Retweeted from Patrick Sullivan

"Election day in Milwaukee offered sobering sights at the five out of 180 polling sites that remained open in the city of more than 600,000. Lines stretched for several blocks, filled with people young and old exercising their right to vote in the middle of a pandemic. Voters waited into the night, even as the 8 p.m. deadline came and went, particularly in some of Milwaukee’s lower-income communities. They confronted what some feared would amount to one of the most potent examples of voter suppression in recent memory.

“The frustration is there,” said Gab Taylor, a community activist in the Sherman Park neighborhood. Still, she wasn’t deterred from voting. “It wasn’t as excruciating as it looked because the lines are down the street, down the block,” she said. Taylor was in line for a little over an hour at her polling place, Washington High School, but some others weren’t so lucky. Reports of waits at Riverside High School approaching two or three hours circulated online, and there were equally long wait times at other sites."

Go here -> https://wisconsinexaminer.com/2020/04/08/racial-disparities-illustrated-by-milwaukees-long-voter-lines/

"MILWAUKEE — In this segregated section of America, the novel coronavirus's first casualty was Lawrence Riley, a 66-year-old Navy veteran and retired firefighter.

Riley had lived through two strokes, a heart attack and a broken back, according to his daughter. But he could not survive covid-19.

"I don't even know how my dad could have caught this because we are homebodies," said Whitley Riley, 20, whose family lives in the city's overwhelmingly black north side. "It's so weird that people here keep getting infected. It makes you wonder."

In African American communities ravaged by covid-19, residents like Riley are wondering what they might do to soften the virus's deadly blow. The pandemic wasn't simply exposing the disparities within their city. It was making them worse."

Go here -> https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/covid-19-is-ravaging-black-communities-a-milwaukee-neighborhood-is-figuring-out-how-to-fight-back/2020/04/06/1ae56730-7714-11ea-ab25-4042e0259c6d_story.html

"Coronavirus hits poor, minority communities harder," Sam Baker and Alison Snyder, Axios, April 4, 2020
"The coronavirus doesn't discriminate, but minorities and low-income families are bearing the brunt.

Why it matters: The impact of the coronavirus is reflecting the racial and socioeconomic disparities of the cities where it’s spreading and the health care system that’s struggling to contain it.

The bottom line: “It's a precarious time for people who are already vulnerable,” Alang said."

Go here -> https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-cases-deaths-race-income-disparities-unequal-f6fb6977-56a1-4be9-8fdd-844604c677ec.html

And here -> https://khn.org/news/covid-19-treatment-racial-income-health-disparities/

"How Multigenerational Families Manage 'Social Distancing' Under One Roof," Cara Anthony, NPR, April 5, 2020
"The Walker family never thought having an age range of 3 to 96 under the same roof would be risky.That was before the coronavirus pandemic.

Wilma Walker's now nonagenarian mom moved into her daughter and son-in-law's home in Florissant, Mo., about 15 years ago. Their party of three turned into a household of six when the Walkers' now 30-year-old daughter, Andre'a Walker-Nimrod, moved back in with her young son and a daughter on the way.

Their living arrangement — four generations together under one roof — has its advantages, including financial support, shared meals and built-in child care for Andre' a's kids, now 5 and 3. But this "tier" generational setup also heightens their concerns as coronavirus continues to march across the world, with young people positioned as, potentially, inadvertent carriers of the virus to vulnerable elders for whom COVID-19 could be a death sentence."

Go here -> https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/04/05/826485036/how-multigenerational-families-manage-social-distancing-under-one-roof?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=onaging

"Our country and the world are facing a pandemic unlike any of us have seen before. People over the age of 60 and those with compromised immune systems are among the highest-risk populations COVID-19 is impacting. While grandparents are being advised to isolate themselves
physically from grandchildren, it is nearly impossible for older caregivers to distance themselves from the children they are raising. You are on the front line for your family every day. Today’s challenges are making it much tougher to care for them. It’s important to stay calm and do everything you can to stay healthy, informed and connected. Here are a few suggestions. "

Go here -> https://www.gu.org/app/uploads/2020/03/COVID-19-Fact-Sheet-3-17-20.pdf

"Most of the 42 million Americans who receive food stamps aren’t allowed to use them to shop for groceries online — and some lawmakers and state governments are rushing to change that as the newly jobless flood onto the rolls of the nutrition assistance program.

