Daily Digest for April 7, 2020 Posted at 6:45 a.m. by Cody Nelson |
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COVID-19 could mean a major budget shortfall for Minnesota. From MPR News' Brian Bakst: "The fiscal chaos stirred by the coronavirus is so worrisome that a new economic forecast will be ordered to get a better handle on the problem and clear the use of the state’s rainy day reserves. It’s a stunning reversal from late February, when officials forecast a projected surplus of $1.5 billion that would pile up by July 2021.
And we're likely getting a new budget forecast. "I believe we will be doing a new forecast somewhere in the near future. It’s just not going to be in the next month or so because we just don’t have enough precise data to make it worthwhile and accurate," Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans told Bakst in an interview last week.
Wisconsin is going forward with its primary election on Tuesday. It's the only state going forward with its April election as planned, the AP reports : "Voters in Wisconsin are likely to face a choice Tuesday of participating in a presidential primary election or heeding warnings from public health officials to stay away from large crowds during the coronavirus pandemic. Hours after Democratic Gov. Tony Evers issued an executive order Monday postponing the election for two months, the Wisconsin Supreme Court sided with Republicans who said he didn't have the authority to reschedule the race on his own."
The White House's message of grim warnings and hope isn't contradictory after all. Via NPR : "Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top immunologist and a member of the task force, acknowledged on Sunday that the administration's messaging may seem contradictory — to both warn Americans about the grim week ahead while also offering optimism — but said it isn't. 'If we start seeing now a flattening or stabilization of cases, what you're hearing about potential light at the end of the tunnel doesn't take away from the fact that tomorrow or the next day is going to look really bad," Fauci explained. 'So we've got to make sure we realize we're always talking about a two-and-a-half-week lag.'"
ICE inmates are fearful and anxious with social distancing impossible inside their jails. That's from reporting by the Sahan Journal , whose reporter Joey Peters spoke with five inmates: "In all, five inmates spoke about what they perceived to be inadequate measures taken by both Kandiyohi County and ICE to prevent the spread of COVID-19 in the jail.... The men join a growing chorus of lawyers, advocates, and inmates lobbying for the release of ICE detainees across the country. They lament crowded and unsanitary conditions that could promote the spread of COVID-19. Several detainees have already tested positive in U.S. facilities, a development that prompted the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to demand the release of non-priority, low-risk inmates. 'ICE’s failure to reduce detention numbers and mitigate the spread of COVID-19 has a real possibility of creating a severe health crisis for detention centers and overwhelming local health care facilities,' read a statement from the caucus."
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