John Bel Edwards

President Donald Trump walks to his car after arrive in Southampton, N.Y., on Marine One, Saturday, Aug. 8, 2020. Trump is attending two fundraisers during his visit to the Hamptons. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

States on hook for billions under Trump's unemployment plan

Aug. 9, 2020 7:15 PM EDT

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AP) — Whether President Donald Trump has the constitutional authority to extend federal unemployment benefits by executive order remains unclear. Equally up in the air is whether states, which are necessary partners in Trump's plan to bypass Congress, will sign on. Trump announced an...

Swarnamala Ratnayaka prepares RNA for testing for the new coronavirus at the molecular pathology lab at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Thursday, April 2, 2020. The test is identical to the PCR test being used by the Centers for Disease Control to ease the testing crisis and stop the spread of COVID-19, which has hit the New Orleans area especially hard. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Analysis: La. nursing homes have vulnerability from staff

Aug. 9, 2020 4:00 PM EDT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — As Louisiana tries to protect vulnerable nursing home residents from coronavirus outbreaks, the facilities still have a significant source of risk for new infections. Hundreds of employees coming and going each day have refused to take a virus test. Gov. John Bel Edwards'...

FILE - In this April 29 2020, file photo, a resident from the Alexandra township gets tested for COVID-19 , in Johannesburg, South Africa. Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed 1 million, but global health experts tell The Associated Press the true toll is several times higher. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay, File)

The Latest: Brazil surpasses 100,000 deaths from COVID-19

Aug. 8, 2020 6:26 PM EDT

RIO DE JANEIRO -- Brazil has surpassed a grim milestone — 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. And five months after the first reported case, the country is showing no signs of crushing the disease. The nation of 210 million people has been reporting an average of more than 1,000 daily deaths from the pandemic...

Vials with samples taken for the new coronavirus are counted before they are prepared for RNA testing at the molecular pathology lab at Tulane University School of Medicine in New Orleans, Thursday, April 2, 2020. The test is identical to the PCR test being used by the Centers for Disease Control to ease the testing crisis and stop the spread of COVID-19, which has hit the New Orleans area especially hard. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Auditor debunks claims of duplicates in Louisiana virus data

Aug. 8, 2020 9:06 AM EDT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Louisiana's legislative auditor found two rural parishes' claims that the state was double-counting their positive coronavirus tests in the official tally of cases was unfounded, upending theories pushed in conservative circles that the data is being skewed to make the outbreak...

Desks are spaced out in a classroom at Aikahi Elementary School in Kailua, Hawaii on Tuesday, July 28, 2020. While Hawaii has one of the lowest rates of cases per capita in the country and many of its schools have open-air campuses, the challenges of returning kids full time to classrooms may still be insurmountable. (AP Photo/Jennifer Sinco Kelleher)

The Latest: Hawaii schools to open year with remote learning

Aug. 7, 2020 10:21 PM EDT

HONOLULU — Hawaii officials say the state’s public school students will begin the academic year with remote learning only, after a spike of coronavirus cases. Gov. David Ige said Friday that all public students will spend the first four weeks of the school year learning online from home. Officials...

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards makes a point while answering questions about the status of the state in regard to COVID-19, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020, in Baton Rouge, La. The state will continue to be in Phase 2 until Aug. 28. Dr. Daniel Burch does sign language interpretation at right. (Bill Feig/The Advocate via AP)

Louisiana seeks funding for National Guard virus response

Aug. 7, 2020 6:51 PM EDT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards is questioning why Louisiana must pay a portion of the costs to use the state's National Guard in coronavirus response work if the federal government is picking up the full tab in some other states. The Democratic governor sent a letter Friday to President...

Cemetery workers bury 65-year-old Maria Joana Nascimento, whose family members, behind, suspect died of COVID-19, at Vila Formosa cemetery in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Thursday, Aug. 6, 2020. Brazil is nearing 3 million cases of COVID-19 and 100,000 deaths. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

The Latest: UN says cybercrime hindering pandemic response

Aug. 7, 2020 12:00 AM EDT

UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations’ counterterrorism chief says a 350% increase in phishing websites was reported in the first quarter of the year and many of them targeted hospitals and health care systems, hindering their response to the coronavirus pandemic. Vladimir Voronkov told the U.N....

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards holds up his own mask, taken off while he was speaking, to remind Louisiana residents that a highly effective thing within their power to do to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is to simply wear a mask, Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at a press conference update on the state's COVID-19 situation at the Governor's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge, La. (Travis Spradling/The Advocate via AP, Pool)

Judge sides with Louisiana governor, upholds virus rules

Aug. 6, 2020 4:27 PM EDT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A Louisiana judge Thursday upheld Gov. John Bel Edwards' statewide mask mandate and bar restrictions as legal and enforceable, rejecting claims from Jefferson Parish business owners that the Democratic governor overstepped his legal authority in enacting the coronavirus rules. State...

A sign hangs outside Bruno’s Tavern in New Orleans on Tuesday, July 14, 2020. Bruno’s is one of many bars around the city that shut down under new restrictions the state announced over the weekend to fight the spread of coronavirus. Bars in New Orleans had been allowed to open, with limited capacity, a month earlier when the number of hospitalizations from the virus in Louisiana was in decline. (AP Photo/Kevin McGill)

Louisiana mask mandate, virus rules challenged in court

Aug. 5, 2020 6:49 PM EDT

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Gov. John Bel Edwards' administration argued Wednesday that Louisiana's statewide mask mandate and bar restrictions have helped to slow the spread of the coronavirus outbreak, hoping to persuade a state district judge to uphold the regulations in a lawsuit challenging them as...

People wearing face masks to help protect against the spread of the new coronavirus pass on a crosswalk on a street in Tokyo, Tuesday, Aug, 4, 2020. (AP Photo/Koji Sasahara)

The Latest: Japan governor touts gargling product for virus

Aug. 4, 2020 11:22 PM EDT

TOKYO — A governor in Japan is drawing skeptical criticism after he touted a gargling product as effective against the coronavirus, an assertion that, despite its dubiousness, emptied some store shelves of the medicine. Shares of Shionogi & Co. and Meiji Holdings Co., which make Isojin, soared in Tokyo...

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