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UNDATED (AP) — South Korea has reported 18 new cases of the coronavirus, its lowest daily jump since Feb. 20, continuing a downward trend as officials discuss more sustainable forms of social distancing that allows for some communal and economic activity.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — More than a dozen Iowa elected officials implored Tyson Fresh Meats to close their Waterloo pork processing plant, saying the coronavirus is spreading among workers and is endangering not only employees of the plant but the entire community. Mayors, county officials and state legislators signed the letter that was sent to Tyson on Thursday. The 19 officials said at a Friday news conference they had only received confirmation from the company that it had received the letter but no other action .The officials also accused Gov. Kim Reynolds of misleading Iowans on the seriousness of the outbreak and for failure to take action to close the plant.
UNDATED (AP) — A growing number of protests are being staged across the U.S. to oppose stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus pandemic. In places like Oklahoma, Texas and Virginia, small-government groups, supporters of President Donald Trump, anti-vaccine advocates and others have united behind a deep suspicion of efforts to shut down daily life to slow the spread of the coronavirus. As their frustration grows, they’ve started to openly defy the social distancing rules to put pressure on governors to ease them. Some of the protests have been small events, promoted via recently created Facebook groups. Others are backed by groups with ties to Trump.
NEW YORK (AP) — Democratic lawmakers want police departments to be vigilant about any racially biased policing during the coronavirus pandemic, as people in communities of color express fears of being profiled while wearing masks or other face coverings in public. Sen. Kamala Harris of California and other Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee sent a letter Friday to Attorney General William Barr and FBI Director Christopher Wray. In it they urge federal law enforcement agencies to provide anti-bias training and guidance to police officers. They say if people of color, especially African Americans, feel at risk of selective enforcement, they may not adopt the precautionary measures to avoid spreading the virus.
NEW YORK (AP) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Donald Trump have once again tussled publicly, this time over wide-scale coronavirus testing. The Democratic governor said Friday that the federal government was doing too little to help states reopen their outbreak-stricken economies by making sure they can perform mass diagnostic testing. The Republican president responded on Twitter that the federal government came through on ventilators and thousands of hospital beds for New York, yet Cuomo seemed ungrateful. Friday’s flare-up of their rivarly played out during one of Cuomo’s widely watched briefings. A reporter read Trump’s tweets to Cuomo, and the governor responded with his own barbs.
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