csmonitor--2020-05-26--As Georgia reopens, is it creating a model for America?

“ What we ’ re starting to see is there ’ s a lot of financial and economic pain in the country , and quite frankly people are starting to wrestle with the very ugly decision about how much death and real sickness are we willing to tolerate to get people back to work so they can pay their rent and feed their families , ” says Gregg Murray , a political scientist at Augusta University .
The fact that Georgia so far seems to be bucking the national consensus that its rapid reopening of businesses would result in disaster @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Street Journal has dubbed it the “ Georgia Model.
” Across the country , the holiday weekend brought tens of thousands out as all 50 states began lifting pandemic restrictions last week .
“ There is no normal , that ’ s gone , ” says Mr. Dukes , a Savannah resident .
“ Everyone is figuring this out .
And a lot of it depends on where you live and who you are.
” A former soldier who has lost several friends to the virus , Wayne Dukes is definitely wrestling as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Tybee Pier .
He thought peaches on Memorial Day in Georgia would be a sure sellout , so he brought 20 boxes to Tybee Island , which exploded with people over the holiday weekend as the United States began to reopen .
But his peach sales were far off despite the crowds .
He took the profit problems instructively – as a symbol of an America cautiously stepping out from under pandemic restrictions .
Also on display : the challenge ahead .
Local customers at a farmers ’ market in nearby Savannah @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 1 in 100 tourists at Tybee Beach did on Monday as a T-shirt that said “ I survived the 2020 pandemic ” hung from the rafters at the grocery store .
“ I ’ m worried that locals take reasonable precautions , but tourists may come here and say , ‘ Georgia ’ s open , let ’ s go !
’ ” says Mr. Jones .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
The fact that Georgia so far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its rapid reopening of businesses exactly one month ago would result in disaster has been widely noted .
The Wall Street Journal dubbed it the “ Georgia Model.
” “ What we ’ re starting to see is there ’ s a lot of financial and economic pain in the country , and quite frankly people are starting to wrestle with the very ugly decision about how much death and real sickness are we willing to tolerate to get people back to work so they can pay their rent and feed their families @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political scientist at Augusta University in Georgia .
A former soldier who has lost several friends to the virus , Wayne Dukes is definitely wrestling as he watches the crowds walk by on the Tybee pier .
“ There is no normal , that ’ s gone , ” says Mr. Dukes , a Savannah resident .
“ Everyone is figuring this out .
And a lot of it depends on where you live and who you are.
” Across the country , the holiday weekend brought tens of thousands out as all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ week .
That has resulted in some modest economic improvements , but in Georgia , where restaurants have been able to operate for three weeks , dine-in traffic is about 12 % compared with a year ago .
Those numbers show that , despite a packed pier on Tybee Island and much-publicized scenes of mobbed pool parties over the Memorial Day weekend in Texas and Missouri , many Americans are taking a cautious approach to reopening .
That hesitancy may have helped , public health officials say .
Georgia ’ s rolling seven-day @ @ @ @ @ @ @ according to the Department of Public Health , down from nearly 728 on May 19 to 308 on May 25 .
Other tallies show the number of cases running flat , despite an increase in the state ’ s testing rate .
That improvement comes as Georgia state officials apologized last week for adding faulty data that made its decline look more pronounced , citing a processing error .
And in neighboring Florida , data scientist Rebekah Jones , who handled the state ’ s COVID-19 dashboard , claims that she was fired @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to support the state ’ s reopening plan .
Texas , Arizona , Alabama , and North Carolina have seen spikes amid reopening , even as the numbers in the epicenters in New York and New Jersey are falling as those states more slowly ease restrictions .
Modelers worry about an uptick in Southern states , but acknowledge that there are huge X factors – including whether hot weather might help hold down the spread – that are playing out in places like Tybee Island , which saw an estimated 80,000 people descend @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Memorial Day weekend .
“ Policy matters , but what matters even more is personal behavior , ” says Kent Smetters , a modeler at Penn Wharton Budget Model , which predicts COVID-19 infections across the U.S. “ Suppose that these people view these partial reopenings as a kind of social cue ... that things are OK , and as a result they reduce their own personal social distancing , then the [ mortality ] effect is bigger.
” Some of those interviewed , like Mr. Dukes , expressed concern about the extent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ colored the U.S. response to a pandemic that has so far claimed nearly 100,000 American lives .
After all , the top six of the seven hardest-hit states are blue states .
Massachusetts , No .
3 , is run by Republican Gov .
Charlie Baker .
Texas , where cases are increasing , is seventh .
Those blue states – which share high population density , colder weather , more public transportation – have about half of all cases , but only a third of the nation ’ s population .
How @ @ @ @ @ @ @ far , the state-led response appears to have focused on public health .
Most governors have seen their approval ratings soar , with Ohio Republican Mike DeWine at No .
1 .
Governor DeWine shut his state down quickly , was the first to send schoolchildren home , and has defended his public health officials against partisan protesters .
In a study of 785 executive orders from March 6 to May 11 , researcher Maryann Feldman found that “ a partisan lens does not provide much additional insight ” into state responses .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ forward , however , she says .
“ The fact that we saw many of the governors who don ’ t have to care about reelection issue more orders suggests that [ political leaders ] are feeling constrained by their electability , ” says Ms. Feldman , a public policy professor at the University of North Carolina , in Chapel Hill .
“ We have to keep stressing that this is a public health problem , not a political problem.
” On Friday , Vice President Mike Pence touched down in Atlanta to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who has received low marks for his handling of the pandemic .
Yet despite a series of missteps , there are signs that his gamble to limit restrictions despite several heavy outbreaks may have paid off .
What ’ s behind a model whose success bucks conventional wisdom ?
Some experts point to the heat , and the humidity .
“ The weather would be my answer , ” says Michael Levitt , a Stanford biophysicist who is tracking the virus , in an interview .
And for researchers looking at the dynamics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is at the heart of what ’ s happening here and beyond : Will Georgia be America ’ s Sweden ?
And what does that mean ?
“ Be like Sweden ” flags have flown over anti-lockdown protests in the U.S .
The Scandinavian nation kept restaurants and public schools open while relying on citizens ’ judgment to contain the virus .
While it has escaped the massive death tolls of the U.S. , United Kingdom , Italy , and Spain , it reached the highest per capita death rate in the world @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very few lockdowns , but people also interpreted that as we have to be personally responsible and maintain a fair amount of social distancing despite some of the restaurant scenes , ” says Mr. Smetters .
“ But that is a very different culture , and it may be easier for them since Swedes [ tend to be ] socially distant ” culturally .
At least one Georgian is determined to adopt that model , at least in spirit .
“ I ’ m bracing ” for a wave of new cases , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ I hope I ’ m wrong .
But we also can ’ t live our lives in fear.
” Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .

“What we’re starting to see is there’s a lot of financial and economic pain in the country, and quite frankly people are starting to wrestle with the very ugly decision about how much death and real sickness are we willing to tolerate to get people back to work so they can pay their rent and feed their families,” says Gregg Murray, a political scientist at Augusta University.
The fact that Georgia so far seems to be bucking the national consensus that its rapid reopening of businesses would result in disaster has been widely noted. The Wall Street Journal has dubbed it the “Georgia Model.”
Across the country, the holiday weekend brought tens of thousands out as all 50 states began lifting pandemic restrictions last week.
Georgia’s rapid reopening one month ago had many officials predicting a new spike in cases. So far that hasn’t happened. Why not, and what clues could the state hold for the rest of the U.S.?
“There is no normal, that’s gone,” says Mr. Dukes, a Savannah resident. “Everyone is figuring this out. And a lot of it depends on where you live and who you are.”
A former soldier who has lost several friends to the virus, Wayne Dukes is definitely wrestling as he watches the crowds walk by on the Tybee Pier.
Georgia peach broker Brandon Jones was hoping for a banner weekend.
He thought peaches on Memorial Day in Georgia would be a sure sellout, so he brought 20 boxes to Tybee Island, which exploded with people over the holiday weekend as the United States began to reopen.
But his peach sales were far off despite the crowds. He took the profit problems instructively – as a symbol of an America cautiously stepping out from under pandemic restrictions.
Why We Wrote This Georgia’s rapid reopening one month ago had many officials predicting a new spike in cases. So far that hasn’t happened. Why not, and what clues could the state hold for the rest of the U.S.?
Also on display: the challenge ahead. Local customers at a farmers’ market in nearby Savannah nearly all wear masks. But perhaps 1 in 100 tourists at Tybee Beach did on Monday as a T-shirt that said “I survived the 2020 pandemic” hung from the rafters at the grocery store.
“I’m worried that locals take reasonable precautions, but tourists may come here and say, ‘Georgia’s open, let’s go!’” says Mr. Jones.
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
The fact that Georgia so far seems to be bucking the consensus that its rapid reopening of businesses exactly one month ago would result in disaster has been widely noted. The Wall Street Journal dubbed it the “Georgia Model.”
Patrik Jonsson/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Georgia resident Brandon Jones sells peaches on Tybee Island, Georgia, on May 25, 2020, as all 50 states began reopening their economies. Mr. Jones says he practices "reasonable precautions" against the coronavirus, but worries that few other people will when restrictions lift.
“What we’re starting to see is there’s a lot of financial and economic pain in the country, and quite frankly people are starting to wrestle with the very ugly decision about how much death and real sickness are we willing to tolerate to get people back to work so they can pay their rent and feed their families,” says Gregg Murray, a political scientist at Augusta University in Georgia.
