A pedestrian walks past a mural which reads "Stay at Home, Life is Beautiful" Thursday, April 2, 2020, in Los Angeles. California. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez)
While warning residents not to take the information as a trend, California Governor Gavin Newsom said the state's number of ICU hospitalizations had fallen nearly two percent over the past 24 hours
However, Newsom also revealed that cases now total 18,309, with 492 deaths up by 50, in the same period, and the number of people hospitalized up to 2,825, slightly more than a four percent increase from yesterday.
"These are not statistics, behind every stat is a real person, real lives that have been torn apart," he said.
Despite the casualties and nearly three weeks after ordering the entire state to begin social distancing, the Golden State governor said “stay-at-home is working in the state of California.
"I caution anybody to read too much into that one point of data, but nonetheless, it is encouraging and it just again reinforces all of the incredible work that all of you are doing to practice physical distancing," Newsom said, warning against complacency. The state now expects the peak of cases to extend into May.
“The curve has been bent in this state, but it also, again, has been stretched. We continue to be vigilant," and California needs to do more to take care of the “deeply stressed out, deeply stretched” healthcare workforce, including psychological support, according to the governor.
Newsom announced a program to fund lodging for those "stretched" healthcare and frontline workers. He said the state will provide vouchers and stipends for workers who need to stay closer to patients or away from their own families. For low-wage workers, he said the state will provide 100 percent reimbursable cost at hotels. The voucher program will be funded with help from FEMA.
The governor also said 350 people should receive letters today to begin work in California's Health Corps and will be considered part-time state employees.
Meanwhile, in the past few days, California sent 500 ventilators across the country to help other states struggling to keep up with the coronavirus pandemic. In response to criticism he sent ventilators out-of-state, Newsom said those states have committed to returning them when California has its own needs and said there are more than 8,000 ventilators not in use currently within its hospital system. Newsom said this does not include the number of ventilators in the state's storage or those that have been sent out.
“We can’t just sit on assets when we can save lives and help our fellow Americans,” he said, stating it was the moral and ethical decision to lend aid.
AT&T announced earlier today it is spinning off its media properties in WarnerMedia in a merger with Discovery in a $43 billion deal.Scott Rostan, founder and CEO at Training The Street, joined Cheddar to talk about what the unwinding of the telecom giant's Time Warner media properties means for investors. "I think the investor sentiment is they're digesting the new information, and they're looking into the dividend, especially the reduction of the dividend," said Rostan, noting the transaction allows AT&T to focus on its core telecommunications business.
A 2021 report from UK Research and Innovation found that the shipping industry makes up at least 2.5 percent of the world's total CO2 emissions. It's a problem that energy solutions company, Leclanché, is trying to solve. Founded in 1909, the company has been developing and producing batteries for more than 100 years. Today, Leclanché's lithium-ion battery is used to electrify not just ships, but also railroad locomotives, trucks, and specialty vehicles. Cheddar News spoke with Pierre Blanc, chief technology and industrial officer of Leclanché, to discuss.
Amazon is betting that ammonia could be the fuel of the future, participating in a Series A round for the Brooklyn-based company Amogy in December. Amogy aims to de-carbonize transportation with a clean energy system that uses ammonia as a renewable fuel. Amogy is partnering with Amazon on its first commercial product - an ammonia-powered cargo-shipping vessel. Amogy CEO Seonghoon Woo joins Cheddar Climate to discuss.
One of the world's largest transport companies is kicking off Black History Month with a new initiative aimed at the next generation of business leaders. Today, FedEx announced the launch of its Student Ambassador Program. Participants selected from eight historically black colleges and universities will receive career guidance from FedEx executives. The program is part of FedEx's ongoing commitment to HBCUs and will also help the company expand its pipeline for diverse talent. Cheddar News welcomes senior vice president at FedEx, Jenny Robertson, and Jerryl Briggs, President of Mississippi Valley State University, to discuss.
"Sing 2" has overthrown "Spider-Man: No Way Home" as the number one film at the UK box office. The animated sequel brought in $8.1 million, in just its two first weekends. However, "No Way Home" is still on track to beat "Avatar" as the number one grossing movie of all time.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of America has been a driving force for youth mentorship since 1904. The nonprofit organization is launching its annual Big Draft campaign this month in partnership with the NFL, and Artis Stevens, the first Black CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, joined Cheddar to discuss the push for adding more "Bigs" as mentors on his one-year anniversary leading the non-profit organization. "While the NFL is recruiting and drafting more players, they're also helping us to draft more mentors and, particularly, men all the way from across February to all the way to April of this year," Stevens explained.
The Supreme Court will reconsider race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The court will examine admissions policies at Harvard University and The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, which count the race of applicants as a factor in admissions. The court has upheld affirmative action policies in the past, saying it helps to create more diverse student bodies. However, the conservative Supreme Court could be skeptical and even possibly hostile to such policies. Nick Anderson, Higher Education Writer, Washington Post joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
The value of most cryptocurrencies have plummeted in recent months since reaching all-time highs in November, wiping out more than $1 trillion in value globally. The steep crash has some talking about the possibility of a crypto winter, a term referring to a prolonged bearish period where asset prices persistently fall over many months. This all comes as the Fed is expected to raise interest rates, and the Biden administration is working on an executive order to regulate Bitcoin and other assets. Josh Goodbody, COO of Qredo, joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss the crypto crash, and how the industry might recover from it.
Recent data reveals that streaming giants are struggling to retain subscribers in the months following a major release.
According to data from Antenna, subscriber trends show that users will subscribe to a given streaming service just to watch a particular show, and then cancel those subscriptions shortly after. This comes as the streaming space continues to heat up as new entrants crowd the space. Jon Christian, Founding Partner + Digital Supply Chain Leader at OnPrem joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