Only six states allow online purchases with benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. Of those, Alabama and Nebraska launched online shopping only in recent weeks as the coronavirus pandemic erupted.

The situation highlights how low-income people are at increased risk of exposure to the coronavirus. Food stamp recipients include many people who are especially vulnerable, such as the elderly and people with disabilities. Now, nonprofit groups are lobbying Congress and the Agriculture Department to relax rules and encourage a rapid expansion of online shopping and delivery options."

Go here -> https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/07/americans-food-stamps-coronavirus-exposure-173248

"In an average month, Brian Barks, the CEO of Food Bank for the Heartland, spends about $73,000 buying food to distribute to people in need across Nebraska and western Iowa. Last month, as the coronavirus was spreading across the U.S., he spent $675,000.

That's a nearly tenfold increase, because Food Bank for the Heartland, like food banks and pantries across the country, is facing a steep drop-off in the bread and butter of its operations: food donated by supermarkets and farms.

"The grocery stores, as we've seen across the country, the shelves are getting bare," Barks said. "They don't have extra to hand out to food banks. And what we're anticipating is that those donations will drop to zero."

Go here -> https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/covid-19-crisis-heaps-pressure-nation-s-food-banks-n1178731

"American communities, public health officials and the media have done a fine job educating the public about how older adults are at heightened risk from COVID-19. Nursing homes and assisted living facilities are restricting visitors and closely monitoring residents for signs of the disease. For older people with sufficient resources, the message is clear: stay home, stock up on food and supplies, and avoid group activities.

However, these recommendations fail to address the struggle of millions of low-income older adults who lack access to healthy food and adequate nutrition on a daily basis. And although social distancing is necessary to help limit the spread of the virus, anything that deters people from accessing group meals at senior centers or food banks puts low-income seniors in danger of malnutrition and hunger. Millions of them also typically cannot afford to stock up on food or supplies, and if they can, many need transportation assistance to and from grocery stores."

Go here -> https://www.brookings.edu/blog/the-avenue/2020/03/16/for-millions-of-low-income-seniors-coronavirus-is-a-food-security-issue/

And here -> https://www.nextavenue.org/malnutrition-is-affecting-too-many-older-adults/

"In the best of times, Meals on Wheels faces the herculean task of delivering 200 million meals annually to 2.4 million hungry and isolated older Americans. But this is the time of the dreaded novel coronavirus.

With the pandemic bearing down, I wanted to get inside Meals on Wheels to see how it would gear up its services. After all, 79% of its existing clients are 75 or older. There would be more demand now that many more seniors — including those who probably never imagined they’d be stuck inside — are advised it is safest to remain housebound.

What I saw was that this agency, a mainstay in the lives of so many, was swamped. Its ideas of what was possible diminished by the hour, and it has had to improvise, sometimes successfully, to complete its mission."

Go here -> https://khn.org/news/inside-meals-on-wheels-struggle-to-keep-older-americans-fed-during-a-pandemic/

"Now that the coronavirus pandemic means at-need older adults can’t leave their homes or have visitors, programs and services assisting them have had to radically adapt. Fortunately, many nonprofits have risen to the challenge, finding new, remarkable, creative and compassionate ways to deliver sustenance and sociability. In addition, Congress and the Trump administration have provided bipartisan support to address these critical needs.

Absolutely no one, whether in Washington, D.C. or Washington, Mo. had a playbook for what we are experiencing right now. For example, no one predicted that millions of older adults who routinely received their meals together in a social service setting would suddenly be faced with its closure.

