AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
Cases spike in Sunbelt, other states back off on reopening
PHOENIX (AP) — California closed down bars, theaters and indoor restaurant dining all over again across most of the state Wednesday, and Arizona's outbreak grew more severe by nearly every measure, as the surging coronavirus crisis across the South and West sent a shudder through the country.
The run-up in confirmed cases has been blamed in part on what's been called "knucklehead behavior” by Americans not wearing masks or obeying other social-distancing rules as economies reopened from coast to coast over the past two months.
“The bottom line is the spread of this virus continues at a rate that is particularly concerning,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in dramatically expanding the round of closings he announced over the weekend.
The shutdown announcement, which came just ahead of what is expected to be a busy Fourth of July weekend that could fuel the spread of the virus, applies to 19 counties encompassing nearly three-quarters of California's 40 million people, including Los Angeles County.
Confirmed cases in California have increased nearly 50% over the past two weeks, and COVID-19 hospitalizations have gone up 43%. Newsom reported nearly 5,900 new cases and 110 more deaths in 24 hours.
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The Latest: Kansas to hold state fair despite warning
TOPEKA, Kan. — Kansas will hold its state fair in September despite opposition from the state’s top public health official and a recent surge in new coronavirus cases.
The spread of the disease slowed in Kansas from mid-May until mid-June, but it has since had a resurgence, according to health department statistics. The state has reported nearly 15,000 cases and 272 deaths overall.
Dr. Lee Norman, top administrator at the state health department, told the State Fair Board on Tuesday that it would be difficult to enforce mask wearing, social distancing and smaller crowd sizes at a fair, The Hutchinson News reported.
“There will be new cases and it will be dangerous,” Norman said. “We’re going, clearly, in the wrong direction.”
The board nevertheless voted to hold the fair Sept. 11-20 in Hutchinson, with some precautions. Patrons will be required to wear masks at indoor commercial and competitive exhibit spaces, and will be encouraged to wear them elsewhere. Crowds won’t be limited.
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Hollowed out public health system faces more cuts amid virus
The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century.
Marshaled against a virus that has sickened at least 2.6 million in the U.S., killed more than 126,000 people and cost tens of millions of jobs and $3 trillion in federal rescue money, state and local government health workers on the ground are sometimes paid so little, they qualify for public aid.
They track the coronavirus on paper records shared via fax. Working seven-day weeks for months on end, they fear pay freezes, public backlash and even losing their jobs.
Since 2010, spending for state public health departments has dropped by 16% per capita and spending for local health departments has fallen by 18%, according to a KHN and Associated Press analysis of government spending on public health. At least 38,000 state and local public health jobs have disappeared since the 2008 recession, leaving a skeletal workforce for what was once viewed as one of the world’s top public health systems.
KHN, also known as Kaiser Health News, and AP interviewed more than 150 public health workers, policymakers and experts, analyzed spending records from hundreds of state and local health departments, and surveyed statehouses. On every level, the investigation found, the system is underfunded and under threat, unable to protect the nation’s health.
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Analysis: Trump fights to keep a job Dems say he isn't doing
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is asking Americans to let him keep his job. His critics are questioning how much of that job he’s actually doing.
The questions have gotten louder in recent days following revelations that Trump didn’t read at least two written intelligence briefings about Russia paying bounties to the Taliban for the deaths of Americans in Afghanistan.
He also appeared to either downplay or miss repeated warnings about the coronavirus that were included in intelligence briefing s, and he has been reluctant to amplify some of his own government’s recommendations for reducing transmission, including wearing masks.
“He is not doing his job,” said Michael Hayden, the former director of both the CIA and National Security Agency.
Such assessments put Trump in a precarious position four months from Election Day, and risk undercutting the central argument most incumbents make to voters when seeking re-election: Keep me on the job because I’ve proven I can do it.
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Fed minutes show concerns about severity of downturn
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials last month expressed concerns about the severity of the economic downturn triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, saying the drop in economic activity in the spring would likely be the steepest in the post-World War II period.
The minutes of the June 9-10 discussions, which were made public Wednesday, show officials grappling with economic disruptions that had already occurred and noting the crisis was “not falling equally on all Americans.”
The minutes say that Fed officials discussed how the sharp rise in joblessness had been especially severe for lower-wage workers, women, African Americans, and Hispanics.
The Fed's policy-making committee voted 10-0 at the June meeting to keep central bank's benchmark interest rate at a record low near zero and officials expected that it would remain at that ultra-low level through 2022.
In an interview Wednesday with Fox Business Network, President Donald Trump, who was highly critical of Fed Chairman Jerome Powell for much of last year, said Powell has done a good job in dealing with the coronavirus.
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Stonewall Jackson removed from Richmond's Monument Avenue
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Work crews wielding a giant crane, harnesses and power tools wrested an imposing statue of Gen. Stonewall Jackson from its concrete pedestal along Richmond, Virginia's famed Monument Avenue on Wednesday, just hours after the mayor ordered the removal of all Confederate statues from city land.
