CAPITOL  BUZZ

CORONAVIRUS

CASE COUNTS & COUNTY UPDATES

• Clark County inches toward 200 COVID-19 cases (The Columbian)
• New COVID-19 deaths in Pierce County include a centenarian (The News Tribune)
• 22 Tri-Cities area coronavirus deaths reported. Plus, the scramble for supplies continues (Tri-City Herad)
• Washington state COVID-19 case total now at 9,097 with 421 deaths (The News Tribune)
• COVID-19 numbers still growing in Skagit County (Skagit Valley Herald)
• Grant County Health out with recommendations to slow spread of coronavirus (Washington Ag Network/KONA Radio)
• Grays Harbor County up to seven confirmed COVID-19 cases (The Daily News)
• Lewis County reports second death from COVID-19, two new cases in Thurston (The Olympian)
• Whatcom sees 20th coronavirus-related death and three more positive tests Wednesday (The Bellingham Herald)
• Lynden Manor reports second resident dies and 8 more positive tests for coronavirus (The Bellingham Herald)
• Bellingham nursing home reports death of eighth resident linked to coronavirus (The Bellingham Herald)
• 433 COVID-19 cases in Yakima County, death toll at 18 (KAPP-TV/KVEW-TV)
• Coronavirus: Confirmed cases up to 98 in Grant County, 30 in Adams (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Grant County Health District reports 4 new confirmed COVID-19 cases; total cases at 98 (iFiberOne)
• Lynden Manor, Shuksan Healthcare Center report resident deaths from COVID-19 (KGMI Radio)

AGRICULTURE & WATER

• Inslee should suspend all water-service shut-offs during coronavirus crisis, advocacy groups say (The Seattle Times)
• Water quality sampling suspended during pandemic (Skagit Valley Herald)

BUSINESS, ECONOMY & LABOR

• Jobless benefits for some will exceed their wages, thanks to boost from coronavirus relief package (The Seattle Times)
• Record 16.8 million have sought US jobless aid since virus (AP/The Seattle Times)
• SBA official blasts big banks over failure to quickly distribute loans to businesses (The Washington Post/The Seattle Times)
• New CDC guidance for essential workers during coronavirus (AP/The Seattle Times)
• Under pressure: Inslee could reactivate residential construction industry in phases (iFiberOne)
• Small biz gets up to a $10K lift through state COVID-19 grant (NCW Life Channel)
• Some are working, some are sitting (The Lewiston Tribune)
• Home construction workers deemed non-essential amid COVID-19, leaving families scrambling for housing (KCPQ TV)
• Some state construction projects shut down, others continue amid stay-home order (The News Tribune)
• Pick-up ordering gives some restaurants a lifeline during the pandemic (Kitsap Sun)
• Is construction essential? Industry chafes against Inslee’s COVID-19 restrictions (The News Tribune)
• Small Tri-Cities businesses can apply for grants to weather coronavirus impacts (Tri-City Herald)
• Pick-up grocery orders booming as shoppers run errands during pandemic (The Daily News)
• GM, Bothell’s Ventec get $489.4 million order for ventilators (The Everett Herald)
• Swamped financially during pandemic? Support available (iFiberNewsRadio-KMAS)
• Douglas County allows some existing home construction to continue (The Wenatchee World)
• OPINION: Essential residential construction will meet needs of communities (U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse/The Wenatchee World)
• EDITORIAL: Construction restrictions need to be recalibrated (The Columbian)

COMMUNITY & FAMILY ISSUES

• Housing, food, cash: Requests for help double in WA amid pandemic (Crosscut)
• July 4 fireworks show canceled at Fort Vancouver National Site (The Columbian)
• Washington residents on food assistance will get extra money during coronavirus crisis (KING TV)
• Isolated Tri-Cities seniors getting ‘Helping Hands.’ And other coronavirus help and donations (Tri-City Herald)
• Local churches meet the COVID-19 pandemic with online Easter services (Daily Record)
• Long-time Kittitas County pastor dies of COVID-19 complications (Daily Record)
• Churches work to meet challenge of coronavirus (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Fund hopes to raise $13 million for state’s food banks. “Tremendous need” in Central Washington, official says (Yakima Herald)
• OPINION: Coronavirus recovery can’t lead to a more gentrified Seattle (Marcus Harrison Green, founder of the South Seattle Emerald/Crosscut)
• EDITORIAL: Drive-in Easter church service in Tacoma raises hard questions for Jay Inslee, and all of us (The News Tribune)

