Southern states largely go it alone in reopening decisions

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Governors in 17 states have committed to regional coordination to reopen their economies during the coronavirus outbreak — but none are in the South, where leaders are going it alone, just as they did in imposing restrictions.

As questions about when and how to ease virus-control measures becomes increasingly politically charged, governors in the Deep South have resisted any appearance of synchronization, instead driving home their message that each state must make its own decision.

Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp plans to have many of his state’s businesses up and running again as soon as Friday. Fellow Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced that most businesses will begin resuming operations as soon as next week.

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Some other Republican leaders were taking smaller steps, like reopening their beaches. In the virus hot spot of Louisiana, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards was also taking a more cautious approach, announcing he’ll first allow some non-emergency medical procedures to resume next week.

But no one wants to coordinate. Edwards, for one, notes neighboring states have less expansive outbreaks. Even when several Republican governors held phone calls to talk about reopening plans, they insisted they weren’t working in concert — and left out their Democratic counterparts in the region.

“We’re trying to take, where we can, our destiny into our own hands,” said Kemp.

He’s been one of the region’s most aggressive so far, allowing gyms, bowling alleys, tattoo parlors and other businesses to reopen Friday, if owners follow social-distancing and hygiene requirements. Restaurants can bring back dine-in service and movie theaters can reopen by Monday.

Such moves runs counter to the advice of many experts and have left many businesses wary.

The lack of regional coordination also raises concerns that a loosening in one state — especially with insufficient testing — could lead to a spike in cases in another. But agreement would be difficult in a region with such disparate approaches.

The strategy stands in stark contrast to coordination elsewhere. California, Oregon and Washington have agreed to synchronize how they will begin lifting their shelter-in-place restrictions. Seven states in the Northeast have done the same as have seven governors in the Midwest. In the latter two regions, governors from both parties are involved.

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In the South, it’s ad hoc: Kemp said he’s talked to other Southern governors, but he didn’t coordinate with any of them, even though urban areas in Georgia lap over borders with several. Edwards and Republican Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves have also had conversations because of the travel and business shared between New Orleans and the Mississippi Gulf Coast. But Edwards said he did not believe further coordination was necessary.

“I think if you look at those areas where this is happening, you have very similar situations in terms of the amount of COVID that they have in those various states and they have a much greater degree of inter-connectedness in terms of their economies,” he said.

Beyond easing the medical restrictions, Edwards says he’s waiting to see if Louisiana’s improving trajectory — fewer hospitalizations, fewer people on ventilators — remains on course, before deciding what steps he’ll take when his stay-at-home order expires April 30. Louisiana still has more cases and far more deaths than any other state in the region.

For most people, the highly contagious coronavirus causes symptoms such as high fever and a dry cough. But some people, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, become much sicker and even die.

Elsewhere in the South, decision-making is varied.

Even as neighboring Georgia pushed to reopen, Republican Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey decided to keep a stay-home order in place through the end of the month. Meanwhile, Arkansas’ Republican governor, Asa Hutchinson, never issued such a mandate, though he’s imposed other restrictions.

Reeves in Mississippi and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, have allowed beaches to reopen. Reeves also has said that nonessential businesses can start offering curbside pickup or delivery.

In South Carolina, barricades came off public boat ramps Friday. Closed retailers, like department stores and specialty shops, were next, but only, Republican Gov. Henry McMaster insisted, if strict social distancing was followed. He let local governments decide whether to reopen beaches. Most declined, for now.

Still, it wasn’t clear if the state’s COVID-19 cases had peaked yet, since state health data shows the number of coronavirus tests have fallen. Georgia, too, is seeing a testing decline.

Experts say that’s the opposite of what’s needed as restrictions ease. The leader of South Carolina’s teaching hospital warned the state also needed robust tracing of the people who have had contact with the sick.

“We need to have in place the pieces to keep a second wave from becoming crippling,” said Dr. David Cole, president of the Medical University of South Carolina.

The outbreak has hit different parts of the country in different ways — and the response has been just as varied — so there isn’t one playbook, said Dr. Richard Oberhelman, an infectious disease specialist at Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans.

“Coordination makes sense, but the flip side is different states are in different parts of the epidemic,” Oberhelman said, adding that communication remained key.

Some fear that if Southern states get too far out ahead of the rest of the country, they could attract visitors — and possibly open the door to more infections.

Myrtle Beach has suffered, but if it starts to ease restrictions on hotels and short-term rentals, it could see an influx of visitors looking for warm weather far from hot spots. Without extensive testing, that could spell disaster, infectious control nurse Debbie Borst told a meeting of the Myrtle Beach City Council.

“The public hears one thing, but they don’t realize we don’t have testing available like other cities and states, so I’m worried that they have a false sense of security concerning our numbers,” Borst said.

