AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EDT
States retreat as confirmed virus cases hit all-time high
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas and Florida reversed course and clamped down on bars again Friday in the nation's biggest retreat yet as the number of confirmed coronavirus infections per day in the U.S. surged to an all-time high of 40,000.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott ordered all bars closed, while Florida banned alcohol at such establishments. The two states joined the small but growing list of those that are either backtracking or putting any further reopenings of their economies on hold because of a comeback by the virus, mostly in the South and West.
Health experts have said a disturbingly large number of cases are being seen among young people who are going out again, often without wearing masks or observing other social-distancing rules.
“It is clear that the rise in cases is largely driven by certain types of activities, including Texans congregating in bars,” Abbott said.
Abbott had pursued up to now one of the most aggressive reopening schedules of any governor. The Republican not only resisted calls to order the wearing of masks but also refused until last week to let local governments take such measures.
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Coronavirus task force briefs — but not at White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — There was no presidential appearance and no White House backdrop Friday when the government's coronavirus task force briefed the public for the first since April — in keeping with an administration effort to show it's paying attention to the latest spike in cases but not on a wartime footing that should keep the country from reopening the economy.
The briefing at the Department of Health and Human Services was held as the number of confirmed new coronavirus infections per day in the U.S. soared to an all-time high of 40,000 — higher even than during the deadliest stretch in April and May. In light of the new surge, task force briefers chose their words carefully to update the public about COVID-19, which has become both a public health and political issue.
Vice President Mike Pence had the most delicate line to walk. He acknowledged a surge in new cases across the South and West, while backing the president’s desire to get the economy up and running without mentioning that it will also help the prospects for reelection.
“As we see new cases rising, and we’re tracking them very carefully, there may be a tendency among the American people to think that we are back to the place that we were two months ago — in a time of great losses and a great hardship on the American people," Pence said.
But the vice president also took note of positive job numbers and added: “The reality is we’re in a much better place.”
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Facebook to label all rule-breaking posts - even Trump's
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook said Friday that it will flag all "newsworthy" posts from politicians that break its rules, including those from President Donald Trump.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg had previously refused to take action against Trump posts suggesting that mail-in ballots will lead to voter fraud, saying that people deserved to hear unfiltered statements from political leaders. Twitter, by contrast, slapped a “get the facts” label on them.
“The policies we’re implementing today are designed to address the reality of the challenges our country is facing and how they’re showing up across our community,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page announcing the changes.
Zuckerberg said the social network is taking additional steps to counter election-related misinformation. In particular, the social network will begin adding new labels to all posts about voting that will direct users to authoritative information from state and local election officials.
Facebook is also banning false claims intended to discourage voting, such as stories about federal agents checking legal status at polling places. The company also said it is increasing its enforcement capacity to remove false claims about local polling conditions in the 72 hours before the U.S. election.
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Stocks sink as virus cases jump, forcing states to backtrack
Stocks on Wall Street fell sharply Friday as confirmed new coronavirus infections in the U.S. hit an all-time high, prompting Texas and Florida to reverse course on the reopening of businesses.
The combination injected new jitters into a market that's been mostly riding high since April on hopes that the economy will recover from a deep recession as businesses open doors and Americans begin to feel more confident that they can leave their homes again.
The S&P 500 dropped 2.4%, giving up all of its gains after a rally the day before. The sell-off capped a choppy week of trading that erased the benchmark index's gains for the month. Even so, the S&P 500 is still on pace for its best quarter since 1998.
The surge in the number of confirmed new coronavirus cases prompted Texas and Florida to reverse course and clamp down on bars again. The two states join a small but growing list of those that are either backtracking or putting any further reopenings of their economies on hold because of a resurgence of the virus.
“That certainly calls into question how vigorous this recovery will be,” said Bill Northey, senior investment director at U.S. Bank Wealth Management. “We have to acknowledge there’s a high degree of uncertainty about how this is going to progress for the balance of the year.”
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As virus grows, governors rely on misleading hospital data
Governors in places seeing huge spikes in coronavirus infections often cite statewide data to assure the public they have plenty of hospital capacity to survive the onslaught, even as the states routinely miss the critical benchmarks to guide their pandemic response.
Public health officials and experts say the heavy reliance on statewide hospital data is a misleading and sometimes irresponsible metric to justify keeping a state open or holding back on imposing new limits.
That is because statewide statistics can be deceiving, especially in large states where individual hospitals can be in crisis mode even while the overall capacity numbers look OK.
Thomas LaVeist, dean of the Tulane School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans, said basing pandemic and reopening policy on statewide hospital bed capacity ’’is incredibly irresponsible.”
“To cherry-pick hospital capacity and to use that one metric without the context of number of cases, number of deaths, is shocking,” LaVeist said.
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2 dead, 1 hurt in Illinois warehouse shooting; suspect dead
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Two employees were killed and another was critically injured Friday morning at a warehouse in central Illinois, all apparently shot by a coworker who was found fatally shot in his car later in the day, police said.