And the new world we’re now in has led to rising costs and difficulties for some nonprofits providing assistance, issues that are only likely to worsen."

Go here -> https://www.nextavenue.org/programs-for-needy-older-adults-are-adapting-covid-19/

"And because of the added demand for food at the store, major food distributors are going to raise the prices they demand from the stores, and it means consumers will likely see higher prices on the store's shelves.
In a note published Friday, JPMorgan analysts said 22% of food on store shelves is discounted, according to the companies under its coverage, and the average discount is 23%. Retail sales would increase 5% if all discounts went away.

“In a normal environment, reduced discounts — that is, higher prices — would lead to lower volumes, but we are not in normal times,” JPMorgan said. “We think elasticity will be minimal as long as food-at-home is benefiting from COVID-19 to this degree.”

Analysts noted that J.M. Smucker Co. has already announced that it will be cutting discounts, saying in a March 19 letter to retailers that terminating promotions scheduled to start between April 17 and Nov. 30 is one of the measures it’s taking to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
Yet with all of this extra demand for food, and the increase in prices that corporate food companies are going to get, the prices farmers are getting for their products keeps going down. .

If grocery stores and manufacturers can jack up prices while the base producers are getting less, then someone in between is making a helluva lot of profit. Nice deal if you can get it, but maybe some people in DC should look into why."

Go here -> http://jakehasablog.blogspot.com/2020/04/grocery-sales-boom-and-consumers-will.html

And here -> https://civileats.com/2020/04/08/the-coronavirus-pandemic-is-pushing-the-dairy-crisis-to-the-brink/

"Wisconsin Rapidly Approaches Deadline to Qualify for a Large Increase in Medicaid Funding-Lame Duck Law Has Hamstrung the Evers Administration’s Ability to Fight the Pandemic," Jon Peacock, Wisconsin Budget Project, April 6, 2020
On Wisconsin.
"Wisconsin faces a deadline of April 16 to qualify for hundreds of millions of dollars from federal Medicaid funding. Almost all of the other states have already qualified for the funding, and they have typically done's so by executive branch action.

In Wisconsin, however, legislators and Governor Walker severely restricted the Evers administration’s ability to respond quickly to emergencies when they hurriedly passed a bill in December 2018 that sharply reduces the power of the executive branch. That bill, which became Act 370, is sometimes referred to as the “lame duck” law because it was passed during a lame-duck session, which is a meeting of the Legislature between the November general election and the swearing-in of newly-elected lawmakers."

Go here -> http://www.wisconsinbudgetproject.org/wisconsin-rapidly-approaches-deadline-to-qualify-for-a-large-increase-in-medicaid-funding

"MADISON - State health officials are warning lawmakers about a dramatic increase in enrollment in the state's Medicaid program as the coronavirus outbreak pushes more people into financial distress.

Wisconsin Department of Health Services Secretary Andrea Palm told members of the Legislature's finance committee Tuesday that lawmakers will need to act to handle the expected surge of services needed from the state's program that serves more than 1 million people.

In December, the department projected costs in the state's Medicaid program would exceed what is budgeted by $39.8 million over the next two years."

Go here -> https://www.jsonline.com/story/news/politics/2020/03/31/coronavirus-wisconsin-medicaid-costs-up-health-officials-warn/5095850002/

"As the coronavirus roils the economy and throws millions of Americans out of work, Medicaid is emerging as a default insurance plan for many of the newly unemployed. That could produce unprecedented strains on the vital health insurance program, according to state officials and policy researchers.

Americans are being urged to stay home and practice “social distancing” to prevent the spread of the virus, causing businesses to shutter their doors and lay off workers. The Labor Department reported Thursday that more than 6.6 million people signed up for unemployment insurance during the week that ended March 28. This number shattered the record set the previous week, with 3.3 million sign-ups. Many of these newly unemployed people may turn to Medicaid for their families."

