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WASHINGTON -- President Donald Trump is asking Congress to unleash a torrent of emergency economic aid -- including direct checks to Americans -- in an extraordinary effort to shore up households and the economy in the coronavirus crisis. As part of a proposed economic rescue not seen since the Great Recession in 2008, Trump wants checks sent to the public within two weeks as part of a package that officials said could approach a cost of $1 trillion. Congressional leaders vowed swift action. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin appeared on Capitol Hill to brief Senate Republicans as state and local officials acted more forcefully to restrict gatherings and mobility in the face of growing sickness. "We want to go big," Trump said at a White House briefing. "We want to get it done and have a big infusion." Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised the Senate would not adjourn until the package was passed. "Obviously, we need to act," McConnell said after meeting White House officials at the Capitol.
Stocks jump after Trump vow
NEW YORK -- Stocks rallied Tuesday as President Donald Trump promised he's "going big" with plans to prop up the staggering economy through the coronavirus outbreak. Besides the White House's proposal, which could approach $1 trillion, the Federal Reserve also announced its latest emergency move to get markets running more smoothly. The S&P 500 climbed 6% to claw back a little less than half of its historic loss from the day before. Even a 5% move used to be extremely rare, but it's become the norm this month as investors see a recession as increasingly likely, if not already here. Many professional investors expect the market's big swings in both directions to continue until health experts get the new coronavirus in check. "Government tends to show up late to the party with a bazooka," said Barry Bannister, head of institutional equity strategy at Stifel. "It's a bit of an overreaction, but that's to be understood as normal for policy makers." Trump wants the government to send checks to Americans in the next two weeks to help support them while chunks of the economy come closer to shutting down, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday. Mnuchin briefed Senate Republicans on the proposal, which could also include $50 billion for the airline industry and $250 billion for small businesses. The travel industry has been among the industries hardest hit by the outbreak. Planes sit grounded and hotels and casinos shut their doors.
Disruption grows across world
BERLIN -- Mass disruptions cascaded around the world Tuesday as governments struggled to slow the spread of the coronavirus while also trying to keep their economies afloat. The chaos stretched from Lithuania, where border traffic jams were 40 miles deep, to Detroit, where bus service came to a sudden stop when drivers didn't show up for work. European Union leaders, meanwhile, agreed to shut down the bloc's external borders for 30 days. Increasingly worried about the economic fallout of the global shutdown, the U.S., Britain and the Netherlands also announced rescue packages totaling hundreds of billions of dollars, while Venezuela -- long a fierce critic of the International Monetary Fund -- asked the institution for a $5 billion loan. But it was everyday people who suffered most. Miguel Aguirre, his wife and two children were the only people on a normally bustling street near San Francisco's City Hall, one day after officials in six San Francisco Bay Area counties issued a "shelter-in-place" order that requires most residents to stay inside and venture out only for food, medicine or exercise for three weeks -- the most sweeping lockdown in the U.S. against the outbreak. On Tuesday morning, only two coffee shops on the street were open. Both were empty.
Hospitals fear ventilator shortage
U.S. hospitals bracing for a possible onslaught of coronavirus patients with pneumonia and other breathing difficulties could face a critical shortage of mechanical ventilators and health care workers to operate them. The Society of Critical Care Medicine has projected that 960,000 coronavirus patients in the U.S. may need to be put on ventilators at one point or another during the outbreak. But the nation has only about 200,000 of the machines, by the organization's estimate, and around half are older models that may not be ideal for the most critically ill patients. Also, many ventilators are already being used by other patients with severe, non-coronavirus ailments. Hospitals are rushing to rent more ventilators from medical-equipment suppliers. And manufacturers are ramping up production. But whether they can turn out enough of the machines at a time when countries around the world are clamoring for them, too, is unclear. "The real issue is how to rapidly increase ventilator production when your need exceeds the supply," Dr. Lewis Kaplan, president of the critical care society, said Tuesday. "For that I don't have a very good answer."
