- Fauci says opening too soon may cause says ‘spikes’ leading to larger outbreaks
- Analysis shows thousands in US getting Covid-19 at work
- Pence will avoid close contact with Trump
- The race for a vaccine: how Trump’s ‘America First’ approach slows the global search
- Coronavirus – latest global updates
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Updated
Photograph: REX/Shutterstock
22:45
Fauci, Redfield and Hahn will return to the White House for meetings as needed
21:08
Los Angeles County ‘with all certainty’ will keep stay-at-home orders in place through July
20:38
Woman at center of Supreme Court case dies
19:42
Coronavirus task force update
18:57
Pelosi reveals $3tn House stimulus bill
18:27
GOP’s Romney slams US testing record
18:03
CDC admits the US missed chance to contain Covid-19
22:45
Fauci, Redfield and Hahn will return to the White House for meetings as needed
22:32
22:17
California is loosening its stay-at-home order for counties that meet certain criteria in containing the virus, allowing them to reopen some offices, schools and dine-in restaurants, governor Gavin Newsom announced Tuesday.
As of Tuesday morning, only the rural counties of Butte, north of Sacramento, and El Dorado, south of Tahoe National Forest, have gotten state approval to reopen more of their economy, but Newsom predicted that at least two more would receive the go-ahead by the end of the day.
Butte county has a population of about 219,000 and El Dorado county has a population of about 193,000. Butte has had a total of 20 cases and El Dorado has had a total of 56. Both counties had to file attestments that they met the state’s readiness criteria.
The debate around local variance to modifications to the stay-at-home order has raged around the state even before Newsom brought California into phase two of the crisis on 8 May and reopened 70% of its economy under certain guidelines. It once again highlights the difficulties that come with governing a state as large and varied as California. While rural counties that have not seen high rates of infection argue that they could loosen up restrictions before the rest of the state, harder hit regions are adhering to stricter measures than the state’s order, much to the dismay of business owners like Elon Musk.
Los Angeles county’s stay-at-home order, for example, will “with all certainty”be extended through July. Los Angeles has had 32,258 positive cases and 1,569 deaths – more than half the deaths in the entire state.
22:03
Afternoon summary
21:51
The big case before the Supreme Court
Oral arguments today in the big case about Donald Trump’s tax returns were somewhat overshadowed by the illuminating hearing on public health in the Senate.
But Reuters has published a useful wrap on the case.
In a major showdown over presidential powers, Supreme Court justices appeared divided over Trump’s bid to prevent congressional Democrats from obtaining his financial records, but seemed more open toward a New York prosecutor’s attempt to secure similar records.
The court’s conservative majority signaled concern about improper “harassment” of Trump by three Democratic-led House of Representatives committees seeking his records.
In the New York case, the conservative justices joined the court’s liberals in indicating skepticism toward broad arguments by Trump’s lawyer for complete immunity from criminal investigation for a sitting president.
All the subpoenas were issued to third parties – an accounting firm and two banks – and not to the Republican president himself, though he sued to block them.
There’s a chance the court won’t simply allow or disallow enforcement of the subpoenas but rather impose tighter standards for issuing subpoenas for the personal records of a sitting president and send the matter back to lower courts to reconsider, which could push matters beyond the election.
This course of action could delay an ultimate decision on releasing the records until after the election.
Chief Justice John Roberts asked questions suggesting skepticism about unchecked subpoena power when applied to a sitting president but also concern about a president evading scrutiny altogether.
Conservative and liberal justices asked a lawyer for the House, Doug Letter, to explain why the subpoenas were not simply harassment and whether Congress should be limited in issuing subpoenas so as to not distract a president or frustrate his official duties.
Even liberal justices raised concerns about an unfettered ability by lawmakers to subpoena a president’s personal records.
The House committees have said they are seeking the material for investigations into potential money laundering by banks and into whether Trump inflated and deflated certain assets on financial statements – as his former personal lawyer has said – in part to reduce his real estate taxes.
New York prosecutor Cyrus Vance Jr wants to know more about Trump’s payoffs to women who claimed affairs with him, and whether such hush money payments involved the falsification of business records.
Justice Elena Kagan said where personal records are concerned “the president is just a man.”
In the New York case, Kagan told Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow it is a “fundamental precept of our constitutional order that the president is not above the law.”
Rulings are likely within weeks.
21:30
Updated
21:08
Los Angeles County ‘with all certainty’ will keep stay-at-home orders in place through July
That’s the news breaking in the LA Times.
The newspaper writes:
Los Angeles County’s stay-at-home orders will “with all certainty” be extended for the next three months, county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer acknowledged during a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday.
Ferrer, though she didn’t issue an official order, said that timeline would only change if there was a “dramatic change to the virus and tools at hand.”
“Our hope is that by using the data, we’d be able to slowly lift restrictions over the next three months,” she said. But without widely available therapeutic testing for the coronavirus or rapid at-home versions that would allow people to test themselves daily, it seems unlikely that restrictions would be completely eased.
