[Summit] Rhode Map & Fast Forward (Globe newsletters) -- Rhode Islanders' replies to national pandemic Poll [Covid News no. 187]

Sat May 2 02:26:14 UTC 2020

   ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: Rhode Map - The Boston Globe <newsletters at bostonglobe.com>To:Sent: Friday, May 1, 2020, 07:53:26 AM EDTSubject: A new poll tells us a lot about how you feel about the coronavirus
   Dan McGowan's daily guide to everything happening in the Ocean State.  
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|  May 1, 2020   |   Follow @DanMcGowan on Twitter  |

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|  If you have friends or relatives who would like their own free copy of this daily briefing about Rhode Island, tell them they can sign up here.   |

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|  LEADING OFF  |

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|  Happy Friday and welcome to Rhode Map, your daily guide to everything happening in the Ocean State. I'm Dan McGowan and all I want to do is play softball this summer. Is that so much to ask? Follow me on Twitter @DanMcGowan or send tips to Dan.McGowan at globe.com.

ICYMI: Rhode Island was up to 8,621 confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday, and 266 residents had died. There were 339 people in the hospital, 85 in intensive care, and 54 were on ventilators.

It didn’t get much attention locally, but a new nationwide online survey released Thursday by researchers at Northeastern, Harvard, and Rutgers Universities gives us our most in-depth look yet at how Rhode Islanders are handling the coronavirus crisis.

The COVID-19 Consortium for Understanding the Public’s Policy Preferences Across States surveyed 22,912 people across the country between April 17 and April 26, including 287 people in Rhode Island. For our state, the margin of error was plus or minus 7 percentage points.

The poll continues the theme from last week’s Bryant University survey that showed most Rhode Island residents support Governor Gina Raimondo’s handling of the virus and that most of us have taken a financial hit as a result of the disease.

You can read the full results here, but here are some interesting local takeaways.

We’re obsessed with this virus
Two-thirds of Rhode Islanders said they talk about the coronavirus with others (in-person, on the phone, or electronically) at least once per day. That’s more than every state except Connecticut, where 67 percent of people talk about it each day.

We’re really worried about family members getting sick
Rhode Island and Hawaii were tied at the top of the country for people who are very concerned that a family member will get the virus, at 56 percent. By comparison, 39 percent of Rhode Islanders said they are very concerned that they’ll get the virus themselves.

Trust in state government is high
The Bryant poll showed this as well, but Rhode Island (83 percent) is one of eight states (Ohio, Massachusetts,  Connecticut, Kentucky, Maryland, Maine, New Hampshire are the others) where at least 80 percent of residents say they believe state government is acting properly. When it comes to President Trump, 55 percent say they don’t trust him to handle the outbreak.

The economic hardship is real
Twenty-one percent of Rhode Island residents said they had been laid off or lost a job because of the virus, and 27 percent said they have either seen a reduction in pay or had to stop or scale back work to take care of a child or a family member with the disease.

R.I. residents heart TV news
We already knew that the local TV stations have seen a boost in ratings from Governor Raimondo’s daily press conferences, but 65 percent of respondents said they had gotten news about the virus within the previous 24 hours from those stations. That’s the highest in the country. At 48 percent, Rhode Island ranked second in the country (behind Delaware) for getting news from cable.

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NEED TO KNOW  |

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|  Rhode Map wants to hear from you. If you've got a scoop or a link to an interesting news story in Rhode Island, e-mail us at RInews at globe.com.

⚓ Rhode Island lawmakers have begun their review of how the state will spend hundreds of millions of dollars to respond to the coronavirus. Ed Fitzpatrick reports that $156 million has already been spent or committed.

⚓ Amanda Milkovits reports that nearly 200,000 unemployment claims have been filed in Rhode Island since March.

⚓ There’s a coronavirus treatment that is showing promising results. Here’s what has to happen next.

⚓ There’s a good chance that you haven’t taken your sweatpants off in several weeks. Can we all come to a truce and keep that going forever?

⚓ Congratulatons to everyone from the Globe, WPRI, and WJAR who have been nominated for New England Emmys. A full list of the nominees is here.

⚓ Rhode Map readers have sent another round of Happy Birthday wishes to: Natalie Petrucci (always 21), Rebecca Webber (33), Bridget Duffy (15), Andres Taborda (27), Christine Spaziano O'Neill, Raymonde Charles, Warwick Mayor Joe Solomon, Gonzalo Cuervo, Ethan Shorey, Erlin Rogel, Peter Harrington (65), Alexa Grebien (21), Connor Grebien (19), Keith Hoffmann (33), Elanor Crichton (7), Nancy Azano (70), Matilda O'Rourke (13), Alden Blackman (19), Brendan Corley (37), Nathan Giuttari (48), Hannah Wiczek (13), Finnegan McNeil (12), Richard Hathaway (74), Chuck Beilke (70), John Flint, Rahul Kuchibhatla (26), Alix and Emily Etheridge (19), Robert Marra, Mary Marra, Ivan Drew (4), Bill Massey (33), Mark Nietzel (63), Ralph Lufkin (37), Kara Marisa Nichols, Kelly Colgan (30), Maryellen Butke, Ann Diver, Tori Cordeiro (26), Oliver Francis Rodrigue (welcome to the world, kiddo), Samantha Eckel, Birdie Lieber (5), Aidan Murray (16), Juan Mateo Martinez (5), Jonathan Martinez (17), Justin Laflamme (39), and Andrew Ferruche (50).
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|  Each day, Rhode Map offers a cheat sheet breaking down what's happening in Rhode Island. Have an idea? E-mail us at RInews at globe.com.

