NEW DELHI — Joginder Chaudhary was his parents’ greatest pride, raised with the little they earned farming a half-acre plot in central India to become the first doctor from their village. For the coronavirus, though, he was just one more in a million. After the virus killed the 27-year-old Chaudhary...
California Exodus: An Online Industry Seizes COVID-19 to Sell the Red State Dream
At first, Stephanie Morris was nervous about leaving Modesto. She’d lived in the Central Valley her whole life, but her family couldn’t keep paying $850-a-month for her sons to share a living room while she, her husband and the baby slept in their apartment’s only bedroom. The anxiety faded by...
Food Trucks Provide Rare Bright Spot in Hard-Hit West Bank
RAMALLAH, West Bank — The coronavirus crisis has hit West Bank restaurants hard. But one part of the dining sector is bucking the trend: food trucks. With dine-in restaurants mostly closed due to health restrictions, food trucks have allowed entrepreneurial businessmen to find a way to keep working. It's a...
Feds to Ship Millions of Tests in Push to Reopen K-12 Schools
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump planned to announce Monday that the federal government will begin distributing millions of rapid coronavirus tests to states this week and urging governors to use them to reopen schools for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The move to vastly expand U.S. testing comes as...
Orders for Big-Ticket Manufactured Goods Ticks up Just 0.4%
WASHINGTON — Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods increased just 0.4% in August following a much larger gain in the previous month. It was the fourth consecutive monthly increase, but the most recent uptick was far weaker than the 11.7% surge in July, the Commerce Department reported Friday....
Desk Shortage Forces People to Get Creative About Workspaces
NEW YORK — First it was toilet paper. Disinfectant wipes. Beans. Coins. Computers. Now, desks are in short supply because of the coronavirus pandemic. Millions of kids logging onto virtual school this fall has parents scrambling to find furniture for them. It’s a small indignity compared with the kids who don’t even have home internet or computers, but it’s a hassle...
Virus Cases Rise in US Heartland, Home to Anti-Mask Feelings
MISSION, Kan. — It began with devastation in the New York City area, followed by a summertime crisis in the Sun Belt. Now the coronavirus outbreak is heating up fast in smaller cities in the heartland, often in conservative corners of America where anti-mask sentiment runs high. Elsewhere around the...
Parents Plans ‘Zoom Out’ Strike Over School Closures. Will Local Families Join?
Reopen California Schools, a statewide Facebook group that organized rallies earlier this month to protest the continued closures of schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic, says parents need to go on strike next week — and keep their kids from logging online for their classes. The group, created in June...
A Second $1,200 Stimulus Check Likely in Revised Virus Relief Bill Under Discussion
WASHINGTON — House Democrats are going back to the drawing board on a huge COVID-19 relief bill, paring back the measure in an attempt to jump-start negotiations with the Trump administration. The Democratic-controlled chamber could also pass the $2 trillion-plus measure next week if talks fall through to demonstrate that...
Clovis Unified High Schools Might Not Reopen for Classes Until January
Clovis Unified high schoolers should stay on distance learning for the remainder of the semester so as not to jeopardize their grade-point average — even if the district gets the OK to resume in-person instruction during the coronavirus pandemic. That advice from district employees to keep high schoolers on distance...