Sending Support: Battling Isolation, Seniors Find Comfort in Pen Pals
Senior centers, nursing homes and long-term care facilities across the country have launched pen-pal programs to help older adults battle social isolation created by the coronavirus.
A Guide to Staying Safe as States Reopen
Can I eat at a restaurant? Can I go shopping? Can I hug my friends again? Experts weigh in.
Nearly 1 Million Job Losses Reported in State and Local Government Sector
Jobs figures released Friday show a decline that has plummeted beyond a low brought on by the Great Recession.
House Democrats’ Coronavirus Aid Plan Would Distribute County, City Funding by Population
Democrats want to include funding for local governments in their latest proposal, but are expected to meet resistance from Republican lawmakers.
Fed Expands Lending Program to Include More Counties and Cities
New guidelines for the initiative lower the population threshold for local governments to qualify, and allow for short-term debt to be repaid over a lengthier 36-month timeframe.
Is This Rural Community Really Texas’ Sickest County?
State data indicates that Donley County in the Panhandle has the highest coronavirus infection rate in Texas. But county Judge John Howard—also the only local doctor—believes that's because he's testing far more than other counties.
A California County Allows Sexual Assault Victims to Perform Their Own Forensic Exams During the Pandemic
The at-home rape kits are a temporary measure meant to ensure that victims of sexual assault continue to report their experiences in a timely manner, county officials said.
Prospect of Steep Service Cuts Looms as Virus Batters State and Local Budgets
“The longer this persists, the deeper it will be for state and locals and state and local cutbacks,” one expert noted this week.
Counties Say Virus Relief Fund is Shorting Them by Billions
The National Association of Counties is pushing to change federal guidelines for how the money will be distributed to states and larger-sized local governments.
There’s Been a Spike in People Dying at Home in Several Cities. That Suggests Coronavirus Deaths Are Higher Than Reported.
Coronavirus death counts are based on positive tests and driven by hospital deaths. But data from major metropolitan areas shows a spike in at-home deaths, prompting one expert to say current numbers were just “the tip of the iceberg.”
Too Much Food at Farms, Too Little Food in the Stores
Faced with a supply chain disrupted by the coronavirus, agriculture departments and farm bureaus are striving to connect farmers with food banks and potential buyers.
Five Years of Route Fifty
Look how we’ve grown.
Retiree-Rich Palm Beach County Leads Florida In COVID-19 Deaths
Three factors contribute to the county's high mortality rate: a large elder population, lack of available testing, and frequent travel among residents and visitors to and from the New York metro area, the national epicenter of the outbreak.
'It Can Happen to Anybody': When Coronavirus Spreads at a Local Health Department
Six employees at the Toledo-Lucas County Health Department tested positive for coronavirus. All were key to the department's pandemic response plan, leaving officials scrambling to find replacements.
Canceling Everything Was the Easy Part
COMMENTARY | Shutting entire states down was painful but clearly necessary. Governors still have many ugly choices ahead of them.
Buddying Up For Quarantine: Animal Shelters Report Adoption Spikes Amid Pandemic Shutdowns
Requests to foster and adopt animals have skyrocketed across the country as Americans hunker down at home. But leaders at some animal shelters say they haven't seen the same boom, while all worry about future funding.
Cities and Counties Make Workforce Cuts as Coronavirus Financial Toll Mounts
Cincinnati this week announced it would place hundreds of workers on unpaid temporary leave. It’s just one of the places facing tough staffing decisions.
Lessons from States that Embraced Telework Before the Coronavirus
COMMENTARY | How to avoid certain pitfalls now that many—or most—employees must now work from home.
Local Government's Still Open—Remotely
As Covid-19 takes hold in communities, local governments are transitioning staff members to telework—a first for many localities. And it's come with challenges, from slow broadband connections to a laptop shortage.
Close the Churches
COMMENTARY | State and local shutdown orders shouldn’t exempt religious gatherings, and those communities should comply.
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.
Manage Consent Preferences
Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies
Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link
If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.
Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.
If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.
Cookie List
A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:
Strictly Necessary Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Functional Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Performance Cookies
We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.
Sale of Personal Data
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Social Media Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Targeting Cookies
We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.
Help us tailor content specifically for you: