$2.2 trillion U.S. rescue bill signed; NYC nurse dies of virus, some blame lack of supplies; Gig workers to see relief; British PM isolates self after testing positive; G20 Summit goes virtual
NewsHero - March 27, 2020 - Issue 64
Welcome to today’s edition of NewsHero for March 27, 2020.
For the foreseeable future, our newsletter will be made fully accessible to all readers. We hope you’ll take advantage of the resources provided here as we all do our best to absorb the continually developing information on the coronavirus crisis. Also, we hope you enjoy our usual take on happenings from around the globe, and consider joining up with us in the near future.
At NewsHero we put the heroes in the headlines and give them the attention in our coverage that they deserve. Here you’ll find the same high priority news, but you’ll get it without clickbait and it won’t be driven by ad sales. You’ll also get it with the focus on those who are helping, not causing harm.
Our heroes are identified as follows:
🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, hands down. - Meaning that it wasn’t even a close call.
🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, but… - Meaning that in this situation the call needed to be looked at in a little more detail. For example, in this case, they did the right thing but there have been some questionable calls in the past.
🦸♀️ - the hero, but only here, and it was a close call. - Meaning that in this instance they did the right thing but it was either out of character or a maddeningly close call.
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Wishing you health and safety!
NewsHero Notes
Educators in Sobral - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
The city of Sobral in northeast Brazil has become one of the best places there to get an education, topping a district of 5,000 in the country’s education development index. It also happens to be one of the country’s poorest cities. Their success is now being replicated all over, reports The Guardian.
The Wing - 🦸♀️
According to The New York Times, the leaders of a far-right group inside Germany’s right-wing populist opposition, known as The Wing, have asked the group’s members to “cease their activities,” an apparent surrender that experts say could more likely be a tactical move.
Afternoon Brief
Betsy DeVos - 🦸♀️
The Department of Education announced Thursday that Penn State University will be required to make major changes to how it deals with sexual assault complaints following an investigation of the school’s handling of allegations in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal.
U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos detailed how the university will be held accountable through a major overhaul of its Title IX procedures after it “failed to protect students and address their complaints of sexual abuse.”
“As I’ve said before, ‘justice delayed is justice denied,’ and for too long the students of Penn State have been denied justice,” DeVos said in a release Thursday.
The university will also have to revise its record keeping practices in an effort to ensure proper procedures and documentation is taken and reported to the Office for Civil Rights for all Title IX complaints from the last two school years.
“Given all of the attention that Penn State has faced in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky scandal, it is disappointing that so many serious problems have remained at that university system,” Kenneth Marcus, head of the Office for Civil Rights, said in a statement.
Gig workers - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Workers in the gig economy are finally getting government support to help them cope with the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus crisis, reports CNN.
In the U.S., the federal government is poised to extend unemployment insurance payments to gig economy workers for up to 39 weeks, and top them up by an extra $600 a week, as part of a $2 trillion economic stimulus package.
The UK government on Thursday unveiled what finance minister Rishi Sunak described as “one of the most generous” support programs anywhere in the world for Britain's 5 million self-employed workers.
The State Department - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
The U.S. government on Thursday indicted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and more than a dozen other top Venezuelan officials on charges of “narco-terrorism,” the latest escalation of the Trump administration’s pressure campaign aimed at ousting the socialist leader.
The State Department offered a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest of Maduro, whose country has been hurt by years of a deep economic crisis and political upheaval.
Attorney General William Barr, announcing charges that include narco-terrorism conspiracy, corruption and drug trafficking, accused Maduro and his associates of colluding with a dissident faction of the demobilized Colombian guerrilla group, the FARC, “to flood the United States with cocaine.”
“You are a miserable person, Donald Trump,” Maduro said in a state television address during which he dismissed the charges as false and racist. Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza said the charges were aimed at benefiting Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign.
$2.2 Trillion US Economic Rescue Bill Signed Into Law
NYC hospital nurse dies of coronavirus; some blame lack of protective equipment
A native of Michigan, Kious Kelly moved to New York over 20 years ago to pursue a career as a dancer. (NY Times)
NewsHero is continuing to offer a compilation of stories and resources that best represent the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, centered on those individuals, institutions, and organizations stepping up to end this crisis as quickly and effectively as possible. The public, too, has a duty. This includes staying responsibly informed and taking the situation seriously, while remaining as cool-headed and as isolated as possible. These are strange and difficult times, but we will endure.
Kious Kelly, a 48-year-old assistant nurse manager at Mount Sinai West in Manhattan, texted his sister on March 18 that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and was on a ventilator in the intensive care unit. Kelly died less than a week later. He may have been the first New York City nurse to die from the virus. The New York Times reports that angry co-workers blame a lack of protective gear.
Donald Trump signed an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package into law today, after swift and near-unanimous action by Congress to support businesses, rush resources to overburdened health care providers and help struggling families during the deepening coronavirus epidemic.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has tested positive for the coronavirus and is self-isolating at his Downing Street residence but said he would still lead the government’s response to the accelerating outbreak.
Thursday’s virtual meeting of the Group of 20 nations, with more than a dozen heads of state participating, was less a global summit and more of a high-powered conference call. It lasted about 90 minutes instead of the usual, more languid two days.
A new fund that aims to help nonprofit organizations providing services in response to the new coronavirus was unveiled Thursday by Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who said the effort will be led by his sister, former U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, reports the Chicago Tribune.
Medical workers carried COVID-19 patients aboard the train on stretchers. (JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER/Getty Images)
A story from Wired tells of how France’s national railroad system converted a TGV high-speed train to move 20 COVID-19 patients from Strasbourg to calmer hospitals in the Loire Valley.
Thomas M. Siebel, founder and chief executive of C3.ai, an artificial intelligence company in Redwood City, Calif., is teaming up with top universities and companies to see if A.I. can help curb the current and future pandemics, reports The New York Times.
Northern California wholesale restaurant supplier Cheetah is dispatching its fleet of refrigerated trucks to become contactless fulfillment centers during COVID-19 quarantine.
Joseph G. Allen, assistant professor of exposure and assessment science and director of the Healthy Buildings Program at Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, breaks down why we shouldn’t panic over shopping, getting delivery or accepting packages in The Washington Post.
More than 500,000 volunteers have signed up to support the National Health Service (NHS)—the publicly funded healthcare system of the United Kingdom—in helping vulnerable people who have been told not to leave their homes during the coronavirus crisis.
The Pentagon is striving to deal with the growing toll the coronavirus is taking on the U.S. military, and commanders and senior officials are bracing for worse. From nuclear missile fields at home to war zones abroad, from flight lines to ships at sea, the Pentagon is striving to shield vital missions even as it faces urgent calls for help on the civilian front.
Three migrant children in U.S. government custody have tested positive for coronavirus, according to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, marking the first announced positive cases among children in the agency’s care, CNN reports.
“Nearly 1.5 million N95 respirator masks are sitting in a U.S. government warehouse in Indiana and authorities have not shipped them because they are past their expiration date, despite Centers for Disease Control guidelines that have been issued for their safe use during the coronavirus outbreak, according to five people with knowledge of the stockpile,” reports The Washington Post.
After a hospital put out a call for protective gear, three engineer friends developed a DIY face shield in a few days. Their design is now being manufactured by Ford, says an article in Wired.
Dyson—the U.K. company known best for making vacuums, air purifiers, and hair dryers—is collaborating on a ventilator in coordination with The Technology Partnership (TTP). Dubbed CoVent, it’s a bed-mounted, portable ventilator that can run from battery power in field-hospital conditions, reports Fast Company.
The Ralph Lauren Corporate Foundation announced on Thursday that it will be putting $10 million toward global response efforts to the COVID-19 pandemic and begin the production of masks and isolation gowns amid increased demand for the resources.
The USNS Mercy hospital ship sits at dock before its departure Monday, March 23, 2020, in San Diego. The Navy hospital ship was preparing to leave San Diego on Tuesday and planned to spend a few days at sea getting its newly formed medical team used to working together before arriving to Los Angeles to help the city free up its hospital beds, in efforts to help combat the coronavirus. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Multiple health care workers on Thursday debunked a statement from a White House adviser that the media is overstating the need for personal protective equipment in hospitals amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, says CNN.