“There is no normal”
A former soldier who has lost several friends to the virus, Wayne Dukes is definitely wrestling as he watches the crowds walk by on the Tybee pier.
“There is no normal, that’s gone,” says Mr. Dukes, a Savannah resident. “Everyone is figuring this out. And a lot of it depends on where you live and who you are.”
Across the country, the holiday weekend brought tens of thousands out as all 50 states began lifting pandemic restrictions last week.
That has resulted in some modest economic improvements, but in Georgia, where restaurants have been able to operate for three weeks, dine-in traffic is about 12% compared with a year ago.
Those numbers show that, despite a packed pier on Tybee Island and much-publicized scenes of mobbed pool parties over the Memorial Day weekend in Texas and Missouri, many Americans are taking a cautious approach to reopening.
That hesitancy may have helped, public health officials say. Georgia’s rolling seven-day average of new cases has declined, according to the Department of Public Health, down from nearly 728 on May 19 to 308 on May 25. Other tallies show the number of cases running flat, despite an increase in the state’s testing rate. That improvement comes as Georgia state officials apologized last week for adding faulty data that made its decline look more pronounced, citing a processing error. And in neighboring Florida, data scientist Rebekah Jones, who handled the state’s COVID-19 dashboard, claims that she was fired for refusing to fudge numbers in order to support the state’s reopening plan.
Texas, Arizona, Alabama, and North Carolina have seen spikes amid reopening, even as the numbers in the epicenters in New York and New Jersey are falling as those states more slowly ease restrictions.
Modelers worry about an uptick in Southern states, but acknowledge that there are huge X factors – including whether hot weather might help hold down the spread – that are playing out in places like Tybee Island, which saw an estimated 80,000 people descend on its 3 square miles over the Memorial Day weekend.
“Policy matters, but what matters even more is personal behavior,” says Kent Smetters, a modeler at Penn Wharton Budget Model, which predicts COVID-19 infections across the U.S. “Suppose that these people view these partial reopenings as a kind of social cue ... that things are OK, and as a result they reduce their own personal social distancing, then the [mortality] effect is bigger.”
Some of those interviewed, like Mr. Dukes, expressed concern about the extent to which leadership and partisan politics have colored the U.S. response to a pandemic that has so far claimed nearly 100,000 American lives.
Patrik Jonsson/The Christian Science Monitor View caption Hide caption Wayne Dukes and Cynthia Walker of Savannah take in some sun while sitting on the Tybee Pier on May 25, 2020. Mr. Dukes says he has lost several friends to the virus, but is wrestling with how much precaution to take. "You can't live in fear," he says.
After all, the top six of the seven hardest-hit states are blue states. Massachusetts, No. 3, is run by Republican Gov. Charlie Baker. Texas, where cases are increasing, is seventh. Those blue states – which share high population density, colder weather, more public transportation – have about half of all cases, but only a third of the nation’s population.
How partisan is the decision-making?
Yet so far, the state-led response appears to have focused on public health. Most governors have seen their approval ratings soar, with Ohio Republican Mike DeWine at No. 1. Governor DeWine shut his state down quickly, was the first to send schoolchildren home, and has defended his public health officials against partisan protesters.
In a study of 785 executive orders from March 6 to May 11, researcher Maryann Feldman found that “a partisan lens does not provide much additional insight” into state responses. Partisanship may play a larger role going forward, however, she says.
“The fact that we saw many of the governors who don’t have to care about reelection issue more orders suggests that [political leaders] are feeling constrained by their electability,” says Ms. Feldman, a public policy professor at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill. “We have to keep stressing that this is a public health problem, not a political problem.”
On Friday, Vice President Mike Pence touched down in Atlanta to meet with Gov. Brian Kemp, who has received low marks for his handling of the pandemic. Yet despite a series of missteps, there are signs that his gamble to limit restrictions despite several heavy outbreaks may have paid off.
What’s behind a model whose success bucks conventional wisdom? Some experts point to the heat, and the humidity. “The weather would be my answer,” says Michael Levitt, a Stanford biophysicist who is tracking the virus, in an interview.
“Be like Sweden”?
And for researchers looking at the dynamics of a possible resurgence, one question is at the heart of what’s happening here and beyond: Will Georgia be America’s Sweden? And what does that mean?
“Be like Sweden” flags have flown over anti-lockdown protests in the U.S. The Scandinavian nation kept restaurants and public schools open while relying on citizens’ judgment to contain the virus. While it has escaped the massive death tolls of the U.S., United Kingdom, Italy, and Spain, it reached the highest per capita death rate in the world last week.
“Sweden really had very few lockdowns, but people also interpreted that as we have to be personally responsible and maintain a fair amount of social distancing despite some of the restaurant scenes,” says Mr. Smetters. “But that is a very different culture, and it may be easier for them since Swedes [tend to be] socially distant” culturally.
At least one Georgian is determined to adopt that model, at least in spirit.
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“I’m bracing” for a wave of new cases, says Mr. Dukes, the Savannah soldier. “I hope I’m wrong. But we also can’t live our lives in fear.”
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.


csmonitor--2020-06-01--Peaceful George Floyd protests turn to violence and looting

America ’ s cities boarded up windows , swept up glass , and covered graffiti Sunday as the country 's most significant night of violent protests in a half-century promised to spill into another day of unrest fueled by killings of black people at the hands of police .
The turbulence sparked by the death of George Floyd – a black man who died after being pinned under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer – shook not only the streets of New York and Los Angeles , but dozens of smaller communities such as Fargo , North Dakota @ @ @ @ @ @ @ damage extended even to buildings near the White House .
Peaceful protests involving tens of thousands of people on Saturday gave way , in some places , to rioting , looting , and violence , with police vehicles torched , stores emptied , and objects hurled at officers .
The police response varied from restrained to aggressive , with officers at times firing tear gas and rubber bullets .
Police and peaceful protesters alike pleaded for a stop to violence , saying it only hindered calls for justice and reform .
“ It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Danielle Outlaw , head of the police force in Philadelphia , where more than 200 people were arrested as fires and looting engulfed Center City .
At least 4,400 people have been arrested over days of protests , according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press .
Arrests ranged from stealing and blocking highways to breaking curfew .
Minnesota Gov .
Tim Walz told reporters Sunday that state Attorney General Keith Ellison will take the lead in any prosecutions in the death of George Floyd .
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman earlier @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to help in the prosecution .
Mr. Freeman has been criticized by civil rights activists and some city officials , who say there is a history of mistrust between Mr. Freeman ’ s office and members of the community .
Governor Walz told reporters that Mr. Ellison “ needs to lead this case.
” He said he made the decision after speaking with Mr. Floyd ’ s family who “ wanted to believe that there was a trust , and they wanted to believe that the facts would be heard.
” In Atlanta @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and placed three others on desk duty pending review over excessive use of force during a protest incident Saturday night .
Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a news conference Sunday that she and police Chief Erika Shields made the decision after reviewing body-camera footage .
Ms. Shields called it “ really shocking to watch.
” Officials say the incident came to light via video that circulated online .
It shows a group of Atlanta police officers in riot gear and gas masks surround a car being driven by a man with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ officers pull the woman out and appear to use a stun gun on the man .
They use zip-tie handcuffs on the woman on the ground .
The couple did not appear to be fighting police on the video .
Disgust over generations of racism in a country founded by slaveholders combined with a string of recent high-profile killings to stoke the anger .
Three months before Mr. Floyd 's death , Ahmaud Arbery was fatally shot as he jogged through a Georgia neighborhood .
A white father and son are charged in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Arbery was killed , an EMT named Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by Louisville , Kentucky , narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door .
No drugs were found in her home .
Adding to that was angst from months of lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic , which has disproportionately hurt communities of color , not only in terms of infections but in job losses and economic stress .
The droves of people congregating in chanting demonstrations threatened to trigger new outbreaks , a fact overshadowed by the boiling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of it .
The cops are out of control , ” protester Olga Hall said in Washington , D.C. “ They ’ re wild .
There ’ s just been too many dead boys.
” The scale of the protests , sweeping from coast to coast and unfolding on a single night , rivaled the historic demonstrations of the civil rights and Vietnam War eras .
Curfews were imposed in major cities around the United States , including Atlanta , Chicago , Denver , Los Angeles , San Francisco , and Seattle .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ were activated in 15 states and Washington , D.C .
In Minneapolis , the city where the protests began , police , state troopers , and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect Saturday to break up demonstrations .
The show of force came after three days in which police largely avoided engaging protesters , and after the state poured more than 4,000 National Guard troops into Minneapolis .
Authorities said that number would soon rise to nearly 11,000 .
In neighboring St. Paul , thousands gathered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Capitol , pledging to keep up the protests .
“ We ’ re Minnesota nice , but we ’ re not Minnesota dumb , and we ’ re not done , ” St. Paul Black Lives Matter organizer Darnella Wade said .
“ They sent us the military and we only asked them for arrests.
” Minnesota 's governor brought in thousands of National Guard soldiers to help quell violence that had damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings in Minneapolis over days of protests .
The immense deployment appeared to have worked Saturday @ @ @ @ @ @ @ comparatively little destruction .
On Sunday , in a display of force , long lines of state patrolmen and National Guard soldiers were lined up in front of Minnesota 's Capitol , facing the demonstrators , with perhaps a dozen military-style armored vehicles behind them .
President Donald Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics , commending the National Guard deployment in Minneapolis and declaring “ No games !
” He said police in New York City “ must be allowed to do their job !
” Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to express common cause with those demonstrating after Floyd ’ s death .
