Saturday, August 8, 2020

DONALD TRUMP, RAPIST

E. Jean Carroll, Who Accused Trump of Rape, Can Go Forward With Suit

A judge rejected President Trump’s bid to delay a defamation suit by Ms. Carroll, pointing to the recent Supreme Court ruling over his tax returns.

Credit...Jefferson Siegel for The New York Times

A New York judge has rejected President Trump’s bid to temporarily halt proceedings in a lawsuit filed against him by the writer E. Jean Carroll, who has accused him of rape, a ruling that allows the case to move forward in the months before the presidential election.

The decision was a victory for Ms. Carroll, who sued Mr. Trump last November for defamation after he called her a liar and said he had never met her. She published a memoir last summer that accused Mr. Trump of attacking her in a department store dressing room in Manhattan in the 1990s.

Lawyers for Mr. Trump had sought to put the lawsuit on hold while an appeals court is deciding whether to dismiss a similar lawsuit filed against Mr. Trump by Summer Zervos, a former contestant on “The Apprentice” who has accused him of sexually assaulting her.

In their bid for a delay, the lawyers also said the Constitution gave a sitting president immunity against civil lawsuits in state court.

On Thursday, Justice Verna L. Saunders in New York rejected their arguments, pointing to a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling that concluded Mr. Trump could not block a subpoena for his tax returns by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

The Supreme Court ruling determined that the president did not possess absolute immunity against state criminal subpoenas.



Although that ruling pertained to a criminal investigation, Justice Saunders wrote that the same legal question was relevant to Ms. Carroll’s lawsuit — “whether the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution bars a state court from exercising jurisdiction over a sitting President of the United States during his term.”

“No, it does not,” Justice Saunders wrote.

She said the Supreme Court’s ruling applied to “all state court proceedings in which a sitting president is involved,” including those involving the president’s unofficial or personal conduct.

Mr. Trump’s lawyers, who did not respond to a request for comment, could appeal the ruling.

For now, the ruling allows the lawsuit to enter the crucial discovery phase, in which both sides will exchange documents and other materials.

Lawyers for Ms. Carroll had requested that Mr. Trump provide a DNA sample to determine whether his genetic material is on a dress that Ms. Carroll said she was wearing at the time of the incident.

The ruling also means both Ms. Carroll and Mr. Trump could sit for depositions under oath in the coming months.

Roberta Kaplan, a lawyer for Ms. Carroll, said, “We are now eager to move forward with discovery so that we can prove that Donald Trump defamed E. Jean Carroll when he lied about her in connection with her brave decision to tell the truth about the fact that Donald Trump had sexually assaulted her.”

Some of the findings during discovery could be disclosed publicly in court filings ahead of the election in November, although Mr. Trump’s lawyers could seek other avenues to delay the case.

In a book excerpt published last June, Ms. Carroll, a longtime columnist for Elle magazine, wrote that Mr. Trump threw her up against the wall of a dressing room at Bergdorf Goodman, an upscale department store in Manhattan, and forced himself on her. She said the episode occurred in late 1995 or early 1996.

She had kept the black, wool dress that she was wearing that day, she wrote.

Ms. Carroll announced earlier this year that she had departed from Elle magazine, saying the magazine fired her after Mr. Trump insulted her reputation. Her contract was terminated early, but Elle says it was not over her allegations against him.

Mr. Trump has denied Ms. Carroll’s allegations. He said he did not know her, even though the two were photographed together at a party in 1987 with Ms. Carroll’s former husband. Mr. Trump later said that the image was misleading.

He also said that Ms. Carroll had fabricated the episode to sell her book and that she was “not my type.”

Ms. Carroll is one of more than 10 women who have accused Mr. Trump of sexual misconduct before he was president. Mr. Trump has denied all of the accusations.

THE MEXICAN INVASION OF AMERICA - UNDER, OVER AND IN U.S. UNDEFENDED BORDERS

 

U.S. officials find 'sophisticated' smuggling tunnel on Mexican border

Mimi Dwyer
 
 
 
 
Border smuggling tunnel found near Yuma

By Mimi Dwyer

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. authorities have discovered an unfinished 1,300-foot (400-meter) tunnel under the U.S.-Mexico border, calling it an unusually sophisticated smuggling route complete with ventilation and a rail system.

The tunnel was found on Tuesday in the desert near San Luis, Arizona by federal agents led by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's investigative arm, the agency said in a press release Friday.

Authorities have located hundreds of tunnels over the years under the Southwest border, saying they are used by drug cartels and criminal organizations to smuggle narcotics, people and weapons back and forth between the two countries.

