Today's Headlines

Nationally, it couldn't be said more clearly than this quote from Slate:

“The administration’s response in general has been an abysmal failure, and he compounds that failure by regularly attacking the governors to whom he has passed the buck,” Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, told me. “I just don’t think we can allow ourselves to normalize a president who is politically attacking the very governors who are trying to save lives right now in the absence of real federal leadership.”

States are currently competing against one another--and with the federal government-- for equipment needed to detect and treat Covid 19.  Senator Elizabeth Warren tells of MA failing to get equipment it had purchased because they were outbid by the federal government.

In Politico:

“That is a Darwinian approach to federalism; that is states’ rights taken to a deadly extreme,” said Martin O’Malley, the former Maryland governor who served for eight years on the Homeland Security Task Force of the National Governors Association. “The better read of federalism is that the states and federal government work together when the U.S. is attacked, whether it is by imperial Japan or a pandemic.”

Globally, the current administration picked this moment to weaken air quality and CO2 standards on vehicles, as usual mostly because the Obama administration imposed them.  President Obama responded:

“We’ve seen all too terribly the consequences of those who denied warnings of a pandemic. We can’t afford any more consequences of climate denial. All of us, especially young people, have to demand better of our government at every level and vote this fall.”


Regionally, there's a good piece in Slate praising Governor Newsom of CA as well as Andrew Como of NY for their different styles of leadership in the CoVid 19 crisis.  This is one of several pieces crediting Newsom's early actions (and CA compliance) with bending the curve in the state's case rate.

Locally, Humboldt County has recorded its first cases of the virus believed to be community transmissions--that is, not as a result of foreign travel or contact with someone who was infected as a result of that travel.  There are now 26 active cases in the county, with one hospitalized and so far no deaths. Our first case has recovered.  Health officials currently expect our rate of transmission to peak in about a month.

We are concerned about the consequences of Humboldt State University's decision to allow students who chose to leave the area for spring break to come back, and specifically, HSU's irresponsible and dangerous decision just this past week to actually bus students back from high-contagion areas, namely LA and the Bay Area.  They returned for no reason, as all HSU classes this term are online only.

And very locally, Margaret and I are fine at home.  And, after a too close encounter with a bigger dog, so is Howdy.  So far, all the family members elsewhere we know about are also okay.