Mayor Levar Stoney's decree came weeks after Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam ordered the removal of the most prominent and imposing statue along the avenue: that of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee, which sits on state land. The removal of the Lee statue has been stalled pending the resolution of two lawsuits.
Work crews spent several hours carefully attaching a harness to the massive Stonewall Jackson statue and using power tools to detach it from its base. A crowd of several hundred people who had gathered to watch cheered as a crane lifted the figure of the general atop his horse into the air and set it aside.
“This is long overdue,” said Brent Holmes, who is Black. “One down, many more to go."
Eli Swann, who has lived in Richmond for 24 years, said he felt “an overwhelming sense of gratitude” to witness the removal of the statue after he and others have spent weeks demonstrating and calling for it and others to be taken down. He said that as a Black man, he found it offensive to have so many statues glorifying Confederate generals for “fighting against us.”
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AP PHOTOS: NYC's restaurants get creative for street eating
NEW YORK (AP) — Street food doesn’t usually look like this.
Outdoor dining has bloomed around New York City in the last couple of weeks, as restaurants forced to close earlier this year because of the coronavirus try to find a way to get back onto their feet, even by a little bit. Tables have popped up on sidewalks and in parking spots, protected from traffic by makeshift walls, planters and even picket fences.
City officials say 6,600 food and dining establishments have applied for permits to be able to serve their customers outside. Outdoor dining started being allowed on June 22, as part of the second phase of reopening in New York City.
But indoor dining, which had been expected to start on July 6, will be delayed indefinitely in New York City. Local and state officials say the fear is allowing diners back inside restaurants will lead to a surge in virus cases, as has been seen in other states.
Indoor dining is allowed in other parts of New York state.
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Background checks, a metric for gun sales, hit all-time high
Historic numbers of background checks to purchase or possess a firearm were done in June, a trend in a year marked by uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic, a subsequent economic recession, protests over racial injustice and calls to reduce police funding.
FBI numbers released Wednesday show that 3.9 million background checks were conducted last month, the most since the system was created in November 1998 to ensure felons and other prohibited people could not buy or possess a firearm. The previous monthly record came in March, when 3.7 million checks were done. Each week in June is now in the top 10 weeks for background checks.
Halfway through 2020, just over 19 million checks have been done, more than all of 2012 and each of the years before that.
Background checks are the key barometer of gun sales, but the FBI’s monthly figures also incorporate checks for permits that some states require to carry a firearm. Each background check also could be for the sale of more than one gun.
Firearm sales traditionally increase during presidential election years, fueled by fears among gun owners that the next president could restrict their rights. But this year has seen a series of previously unheard-of numbers as one crisis after another has emerged: the coronavirus, demonstrations over racial inequality and police brutality, as well as deep political divisions among Americans.
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Seattle cops dismantle 'occupied' zone, arrest more than 30
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle police turned out in force early Wednesday at the city's “occupied” protest zone, tore down demonstrators' encampments and used bicycles to herd the protesters after the mayor ordered the area cleared following two fatal shootings in less than two weeks.
Television images showed police, many in riot gear, confronting dozens of protesters at the “Capitol Hill Occupied Protest” zone that was set up near downtown following the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
Wearing helmets and wielding batons and rifles, officers converged on the area at dawn. Officers stood shoulder-to-shoulder on several streets while others created a makeshift fence with their bicycles, using it to push protesters back away from the center of the zone.
As residents of the neighborhood near the city's downtown watched from balconies, police cleared out the protesters' tents from a park within the zone and made sure no one was left in the park's bathrooms. At one point, a loud bang was heard in the park, followed by a cloud of smoke.
One protest organizer, Derrek Allen Jones II, said some demonstrators attempted to stay put but were surprised by the early intervention by officers who were “trampling everything I seen in sight, flipping tables.”
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Man charged with conspiring to hide kids' bodies in his yard
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Prosecutors accused a man of conspiring with his new wife to keep the bodies of her children hidden on his rural Idaho property, adding to the charges he faces in the strange case that involves the couple's doomsday beliefs and the mysterious deaths of their former spouses.
In new charges filed Tuesday evening, prosecutors say Chad Daybell conspired with wife Lori Vallow Daybell to keep hiding the bodies of 7-year-old Joshua “JJ” Vallow and 17-year-old Tylee Ryan because they knew the remains would likely be used as evidence in a court case.
The children vanished in September and a search for them spanned months before their bodies were found last month in Chad Daybell's backyard. It's not clear how the kids died or who caused their deaths.
Chad Daybell is already in jail on previous charges that he buried or helped bury the kids, first dismembering and burning Tylee's body in an apparent attempt to hide the remains. He has pleaded not guilty to those charges and is being held on $1 million bail.
Lori Daybell is also charged with conspiring to hide the remains and is being held on $1 million bail. She was charged earlier this year with abandoning the children, obstructing the investigation into their disappearance and asking a friend to lie to police on her behalf. She has not yet entered a plea in either case.