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Tour de France called off amid virus, no new dates set

Posted on by Rick Watts

By JEROME PUGMIRE

PARIS (AP) — After weeks of holding out hope the Tour de France would be able to go ahead as planned despite the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s most famous cycling race was finally added to the list of sporting events called off.

It may still happen this year, but it’s clear the three-week race won’t be starting on June 27 in the Riviera city of Nice as scheduled.

French President Emmanuel Macron effectively made that decision in his speech to the nation on Monday when he announced that all public events with large crowds have been canceled until at least mid-July.

“Given that it’s now impossible that the Tour starts at its planned date, we are consulting with the (International Cycling Union) to try and find new dates,” race organizers said Tuesday.

The last time the Tour was not held was in 1946, with the nation still emerging from World War II. It was also stopped during WWI.

While cycling’s biggest event could be scrapped altogether, organizers are discussing potential later dates. New plans could be announced before the end of April following discussions between organizer Amaury Sport Organisation and the International Cycling Union.

Holding the race without legions of fans on the roadsides and mountain passes of France — an idea previously proposed by French Sports Minister Roxana Mărăcineanu — is not something organizers are likely to favor.

Millions of fans watch each year’s race in a festive atmosphere across many regions. This year’s event has 21 stages, with the longest of them stretching 218 kilometers (135 miles). Thousands of police officers are needed to keep crowds under control and help negotiate safe passage for riders.

Riders, too, have to be physically ready to tackle the grueling race — and able to actually attend it. After weeks of confinement, competitors would likely need several more weeks to get into racing shape.

Borders would have to be open, too, so racers like last year’s winner — Colombian rider Egan Bernal — can travel to France.

Juggling the cycling calendar is also tricky because of the various races scheduled throughout the season, including the Giro d’Italia and the Spanish Vuelta.

The Giro, which had been set for May, was called off late last month. The Spanish race, which is also owned by ASO, is still on the schedule for Aug. 14-Sept. 6.

If the Tour de France were to be held after the Spanish Vuelta in September, it could clash with the rescheduled French Open tennis tournament. The clay-court Grand Slam tournament at Roland Garros, normally in late May and June, has been pushed back to Sept. 20-Oct. 4.

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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Fauci: ‘We’re not there yet’ on key steps to reopen economy

Posted on by Rick Watts

By LAURAN NEERGAARD and JULIE PACE

WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said Tuesday the U.S. does not yet have the critical testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening the nation’s economy, adding a dose of caution to increasingly optimistic projections from the White House.

“We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and we’re not there yet,” Fauci said in an interview with The Associated Press.

Fauci’s comments come as President Donald Trump and others in the administration weigh how quickly businesses can reopen and Americans can get back to work weeks after the fast-spreading coronavirus essentially halted the U.S. economy. Trump has floated the possibility of reopening some areas by May 1 and said he could announce recommendations as soon as this week.

Fauci said a May 1 target is “a bit overly optimistic” for many areas of the country. Any easing off the strict social-distancing rules in place in much of the country would have to occur on a “rolling” basis, not all at once, he said, reflecting the ways COVID-19 struck different parts of the country at different times.

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Among Fauci’s top concerns: that there will be new outbreaks in locations where social distancing has eased, but public health officials don’t yet have the capabilities to rapidly test for the virus, isolate any new cases and track down everyone that an infected person came into contact with.

“I’ll guarantee you, once you start pulling back there will be infections. It’s how you deal with the infections that’s going count,” Fauci told the AP.

Key is “getting people out of circulation if they get infected, because once you start getting clusters, then you’re really in trouble,” he added.

At the same time Fauci is directing critical government research, he’s also one of the administration’s leading spokespeople on the virus, spending hours each week by Trump’s side during his lengthy, daily White House briefings.

Fauci said his public role is important but conceded that the duration of those briefings — Monday’s ran for nearly two-and-a-half hours — was “really draining” and that doesn’t even count preparation and waiting for it to start.

“If I had been able to just make a few comments and then go to work, that would have really been much better,” he said. “It isn’t the idea of being there and answering questions, which I really think is important for the American public. It’s the amount of time.”

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Much of Fauci’s time outside of the White House briefing room is focused on analyzing progress on blood tests that aim to tell who was exposed to the coronavirus — whether they knew they were sick or not — by spotting antibodies their immune system formed to fight back. Those tests will be crucial in determining when and how people can go back to work.

The problem: Most of the tests have not yet been proven to work well, Fauci cautioned. He noted that some countries bought millions of antibody tests only to learn they didn’t work.

Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health, said his staff is working with the Food and Drug Administration to validate those tests. That means proving what level of antibodies it takes to really be immune; if particular types of antibodies are key rather than an overall level; and how long that protection lasts.

“We’re going to have to find out the answer to all of those questions,” Fauci stressed. “I know people are anxious to say, ‘Well, we’ll give you a passport that says you’re antibody-positive, you can go to work and you’re protected.’ The worst possibility that would happen is if we’re actually wrong about that” and those people get infected.

Another complication is that scientists still don’t have a solid understanding of how often people who show either no obvious symptoms or very few symptoms are spreading the virus. It’s “purely a guesstimate” but no less than 25% and no more than half of overall cases may be from the relatively asymptomatic, he said.

Looking ahead, Fauci said a second wave of infection isn’t inevitable. But he added: “if you mean it goes way down and then come September, October, November, we have another peak, I have to say I would not be surprised. I would hope that if and when that occurs, that we jump all over it in a much, much more effective way than we have in these past few months.”

Slow retail business and plant shutdowns could impact pork prices

Posted on by Rick Watts

BY 

With coronavirus forcing the closings of the Tyson Foods pork plant at Columbus Junction and the Smithfield Foods plant in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, additional pressure is being placed on pork producers.

Lee Schulz is an agricultural economist with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach with a focus on livestock marketings. Due to the plant closings, Schulz says pork producers may see a drop in their prices. “A 1% decrease in capacity decreases hog prices by about 1.8% and that’s using the historical data,” Schulz says. “Obviously, we’re out of the historical realm, but if you look at roughly a 10% decline in that capacity, that’s about an 18% decrease in price.”

Schulz says the nation had already been operating above the processing level from a year ago, while cold storage has also been at a surplus. He says consumers may not see much change in the price of pork, however, grocery stores and butcher shops may not be featuring any specials on pork products heading into the spring, just to maintain supply.

“Retail pork prices have been really close to a year ago levels,” Schulz says. “We’ll expect to see that at retail, with maybe a little less featuring than we typically see in the spring when we’re ramping up to the summer grilling season.” Schulz says with many restaurants having been forced to close, that’s also impacting the pork demand.

“Product can’t be quickly diverted from food service into the retail market, and that’s really the kink in the supply chain,” Schulz says. “Really, the impact here is the slowdown in slaughter is going to have an impact on the availability at the retail level.”

Schulz says pork producers will soon find themselves without much capacity as they are forced to hang on to their hogs that are ready for market, while newborn piglets recently weaned will be coming to finishing barns with no space available.

(By Dennis Morrice, KLEM, Le Mars)

Oskaloosa School Board meets

Posted on by Rick Watts

The Oskaloosa School Board holds its monthly meeting Tuesday night (4/14).  There will be a public hearing on the budget for the 2020-21 school year.  The Board will also consider changes in the school calendar for the current school year.  Tuesday night’s Oskaloosa School Board meeting starts at 6 at the George Daily Auditorium Board Room.

New coronavirus cases in Iowa

Posted on by Rick Watts

The Iowa Department of Public Health says two more people in Iowa have died from the coronavirus. The deaths reported Monday (4/13) are an elderly adult from Linn County and an adult from Muscatine County.  43 Iowans have died from the coronavirus.

It was also reported Monday that 113 new COVID-19 cases have been diagnosed in Iowa for a total of 1710 during the pandemic.  Four of these new cases are in the No Coast Network listening area.  There are two new cases in Wapello County, and one each in Mahaska and Jasper Counties.  This brings the total of cases in Wapello County to six, five in Mahaska County and 12 in Jasper County.

Another 981 people have tested negative for coronavirus for a total of 16,986 Iowans testing negative.  And as of this morning, 142 people in Iowa are hospitalized with coronavirus, with 741 people having recovered from the virus.

NASCAR’s Larson suspended for racial slur in virtual race

Posted on by Rick Watts

By JENNA FRYER

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — NASCAR star Kyle Larson was suspended without pay by Chip Ganassi Racing on Monday for using a racial slur on a live stream during a virtual race.

Larson was competing in an iRacing event Sunday night when he appeared to lose communication on his headset with his spotter. During a check of his microphone, he said, “You can’t hear me?” That was followed by the N-word.

“We are extremely disappointed by what Kyle said last night during an iRacing Event. The words that he chose to use are offensive and unacceptable,” Chip Ganassi Racing said. “As of this moment we are suspending Kyle without pay while we work through this situation with all appropriate parties.”

Larson is half Japanese — his grandparents spent time in an interment camp in California during World War II — and he climbed from short-track racing into NASCAR through its “Drive for Diversity” program. He is the only driver of Japanese descent to win a major NASCAR race.