CONGRESS & FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

• Coronavirus stimulus checks are on their way: Here’s how it works (KCPQ TV)
• OPINION: Saving Washington: The case for relying on the feds (Chris Vance, public affairs consultant and co-chair of Washington Independents/Crosscut)

COURTS, CRIME & LAW ENFORCEMENT

• Police respond to disturbance involving hundreds of inmates at Monroe Correctional Complex (The Seattle Times)
• Disturbance at prison with COVID-19 outbreak ends without injuries (The News Tribune)
• Hundred Monroe inmates cause disturbance, threaten to set fires (MyNorthwest)
• COVID-19 outbreak worsens at Monroe prison (The Everett Herald)
• Inmates in Washington state protest after fellow prisoners test positive for COVID-19 (KUOW Radio)
• Groups address threat of coronavirus in state prisons, call for releases (KUOW Radio)
• Resources for domestic violence victims during the stay at home order (KREM TV)
• Clark County Sheriff’s Office program offers check-in with isolated seniors (The Columbian)

EDUCATION & SCHOOL SAFETY

• Thousands of Washington students haven’t missed a day of instruction (KIRO TV)
• State Board of Education allows flexibility for high school senior graduation requirements (KCPQ TV)
• Ellensburg School District expands school lunch distribution program (Daily Record)
• Clark County educators adjust use of Zoom after hacking (The Columbian)
• Tri-Cities high school seniors face possibility of canceled graduations (Tri-City Herald)
• OPINION: Special interest spectacle: Teachers’ unions try to thwart education access at a most inopportune time (Lindsey M. Burke and Inez Feltscher Stepman, The Heritage Foundation)
• OPINION: Students and parents deserve more support from schools during the COVID-19 shutdown (Maria Chavez, political science associate professor, Pacific Lutheran University/The Olympian)

EMERGENCY PREPAREDNESS & SERVICES

• Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue opens overnight facility for first responders (Kitsap Sun)

ENERGY & UTILITIES

• Can’t pay your utility bill? Cities, PUDs are helping (The Wenatchee World)

ENVIRONMENT, NATURAL RESOURCES & PARKS

• Report: Climate-changing emissions drop (AP/The Columian)

FOOD SAFETY

• Lack of protection from coronavirus puts ‘essential’ farmworkers and food at risk (KNKX Radio)
• EDITORIAL: Food security is national security (U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse/The Wenatchee World)

GENERAL NEWS

• Coronavirus hospitalizations in Washington state sharply higher than earlier surveys, but officials say curve still flattening (The Seattle Times)
• Coronavirus spread to 137 long-term care facilities in Washington state, killing more than 200 people (The Seattle Times)
• M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust announces new COVID-19 grants (The Columbian)
• Despite squares to spare, Clark County residents still come up short in hunt for toilet paper (The Columbian)
• Is social distancing working? Here’s what Kitsap’s public health officials are saying (Kitsap Sun)
• Coronavirus daily news updates, April 9: What to know today about COVID-19 in the Seattle area, Washington state and the nation (The Seattle Times)
• Washington state speech and debate tournaments latest casualties of the coronavirus (The News Tribune)
• 2 Everett postal workers have tested positive for COVID-19 (The Everett Herald)
• The Wenatchee Valley’s first COVID-19 isolation shelter opened Tuesday (The Wenatchee World)
• Republic Police Chief: Mandated closures are ‘unconstitutional’ (KXLY Radio)
• Coronavirus forces new approaches to fighting wildfires (AP/Yakima Herald)
• OPINION: Just like with Apollo 13, failure is not an option with coronavirus crisis (Kurt Triplett, Kirkland city manager/The Seattle Times)

