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The number of conspiracy-supporting posts that appeared in 24 hours on Twitter and Reddit. The messages were a part of a coordinated campaign that were attempting to link the introduction of 5G with the rise of coronavirus in countries worldwide.
In California, a Berkeley man “nude bombed” a Zoom session, exposing himself to students, and an Oakland school district inadvertently released access codes, passwords and student info online. “A lot of schools are struggling.”
New Jersey’s system was written in a software language created in the 1950s and it can’t handle the large influx of unemployment claims. The problems heighten calls for a complete system rewrite.
Last month Ohio had a last-minute switch to a vote-by-mail election due to coronavirus fears and officials want to avoid that happening again in the fall. Assuring a smooth November election requires planning now.
We have a loose consensus in America on factors that drive costs and time up and quality down. What we don't have is consensus on how to get those factors under control.
The order to stay at home puts a special burden on the homeless. Residents in one shelter in northern Virginia are doing what they can to keep their distance in a pandemic.
Unemployment threatens to rise to levels not seen since the Great Depression. A Pulitzer Prize-winning historian of that era thinks most of the economy will recover much more quickly than it did back then.
State lawmakers continue to address wide-ranging consequences of the pandemic with bills that focus on various remedies to the financial burden on workers and their families placed by government work restrictions.
When the coronavirus pandemic begins to subside, communities should use a nuanced, calibrated approach to allowing businesses to reopen and residents to return to work and school.
Gabe Layman, Cook Inlet Housing Authority chief operating officer, said in efforts to encourage Alaska residents to complete the 2020 Census online. So far only 27 percent of Alaskan households have completed the survey. (AP News — April 7, 2020)
The number of testing locations in Oklahoma. Governor Kevin Stitt is asking more residents to be tested for COVID-19 while the state still has ample resources to do so easily.
Ann Arbor’s virtual city council meeting discussed concerns about spending money on large city projects with an uncertain economic future. “I don’t want to see us putting good money on top of a dumpster fire.”
Many want Minnesota’s Corrections Department to release non-violent, elderly and medically compromised prisoners as a way to protect them from the coronavirus. None of the state prisons have an ICU or any ventilators.
The state only has tests for every 362 per 100,000 people and fewer test results means less information to help public health officials understand the virus. “It’s really important for us to know if they’re positive.”
Work to bridge the digital divide has gained momentum in recent years in state and local government, and the case to close the gap may get a further boost by the novel coronavirus reinforcing the importance of having the Internet at home.
Federal fiscal assistance could avert budget-balancing cutbacks at the state and municipal level as the coronavirus devastates the economy. Here are some of the strategies and policies that are likely to be — or ought to be — considered.
The information they collect for operational purposes can be leveraged in numerous ways to help them deal more effectively with the economic devastation of the coronavirus.
The revenue drop from COVID-19 is barely starting to show up in official figures, but already furloughs and major shortfalls are common in state and local governments around the country. The pain may be sudden, but it could last for years.
Throughout the ages, writers and historians who have witnessed pandemics have chronicled their impact and provided us with a valuable history lesson on how not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
President of West Virginia’s Kanawha County Commission, Kent Carper, discussing the decision to use GPS-tracking ankle monitors on people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but are not quarantining. (AP News — April 6, 2020)
The TSA daily national passenger tally of scanned airline passengers on Monday versus a month earlier.
Masks are commonplace due to COVID-19 so companies are expanding their facial recognition capacity to recognize the masked faces. Privacy concerns are more pressing than ever as the pandemic could increase society surveillance.
The Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry says that about half of the recent million or more recent claims filed so far have been paid. “We will take care of everyone’s concerns.”
As COVID-19 has increased patient numbers and discouraged in-person, non-urgent appointments, it could be an inflection point for telehealth. “I don’t think we’ll ever go back to where we were.”
2020 candidates are having to maneuver their campaigns around coronavirus constraints with video and phone calls. While there are drawbacks to online-only campaigns, there can be some benefits, like reaching wider and different audiences.
Local governments have a legal obligation to keep conducting business and engaging the public during the global pandemic, but there can often be more to virtual public meetings than meets the eye.
It may not always look pretty, but the American system of federalism creates opportunities to try different things and pick up the slack when there's a shortfall at one level of government.
Nancy Hylden, a lobbyist in Minnesota, commenting on the challenges lobbyists face as state legislatures are forced to craft bills virtually, removing the traditional face-to-face exchanges that take place inside capitols. (Governing — April 3, 2020)
The number of coronavirus tests that the drive-thru testing site at Georgia Institute of Technology will be able to administer per day.
The legal system has had to adapt to a virtual system as the coronavirus threat continues. While some believe this can help the courts break down barriers and silos, many are concerned about the efficacy of virtual court.
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