Editorial: Protect health care whistleblowers so they can protect us
As with so many stories about health care workers in the pandemic, it was wrenching to read about a dedicated local nurse who died of COVID-19 just two weeks after rushing into the room of a patient who had stopped breathing. The nurse, Celia Marcos, had gone ahead and begun chest compressions, which cause virus-laden air to be expelled forcefully, even though she lacked an N95 mask that would have afforded her the best protection.
Letters to the Editor: May 15, 2020
Tri-party agreement insufficient for future growth
Commentary: Americans need employment opportunities, not unemployment incentives
With more than 1 in 5 Americans filing for unemployment benefits over the past eight weeks, policymakers’ top priority is clear: restoring conditions that allow workers to resume their previous jobs or find new ones.
Editorial: Soaring federal debt: President, Congress must control spending
The country was steamrolled by the coronavirus, and the economic stimulus packages to help businesses and individuals have been staggering in costs. Admittedly, the aid was necessary. But it has left the nation with a mammoth $3.7 trillion deficit.
Letters to the Editor: May 14, 2020
Simple does not mean easy
Making Waves: Yes, there will be a Christmas
Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus, his sleigh will be sprayed down with antiseptic and he might be wearing a mask, but chances are he’ll be flying as usual this year.
Letters to the Editor: May 13, 2020
Let people get back to work
Editorial: Coronavirus’s next victim? Our mental health
The coronavirus has delivered traumatic blows to our collective mental well-being that are as invisible as the virus itself, and in many ways, just as damaging.
Editorial: Job losses show that Congress has urgent work to do
If anyone required further evidence of the havoc that the coronavirus pandemic has wrought on the US economy, the Labor Department delivered it Friday: In a matter of weeks, more than 20 million people have been thrown out of work.
Commentary: The unemployment rate may be even worse than it looks
The April unemployment report is at least as bad as economists predicted: Based on a survey of U.S. households, the unemployment rate leaped from 4.4% to 14.7% as nearly 16 million people joined the ranks of the jobless. It was the highest rate recorded since the surveys began in 1948, and the biggest one-month increase.
Letters to the Editor: May 12, 2020
Do not resume ‘Furlough Fridays’
Letters to the Editor: May 11, 2020
Blow off social responsibility: COVID-19 style ?
Commentary: The coronavirus pandemic could lead to fewer births, but not for the reason you think
One of the most famous and influential scholarly works of all time is “An Essay on the Principle of Population,” published in 1798 by English economist Thomas Robert Malthus. His warning that population would increase far faster than food production in normal circumstances — leading to mass poverty and degradation — helped pave the way for eugenics, population control, birth control, environmentalism and more. It also inspired Charles Darwin’s research into evolution, deeply influenced sociology and created, more or less, the field of demographics.
Ann McFeatters: What the ‘new normal’ will look like
Everybody is talking about “getting back to normal.”
As I See It: Civilization, a word we know
Civilization is a word we know the meaning of when we use it, yet there are many possibilities. I think most of us first picture an organized culture with a minimum of savagery, like our own, or the way we imagine of our own. Civilization is people grouping together for common interest. Too often, it has been corrupted for the interest of a selfish ruling class.
Letters to the Editor: May 10, 2020
Fix the problem already
Editorial: New coronavirus is far more dangerous than seasonal flu
A fair number of people have let themselves be misled by the notion that the new coronavirus is no more lethal than seasonal influenza. Some are asking, not all of them politely, why social distancing, shuttered workplaces and a springtime without sports are necessary.
Commentary: The Supreme Court needs to rescue birth control access from the Trump administration
The Supreme Court on Wednesday heard arguments on whether the Trump administration went too far in allowing employers to obtain exemptions on religious or moral grounds from a requirement to include contraceptive coverage for women in their insurance plans. But once again, the realities of how employer-based insurance functions seemed lost in the debate.
Editorial: Job losses show that Congress has urgent work to do
If anyone required further evidence of the havoc that the coronavirus pandemic has wrought on the US economy, the Labor Department delivered it Friday: In a matter of weeks, more than 20 million people have been thrown out of work.
Letters to the Editor: May 9, 2020
The other side to the inmate release