The tunnel found this week measured 3 feet by 4 feet (91 cm by 1.22 meters) and included a "ventilation system, water lines, electrical wiring, rail system, [and] extensive reinforcement," ICE said.

Federal agents drilled and used underground cameras to investigate the tunnel after discovering a sinkhole near cross-border fencing in mid-July, ICE said.

Carl Landrum, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official, said the tunnel "appears to be the most sophisticated tunnel in U.S. history, and certainly the most sophisticated I've seen in my career." Landrum started with Border Patrol in 1996, according to the agency's website.

In January this year, CBP announced federal agents had discovered the longest cross-border smuggling tunnel ever found along the Southwest border, originating in Baja California, Mexico. It measured 4,309 feet (1,300 meters).

President Donald Trump has pledged to build a wall on the border with Mexico to stop illegal crossings and drug trafficking, but critics point to tunnels as one way people can get around such a barrier.


(Reporting by Mimi Dwyer in Los Angeles; Editing by Mica Rosenberg and Frances Kerry)

BLACK LIVES MATTER - BUT WHAT ABOUT VICTIMS OF BLACK VIOLENCE?

 

Sex Offender Released on Bail Accused of Kidnapping, Raping Another Victim

Shawn McClinton
Sex Offender Registry Board
2:50

A registered sex offender was arrested this week in Boston for allegedly kidnapping and raping another victim.

“Officials were called to assist Boston EMS with an assault victim in the area of Blue Hill Ave and Wales Street in Dorchester on Wednesday at around 1:30 p.m.,” according to Boston 25 News.

When officers arrived at the scene, they spoke to the woman, who was then taken to a hospital for treatment. The Boston Police Department’s (BPD) Sexual Assault Unit later identified the suspect as 39-year-old Shawn McClinton.

The report continued:

McClinton was arraigned in Dorchester District Court on Thursday on charges of aggravated rape, armed kidnapping with sexual assault, strangulation and assault by means of a dangerous weapon. A search through the state’s sex offender registry board (SORB) shows McClinton was previously convicted of raping and abusing a child in June 1994 and of another rape in July 2007. McClinton is also listed as being homeless.

“McClinton had been held on $15,000 bail since his arrest February 19, 2018, on charges of kidnapping and two counts each of aggravated rape and assault and battery,” the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office said.

However, he was released July 15 when the Massachusetts Bail Fund posted $15,000 to free him, the office noted.

“The Massachusetts Bail Fund pays bail so that low-income people can stay free while they work towards resolving their case, allowing individuals, families, and communities to stay productive, together, and stable,” the fund’s website read.

Following the suspect’s arrest, Boston Police Commissioner William Gross said of the fund’s action, “I hope they never get a wink of sleep — because this is absolutely ridiculous. This could have been prevented.”

Gross explained that it essentially gave criminals the message that they would not be held responsible for their actions, according to the Boston Herald.

“To the criminals, it’s like, ‘Hey, you can do what you want — we’ll bail you out,'” he said, adding, “For victims, it’s hard enough just to come forward on a rape, and then something like this happens. … This predator goes out and violates another victim.”

Assistant District Attorney Michael V. Glennon requested the suspect be held on a $250,000 bail and that bail be revoked regarding the 2018 sexual assault case, which was pending in Suffolk Superior Court.

“The judge imposed a $500,000 bail and revoked his open bail,” the Boston 25 article concluded.

NEO-FASCIST MARK ZUCKERBERG'S FORTUNE EXCEEDS $100 BILLION - AMERICA STANDS IN FOOD LINES

 

Mark Zuckerberg’s Fortune Surpasses $100 Billion

A picture taken in Moscow on March 22, 2018 shows an illustration picture of the Russian language version of Facebook about page featuring the face of founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A public apology by Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg, on March 22, 2018 failed to quell outrage over the hijacking …
MLADEN ANTONOV/AFP/Getty Images
2:16

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has reportedly passed $100 billion for the first time after the social media giant’s stock price hit a record based on optimism about the release of its TikTok competitor, Reels. Only Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates also have fortunes worth more than $100 billion.

The AP reports that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s net worth has passed $100 billion for the first time this week after Facebook hit a record on optimism about the release of its TikTok competitor Reels. Zuckerberg now joins other tech titans such as Jeff Bezos and Bill Gates and the only people alive to hold the title of “centi-billionaire,” according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

The majority of Zuckerberg’s net worth is derived from his large stake in his social media giant Facebook. The founders of America’s largest tech companies have seen a huge increase in their net worth as the Wuhan coronavirus pandemic has forced many people online. Despite the U.S. economy contracting, tech firms have greatly benefited in recent months.