Police Chief Kenny Winslow said the shooting happened shortly after 11 a.m. at the Bunn-O-Matic facility in Springfield. Winslow said the bodies of the two employees were found by police officers searching the building.
A female employee was found injured in the parking lot and was rushed to a hospital, he said.
The sheriff of nearby Morgan County called the chief's office later in the day to say the suspect's body had been found in his car, a victim of a gunshot wound, Winslow said.
Winslow identified the gunman as 48-year-old Michael L. Collins of Springfield.
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Democrats renew health care attacks on GOP as virus builds
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are intensifying their attacks on President Donald Trump and his Republican allies over health care, hoping that an issue that helped lift the party during the 2018 midterms will prove even more resonant during a public health crisis.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, told an audience in the swing state of Pennsylvania this week that efforts to undermine the Affordable Care Act were “cruel” and “callous.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Trump “beyond stupid” for trying to roll back the law and introduced legislation that would expand the scope of the overhaul, essentially daring Republicans to vote against it.
The health care law has been a flashpoint in American politics since its enactment a decade ago. Once a cudgel Republicans used against Democrats, the tables have turned as the law — and its protection for preexisting conditions — has become more popular. Democrats believe that their advantage on the issue will only grow as the Trump administration renews its push to nullify the law even as coronavirus infections surge.
“Trying to take away health care in the middle of a pandemic is like throwing out the sandbags during a hurricane,” said Jesse Ferguson, a longtime Democratic strategist. “The pandemic has made clear for people how important it is to them that their neighbors have health care. It’s no longer a nicety that others have health care; it’s now a necessity.”
Still, the Trump administration filed a brief Thursday urging the Supreme Court to strike down the health care law in its entirety, in support of a lawsuit brought by Texas and other conservative states against it. The brief came on a day that the U.S. saw a record number of new coronavirus cases, with 37,077 reported Thursday.
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Appeals court: Trump wrongly diverted $2.5B for border wall
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the Trump administration in its transfer of $2.5 billion from military construction projects to build sections of the U.S. border wall with Mexico, ruling it illegally sidestepped Congress, which gets to decide how to use the funds.
In two opinions, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals agreed with a coalition of border states and environmental groups that contended the money transfer was unlawful and that building the wall would pose environmental threats.
The rulings were the latest twist in the legal battle that has largely gone Trump’s way. Last July, the Supreme Court allowed the $2.5 billion to be spent while the litigation continued, blunting the impact of the latest appeals court action.
The administration has already awarded much of the money, including a $1.3-billion job in Arizona that was announced last month. Trump visited Yuma, Arizona, on Tuesday to mark completion of the 200th mile of border wall during his administration, much of it with the transferred military funds that the 9th Circuit panel found illegal.
After the $2.5 billion transfer of military funds, the Pentagon diverted another $3.6 billion that an appeals court in New Orleans ruled in January could be spent.
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Latin America's critical food markets fuel virus spread
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico City's main wholesale market detects dozens of coronavirus cases every week. A covered food market in Venezuela was the source of one of the largest outbreaks in the country. And every single merchant in a vast market in Peru has tested positive for the virus.
As the coronavirus pandemic swamps countries from Mexico to Argentina, public health officials are struggling to contain outbreaks seeded at Latin America’s iconic covered food markets, a beloved, essential feature of life in the region — and a near-perfect setting for spreading the disease.
With hundreds of millions relying on such markets for their food and livelihoods, officials are debating whether and how they can operate safely. With inconsistent testing, huge gaps in health coverage, poorly enforced social distancing measures and widespread inequality, many Latin American countries are seeing large and rising numbers of new cases daily, making the region one of the hardest-hit in the world.
Mexico City’s massive Central de Abasto is an approximately 3-square-kilometer (1-square-mile) compound of lots, warehouses, loading bays and wholesale outlets that is the main depot for getting fruit, vegetables and other produce to about 20 million consumers in the metropolitan area. Its labyrinthine hallways are crowded with 90,000 workers and up to 300,000 customers each day.
The market has recorded 690 confirmed coronavirus cases, with a peak of over 200 cases per week in May. But it installed its own testing center and triage area and instituted contact tracing long before the city itself did, and the weekly number of new cases has since fallen to about 60 or 70, said its director, Hector Garcia Nieto.
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St. Louis rapper Huey killed in shooting in Missouri
KINLOCH, Mo. (AP) — A St. Louis rapper who went by the stage name Huey was killed in a shooting that also wounded another man, authorities say.
St. Louis County police said in a news release that the shooting happened just before 11 p.m. Thursday in Kinloch.
Police identified the man who was killed as 32-year-old Lawrence Franks Jr., known by fans as Huey. The Kinloch native was best known in the rap community for his 2006 debut single, “Pop, Lock & Drop It. It eventually reached the No. 6 spot on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The music video has more than 50 million hits on YouTube.
A 21-year-old man who was wounded in the shooting remained hospitalized Friday with non-life threatening injuries.
Police said in a news release that detectives believe as many as 10 other people where there when the shooting happened.