As worries about the spread of the coronavirus confine millions of Californians to their homes, concern is growing about those who have no homes in which to shelter. California has more than 150,000 homeless people, the most in the United States, and there’s concern that as the rest of the state’s residents are being told to stay apart and to frequently wash their hands, homeless people are living just as they did before the outbreak.  Gov. Gavin Newsom on Wednesday said it’s possible 60,000 could contract the virus. The governor announced he would spend $150 million on efforts to prevent the COVID-19 virus from sweeping through that population. A street performer sits alone at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco, March 12, 2020. Sweeping guidelines for Californians to avoid unnecessary gatherings to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus will likely last beyond March, officials say.”I hope you get a sense of the seriousness we’re taking the issue of homelessness,” Newsom said in a Facebook Live broadcast.  Two-thirds of the money will go directly to local governments to spend on homeless services and $50 million will be used by the state to purchase 1,300 travel trailers and lease hotel rooms for emergency housing.  The trailers will be used for homeless people requiring isolation after testing positive for the virus or who are showing symptoms. California also has identified 950 hotels that could lease rooms to local governments to house the homeless. In Los Angeles, Mayor Eric Garcetti announced that the city, through the Red Cross, will provide 6,000 emergency beds at recreation centers, including 1,600 by week’s end.  “Too many … lack a basic necessity that will help most of us get through this crisis: a home,” Garcetti said.  LA has an estimated 27,000 of the county’s 60,000 homeless people. Garcetti said the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority will be asked to identify 4,000 people throughout the county who are most at risk from the virus because of their age or medical conditions. People in shelters who have virus symptoms will be taken to receive medical care, Garcetti said.FILE – Tents and tarps erected by homeless people are shown along sidewalks and streets in the skid row area of downtown Los Angeles, California,  June 28, 2019.To date, the city hasn’t confirmed any virus cases among homeless people, who are difficult to test and treat because they may move frequently or refuse medical care. However, “they are the ones who disproportionately could die as a result of this crisis,” Garcetti said. The city also has set up hundreds of hand-washing stations and mobile toilets at homeless encampments and the City Council voted Tuesday to suspend an ordinance requiring homeless people to take down their tents during the day so that transients can at least shelter there. The California Department of Public Health said Wednesday that the state now has 13 deaths related to the virus and more than 700 confirmed cases. More than 11,900 people are self-monitoring after returning from overseas. Meanwhile, the pandemic continued to affect virtually every facet of Californians’ lives as businesses shut down, either because they weren’t considered “essential” under shelter-in-place health orders or for lack of customers as streets turned into ghost towns. Newsom said that the state had received 80,000 claims for unemployment on Tuesday, compared to the usual rate of about 2,000 per day. The governor has issued a series of emergency orders as the crisis spreads. Last week he urged all people older than 65 and those with underlying health conditions to stay inside. He also limited the size of gatherings to 250 people and called for the shutdown of bars, movie theaters, fitness centers and other gathering places, and for restaurants to only serve to-go orders.  With virtually all of the state’s children out of school because of closures, Newsom suspended standardized testing this spring. And with the economy shedding jobs, he waived certain reporting requirements for businesses making mass layoffs.  FILE – A homeless man takes food from a trash can in Los Angeles’ Skid Row area, home to the nation’s largest concentration of homeless people, Oct. 28, 2017.Newsom said he will not issue a statewide lockdown on people’s movements, preferring to allow local governments to make those decisions. And many have enacted tighter restrictions. Napa and Solano on Wednesday joined at least 12 other Northern California counties — an area home to about 10 million people and including all of the San Francisco Bay Area — in requiring residents to stay home and go out only for essential purposes such as trips to grocery stores and to jobs in health care and other industries deemed critical. In Southern California, the city of Palm Springs enacted similar restrictions. Los Angeles, San Diego and other major population centers in the region have not gone that far but have urged people to remain at home as much as possible.  Although Newsom hasn’t ordered school closures, local authorities have done so. The governor said nearly 99 percent of the state’s K-12 schools are shuttered and could remain so for the rest of the school year.  David De Leon, whose son is an eighth-grader in the Southern California city of Santa Ana, said he was shocked by the announcement, which would mean that so-called distance learning would be required for the rest of the school year.  “I don’t know if it’s viable,” De Leon said. “To throw it out for everyone to use until the end of the school year I think is unreasonable.” FILE – A homeless man sleeps in front of recycling bins and garbage on a street corner in San Francisco, Aug. 21, 2019.In Los Angeles, Filiberto Gonzalez, 45, said his three children have been in touch daily with their teachers and have an hour to four hours per day of work they can do on an existing online platform that supplemented classes. But the prospect of moving to an entirely online system raises a slew of challenges few were expecting. “This whole process started with ‘OK, we’re going to be away from school for two weeks, take this material with you, here’s a Chromebook,'” he said. “The news that came (Tuesday) was a real shock to a lot of us.” For areas not sheltering in place, state and national parks remained an alternative to sitting on the couch, but with limitations.  