Excessive heat warnings began going into effect in California on Friday as forecasters predicted that high pressure building over the western U.S. would send temperatures soaring to dangerous levels during the long Labor Day weekend.Initial warnings issued for Southern California’s valleys, mountains and deserts were expected to expand out to the coast and into Northern California by Saturday.A “brutally hot” four days are in store, the National Weather Service wrote.Downtown Los Angeles was forecast to reach 107 degrees (41.6 Celsius) on Saturday and 108 on Sunday (42.2 Celsius). Napa in the wine country could reach 113 degrees (45 Celsius), and Palm Springs could reach 120 (48.8 Celsius).Fleeing to beaches, mountainsThe forecasts brought calls for Californians to conserve electricity and raised concerns that people flocking to beaches or mountains to escape the heat could spread the coronavirus.The rush was already on in the popular San Bernardino National Forest east of Los Angeles, where high elevations and lakes offer respite.”I got a note that most of the campgrounds in the San Bernardino mountain range are already full and I expect them to be completely full within the hour,” forest spokesman Zach Behrens said at midmorning Friday.The California Independent System Operator, which runs California’s power grid, issued a “Flex Alert” for the hours of 3 p.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday through Monday, asking people to conserve power by not using washing machines and other appliances during the period and keeping their air conditioners at 78 degrees (25.5 Celsius) or above.”We’re not forecasting any blackouts” at the moment because of the heat, but the power system could be strained by unforeseen problems, such as a fire that disrupts a power line, Cal ISO Operations Vice President Eric Schmitt said.Cal ISO also ordered power generators to postpone routine maintenance and restore any out-of-service transmission lines.Surfers walk out of the Pacific Ocean on the first day of a record heat wave, amid the global outbreak of coronavirus disease, in Hermosa Beach, near Los Angeles, Calif., Sept. 4, 2020.Governor Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency Thursday night, temporarily suspending certain pollution regulations and permit requirements for power plants so that they can produce more electricity.The power concern follows a mid-August heat wave that strained the grid to the point where Cal ISO ordered utilities to implement brief rolling blackouts for the first time since 2001. Officials said customers’ conservation significantly helped.”It was an important factor indeed,” Schmitt said. “We’re asking for that kind of support again as we go into this weekend.”The heat also was expected to hike ozone levels, resulting in poor air quality throughout a Southern California area that is home to nearly 20 million people, air regulators warned. Bay Area air quality was also expected to suffer again from wildfire smoke.Authorities, meanwhile, hoped to prevent a surge in COVID-19 infections that could occur if people engage in traditional Labor Day weekend activities.Labor Day holidaygoers were urged to wear masks and avoid large gatherings.Infection spikesCOVID-19 infections spiked in many counties after the Memorial Day weekend and again over the Fourth of July weekend as people held social gatherings or packed recreational areas.Los Angeles County, the nation’s most populous, did not plan to close beaches. But health authorities warned that could happen if they become too crowded, and masks will be required when people are out of the water.Up the coast, Santa Barbara County planned to allow use of the water and active uses of the beach such as running or walking but no sunbathing. Monterey County said people could cross the sand to reach the water but otherwise barred the use of beaches.Such measures were not in place on the entire coast. Surfing mecca Huntington Beach, for example, was keeping its famous shoreline fully open.FILE – Retired teacher Charles Christianson, 67, returns to his destroyed home after a wildfire in Guerneville, Calif., Aug. 25, 2020.The brewing heat wave was also expected to bring another challenge to thousands of firefighters who have been making progress on numerous wildfires, including massive complexes of multiple fires ignited by lightning last month in the San Francisco Bay Area and wine country.The fires have destroyed nearly 3,300 structures, including homes, and there have been eight deaths.The high-pressure system could produce hot, gusty winds that along with the heat will produce “elevated or near-critical fire weather,” according to a weather service forecast for Southern California.Novice campersIn the San Bernardino National Forest, fire crews will be on 24-hour shifts and extra crews also will be placed where they can quickly respond.Behrens, the forest spokesman, said that with few things to do during the pandemic, people have been flocking to the mountains all summer. Many have never camped before, putting a strain on rangers to keep things under control.Illegal campfires and barbecues outside specifically designated sites were a particular concern. Behrens said rangers planned to be out in force all weekend on “marshmallow patrols.”
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Americans headed into Labor Day weekend — the unofficial end to the Lost Summer of 2020 — amid warnings from public health experts that backyard parties, crowded bars and other gatherings could cause the coronavirus to come surging back.”I look upon the Labor Day weekend really as a critical point,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious-disease expert. “Are we going to go in the right direction and continue the momentum downward, or are we going to have to step back a bit as we start another surge?”The rise in infections, deaths and hospitalizations over the summer, primarily in the South and West, was blamed in part on Americans behaving heedlessly over Memorial Day and July Fourth.A waiter in a face mask delivers food to the tables outside of a local restaurant during lunch in Hoboken, N.J., Sept. 4, 2020.The landscape has improved in recent weeks, with the numbers headed in the right direction in hard-hit states like Florida, Arizona and Texas, but there are certain risk factors that could combine with Labor Day: Children are going back to school, university campuses are seeing soaring case counts, college football is starting, more businesses are open, and flu season is around the corner.And a few states are heading into the holiday with less room in hospitals than they had over Memorial Day and the Fourth of July. Alabama, for example, had about 800 people hospitalized with the virus on July 1. This week, it has just under 1,000.More beaches will be open on Labor Day than on Memorial Day, but Fauci said that is not cause in itself for concern, as long as people keep their distance.”I would rather see someone on a beach, being physically separated enough, than someone crowded in an indoor bar,” he said.The outbreak is blamed for about 187,000 deaths and almost 6.2 million confirmed infections in the U.S., by far the highest totals in the world. Cases of COVID-19, which spiked from about 20,000 per day to around 70,000 during the summertime surge in the South, are now down to about 40,000.Dr. Albert Ko, a Yale University epidemiologist, said he is concerned about students heading back to school across the nation next week after coming back from holiday travel and a weekend of social gatherings.”Any transmission events that happen here could be amplified unless we’re careful about it,” Ko said. “Whether it’s going to be a perfect storm, l don’t think so. People are aware of the risk, and people have been socially distancing. But this is certainly a concern.” 
 