“ The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest , ” Biden said in a late-night statement .
Dozens of additional protests were underway or expected on Sunday , from Miami to Kansas City to San Francisco .
They went forth largely without incident , but sparks of crime continued .
In Philadelphia , looters robbed stores in broad daylight Saturday , and at least one more police vehicle was set ablaze .
Streets @ @ @ @ @ @ @ restricted downtown access and called in the National Guard .
Many also joined police in pleading for a stop to violence , saying it weakened calls for justice and reform .
“ It only hurts the cause , ” said Danielle Outlaw , head of the police force in Philadelphia , where more than 200 people were arrested as fires and looting engulfed the heart of the city .
At the Minneapolis intersection where Floyd was killed , people gathered with brooms and flowers , saying it was important to protect what they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ intersection was blocked with the traffic cones while a ring of flowers was laid out .
Among those descending on Minneapolis was Michael Brown Sr. , the father of Michael Brown , who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson , Missouri , in 2014 .
“ I understand what this family is feeling .
I understand what this community is feeling , ” he said .
County Commissioner Angela Conley said the demonstrations and confrontations with police would continue until the other three officers who were at the scene when Mr. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ prosecuted .
The officer who put his knee on Mr. Floyd ’ s neck , Derek Chauvin , was charged last week with murder .
All four officers have been fired .
“ We ’ ll continue to have this militarized presence in our community until justice is done , ” Ms. Conley said .
In tweets Sunday , Mr. Trump blamed anarchists and the media for fueling the violence .
Attorney General William Barr pointed a finger at “ far left extremist ” groups .
Police chiefs and politicians around the country @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the problems .
Few parts of America were untouched .
Protesters set fires inside Reno ’ s city hall , and police launched tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators in Fargo , North Dakota .
In Salt Lake City , demonstrators flipped a police car and lit it on fire .
Police said six people were arrested and an officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat .
By Sunday , the fury had spread to Europe , where thousands gathered in London ’ s Trafalgar Square , clapping @ @ @ @ @ @ @ crowds because of the COVID-19 pandemic .
In New York , a video showed two police cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects .
Several people were knocked to the ground .
It was unclear if anyone was hurt .
“ The mistakes that are happening are not mistakes .
They ’ re repeated violent terrorist offenses , and people need to stop killing black people , ” Brooklyn protester Meryl Makielski said .
In Indianapolis , two people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ violence , adding to deaths reported in Detroit and Minneapolis in recent days .
Sites around the U.S. were defaced with spray-painted messages , from the facade of St. Patrick 's Cathedral in New York to the historic Hay-Adams hotel near the White House .
Some of Mr. Floyd 's gasped last words – “ I ca n't breathe ” – were repeated around the country , alongside anti-police messages .
On Sunday , maintenance crews near the White House worked to replace windows that had been shattered with large pieces of wood @ @ @ @ @ @ @ graffiti , including curses about Mr. Trump .
Shattered glass still covered the sidewalks .
The damaged buildings included the Department of Veterans Affairs , directly across the street from the White House .
Secret Service agents had rushed Mr. Trump to a White House bunker on Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the executive mansion , some of them throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades .
The president spent nearly an hour in the bunker designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks , according to a Republican close @ @ @ @ @ @ @ authorized to publicly discuss private matters and spoke on condition of anonymity .
The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity .
Some leaders prepared to put more soldiers in the streets .
Georgia Gov .
Brian Kemp authorized the deployment of up to 3,000 National Guard troops to Athens , Savannah , and any other cities where more demonstrations were planned .
Mr. Kemp had already approved up to 1,500 Guardsmen to help enforce a 9 p.m. Saturday curfew in Atlanta .
This week ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King , a black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase .
The protests of Floyd ’ s killing have gripped many more cities , but the losses have yet to approach the staggering totals LA saw during five days of rioting in 1992 , when more than 60 people died , 2,000-plus were injured , and thousands arrested , with property damage topping $ 1 billion .
This story was reported by The Associated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ AP journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage .
It ’ s free .

America’s cities boarded up windows, swept up glass, and covered graffiti Sunday as the country's most significant night of violent protests in a half-century promised to spill into another day of unrest fueled by killings of black people at the hands of police.
The turbulence sparked by the death of George Floyd – a black man who died after being pinned under the knee of a white Minneapolis police officer – shook not only the streets of New York and Los Angeles, but dozens of smaller communities such as Fargo, North Dakota, and Lincoln, Nebraska. The damage extended even to buildings near the White House.
Peaceful protests involving tens of thousands of people on Saturday gave way, in some places, to rioting, looting, and violence, with police vehicles torched, stores emptied, and objects hurled at officers. The police response varied from restrained to aggressive, with officers at times firing tear gas and rubber bullets.
Police and peaceful protesters alike pleaded for a stop to violence, saying it only hindered calls for justice and reform.
“It only hurts the cause,” said Danielle Outlaw, head of the police force in Philadelphia, where more than 200 people were arrested as fires and looting engulfed Center City.
At least 4,400 people have been arrested over days of protests, according to a tally compiled by The Associated Press. Arrests ranged from stealing and blocking highways to breaking curfew.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz told reporters Sunday that state Attorney General Keith Ellison will take the lead in any prosecutions in the death of George Floyd. Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman earlier Sunday said he had asked Mr. Ellison to help in the prosecution. Mr. Freeman has been criticized by civil rights activists and some city officials, who say there is a history of mistrust between Mr. Freeman’s office and members of the community.
Governor Walz told reporters that Mr. Ellison “needs to lead this case.” He said he made the decision after speaking with Mr. Floyd’s family who “wanted to believe that there was a trust, and they wanted to believe that the facts would be heard.”
In Atlanta, the mayor fired two police officers and placed three others on desk duty pending review over excessive use of force during a protest incident Saturday night. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said at a news conference Sunday that she and police Chief Erika Shields made the decision after reviewing body-camera footage. Ms. Shields called it “really shocking to watch.”
Officials say the incident came to light via video that circulated online. It shows a group of Atlanta police officers in riot gear and gas masks surround a car being driven by a man with a woman in the passenger seat. The officers pull the woman out and appear to use a stun gun on the man. They use zip-tie handcuffs on the woman on the ground. The couple did not appear to be fighting police on the video.
Disgust over generations of racism in a country founded by slaveholders combined with a string of recent high-profile killings to stoke the anger. Three months before Mr. Floyd's death, Ahmaud Arbery was fatally shot as he jogged through a Georgia neighborhood. A white father and son are charged in the slaying. The month after Mr. Arbery was killed, an EMT named Breonna Taylor was shot eight times by Louisville, Kentucky, narcotics detectives who knocked down her front door. No drugs were found in her home.
Adding to that was angst from months of lockdowns brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately hurt communities of color, not only in terms of infections but in job losses and economic stress.
The droves of people congregating in chanting demonstrations threatened to trigger new outbreaks, a fact overshadowed by the boiling tensions.
“We’re sick of it. The cops are out of control,” protester Olga Hall said in Washington, D.C. “They’re wild. There’s just been too many dead boys.”
The scale of the protests, sweeping from coast to coast and unfolding on a single night, rivaled the historic demonstrations of the civil rights and Vietnam War eras.
Curfews were imposed in major cities around the United States, including Atlanta, Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Seattle. About 5,000 National Guard soldiers and airmen were activated in 15 states and Washington, D.C.
In Minneapolis, the city where the protests began, police, state troopers, and National Guard members moved in soon after an 8 p.m. curfew took effect Saturday to break up demonstrations. The show of force came after three days in which police largely avoided engaging protesters, and after the state poured more than 4,000 National Guard troops into Minneapolis. Authorities said that number would soon rise to nearly 11,000.
In neighboring St. Paul, thousands gathered peacefully Sunday in front of the state Capitol, pledging to keep up the protests.
“We’re Minnesota nice, but we’re not Minnesota dumb, and we’re not done,” St. Paul Black Lives Matter organizer Darnella Wade said. “They sent us the military and we only asked them for arrests.”
Minnesota's governor brought in thousands of National Guard soldiers to help quell violence that had damaged or destroyed hundreds of buildings in Minneapolis over days of protests. The immense deployment appeared to have worked Saturday and Sunday nights, when there was comparatively little destruction.
On Sunday, in a display of force, long lines of state patrolmen and National Guard soldiers were lined up in front of Minnesota's Capitol, facing the demonstrators, with perhaps a dozen military-style armored vehicles behind them.
President Donald Trump appeared to cheer on the tougher tactics, commending the National Guard deployment in Minneapolis and declaring “No games!” He said police in New York City “must be allowed to do their job!”
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden condemned the violence as he continued to express common cause with those demonstrating after Floyd’s death.
“The act of protesting should never be allowed to overshadow the reason we protest,” Biden said in a late-night statement.
Dozens of additional protests were underway or expected on Sunday, from Miami to Kansas City to San Francisco. They went forth largely without incident, but sparks of crime continued.
In Philadelphia, looters robbed stores in broad daylight Saturday, and at least one more police vehicle was set ablaze. Streets leading downtown were closed. Chicago likewise restricted downtown access and called in the National Guard.
Many also joined police in pleading for a stop to violence, saying it weakened calls for justice and reform.
“It only hurts the cause,” said Danielle Outlaw, head of the police force in Philadelphia, where more than 200 people were arrested as fires and looting engulfed the heart of the city.
At the Minneapolis intersection where Floyd was killed, people gathered with brooms and flowers, saying it was important to protect what they called a “sacred space.” The intersection was blocked with the traffic cones while a ring of flowers was laid out.