⚓ Tonight: It’s first #StayHomeWaterFire in history. You can watch it here.

⚓ After a bizarre decision to cancel its meeting the other night, the Providence City Council will formally receive Mayor Jorge Elorza’s proposed budget tonight.

⚓ Officials in Pawtucket and Central Falls are launching a special coronavirus hotline that is designed to reach 50,000 residents who don’t have a primary care physician. The phone number is 855-843-7620.

⚓ Enjoying Rhode Map? Do us a favor and encourage your friends to sign up here.  |

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|  Thanks for reading. Send comments and suggestions to dan.mcgowan at globe.com, or follow me on Twitter @DanMcGowan. See you on Monday.

Please tell your friends about Rhode Map! They can sign up here. The Globe has other e-mail newsletters on topics ranging from breaking news alerts to sports, politics, business, and entertainment -- check them out.
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| Friday, May 1   |  Follow Teresa Hanafin on Twitter |

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An actual press briefing, gun-toting Michiganders, and Biden's denial

By Teresa Hanafin, Globe Staff
Good day. It's Friday, May 1, the 122nd day of the year. Today is Lei Day in Hawaii and Lei Down for Several Hours Day at my house. Sunrise in Boston was at 5:38 a.m. and sunset will be at 7:44 p.m., for 14 hours and 6 minutes of sunlight. The waxing moon is 61 percent full.

The Old Farmer's Almanac, famous for its secret formula for weather forecasting (but somehow I think it involves vinegar), says the eastern US will have above-normal temps during the early part of May as the month serves as a bridge from a cool and rainy April to a hot summer in most of the US. |

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What's it like outside? I just can't.

Hey, sport: After a sleepy, sports-less April, the Globe's Michael Silverman thinks May will be the month when some teams and leagues begin to wake up. In fact, the NBA may start reopening practice facilities May 8 in states that have relaxed their stay-at-home orders, as the league appears determined to resume the season somehow.
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Today's coronavirus / COVID-19 numbers:

Total confirmed cases: 1,070,032 (it was 1,046,022 at this time yesterday)
Total confirmed deaths: 63,019 (it was 61,288 yesterday)

An antsy Trump, who hasn't left the White House since he went to see the Navy hospital ship Comfort take off from Norfolk, Va., to New York City March 28, is heading to Camp David tonight.

The presidential retreat, located in the woods of Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland, is about 70 miles from the White House. He and Melania will play Bananagrams on the helicopter, but the only tiles Trump insists on using are M-A-G-A.

Oh, and new spokeswoman Kayleigh McEnany holds the first formal briefing by a press secretary in more than a year at 2 p.m. today, and it should be quite the show, given her past lies, race-baiting, inane statements, and over-the-top Trump sycophancy. Just a few examples:

She said that "President Obama" went golfing after Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was kidnapped and beheaded by terrorists in Pakistan. Pearl was killed in 2002, when Obama was still a state senator in Illinois.

She posted a racist tweet in 2012 that Obama's brother "was still in that hut in Kenya." She stoked bigotry by promoting "birtherism" conspiracy theories about Obama as well.

On Feb. 25, she said in a TV interview that "we will not see diseases like the coronavirus come here" because of Trump. To be fair, she was just parroting her boss, who said the next day, "When you have 15 people, and the 15 within a couple of days is going to be down to close to zero, that's a pretty good job we've done." Then I guess congratulations are in order!

By that date, the virus had infected more than 80,000 people in 37 countries, killed more than 2,600 people, and US public health officials were jumping up and down waving their arms to try to get Trump to take the threat more seriously.

And then there was this from McEnany: "Under President @realDonaldTrump's leadership we have quickly developed the most expansive and accurate testing system in the world." In TrumpWorld, yes. In the real world, uh, no.

Then again, as Washington Post media columnist Margaret Sullivan pointed out, McEnany is the logical successor to Sean Spicer ("the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration -- period"), Sarah Huckabee Sanders ("I have heard from a large number of individuals that work at the FBI"), and Stephanie Grisham, who didn't bother stepping behind the briefing room podium at all.

This afternoon's briefing should be interesting. Or sad.

In Michigan, demonstrators are forbidden from carrying signs into the State House because they could be dangerous. I mean, what if someone accidentally dropped a sign from a balcony and it bopped a tourist off the head? What if a sign was waved around and it chipped off some paint from the historic building? All of that is just way, way too risky.

So instead, protesters can bring in AK-47s, machine guns, rifles, pistols, etc. So much more sensible.

That's what happened yesterday at the Michigan State House, where heavily-armed, right-wing demonstrators showed up to demand that Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer lift her coronavirus restrictions, drop her stay-home order, and let all businesses throw open their doors.

Inside, the protesters, most without masks, screamed and shouted and tried to push their way into the legislative chambers, where masked lawmakers were keeping physical distance.

The gun-toting had nothing to do with their protest about having to stay home; it clearly was designed to intimidate. And it worked. As one state senator tweeted, "...men with rifles yelling at us. Some of my colleagues who own bullet proof vests are wearing them. I have never appreciated our Sergeants-at-Arms more than today." One columnist wondered how this could not be considered political terrorism. Good question.

Outside, there were more demonstrators, Confederate flags, Trump campaign signs, and at least one sign threatening the governor's life. Yet another part of TrumpWorld.

May 1 is the day to celebrate workers worldwide, but virus restrictions are putting a damper on planned rallies. May Day. France 24 reports that in that country, workers are chanting from their windows, while in Portugal, union members will gather on an esplanade, but staying far apart. Workers in Finland, who usually hold massive communal picnics, instead can watch live streams of wine tastings and cocktail lessons put on by local restaurants.

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