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The Pentagon has ordered the military’s independent newspaper, Stars and Stripes, to cease publication at the end of the month, despite congressional efforts to continue funding the century-old publication.The order to halt publication by September 30, and dissolve the organization by the end of January, follows the Pentagon’s move earlier this year to cut the $15.5 million in funding for the paper from the Defense Department budget. And it is a reflection of the Trump administration’s broader animosity for the media and members of the press.Members of Congress have objected to the defunding move for months. And senators sent a letter to Defense Secretary Mark Esper this week urging him to reinstate the money. The letter signed by 15 senators — including Republicans and Democrats — also warns Esper that the department is legally prohibited from canceling a budget program while a temporary continuing resolution to fund the federal government is in effect.”Stars and Stripes is an essential part of our nation’s freedom of the press that serves the very population charged with defending that freedom,” the senators said in the letter.’Valued’ paperSenator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, in a separate letter to Esper in late August, also voiced opposition to the move, calling Stripes “a valued ‘hometown newspaper’ for the members of the armed forces, their families and civilian employees across the globe.” He added that “as a veteran who has served overseas, I know the value that the Stars and Stripes brings to its readers.”In the memo, the department says Esper made the decision as a result of his department-wide budget review. Signed by Army Colonel Paul Haverstick, acting director of the Pentagon’s Defense Media Activity, the memo says plans to close the paper are due on September 15 and the last newspaper is to be published on September 30.The memo adds that if the paper continues to be funded by either a continuing resolution “or other unforeseen circumstances,” then Stripes must submit a plan by September 15 to shut down at the end of the next budget year, September 30, 2021. Haverstick’s memo says that in that case, the last date for publication of the newspaper will be determined based on budget or other circumstances.The Stripes ombudsman, Ernie Gates, told The Associated Press on Friday that shutting the paper down “would be fatal interference and permanent censorship of a unique First Amendment organization that has served U.S. troops reliably for generations.”Long historyThe first newspaper called Stars and Stripes was very briefly produced in 1861 during the Civil War, but the paper began consistent publication during World War I. When the war was over, publication ended, only to restart in 1942 during World War II, providing wartime news written by troops specifically for troops in battle.Although the paper gets funding from the Defense Department, it is editorially independent and is delivered in print and digitally to troops all over the world.The Pentagon proposed cutting the paper’s funding when making its budget request earlier this year, triggering angry reactions from members of Congress.The House-passed version of the Pentagon budget contains funding for the paper’s publication, but the Senate has not yet finalized a defense funding bill.
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The U.S. unemployment rate fell sharply in August to 8.4% from 10.2% even as hiring slowed, with employers adding the fewest jobs since the pandemic began.  
 
