LIABILITY SHIELD IS THE NEXT CORONAVIRUS AID BATTLE IN CONGRESS

WASHINGTON - The effort by Senator Republicans to shield companies from liability during the pandemic has drawn the ire of Democrats. Senate Lawmakers returned on Monday to begin working on the next round of relief targeted at households. During this time, Majority Leader McConnell has said that liability protections are a red line. Without it, Democrats' calls for increased local aid will not be entertained.

U.S. businesses are fearing a wave of lawsuits as workers in meat-processing facilities, grocery stores, and other locations get sick or die from the Covid-19 illness caused by the new coronavirus. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the risk of class-action lawsuits could deter businesses from reopening, even after restrictions have been lifted. Senator Mitt Romney has supported the liability protections, saying “It’s essential if we’re going to get the economy going again not to have every business becoming sued by the players who are associated with Covid-19.” However, unions say that liability shields are the wrong message.

Some states have proposed expanding liability protections to manufacturers aiding in the crisis.

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FACING POTENTIAL $17M SHORTFALL, LINCOLN OFFICIALS EXPLORE DIFFICULT BUDGET QUESTIONS, LOBBY FOR FEDERAL HELP

LINCOLN - In his January report, City Finance Director Brandon Kauffman adumbrated that Lincoln will experience shortfalls of $6 million and $8 million that would require attention during the budget building process. Kauffman’s projections now appear somewhat vatic given developments with the pandemic. Now, Lincoln, according to Kauffman, will face an even greater shortfall, amounting to $17 million in the upcoming fiscal year and $22 million in the following.

Forecasts are predicting a 40% decline in sales tax revenue for the city of Lincoln. Hiring freezes and the elimination of certain vacant positions are under consideration by the city. Jennifer Brinkman, the Mayor’s Chief of Staff, has said that everything is on the table. Both Omaha and Lincoln were not eligible for the aid contained within the federal CAREs act.

Lincoln Mayor Gaylor Baird has lobbied Nebraska’s Congressional delegation to push for more direct aid to local governments. Lincoln’s 40 million cash reserve is not seen as an answer to the current problems associated with the pandemic.

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9,640 BUFFALO COUNTY RESIDENTS VOTING BY MAIL AHEAD OF TUESDAY’S PRIMARY

KEARNEY - Buffalo County Election Commissioner, Lisa Poff, has stated that Tuesday’s primary election will present special challenges due to coronavirus. Since the courthouse has been locked down since March 18th, the challenge of a potential poll worker shortage has emerged. However, many individuals have stepped up to the challenge and each of the precincts in the county will be staffed by at least four poll workers, with more on standby. Additionally, “A record 9,640 Buffalo County voters requested early ballots so they could vote by mail, and of that number, 6,658 voters already had returned their ballots by Wednesday afternoon.”

Poff has decline to speculate on turnout.

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HEALTH OFFICIALS TO STOP RELEASING TYSON NUMBERS FOR NOW

NORFOLK – The Elkhorn Logan Valley Public Health Department stated that it would no longer release specific COVID-19 numbers related to the Tyson Fresh Meats’ pork processing plant in Madison. During his press conference on Wednesday, Governor Ricketts stated that it is important for the state to follow the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), which protects individuals’ medical records and other personal health information. Specifically, the Governor said, “unless the person who works for the employer specifically tells the employer they have coronavirus, and gives them permission to release that, the employer can’t do anything about that.” Thus, even if the state was able to ask for the information from the companies, there is no guarantee that the information would be reliable.

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LINCOLN, LANCASTER COUNTY TO RELUCTANTLY ADOPT EASED RESTRICTIONS RICKETTS OULTINED

LINCOLN- Lincoln and Lancaster County will implement eased restrictions beginning Monday, after Mayor Leirion Gaylor Baird and her health director reluctantly agreed to adopt the plans Gov. Pete Ricketts sought.

The new restrictions match those already in place in Omaha and elsewhere in the state and would allow the reopening of barbershops and tattoo parlors provided staff and patrons wear face masks and give restaurants the ability to serve half the number of diners their establishments can hold.In her Thursday afternoon briefing on the local pandemic response, Gaylor Baird said she was disappointed Ricketts said he would not extend beyond Sunday the Lancaster County restrictions currently in place.

New case totals and the rate of positive tests continue to head in the wrong direction, and the ramifications of a growing outbreak of COVID-19 among Lancaster County residents working at the Smithfield plant in Crete remain unclear, she said.

With another week or two, data on the outbreak could provide clarity, she said. 

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IT GETS WORSE BEFORE IT GETS BETTER

WASHINGTON – According to Politico, “The pandemic has opened the floodgates for telehealth as federal and state governments rapidly roll back long-standing barriers. But not all patients can get online, and in-person treatment options are dwindling amid lockdown orders.” Safety net clinics are asking for help from the government to pay for treatment and connectivity dead zones. Nicol Turner Lee, a research fellow at the Brookings Institution's Center for Technology Innovation has said that “It's often the most vulnerable patients who can't access virtual care. Communities without the means to get online will not benefit from telehealth."