Zuckerberg has seen his net worth grow by approximately $22 billion this year, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has added $75 billion to his net worth. The five largest American tech firms, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet, Facebook, and Microsoft, currently have market valuations equivalent to about 30 percent of U.S. gross domestic product, almost double what they were at the end of 2018.

U.S. Senator and former Democratic Presidential Candidate Bernie Sander (I-VT) reportedly plans to introduce legislation to tax what he refers to as “obscene wealth gains” during the coronavirus pandemic. Sanders’ “Make Billionaires Pay Act” would tax 60 percent of the increase in the billionaire’s net worth from March 18 throughout the end of the year and use the revenue to cover healthcare expenses for Americans.

Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com



Trump and the Republicans Are Risking an All-Out Depression

They are currently making the same failed choices that led to the last one.

by Robert J. Shapiro

The headline from last Thursday’s report by the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) on second quarter GDP was horrific: The economy contracted 9.5 percent from April through June. On an annual basis, GDP fell at an astounding rate of nearly 33 percent. Still, there’s another ominous aspect to the agency’s findings that has gone largely unnoted: The pandemic-driven collapse in GDP occurred even with trillions of dollars of government aid dispensed through emergency checks to households, expanded jobless benefits, and payroll grants.

Now, as the pandemic worsens again—infections are surging across much of the South, Southwest and Midwest—we may well need to face another period of largescale shutdowns, like those that stalled out the economy in April and May. But the White House and congressional Republicans are balking at a second, comparable round of emergency assistance. The data suggest that their quibbling and stalling risks a national depression.

The BEA’s latest report on personal incomes, released the day after its latest GDP report, can give us a rough measure of what might happen if President Trump and GOP leaders block another round of federal supports at least as large as the first one.

Over the second quarter of 2020, personal income from salaries and wages fell 7.1 percent even as total personal income grew 7.3 percent. That gaping difference was bridged mainly by the emergency checks and expanded jobless benefits from the federal government.

The report also shows that personal consumption fell 10.5 percent even as the emergency checks and extended jobless benefits provided $1,420 billion in income support. That’s because people spend a lot less when unemployment sets new records. Instead, they cut out most non-essential spending and save a lot more to tide themselves for even worse times: The personal saving rate, which averaged 7.5 percent in 2019, soared to 25.7 percent in the second quarter.

Worse times may be right on the horizon if Trump and his allies continue to delay and diminish a second round of emergency assistance.  We can estimate what would happen to personal incomes, consumption spending, and GDP if this second spike of infections produces shutdowns and unemployment in August and September akin to the first spike in April and May, although without the emergency aid from the government. Personal income would fall 7.0 percent below the depressed levels in the second quarter, or more than $1,424 billion. Personal consumption, which declined at an annual rate of $1,528 billion from March through May, would be further depressed by the absence of another $1,055 billion (the $1,420 billion in emergency aid minus  the 25.7 percent saved).  From July through September—the months leading up to the election—Americans would spend nearly 18 percent less than they did from January through March.

That means the GDP would not begin to recover at all. The overall economy would be nearly as depressed in the third quarter as it was in the disastrous second quarter, and possibly worse. This is the fire that the Trump administration and Congress are playing with, and it could burn down a good part of the U.S. economy.

In a week or two, the White House and congressional Republicans will likely try to avoid this dire scenario—or at least the responsibility for it—by pushing a sharply pared down version of the emergency package passed more than two months ago by House Democrats. .

The version offered by GOP Senate leader Mitch McConnell would provide $1 trillion in assistance, i.e. one-third the support in the Democratic package. The GOP plan would cut the $600 expanded jobless benefit to $200, eliminate pay supplements for essential workers in hazardous jobs, and provide little aid to state and local governments.  The plan does include another round of $1,200 checks for most people, with the funds paid over several months and without the additional support for children in the Democrats’ bill.

There is no economic justification for a half loaf here and the GOP’s cuts in emergency funding will exact appalling costs on millions of households. Based on all of our economic and epidemiological information, the right course for anyone not seized by love or fear of Donald Trump is to press for a new round of assistance as least as large as the measures enacted last time.

Major aid disbursements to America’s families is also the only equitable course. The crisis has already ended, kaput, for large investors—the top 10 percent of Americans who own 91 percent of all financial assets—because the Federal Reserve’s aggressive operations have virtually restored the stock and bond markets.

