SAN FRANCISCO — The city of San Francisco took a dramatic step Wednesday in its effort to get children back into public school classrooms, suing its own school district to try to force open the doors amid the coronavirus pandemic. The lawsuit was the first of its kind in California...
They Made Fresno’s News in 2020. Who Is No. 1?
As we toast to the hope that 2021 is better than the year just endured, let's take a quick look in the rear-view mirror at the people who made the news in 2020: 25. Fresno Grizzlies COVID robbed them of their season, then Major League Baseball's cost-cutting agenda robbed the Grizzlies...
Virus Today: 2020 Shaping Up as Deadliest Year in US History
Here's what's happening Tuesday with the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.: Three Things to Know Today —Largely because of the pandemic, this is shaping up as the deadliest year in U.S. history, with deaths expected to exceed 3 million for the first time. The 2020 death rate could be at least 15%...
Opinion: California’s Self-Inflicted Mental Health Crisis
Nine months into California’s pandemic restrictions and no one knows how things will end. Are most of us going to succumb to “poverty... depression ... (and) suicide” brought on by being locked down? Or will history validate those who insisted that the only course was to “cancel everything”? No one...
Pandemic Backlash Jeopardizes Public Health Powers, Leaders
Tisha Coleman has lived in close-knit Linn County, Kansas, for 42 years and never felt so alone. As the public health administrator, she’s struggled every day of the coronavirus pandemic to keep her rural county along the Missouri border safe. In this community with no hospital, she’s failed to persuade her neighbors...
On Pandemic ‘Learning Loss,’ Schools Look Forward, Not Back
NEWARK, N.J. — A complete picture has yet to emerge of how much learning was lost by students during the pandemic. That’s all right with educators like Superintendent Craig Broeren, whose top concern is figuring out where each student stands now. Wisconsin Rapids, his small school district in central Wisconsin,...
When Will COVID Pandemic End? History Shows Diseases Are Often Here to Stay
When will the pandemic end? All these months in, with over 39 million COVID-19 cases and more than 1 million deaths globally, you may be wondering, with increasing exasperation, how long this will continue. Since the beginning of the pandemic, epidemiologists and public health specialists have been using mathematical models...
US Jobless Claims Rise to 898,000 With Layoffs Still High
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits rose last week by the most in two months, to 898,000, a historically high number and evidence that layoffs remain a hindrance to the economy’s recovery from the pandemic recession. Thursday’s report from the Labor Department coincides with other recent data 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...
Barr Under Fire Over Comparison of Virus Lockdowns to Slavery
WASHINGTON — Attorney General William Barr drew sharp condemnation Thursday for comparing lockdown orders during the coronavirus pandemic to slavery. In remarks Wednesday night at Hillsdale College in Michigan, Barr had called the lockdown orders the “greatest intrusion on civil liberties in American history” since slavery. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., the No....