Valley Children's Healthcare chief medical officer Dr. David Christensen was blunt during a recent Zoom meeting with Fresno County school district officials and county health officials about reopening: Based on the current COVID-19 infection and hospitalization conditions, "now is not the time to risk it." Central Unified School District administrators...
Madera Unified Schedules Sessions to Talk about Back-to-School Plans
Madera Unified School District is hosting a Zoom online teleconference at 5:30 p.m. Monday to talk about the governor's mandate closing schools in COVID-19 watchlist counties such as Madera. Counties that have rising infection or hospitalization rates are put on the watchlist. Once Madera County is off the watchlist for...
$1,200 and a ‘Back to Work Bonus’ Could Be in Next Stimulus Bill
A proposed stimulus package from U.S. Senate leaders has been quietly crafted behind closed doors for weeks. It's expected to include $75 billion to help schools reopen, reduced unemployment benefits, and a fresh round of direct $1,200 cash payments to Americans, and a sweeping five-year liability shield against coronavirus lawsuits....
Fox Anchor Gets Praise for His Interview With Trump
NEW YORK — As veteran journalists who now teach the craft to college students, Tom Bettag and Frank Sesno both said they will use Chris Wallace's interview with President Donald Trump to show how it's done well. “This was an ‘A-plus’ accountability interview,” said Sesno, who spoke to five presidents...
Colorful Fresno Rally Promotes Newsom Recall, Trump Reelection and More
A street corner rally in northeast Fresno this weekend attracted dozens of enthusiastic demonstrators supporting conservative causes. Participants who gathered at Champlain and Shepherd avenues waved large flags and held colorful signs advocating for a recall of Gov. Gavin Newsom, the reelection of President Trump, reopening schools, and supporting police....
GOP Leaders Head to White House as Virus Crisis Deepens
WASHINGTON — Top Republicans in Congress are expected to meet Monday with President Donald Trump at the White House on the next COVID-19 aid package as the crisis many hoped would have improved has dramatically worsened, just as emergency relief is expiring. New divisions between the Senate GOP majority and the White...
New Studies Clarify What Drugs Help, Hurt for COVID-19
Fresh studies give more information about what treatments do or don’t work for COVID-19, with high-quality methods that give reliable results. British researchers on Friday published their research on the only drug shown to improve survival -- a cheap steroid called dexamethasone. Two other studies found that the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine does...
U.S. COVID-19 Cases Continue to Rise While Other Countries Trend Down
Germans have watched in horror as cases in the United States, Brazil and elsewhere surged long after Germany flattened its own curve of infections in April. COVID-19 Case Counts The country of 83 million has reported slightly over 200,000 confirmed cases and 9,077 deaths from COVID-19 since the start of...
‘Newsom at Noon’ Needs a Permanent Substitute Host
Dear Governor, Your lunchtime COVID-19 briefings—“Newsom at Noon”— are must-see TV. No California governor has ever had such a regular platform, and you’ve demonstrated a memory, policy knowledge, and verbal facility (especially with long words) that are almost superhuman. You might be California’s greatest polysyllabic performance since Julie Andrews recorded...
Want Kids Back in School? Officials Say Wear a Mask, Wash Your Hands & Control COVID.
Students in the Fresno and Clovis unified school districts will start the new school year next month with online learning, but it's not due to school board decisions. Because Fresno County is one of the California counties on a state watch list for rising COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations, a mandate...