Question of the week: So many questions, and we’ve got so far to go, so how long will patience hold out? As always, I welcome your tips and comments, and you can follow me through the week on the twitters. Here we go.
1) As the number of coronavirus cases continues to grow in Rhode Island and the U.S., the patience of Americans is being tested. This is an instant-gratification society, so the idea of hunkering down in your home, with sharply limited excursions to buy stuff, was unthinkable not long ago. Now, Gov. Gina Raimondo is directing National Guard members, working with local enforcement, to knock on doors in South County communities, to ask if people have recently traveled to New York state. Joseph Larisa, a top aide for Lincoln Almond, is among those objecting. Asked during her daily briefing about the optics of military people knocking on doors, Raimondo acknowledged it’s not a good look. “I don’t like those optics. But I’ll tell you the optics that I like even less. The optics of Rhode Island Hospital bursting at the seams, not being able to take care of all the patients we have. The optics that I’m seeing in Seattle, Washington, in New York City, in New Orleans, in Milan, and around the globe. That is what I don’t want to come our way.” Many would consider that a fair point, considering the trajectory of COVID-19; New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Friday he expects the cases there to hit an apex in about three weeks. But if Rhode Islanders are already feeling restless, how things unfold as the calendar moves into April and May?
2) The good news for RI in the $2 trillion relief package is that U.S. Sen. Jack Reed remains an influential figure in DC and the Ocean State is lined up to get $1.25 billion. That money will help to assist small businesses and unemployed people, and result in the delivery of checks to a lot of people. (For a critical view of this type of package, read this.) This is the biggest relief package in recent U.S. history and Reed tells me it should go a significant way in healing the economic harm dealt to Rhode Island by COVID-19. But it won’t make up for lost state revenue from such lucrative outlets as Twin River, so Rhode Island and other states are bracing for budget distress. Meanwhile, the impact of the virus is expected to get worse in the weeks ahead, so there’s considerable unpredictability with all this. “We have to anticipate that particularly if the duration of the virus is extensive, there might be need for additional resources,” Reed said in an interview. If transmission of the virus is not contained, “then we have to be prepared to help again.”
3) From my colleague Alex Nunes: Welcome to Rhode Island, now go quarantine.
4) Gov. Raimondo used measured tones in explaining why it’s taking time to ramp up testing in the state. A few times this week, the governor made a fleeting reference to President Trump’s approach, which effectively set off a competition between state and nations for the multiple elements needed for testing and to otherwise prepare for an expected surge in sick patients. But Raimondo, who embraced her partisan role during her year leading the Democratic Governors Association, appears to be trying hard to avoid making this about politics. The governor has found her most effective leadership voice during this moment, counseling patience, offering thanks, explaining her rationale for various restrictions and empathizing with what Rhode Islanders are going through.
5) Without a more accurate read on the number of positive cases in the state, Raimondo is unwilling to lift the economic restrictions that have shocked Rhode Island’s economy, leading more than 60,000 people to file for unemployment just since March 9. To some, the isolation cure is worse than the COVID-19 illness; Trump spoke this week about reopening America for business by Easter, April 12, “despite widespread warnings from health officials that the worst effects of the virus were still weeks away and prematurely lifting social distancing guidelines would result in unnecessary deaths,” the NY Times reported; on Thursday, Trump backed different parts of the country as low, medium or high risk. At any rate, Raimondo has expressed confidence that the coming week will include a significant expansion in Rhode Island’s testing capacity, with the daily number of people being tested climbing from 200 (or less) to about 1,000.
6) You knew we were in a strange new world when a few spots of audio suddenly became inaudible on the Capitol TV broadcast of the first-ever meeting of RI’s Disaster Emergency Funding Board. The audio was restored relatively quickly, well before the four Democrats on the DEFB heard General Treasurer Seth Magaziner’s argument in favor of taking out a line of credit to borrow up to $300 million. In short, he said, the state’s cash reserves would go empty without action. The vote was completed in about half an hour. RI GOP Chairwoman Sue Cienki was among those who criticized the action.
7) Will the General Assembly ever come back into session this year? A budget has to passed, of course. But whether the legislature returns – and it what fashion — remains unclear for now.
8) The Public’s Radio has a new one-stop landing page for our coronavirus coverage, with lots of other stuff, too.
9) Attorney General Peter Neronha said people need not rush out to buy guns during the ongoing crisis, as some news reports indicate is happening. He said calls for police are down in Providence and that concerns about an increase in crime are without merit. “Look, I understand the motivation or the instinct in difficult times to self-protect, but think right now we’re doing fine, and I don’t think there’s a need for this,” Neronha told me in an interview. “I think it’s important that we not overreact” – whether by hoarding food or stocking up on ammunition. “I think at some point maybe a walk in the woods or a walk down the street would be a good mental health thing for all of us to do.”
10) U.S. Sen. Jack Reed was calling in late January for the coronavirus to be taken more seriously (h/t Dan McGowan). So why did the White House not take that advice to heart? “I don’t think they’re well-organized,” he said of the president’s administration. “They don’t have the kind of expertise that would appreciated the significance of what was happening. They had fired the national security expert in charge of pandemic control and basically taken apart the national security apparatus to deal with that. The president, I think, was trying to downplay any type of pandemic planning, etc. because of his concern that it would have an adverse effect on the market. The irony, of course, is, once it became evident that it was here and spreading, the market literally collapsed.”
11) While President Trump is showing an increase in his approval rating, media critic Jay Rosen said Trump is such a singular case that news organization have to make their coverage decisions in a different way
12) The pandemic underscores the need for good journalism and news consumers are showing heightened interest during the crisis. Yet the economic shock is having a terrible effect on small newspapers, including in Attleboro.
13) Beware of bad info on the interwebz.
14) Rest in Peace, Edna O’Neill Mattson, Rhode Island’s longtime Democratic National Committeewoman, who passed away this week. Tributes flowed from many who knew her, including Sen. Reed. (“She lived to serve others and was the gregarious life of the party — an enthusiastic supporter of countless candidates and a pioneer for women in politics. She was deeply committed to advancing democratic principles and empowering people to serve.”) I chanced upon O’Neill Mattson as she was cavorting in Boston during the 2004 Democratic National Convention with two of her pals, fellow activist Allene Maynard and Kathy Hinckley, the longtime staffer for Patrick Kennedy. They were full of enthusiasm for politics and were kind enough to give me a lift across town.
15) With all the news this week, it was easy to forget how RI’s presidential primary is being pushed back from April 28 to June 2. The state will send registered voters a postage-paid return envelope with a mail ballot application. Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea‘s office advises that the voter registration deadline (previously March 29) is now May 3, and the voter disaffiliation has been pushed from March 30 to May 4.
16) Via The Atlantic: How the pandemic will end
17) Via the RI Department of Environmental Management: 50 ways to get out and enjoy Rhode Island’s nature (while remaining socially distanced, of course).