Patient gives updates on Twitter
BERLIN -- On the fifth day after she fell ill with COVID-19 respiratory disease, Karoline Preisler could breathe again without wincing through severe pain in her chest. But the 48-year-old from a small town in northeastern Germany was still sick and very weak. She had slept only three hours the night before in a hospital isolation ward. She worried constantly about her husband and three children. "I miss my children so badly. They miss me, and we all miss that we can't hug each other anymore," Preisler said in a phone interview on Monday. Preisler, who practices law and is a local politician in the Baltic Sea town of Barth, started experiencing symptoms a few hours after she tested positive for the new coronavirus last week. Her husband, a federal lawmaker, had tested positive earlier and been told to remain isolated in Berlin, a 299-kilometer drive (186 miles) away, The couple's 9-year-old twins and 11-year-old tested negative, but health authorities ordered the children quarantined at home with their mother. When Preisler's symptoms worsened and she needed to be hospitalized on Saturday, her husband was permitted to go back to Barth to care for the children.
When Irish eyes are absent
BOSTON -- St. Patrick's Day revelers across the world tried to salvage the holiday with makeshift celebrations after parades and parties were scrapped and residents were urged to hunker down at home to slow the spread of the new coronavirus. It was the first St. Patrick's Day in more than 250 years without a large parade in New York City, but a small group of organizers marched the rain-soaked streets early Tuesday anyway -- observing "social distancing," they said -- to keep the tradition alive. Led by police cars with flashing lights, people in uniforms and sashes marched up Fifth Avenue before dawn with a banner and flags as bagpipe music played. The brief march wasn't advertised, and the sidewalks were largely empty. In Savannah, Georgia, which canceled its hugely popular parade for the first time in 99 years, there were no bagpipers, no cheering crowds -- just two men in green blazers carrying a large Irish flag as they trudged along largely abandoned sidewalks. "It's really strange," said Bill Bradley, carrying the flag on its long wooden pole. "It's almost like a dream, like living in some kind of nightmare." Bradley and his friend John Lowenthal, members of one of Savannah's Irish social societies, opted to walk the parade route on their own. There were virtually no signs of revelry in a Chicago, which scrapped the nearly 60-year-old tradition of dyeing the Chicago River green in order to keep crowds away. One or more diehards tried to turn at least part of the river green anyway. A portion of the river was turned green by someone, but it's not clear what substance was used, WTTW-TV reported. After having to postpone shows in Boston, American Celtic punk band The Dropkick Murphys hoped to spread Irish cheer to those holed up in their homes with a concert that will be livestreamed Tuesday night on YouTube, Instagram and Facebook. "We're gonna play it like there are people in front of us, at level 10," singer and bassist Ken Casey of the band, known for its popular song "I'm Shipping Up To Boston," told WBUR.
Cinemas close nationwide
NEW YORK -- U.S. movie theaters have closed nationwide due to the coronavirus pandemic, turning dark nearly all of the country's 40,000-plus screens in an unprecedented shutdown. With most of Hollywood's March and April releases already postponed, the Walt Disney Co. on Tuesday also cleared out its May releases as well, including Marvel's "Black Widow." The largest chains had tried to remain open even as Hollywood postponed its upcoming release plans and guidelines for social distancing steadily diminished the recommended size of crowds. But after President Donald Trump on Monday urged against gatherings of more than 10 people, AMC Theaters, the nation's largest chain, said Tuesday its theaters would close altogether. AMC said the latest guidelines made movie theater operations "essentially impossible." It said it would close all locations in the U.S. for at least six to 12 weeks. Regal, the second largest chain, said Monday that its theaters would close until further notice. The Walt Disney Co. also indefinitely postponed "Black Widow," which had been set to open May 1. Marvel movies have for years been the regular kickoff to the summer movie going season. The company also put off "David Copperfield (May 8) and "The Woman in the Window" (May 15).