California State Parks announced it is temporarily closing all its campgrounds but trails and beaches remain open. Visitors were reminded to maintain social distancing.  However, hundreds of people in climbing gear swarmed some of the most popular climbing rocks in the West. The tiny mountain towns dotting the Sierra Nevada range asked that they go home lest they carry the new coronavirus to rural Inyo and Mono counties, which so far haven’t recorded a single case. The virus could overwhelm Inyo County’s two hospitals, which have fewer than 100 beds between them, the county’s sheriff, Jeff Hollowell, said Wednesday. Dr. Muntu Davis, MD, MPH, Los Angeles County Health Office, right, briefs the media on coronavirus in San Gabriel, Calif., Jan. 31, 2020, as the outbreak reaches Southern California.Those who can’t make it outside have an online alternative to enjoy California’s coming spring. In the tiny desert town of Borrego Springs, which draws throngs of tourists when rains bring a “super bloom” of wildflowers, residents are making videos and photographs of the evolving landscape and posting them on a webpage called “Borrego Outside For People Inside.””We hope it brings people a little bit of diversion, of happiness, a feeling of actually being here,” said Mike McElhatton, program director of the Anza-Borrego Desert Natural History Association. 
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U.S. President Donald Trump is invoking the Defense Production Act, which would allow his administration to force American industry to manufacture medical supplies that are in short supply in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. White House Correspondent Patsy Widakuswara has more.   
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The race to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the United States is placing an unprecedented burden on the country’s cyber infrastructure, potentially making it as vulnerable as it has ever been. At issue are the U.S. government agencies, thousands of businesses and millions of Americans, who suddenly have been forced to telework and rely on the security of their internet connections and good cyber hygiene, to keep businesses and services running. The result, some officials warn, is an opening for anyone who would like to strike a virtual blow. “We’re mindful that our adversaries often see opportunity in situations like these,” a U.S. official told VOA on the condition of anonymity, given the sensitive nature of the subject. Both the FBI and private cybersecurity firms warn the assault is already well underway. “We’re seeing a significant amount of threat in email, leveraging social engineering at scale to do a variety of attacks,” said Sherrod DeGrippo, senior director of threat research and detection at Proofpoint. Watch out for emails claiming to be from the One of the large video screens is checked in the Department of Homeland Security’s National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center in Arlington, Virginia, Aug. 22, 2018. Cyberattack amid a pandemic Those fears were front and center Monday when officials confirmed there had been a “cyber incident” involving networks belonging to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), which has been playing a key role in the government’s coronavirus response. HHS officials say despite the attack, none of their systems have been penetrated and that no information was compromised. Security officials have yet to assign any responsibility for the attack, though they are looking at whether a state actor may be to blame. In the meantime, there is concern that additional attacks, whether targeting the country’s cyber infrastructure, government health agencies or even medical manufacturers, are likely.  “Supply chains are global. So, if you somehow can interfere or affect those supply chains, that causes some issues that we haven’t had to deal with before,” said Stuart Brotman, a fellow in the Science and Technology Innovation Program at The Wilson Center in Washington. “That would have a major impact on being able to confront the virus,” he added. U.S. officials and independent experts admit that for most state actors, such an attack would come with substantial risk, as many countries are also battling the coronavirus pandemic. Rogue actors, like criminal syndicates or North Korea, which has shown a willingness to attack companies like Sony and banks around the world, might be tempted, they say. The bigger concern, though, is that some U.S. adversaries may see this as a chance to ramp up other cyber campaigns, like attempts to meddle in the upcoming presidential election, while U.S. officials focus on stopping the virus’s spread. “Clearly, we are in this critical electoral moment which happens to overlap with COVID-19,” said Brotman. “So, now if you were on the other side trying to figure out how do we create some immediate pain, you would want to take both of those elements and put them together.” Despite the myriad vulnerabilities, U.S. officials are not giving up, encouraging government agencies and the private sector to do what they can to improve their cybersecurity posture. As the #COVID19 situation evolves, many organizations are exploring telework options for staff. Here’s some guidance to help organizations take appropriate #cybersecurity measures: https://t.co/6GboT4YlSp#CoronaViruspic.twitter.com/NB2xKzDTBG— Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (@CISAgov) March 18, 2020“In this kind of condition, where you’re expanding your network, relying more and more on digital connectivity, it’s never too late,” Mark Montgomery, executive director of the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission, told VOA. “The consequences are higher now,” he said. “If they take action now, they still have time to make an impact.”  
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After living in the United States for 15 years, and less than a year after becoming a U.S. citizen, my British-born wife, Joanne, was planning to cast her first ballot in a U.S. election — the March 17 Illinois primary.  Usually, an exciting time for any family.
 
