Daily corona round-up

More news, fewer reporters

We just put tomorrow’s paper to bed — it’s a hot one — and more news has broken since we began this morning than in the past few days combined. Ironically, one of these news items concerns those who bring you the news themselves.

Some news

  • Lee Enterprises, parent company to the News & Record and Journal, laid off approximately a third of the reporting staff, according to social media reports. I’ve begin a short list. From the Journal: Conor O’Neil, Tim Clodfelter and Patrick Ferlise. On the N&R side: Tim Rickard, Ed Hardin, Cindy Loman, Jeff Mills, Carl Wilson and Taft Wireback.
    • It’s shameful. And irresponsible. We need MORE reporters right now. The morons at Lee Enterprises have no idea what they’re doing. They think they’re making widgets.
    • We salute our fallen colleagues, and we hope they land where the coffee is free, the deadlines are soft and the 40-hour work week is a real thing.
  • In North Carolina, Senate Majority Leader Phil Berger, along with Lt. Gov (and gubernatorial candidate) Dan Forest and GOP state superintendent candidate Catherine Truitt “demanded” that NC public schools be reopened for full instruction immediately, with no mask mandate.
    • The offered no actual plan for doing this.
  • Big 10 football will begin its season Oct. 24, after canceling it months ago — eight games in eight weeks, followed by a championship on Dec. 19.
  • Last night, Greensboro City Council voted 5-4 against a measure that would require city police officers to get written consent before searching people and vehicles. Voting against were Mayor Nancy Vaughan and representatives Nancy Hoffman, Marikay Abuzuaiter, Goldie Wells and Sharon Hightower.
    • Seriously.
  • Oh, and we’re giving hysterectomies to the women detained at ICE facilities.

The numbers

  • North Carolina reports 1,137 new cases, making 188,024 total. There have been 3,174 deaths statewide. Mecklenberg leads with 335 deaths.
    • Positive test rate has risen to 5.8 percent.
  • Guilford County claims 108 new cases for 7,898 total, of which 4,581 have recovered (58.00 percent), 168 have died (2.13 percent).
    • Of the remaining 3,149, 641 are hospitalized (20.35 percent).
  • Forsyth County adds 26 new cases for 6,694, and three more deaths for 94 (1.40 percent). 6,077 have recovered (90.78 percent).
    • Of the remaining 523 cases, 18 are hospitalized.

A diversion

“Harper Valley PTA” began as a country song in 1968 written by Tom T. Hall and, as performed by Margie Singleton, became an international hit single. Then, 10 years later, Harper Valley PTA became a feature film starring Barbara Eden that made the drive-in circuit in the summer of 1978. And then, in 1981, it aired as a CBS sitcom, still with Eden in the starring role, lasting through the 1982 season. Here’s the film, which is a glorious piece of 1970s Americana.

Program notes

  • For tonight’s featured image, we’ve got “In the Studio,” by Alfred Stevens, 1888, 1865-68. Taken from the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s public-domain collection. And hey: The Met is now open on Fifth Avenue in NYC, if you’re in town.
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