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Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta; Andrew DeMillo in Little Rock, Arkansas; and Emily Wagster Pettus in Jackson, Mississippi, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

'Squad' member Ayanna Pressley says Trump coronavirus response ‘akin to war crimes’

And people like this is why I'm voting Republican.

A member of the far-left "Squad" of freshmen congresswomen slammed President Trump’s coronavirus response this week, alleging it was “akin to war crimes.”
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., made her allegations in a video posted Monday.
Claiming “criminal negligence, science denials, [and] a sluggish response,” on the part of Trump, she said the U.S. was now playing catchup during the pandemic, “which is the last place that you want to be in the midst of any public health crisis.”
Pressley said relief efforts shouldn’t discriminate based on race, income or immigration status and advocated for universal paid leave, sick pay for all workers and "long-term financial assistance.”
“This hurt is unprecedented, it is being felt by everyone and the relief should be felt by everyone,” she added during the video conference with other progressive leaders.
Pressley said progressives need to be even more “unapologetic” and “emboldened” in pushing for proposals that she said Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has derided as Democratic “wish lists."
"When Leader McConnell says he's tired of our wish list, we're going to keep wishing," she said.

"When Leader McConnell says he's tired of our wish list, we're going to keep wishing."
— U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass.

“Now is not the time to be incremental,” she added. “I don’t think that it is too big of a wish to want to center the humanity and the dignity and the very preservation of life for every individual, every family and every worker.”
Trump has been criticized by Democrats for not taking the threat of the virus more seriously when it first showed up in the U.S., for being slow to react and for not getting more testing kits and personal protective equipment to states.
The president has pointed to a travel ban he placed on China in late January as an example of his quick response and has accused the World Health Organization of covering up for China as the virus began to spread, saying the WHO put "political correctness over lifesaving measures.”
War crimes are defined as "grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions" and include torture, willful killing and taking hostages, among others.
Trump was accused by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and others in January other threatening to commit war crimes when he tweeted that the U.S. had targeted Iranian cultural sites. He later backtracked and said he would “obey the law.”
Pressley went into self-isolation in late March after contracting flu-like symptoms that she feared at the time could have been the coronavirus, the Washington Examiner reported. She later tested negative.

Newsom implies communities not allowed to lift stay-at-home orders yet

California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom Tuesday implied local leaders in the state won’t be allowed to lift coronavirus stay-at-home orders yet as certain communities have expressed interest in easing restrictions and some protesters took to the streets last weekend demanding the reopening of the economy, according to reports.
“I imagine there’ll be some examples of people just getting ahead of that collaborative spirit,” he said in a news conference, according to The Los Angeles Times. “And we may have to dial a little bit of that back.”
He said local officials may ease stay-at-home restrictions as long as they don’t conflict with state orders but would "encourage" any local officials who go too far to "pull back."
Ventura County, for example, will reopen golf courses, some small businesses that don’t deal with the public, allow gatherings in cars and in-person meetings of fewer than 5 people and in-person car sales on May 15, KTLA-TV in Los Angeles reported.
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He said “appropriate queries” about local changes to the stay-at-home order have been brought by certain counties, including San Luis Obispo, Ventura and Placerville and said he hoped to work with local leaders to coordinate any easing of restrictions in certain areas, The Times reported.
San Luis Obispo County officials said this week they are planning to gradually lift restrictions and reopen businesses but said any changes would need the governor’s approval, KTLA reported.
“I caution those, including local election officials, that practicing physical distancing has worked to keep those numbers relatively modest in terms of growth, but if we pull back too quickly, those numbers will go through the roof,” Newsom stressed.
Last week, he outlined criteria that must be met before the stay-at-home order can be lifted, including widespread testing, developing therapeutics and potentially a vaccine, enacting social distancing inside businesses, protecting the vulnerable and addressing needs of hospitals.
“Normal it will not be, at least until we have herd immunity and we have a vaccine,” he said.
Hundreds of protesters took to the streets in Huntington Beach over the weekend, claiming the lockdown was too restrictive.
“If we pull back too quickly, those numbers will go through the roof,” Newsom said. “And I don’t think any of the people, in their goodwill and the spirit in which they are wanting to loosen things up, want to see those numbers increase," The Times reported.

