Day: April 23, 2020

Lockdown Prevents Akron Barber with Stage 4 Cancer from Reaching Her Doctor at World-Renowned Johns Hopkins Medicine

Jason M. Reynolds

Ohio’s prolonged lockdown is literally a life-and-death matter for an Akron barber battling a rare form of cancer as she cannot reach world-renowned Johns Hopkins Medicine for treatment.

Peggy Reed is a barber with Stage 4 Squamous Cell cancer of the nasal cavity. Much of her medical story is told on her GoFundMe page here.

Reed missed her appointment at Johns Hopkins on March 26 to see a specialist. Ohio’s stay at home order means no out of state travel is allowed. Maryland also has a stay at home order.

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Commentary: Deflation Is Here, and It Is a Real Threat to Any Economic Recovery from the Virus

Ohio Star Staff

The price of a barrel of oil briefly fell below zero dollars this week, demonstrating clearly what happens when there is no longer demand for a product or commodity, as tens of millions of Americans are leaving cars in their driveways and airlines are largely grounded. All around the world, it’s much the same situation as the global economy has collapsed in the wake of the Chinese coronavirus pandemic.

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Commentary: The Privilege of Identity Politics

Ohio Star Staff

Last month, Melinda Gates announced that “we need to apply a gender lens to solving this [coronavirus] crisis.” She linked to a March 12 story in the New York Times reporting that with women making up to 70 percent of healthcare workers worldwide, women are at “disproportionate risk.” COVID-19 may very well end up “exacerbating gender, social and economic fault lines,” Gates claimed.

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California Highway Patrol Says No More Protests on State Property After Monday’s ‘Operation Gridlock’ Demonstration

Zachery Schmidt

  California Highway Patrol (CHP) will not issue any more event permits on any state properties after people on Monday protested the state’s lockdown measures, according to The Sacramento Bee. “Permits are issued to provide safe environments for demonstrators to express their views,” the CHP said in a statement to…

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Ohio State Controlling Board Splits $90 Million in Federal Funds: 10 Percent to Ohio Department of Health and 90 Percent to ‘Rural Transportation’

Samantha Witwer

The state Controlling Board voted to split $90 million of federal taxpayer money aimed to help combat the COVID-19 pandemic between the Ohio Health Department – which will receive $8.5 million – and rural transportation departments across the state, which will receive the balance of $81.5 million to “aid for rural transportation systems,” according to a statement released by Democrats Monday.

“We need to ensure health care workers and officials on the ground have the tools they need to detect, track and contain this virus before we begin to reopen our state. This funding is a step in the right direction to get us where we need to be, but we’re not there yet,” said Minority Leader Emilia Strong Sykes (D-Akron).

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With Less Than a Week Left, Only 22 Percent of Registered Voters in Ohio Have Requested an Absentee Ballot for the Ohio Primary

Zachery Schmidt

Registered Ohio voters have not taken advantage of the extended primary election deadline as numbers released Tuesday by Ohio Secretary of State (OSOS) Frank LaRose shows low turnout.

With less than a week until the primary election deadline, only 1,667,883 Ohioans have requested a vote-by-mail absentee ballot. Ohio has 7.7 million registered voters, according to The Columbus Dispatch. This means that less than 22 percent of registered Ohioans have requested an absentee ballot.

Gov. Mike DeWine pushed back Ohio’s original primary election date from March 17 to April 28 after declaring a health emergency due to the coronavirus. People are expected to vote by mail rather than in-person. Only certain situations will allow Ohioans to vote in-person.

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