6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment last week, bringing the pandemic total to over 17 million. Economists say the U.S. unemployment rate is now 13 percent, the worst since the Great Depression.
From HEATHER LONG and ANDREW VAN DAM, WaPo: "The surge of job losses continued last week with 6.6 million Americans applying for unemployment benefits, the Labor Department said Thursday.
More than 17 million new jobless claims have been filed in the past four weeks, a rapid and unprecedented escalation in unemployment in the United States since the week that President Trump declared a national emergency due to the deadly coronavirus.
The 17 million figure includes new reporting from the Labor Department that even more people filed for unemployment in the prior week, pushing the jobless claims up during the week ending March 28 to a record 6.9 million, up from 6.6 million."
California releases data on race of 37 percent of virus patients, working to get more
Sac Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON/THERESA CLIFT/TONY BIZJAK: "Gov. Gavin Newsom said data is slowly trickling in from across California on the racial breakdown of people who have tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, but that doesn’t include much information from Sacramento County where public health officials met Wednesday to determine how they can get that information.
Around the nation, some cities and states have reported that the respiratory disease is having an out-sized impact on African Americans.
Newsom said that the state has racial and ethnic identification for 37 percent of 16,957 people who have tested positive for the new coronavirus. Of those cases, the California Department of Public Health reported that whites represent 37 percent of confirmed cases; Latinos, 30 percent; Asians, 14 percent; other, 9 percent; blacks, 6 percent; multiracial, 2.5 percent; 1.6 percent native Hawaiians or Pacific Islanders; and 0.2 percent, American Indians or Alaska Natives. The agency did not explain why the numbers add up to slightly more than 100 percent."
READ MORE related to Pandemic: When will California stay-at-home order end? Newsom says still too early to tell -- LA Times's TARYN LUNA; CDC traces one mildly sick person to 13 illnesses, 3 deaths -- The Chronicle's STAFF; SF finally shares crucial pandemic statistics -- The Chronicle's TRISHA THADANI/JOAQUIN PALOMINO/ERIN ALLDAY; Infections among carrier crew rise as top admiral visits the ship -- The Chronicle's MATTHIAS GAFNI; UCSF lab accelerates processing of virus tests in Bay Area, all for no cost -- The Chronicle's CATHERINE HO; A virologist answers the virus questions you were too embarrassed to ask -- LA Times's JESSICA RO&Y/MARK POTTS; Feds' stockpile for pandemic response is exhausted, amid questions about how supplies were distributed -- LA Times's NOAM N LEVEY/DEL QUENTIN WILBER
#PresidentNewsom trends on Twitter after California's governor appears on Rachel Maddow Show
Sac Bee's ANDREW SHEELER: "He must have made an impression. #PresidentNewsom is trending on Twitter the morning after California Gov. Gavin Newsom appeared on The Rachel Maddow Show.
While it’s too late for Newsom to join the 2020 presidential campaign trail, the idea of California’s governor sitting in the White House appeals to many left-leaning people on Twitter.
Actor Tom Arnold took to Twitter to praise Newsom, who went on Maddow’s show to announce that he has secured a contract for 200 million masks a month for emergency workers responding to the coronavirus."
Bernie Sanders' California backers want changes from Biden before committing
The Chronicle's JOE GAROFOLI: "Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Vermont independent who pulled the Democratic presidential field to the left on health care and college affordability, suspended his presidential campaign Wednesday, saying his path to the nomination is “just not there.”
Sanders’ withdrawal from the race all but ensures that Joe Biden will be the Democratic challenger to President Trump in November. The former vice president’s first job, however, will be to win over voters who were energized by Sanders in 2016 and again this year.
Just because Sanders is out doesn’t mean his supporters will reflexively go over to Biden. Many of his California backers interviewed Wednesday said they would be more likely to fall in line if Biden supports the issues that drove Sanders’ candidacy — Medicare for All, free college tuition, the Green New Deal environmental plan — and picks a progressive running mate."
READ MORE related to Campaign Trail: Who has the early lead in election polls after Sanders drops out? -- Sac Bee's CHACOUR KOOP
Bad news for California GOP: It's losing mayor's job in state's second-biggest city
The Chronicle's JOHN WILDERMUTH: "In yet another blow to embattled California Republicans, San Diego will have a Democrats-only November runoff to replace GOP Mayor Kevin Faulconer, who is termed out.
With all the votes finally counted in California’s second-largest city, Assemblyman Todd Gloria and Councilwoman Barbara Bry finished on top of the March 3 primary, with Republican Scott Sherman in third, about 1,200 votes behind Bry.
Gloria, who collected about 41% of the vote, will be the likely favorite in November."
Virus court order: Judge decides to release Ghost Ship defendant Derick Almena
The Chronicle's MEGAN CASSIDY: "The Alameda County judge presiding over the Ghost Ship fire case has decided to release defendant Derick Almena while he awaits a new trial, requesting he instead be placed in a community monitoring program.
Judge Trina Thompson action comes after California judicial leaders on Monday eliminated bail for defendants charged with misdemeanors and most nonviolent felonies, in their latest round of emergency orders intended to stem the threat of coronavirus outbreaks behind bars.
Almena, who turns 50 next week, is scheduled for a court teleconference on Friday and could be released as early as this weekend, said Vincent Barrientos, one of Almena’s defense attorneys. Almena has spent nearly three years at the Santa Rita Jail in Dublin, after he was charged with 36 counts of involuntary manslaughter in the Dec. 2, 2016 Ghost Ship fire that killed three dozen people during a warehouse party."