She had planned for this moment for several months by researching newspaper articles, websites, and assorted campaign literature outlining the positions of not just the presidential candidates, but the local candidates in our area.
 
We talked about including in our experience, our three sons, all of whom are still too young to vote.  We wanted their first experience watching democracy in action in the U.S. to be the one where they could witness their mother going through the process for the first time.
 
But as COVID-19 descended upon us, the uncertainty of whether there would even be a primary election in Illinois increased with each passing hour.
 
While there are still no confirmed cases of this strain of the coronavirus in our LaSalle County area, confusion about its impact on the election process began last week when several nursing homes closed access for visitors to their facilities. This began a scramble for election officials to find alternative polling sites.
 
Our polling location — a Knights of Columbus meeting hall near the center of town — was not affected by these changes, but uncertainty grew as first our state, then federal officials, began enacting restrictions on the number of crowds that could gather, and social distancing between people became standard operating procedure.
 
By Sunday night, with the announcement that most schools, churches, bars, restaurants, casinos, movie theaters and other public venues would close altogether, it seemed unlikely the election here could still go on.  
 
Late Monday night, we learned that Ohio was postponing its primary election. And while Illinois did not appear to be following suit, I thought that might change overnight.
 
Scrolling through my newswires and social media feeds early on Election Day, it was clear that voting was in fact still on in Illinois, along with Arizona and Florida.
 
One of the posts in my social media feed that immediately caught my attention was from retired science teacher Joe Jakupcak, who works as a hiking and nature guide at Starved Rock State Park in central Illinois.  “I became eligible to vote on March 31, 1971,” he explained. “Since then, I have not missed a primary, general, runoff, or special election. Today the schools, churches, and libraries are closed. The restaurants and bars are closed. Banks offer no pens or transaction slips. The parks and my job are closed. THE POLLS ARE OPEN!!! I am a prime Boomer target for COVID-19 and a believer in the science I taught for so long. Today I am staying sheltered in place. God willing, I’ll be in line to vote next November.”Evanston residents line up to vote at a polling station at Trinity Lutheran Church, in Evanston, Illinois, March 17, 2020.While Joanne and I were still committed to voting in person, Jakupcak’s post gave me pause.  As I scrolled on, I read pharmacist Elizabeth Thrush’s post.
“So, I just went to vote,” she told her Facebook friends. “The election judges have no sanitizer, gloves or any protections to be dealing with the public all day today. Please don’t go if you’re sick and if you have any extra protection supplies please donate them to the volunteers or bring your own to protect yourself!”
 