From February 20 to March 23, the S&P 500 tumbled almost 34 percent from its historic high of 3,372 to 2,237.  Yet, as the economy has continued to tank from March 23 onward, $2.8 trillion in new Fed purchases pushed the S&P 500 back to 3,296 on August 3, just two percent from its historic high. The Fed’s operations have had the same impact on corporate bond markets, with both investment grade paper and junk bonds reversing virtually all of their recent losses even as GDP cratered.

Nevertheless, President Trump and GOP leaders have dismissed their obligation to provide large-scale support for everyone else and take the steps needed to break the pandemic.In a plummeting economy, they apparently have chosen Hebert Hoover as their role model, another Republican president with a GOP-controlled Congress who rejected calls for wide-ranging  government assistance for an economic crisis. The result, of course, was the Great Depression.

 

Robert J. Shapiro

Robert J. Shapiro, a Washington Monthly contributing writer, is the chairman of Sonecon and a Senior Fellow at the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University. He previously served as Under Secretary of Commerce for Economic Affairs under Bill Clinton and advised senior members of the Obama administration on economic policy.

 

Fact check: U.S. GDP drop in 2020's second quarter is the worst in modern history

 

Matthew Brown, USA TODAY

August 8, 2020, 6:10 AM

The claim: U.S. GDP quarterly drop worst since the Great Depression

As America’s summer plods along amid a historic pandemic, national protest and civil unrest, the economic fallout from the coronavirus is also taking its toll, leading many to try to contextualize the damage.

“Yesterday US GDP was down 32.9% in the largest quarterly drop since the Great Depression,” a Facebook post shared nearly a thousand times declares.

Accompanying the language was a screenshot of a tweet from President Donald Trump after his visit with famed former professional football player and coach Mike Singletary.

Great to spend time with Mike Singletary while going to Texas. He’s one of the greatest football players ever — A strong man and a really good person. Great being with you Mike! pic.twitter.com/lWsYn4lhOm

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2020

The Facebook post, from July 31 attacked the president, claiming that “1.4 million workers filed for unemployment” and, “More than 150K Americans were dead from COVID-19” while “Trump spent the day tweeting about suspending the election and hanging out with a football player.” Earlier in the day, the president had suggested that the United States should delay its Nov. 3 elections, citing unsubstantiated claims about election security mail-in-voting.

Does the economy claim hold up? Yes. The recent annualized drop in GDP is the worst drop on record, even outstripping the Great Depression in its scale.

More: The COVID economy in 6 charts: Rebounding from recession could prove tougher in months ahead

America’s economic contraction, by the numbers

Statistics released July 30 by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis were the worst since the government began keeping records in 1947.

U.S. gross domestic product shrank by 9.5% between April and June, easily representing the largest quarterly drop on record. The second-quarter annualized rate came out to a 32.9% drop, also the worst performance on record. 

The annualized rate is a projection, in this case reflecting that if the American economy experienced a full financial calendar like the last few months, GDP would drop by about 32.9%. While normally the annualized rate is a useful metric for measuring the economy, the BEA is not emphasizing that eye-popping drop in GDP because it's very uncertain whether the U.S. will experience another quarter so devastating.

The recent numbers are the worst in American modern history, according to data from the National Bureau of Economic Research reported by CNBC.

More: With Paycheck Protection Program loan money gone, thousands of restaurants at risk of closing again amid COVID-19

That same week, 1.4 million Americans applied for unemployment for the first time, meaning a total 54.1 million Americans have now sought unemployment benefits for the first time since the start of the pandemic.

The massive contraction in GDP was largely driven by a collapse in consumer spending and private sector investment.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of all U.S. economic activity, fell 34.6% on an annualized rate, though consumption did rise over the past few months compared to the start of the pandemic, according to the Commerce Department. Spending on services dropped 43.5%, while spending on nondurable goods like groceries, toiletries and clothing fell by 15.9%.

More: Dow slides 200 points after US posts record economic drop in second quarter

Global lockdowns also caused exports to fall 64.1%, while Americans imported 53.4% less year-over-year as the coronavirus severely cut domestic demand for foreign goods.

Private-sector investment in the economy fell by 49% percent, indicating that households and businesses are saving money that would otherwise be in circulation.

Federal spending, much of it in the form of stimulus aid, was up significantly from this time last year. Cutbacks in state and local budgets were largely offset by increased public health and social welfare spending.

The coronavirus economy vs. other recessions

The severity of the economic damage brought by the coronavirus pandemic is unprecedented in American history. That said, there are some important differences between the current recession and periods like the Great Depression and the Great Recession.

First, the cause of economic hardship differs from past contractions. American recessions have most often been caused by issues in the financial system. By comparison, the economic damage today is mostly the result of strict nationwide lockdowns as the nation grapples with a public health emergency.

