The LuLac Edition #4,276, April 30th, 2020

VACCINES CANNOT BE RUSHED

Line in a Chicago neighborhood in 1956

The sugar cube Sunday in the fall of '61. (Photos: Vaccinehistory.org)

Like the Supremes sang in 1966, “You Can’t Hurry love”, well it appears you can’t hurry vaccines. There is talk coming out of Washington that the Trump administration wants to speed up a vaccine for the Coronavirus. That’s good and bad. Good in the sense that one is certainly needed. Bad, if it is done in a slip shod or haphazard way.
To put this in perspective, the first case of Polio was recorded in 1894 in the United States. It took until 1955 for the vaccine to get refined by Dr, Jonas Salk. It wasn’t until 1961 that it was distributed on sugar cubes on a Sunday afternoon in the fall throughout the nation. I remember going to the Jefferson School on North Main street and getting it.
People are clamoring for a speedy anecdote and even though we’ve advanced more in the last century than ever in science and medicine, if it’s going to be right it will take time.

TRUMP SAYS HE'LL SUE CAMPAIGN MANAGER

Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale (Photo: San Antonio Express News)

Frustrated with a dip in battleground state polling amid the COVID-19 pandemic and consistent criticism surrounding White House briefings reportedly boiled over last week as President Donald Trump lashed out at Brad Parscale, the digital marketer who helped Trump secure victory in 2016 before becoming Trump’s re-election campaign manager.
During a White House meeting with aides on Friday, and Parscale on speakerphone from his Florida home, Trump berated his campaign manager over polls hinting Biden could top him in must-win states in November, CNN reported. Several sources told CNN, The Washington Post and The New York Times that the president quipped that he might sue Parscale.
“I love you, too,” Parscale responded, according to The Times.
Trump insisted that he was “not losing to Joe Biden" and used profanities throughout the call, which Parscale described to others as a Trump venting session, The Post reported.
A recent Quinnipiac University poll showed Trump trailing Biden in Florida, 46% to 42%.
But our next article asks Democrats and anti Trumpers not to get over their skis on the polling this early.

WHAT ONE SHOULD REMEMBER ABOUT THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN

President Trump (Photo: AP)

One word should be used to describe the Trump re-election bid. Unorthodox. Like he did in 2016, Trump isn’t going to care how he wins, just ghat he wins. After that, he can spin it any way he wants much to the delight and belief of his followers and to the chagrin of people who see the truth.
The Trump campaign is prepared for a repeat and they are prepared. They have built a data base of die hard Trump supporters that right now numbers in the millions. These people are not persuadable and will go to the polls to vote Trump. Period.
Right now the national polls have Biden ahead but as Pennsylvania and Luzerne County proved the last time, it only takes a small margin to win the entire Electoral vote package of a state. To think that the President’s handling of the Coronavirus will be his undoing is wishful at best. Trump has the not only the minds and hearts of rabid supporters, he also has their feet going to the polls on Election Day.
Need proof locally? The Luzerne County Council now has a Republican majority. That happened because GOP leaders here identified people who were going to vote for that team no matter what. People tend to forget that local elections usually portend what will occur in the next one.
Unorhadox in the sense that no one would believe it could work. But in reality it did once in '16 and might happen gain in 2020.