Lisa Cooper, founder of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity, stated that "People of color and people with low incomes are always the last to get access to any new technology. The disparity always gets worse before it gets better." Additionally, many rural and safety net clinics operate on thin margins, making it impossible to invest in telehealth.

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SENATORS POUNCE ON GOVERNORS' RFS REQUEST:

WASHINGTON – Politico reports that “A bipartisan group of senators called on the president to reject a previous request for Renewable Fuel Standard waivers from five oil-state governors.” According to Senators Joni Ernst and Tina Smith, “Waiving the RFS would cause further harm to the U.S. economy, especially our most vulnerable rural communities. It would also exacerbate the effects experienced by the biofuel sector as a result of COVID-19, causing far-reaching detrimental impacts on employment, farmers, food security, fuel prices, and the environment.” The Senators also stated that the pandemic has caused a 46% decline in ethanol production.

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DEMS’ BILL WOULD CUT FOSSIL FUELS OUT OF RELIEF PACKAGE:

WASHINGTON - Democratic lawmakers brought legislation Tuesday that would exclude fossil fuel companies from participating in coronavirus relief packages and prevent options that could be under consideration by the Trump administration to aid the oil sector. According to Politico, “The bill specifically bars fossil fuel companies from participating in the Federal Reserve's Main Street lending program, which the central bank expanded last week in ways that will enable more oil and gas companies to participate.”

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APPS AND ANTIBODIES

WASHINGTON - State health agencies using Apple and Google’s contact tracing technology will be barred from pinpointing users’ exact locations or using their data for other purposes including targeted ads. The tech giants outlined rules for public health officials Tuesday as they prepare to release the API later this month; they also plan to support only one app per country outside the U.S. but will work with state governments to support multiple apps.

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NOVEMBER REIGN

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans are settling on their pandemic message as they fight to save their majority. The coronavirus has killed more than 70,000 Americans, tanked the once-soaring U.S. economy, and shows no signs of abating. Democrats pin the blame on President Trump. Still, nearly all Republican U.S. Senators have not seen it to be advantageous to break with Trump. If the economy recovers and the virus dissipates by the fall, Republicans could benefit by sticking with Trump.

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MEDICAID ADJUSTMENT

WASHINGTON - Medicaid, the largest budget item in most states, provides health insurance to roughly 70 million poor adults, children, pregnant women, and people with disabilities. As millions come on to the Medicaid roles due to the loss of jobs created by coronavirus, the program will be gutted. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine stated that “The cruel nature of the economic downturn is that at a time when you need a social safety net is also the time when revenues shrink.” State Medicaid programs in the last economic crisis cut everything from dental services to podiatry care — and reduced payments to hospitals and doctors to balance out spending on other needs like roads, schools, and prisons, but according to Medicaid officials, the gutting could be far worse this time.

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WHY WEREN’T WE READY FOR THE CORONAVIRUS?

NEW YORK – In 2006, the idea that a virus would spill out of an animal and into a human seemed distant to many people. But Ali S. Khan, of the National Center for Zoonotic, Vector-Borne, and Enteric Diseases, was tasked with dreaming that nightmare by daylight.

Many of the viruses that Khan ended up examining were zoonotic in nature, the West Nile virus, Ebola, and others. They emerge unexpectedly and are very difficult to treat.

SARS was most interesting according to Khan, despite only infecting around 8,000 people. Khan stated that “Because it was so contagious and so lethal,” we were very lucky to stop it.

Khan is now the dean of the College of Public Health at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in Omaha. He went to Omaha in 2014, leaving the directorship of the C.D.C.’s Office of Public Health Preparedness and Response, which included overseeing the Strategic National Stockpile of emergency medical supplies, supervising eight hundred employees, helping assemble a national biodefense strategy against pandemic threats, and much else.

Khan stated that the poor response to COVID-19 is about “lack of imagination.” There were warnings of the virus, including Khan’s favorite, SARS. MERS was also a warning. Superspreading events also drove that outbreak. Khan stated that the COVID-19 response is partly due to “failure to appreciate the sars and mers warnings, both delivered by other coronaviruses; and loss of capacity at high government levels, within recent years, to understand the gravity and immediacy of pandemic threats.” Khan said that “The time has come for us to move beyond seeing public health as the ax in the display case, where the sign says in case of emergency, break glass.”

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U.S. UNEMPLOYMENT RATE HITS 14.7%, WORST SINCE GREAT DEPRESSION WITH 20.5 MILLION JOBS LOST IN APRIL

WASHINGTON- The Labor Department said Friday that the economy shed more than 20.5 million jobs in April, sending the unemployment rate to 14.7 percent — devastation unseen since the Great Depression.

The report underscores the speed and depth of the labor market’s collapse as the coronavirus pandemic took a devastating toll. In February, the unemployment rate was 3.5 percent, a half-century low. And even since the survey was taken, millions of people have filed claims for jobless benefits.The April job losses alone far exceed the 8.7 million in the last recession, when unemployment peaked at 10 percent in October 2009. The only comparable period came when the rate reached about 25 percent in 1933, before the government began publishing official statistics.