READ MORE related to Courts: Sacramento City Council mistreated supe rmarket and gas station developer, court says -- Sac Bee's TONY BIZJAK
Attorneys, advocates file emergency motion to half in-person immigration hearings
The Chronicle's TATIANA SANCHEZ: "Immigration advocates and attorneys on Wednesday asked a federal judge to temporarily halt in-person court hearings for detained immigrants, arguing that the government’s decision to continue doing so during the coronavirus pandemic “unnecessarily endangers all participants.”
The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild, the American Immigration Lawyers Association and the Immigration Justice Campaign filed the request for a temporary restraining order against the Executive Office for Immigration Review and Immigration and Customs Enforcement in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The group is also asking a federal judge to facilitate remote confidential communication between attorneys and detained clients."
How can California workers, economy recover from the pandemic?
Sac Bee's TIM SHEEHAN: "A live online forum Thursday afternoon will offer perspectiveson how California can rebuild its workforce after hundreds of thousands of workers across the state have lost or will lose their jobs.
The video forum is a joint project between OnwardCA.org and The McClatchy Company’snewspapers in Fresno, Sacramento, Modesto, Merced and San Luis Obispo.
It will stream live from noon to 1 p.m. Thursday on the five newspapers’ websites, as well as their Facebook pages."
READ MORE related to Economy: Single parents struggle during pandemic without support, courts -- The Chronicle's SARAH FELDBERG; 'Things are becoming dire' for struggling small businesses as insurers deny virus claims -- The Chronicle's SHWANIKA NARAYAN; Senate to deadlock on latest relief legislation for small businesses -- LA Times
Health care workers make up about 10 percent of California's positive virus tests
Sac Bee's CATHIE ANDERSON: "The California Department of Public Health reported Wednesday that 1,651 confirmed cases of COVID-19 have been among health care workers, a figure that is just under 10 percent of the state’s confirmed coronavirus cases.
It was the first time the agency reported the number of all positive tests for health care workers. Previously, agency officials said, they had only reported cases “acquired while on the job.”
“Since COVID-19 is moving rapidly within the community, health care workers now appear just as likely, if not more so, to become infected by COVID-19 outside the workplace,” CDPH leaders said in the report. “As such, CDPH is now reporting the number of health care workers overall who are affected, regardless of where they were exposed."
READ MORE related to Healthcare: UC Berkeley engineers convert sleep apnea machines to ventilate virus patients -- The Chronicle's MALLORY MOENCH; How California is getting 200 million masks a month for the virus, and what it will cost -- Sac Bee's SOPHIA BOLLAG
The class of 2020 is graduating into a recession. Congress might defer student loans
Sac Bee's KATE IRBY: "Many college graduates in 2020 will likely face bleak job prospects as the coronavirus pandemic drives the economy in recession.
Combine that predicament with high rates of student loan debt — which many have to start paying as soon as they graduate, regardless of whether they have an income to pay the debt — and new grads are potentially in for a world of financial hurt.
Some members of Congress want to make those students a priority. California Rep. Josh Harder, D-Turlock, and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, are introducing a bill this week to allow college students graduating in 2020 who took out federal student loans to defer payments on their debt for at least three years."
Cybersecurity breaches leave students exposed during pandemic's forced online learning
The Chronicle's JILL TUCKER: "At least two Bay Area school districts have suffered recent cybersecurity breaches in the wake of the sudden switch to digital learning during coronavirus-related school closures.
In Oakland and Berkeley, student privacy has been compromised and, in one case, an unknown adult male exposed himself to teenagers during a class video conference.
In Berkeley, a man somehow gained access to an online Zoom video conference Tuesday, exposed himself to the high school students and shouted obscenities before the teacher ejected him from the session."
READ MORE related to Education: Parents concerned children will be behind due to school closures, poor internet access -- Sac Bee's SAWSAN MORRAR
Domestic violence rises in Bay Area during virus shutdown, victim advocates say
The Chronicle's MICHAEL CABANATUAN: "Domestic violence is believed to be on the rise as shelter-in-place orders are keeping nearly everyone home to combat the spread of COVID-19, according to Bay Area law enforcement and advocates for survivors and victims.
Feeling stressed and frustrated is to be expected during the pandemic, and prolonged proximity to partners or children at home all day can additionally fray nerves. But experts say the shelter-in-place orders have created a dangerous confluence of factors that can provoke perpetrators, increase the level of abuse and violence in the home, and make it harder for victims and survivors to get help.
Kathy Black, executive director of La Casa de las Madres, which runs two shelters and a hotline for abused women and children in San Francisco, said the problem of victims being isolated or cut off from friends, family and the community — a common tactic of abusers — has grown over the course of the shelter in place, which went into effect on March 16 for most of the Bay Area."
BART trains are mostly empty, but that doesn't stop gate jumpers -- some cars downright scary
The Chronicle's PHIL MATIER: "BART ridership has plummeted by more than 93 percent since the stay-at-home order was issued, and that has led to shorter service hours, longer waits between trains and near-empty stations. What hasn’t changed? The fare evaders riding the system for free.
Three weeks into the Bay Area shutdown, and BART’s two morning sweeps at San Francisco’s Embarcadero Station were pulling an average of 238 fare evaders a day off the morning-commute trains. Many of those ejected for not having a ticket were homeless or apparently mentally ill, BART officials said.
“And some are riding the system all day as a shelter,” BART Police Chief Ed Alvarez said."