The more I read, the more concerned I became.  Voting in person was not something we considered lightly, but after discussing it with my wife, we decided to not take the children with us, and would ensure we maintained distance from other voters.
 
When we arrived at the Knights of Columbus hall, the first noticeable sign was the absence of many cars in the parking lot.
 
We quickly made our way through the entrance to our precinct check-in desk, where an election judge, properly equipped with latex gloves and ample hand sanitizer nearby, took our information. I looked around for other activity, since this location serves about six different local voting precincts. Only one other voter was present during our time there, so maintaining social distance with others wasn’t an issue.We registered our names, received our ballots, and proceeded to the voting booth.  After filling out our forms and making our selections, my wife and I proceeded to the ballot box to submit our votes. I looked at the number on the digital readout of the ballot box that shows how many people voted before us in the precinct. It appeared that we were 21st and 22nd. The election judge helped ensure our ballots were properly submitted, and we took our “I Voted” stickers and left.Our entire experience lasted fewer than 10 minutes. While we didn’t really encounter many people inside the location, the ominous concerns about COVID-19 were present throughout the process.
 
I read later that others in my area had great concerns about the perceived lack of cleaning of voting booths, or lack of availability of safety equipment such as gloves and hand sanitizer.  
 
Later that day, as we watched election returns trickle in, it was clear that the coronavirus had profoundly affected voters all across the state, some of whom had to wait in long lines. There was also confusion with polling locations, and others dealing with precincts where election judges didn’t show up.
 
Early indications showed that in-person voter turnout was down in many locations throughout Illinois this year, but requests for mail-in ballots and early voting reached record highs.
 
While it wasn’t the way Joanne thought her first voting experience would unfold, the decision on how to vote, and when, is a personal one.   
 
We hope to have the opportunity to share the experience with our children in the general election in November, at a time when — hopefully — concerns about COVID-19 have eased, and life and voting are back to normal.
 