JOE BIDEN’S 4-POINT PLAN FOR OUR ESSENTIAL WORKERS

Essential workers are providing life-saving medical care, cleaning our hospital rooms, delivering our food and other essential goods, stocking our grocery store shelves, getting us from place to place, keeping our cities’ lights on, and so much more. They have been on the frontlines of this pandemic.
Joe Biden has said since the beginning of this campaign that American workers are the heart and soul of this country— too often, though, we’ve taken these workers and the work they do for granted.
But the coronavirus pandemic has highlighted this critical truth: all across this nation, it’s often our lowest-paid workers who have stepped up during this crisis.
Donald Trump’s foot-dragging and delays have only made it more challenging for workers.
These workers are putting themselves on the line every day. They are essential to our society – in times of crisis and beyond, and deserve not just our thanks and respect, but our support.
Joe Biden has a bold agenda to give these workers the long-term support they deserve — raising wages, guaranteeing quality, affordable health care, providing free tuition for public higher education, and encouraging unionization and collective bargaining.
But these workers can’t wait. They need emergency help now.
Today, Joe Biden is calling on President Trump’s Administration to take four immediate actions to protect and support our essential workers:
(1) Ensure all frontline workers, like grocery store employees, qualify for priority access to personnel protective equipment (PPE) and COVID-19 testing based upon their risk of exposure to the virus, as well as child care assistance, and other forms of emergency COVID-19 support.
(2) Expand access to effective personal protective equipment, including through use of the Defense Production Act.
The Trump Administration should ramp up capacity to produce masks for all frontline workers – from health care workers to grocery store workers – by fully using the Defense Production Act. And, the Trump Administration should fully empower a Supply Commander to coordinate the production and delivery of essential supplies and equipment, including masks, gloves, and other personal protective equipment. The Supply Commander would be tasked with ensuring equitable distribution so that at-risk communities and particularly vulnerable populations are fully taken care of.
(3) Establish and enforce health and safety standards for workplaces.
During the H1N1 epidemic, the Obama-Biden Administration tasked the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Center for Disease Control (CDC) with issuing detailed guidance for how employers should protect their workers. Then, OSHA enforced the law based on those guidelines. The Trump Administration has only started enforcement efforts this week and is still refusing to do everything it can and should to protect workers’ health and safety.
The Trump Administration should:
•Immediately release and enforce an Emergency Temporary Standard (“ETS”) to give employers and frontline employees specific, enforceable guidance on what to do to reduce the spread of COVID.
•Finalize a permanent infectious disease standard. After H1N1, the Obama-Biden Administration spent years preparing a new, permanent infectious disease standard, which would have required health facilities and certain other high exposure workplaces to permanently implement infection control programs to protect their workers. It handed it to the Trump Administration, but instead of moving it to rulemaking, it readily shelved it. They should immediately get to work bringing it to conclusion and expanding it to include all relevant workplaces.
•Double the number of OSHA investigators to enforce the law and existing standards and guidelines. Under President Trump, OSHA currently has record low inspectors. Given the exigencies of this crisis, and the need for rigorous enforcement of workplace standards across the country, at least twice the number of inspectors are needed.
•Work closely with state occupational safety and health agencies and state and local governments, and the unions that represent their employees, to ensure comprehensive protections for frontline workers.
(4) Enact premium pay for frontline workers putting themselves at risk.
There is no substitute for ensuring worker safety, but all frontline workers putting their lives on the line should receive premium pay for their work. The Trump Administration should immediately work with Congress to pass a bold premium pay initiative. Under the Senate Democrats’ “Heroes Fund” proposal, the federal government would step in and give essential workers a raise, with additional funding to attract workers to serve as health and home care workers and first responders. This premium pay should be in addition to paid sick leave and care-giving leave for every worker, which Joe Biden called for in his March 12 plan, and $15 minimum wage for all workers.

EX-BUSH AIDE HAS CHILLING THEORY ABOUT DONALD TRUMP'S CORONAVIRUS STRATEGY

David Frum (Photo: CNN)

An ex-speechwriter for former President George W. Bush on Tuesday argued that President Donald Trump is sacrificing the lives of other Americans to the coronavirus crisis in a “desperate” bid to save himself politically.
In a thread on Twitter, David Frum claimed reports the White House is now pivoting its pandemic messaging to the economy showed Trump is “consciously choosing to risk higher virus casualties” in the second quarter of 2020 “in hope of jolting the economy into revival in Q3 to save his re-election” in November.
“It’s a desperate gamble to save himself by sacrificing others,” wrote Frum, who is now a senior editor at The Atlantic, warning: “It’s also not very likely to work.”
This came from the Huffington Post but consider also the words and theory comes from a Republican stalwart. (Huffington Post, LuLac)