Coronavirus could have a deadlier second wave later this year, CDC director warns

The head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is warning that a second wave of coronavirus could coincide with the start of flu season, proving to be even more devastating than the enduring COVID-19 pandemic.
CDC Director Robert Redfield told The Washington Post in an interview Tuesday that the nation should be cautious even as some states attempt to reopen their economies in the coming weeks and continue to practice social distancing measures to mitigate the spread of the virus.
Redfield stressed that the practice has had “an enormous impact" on containing the outbreak, but said Americans need to plan ahead and consider getting a flu shot in the summer so that when winter comes, hospitals are not once again overburdened.
He added that the precaution “may allow there to be a hospital bed available for your mother or grandmother that may get coronavirus.”
The coronavirus pandemic has overcrowded hospitals around the world and across the country, taxed the capacity of morgues and exposed the shortage of ventilators and protective equipment for health care workers and others on the front lines of the virus.
Redfield said that in order to avoid a repeat of the horrors of this pandemic, which has killed 43,630 people and infected 804,194 others in the U.S. alone, the CDC is beefing up the workforce that is dealing with public health issues to accommodate and adequately plan for a second onslaught.
The agency plans to add an additional 650 personnel to the already existing 500 staff members across the nation to “substantially augment” the public health response when all of the states begin to roll back stay-at-home restrictions and have people reenter the workforce and resume daily life.
Still, more workers are needed and the CDC is weighing utilizing field workers intended for the Census Bureau -- which suspended operations until May due to the coronavirus outbreak -- as well as the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps to establish "an alternative workforce," it said.

2020 Nancy Eating Ice Cream Townhall Cartoons

Congress’ $300B package for small businesses may only last days: report

Bank officials have reportedly warned that the $450 billion package to replenish the earlier small business emergency fund will likely have a burn rate of $50 billion per day and run out of money in just a few days.
Banks have been warning customers that are qualified for a loan that not every business will receive one, Politico reported.
Banking representatives told the website that for the package to have any significant effect on demand, it would have to approach $1 trillion.
Richard Hunt, the president of the Consumer Bankers Association, told Politico that the new funds would be gone “at most” in 72 hours
“But the odds are more like 48 hours,” he said.
House Democrats and Republicans are continuing to discuss the deal that would go to boost a small-business payroll loan program that’s out of money.
Additional help would be given to hospitals, and billions more would be spent to boost testing for the virus, a key step in building the confidence required to reopen state economies.
The House has announced it could meet as soon as Wednesday for a vote on the pending package, according to a schedule update from Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md.
The chamber is likely to have to call lawmakers back to Washington for a vote, which will present logistical challenges.
Senate Democrats last week rejected a request by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to give unanimous consent to legislation that would have added $250 billion to the Small Business Administration's Paycheck Protection Program.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been criticized by Republicans again for holding up funding, told “Fox News Sunday” that there has been progress.
“They will have more money as soon as we come to an agreement -- which will be soon,” she said. “And I think people will be very pleased because these small businesses must thrive in a community where they’re, again, health is essential to them opening up.”
The Politico report said that some banks are already preparing their customers about hardships to obtain these loans.
The website reported that PNC, a top bank, that “it is likely that not every qualified applicant will receive loan proceeds under the PPP even if Congress authorizes funding.”
Fox News’ Ron Blitzer and the Associated Press contributed to this report

Trump video mocking Obama's Biden endorsement outpaces viewership of Obama address within hours

It appears President Trump had the last laugh as his satirical video mocking President Obama's recent endorsement of former Vice President Joe Biden has garnered more views within hours than Obama's 12-minute address did in the last week.
Obama endorsed his former running mate after all of Biden's primary rivals withdrew from the presidential race. The widely publicized endorsement received 10.2 million views since last Tuesday.
However, the video Trump shared surpassed Obama's video, earning 10.3 million views within roughly 13 hours despite the former president's remarks still having more likes and retweets.
The video – which was not produced by the campaign – parodies an Allstate commercial with the insurance company's spokesman Dennis Haysbert watching a basketball game with his friends before a commercial of Haysbert advertising Allstate appears on the screen. In the original ad, Haysbert's friends implore him to change the channel, which he does, only to find another Allstate ad starring himself.
In the video Trump tweeted, Obama's head is obviously superimposed over Haysbert's, and instead of an Allstate commercial, a fake Biden ad appears on the TV when the basketball game goes to commercial.
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"The kids used to come up and reach in the pool and rub my leg down so it was straight and then watch the hair come back up again," Biden says in the fake ad. "I learned about kids jumping on my lap, and I loved kids jumping on my lap."
The ad might be fake, but it uses a real quote by the former vice president from June 2017 in which he was describing his time as a lifeguard at a Delaware pool when he was younger. The Biden comments were not nefarious and were not the main subject of the speech he was giving, but have been seized on by his opponents previously to illustrate the candidate's gaffe-prone nature.
The video Trump tweeted shows Obama shrugging and saying "what" to the others looking at him just as Haysbert does in the original Allstate commercial.
Obama offered his formal endorsement to the presumptive Democratic nominee one day after Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who withdrew from the race, offered his endorsement.
“Choosing Joe to be my vice president was one of the best decisions I ever made, and he became a close friend. And I believe Joe has all the qualities we need in a president right now,” Obama said.
Pointing to the severe challenges the nation faces as it copes with the coronavirus pandemic, the former president said, “Joe has the character and the experience to guide us through one of our darkest times and heal us through a long recovery. And I know he’ll surround himself with good people – experts, scientists, military officials who actually know how to run the government and care about doing a good job running the government."
And Obama stressed that Biden's a stronger presidential contender after surviving a historic primary field that peaked at some 25 White House hopefuls.
“Now Joe will be a better candidate for having run the gauntlet of primaries and caucuses alongside one of the most impressive Democratic fields ever. Each of our candidates were talented and decent, with a track record of accomplishment, smart ideas, and serious visions for the future," the former president noted.
Fox News' Tyler Olson, Paul Steinhauser, and Mike Emmanuel contributed to this report. 