If anything, the report understates the damage. The government’s definition of unemployment typically requires people to be actively looking for work. And the unemployment rate doesn’t reflect the millions still working who have had their hours slashed or their pay cut. 

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US SHELVES CDC REPORT THAT ADVISES ON REOPENING THE COUNTRY.

LINCOLN - President Trump has decided to shelve a document that was created by the nation’s top disease investigators with step by step advice to local authorities on how to loosen restrictions on restaurants and other public facilities. The report title, “Guidance for Implementing the Opening Up America Again Framework,” was supposed to be published last Friday. The AP received a copy from a federal official who was not authorized to release it. 

A CDC official said that the report, that was designed to inform faith leaders, business owners, educators, and state and local officials, “would never see the light of day.”

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RICKETTS: MEAT PROCESSING APPROACH SIMILAR TO WYOMING’S UNREALISTIC FOR NEBRASKA

SCOTTSBLUFF – Nebraska cannot take an approach similar to Wyoming with respect to its meat processing plants during the pandemic because, according to Governor Ricketts, Nebraska suffers from overcapacity of meat processing plants and the lack of a state meat inspection. For context, Wyoming has passed a law that allows meat producers to sell directly to consumers without USDA inspections to circumvent some of the challenges posed by COVID-19. Ricketts has also stated that status quo law in Nebraska does not have a state inspection process, so Nebraska must rely on the USDA.

Melody Benjamin, Nebraska Cattlemen Association’s vice president of members services has said that a majority of Nebraska meatpackers are at full capacity for up to a year scheduled in advance due to the pandemic. Ricketts has stated that producers can look for national help through the USDA.

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NEBRASKA CORONAVIRUS MAP AND CASE COUNT

LINCOLN- As of Tuesday morning Nebraska has at least 6,125 cases of cornoavirus, and 79 deaths. Leading counties with cases include Hall with 1,281 confirmed cases and 28 deaths, Dakota with 1,005 cases and 2 deaths, and Douglas county with 977 cases and 16 deaths. The New York Times continuously tracks county, state, and national data regarding confirmed cases and deaths. Current considered 'hot-spots' include Lancaster, Saline, Dodge, Colfax, and Platte counties, where the virus is seeing the fastest doubling of case rates- ranging from 2 day sin Colfax county, to 5.5 days in Lancaster. 

Health officials say 34,675 Nebraskans have been tested for the virus, 28,526 of them came back with no virus detected 

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THE WORST IS PROBABLY STILL IN FRONT OF US

WASHINGTON – As movie theatres and restaurants begin to re-open as local officials relax restrictions, the number of new cases will rise. According to a new paper written by Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota epidemiologist, COVID won’t be contained until about 60 to 70 percent of the population becomes infected or has immunity. As of now, it is estimated that 5 – 15% of Americans have been infected. This means that the virus will continue to spread for another 18 to 24 months.

The exact path the disease will take is unclear, but with no vaccine and a global population that had no immunity to the new coronavirus, COVID-19 could follow patterns seen in previous pandemics.

That means that governments will need to continually adjust their pandemic responses to waves of infections, which could have several peaks, rather than a distinct period of illnesses that burns out in a matter of months.

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TELEHEALTH BASELINE

WASHINGTON – A group of researchers looked at hospitals’ ability to deliver medicine from a distance in 2018 — and finds spotty capabilities. Specifically, “Under half of hospitals were able to provide telehealth consultations and office business; just over a quarter reported tele-ICU capabilities. In general, hospitals with strong telehealth capabilities were academic and urban hospitals. There were wide regional differences: Puerto Rico, for example, had no hospitals with tele-ICUs.” The researchers concluded that telehealth requires great investment so that patients can be treated well remotely.

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EVEN WARREN BUFFETT WONDERS IF PEOPLE WILL RETURN TO OFFICES

OMAHA - Warren Buffett has stated that COVID-19 may lead to a long-term shift with regard to how people do their jobs. Buffett stated that the supply and demand for office space may dramatically shift.

During Berkshire Hathaway’s streamed annual meeting in Omaha, Buffett focused his energy on making a case that helps ensure the long-term health of the economy and the future of jobs. While Buffett stated that Berkshire Hathaway’s manufacturing business may experience a drop in demand and lay-offs to ensue, he is still optimistic that the company will expand and employ more people over the next few years.

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RICKETTS ACKNOWLEDGES PRESSURE TO EASE CORONAVIRUS RESTRICTIONS

LINCOLN - During Governor Ricketts stated during his daily coronavirus news briefing that "A lot of communities feel it's time to loosen up the rules.” A constituent from Ainsworth placed a call on his early morning call-in radio program and said, "You've got to throw the doors wide-open.” Another constituent called and disagreed with the approach that Governor Ricketts has taken. The constituent stated that while she knows that the lockdowns are hard on commerce, it is way too soon to open back up.

Monday saw the first wave of reduced restrictions, which allowed restaurants in Omaha to re-open for indoor dining with special conditions. Barbershops and salons opened too with the stipulation that everyone wears masks. Lastly, churches were cleared for services, as long as social distancing protocol is adhered to.

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