March 19, 2020

Zack the 30-pound cat dies after being adopted in January

DETROIT -- After going viral for his 30-pound stature, Zack the cat was adopted and put on a strict diet to help him with weight loss.

While he lost more than 8 pounds since he was adopted Jan. 2, Zack died of feline fatty liver syndrome Wednesday night, said owner John Schmitt.

"We aggressively helped him fight his disease," Schmitt said in a text to the Free Press on Thursday. "He was definitely loved in the short time he was with us."

Schmitt and his family adopted Zack from the Michigan Humane Society in January after seeing the chunky feline featured on the news. Wanting to give the 11-year-old cat a good home for the remainder of his life and keep him out of the home of a "crazy cat lady," Schmitt rescued him.

Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/03/19/zack-30-pound-cat-dies-michigan/5000026002/


Zack had lost more than 8 lbs since he was adopted in January. (Photo: John Schmitt, handout)

March 19, 2020

Ford dividend cut a sign of more coronavirus troubles ahead

Ford Motor did what anyone would do when staring at a dramatic loss in cash flow. It took a step back and aimed to keep as much money in its pocket as possible.

Ford announced Thursday that, among other moves, it would suspend its quarterly dividend payments to shareholders. The dividend represents an annual cost of $2.4 billion to the Dearborn-based auto maker.

The most recent quarterly dividend payout was 15 cents per share, which was last paid March 2. Thursday's announcement did not specify for how long the dividend would be suspended.

Wild swings on the stock market drove up prices overall on Thursday, while Ford closed at $4.47 a share, down 3 cents or 0.67%.

Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/money/personal-finance/susan-tompor/2020/03/19/ford-dividend-payments-coronavirus/2874226001/

March 19, 2020

Detroit opens 124-room homeless facility, eyes street care amid COVID-19

Detroit this week opened a 124-room building to house Detroit’s homeless amid the novel coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, officials plan to deploy health care professionals onto city streets to seek out homeless individuals who don’t make it into a shelter.

The city previously was set to use a Salvation Army facility with a little over 35 beds to act as an isolation option for the homeless population. Instead, the city opened the 124-room building, under contract with Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries, on Tuesday, said Arthur Jemison, group executive of housing, planning, and development for Detroit.

The city began looking at the change to better accommodate the size of Detroit’s homeless population, Donald Rencher, director of the Detroit Housing and Revitalization Department, previously said.

Read more: https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/wayne/2020/03/19/coronavirus-covid-19-homeless-facility/2880107001/

March 19, 2020

COVID-19 scammers posing as health department employees

Scammers are spoofing phone numbers of Ionia County Health Department, the Michigan attorney general’s office announced. Callers are posing as employees to gain people’s personal and financial information, taking advantage of people’s fears of COVID-19, the disease caused by a new coronavirus.

Callers can falsify information sent to a caller ID so it looks like it’s coming from a government agency or organization. As a result, there’s an increase in people calling the county health department with questions, which Attorney General Dana Nessel said slows their ability to respond to COVID-19.

Nessel announced a crackdown on robocalls in November 2019 to prevent scammers from targeting the elderly and preying on fear to get people’s financial and personal information.

In a one-on-one interview with the Advance this week, Nessel said there are some similarities with robocalls and COVID-19 scammers as they use “the flavor of the week” to trick people.

Read more: https://www.michiganadvance.com/blog/covid-19-scammers-posing-as-health-dept-employees/

March 19, 2020

No arrests in quietest St. Patrick's Day in East Lansing police history

In an unprecedented turn of events, East Lansing Police Department (ELPD) made no arrests on St. Patrick’s Day, according to Deputy Chief Steve Gonzalez.

Last year, the ELPD made nine arrests, a low number compared to other years, Gonzalez reported, most of which were for disorderly conduct.

Most neighborhoods have seen a decrease in people in the last week, as many students have moved out while Michigan State University has moved to online classes for the rest of the semester to combat COVID-19, Gonzalez said.

Until Monday, MSU students were celebrating St. Patrick’s Day weekend how they have for decades — outside, in crowds, in the bars, wearing green.

Read more: https://www.michiganadvance.com/2020/03/18/no-arrests-in-quietest-st-patricks-day-in-east-lansing-police-history/

March 19, 2020

Michigan farmers, distributors worried by coronavirus threat to supply chain

Longtime grocer Steve Antaya isn’t prone to worry.

The family’s grocery business, Tom’s Food Center, with stores in central lower Michigan, has weathered countless snowstorms that have ground store traffic to a halt for days, as well as national crises like 9/11 and the H1N1 influenza outbreak in 2009.

Still this week, Antaya and other independent grocers in Michigan weren’t just struggling to restock shelves. They were trying to figure out how to deal with Michigan’s increasingly rattled supply chain as the coronavirus outbreak brings much of the state’s economy to a near halt.