Trump to 'suspend immigration into the United States' by executive order amid coronavirus

President Trump announced late Monday he will soon sign an executive order "to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States," in what appeared to be a drastic escalation of his efforts to fight the coronavirus pandemic and boost the economy.
The declaration came hours after U.S. equity markets plunged, with oil prices turning negative for the first time in history. Also on Monday, three states -- Georgia, Tennessee, and South Carolina -- revealed plans to begin reopening some businesses.
"In light of the attack from the Invisible Enemy, as well as the need to protect the jobs of our GREAT American Citizens, I will be signing an Executive Order to temporarily suspend immigration into the United States!" the president tweeted.
The precise contours of the president's planned executive order were not immediately clear. The White House did not immediately elaborate on Trump's tweeted announcement.
Politico reported that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) was still working out the details of the executive order, and that an exemption for temporary guest workers, including farm workers, was under consideration.
A top DHS official told the outlet that “22 million unemployed Americans and counting due to COVID-19" had prompted Trump to act.
Due to the pandemic, almost all visa processing by the State Department, including immigrant visas, has been suspended for weeks.
Rep. Paul Gosar, R-Arizona, applauded the planned executive order, and suggested a total immigration suspension should continue indefinitely. "Thank you, @realDonaldTrump!" he wrote. "All immigration to the United States should halt until every American who wants a job has one!"
"Given tens of millions of Americans are out of work right now and we’re battling a virus that spreads through human-to-human transmission I am dying to hear one coherent argument against this," wrote Spectator USA's Washington editor Amber Athey.
Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., meanwhile, said Trump was looking for "someone to blame for his own failure."
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"Immigration has nearly stopped and the US has far more cases than any other country," Beyer wrote, without adjusting his statistic to consider the larger population in the United States. "This is just xenophobic scapegoating."
Added Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif.: "Trump failed to take this crisis seriously from day 1. His abandonment of his role as president has cost lives. And now, he's shamelessly politicizing this pandemic to double down on his anti-immigrant agenda. Enough, Mr. President. The American people are fed up."
Aside from the pending immigration ban, the U.S. has already enacted a slew of entry restrictions. The U.S. recently agreed with both Canada and Mexico to extend border restrictions on nonessential travel for another 30 days, through May 16 and May 19, respectively. And, the president already has blocked most travel from other hotspots, including most of Europe, Iran, South Korea, and China.
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However, people with temporary work visas, students and business travelers were exempted, along with emergency personnel.
More than 750,000 Americans have come down with COVID-19 and more than 42,000 have died. On Monday, the U.S. government said it will continue to quickly expel migrants it encounters along the border with Mexico for at least another month in response to the COVID-19 outbreak.

Jeanette Vizguerra wears a face mask during a car protest calling for the release of detainees at the GEO Immigration Detention Center because of the dangers posed by the new coronavirus Friday, April 17, 2020, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

Under the U.S. policy change spurred by the virus, the U.S. government has sent some 10,000 Mexicans and Central Americans back to Mexico, according to data from the U.S.Border Patrol.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) says that more than 100 migrants at 25 detention centers have tested positive for COVID-19. Guatemala claims that 44 migrants deported from the U.S. tested positive.
Monday's immigration suspension was likely to draw legal challenges, and reignite an already heated debate over travel restrictions. On Jan. 31, Trump issued the "Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus," blocking most travel from China -- and at the time, Democrats harshly criticized the move.
Within hours, Joe Biden campaigned in Iowa and told the crowd that Americans “need to have a president who they can trust what he says about it, that he is going to act rationally about it. ... This is no time for Donald Trump’s record of hysteria and xenophobia – hysterical xenophobia – and fearmongering to lead the way instead of science.”
Months later, Biden said he supported the China travel ban.
Fox News' Andrew O'Reilly and The Associated Press contributed to this report.