Tuesday, April 21
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Good morning,
Today we have stories about threats to meatpacking plants and the need to protect workers versus the need to keep supply chains running as well as Georgia’s move to start reopening by Friday and the oil market’s cliff-like downturn yesterday.
Your top local stories
Check out an interactive version of this map on our website.
- In Omaha
- Facebook reportedly took down posts about a quarantine protest in Nebraska on Monday.
- As surrounding communities become national hot spots for coronavirus transmission, experts worry about workers in meatpacking plants who operate in close quarters and large numbers. Already, three workers at a Tyson plant in Council Bluffs have been diagnosed, but Iowa’s governor says the plants must keep running.
- Omaha Public Schools will cut short its school year by one week.
- As Nebraska enters late April, health care officials prepare for the pandemic’s peak in the state.
- Ricketts is not changing his pandemic response plan amid dramatic coronavirus outbreaks in Hall and Dawson counties. Instead, he is easing restrictions, allowing hospitals to perform elective surgeries again.
- The Omaha City Council will meet by Zoom today, its first meeting in a month. If you want to speak, contact the city clerk by noon today.
- Douglas County’s American Sign Language interpreter is an invaluable resource in the fight to stop the virus’ spread.
Around the State- A “dark couple of weeks” are ahead for areas like Grand Island, warns the director of the Central District Health Department.
- The Nebraska GOP went after a challenger to a Ricketts-appointed state senator, accusing her of “going Lincoln,” and straying from Republican ideals.
- Many Nebraskans still waiting for unemployment benefits as the state’s Department of Labor tries to move through two years worth of claims that came in just four weeks.
- A new state database will help people access childcare during the pandemic. The service aims to connect essential workers with hard-hit businesses.
- Gov. Ricketts to hold daily press briefing at 2 p.m. The stream will also have Spanish subtitles.
What to do during quarantine?
From our list of things to do during quarantine:
Explore Nebraska Artists
In sports as in art, you can’t tell the players without a program. Go to Kearney’s estimable Museum of Nebraska Art and search “Collection artists” for a who’s who of Nebraska artists. There’s nothing like putting a name on a face…or a face on a canvas.
What’s happening in the United States?
Georgia will reopen some businesses by Friday
- The decision will allow barbershops, bowling alleys and tattoo parlors to resume operation by the week’s end, despite warnings from health officials.
Trump looks to suspend all immigration to United States
- The president said he made the decision as a way to protect American jobs as the economy begins to reopen, as well as the nation’s health.
Latest unprecedented twist: oil price goes negative
- Yesterday the price of oil dropped to negative $37.63 per gallon. That means if you were buying a few tankers worth, you would have made thousands of dollars. It’s the latest in a series of unfathomable symptoms of coronavirus’ shock to global supply chains and resource markets.
- Congress says the deal is done. The White House says it close. Either way, more relief is coming to small businesses, which exhausted hundreds of billions in relief funds within weeks earlier this month.
What’s happening across the world?
Tracking the 28,000 missing dead
- As countries swell with grim data about the coronavirus, analysis shows there’s still about a large portion of deaths that are unaccounted for.
Check out more coverage online at TheReader.com
The Omaha Reader
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