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$908 billion relief bill needed now

A second round of federal COVID-19 relief money, more than $900 billion, may be on its way to Americans soon. Thank a group of U.S. senators and representatives who have grown sick of the partisan bickering that has delayed a new relief bill for months. They are unlike many politicians, both Democrat and Republican, who seem to have forgotten that the people want results, not rhetoric. Fiery, emotional appeals to “the base” may work during election campaigns, but they divide rather than uniting. For months, tens of millions of Americans have been engaged in a futile wait for ...

Biden right to play inauguration safe

What if you built an expensive, elaborate reviewing stand for a parade and on the big day, it overlooked an empty street? That is the question both President-elect Joe Biden and incumbent President Donald Trump must answer within just a few weeks. Inauguration day for American presidents has been a really big deal in the past. Hundreds of thousands of people pack the area at the U.S. Capitol where the new chief executive is being sworn in. About 1,600 dignitaries are on the platform with him. Then follows an enormous parade through Washington and finally, a round of inaugural ...

Will we be prepared for the next pandemic?

Never again, Americans vowed after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, 79 years ago this past Monday. Thoughtful people pause each Pearl Harbor Day to wonder whether we have forgotten the lesson we should have learned on Dec. 7, 1941. Evidence Americans’ determination not to be victims of a surprise attack had flagged came on Sept. 11, 2001. That day, terrorists assaulted us, killing 2,977 people — far more than the 2,403 who perished at Pearl Harbor. This Pearl Harbor Day, ought to have been occasion for realistic contemplation of whether “never again” means anything. Our ...

Never forget date that will live in infamy

December 7 is Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. It was 79 years ago that Japan attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor to destroy our Pacific Naval Fleet. Most people who were there or heard about it on the radio news that day are gone now. For them, we must never forget what happened on that day, the date President Roosevelt referred to as “a date that will live in infamy.” Imagine, a quiet Sunday morning on the beautiful and peaceful island of Oahu. Sailors and ships at rest in the harbor, on-duty service personnel keeping their posts while others getting ready for church services ...

Even more COVID-19 research needed

Racial minorities have been hit far harder than white Americans by COVID-19. Throughout the epidemic, that has been a constant. But why? Theories abound. One is that African-Americans, whose incomes in general are lower than those for whites, do not benefit from as high a quality of health care as their lighter-skinned neighbors. Obviously, that speculation needs to be explored — but it is not satisfactory as a stand-alone explanation for the disparity. Blacks and Native Americans have suffered much more than whites. Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ...

Trump needs to use what influence he has left on CARES

Unless members of Congress find some way to compromise and give Americans an early Christmas through a new round of COVID-19 relief funding, the holiday season will be grim for tens of millions of people. President Donald Trump can do little about that — but he can do something. Among many flaws in the original CARES Act was a provision that states had to spend all the money allocated to them under the bill by Dec. 30. In March, that may have seemed reasonable. But the powers-that-be in Washington, where money flows out like gravy on Thanksgiving Day, failed to take into account ...