It is also more difficult for economic historians to compare the current economic situation to contractions that predate federal records, especially the further back in time one looks.

NBER statistics did find, however, that the recent fall was worse than the Great Depression, as well as major slowdowns in 1921, 1893 and 1875.

More: Want your small business to survive coronavirus? Get busy, get creative and reopen now

The surge in the unemployment rate caused by the pandemic could give way to sizable drop depending on how quickly jobs return as the economy reopens. The rate, while still in double digits, has declined since hitting a high point early in the pandemic.Other workers who filed for unemployment benefits may have also been furloughed or temporarily let go from their employers, rather than permanently laid off.

There is no doubt, though, that the recent GDP numbers have made some economists reassess their forecasts for the economy

Worst ever. What's to come?

Private economists' forecasts for second-quarter GDP turned out be slightly more pessimistic than the actual number//; a Dow Jones survey found that economists estimated a 34.7% drop in GDP.

Some officials, such as Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, have expressed optimism that the economy can rebound strongly.The stock market has also remained relatively strong amid the pandemic, as investors flood safe investments with cash in an unusually uncertain market.

Others worry about a longer-lasting blow to the economy from the pandemic as some businesses will permanently. Clothing retailers, for example, have been hit hard by the sudden shift to working from home, with several filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

The Federal Reserve has stepped in aggressively to counter the damage, effectively leaving interest rates at zero and injecting vast amounts of cash into the banking system.

More: Amid COVID-19 spikes, reopening rollbacks, Fed could signal near-zero rates for even longer

It is unclear if Congress and the White House can reach a deal to continue the massive economic relief it provided earlier in the pandemic, as stimulus talks have hit a roadblock for now. It's likely that, without intervention, reduced benefits will force unemployed Americans to make tough choices in the months ahead.

More: $1,200 checks? Money for schools? Breaking down what Republicans and Democrats want in the coronavirus stimulus plan

How states handle public health guidelines will be crucial in determining the economic recovery. In July, many states shut back down after coronavirus cases spiked, threatening economic outlooks already severely hampered by the virus itself.

Our ruling: True

Some social media posts describe the current annualized contraction of the economy as the worst since the Great Depression. That is true, but understates the gravity of the situation; it is also the worst contraction in modern American history. We rate this claim TRUE, based on our research. 

Our fact-check sources:

·         Commerce Department, BEA Gross Domestic Product, 2nd Quarter 2020 Press Release

·         Commerce Department, Gross Domestic Product, Second Quarter2020 News Report

·         CNBC, Second-quarter GDP plunged by worst-ever 32.9% amid virus-induced shutdown

·         USA TODAY, More Americans file for unemployment as extra $600 benefit ends and COVID-19 surges

·         Reuters, U.S. consumer spending presses ahead; declining income poses challenge

·         KAKE News, Every recession in U.S. history and how the country responded

·         CNBC, Unemployment is nearing Great Depression levels. Here’s how the eras are similar — and different

·         AEI, Get ready for another fake economic recovery

·         POLITICO, Fed warning: U.S. economic outlook at mercy of pandemic

·         WSJ, U.S. Economy Contracted at Record Rate Last Quarter; Jobless Claims Rise to 1.43 Million

·         Financial Express, COVID-19: US Treasury Secretary Mnuchin hopes economy will bounce back in third quarter this year

·         NBER, The American Business Cycle: Continuity and Change

·         USA TODAY, Wall Street rallies as Fed keeps rates pinned at record low

·         USA TODAY, (Opinion) Our economy is in the COVID valley of death. What will be on the other side, and when?

·         USA TODAY, With coronavirus surging, Fed keeps key interest rate near zero, vows more support

·         USA TODAY, 'It's a condescension': Pelosi slams White House over deadlock in COVID-19 relief negotiations and $600 unemployment benefits

·         USA TODAY, 'Insulin or groceries': How reduced unemployment affects struggling Americans from California to Mississippi

·         USA TODAY, Will infections spike, state reopening rollbacks hurt recovery or spur a new recession?

·          

 

Out of work and with families to feed, some Americans are lining up at food banks for the first time in their lives

 

Christopher Wilson

are lining up at food banks for the first time in their lives

As tens of millions of Americans have lost jobs due to the coronavirus pandemic, food banks across the country say they are facing an unprecedented surge in demand, comparable to a hurricane hitting the entire country at the same time.  

“I’ve been in food banking for 24 years, and in my tenure I’ve never seen such a dramatic increase in need literally overnight,” said Lisa Scales of the Greater Pittsburgh Community Food Bank, referring to the initial spike in distribution in March, when the shutdowns started.