Open meeting changes OK'd
OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Legislature approved sweeping changes to the state's Open Meeting Act on Tuesday to allow government bodies to meet via teleconference, a move that was in response to the coronavirus outbreak and alarmed open government advocates who worried the changes were too extreme. Shorty after the Senate approved the bill, senators and their staff were asked to self-quarantine in their offices after learning a Senate staffer had tested positive for the coronavirus. The bill is aimed at allowing government to continue to function while complying with recommendations of health officials for social distancing to prevent further spread of the virus, said Sen. Brent Howard, a Republican from Altus who wrote the Senate bill. After open government advocates raised concerns the changes would apply for a full year, the House passed a separate bill that would allow the changes through Nov. 15 and would end if the current state of emergency is lifted.
Canada closing its borders
TORONTO -- Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday he will close the country's borders to anyone not a citizen, an American or a permanent resident -- and even they have to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival -- due to the coronavirus pandemic. "Let me be clear: If you are abroad, now is the time to come home," the prime minister said. "If you've just arrived, you must self-isolate for 14 days." He also said those already in the country, "as much as possible should stay home." He spoke outside his residence, where is self isolating after his wife tested positive for the virus. Trudeau said the exemption for Americans, despite the rapid rise of cases in the U.S., was due to "the level of integration of our two economies." The U.S. accounts for 75 percent of the country's exports. "Canada and the United States have the longest un-militarized border in the world and that border is vital to the daily life to people on both sides that live of that border," said Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland. But she noted American tourists are not likely to visit anyway because they will have to self isolate. "I don't consider that something that a tourist would like to do for a holiday," she said. Ontario's chief medical officer of health, Dr. David Williams, meanwhile, recommended that all bars and restaurants close, other than those doing take-out and delivery. Ontario, Canada's most populous province, had already ordered all public schools closed for two weeks after March break. Nelson Wiseman, a political science professor at the University of Toronto, said the damage to both the U.S. and Canada would be immense if they shut their borders to each other. "Much more so than shutting the border to people from other states. It is the only land border that Canada shares with another country. So much of Canada's food supply comes from or via the U.S.," Wiseman said. "Their economies are so integrated that they would collapse and in quite short order if their common border were to be closed completely. However, Canada has more of a stake in keeping the border open than does the U.S."
Ex-Rep. gets 11 months in prison
SAN DIEGO -- Former California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter was sentenced Tuesday to 11 months in prison after pleading guilty to stealing campaign funds and spending the money on everything from outings with friends to his daughter's birthday party. The ex-Marine's attorneys had asked for most or part of his sentence be spent in home confinement, citing his military service fighting the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and his nearly six terms in Congress. Hunter, 43, resigned from Congress in January after representing one of Southern California's last solidly Republican districts. But U.S. District Court Judge Thomas J. Whelan said given the amount of money Hunter misspent and the number of years he carried out the pilfering, home confinement was not an option. Prosecutors ahead of Tuesday's sentencing submitted 87 pages to the judge that showed a corrupt congressman who intentionally and repeatedly stole from his campaign funds for a decade. "Today's sentence reinforces the notion that the truth still matters, that facts still matter," Assistant U.S. Attorney Phil Halpern said.
US slashes testing rules
WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration is slashing regulations governing test development in a bid to ramp up screening for the coronavirus amid nationwide frustration with the slow pace of the effort. The unprecedented steps by the Food and Drug Administration could boost testing capacity at some U.S. labs, but also complicate efforts to assure the accuracy of tests and track who receives them. More than eight weeks after the first U.S. case of COVID-19 was detected, the U.S. still struggles to conduct mass screening and provide definitive figures on the number of people tested. Late Monday, the FDA said state health departments could essentially begin self-regulating and approving tests developed by their government-run laboratories. "What we're saying is that state departments of health can act as a surrogate for FDA and that the information doesn't need to come through FDA," FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn told reporters on a call. Regulators also said major test manufacturers could begin rolling out new tests without FDA pre-authorization and instead submit their applications up to 15 days after launch. Officials acknowledged the implicit trade-off of the approach, which potentially sacrifices the accuracy of unregulated tests to speed up access. "We believe this will be a surge to meet the demand that we expect to see," Hahn said.