CASEY ENCOURAGES PARTICIPATION IN USDA ‘FARMERS TO FAMILIES FOOD BOX’ INITIATIVE IN ORDER TO BENEFIT PENNSYLVANIA’S FARMERS AND FAMILIES

USDA ALLOCATES $3 BILLION FOR FOOD DISTRIBUTION INITIATIVE AS COVID-19 PANDEMIC INCREASES NEED FOR NUTRITION ASSISTANCE, APPLICATIONS DUE BY MAY 1

Senator Bob Casey (Photo: LuLac archives)

Senator Bob Casey is encouraging Pennsylvania food distributors, including food hubs, farmers markets and other entities, to apply for the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farmers to Families Food Box initiative. This initiative, funded by assistance included in the CARES Act, is designed to connect regional and local food distributors capable of sourcing, assembling and delivering food boxes with non-profit organizations, food banks and food pantries serving families in need of assistance. As the COVID-19 pandemic impacts farmers with the widespread market and supply chain disruption and increases the need for financial and nutritional assistance for many Americans, this program serves to stimulate the industry and provide much-needed emergency food relief.
“Agriculture is the Commonwealth’s top industry and farmers and agricultural businesses are essential to our economy. This initiative needs to support our farmers and local food distributors while delivering immediate critical food assistance to families whose burdens have become exponentially heavier during this pandemic. I strongly encourage any Pennsylvania food distributor who is able to source, assemble and deliver food boxes to apply,” said Senator Casey.
Senator Casey’s previous efforts to support both farmers and non-profits include his introduction of the Farm to Food Bank Act, provisions from which were included in the 2018 Farm Bill. The Farm Bill established Farm to Food Bank Projects to support farmers in donating their product directly to food banks to be distributed to those in need. Farm to Foodbank can now be included in States’ emergency feeding distribution plans to support farmers by reimbursing them for the costs to produce, harvest, pack, process, store or transport to foodbanks food that is safe for consumption but does not have access to a retail market or supply chain. This structure serves as a model upon which to continue to strengthen the connection between farmers and families in need.
Senator Casey recently sent letters to USDA Secretary Sonny Perdue requesting that USDA deliver direct assistance to dairy farmers and specialty crop producers to account for losses suffered during the COVID-19 pandemic, and tailor USDA relief efforts to farmers in various local markets. Senator Casey also led a Pennsylvania delegation letter to the Small Business Administration to ensure that loans and programs are available and work for farmers and agricultural businesses.

Letter to Secretary Perdue:

Dear Secretary Perdue:
The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted local food systems and caused losses for farmers who sell their products to local markets. We urge you to account for the scale of these losses as the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides relief and direct payments to farmers.
The recently-passed Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act made $9.5 billion available for USDA to provide support for agricultural producers who are struggling because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The CARES Act specifically includes “producers that supply local food systems, including farmers markets, restaurants, and schools” among those eligible for the assistance. We write today to emphasize the high level of damages being experienced by local food producers and to provide comments on fair allocation of the CARES payments.
Communities across the country have responded to the spread of COVID-19 by shutting down schools, universities, and other institutions. Many farmers markets have closed or postponed the start of the season to prevent crowds from gathering during the outbreak, and restaurants have closed or are operating on a limited basis. These closures and delays have cut off the usual outlets for producers who sell directly to into local and regional food systems. One study estimates that these market disruptions could lead to a $1.1 billion loss of sales for these producers through the end of 2020.
The growth of the local food economy over the last decade has nurtured a diverse group of small and medium size producers who depend on direct markets to reach consumers. Consumers benefit from having more choices and a deeper connection to where their food comes from and how it is grown. Unfortunately, these losses, compounded by increased sanitization and transportation expenses, threaten the survival of many of the farms that supply local food systems.
We urge you to protect the rich diversity of American agriculture by working with producers who supply local markets to tailor USDA relief efforts to their needs. To do this, we respectfully request that you provide payments to local food producers for lost revenue and additional cost incurred by the COVID-19 disaster.
We urge you to administer these payments through the Farm Service Agency in response to the industry’s projected $1.1 billion loss in revenue. To be eligible to receive a direct payment, local food producers should derive at least 25 percent of total farm income from sales that are locally purchased, including food sold directly to consumers, schools, institutions, food hubs or regional distribution centers, retail markets, farmers markets or restaurants. Further, to be eligible, these producers should meet standard AGI limitations as directed by the Farm Bill and maintain conservation compliance if currently required to have a plan.
For those local food producers making between $1000 and $300,000 in annual revenue in recent years, the USDA direct payment for COVID relief should at a minimum equal 25 percent of annual revenue or at maximum equal $25,000.
For those local food producers who can provide information regarding actual COVID revenue loss and added costs, additional disaster assistance should be made available. Information regarding revenue loss could include a 2020 crop year business plan, a record of approved loans, a record of 2019 crop year revenue, contracts, receipts, or other agreements that can demonstrate a loss of revenue or additional costs incurred by a farmer as a result of the COVID-19 disaster. Payments for these actual losses and costs should be capped at $100,000 per producer or at a minimum should be equal to 50 percent of the total lost revenue and additional costs incurred by producers as a result of the COVID-19 disaster and 60 percent of total lost revenue and additional costs for producers who donate a significant amount to food banks or other charitable causes.
As the ramifications of the COVID-19 emergency continue to unfold, we encourage you to consider whether additional payments will be needed in the future to support local food economies affected by the disaster.
We respectfully request that for crop year 2020, the Farm Service Agency waive farm number requirements for local food producers and new farmers who currently do not have them. We ask that USDA carefully consider an outreach strategy that specifically reaches small, beginning, and socially disadvantaged local food producers, including those with limited internet access or exposure to FSA services. We urge USDA to establish a national hotline to manage incoming producer inquiries, simplify the application process, and make information about the program available in multiple languages.
Thank you for consideration, and please know that we stand ready to work with USDA on relief efforts.

PROPERTY TAX REFORM UPDATE

Charles Urban sent this video regarding Property Tax Reform in the state. This took place in February.

Meanwhile it should be noted that a bill was proposed by Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski, that would give every homeowner in Pennsylvania an $800 school property tax rebate regardless of how much their property is worth. Renters would receive a $50 rebate under the plan.
Then there is a missive from Erica Freeman regarding House Bill 1776 and its implications from the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center. Re: Statements on HB 1776.
Pennsylvania, like every other state in the country, faces an unprecedented budget crisis at both the state and local levels. It is so unusual that we do not really know how severe it will be. There is still great uncertainty about how deep we will fall. will be. And there is also uncertainty about how quickly we will be able to climb out of the hole in state and local revenues caused by the necessary health regulations put in place to limit the impact of COVID-19 on our lives and our health care system. Estimates of the two-year decline in state revenues range from $3 to $7 billion. A recent analysis suggests that the decline in school districts’ revenues could range between $850 million and $1 billion for FY 21.
This is a time for all of us, in government office and outside it, to think carefully about how best to respond to an extraordinary situation. We need to gather information. We have to think deeply about how much state and local revenues (for both municipal governments and school districts) will be reduced. We need to investigate how much support the federal government, which has an almost unlimited capacity to fund state and local governments, will help and what we can all do together to ensure that federal aid will be sufficient. We have to think carefully about how to balance state and local responsibilities for managing the remaining shortfalls—which are likely to require some reductions in planned expenditures and some increases in revenues by the state, county and municipal governments, and school districts. And we have to adjust public policy to the varying circumstances of our local governments and school districts, ensuring that the impact of the recession does not fall disproportionately on those with low incomes and people of color as it has too often in the past.
Sadly, the House of Representatives is moving ahead with a bill to freeze property school taxes, HB 1776, that is the antithesis of this careful, measured approach. To begin with, this proposal is premature in two respects. We still don’t know enough to be making a major policy change of this kind. And it attempts to set policy for one element of our school funding system entirely apart from other crucial elements including other sources of local school revenue and state funding for schools.
The proposal also does not take into account local variation in school districts and state support for them. Our previous research has shown that while property taxes are very high as a share of income in some parts of the state, they are low in many other parts. And, property taxes are not especially high in the state as a whole compared to neighboring states. Given this variation in the impact of property taxes on Pennsylvanians, the variation in how the COVID-19 recession will affect different school districts and parts of the state, the different ways that school districts raise local revenues, and the variation in how well or badly schools are funded by the state, an across the board freeze on property taxes is not sensible public policy. At the very least, until we know what state support for schools looks like—and most likely beyond—local school districts must be able to adjust their own budgets and property tax revenues without having to follow rigid rules set by the state.
Finally, the proposal does not address the profound inequities in how we fund schools in the Commonwealth or how we tax our citizens. No discussion of property taxes should take place in that vacuum. We remain convinced that the best way to diminish the harmful consequences of property taxes for some Pennsylvanians in some parts of the state is to adopt measures targeted at helping those with low and moderate incomes. The unequal impact of COVID-19 on local and regional economies, and on the citizens of the state, makes such a targeted approach even more appropriate at this moment.