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“NASCAR is aware of insensitive language used by a driver during an iRacing event on Sunday, and is currently gathering more information,” NASCAR said.

Larson had no immediate comment Monday.

NASCAR in 2013 suspended Xfinity Series driver Jeremy Clements for using the same word Larson used while Clements was speaking to a reporter. Clements was re-instated after completing a sensitivity training course and still competes.

Larson is the second driver in a week to draw scrutiny while using the online racing platform to fill time during the coronavirus pandemic.

Bubba Wallace one week earlier “rage quit” an official NASCAR iRacing event televised live nationally and his sponsor fired him immediately. Wallace had been wrecked, and, fed up, quit the game and admitted it was out of anger on Twitter. Blue-Emu, a topical pain reliever who had sponsored Wallace for the virtual race and has an association with him for real, replied to the tweet firing Wallace.

Larson was parked during the race Wallace quit a week earlier by iRacing officials for intentionally wrecking another driver.

Larson, in his seventh full season racing at NASCAR’s top Cup level, is in the final year of his contract with Chip Ganassi Racing. He was at the top of the list of a crowded free agent field when the circuit was suspended four races into the season as sports stopped during the coronavirus crisis.

NASCAR quickly pivoted to create an iRacing league of virtual racing that has engaged viewers and set records for esports television viewership. One of the draws of the platform is that drivers can link into one another on a live stream, where they banter, argue, make jokes and discuss the racing. Fans can eavesdrop through the gaming app Twitch.

Larson used the slur during a Sunday night race for fun against drivers from various series. The event was not part of NASCAR’s official series.

Drivers in the chat immediately reacted to Larson’s use of the slur, with one instantly alerting him, “Kyle, you’re talking to everyone, bud.” Others were in disbelief.

Larson has six career Cup wins and finished a career-best sixth in the standings last season. He is 27 and the married father of two young children.

Among his sponsors at Ganassi are McDonalds and Credit One Bank.

He is considered one of the top sprint car racers in the country and in January finally won the prestigious Chili Bowl after 13 attempts. He was criticized by NASCAR fans after the Chili Bowl win for calling it the biggest of his career — just weeks before the season-opening Daytona 500, where he is 0-for-7.

“I’m sorry NASCAR, I’m sorry Daytona, but this is the biggest (expletive) race I’ve ever won,” Larson said after exiting his winning Chili Bowl car. “I hope to win Daytona in a few weeks but this is bad (expletive).”

Larson later apologized for downplaying the significance of his NASCAR wins. His victories in Cup have come at California, Dover, Michigan (three victories), and Richmond. He won NASCAR’s non-points All-Star race last season.

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More AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/apf-AutoRacing and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

US stocks open lower following their biggest week since 1974

Posted on by Rick Watts

By ALEX VEIGA

Stocks fell broadly in early trading on Wall Street as the market gave back some gains after notching its best week since 1974.

The S&P 500 was down 1.2% after surging 12% last week. Banks and technology stocks accounted for much of the selling in the early going.

Energy stocks held up the best as oil prices rose 4% after OPEC and other oil producing nations agreed over the weekend to cut production to reflect the collapse of demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Investors are bracing for a sobering first look this week at how the coronavirus has hurt corporate America, with several major banks, including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and other big companies set to report their results for the first three months of the year. Analysts project broad declines in earnings across the 11 sectors in the S&P 500.

Bond prices fell, sending yields broadly higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 0.74% from 0.72% late Thursday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 350 points, or 1.5%, to 23,369. The Nasdaq fell 0.9%. European markets were closed the day after Easter Sunday, while Asian markets ended mostly lower.

Just hours before markets reopened, OPEC, Russia and other oil producers finalized an unprecedented production cut of nearly 10 million barrels, or a tenth of global supply, seeking to boost crashing prices and end a price war.

U.S. benchmark crude initially jumped more than $1 but then lost ground. It was up 87 cents Monday morning to $23.62 a barrel. It fell $2.33, or 9.3%, to $22.76 a barrel on Thursday, before the Good Friday holiday.

Brent, the international standard for pricing, rose 66 cents to $32.14 a barrel.

The oil producers agreed in a video conference late Sunday to cut 9.7 million barrels a day beginning May 1. Mexico had initially blocked the deal. Iran’s oil minister also says several Middle Eastern nations agreed to an additional cut of 2 million barrels a day.

Analysts said the cuts were not enough to make up for the void in demand due to business and travel shutdowns due to the coronavirus. But the deal at least helped resolve a price war that took U.S. crude to near $20 per barrel, pummeling U.S. oil and gas producers.