The Department of Health and Human Services on Thursday implemented President Trump’s executive order to prevent the hoarding of certain health and medical resources necessary to respond to the coronavirus outbreak.
Brazil’s governors pressed President Jair Bolsonaro on Thursday for more federal support in the coronavirus battle after he blasted them as job-killers and undermined their orders with a decree keeping churches open at evangelical preachers’ request.
“The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” will return with new episodes starting Monday after a two-week production suspension amid New York being declared a state of emergency on March 12 due to the coronavirus crisis. “I’m staying at home and so is everybody who works for me, but thanks to some amazing work by my staff and the CBS broadcasting folks, we will be back on Monday with new Late Shows,” Colbert tweeted Wednesday.
And here is today’s edition of the Corona Daily newsletter to wrap up the week. See you Monday, friends.
Sources:
Far-Right Faction of German Populist Party Vows to Dissolve - The New York Times
'People think it's magic': how one of Brazil's poorest cities gets its best school results - The Guardian
Education Dept. Hits Penn State Again for Sexual Misconduct Procedures - The New York Times
DOE: Penn State violated Title IX after Jerry Sandusky case - AP News
U.S. Department of Education Holds Penn State Accountable for its Failure to Protect Students from Sexual Misconduct, Requires Major Overhaul of Title IX Procedures Following Compliance Review - US Dept. of Education
Help is coming for gig economy workers and small businesses hit by the coronavirus crisis - CNN
"BREAKING: @Postmates worker is employee entitled to #Unemployment Insurance & not "independent contractor." - Terri Gerstein on Twitter
Gig Workers Would Get Unemployment Safety Net In Rescue Package - NPR
U.S. indicts Venezuela's Maduro, a political foe, for 'narco-terrorism' - Reuters
Maduro pushes back on DOJ charges, calls Trump 'racist cowboy' - The Hill
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro threatens Trump in face of drug charges - NY Post
A N.Y. Nurse Dies. Angry Co-Workers Blame a Lack of Protective Gear. - The New York Times
Scrubbing In to Vote, the House Returns to Consider a $2 Trillion Stimulus Plan - The New York Times
House debates $2.2T virus relief bill amid last-minute snag/ - AP News
PM Johnson has coronavirus, self-isolates in Downing Street - Reuters
The UN's War Plan Against the Coronavirus as It Attacks the Globe - PassBlue
Fundraising effort led by Penny Pritzker launched to help nonprofits responding to coronavirus pandemic - Chicago Tribune
France's Virus Train Moves Patients to Less Hard-Hit Areas - Wired
A.I. Versus the Coronavirus - The New York Times
Coronavirus checks, direct deposits are coming. Here's everything you need to know. - NBC News
Cheetah Now Offering Much Needed Food and Supplies at Wholesale Prices to Bay Area Consumers - PRN Newswire
Don’t panic about shopping, getting delivery or accepting packages - The Washington Post
More than 500,000 people sign up to be NHS volunteers - The Guardian
Virus takes toll on US military as it tries to aid civilians - AP News
Three migrant children in US government custody test positive for coronavirus - CNN
The G20 video call: In virus era, even summits are virtual - AP News
World leaders to meet virtually to coordinate coronavirus response - Fox News
U.S. government has 1.5 million expired N95 masks sitting in an Indiana warehouse - The Washington Post
Engineers Made a DIY Face Shield. Now It's Helping Doctors - Wired
Dyson is building 15,000 ventilators to fight COVID-19 - Fast Company
Ralph Lauren pledges $10M to global coronavirus efforts, will produce gowns and masks - The Hill
Doctors disagree with White House adviser's statement that media is hyping need for protective equipment - CNN
HHS implements anti-price gouging order amid coronavirus outbreak - Fox News
‘The Late Show with Stephen Colbert’ returns to late night television — working remotely - NY Daily News
How US governors are fighting coronavirus – and Donald Trump - The Guardian
Brazil's governors press Bolsonaro for more coronavirus support - Reuters
Republicans are using the pandemic to push anti-abortion and anti-trans agendas - Vox
No more coffee and cakes: London cafe owner rushes to help health service - Reuters
Tourist pub in Thailand turns into free kitchen for jobless due to coronavirus - Reuters