HEALTH CARE

• Delayed coronavirus test results strain Washington’s resources and leave patients in limbo (The Seattle Times)
• King County faces 2 outbreaks at once, as hepatitis A spreads amid coronavirus pandemic (The Seattle Times)
• With ‘unsatisfactory’ help from White House, Inslee looks elsewhere for COVID-19 tests (KCPQ TV)
• Newhouse says rural hospitals need more help as they battle COVID-19 (Washington Ag Network/KONA Radio)
• Memorial’s top doc says don’t let up on fighting coronavirus (KIT Radio)
• Field hospital at CenturyLink is out, PPE production crucial (KUOW Radio)
• CenturyLink Event Center field hospital to be redeployed shortly after being set up (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• This health center is losing $1M a month because dental services are shut down (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• Field hospital recently built in Seattle will be dismantled and taken elsewhere (NCW Life Channel)
• Washington health care unions demand coronavirus hazard pay for workers (KREM TV)
• ‘I felt compelled to help”: Surge of ex-nurses seeks refresher course at WSU Spokane (The Spokesman-Review)
• New system will decontaminate N95 masks so they can be reused during coronavirus outbreak (The News Tribune)
• Washington has enough ventilators, but needs more COVID-19 test kits, Inslee says (The Olympian)
• OPINION: When on the peak, you’re just halfway home (Barry Kling, Chelan-Douglas Health District/The Wenatchee World)
• OPINION: Medical waste piles up during outbreak (Don C. Brunell, business analyst, writer and columnist/The Spokesman-Review)

HIGHER EDUCATION

• University of Washington cancels in-person commencement ceremonies (KING TV)

HOMELESSNESS

• Limited bathroom access, business closures leave Seattle’s homeless population vulnerable amid Covid-19 pandemic (KUOW Radio)

HOUSING

• Helping people with rent during the coronavirus crisis (KIRO TV)
• OPINION: Saving Washington: The case for building more tiny house villages (Sharon Lee, founding Executive Director of the Low Income Housing Institute/Crosscut)

IMMIGRATION

• Lessons on surviving a pandemic from an immigrant in sanctuary (KUOW Radio)

LEGISLATURE

• Inslee: Washington Legislature might be called back for special session (AP/iFiberOne)

LOCAL GOVERNMENT

• Puyallup gives $10,000 to provide food to those in need during the COVID-19 pandemic (The News Tribune)
• COVID-19 costs health district about $200K (Columbia Basin Herald)
• Local municipalities don’t find public policing helpful (KPQ Radio)
• Bellingham City Council schedules first remote meeting (KGMI Radio)
• ‘Why aren’t masks mandatory?’: Local leaders answer your COVID-19 questions (KXLY Radio)
• Spokane-area leaders discuss masks, rent, housing issues during first telephone town hall (The Spokesman-Review)

MEDIA

• COLUMN: Coronavirus has infected local journalism, too (Rob Curley/The Seattle Times)

MILITARY & VETERANS

• Spokane facility sees first COVID-19 death at State Veterans Home (NW News Network)
• JBLM soldiers create their own coronavirus supplies with sewing machines, 3D printers (The News Tribune)

OTHER STATES

• Oregon schools will remain closed for the rest of the academic year (The Oregonian)
• Coronavirus in Oregon: 5 more deaths as total number of cases climbs by 58 (The Oregonian)
• Coronavirus confirmed in 34 senior care homes as state withholds extent of exposure among residents (The Oregonian)
• Oregon health clinics receive $12.4 million in federal coronavirus funding (The Oregonian)
• Governor closes Oregon K-12 schools for remainder of academic year (KIHR Radio)
• Idaho panel to oversee $1.25 billion virus rescue package (AP/KXLY Radio)

POLITICS

• EDITORIAL: Inslee emerges as a leader (Daily Record)
• EDITORIAL: Partisan divide takes a back seat (Columbia Basin Herald)