“We’re getting regular communications about the challenges they’re having and what they’re doing to keep the gears moving,” Antaya said of suppliers and distributors who provide food and supplies to Tom’s stores in Portland and Okemos.

Delivery trucks were late Tuesday for meat, dairy, produce, bakery items as well as health goods — he said. And at times recently, the vehicles have been only half full.

Read more: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/michigan-farmers-distributors-worried-coronavirus-threat-supply-chain

March 19, 2020

Some Yoopers want to close Mackinac Bridge to stop the spread of coronavirus

The Mackinac Bridge is about five miles long, among the longest suspension bridges in the Western Hemisphere. It’s the only thing connecting the Lower Peninsula to the Upper Peninsula — where, as of early Thursday, no coronavirus cases had been confirmed among its residents even as the virus spread downstate.

But some Yoopers fear that if it does jump the Straits, it would devastate rural communities in the Upper Peninsula already hard-hit by financial woes and weak healthcare systems.

The solution? Close the Mackinac Bridge completely.

Some took to social media over the past week with calls to halt traffic between the two peninsulas. Marie Bailey, a cook who lives in Ontonagon, said she tried to use Twitter to draw Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s attention to the issue, but with no success.

Read more: https://www.bridgemi.com/michigan-health-watch/some-yoopers-want-close-mackinac-bridge-stop-spread-coronavirus

March 19, 2020

Senators Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren urge Massachusetts banks, credit unions to waive fees amid

Senators Ed Markey, Elizabeth Warren urge Massachusetts banks, credit unions to waive fees amid COVID-19 emergency


As Massachusetts residents contend with the COVID-19 outbreak and its economic impacts, Sens. Ed Markey and Elizabeth Warren have asked the largest banks and credit unions in the state to waive a host of fees to provide relief for customers.

The senators sent letters to 19 financial institutions and urged each to grant a moratorium on ATM fees, overdraft fees, minimum balance mandates, late fees for credit card payments and “any other fees that could increase the financial burden on consumers,” the pair said in a statement Thursday morning.

The senators noted that federal deposit insurance agencies overseeing commercial banks, savings institutions and credit unions have called on their members to waive such fees.

“The recovery from this pandemic is going to take collective effort to ensure that the most vulnerable are protected,” the senators wrote. “We are asking you to be a leader within the Massachusetts community and set an example for the financial sector in the rest of the country. We need to help the most vulnerable of our citizens during this crisis. Ensuring that they are not burdened with bank-related fees is one step that we should take.”

Read more: https://www.masslive.com/coronavirus/2020/03/coronavirus-senators-ed-markey-elizabeth-warren-urge-massachusetts-banks-credit-unions-to-waive-fees-amid-covid-19-emergency.html

March 19, 2020

DigBoston Halts Print Edition, Goes Digitial Only, Needs Your Help

Dear Reader,

As you are well aware by this point, the coronavirus is a major threat in our region, as it is across the country and on every inhabited continent.

In addition to its many other impacts, the current crisis threatens our ability to keep readers informed. We pride ourselves on having navigated many storms in the world of independent local media, but this time is different.

A significant amount of DigBoston’s revenue—advertising, ticketing, events—is directly tied to people getting together in groups. The situation at hand has eliminated most of this income all at once.

Our team is quickly pivoting, with salespeople seeking more businesses in need of online advertising (you can reach them at sales@digboston.com), virtual events in the works, and of course journalists reporting on the response to COVID-19. For the first time in our publication’s 21-year history, we are also temporarily halting our print edition until further notice. Between the lack of people in public places and the potential danger of communal newspaper boxes, we sadly see no other option for protecting readers and our distribution team.

Read more: https://digboston.com/digboston-halts-print-edition-goes-digital-only-needs-your-help/

March 19, 2020

The latest Bernie Sanders livestream was the perfect encapsulation of his failing presidential

The latest Bernie Sanders livestream was the perfect encapsulation of his failing presidential campaign in the time of coronavirus

by James Pindell


Senator Bernie Sanders may have just received his 10 millionth contribution. People might be voting for him on ballots all the way until June. He might be giving policy prescriptions for the future of the country.

But one thing that Sanders is definitely not doing after being routed in three primary contests on Tuesday: seriously running for president.

It’s unclear how exactly Sanders wants to wind down his presidential campaign. It’s also unclear how exactly the presidential primary calendar will work with states delaying their primaries with the intent of slowing the spread of the coronavirus. Ohio, for example, did not vote as planned on Tuesday. Georgia’s primary, scheduled for next week, has also been postponed.

But what is mathematically clear is that unless former vice president Joe Biden is no longer able to be the Democratic presidential nominee for whatever reason, Sanders has no path to the nomination.

Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2020/03/18/nation/latest-bernie-sanders-livestream-was-perfect-encapsulation-his-failing-presidential-campaign-time-coronavirus/