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The Treasury Department wants to start issuing direct payments to Americans by early next month as the centerpiece of a $1 trillion plan to stabilize the economy as the coronavirus epidemic threatens a body slam to taxpayers and businesses. In a memorandum issued Wednesday, Treasury is calling for two $250 billion cash infusions to individuals: A first set of checks issued starting April 6, with a second wave in mid-May. The amounts would depend on income and family size.  The Treasury plan, which requires approval by Congress, also recommends $50 billion to stabilize the airlines, $150 billion to issue loan guarantees to other struggling sectors, and $300 billion to for small businesses. The plan appears to anticipate that many of the loans would not be repaid. The details are for the third coronavirus response bill that lawmakers hope to pass next week. It comes as the Senate turned Wednesday to a House-passed coronavirus response bill. The Treasury outline provides a basis for lawmakers to work from in an unprecedented government response and is likely to be broadened to include additional emergency funding for federal agencies. The price tag for the upcoming economic package alone promises to exceed Treasury’s $1 trillion request, a rescue plan not seen since the Great Recession. Trump wants checks sent to the public within two weeks — a huge logistical task — and is urging Congress to pass the eye-popping stimulus package in a matter of days. A more realistic timeframe is next week. The Washington Monument and the U.S. Capitol are seen in Washington, at sunrise, March 18, 2020.As analysts warn the country is surely entering a recession, the government is grappling with an enormous political undertaking with echoes of the 2008 financial crisis.  Wednesday’s legislation would speed the delivery of testing for the virus and provide paid sick leave to workers, but the focus in Washington has already moved to development of a far, far larger response bill that would inject hundreds of billions of dollars into the faltering economy, provide relief to shuttered businesses, and help keep airlines from going under.  Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., walks to the chamber as lawmakers negotiate on the emergency coronavirus response legislation, at the Capitol in Washington, March 18, 2020.At the Capitol on Wednesday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell prepared his colleagues for unprecedented steps to deal with the epidemic’s body slam to the economy.  “I will not adjourn the Senate until we pass a far bolder package,” McConnell said. “We aren’t leaving until we deliver.” But first, McConnell said, the Senate will vote on a House-passed package of sick pay, emergency food and free testing, putting it back on track for Trump’s signature — despite Republican objections over the potential impact on small businesses saddled with a new mandate to pay sick leave — subject to reimbursement from the government. “We’re going to vote to pass the House bill, but it’s imperfections will just make our more comprehensive package more urgent,” McConnell said. Overnight, the White House sent lawmakers a separate $46 billion emergency funding request to boost medical care for military service members and veterans, fund production of vaccines and medicines, build 13 quarantine centers at the southern border for migrants, make federal buildings safer, and reimburse Amtrak for $500 million in anticipated revenue losses, among other purposes. The Trump request also reverses cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health that Trump proposed in his February budget for next year and would create a $3 billion fund for unanticipated needs. Economists doubted that the massive economic rescue package being drafted would enough to stop millions of jobs losses, even if in the short term. Traders at the New York Stock Exchange listen to President Donald Trump’s televised White House news conference, March 17, 2020.The as-yet-unreleased measure is on a par with $700 billion 2008 bank bailout or the nearly $800 billion 2009 recovery act. The White House proposal aims to provide a massive tax cut for wage-earners, $50 billion for the airline industry and $250 billion for small businesses. But nothing is set in concrete, and all the pressure is for the package to keep growing. The amount that would be sent out in checks Americans is also not yet decided. The White House said it liked GOP Sen. Mitt Romney’s idea for $1,000 checks, though not necessarily at that sum and not for wealthier people.  Senate Democrats produced their own $750 billion proposal, which includes $400 billion to shore up hospitals and other emergency operations in response to the global pandemic and $350 billion to bolster the safety net with unemployment checks and other aid to Americans. “The aid has to be workers first,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, not what happened in 2008, when the big banks took precedence. Schumer also said it’s time to call out the National Guard to provide security as communities reel from the crisis. A roster of America’s big and small industries — airlines, hotels, retailers and even casinos — lined up for hoped-for aid.  For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia.  The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover. Still, health officials are urging Americans to stay home to prevent an onslaught of cases that could overwhelm hospitals as happened in Italy, among the countries hardest hit. Flanked by her security detail and aides, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., arrives to update reporters as lawmakers continue work on a coronavirus aid package, on Capitol Hill in Washington, March 12, 2020.House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who marshaled the earlier package through a bipartisan vote last week, fielded a call from Mnuchin on Tuesday morning and another from Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell in the afternoon, encouraged by the Fed chairman’s perspective that Congress could think big with interest rates at nearly zero.  