Go here -> https://khn.org/news/medicaid-nearing-eye-of-the-storm-as-newly-unemployed-look-for-coverage/

"Growing fears of a shortage of lifesaving treatment for COVID-19 is prompting concern among activists and organizations who look out for the rights of people with disabilities.

This week, the Survival Coalition, an umbrella group of several Wisconsin disability rights groups, wrote a letter to Gov. Tony Evers stating that their members “share concerns regarding policies other states are implementing that discriminate against people with disabilities and disabling conditions as states seek to ration lifesaving treatment during the COVID-19 health crisis.”

The letter adds: “While we recognize that our own health care system may at some point lack sufficient acute care services and equipment, such as ventilators, to meet the demand of patients with COVID-19 who require intensive treatment, we encourage our state leaders to adopt and promote guidelines and policies that maximize equity and eliminate disability bias.”

Go here -> https://urbanmilwaukee.com/2020/04/04/who-will-be-denied-medical-resources/

"It is a strange time to be alive as an Asian American disabled person who uses a ventilator. The coronavirus pandemic in the United States has disrupted and destabilized individual lives and institutions. For many disabled, sick, and immunocompromised people like myself, we have always lived with uncertainty and are skilled in adapting to hostile circumstances in a world that was never designed for us in the first place. Want to avoid touching door handles by hitting the automatic door opener with your elbow? You can thank the Americans with Disabilities Act and the disabled people who made it happen."

Go here -> https://www.vox.com/first-person/2020/4/4/21204261/coronavirus-covid-19-disabled-people-disabilities-triage

"Coverage of COVID-19 has dominated the news and resulted in skyrocketing ratings for the nation’s cable news networks. And according to a survey conducted March 10-16, 2020, as a part of Pew Research Center’s Election News Pathways project, responses to that coverage and the pandemic itself vary notably among Americans who identify Fox News, MSNBC or CNN (the three major cable news networks featured in the analysis) as their main source of political news.

In particular, the responses to COVID-19 news from those whose main source for political news is MSNBC or Fox News are strikingly different. The views of those who identify CNN as their main news source most often fit somewhere between the two."

Go here -> https://www.journalism.org/2020/04/01/cable-tv-and-covid-19-how-americans-perceive-the-outbreak-and-view-media-coverage-differ-by-main-news-source/

Local newspapers in Wisconsin are suffering as COVID-19-related business closures and event cancellations hurt their ad revenue. The country's largest national newspaper chain, Gannett, plans to put some employees on a week of unpaid leave each month in April, May, and June, according to a company email sent out Monday and obtained by WPR.

Gannett owns the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, the Green Bay Press-Gazette, The Sheboygan Press and the Wausau Daily Herald, among several others, according to its website.  "As you've seen the havoc wreaked on our nation's and the world's economy, so too, is the uncertainty around the coronavirus outbreak increasing financial pressure on our own company," wrote Maribel Wadsworth, Gannett’s president of news, in the email.

Both Wisconsin-based and national representatives of Gannett didn't respond to requests for comment."

Go here -> https://www.wpr.org/coronavirus-pandemic-deals-another-blow-wisconsins-newspapers

"While the coronavirus may be a global pandemic, the public health crisis has revealed the critical role of local news outlets currently working tirelessly to cover the impact of the coronavirus on their communities. These outlets have helped to disseminate essential information from state and local government actors, prevent the spread of misinformation, and report important community stories from the effects on the local economy to a food pantry trying to meet a surge in demand as workers lose their jobs and income.

But some communities in the U.S. lack a local outlet that can tell these stories and provide details about the area’s COVID-19 cases, school and business closures, and other vital news. At the same time, in communities that do have a local news outlet to turn to, local newsrooms have been hit by a severe and sudden decline in revenue, forcing employee lay-offs and furloughs as well as cuts to staff hours and pay. While the COVID-19 pandemic underscores the critical need for local journalism, it threatens its provision."

Go here -> https://www.brookings.edu/blog/fixgov/2020/04/08/critical-in-a-public-health-crisis-covid-19-has-hit-local-newsrooms-hard/