Employers added 1.4 million jobs, the Labor Department said Friday, down from 1.7 million in July. The U.S. economy has recovered about half the 22 million jobs lost to the pandemic.  
 
Friday’s report from the Labor Department added to evidence that nearly six months after the coronavirus paralyzed the country, the economy is mounting only a fitful recovery. From small businesses to hotels, restaurants, airlines and entertainment venues, a wide spectrum of companies are struggling to survive the loss of customers with confirmed viral cases still high.  
 
After an epic collapse in the spring, when the economy shrank at a roughly 30% annual rate, growth has been rebounding as states have reopened at least parts of their economies. Yet the recovery remains far from complete.
 
Many economists think significant hiring may be hard to sustain because employers are operating under a cloud of uncertainty about the virus. Daily confirmed case counts have fallen from 70,000 in June to about 40,000. The decline has leveled off in the past week and the viral caseload remains higher than it was in May and June.
 
As a result activities like restaurant dining and air travel are still far below pre-pandemic levels. Most economists say a meaningful economic recovery will likely be impossible until the coronavirus is brought under control, most likely from the widespread use of a vaccine.  
 
The United States keeps regaining more of the jobs that vanished when the viral pandemic flattened the economy early this spring. Yet so deep were the layoffs that began in March that millions of Americans remain burdened by job losses that might prove permanent.
 
Economists have forecast that employers added 1.4 million jobs in August and that the unemployment rate fell from 10.2% to 9.8%, according to a survey by data provider FactSet. That rate would still be just below the peak unemployment level of the 2008-2009 Great Recession.  
 
The Labor Department will issue the August jobs report at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time Friday.
 
While a monthly gain above 1 million would show that some businesses are still willing to add workers, it would take many months to return to pre-pandemic job levels even if that pace could be sustained. And many economists think hiring is slowing. The economy still has roughly 13 million fewer jobs than it did when the coronavirus struck in March.  
 
Friday’s jobs data will be the second-to-last employment report _ for most voters, the most visible barometer of the economy _ before Election Day, Nov. 3. President Donald Trump faces the daunting task of seeking re-election in the worst economic downturn since the 1930s. Yet voters in surveys have generally given him higher marks on the economy than they have on other aspects of his presidency.
 
The jobs report coincides with growing signs that more companies are  making permanent job cuts rather than temporary furloughs. That trend could keep the unemployment rate persistently high. It is typically harder for an unemployed worker to find a new job at a new company or in a new industry than to return to a previous employer.  
 
Casino and hotel operator MGM Resorts, slammed by declines in travel and tourism, said last week that it’s eliminating 18,000 jobs. Coca Cola, which derives half its sales from stadiums, theaters and other venues that have been largely shut down, is offering buyouts to 4,000 employees. Salesforce said it is cutting 1,000 jobs. Bed, Bath & Beyond will shed 2,800.  
 
A Federal Reserve report this week based on anecdotal reports from businesses found “rising instances of furloughed workers being laid off permanently as demand remained soft.”
 
Roughly 29 million Americans are receiving state unemployment aid, although their total benefits, on average, have shrunk by more than half since the expiration of a $600-a-week federal supplement more than a month ago. The Trump administration has set up a program that will provide some of the unemployed with $300 a week.
 
But new rules and requirements will make many of the unemployed ineligible. Only people who receive at least $100 a week in state unemployment aid will qualify for the $300 federal supplement – a requirement that could exclude at least 850,000 Americans.  
 
The ongoing job losses and economic slump have left a rising share of Americans out of work for longer periods. From June to July, the number of people who were unemployed for 15 weeks or longer tripled to more than 6 million.  
One consequence is that rising stress and anxiety are evident at therapists’ offices and mental health hotlines around the country. Calls from March through July to the U.S. government-funded Disaster Distress Helpline, which offers counseling and emotional support,  surged 335% from the same period last year.
 