Among those descending on Minneapolis was Michael Brown Sr., the father of Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014.
“I understand what this family is feeling. I understand what this community is feeling,” he said.
County Commissioner Angela Conley said the demonstrations and confrontations with police would continue until the other three officers who were at the scene when Mr. Floyd was pinned down are arrested and prosecuted. The officer who put his knee on Mr. Floyd’s neck, Derek Chauvin, was charged last week with murder. All four officers have been fired.
“We’ll continue to have this militarized presence in our community until justice is done,” Ms. Conley said.
In tweets Sunday, Mr. Trump blamed anarchists and the media for fueling the violence. Attorney General William Barr pointed a finger at “far left extremist” groups. Police chiefs and politicians around the country accused outsiders of coming in and causing the problems.
Few parts of America were untouched. Protesters set fires inside Reno’s city hall, and police launched tear gas at rock-throwing demonstrators in Fargo, North Dakota. In Salt Lake City, demonstrators flipped a police car and lit it on fire. Police said six people were arrested and an officer was injured after being struck in the head with a baseball bat.
By Sunday, the fury had spread to Europe, where thousands gathered in London’s Trafalgar Square, clapping and waving placards despite government rules barring crowds because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
In New York, a video showed two police cruisers lurching into a crowd of demonstrators who were pushing a barricade against one of them and pelting it with objects. Several people were knocked to the ground. It was unclear if anyone was hurt.
“The mistakes that are happening are not mistakes. They’re repeated violent terrorist offenses, and people need to stop killing black people,” Brooklyn protester Meryl Makielski said.
In Indianapolis, two people were reported dead in bursts of downtown violence, adding to deaths reported in Detroit and Minneapolis in recent days.
Sites around the U.S. were defaced with spray-painted messages, from the facade of St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York to the historic Hay-Adams hotel near the White House. Some of Mr. Floyd's gasped last words – “I can't breathe” – were repeated around the country, alongside anti-police messages.
On Sunday, maintenance crews near the White House worked to replace windows that had been shattered with large pieces of wood. Buildings for blocks were marked with graffiti, including curses about Mr. Trump. Shattered glass still covered the sidewalks. The damaged buildings included the Department of Veterans Affairs, directly across the street from the White House.
Secret Service agents had rushed Mr. Trump to a White House bunker on Friday night as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the executive mansion, some of them throwing rocks and tugging at police barricades. The president spent nearly an hour in the bunker designed for use in emergencies like terrorist attacks, according to a Republican close to the White House who was not authorized to publicly discuss private matters and spoke on condition of anonymity. The account was confirmed by an administration official who also spoke on condition of anonymity.
Some leaders prepared to put more soldiers in the streets. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp authorized the deployment of up to 3,000 National Guard troops to Athens, Savannah, and any other cities where more demonstrations were planned. Mr. Kemp had already approved up to 1,500 Guardsmen to help enforce a 9 p.m. Saturday curfew in Atlanta.
This week’s unrest recalled the riots in Los Angeles nearly 30 years ago after the acquittal of the white police officers who beat Rodney King, a black motorist who had led them on a high-speed chase. The protests of Floyd’s killing have gripped many more cities, but the losses have yet to approach the staggering totals LA saw during five days of rioting in 1992, when more than 60 people died, 2,000-plus were injured, and thousands arrested, with property damage topping $1 billion.
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This story was reported by The Associated Press. Sedensky reported from Philadelphia. AP journalists across the U.S. contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.


csmonitor--2020-03-31--A day in the life of a grocer: Social distance, community embrace

The fight against COVID-19 is being waged on many fronts .
Mr. Mignosa is fighting to keep his community and his workforce whole .
His day is a window into what that looks like in an American town in a pandemic .
But these are not normal times , not when shoppers are panic-buying , employees are calling in sick , and suppliers are struggling to keep up .
“ Will our food keep showing up ?
” the customers ask him , politely , from a safe distance .
Mr. Mignosa likes to know his customers , his competitors @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grocery business .
He ’ s in constant motion on the shop floor and in the storeroom , working long days .
In normal times , that workload keeps him busy .
Maybe you have a local store , not a national chain , where you buy some , if not all , of your groceries .
You probably know some of the staff by now , perhaps the store manager too , if he ’ s anything like Mark Mignosa , who runs a bustling grocery south of Boston .
The grocer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ washes his hands .
In the dark he dresses , eats something , tries “ to clear [ his ] mind , ” and opens his email .
He begins .
On another day , in other times , this is when he would have looked at numbers – order sizes maybe , sales by hour , prior-year traffic .
He would have been planning , imagining innovations , thinking hard about customer demands and employee needs and competitor strategies .
He would have been thinking hard about how he might make his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , we ’ ve removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage .
It ’ s free .
But today the grocer will do none of that .
The grocer ’ s name is Mark Mignosa .
And right now his grocery store – Fruit Center Marketplace , in Hingham , Massachusetts – could be almost any grocery store in locked-down America , and his story almost any grocer ’ s story .
Except that his store isn ’ t any store @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it to keep getting me food .
Will there be groceries ?
By 6:30 a.m. , after the emailing from home about health department updates , tactical questions from managers , and the day ’ s “ directives ” ( “ Even more handwashing !
” ) , he ’ s in the Fruit Center ’ s aisles .
“ And from the moment you hit the store , you ’ re on , ” he says .
The doors will open at 7 , instead of 8 , for a newly added @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and away the day will race .
Agenda : Get enough goods on the emptying shelves , keep customers safe and calm , keep employees healthy and committed , and keep himself from getting sick .
Ready , set , go .
Mr. Mignosa knows what I ’ m thinking , because he knows everybody ’ s thinking it .
Will our food keep showing up ?
Sometime in the past few weeks , as coronavirus cases and social lockdowns spread , Mr. Mignosa watched Americans decide they could no longer trust @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them .
Hence the hoarding .
Almost half the stores responding to a national Progressive Grocer poll likened their customers to frantic prospectors in a river running out of gold .
The Fruit Center was no exception ; foot traffic rose between 100 % and 200 % , and average checkout tallies doubled .
Business still remains at “ holiday levels , ” says Mr. Mignosa , which is hard to manage in the best of times , and brutally hard when the “ holiday ” refuses to end .
Of course his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ questions : How can we expect the food system to keep working when it seems like most people don ’ t go to work ?
Will we ever actually see toilet paper again ?
According to supply chain analysts and grocery industry insiders – as well as Mr. Mignosa ’ s own instincts and experience – the answers are easy : Yes , there will be toilet paper ; in fact there were a few rolls yesterday .
( “ Fred found some from an industrial paper distributor .
The crew we have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can find things.
” ) It sold out .
More ’ s coming .
And yes , the U.S. food supply chain will keep getting us food .
Just not everything we ’ re used to .
The Fruit Center and its sister location in nearby Milton – both co-owned and co-managed by Mr. Mignosa and his brother , Michael – are about half the size of average supermarkets but still need deliveries from 30 distributors and some 200 vendors .
Supply isn ’ t perfect , Mr. Mignosa says .
“ But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the product flow.
” He wishes product flow were his biggest worry .
The morning goes both fast and slow .
Fast because of so much work , “ and with very short staff .
We ’ re down a few people in every department.
” Employees have begged off due to illness , or discomfort with the exposure , or the need to care for others at home .
( “ Which is absolutely understandable , and what you expect , ” Mr. Mignosa says .
“ We need people to do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) Slow because it ’ s just a few weeks since the national emergency declaration and already you can see the accumulating weariness among the staff – the wish for the days to hurry up and the bad dream to be over .
Massachusetts is among the worst-hit states so far , with more than 5,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19 .
In the store , Mr. Mignosa likes to move – constantly circulating with short quick steps .
When he stops to talk , his torso tilts forward a little , as though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ between you .
He ’ s the kind of boss who wears the same outfit the clerks and stockers do .
If there ’ s a sudden need for baggers at the checkout , he ’ s the kind of boss who bags .
Before all this , says Mr. Mignosa , “ everything about our days was completely different .
The whole focus would have been customer service , quality , freshness , the personal development '' of employees .
( The Fruit Center has 300 . )
Then there ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and find new sources of must-have items .
Cleaning goods and paper products remain hard to get , along with backroom store supplies like bathroom soaps and sanitizers , and sometimes deli meats and water , “ like before a storm.
” The other day there wasn ’ t any canola oil or dried black beans .
“ A lot of comfort food is going on , ” Mr. Mignosa says .
Meanwhile , the store ’ s processes and tactics are changed almost daily .
The salad bar is closed .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ safe social distancing , the store is metered now ; 50 or 60 shoppers are allowed in ; after that it 's one in , one out .
Plastic glass barriers have been erected at checkouts , and hourly wages have been hiked $ 2 ( as has become increasingly common industrywide ) .
In front of the fish counter and deli counter and checkout stations , there ’ s blue tape on the floor to keep people at a distance .
There are signs up .
By lunchtime Mr. Mignosa has no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his hands .
Nor how many conversations he has had – with staffers , with customers .
“ All centered on the same issue.
” Sometimes it feels like the conversations are all he does .
“ We ’ re all a little frightened , because we ’ re all on the front line .
I don ’ t even want to say that because I don ’ t want to scare anybody , but it ’ s the truth.
” In Italy , an infected grocery clerk has died ; the news @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and he talks .
“ It ’ s the time you have with every individual that matters .
They need it , they ’ re sacrificing so much , they ’ re such pros , ” says Mr. Mignosa .
He tries to reach everybody .