Across the country, Americans who’ve never had to rely on food assistance before are turning to local organizations for aid. In July, the Census Bureau reported that nearly 30 million Americans said they didn’t have enough to eat in the prior week, a situation that is likely to worsen since the expanded unemployment insurance of $600 per week ended last month. Food banks across the country are bracing for both another spike in food insecurity and the fact that the effects of the pandemic are likely to last until 2021 and beyond.

A number of food bank employees compared the current situation to the Great Recession of the late 2000s in terms of both length of need and impact, as the normal practice of turning to other parts of the country for support in times of a natural disaster failed in the face of a nationwide calamity.   

“The best way to describe it is, we were very active through Hurricane Harvey, which devastated Houston and the surrounding area, and this is way worse than that,” said Mark Brown of the West Houston Assistance Ministries, a large food pantry in the area. “I’ve never seen this level of community-wide desperation at such an extended level.”

Like any other organization, food banks faced their own impacts of the pandemic, which kept some infected workers and older volunteers home, and required changes in procedure to implement social distancing. They changed distribution methods, setting up drive-through or no-contact pickups and starting direct-to-door delivery while coping with supply chain problems. Staffers who were used to helping residents sign up for SNAP benefits in the field set up special phone lines to deal with the influx of applicants. 

“We’re very concerned,” Scales said of the expiration of federal unemployment benefits, noting that her food bank had already seen a slight increase just in the last week. “We’re anticipating higher than normal need for the next year, year and a half.”

But there was also gratitude and pride in how communities have stepped up to help their neighbors, with donations pouring in despite hard times for so many Americans. Yahoo News spoke to food banks across the country about what the last five months have been like and how they’re preparing for another potential spike as benefits that have kept many afloat expire. Their comments have been edited for length and clarity.

Natalie Jayroe, Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans

It’s been a sprint and a marathon. Here in Louisiana we’ve had our share of natural and man-made disasters over the last decade and a half, having been through [Hurricanes] Katrina and Rita and then Gustav and Isaac and then an oil spill and an economic recession. Yet for intensity this has been the equal of any of them so far.

First we had the schools close down, so we had children losing their free and reduced breakfast and lunch. Then we had seniors who could no longer go to grocery stores, we had people quarantining who we had to get food to, and then we had mandatory stay-at-home orders and the community shut down. That was a huge shock, so now you have a community full of people who are still here, who can’t go anywhere and have totally lost the ability to care for themselves and their families. Unemployment in New Orleans topped 50 percent at some points. With the cases going up, it’s frustrating to know we’re going to be in the acute phase of disaster response at least until the end of this year.

 

El Paso Baptist Association volunteers hand out boxes of food on July 17. (Joel Angel Juarez/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

When people start to find us and show up at the door in an industrial part of New Orleans, it means they’ve never needed food before and they don’t understand that there’s probably a church partner in their neighborhood that they can go to. So when we had so many people showing up that we couldn’t get our tractor trailers into the warehouse, when we started to have hundreds of cars waiting outside our door, we moved that distribution to Zephyr Field, which is our baseball stadium, and now we have more than 2,000 cars there once a week waiting for food distribution, and they’ll wait five hours, six hours.

We’ve had incredibly generous community support — we’re just really the funnel through which the community takes care of itself. I can’t say thank you enough to our local community. Normally when we have disasters like this, we’ll reach out to food banks in Florida, Texas and North Carolina, where they have hurricanes — we pay it forward, because people have supported us through the downtimes we’ve had — but right now the whole country is in the same boat, so it really comes down to a local community taking care of itself, and the people here have been so generous in taking care of each other. 

Cynthia Kirkhart, Facing Hunger Foodbank (Huntington, W.Va.)

It really feels like it’s been a year, when it’s been about five months. Even before West Virginia had diagnosed cases, we saw what was going to be coming and started ordering up food because we recognized that we would probably have a pretty significant increase. We currently serve about 129,000 people across 17 counties. West Virginia is a poor state in general, but the job loss we anticipated was going to increase our demand about 50 percent. When the pandemic came and the closures occurred, those estimates became true, particularly with the demand for child nutrition with schools closed.

We started seeing real delays in getting food, and the cost of that food started to really increase quite a bit. Where I buy thousands of pounds of ground beef, I never really had to pay beyond $2 a pound for it, and suddenly I was being faced with $4.87. So you can only imagine, for the families we serve or who receive SNAP benefits and are purchasing products through their retailers, lot of foods became cost-prohibitive and the benefits didn’t extend as far. We had families who were doing pretty good with managing their food budget that really had to come back to us for assistance because those dollars weren’t providing enough for the family.