CARTWRIGHT ANNOUNCES $75,750 IN CARES ACT FUNDING TO THE WRIGHT CENTER

Congressman Matt Cartwright (Photo: LuLac archives)

U.S. Representative Matt Cartwright welcomed the release of $75,750 to The Wright Center for Community Health as part of the newly created Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program for COVID-19 response. These funds provide the resources needed for centers like this one to continue to provide the health services our communities need throughout northeastern Pennsylvania during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“In this time of crisis, we need to be able to meet on-going as well as new and increasing community needs,” said Rep. Matt Cartwright, a member of the House Appropriations Committee. “I worked to ensure my colleagues came together to support medical staff and case workers serving on the frontlines to help our vulnerable and infirm populations, while also answering the call of the pandemic. We owe them that.”
The Wright Center is a non-profit, community-based graduate medical education consortium and safety net provider of primary care. They have been serving at locations across northeastern Pennsylvania for more than 40 years. Their Ryan White Clinic is located in Scranton, PA.
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), is the primary federal agency for improving health care for people who are isolated or economically or medically vulnerable. The Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program COVID-19 Response awards will give recipients like the Wright Center the flexibility to meet evolving needs in their respective communities as they continue to provide critical services to people with HIV during this pandemic.

MEDIA MATTERS

WALN TV

BOLD GOLD COMMUNITY FORUM

Tune in Sunday morning at 6 on 94.3 The Talker; 6:30 on 1400-The Game, NEPA's Fox .Sports Radio and 106.7 fm; and at 7:30 on 105 The River.

ECTV PREVIEW

Preview host David DeCosmo continues to produce ECTV's public affairs program from his home while guests join in via computer video link. During the week of May 4th David's guest will be Mark Riccitti Jr. from the Luzerne County Historical Society. Mr. Riccitti explains the Society' status, plans, and resources still available
during the current pandemic.

PREVIEW is seen 3 times daily on Comcast channel 19 and on the electric city television YouTube page.

BUDDY RUMCHEK

Want to hear some great parodies on the news? Tune in to WILK Radio at 6:20 and 8:20 AM on Mondays. As Ralph Cramden used to say, “It’s a laugh riot!”

BOBBY V’S DOO WOP SOCK HOP

SUNDAY NIGHTS!

1980

Our 1980 logo.

"About that Urban Renaissance...", an article by journalist Dan Rottenberg in Chicago, contains the first recorded use of the word "yuppie"……Referendum on system of government held in Nepal…..

Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito dies. The largest state funeral in history is organized, with state delegations from 128 different countries out of 154 UNO members at the time…..Paul Geidel, convicted of second-degree murder in 1911, is released from prison in Beacon, New York, after 68 years and 245 days (the longest-ever time served by an inmate)…. After winning the NBA Championship by four games to two over the Philadelphia 76ers the Los Angeles Lakers say they just might be on the road to another dynasty……and forty years go the number one song in LuLac land and America was “Funkytown” by Lipps, Inc. This song was blared at every game I attended in 1980 at Yankee Stadium.