In the call with Mnuchin, she and Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation committee, “emphasized that protecting workers’ paychecks and benefits was their top priority, and that immediate action was needed,” said Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill on Twitter. The debate is sure to revive the sharp divisions over the costly bank bailout and economic recovery of the Obama and Bush eras.  Much about the proposed checks is not known, such as whether the amount would vary by the income of the recipient or whether everyone would get the same sum. Mnuchin said “it’s clear we don’t need to send people who make $1 million a year checks, OK?” Economists from both parties endorsed mailing checks of at least $1,000 to all American households as the quickest way to offset the sharp slowdown in economic activity.  “We need to pay people to stay at home,” said Heidi Shierholz, a senior policy analyst at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal think tank. The group predicted that without a huge stimulus package, the U.S. economy could lose three million jobs by this summer.  Still, some GOP senators were skeptical about the massive aid on the table. “I’m going to be very leery of doing something like in 2008,” said Indiana Republican Sen. Mike Braun.  “Right now, the plan around here is basically to just to start shoveling money out of a helicopter,” said Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb. “This is a bad idea. … We don’t need a policy where Washington, D.C., handpicks winners and losers.”   
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Former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden has taken a commanding lead in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination to oppose Republican President Donald Trump in November’s national election. Biden, in his third run for the U.S. presidency over three decades, easily defeated Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in party primary elections in Florida, Illinois and Arizona on Tuesday, giving him a nearly insurmountable lead in pledged delegates to the party’s national nominating convention in July. After losing 19 of the last 24 state primary votes to Biden, the Sanders campaign said Wednesday he would be “having conversations with supporters to assess his campaign,” but there was no immediate indication that the self-declared democratic socialist was dropping out. FILE – Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders walks away from the podium after speaking to reporters in Burlington, Vermont, March 11, 2020.Instead, Sanders said that in the immediate term he would focus on the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic to ensure “that we take care of working people and the most vulnerable.” Biden won all three primaries on Tuesday by lopsided margins, taking the battleground state of Florida, Trump’s adopted home, by nearly 40 percentage points and Illinois and Arizona by smaller, but still decisive counts. With large public political rallies ended in the U.S. because of the threat posed by the coronavirus, Biden declared in a somber, video-streamed address from his home in the eastern state of Delaware, “We’ve moved closer to securing the Democratic Party’s nomination for president.” Biden, speaking before votes were counted in the western state of Arizona, said he had a broad base of support in Florida and Illinois from African Americans and Latinos, teachers, suburban women, veterans and firefighters. WATCH: Biden Scores Decisive Primary Wins in 3 StatesSorry, but your browser cannot support embedded video of this type, you can
FILE – Voter Fred Hoffman fills out his ballot during the primary election in Ottawa, Illinois, March 17, 2020. The polling station was relocated from a nursing home to a former supermarket due to concerns over the outbreak of coronavirus.Sanders lost the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination to former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who went on to lose to Trump. Sanders has vowed to lead a social and economic revolution, including a massive overhaul of the U.S. health care system with the use of private insurers to pay medical bills to turn it into one fully run by the national government. Biden, the former two-term vice president under President Barack Obama, has argued that voters are more concerned about restoring stability and decency to the White House and seeking practical solutions to problems than the dramatic, revolutionary programs Sanders and his progressive allies are espousing.   Biden said late Tuesday that while he and Sanders may disagree on tactics, they share ground on wanting more affordable health care, reducing income inequality and combating climate change. “Senator Sanders and his supporters have brought a remarkable passion and tenacity to all of these issues,” Biden said. “Together they have shifted the fundamental conversation in this country.”  Trump narrowly won the key battleground state of Florida in 2016 over his Democratic challenger, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and the populous state is expected to be highly contested again this year.   FILE – Jefferson County Elections officials arrive to pack up the polling place at Our Lady of Lourdes church in Wintersville, Ohio, March 17, 2020.Postponed primariesA fourth state, Ohio in the U.S. heartland, had also been set to hold its primary election Tuesday.But the state’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, postponed it hours before public voting was set to start in the face of the growing fears of large numbers of voters and poll workers mingling in close proximity with each other at a time when health officials are urging the exact opposite, to safeguard against contracting the deadly coronavirus.   Ohio is now set to vote in June. It is one of five states, along with Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana and Kentucky, that have postponed a party presidential primary because of the coronavirus pandemic that is causing a historic economic crisis and a shutdown of businesses, schools and sporting events. So far, nearly 6,500 cases of infection and 109 deaths have been reported in the U.S., according to worldometers.info.   
 
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