Ferrer’s comments came shortly after Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, warned Congress that states that push too quickly to ease orders could undo progress that would trigger an outbreak. Fauci said a 14-day decline in cases is the major checkpoint that states should meet before reopening.
In L.A. County, confirmed cases and deaths have continued to rise, even though beaches in the county are set to reopen on Wednesday, just days after the county lifted restrictions on hiking trails, parks and golf courses and allowed curbside pickup at nonessential businesses. But Ferrer warned Tuesday that further loosening of the rules will be slow.
But how people can use the sand will look different. Face coverings will be required when not in the water, and sunbathing won’t be allowed. Only active recreation — surfing, running, walking and swimming — will be permitted. Coolers, chairs, umbrellas and any of the other accessories that typically dot the shoreline should be left at home.
The update to L.A.’s stay-at-home orders comes as officials try to satisfy two needs: restarting the economy under a new normal while also ensuring that the resurgence in activity doesn’t upend progress in the fight against the coronavirus.
20:56
Trump and Tesla
Elon Musk reopened Tesla’s San Francisco Bay Area factory on Monday and Donald Trump is supporting that decision. Photograph: Ben Margot/AP
Donald Trump earlier today urged that Tesla Inc be allowed to reopen its electric vehicle assembly plant in California, joining CEO Elon Musk’s bid to defy county officials who have ordered it to remain closed.
“California should let Tesla & @elonmusk open the plant, NOW. It can be done Fast & Safely!” Trump wrote on Twitter.
Musk tweeted “Thank you!” in response
On Monday, Musk said production was resuming at the automaker’s sole US vehicle factory, defying an order to stay closed and saying if anyone had to be arrested, it should be he.
Tesla shares were up 1.1% at $820.44 in late trading, Reuters notes.
At Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, employee parking lots that were deserted on Friday were packed with cars today.
Trucks could be seen driving in and out of the factory grounds.
About a dozen workers, some masked, some not, were seen standing by a red food truck on the factory grounds.
At the factory’s outbound logistics parking lot, where only a dozen Tesla cars stood on Friday, hundreds of Tesla vehicles were seen today.
The company, which on Saturday sued Alameda County, where the plant is located, over its decision that the plant should stay closed, did not officially comment on Trump’s tweet. The conflict heated up at the weekend.
Late yesterday, county health officials said they were aware Tesla had opened beyond the so-called minimum basic operations allowed during lockdown, and had notified the company it could not operate without a county-approved plan.
A county health official on Friday said the county had asked all manufacturers, including Tesla, to delay operations by at least another week to monitor infection and hospitalization rates.
California Governor Gavin Newsom yesterday said he had spoken with Musk several days ago and that the Tesla founder’s concerns helped prompt the state to begin its phased reopening of manufacturing last week.
Updated
20:38
Woman at center of Supreme Court case dies
20:05
19:42
Coronavirus task force update
Updated
19:23
Updated
19:18
Updated
19:06
Early afternoon summary
Updated
18:57
Pelosi reveals $3tn House stimulus bill
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi – She Who Would Turn America Communist, according to Donald Trump this morning – has released Democrats’ new coronavirus economic stimulus bill. It would cost more than $3tn and provide nearly $1tn of aid for states, cities, local governments and essential workers and more cash payments to individual Americans.
The White House has said repeatedly that it’s not interested and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has said there is no urgency to act. Nonetheless, the Associated Press reports:
“The House is expected to vote on the package as soon as Friday … the so-called Heroes Act would provide nearly $1tn for states, cities and tribal governments to avert layoffs and additional $200bn in “hazard pay” for essential workers, according a summary.
It will offer a fresh round of $1,200 direct cash aid to individuals, increased to up to $6,000 per household, and launches a $175bn housing assistance fund to help pay rents and mortgages. There is $75bn more for virus testing.
It would continue, through January, the $600-per-week boost to unemployment benefits. It adds a 15% increase for food stamps and new help for paying employer-backed health coverage. For businesses, there’s an employee retention tax credit.
Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said the bill “will be ready” to call lawmakers back to Washington for the vote.
There’s also more in there for the small business Paycheck Protection Program, for the US Postal Office and more.
But, to stress, Trump has already signed around $3tn of stimulus spending into law and he doesn’t want to do more and has floated things like payroll tax cuts and concessions on immigration policy as the price of action, prospects Democrats do not like in the slightest.
McConnell has called the Democratic bill a “big laundry list of pet priorities” and said: “I don’t think we have yet felt the urgency of acting immediately.”
In turn, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has warned that if Trump and congressional Republicans “slow walk” more aid they will repeat President Herbert Hoover’s inadequate response to the Great Depression of the 1930s.
US unemployment is now at Great Depression levels, so the comparison was apt.
Source: US Politics - theguardian.com