“ Could be three minutes , 10 minutes .
Could be a couple people , could be one at a time.
” Customers , too , seem hungry to talk .
All day they ask Mr. Mignosa and his Fruit Center colleagues , “ How are you @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The questions are repeated so often that one might imagine they grow stale when there ’ s so much work to do .
“ No !
” Mr. Mignosa says .
“ No , no , we need people to ask us that .
We need to ask them how they ’ re doing , too .
With customers there ’ s more of a connection now than ever – because we ’ re all going through this together .
It helps everyone .
Afternoon .
Mr. Mignosa is in the parking lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He ’ s traffic-copping , smiling – directing people in his simultaneously decisive and self-effacing way .
Outside the main door , shoppers are lined up in the manner we ’ ve all now learned – spread out like fence posts that got abandoned before the actual fencing went up .
I recognize some of them by sight if not name ; 20 years of patronage among others just as loyal will do that .
They seem calm .
I ask them how they ’ re doing .
Good , they each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Christine and Alden – tell me , “ This is nice.
” Nice ?
“ Yeah , I feel better here , ” explains Christine .
“ I mean this is our store .
At home , the news – it can seem like nothing is working .
Anywhere .
And the isolation ... ” She looks around ; the sky is gray but it ’ s not too cold .
“ Well , normal-ish , ” Alden revises .
He changes the subject .
“ I seriously want to thank these guys @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
” I say I know what he means .
Inside the store a fully masked customer at the checkout waves his arm to indicate his filled cart and gives me a muffled , “ This is great , ” the skin around his eyes crinkling with a smile you can ’ t see .
Meanwhile people keep floating slowly through the aisles , nodding to one another as they calculate just what 6 feet looks like .
There ’ s still no toilet paper .
“ Or flour or chicken stock , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him .
Because normal is exactly what he ’ s going for .
It isn ’ t normal , though .
The shelves may look serene but the duck ’ s feet are windmilling frantically below the surface , just as they are behind the scenes at other supermarkets and food distributors and loading docks across the country .
Mr. Mignosa can ’ t get his staff to leave on time .
“ It ’ s overwhelming , the amount of load coming in [ for restocking ] , ” he tells me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ instead of its previous 8 p.m. to allocate hours for sanitizing and stock handling , but there ’ s still not enough time to get the work done , “ and they don ’ t wan na leave.
” Mr. Mignosa adds , “ I keep insisting it ’ s important to leave .
You have to get rest .
You have to take care of yourselves.
” Does Mr. Mignosa take his own advice ?
Sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m. , he goes home .
He has been at the store @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ll do it again .
Maybe you feel about some store that ’ s local to you the way I feel about the Fruit Center .
Especially now .
On occasion over the past two decades I feared for it , as a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe ’ s and a Fresh Market came to town ( joining two other supermarkets already here ) .
But the Fruit Center just kept getting better , and thrived .
It ’ s the kind of store where if you ask a stocker for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doesn ’ t tell you or point ; he drops what he ’ s doing and takes you to them , no matter how many aisles away .
The store is good , is the thing .
Flagrantly competent , delightful to be in , easy to count on .
You can count on it without even thinking about it .
You can take it for granted .
Over the phone , I tell Mr. Mignosa about the customers who wanted to thank him and his people for their service , and I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” he says , “ we get a lot of that now .
Seems ridiculous but I almost feel like a first responder , or a fireman , whatever .
It ’ s not like we ’ re depended on for survival or anything.
” Yet you kind of are , I remind him , because : food .
“ People are so grateful .
It keeps you going .
And when we get that support , in an email or a conversation , we immediately try to blast it around the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like : This is it .
This is why .
We can do this.
” And of course , I know they can .
I know they will .
It ’ s a grocery store , but right about now it feels a little heroic .
Mr. Mignosa is home for the night , his phone on ( “ always ” ) but his computer off .
He and his wife have three kids – two in college and a high school freshman – and now the whole family is back together in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s great ; they ’ re very balanced , ” he says , his voice making it sound as though “ balanced ” might be the hardest and most precious thing in the world .
“ It ’ s a good reset for me.
” So , he resets .
Does he worry about how long he and his crew can keep going ?
“ No .
I ’ m just not at that point ; I don ’ t think about that .
Nothing past tomorrow matters .
“ There ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going for our community.
” So tomorrow , like today , he ’ ll do the best thing he can think to do , which is to do his job as well as he can do it .
But first , he needs some rest .
So he ’ ll go to bed .
Right after he washes his hands .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , we ’ ve removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage .
It ’ s free .

The fight against COVID-19 is being waged on many fronts. Mr. Mignosa is fighting to keep his community and his workforce whole. His day is a window into what that looks like in an American town in a pandemic.
But these are not normal times, not when shoppers are panic-buying, employees are calling in sick, and suppliers are struggling to keep up. “Will our food keep showing up?” the customers ask him, politely, from a safe distance.
Staffing and stocking a busy store amid a pandemic is a challenge that grocers are embracing, even as their customers fret over food shortages.
Mr. Mignosa likes to know his customers, his competitors, and just about everything about the grocery business. He’s in constant motion on the shop floor and in the storeroom, working long days. In normal times, that workload keeps him busy.
Maybe you have a local store, not a national chain, where you buy some, if not all, of your groceries. You probably know some of the staff by now, perhaps the store manager too, if he’s anything like Mark Mignosa, who runs a bustling grocery south of Boston.
The grocer gets up at 5 a.m., and washes his hands.
In the dark he dresses, eats something, tries “to clear [his] mind,” and opens his email. He begins.
On another day, in other times, this is when he would have looked at numbers – order sizes maybe, sales by hour, prior-year traffic. He would have been planning, imagining innovations, thinking hard about customer demands and employee needs and competitor strategies. He would have been thinking hard about how he might make his store better, as he loves to do.
Why We Wrote This Staffing and stocking a busy store amid a pandemic is a challenge that grocers are embracing, even as their customers fret over food shortages.
Editor’s note: As a public service, we’ve removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.
But today the grocer will do none of that.
The grocer’s name is Mark Mignosa. And right now his grocery store – Fruit Center Marketplace, in Hingham, Massachusetts – could be almost any grocery store in locked-down America, and his story almost any grocer’s story. Except that his store isn’t any store.
It’s mine.
And like anybody, I need it to keep getting me food.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Mark Mignosa, co-owner and president of the Fruit Center Marketplace, an independently owned grocery store, poses in front of the fully stocked produce aisle in his store on March 25, 2020, in Hingham, Massachusetts. Grocery stores are considered essential businesses during the coronavirus crisis.
Will there be groceries?
By 6:30 a.m., after the emailing from home about health department updates, tactical questions from managers, and the day’s “directives” (“Even more handwashing!”), he’s in the Fruit Center’s aisles. “And from the moment you hit the store, you’re on,” he says. The doors will open at 7, instead of 8, for a newly added hour restricted to “60-and-over” shoppers, and away the day will race.
Agenda: Get enough goods on the emptying shelves, keep customers safe and calm, keep employees healthy and committed, and keep himself from getting sick. Ready, set, go.
Mr. Mignosa knows what I’m thinking, because he knows everybody’s thinking it. Will our food keep showing up?
Sometime in the past few weeks, as coronavirus cases and social lockdowns spread, Mr. Mignosa watched Americans decide they could no longer trust groceries to be available when they needed them. Hence the hoarding. Almost half the stores responding to a national Progressive Grocer poll likened their customers to frantic prospectors in a river running out of gold. The Fruit Center was no exception; foot traffic rose between 100% and 200%, and average checkout tallies doubled. Business still remains at “holiday levels,” says Mr. Mignosa, which is hard to manage in the best of times, and brutally hard when the “holiday” refuses to end.
Of course his customers, like shoppers everywhere, have questions: How can we expect the food system to keep working when it seems like most people don’t go to work? Will we ever actually see toilet paper again?
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Customers shop at the Fruit Center Marketplace during the coronavirus crisis, on March 25, 2020, in Hingham, Massachusetts. The store is limiting the number of people allowed inside at one time to allow for social distancing.
According to supply chain analysts and grocery industry insiders – as well as Mr. Mignosa’s own instincts and experience – the answers are easy:
Yes, there will be toilet paper; in fact there were a few rolls yesterday. (“Fred found some from an industrial paper distributor. The crew we have, they’re veterans. They can find things.”) It sold out. More’s coming.
And yes, the U.S. food supply chain will keep getting us food. Just not everything we’re used to.
The Fruit Center and its sister location in nearby Milton – both co-owned and co-managed by Mr. Mignosa and his brother, Michael – are about half the size of average supermarkets but still need deliveries from 30 distributors and some 200 vendors. Supply isn’t perfect, Mr. Mignosa says. “But honestly, I’m impressed by the product flow.”
He wishes product flow were his biggest worry.
On the front lines
The morning goes both fast and slow. Fast because of so much work, “and with very short staff. We’re down a few people in every department.” Employees have begged off due to illness, or discomfort with the exposure, or the need to care for others at home. (“Which is absolutely understandable, and what you expect,” Mr. Mignosa says. “We need people to do what’s right for them.”)
Slow because it’s just a few weeks since the national emergency declaration and already you can see the accumulating weariness among the staff – the wish for the days to hurry up and the bad dream to be over. Massachusetts is among the worst-hit states so far, with more than 5,700 confirmed cases of COVID-19.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Liam Carey stocks produce at the Fruit Center Marketplace during the coronavirus crisis, on March 25, 2020, in Hingham, Massachusetts. He says he is happy to still have a job.