 

New Yorkers in need receive free produce, dry goods and meat at a Food Bank for New York City distribution on July 30. (Michael Loccisano/Getty Images for Food Bank for New York City)

Things leveled off over the last month or so at about a 25 percent increase, as a lot of people overcame the challenge of getting their unemployment benefits. People got the supplemental assistance, so they were able to move forward with paying for bills and food. Now that those benefits have ended and the resolution of that is still pending, we’re expecting we’ll see an increase again. We’ve already had [to close] some of our pantries located in areas really hard hit by the virus, so we’re again challenged to go back into those communities and do mobile distribution, which is focused on safety for the food bank staff, our volunteers and those receiving the food.

I’ve been struck by how the Band-Aid we rely on to hold safety net services together has been ripped off with this pandemic. What were already really fragile systems have really been broken. I’m hoping we can continue the conversations about how we can better serve our seniors, how we can better serve our veterans and homeless population, and certainly how we can better serve our children, as many rely so heavily on those meals they receive at school.

Scott Young, Food Bank of Lincoln (Neb.)

We saw a real spike in rural need when the pandemic settled in. Since then we’ve seen a spike in Lincoln too, as unemployment has continued to escalate. People have not returned to jobs. I think a lot of us back in March thought this was a 60- or 90-day inconvenience we’d be dealing with, and as it dragged on we’ve learned and come to believe this is months and months to go yet. We’re planning on a month-to-month basis, but we’re planning on doing this model of our operation through New Year’s Day, and I fully anticipate we’ll be doing it into the spring of 2021. So when we talk about returning to normal, some of our staff members talk about “This is normal and we better get used to it.”

In Lincoln in 2019, we had 5,892 people on the unemployment rolls. In June of 2020 we had 13,326. So we’ve had an earthquake, demographically speaking, of newly unemployed people and households that are going to have more month than money. Nebraska, much to our relief, has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. In June we were seventh [lowest], so that’s a positive sign in a roundabout way, but if you’re one of those people who are unemployed it doesn’t matter. You still have the problem of poverty and food insecurity.

A line that has been repeated around the food bank often is people saying, “I hate that I have to do this,” in terms of going through a food line. We’ve heard from people who’ve said, “I used to donate to the food bank, and now all of a sudden I’m in your line,” and I think that’s a testament to the charitable food system and the importance of supporting it. So many of us are on a pretty precarious financial edge, our economic system has been revealed as pretty fragile during the pandemic, and a lot of people are paying a stout price for it.

Lisa Endl, Feeding America Eastern Wisconsin

We support 35 counties in Wisconsin, and during the pandemic period from March 1 to June 30 we distributed 11 million pounds of food, and that was an 85 percent increase over what we’ve done in years prior. It’s been a very strong increase, and we definitely anticipate that if the added unemployment benefits go away that increase is going to be even more.

About 40 percent of the people using pantries are using them for the first time ever. We’ve always known in our work that anyone is just one injury or one missed paycheck from relying on a pantry, and right now it’s just a huge influx. In 2019, in our service area of eastern Wisconsin, 1 in 10 people were food-insecure or didn’t know where their next meal was going to come from, and we anticipate by the end of 2020 that 1 in 7 people will be facing hunger, including an additional 77,000 children.

I was just speaking with one of our pantries that is in Milwaukee. It’s an inner-city church, and they typically just have people from that area come in once a month to pick up products. Now they’re seeing people from suburbs and outlying ZIP codes who are coming to them now for the first time, so their reach is growing as the need is growing.

Jocelyn Lantrip, Food Bank of Northern Nevada

We cover the whole northern part of the state, and we have a big surface area, about 90,000 square miles, and we were busy before the pandemic. Our monthly average, we’d serve about 91,000 people — we had a pretty significant issue with hunger already — and we saw a very staggering increase right after the shutdown. It was not unusual to approach 1,000 families at one distribution, and we had also been turning to drive-throughs and 147 partners to distribute food for us.

We saw a particular increase in our Mobile Harvest program, where we take fresh fruits and vegetables out to neighborhoods. Leading up to the crisis, we were helping about 8,900 people per month through that program. In April we helped 28,272 people. We’ve never seen numbers like this. April was our worst month — we helped 125,000 people overall. We saw a lot of people who had never received food assistance before, and they were confused and not really knowing what to do, and then we throw a bunch of other restrictions on how you can receive food. You’re in a drive-through distribution, you have to wait in a line and give your information, and the whole process is rattling to some.

