California

SAN DIEGO (AP) — The Trump administration has been quietly adding military surveillance cameras at the U.S.-Mexico border in response to the coronavirus pandemic, though fewer people appear to be crossing illegally. It’s the latest move as operations at the U.S.-Mexico border have become increasingly militarized and secretive.

SAN FRANCISCO, April 18 (Xinhua) -- Governor of the U.S. state of Washington Jay Inslee said Friday that President Donald Trump's calls for "liberating" parts of the country are "dangerous."

"He is putting millions of people in danger of contracting COVID-19. His unhinged rantings and calls for people to 'liberate' states could also lead to violence. We've seen it before," Inslee said in a statement.

"His words are likely to cause COVID-19 infections to spike in places where social distancing is working," the statement said.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The U.S. economy has imploded in the past month amid aggressive measures to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, with 22 million people filing for unemployment benefits and most factories, stores and other businesses at a virtual standstill.

The governors of Michigan, Florida and other states outlined tentative steps on Friday to reopen their economies, a day after the White House issued guidelines to help states decide when to lift lockdown orders and allow firms to restart and workers to return to their jobs.

(AP) --- Nurse Mike Gulick was meticulous about not bringing the novel coronavirus home to his wife and their 2-year-old daughter. He’d stop at a hotel after work just to take a shower. He’d wash his clothes in Lysol disinfectant. They did a tremendous amount of handwashing.

LOS ANGELES, April 11 (Xinhua) -- Six persons were wounded by gunfire at a large party in Bakersfield, 170 km north of Los Angeles, local media reported on Saturday, saying around 400 people were at the party.

The incident occurred at about 12:30 a.m. (0730 GMT) on Saturday morning, Bakersfield's CW 12 news channel reported. When policemen arrived at the scene, they found a large party had been held at an apartment complex prior to the shooting.

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol agent wouldn’t let Jackeline Reyes explain why she and her 15-year-old daughter needed asylum, pointing to the coronavirus. That confrontation in Texas came just days after the Trump administration quietly shut down the nation’s asylum system for the first time in decades in the name of public health.

“The agent told us about the virus and that we couldn’t go further, but she didn’t let us speak or anything,” said Reyes, 35, who was shuttled to a crossing March 24 in Reynosa, Mexico, a violent border city.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A California appeals court ordered the dismissal of a criminal case Tuesday against a Mexican megachurch leader on charges of child rape and human trafficking on procedural grounds.

Naasón Joaquín García, the self-proclaimed apostle of La Luz del Mundo, has been in custody since June following his arrest on accusations involving three girls and one woman between 2015 and 2018 in Los Angeles County. Additional allegations of the possession of child pornography in 2019 were later added. He has denied wrongdoing.

7 April 2020; AFP: Airbnb on Monday announced it was taking a billion dollars in new investment to endure and, it hopes, thrive in a travel world transformed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Silver Lake and Sixth Street Partners will invest the money into the home-sharing platform in the form of debt and equity, according to Airbnb.

6 April 2020; AFP: Apple has said it will soon be producing one million face shields a week for medical workers battling the coronavirus pandemic.

The tech giant had already sourced 20 million surgical masks from around the world to help address a global shortage, chief executive Tim Cook said in a video posted to Twitter on Sunday.

But the company had also designed its own transparent protective face shield and begun mass production at its factories in the US and China, he added.

(AP) --- Kyle Navarro was kneeling down to unlock his bicycle when he noticed an older white man staring at him. Navarro, who is Filipino, tried to ignore him, but that soon became impossible.

The man walked by, looked back and called Navarro a racial slur. He “spat in my direction, and kept walking,” Navarro said.

Navarro, a school nurse in San Francisco, already had anxiety about racism related to the coronavirus, which emerged in China and has Asian people facing unfounded blame and attacks as it’s spread worldwide. Now, he was outraged.