In the store, Mr. Mignosa likes to move – constantly circulating with short quick steps. When he stops to talk, his torso tilts forward a little, as though to catch any words that might fall between you. He’s the kind of boss who wears the same outfit the clerks and stockers do. If there’s a sudden need for baggers at the checkout, he’s the kind of boss who bags.
Before all this, says Mr. Mignosa, “everything about our days was completely different. The whole focus would have been customer service, quality, freshness, the personal development" of employees. (The Fruit Center has 300.)
Then there’s the scramble to keep up with orders and find new sources of must-have items. Cleaning goods and paper products remain hard to get, along with backroom store supplies like bathroom soaps and sanitizers, and sometimes deli meats and water, “like before a storm.” The other day there wasn’t any canola oil or dried black beans. “A lot of comfort food is going on,” Mr. Mignosa says.
Meanwhile, the store’s processes and tactics are changed almost daily. The salad bar is closed. The soup table is closed. To facilitate safe social distancing, the store is metered now; 50 or 60 shoppers are allowed in; after that it's one in, one out. Plastic glass barriers have been erected at checkouts, and hourly wages have been hiked $2 (as has become increasingly common industrywide). In front of the fish counter and deli counter and checkout stations, there’s blue tape on the floor to keep people at a distance. There are signs up.
By lunchtime Mr. Mignosa has no idea how many times he has washed his hands. Nor how many conversations he has had – with staffers, with customers. “All centered on the same issue.” Sometimes it feels like the conversations are all he does.
“We’re all a little frightened, because we’re all on the front line. I don’t even want to say that because I don’t want to scare anybody, but it’s the truth.” In Italy, an infected grocery clerk has died; the news reports are everywhere.
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Signs at the Rocky Neck Fish counter instruct customers to stay behind a line at the Fruit Center Marketplace during the coronavirus crisis, on March 25, 2020, in Hingham, Massachusetts.
So he circulates and he talks. “It’s the time you have with every individual that matters. They need it, they’re sacrificing so much, they’re such pros,” says Mr. Mignosa. He tries to reach everybody. “Could be three minutes, 10 minutes. Could be a couple people, could be one at a time.”
Customers, too, seem hungry to talk. All day they ask Mr. Mignosa and his Fruit Center colleagues, “How are you? You guys doing OK?” The questions are repeated so often that one might imagine they grow stale when there’s so much work to do. “No!” Mr. Mignosa says. “No, no, we need people to ask us that. We need to ask them how they’re doing, too. With customers there’s more of a connection now than ever – because we’re all going through this together. It helps everyone.
“It helps me.”
When normal is a gift
Afternoon. Mr. Mignosa is in the parking lot, where there are too many cars. He’s traffic-copping, smiling – directing people in his simultaneously decisive and self-effacing way.
Outside the main door, shoppers are lined up in the manner we’ve all now learned – spread out like fence posts that got abandoned before the actual fencing went up.
I recognize some of them by sight if not name; 20 years of patronage among others just as loyal will do that. They seem calm. I ask them how they’re doing.
Good, they each say. Considering.
One couple – Christine and Alden – tell me, “This is nice.” Nice?
“Yeah, I feel better here,” explains Christine. “I mean this is our store. At home, the news – it can seem like nothing is working. Anywhere. And the isolation ...” She looks around; the sky is gray but it’s not too cold.
“Here feels ... normal.”
Melanie Stetson Freeman/Staff View caption Hide caption Customers leave with their purchases from the Fruit Center Marketplace.
“Well, normal-ish,” Alden revises. He changes the subject. “I seriously want to thank these guys for their service. Is that weird?” I say I know what he means.
Inside the store a fully masked customer at the checkout waves his arm to indicate his filled cart and gives me a muffled, “This is great,” the skin around his eyes crinkling with a smile you can’t see. Meanwhile people keep floating slowly through the aisles, nodding to one another as they calculate just what 6 feet looks like. There’s still no toilet paper. “Or flour or chicken stock,” Mr. Mignosa says. It troubles him.
Because normal is exactly what he’s going for.
It isn’t normal, though. The shelves may look serene but the duck’s feet are windmilling frantically below the surface, just as they are behind the scenes at other supermarkets and food distributors and loading docks across the country. Mr. Mignosa can’t get his staff to leave on time. “It’s overwhelming, the amount of load coming in [for restocking],” he tells me. The store closes at 6 p.m. instead of its previous 8 p.m. to allocate hours for sanitizing and stock handling, but there’s still not enough time to get the work done, “and they don’t wanna leave.”
Mr. Mignosa adds, “I keep insisting it’s important to leave. You have to get rest. You have to take care of yourselves.”
Does Mr. Mignosa take his own advice?
Sometime between 5:30 and 6 p.m., he goes home. He has been at the store for 11 hours.
Tomorrow he’ll do it again.
“Reset”
Maybe you feel about some store that’s local to you the way I feel about the Fruit Center. Especially now.
On occasion over the past two decades I feared for it, as a Whole Foods and a Trader Joe’s and a Fresh Market came to town (joining two other supermarkets already here). But the Fruit Center just kept getting better, and thrived. It’s the kind of store where if you ask a stocker for the location of the capers, he doesn’t tell you or point; he drops what he’s doing and takes you to them, no matter how many aisles away.
The store is good, is the thing. Flagrantly competent, delightful to be in, easy to count on. You can count on it without even thinking about it. You can take it for granted.
Over the phone, I tell Mr. Mignosa about the customers who wanted to thank him and his people for their service, and I hear him exhale.
“You know,” he says, “we get a lot of that now. Seems ridiculous but I almost feel like a first responder, or a fireman, whatever. It’s not like we’re depended on for survival or anything.”
Yet you kind of are, I remind him, because: food.
“People are so grateful. It keeps you going. And when we get that support, in an email or a conversation, we immediately try to blast it around the store to everyone. It’s like: This is it. This is why. We can do this.”
And of course, I know they can. I know they will. It’s a grocery store, but right about now it feels a little heroic.
Mr. Mignosa is home for the night, his phone on (“always”) but his computer off. He and his wife have three kids – two in college and a high school freshman – and now the whole family is back together in the lockdown. “My family’s great; they’re very balanced,” he says, his voice making it sound as though “balanced” might be the hardest and most precious thing in the world. “It’s a good reset for me.”
So, he resets. Does he worry about how long he and his crew can keep going? “No. I’m just not at that point; I don’t think about that. Nothing past tomorrow matters.
“There’s no doubt that we can keep this going for our community.”
So tomorrow, like today, he’ll do the best thing he can think to do, which is to do his job as well as he can do it.
But first, he needs some rest. So he’ll go to bed.
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
Right after he washes his hands.
Editor’s note: As a public service, we’ve removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.


csmonitor--2020-03-26--Could Trump end lockdowns? Three legal issues.

Also , Washington has the power to quarantine people to block the spread of communicable disease from other nations or between the states .
But for most Americans , the shelter-in-place orders issued by state or local authorities will be far more important than such action taken by the federal government .
Of course , there are other coronavirus issues where Washington does have direct power .
On Jan. 31 Mr. Trump barred entry into the United States of any foreign national who had been in mainland China in the prior two weeks .
The White House has since issued @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Ireland , and the United Kingdom .
As the 15-day mark approaches , Mr. Trump has become vocal about the possibility of lifting restrictions so as to get the economy moving again .
But the president himself has no direct power to turn most of these musings into action .
His 15-day recommendations were advisory ; it is state governors and city mayors who have used their police powers to issue edicts .
On March 16 President Donald Trump issued coronavirus guidelines for the nation titled , “ 15 Days to Slow @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the guidelines advised working from home if possible and avoiding social gatherings of more than 10 people .
Could President Donald Trump , in the name of restarting the economy , repeal the lockdown or semi-lockdown conditions that now exist in much of the United States , with nonessential stores shuttered , large groups prohibited , and many places of business closed ?
The answer to that question is almost certainly “ no.
” From Connecticut to California , it is state and local officials who have ordered most of the nation ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mr. Trump could direct federal workers to return to their offices , and order some businesses to produce certain items under the Defense Production Act .
But in terms of direct action , that ’ s about it .
“ While the federal government has authority to authorize quarantine and isolation under certain circumstances , the primary authority for quarantine and isolation exists at the state level as an exercise of the state ’ s police power , ” concludes a 2014 Congressional Research Service ( CRS ) summary of U.S. public health @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .
Government actions to deal with the spread of COVID-19 have taken place under the aegis of a variety of laws and regulations .
Here ’ s an explainer on some of the legal underpinnings of steps taken so far : Mr. Trump ’ s first big move meant to counter the coronavirus crisis was a travel ban .
On Jan. 31 he issued a presidential proclamation barring entry into the U.S. of any foreign national who had been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the prior 14 days .
( U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and their relatives weren ’ t covered by this ruling . )
His authority to issue this order derives from the Immigration and Nationality Act , which in its current form dates to 1965 .
Section 212 ( f ) of the law authorizes blocking “ alien ” entry on grounds of public health , among other things .
In subsequent weeks the White House issued similar edicts banning foreign nationals who have recently been in Iran , the Schengen Area @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the United Kingdom .
This is the first time this particular slice of U.S. law has been used to try to halt the spread of a communicable disease , according to a CRS legal sidebar dealing with COVID-19 .
But it also underpinned the Trump administration ’ s early travel ban barring entrants from a number of majority-Muslim countries .
After several modifications to account for First Amendment concerns , that ban was upheld by the Supreme Court .
