The Department of the Interior announced plans to expand offshore drilling, upsetting environmentalists and members of Congress alike. Congressman Donald McEachin, a democrat representing Virginia's fourth district, serves on the Natural Resources Committee. He believes the move shows the Trump Administration is "tone deaf" on the issue of offshore drilling.
Congressman McEachin says protecting the "We don't want any environmental issue, really, to fall down between Democrats and Republicans," the Congressman said.
The Congressman has also co-sponsored the Military Spouse Employment Act. If passed, the bill will provided resources for military spouses struggling to find jobs as their loved ones serve in the military.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil and for U.S. gasoline prices, hovered around $36 a barrel after opening Monday at about $33 -- down from $45 a barrel on Friday and nearly $70 in January.
Officials at the World Health Organization said Monday that of about 80,000 people who have been sickened by COVID-19 in China, more than 70 percent have recovered and been discharged from hospitals.
Stocks are falling sharply Monday on Wall Street on a combination of coronavirus fears and plunging oil prices, triggering a brief, automatic halt in trading to let investors catch their breath.
Lenore Hawkins, chief macro strategist for Tamatica Research, told Cheddar that the combination of the COVID-19 outbreak and the oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia is an unprecedented set of circumstances for investors.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,500 points, or 6%, following similar drops in Europe after a fight among major crude-producing countries jolted investors already on edge about the widening fallout from the outbreak of the new coronavirus.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Bond yields fell to more record lows as investors continue to demand safety and unload stocks. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note sank as low as 0.66% as investors worried that economic damage from the spreading virus outbreak will be worse than previously thought.
Cheddar will be following the biggest political headlines as voters head to the polls in critical Super Tuesday primaries.
Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University said taking steps like sanitizing the subway system "may play a small role in mitigating the transmission of this virus, but it signals to people that we ought to be functioning as we can and doing the things we can do."
Stocks are falling sharply again in midday trading on Wall Street, and bond yields are sinking to more record lows on worries about the economic damage coming from the spreading coronavirus outbreak.
