| Daily Digest for March 25, 2020
| | Posted at 6:45 a.m. by Cody Nelson |
|
|
|
Good morning and welcome to the middle of the week. For daily updates, subscribe to the Minnesota Today podcast. Here’s your Digest: White House, Senate agree to $2 trillion coronavirus rescue package "The Trump administration and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced early Wednesday that the White House and Senate had reached a deal for an unprecedented $2 trillion spending package aimed at propping up individuals, businesses and the nation's health care system amid the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic."
Back to business by Easter? President Trump has toned down comments he made on Fox News that concerned public health experts. He said Tuesday that he "would love to have the country opened up and just raring to go by Easter ... I want to assure Americans that we have a team of public health experts ... also economists and other professionals working to develop a sophisticated plan to reopen the economy as soon as the time is right, one based on the best science, the best modeling and the best medical research there is anywhere on earth."
Gov. Tim Walz's assessment on COVID-19 is more in line with that of the experts. “There is no doubt that this is going to take some time,” Walz said. “It's going to be well beyond Easter (April 12), and I don't think it does us any good to pretend that it's not.” He didn't issue a shelter-in-place order, but said it could last multiple months if it does come.
State legislators are meeting Thursday to work on a coronavirus response bill. Via MinnPost : "In preparation for a one-day session of the Minnesota Legislature, members of the state House from both parties have been holding what are termed “informal” conference calls in working groups that match the Legislature’s existing committee structure. These meetings, in which DFL members of the working groups meet on their own followed by each group’s Republican members, were held without public notice and without the ability for the public or news media to listen in or take part. By splitting up the telephone gatherings by party, lawmakers were able to avoid triggering House rules on open meetings."
We'll see what happens when they meet Thursday, then.
Northeastern Minnesota is responding to COVID-19 in its own way, too. MPR News' Dan Kraker reports: "The Cook County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday unanimously approved a travel advisory at its meeting in Grand Marais, Minn., requesting that seasonal or second homeowners stay home — for the time being. 'Due to our very limited health care infrastructure, please do not visit us now,' the advisory reads."
And no, you can't sell hand sanitizer for $60 an ounce. From MPR News' Matt Sepic: "Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison says his office began its enforcement efforts immediately after Gov. Tim Walz's executive order banning price-gouging on essential goods during the COVID-19 peacetime emergency went into effect Saturday. Ellison said so far, his office has received more than 300 price-gouging complaints on goods and services . Those include toilet paper, rice, cleaning products, face masks, eggs, butter and water. Ellison's office has made more than 70 visits to Minnesota retailers during the past four day to check prices and investigate complaints of price-gouging."
| |
|
|
|
|
|