The high court majority held that Section 212 ( f ) “ exudes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” For most Americans , the coronavirus crisis ’ s shelter-in-place orders issued by state or local authorities will be far more important than such action taken by the federal government .
Washington has the power to quarantine people or take other measures to block the spread of communicable disease from other nations or between the states .
Authority to enforce such actions comes from Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act of 1944 , according to CRS .
Those quarantined have some rights , however , given that involuntary detention is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines , the federal government must test detainees within 72 hours and define the length of their quarantine from the outset .
A well-known 2014 test case of the government ’ s quarantine powers involved Kaci Hickox , a nurse who was involuntarily detained at Newark Airport after arriving from an area of West Africa where she had worked with Ebola patients .
Legal action by Ms. Hickox eventually established that arriving passengers have the right to appeal quarantine decisions and seek legal advice .
States may isolate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ under policing powers derived from the 10th Amendment .
But their mandatory quarantine laws vary widely , with some vesting powers in health authorities and others requiring court orders for such a move .
The national security legal blog Lawfare has compiled a useful summary of quarantine and isolation authorities in each state .
The use of state and local authority to enforce widespread self-quarantines in the face of a health threat is a new legal frontier .
To this point enforcement has seemed relatively light-handed , with police breaking up large groups @ @ @ @ @ @ @ home .
Mass arrests would be counterproductive to a need for social distancing .
But in some cases , police are using tougher measures .
In Kentucky , a man who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus checked himself out of a Louisville hospital against doctors ’ advice and told police he would not follow orders to self-quarantine at home .
The Nelson County Sheriff ’ s Office posted armed guards outside his door .
On March 16 Mr. Trump issued coronavirus guidelines for the nation titled , “ 15 Days to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the guidelines advised working or engaging in schooling from home if possible , avoiding social gatherings of more than 10 people , avoiding restaurants , and limiting travel as much as possible .
As the 15-day mark approaches the president has become increasingly vocal about the possibility of lifting these restrictions so as to get the country back to work and the economy moving again .
A deep recession could be worse than the spread of the coronavirus , he said on Tuesday in a Fox News “ virtual town hall.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country opened up ” by Easter , Mr. Trump said .
Many public health officials have argued strenuously against such loosening , saying the coronavirus is far from under control .
But the president himself has no direct power to turn most of these musings into action .
His 15-day recommendations were advisory ; it is state governors and city mayors who have used their police powers to issue edicts giving them teeth .
Every state , territory , and the District of Columbia has declared a public health emergency , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Association .
Twenty-one states and the Virgin Islands have issued stay-at-home orders , according to the NGA ( not all these orders cover state territories in their entirety ) .
Most have set limits of various levels on the size of permissible public gatherings .
Either statewide or locally directed school closures have occurred in all states .
Thirty-six states and Puerto Rico have limited the operations of nonessential businesses .
Mr. Trump , of course , commands a lot of attention .
He has the bully pulpits of the White House and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ known .
But many governors , particularly in hard-hit states such as New York , do not appear at all inclined to loosen regulations yet .
A number of the governors at the forefront of closing down schools and businesses are Republican , such as Ohio Gov .
Mike DeWine and Maryland Gov .
Larry Hogan .
They don ’ t seem inclined to follow the president ’ s wishes , either .
Governor Hogan , current chair of the NGA , said on Monday , “ We don ’ t think that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ any way ready to be out of this in five or six days or so.
” Editor ’ s note : As a public service , all our coronavirus coverage is free .
No paywall .

Also, Washington has the power to quarantine people to block the spread of communicable disease from other nations or between the states. But for most Americans, the shelter-in-place orders issued by state or local authorities will be far more important than such action taken by the federal government.
Of course, there are other coronavirus issues where Washington does have direct power. On Jan. 31 Mr. Trump barred entry into the United States of any foreign national who had been in mainland China in the prior two weeks. The White House has since issued similar edicts involving Iran, continental Europe, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
Government actions to protect public health amid the coronavirus crisis have taken place under a variety of laws and regulations. What are the legal underpinnings for travel bans, quarantines, and lockdowns?
As the 15-day mark approaches, Mr. Trump has become vocal about the possibility of lifting restrictions so as to get the economy moving again. But the president himself has no direct power to turn most of these musings into action. His 15-day recommendations were advisory; it is state governors and city mayors who have used their police powers to issue edicts.
On March 16 President Donald Trump issued coronavirus guidelines for the nation titled, “15 Days to Slow the Spread.” Among other things, the guidelines advised working from home if possible and avoiding social gatherings of more than 10 people.
Could President Donald Trump, in the name of restarting the economy, repeal the lockdown or semi-lockdown conditions that now exist in much of the United States, with nonessential stores shuttered, large groups prohibited, and many places of business closed?
The answer to that question is almost certainly “no.” From Connecticut to California, it is state and local officials who have ordered most of the nation’s current restrictions on daily life. Mr. Trump could direct federal workers to return to their offices, and order some businesses to produce certain items under the Defense Production Act. But in terms of direct action, that’s about it.
“While the federal government has authority to authorize quarantine and isolation under certain circumstances, the primary authority for quarantine and isolation exists at the state level as an exercise of the state’s police power,” concludes a 2014 Congressional Research Service (CRS) summary of U.S. public health powers.
Why We Wrote This Government actions to protect public health amid the coronavirus crisis have taken place under a variety of laws and regulations. What are the legal underpinnings for travel bans, quarantines, and lockdowns?
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.
Government actions to deal with the spread of COVID-19 have taken place under the aegis of a variety of laws and regulations. Here’s an explainer on some of the legal underpinnings of steps taken so far:
Travel bans
Mr. Trump’s first big move meant to counter the coronavirus crisis was a travel ban. On Jan. 31 he issued a presidential proclamation barring entry into the U.S. of any foreign national who had been in mainland China at any point in the prior 14 days. (U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents and their relatives weren’t covered by this ruling.)
His authority to issue this order derives from the Immigration and Nationality Act, which in its current form dates to 1965. Section 212(f) of the law authorizes blocking “alien” entry on grounds of public health, among other things.
In subsequent weeks the White House issued similar edicts banning foreign nationals who have recently been in Iran, the Schengen Area of the European Union, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.
This is the first time this particular slice of U.S. law has been used to try to halt the spread of a communicable disease, according to a CRS legal sidebar dealing with COVID-19. But it also underpinned the Trump administration’s early travel ban barring entrants from a number of majority-Muslim countries. After several modifications to account for First Amendment concerns, that ban was upheld by the Supreme Court. The high court majority held that Section 212(f) “exudes deference to the President in every clause.”
Quarantines
For most Americans, the coronavirus crisis’s shelter-in-place orders issued by state or local authorities will be far more important than such action taken by the federal government.
Washington has the power to quarantine people or take other measures to block the spread of communicable disease from other nations or between the states. Authority to enforce such actions comes from Section 361 of the Public Health Service Act of 1944, according to CRS.
Those quarantined have some rights, however, given that involuntary detention is a deprivation of liberty. Under Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines, the federal government must test detainees within 72 hours and define the length of their quarantine from the outset.
A well-known 2014 test case of the government’s quarantine powers involved Kaci Hickox, a nurse who was involuntarily detained at Newark Airport after arriving from an area of West Africa where she had worked with Ebola patients. Legal action by Ms. Hickox eventually established that arriving passengers have the right to appeal quarantine decisions and seek legal advice.
States may isolate or quarantine people deemed public health risks under policing powers derived from the 10th Amendment. But their mandatory quarantine laws vary widely, with some vesting powers in health authorities and others requiring court orders for such a move. The national security legal blog Lawfare has compiled a useful summary of quarantine and isolation authorities in each state.
The use of state and local authority to enforce widespread self-quarantines in the face of a health threat is a new legal frontier. To this point enforcement has seemed relatively light-handed, with police breaking up large groups of people and asking them to return home. Mass arrests would be counterproductive to a need for social distancing.
But in some cases, police are using tougher measures. In Kentucky, a man who had tested positive for the novel coronavirus checked himself out of a Louisville hospital against doctors’ advice and told police he would not follow orders to self-quarantine at home. The Nelson County Sheriff’s Office posted armed guards outside his door.
Economic lockdowns
On March 16 Mr. Trump issued coronavirus guidelines for the nation titled, “15 Days to Slow the Spread.” Among other things, the guidelines advised working or engaging in schooling from home if possible, avoiding social gatherings of more than 10 people, avoiding restaurants, and limiting travel as much as possible.
As the 15-day mark approaches the president has become increasingly vocal about the possibility of lifting these restrictions so as to get the country back to work and the economy moving again. A deep recession could be worse than the spread of the coronavirus, he said on Tuesday in a Fox News “virtual town hall.”
It would be better to “have the country opened up” by Easter, Mr. Trump said.
Many public health officials have argued strenuously against such loosening, saying the coronavirus is far from under control. But the president himself has no direct power to turn most of these musings into action. His 15-day recommendations were advisory; it is state governors and city mayors who have used their police powers to issue edicts giving them teeth.
Every state, territory, and the District of Columbia has declared a public health emergency, according to lists compiled by the National Governors Association. Twenty-one states and the Virgin Islands have issued stay-at-home orders, according to the NGA (not all these orders cover state territories in their entirety). Most have set limits of various levels on the size of permissible public gatherings.
Either statewide or locally directed school closures have occurred in all states. Thirty-six states and Puerto Rico have limited the operations of nonessential businesses.
Mr. Trump, of course, commands a lot of attention. He has the bully pulpits of the White House and his Twitter feed to make his desires known.