 

Volunteers with boxes of food to take to a senior apartment building during a food distribution at Salem United Methodist Church in Shoemakersville, Pa., on July 15. (Ben Hasty/MediaNews Group/Reading Eagle via Getty Images)

We saw somewhat of a leveling off in June, still higher than normal, but we really are expecting a huge spike next month if something doesn’t change with the benefits expiring. In our area, reported unemployment right now is about 24.9 percent. I was here during the recession and we were pretty busy during that time, but unemployment was about 14 percent. We’ve never seen anything like this, and for that many people to lose benefits we’re prepared to be very, very busy.

We’ve been trying to get as much food in the door as we can so we can be ready for August and what we might see in the next few months. No matter what happens, we’re expecting this to be a very long recovery, because we haven’t recovered from the last economic issue, at least low-income people haven’t. We’re not unique with this, but we’ve seen issues with the supply chain, as food that would take us a month will take three months or longer to get here. That’s been an issue just to stay ahead of it, so we’re really ordering food all the time. We’ve been fortunate at our food banks — we haven’t had to turn anyone away because we’ve run out of food.

Jennifer Caslin, Food Bank of Central & Eastern North Carolina

We have been purchasing more food than we normally would in the past. Normally we rely on donations. In March our purchase budget for food was $500,000, and we ended up spending $2 million. For funding, the community has really stepped up during this time — we’ve been comparing it to the Great Recession because it feels very much like that. People really stepped up to give us support throughout the recession even though they had less to donate, but they knew food was a huge need.

If the recovery doesn’t continue and those additional funds aren’t extended in some form, we do expect the levels of visits from folks to get closer to what they were right at the beginning of quarantine, when our agencies were distributing as much as 150 percent higher than in pre-COVID times. Our food finder on our website, where you can go find a partner agency near you to receive help, right at the beginning of the pandemic the traffic for that site increased by 1,500 percent. We’re definitely expecting it to go back towards those levels as long as there’s not that additional support for people who still can’t go back to work.

 

Residents in vehicles wait for food at a Kelly Center for Hunger Relief distribution site in El Paso, Texas, on July 17. (Joel Angel Juarez/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

There’s always the chance of a weather event, so that on top of a pandemic would be pretty devastating. Thankfully, it’s looking like Hurricane Isaias wasn’t as bad as it could have been, but we’re keeping our fingers crossed that we don’t get anything worse than that this summer. We’re prepared if we do, but certainly that could make things a lot worse for people anywhere that might be impacted by a weather event. 

Lori Long, Community Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma

We drove to this real small town in northeast Oklahoma. I had never been there before, and it was a stereotypical small-town food desert. They had a convenience store and some kind of a dollar store. There were very limited nutritious and fresh options because the grocery store had closed. So we set up this distribution, we were blessed to have the National Guard assisting us, and we had about a three-hour distribution. I am not kidding you, there were cars lined up the entire main street of this little town waiting to come through.

I know one of the biggest things for us that we think is going to increase need, or at least keep it at the high level, is all of the school systems deciding to go virtual. We still have a couple of systems that haven’t decided yet, but the majority have decided to stay virtual, but our kids really rely on those school meals. The other thing is looking at industry-specific impact. For example, in Oklahoma we are a heavy oil and gas economy. We also have a significant aviation industry, and of course with travel not being where it’s been in the past, it impacts both of those industries, so that’s something locally we are seeing more.

Dave Krepcho, Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida

I hate to even think about [the expanded unemployment benefits expiring]. That’s going to cause an immediate increase. The theme parks have reopened on a small scale, but Disney has 70,000 employees. When they’re partially open that’s tens of thousands of people without a job. Then add Universal Orlando and the other theme parks like Sea World, and then the ripple effect to all the resorts, all the hotel rooms, all the restaurants, the rent-a-car companies.

We’re a convention town, and that convention center hires thousands of people to work there, so when that hits a community like this it’s devastating economically. Thank God the stimulus checks went out, and thank God the $600 has been around, but when that’s reduced — the jobs aren’t here. There’s some job training going on, but my goodness, those openings are so few and far between, so it’s going to take months — I’ve heard some economists project that it will take 24 to 36 months to fully get back as a community. So that $600, that’s golden for these folks, and that only goes so far. 

On the flip side, what I’ve seen that’s a very positive thing, we started to see a pattern of $1,200 donations. A lot of people were attaching notes to these and saying, “My wife and I got our stimulus checks and we don’t need them as much as somebody else does. Please put this to work for us.” Things like that, the community’s generosity, is really heartwarming.