Over a thousand people marched in Raleigh yesterday protesting Governor Roy Cooper's lockdown order impacting the whole state
SHUTDOWN IS TYRANNY: Ashley Smith, co-founder of ReOpenNC, called the order unconstitutional, saying it was preventing people from pursuing their livelihoods...WRAL
--- ROY COOPER: "We are working to ease restrictions in a responsible way, in a staged way," he said, contending that the restrictions have "saved countless numbers of lives."
--- DAN BISHOP: "The First Amendment is not under a stay-at-home order," Bishop said, noting that a federal judge in Kansas has halted a gubernatorial order there related to gathering for religious services.
DEATH COUNT SPIKES: North Carolina has reported 29 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, the biggest daily total yet during the pandemic...WRAL
DEATH COUNT MAY GIVE INCOMPLETE PICTURE: Without the test results, whether negative or positive, it’s impossible to know how many of these North Carolina residents who died had the virus. And the number of people in North Carolina who died with comparable symptoms, but without any test results recorded, is many times greater than the number whose death certificates say they tested positive...N&O
NIALL FERGUSON: "The East Asian democracies, along with Israel and the smarter Northern European countries, are showing that there is a way to avoid economic lockdowns by mass testing and tech-enabled contact-tracing. The problem is that neither Britain nor America seem anywhere close to either, even as the political pressure mounts, especially in Republican states, for a return to work." BG
GLENN REYNOLDS: "People don’t appreciate being condescended to and bossed around, especially when the leaders ask them for sacrifices without empathy and humility." USA
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COMMUNITY COLLEGE: Uncertain registration and online-only classes to enforce social distancing are resulting in community colleges collecting half their expected revenue. Shortfalls could reach $25 million across the state’s 58 community colleges serving 700,000 students....CJ
NCDOT: The N.C. Department of Transportation will lay off about 300 temporary workers and consultants and delay the start of about 88 major construction projects because of a sharp drop in tax revenue caused by the COVID-19 pandemic...N&O
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FINALLY: Congressional leaders struck a deal with the White House Tuesday to send hundreds of billion of dollars in fresh aid to small businesses and hospitals...WSJ
--- SMALL BUSINESS: Of the $310 billion that will be available for loans, $60 billion will be set aside for small, midsize and community lenders. A separate program, the Economic Injury Disaster Loan fund, aimed at quickly delivering a mix of grants and loans, gets $60 billion in the legislation.
--- HEALTH CARE: Hospitals and health-care providers will receive $75 billion in aid under the legislation to help them cover revenue shortfalls and fund response to the pandemic.
--- TESTING: The $25 billion in funds for manufacturing and purchasing tests will provide $11 billion to states and localities to administer tests and conduct contact tracing.
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