And half of U.S. adults reported at least some signs of depression, such as hopelessness, feelings of failure or an inability to derive pleasure from daily activities, in a survey published Wednesday in the medical journal JAMA Network Open. That amounted to twice the rate from a survey two years ago.
 
“Not many days go by where I don’t have a couple where one partner or both are not working or furloughed,” said Todd Creager, a therapist in Southern California who treats mostly middle- to upper-middle-class adults.
 
What’s more, the economy appears to be operating on two tracks, resulting in an uneven and unequal recovery. Manufacturers are enjoying a solid rebound in demand for cars, appliances and electronics, with factory orders nearly back to pre-pandemic levels.  
 
Home sales are also booming. So are home prices. Sales of existing homes surged by the most on record in July and are now nearly 9% higher than a year ago.  
 
In addition, wealthier and well-educated workers have been far less likely to lose jobs to the pandemic than lower-income and minority workers have, in part because of a greater ability to work from home.  
 
The coronavirus has also reshaped much of the consumption of affluent households: While spending less on restaurants and at shops and movie theaters, they are buying new homes to gain more space or renovating their houses to serve as workplaces as well as homes. 
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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is getting heat over a solo hair salon visit in San Francisco at a time when California businesses are limited by concern over coronavirus.But Pelosi’s spokesman said she was complying with the rules as presented to her by eSalon SF.
“This business offered for the Speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business,” said spokesman Drew Hammill in a statement. “The Speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment.”
Footage aired by Fox News Channel shows Pelosi, her mask around her neck rather than on her face, walking through the establishment. A stylist follows her, wearing a mask.
The salon owner said she rents chairs to stylists, one of whom let her know in advance that Pelosi wanted a wash and a blow dry. California guidelines on salons vary by county, but San Francisco officials have not yet permitted indoor salons to open. The owner said she considered the service “a slap in the face” to business owners who have been forced to close.
Conservatives pounced, casting Pelosi as a hypocrite.
“Speaker Pelosi has pushed policies that would keep our economy closed and our small businesses shut down. But for herself?” Senate Republicans tweeted. “A salon visit whenever she pleases.”
Pelosi says Republicans could help create the conditions to safely reopen if they would only “listen to the scientists.”
“Republicans are rejecting the funding needed for testing and tracing to crush the virus and safely reopen schools and the economy,” she wrote in a letter Friday to her Democratic colleagues.
 
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The mayor of Rochester, in the U.S. state of New York, has suspended seven police officers in connection with the suffocation death of an African American man apprehended in March.Mayor Lovely Warren suspended the officers Thursday. The victim, Daniel Prude, can be seen in video taken by an officer’s body camera completely naked as he sat on the ground in a light snow with his hands cuffed behind him.Warren said the police had misled her for months about the circumstances surrounding Prude’s death. She said Police Chief La’Ron Singletary had led her to believe that Prude’s death was the result of a drug overdose. The mayor said the video was “entirely different” from the chief’s depiction.Singletary has denied a cover-up.The video was released Wednesday because the Prude family had submitted a public records request.The U.S. has been roiled by protests because of a series of deaths of African American men and women in police custody.Prude had been having mental health issues. He lived in Chicago but was visiting his brother in Rochester. His brother, Joe, had him admitted to a hospital for an evaluation hours before the police encounter. After his release from the hospital, he went back to his brother’s house where he once again began displaying erratic behavior and left.The few clothes he had on when he left the house were gone by the time the police encountered him, after receiving calls from his brother and other people.The police say once they restrained Prude, he began to spit, and so they placed a spit sock over his head, a hood that covered his head and prevented Prude from spitting on the police.Prude immediately asked for the hood to be removed and asked for a gun. When he tried to get off the ground, police were seen in the video rushing to him and pushing his face into the ground. Eventually, his pleas to remove the hood stopped. When police asked him a question, there was no reply. He died seven days later when he was taken off life support.Mayor Warren said Prude “was failed by the police department, our mental health care system, our society, and he was failed by me.”The medical examiner ruled Prude’s death a homicide caused by “complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint.”New York Attorney General Letitia James is investigating the case.
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