hearing children in Austin, Texas, worries about her first-grade pupils who will be learning online this fall. She’s concerned that virtual learning is harder for younger, special needs children, especially those who may not have as much support at […]
Top State Stories 7/28
IA: Iowa physician groups urge governor to order public to wear masks desmoinesregister.com Groups representing thousands of Iowa physicians and other medical professionals urged Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds to require mask-wearing to help slow the coronavirus pandemic. KY: Kentucky governor orders bars to close, restaurants to reduce capacity courier-journal.com After a series of COVID-19 case […]
Advocates Rally to Tear Down Highways That Bulldozed Black Neighborhoods
As protesters in cities from Richmond, Virginia, to San Francisco toppled statues last month, urban planner Amy Stelly allowed herself to hope that New Orleans might soon fell its own worst “racist monument.” For much of her life, Stelly, who is Black, has lived in the shadow of the Claiborne expressway, an elevated freeway built […]
States Use COVID-19 Relief Dollars to Hold Down Business Taxes
Read Stateline coverage of the latest state action on coronavirus. Governors and lawmakers in at least eight states have used millions of federal coronavirus relief dollars to protect businesses from tax increases as unemployment skyrockets. They’re pushing relief dollars into unemployment insurance trust funds, which are funded by business taxes and pay out benefits to […]
Top State Stories 7/27
FL: Florida cases surpass New York tampabay.com The number of Florida coronavirus infections and deaths showed little sign of slowing Sunday as the state surpassed New York for the second-highest number of confirmed cases in the United States. Only California, with a population nearly twice as high as Florida’s, has more cases. TX: Texas virus […]
Top State Stories 7/24
WI: Trump to send federal agents to Wisconsin city in anti-violent-crime effort; Move opposed by some state, local officials jsonline.com Wisconsin will see a surge in federal resources to address violent crime in coming weeks, President Donald Trump announced. The influx of federal officers will coincide with Milwaukee hosting a scaled-back, mostly virtual Democratic National […]