“With a demand shock estimated at between 15 to 30 million barrels of oil a day, depending on who you talk to, it is clear that the OPEC+ agreement contains more hope than reality,” Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a commentary.

“The entire construction is underwhelming, to say the least, and really relies on production collapsing in the U.S. and Canada to deliver the level of cuts required.”

Japan’s Nikkei fell lost 2.3%, the Shanghai Composite gave up 0.5% and the Kospi in South Korea shed 1.9%.

Wall Street closed out its best week in 45 years on Thursday, thanks to unprecedented efforts by the Federal Reserve to support the economy through the coronavirus crisis.

Investors and analysts are looking ahead, trying to gauge when shutdowns in many countries might ease now that the number of deaths and new cases is falling or leveling off in some of the hardest-hit regions,

Comments by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the U.S., have raised hopes. He has said some parts of the U.S. might be able to reopen as early as next month, while warning that much remains uncertain.

China has begun, cautiously, to reopen activity in regions such as Wuhan and surrounding Hubei province that were shut down during the worst of its outbreak.

High school graduation requirements waived

Posted on by Rick Watts

Governor Kim Reynolds has waived state requirements for high school graduation, so the Class of 2020 isn’t in limbo due to COVID-19 closures. The Governor’s order will let students graduate this spring even if they have not completed all their credit hours.  April 13 was going to be the day when students returned to school following the Governor’s original declaration of a public health emergency.  After that was extended, the earliest schools could open would be May 1.

Rivera murder trial rescheduled

Posted on by Rick Watts

The murder trial for the man accused of murdering Mollie Tibbets of Brooklyn will now start September 29 in Sioux City.  Cristhian Bahena Rivera is accused of killing the 20-year-old University of Iowa student in July 2018.  Tibbetts’ body was found a month later in a cornfield near Brooklyn.  The trial was moved back after defense attorneys said Rivera’s confession to law enforcement was unreliable.  The district court judge suppressed part of Rivera’s confession.

Tokyo Olympic CEO hints games could be in doubt even in 2021

Posted on by Rick Watts

By STEPHEN WADE

TOKYO (AP) — As the coronavirus spreads in Japan, the chief executive of the Tokyo Games said Friday he can’t guarantee the postponed Olympics will be staged next year — even with the long delay.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe issued an emergency declaration this week to battle the virus, putting the country under restrictions after it seemed it had avoided the spread.

“I don’t think anyone would be able to say if it is going to be possible to get it under control by next July or not,” Tokyo organizing committee CEO Toshiro Muto said, speaking through an interpreter at a news conference conducted remotely. ”We’re certainly are not in a position to give you a clear answer.”

The Olympics were postponed last month with a new opening set for July 23, 2021, followed by the Paralympics on Aug. 24.

Abe has been criticized for being slow to act against the coronavirus. Opposition political leaders have suggested he downplayed the severity of the virus and have said it may have been tied to wanting to hold the Olympics this year.

“We have made the decision to postpone the games by one year,” Muto added. “So this means that all we can do is work hard to prepare for the games. We sincerely hope that come next year mankind will manage to overcome the coronavirus crisis.”

Muto was asked if there are alternative plans to 2021.

“Rather than think about alternatives plans, we should put in all of our effort,” he said. “Mankind should bring together all of its technology and wisdom to work hard so they can development treatments, medicines and vaccines.”

Japan has reported about 5,000 cases and 100 deaths. The country has the world’s oldest population, and COVID-19 can be especially serious for the elderly.

Muto was asked several times about the added costs of postponing, which has been estimated by Japanese media at between $2 billion-$6 billion. He said it was too soon to know the price tag and who would pay.

He also acknowledged that Tokyo Olympic organizers had taken out insurance.

“Tokyo 2020 has taken out several insurance policies,” he said. “But whether the postponement of the games qualifies as an event that is covered is not clear yet.”

He was also asked about the Olympic flame, which was taken off public display this week in Fukushima prefecture. Muto had an away-from-the-microphone talk with Tokyo spokesman Masa Takaya before talking about the flame.

“After the Olympic torch relay was canceled, the Olympic flame was put under the management of Tokyo 2020,” Muto said. “Obviously in the future there is a possibility it might be put on display somewhere. However, for now it is under the management of Tokyo 2020 and I’m not going to make any further comment on the issue.”

There are suggestions the International Olympic Committee is thinking of taking the flame on a world tour, hoping to use it as a symbol of the battle against the virus. However, any tour would be impossible until travel restrictions are lifted.

Taking the flame away from Japan could also upset the hosts.

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More AP sports: https://apnews.com/apf-sports and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

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