But many governors, particularly in hard-hit states such as New York, do not appear at all inclined to loosen regulations yet. A number of the governors at the forefront of closing down schools and businesses are Republican, such as Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan. They don’t seem inclined to follow the president’s wishes, either.
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empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
Governor Hogan, current chair of the NGA, said on Monday, “We don’t think that we’re going to be in any way ready to be out of this in five or six days or so.”
Editor’s note: As a public service, all our coronavirus coverage is free. No paywall.


csmonitor--2020-03-26--Chicago hotels open doors to patients to ease hospital crowding

Hours before his first shift cooking for people with mild cases of COVID-19 who are being quarantined in a downtown Chicago hotel , Jose Gonzalez made a plan to protect his family from the coronavirus .
Chicago 's plan to reserve at least 1,000 hotel rooms through partnerships with five hotels is the first such sweeping strategy unveiled in the United States aimed at relieving the pressure on hospitals that are the only option for the seriously sick .
But it will assuredly not be the last .
Government officials nationwide are searching for facilities that could act as a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that demand will exceed available space and equipment for coronavirus patients with severe symptoms .
Mr. Gonzalez said he has been reassured that only city employees will interact with patients .
But he 's planning to frequently wash his hands and take other steps to limit his chances of becoming ill or spreading the virus to his 5-year-old daughter and fiancee .
Samir Mayekar , deputy mayor for neighborhood and economic development in Chicago , said the city 's public health team wanted a plan that teamed with hotel owners and their staff @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by public employees as in cities in Asia and Europe .
`` Quarantine and isolation units are going to be used in every city across the country eventually , in their own way , shape , and form , '' Mr. Mayekar said .
`` Every hour , every day counts . ''
New York Gov .
Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that he 's also considering hotels and dormitories for treatment sites as work continues to turn the city 's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center into a temporary field hospital .
In Michigan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its basketball gym for a makeshift hospital and parking lots for drive-thru testing sites .
The first patients moved into Hotel 166 on Tuesday , but the city has not said how many , nor has it named the other hotels that are joining the effort .
The hotel rooms are intended for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have mild symptoms that do n't require a hospital stay .
They also could be used by people awaiting test results who are unable to go home due to the risk of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ particularly those who are vulnerable to more severe symptoms due to their age or health issues .
`` We need to build this excess network of other spaces so we can take pressure off of hospitals and reserve those acute care beds for those that are most in need of intensive medical treatment , '' Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday .
Public health officials or hospitals will inform patients who test positive that the rooms are available , but the decision to use a room is voluntary , Mr. Mayekar said .
No @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
City officials have said Chicago 's hospitals are n't at the critical level seen in New York this week .
But Illinois Gov .
J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that the state will need almost 38,000 additional hospital beds – double what 's available – as the number of cases continues to rise .
On Wednesday afternoon , Illinois reported 1,865 COVID-19 infections and 19 deaths linked to the virus .
Americans probably would n't respond positively to being forced into quarantine outside their home , so it 's wise to choose appealing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and familiarity , said Effi Benmelech , director of the Guthrie Center for Real Estate Research at Northwestern University 's Kellogg School of Management .
A more forceful approach , as deployed in China and Israel , would likely be rejected here , he said .
`` In the U.S. , we need to think about the carrot , the incentive , '' he said .
Public health and other city employees will handle all face-to-face interactions with patients in the Chicago hotels , delivering food to their doors and announcing it with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Hotel cooks will prepare three meals per day and housekeeping staff will receive training from public health employees on cleaning linens and handling trash or meals .
Fresh linens will be delivered outside patients ' rooms as needed , not daily .
If maintenance is required inside a hotel room , the patient will move to another room and their first room will be sanitized before workers enter , Mr. Mayekar said .
`` This is not going to be a day-to-day , normal experience in a hotel , '' he said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responsible for extensive cleaning of the hotels when they are no longer needed for quarantining patients .
The deal comes as a life raft for some Chicago hotel industry workers , who saw customers and their income disappear as the virus began to spread in the U.S. Hotels in some markets have seen occupancy dive to single digits and reports of hotel employees being laid off throughout the country began this week , said Michael Jacobson , president of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association .
`` By no means is a hotel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he said .
`` The money that is being collected is really just helping these hotels get by . ''
Mr. Gonzalez said his decision to sign on as a cook for hotel-bound patients in Chicago was influenced by his family 's financial situation .
Until Monday 's announcement , he was part of an 18-month strike by Hotel 166 workers .
Mr. Gonzalez had been working overnight shifts at another hotel to get by .
But warnings about the coronavirus slowed guest arrivals there and had slashed his work hours in recent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trust in the city of Chicago and their health department , '' Mr. Gonzalez said .
`` At the end of the day , I 've got bills to pay and I have to move my family forward . ''
This story was reported by The Associated Press .
AP video journalist Noreen Nasir and writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed .
Editor ’ s note : As a public service , the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage .
It ’ s free .

Hours before his first shift cooking for people with mild cases of COVID-19 who are being quarantined in a downtown Chicago hotel, Jose Gonzalez made a plan to protect his family from the coronavirus.
Chicago's plan to reserve at least 1,000 hotel rooms through partnerships with five hotels is the first such sweeping strategy unveiled in the United States aimed at relieving the pressure on hospitals that are the only option for the seriously sick.
But it will assuredly not be the last.
Government officials nationwide are searching for facilities that could act as a relief valve for hospitals amid building concern that demand will exceed available space and equipment for coronavirus patients with severe symptoms.
Mr. Gonzalez said he has been reassured that only city employees will interact with patients. But he's planning to frequently wash his hands and take other steps to limit his chances of becoming ill or spreading the virus to his 5-year-old daughter and fiancee.
Samir Mayekar, deputy mayor for neighborhood and economic development in Chicago, said the city's public health team wanted a plan that teamed with hotel owners and their staff, rather than a takeover run entirely by public employees as in cities in Asia and Europe.
"Quarantine and isolation units are going to be used in every city across the country eventually, in their own way, shape, and form," Mr. Mayekar said. "Every hour, every day counts."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Wednesday that he's also considering hotels and dormitories for treatment sites as work continues to turn the city's Jacob K. Javits Convention Center into a temporary field hospital. In Michigan, a suburban Detroit university offered up its basketball gym for a makeshift hospital and parking lots for drive-thru testing sites.
The first patients moved into Hotel 166 on Tuesday, but the city has not said how many, nor has it named the other hotels that are joining the effort.
The hotel rooms are intended for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 but have mild symptoms that don't require a hospital stay. They also could be used by people awaiting test results who are unable to go home due to the risk of spreading the virus to family members, particularly those who are vulnerable to more severe symptoms due to their age or health issues.
"We need to build this excess network of other spaces so we can take pressure off of hospitals and reserve those acute care beds for those that are most in need of intensive medical treatment," Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Tuesday.
Public health officials or hospitals will inform patients who test positive that the rooms are available, but the decision to use a room is voluntary, Mr. Mayekar said.
No one is making public predictions about demand.
City officials have said Chicago's hospitals aren't at the critical level seen in New York this week. But Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker said Tuesday that the state will need almost 38,000 additional hospital beds – double what's available – as the number of cases continues to rise.
On Wednesday afternoon, Illinois reported 1,865 COVID-19 infections and 19 deaths linked to the virus.
Americans probably wouldn't respond positively to being forced into quarantine outside their home, so it's wise to choose appealing options like hotels that can provide comfort and familiarity, said Effi Benmelech, director of the Guthrie Center for Real Estate Research at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.
A more forceful approach, as deployed in China and Israel, would likely be rejected here, he said.
"In the U.S., we need to think about the carrot, the incentive," he said.
Public health and other city employees will handle all face-to-face interactions with patients in the Chicago hotels, delivering food to their doors and announcing it with a quiet knock, Mr. Mayekar said.
Hotel cooks will prepare three meals per day and housekeeping staff will receive training from public health employees on cleaning linens and handling trash or meals. Fresh linens will be delivered outside patients' rooms as needed, not daily.
If maintenance is required inside a hotel room, the patient will move to another room and their first room will be sanitized before workers enter, Mr. Mayekar said.
"This is not going to be a day-to-day, normal experience in a hotel," he said.
The agreements also made the city responsible for extensive cleaning of the hotels when they are no longer needed for quarantining patients.
The deal comes as a life raft for some Chicago hotel industry workers, who saw customers and their income disappear as the virus began to spread in the U.S.
Hotels in some markets have seen occupancy dive to single digits and reports of hotel employees being laid off throughout the country began this week, said Michael Jacobson, president of the Illinois Hotel and Lodging Association.
"By no means is a hotel making money off of this," he said. "The money that is being collected is really just helping these hotels get by."
Mr. Gonzalez said his decision to sign on as a cook for hotel-bound patients in Chicago was influenced by his family's financial situation. Until Monday's announcement, he was part of an 18-month strike by Hotel 166 workers.
Mr. Gonzalez had been working overnight shifts at another hotel to get by. But warnings about the coronavirus slowed guest arrivals there and had slashed his work hours in recent weeks.
"I'm leaving my trust in the city of Chicago and their health department," Mr. Gonzalez said. "At the end of the day, I've got bills to pay and I have to move my family forward."
Get stories that
empower and uplift daily. By signing up, you agree to our Privacy Policy Already a subscriber? Log in to hide ads.
This story was reported by The Associated Press. AP video journalist Noreen Nasir and writer Corey Williams in Detroit contributed.
Editor’s note: As a public service, the Monitor has removed the paywall for all our coronavirus coverage. It’s free.