Governor Eric J. Holcomb today signed Executive Order 20-24 to allow health care providers and facilities to resume elective medical procedures provided they have sufficient quantities of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) and consult the best practices and recommendations developed by their medical associations or industries.
Providers include hospital, veterinarians, dentists and others listed in Executive Order 20-22.
Click here to see the executive order: https://www.in.gov/gov/2384.htm
The government’s $349 billion small business lending program was designed to keep merchants afloat during the COVID-19 crisis. But critics say the structure of the program allowed the haves to scoop up aid meant for the have-nots, shutting out small merchants who were desperate for cash and awarding funds to public companies that could have raised money from investors.
While the government has not yet identified the entities that received the funding under the program, an in-depth analysis of almost 200 recipients by NBC News raises questions about some of them.
The analysis shows three companies with ties to the Trump administration received a total of $18.3 million under the program.
Another recipient received a loan from a bank that previously employed its board’s chairwoman. Four companies received more than $10 million maximum by applying for multiple loans through subsidiaries. Four other companies receiving more than $20 million in aggregate have wealthy investor board members in common.
“The entire program was set up to benefit well-connected, well-banked businesses,” said Amanda Ballantyne, executive director of the Main Street Alliance, an advocacy group for small businesses. She called on policymakers to change the program to “prioritize actual small businesses.”
The Small Business Administration has said its initial program helped more than 1.6 million small businesses across 50 states. Another $320 billion plan has passed Congress.
Still, the program ran dry on April 16, less than two weeks after its launch. Legions of merchants applied for assistance, hoping to secure funds to pay workers, utilities, and other operating costs. Many got nothing.
Through public company filings made with the Securities and Exchange Commission, NBC News has identified 173 loans totaling almost $600 million under the program.
At least 15 companies that reported receiving money under the program have stock market values of at least $100 million, according to a report from Morgan Stanley — even though Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Tuesday the program was not meant to benefit “big public companies that have access to capital.”
Among them is Zagg Inc., a maker of cellphone protective gear that received $9.4 million. Zagg’s board is chaired by Cheryl A. Larabee, a lecturer at Boise State University’s College of Business & Economics. Larabee was previously a high-level executive at KeyBank, the institution that made the loan to Zagg.
NBC News asked KeyBank and Zagg if Larabee had been involved in securing the PPP loan. Jeff DuBois, a spokesman for Zagg, said, “As chairman of the board, Ms. Larabee plays no role in finance negotiations, including with KeyBank. These funds will play a critical role in ensuring we have our team in place as the economy reopens.”
KeyBank did not immediately reply to an email seeking comment.
BK Technologies Inc., a maker of public safety communications gear, received $2.196 million. Its board shares three directors with another recipient, Ballantyne Strong Inc., a holding company with cinema products and digital signage operations. Ballantyne received $3.174 million under the program.
Representatives of both companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Hallador Energy, a coal company in Denver that snared $10 million under the program, is among the recipients with ties to the Trump administration. Last year it hired Scott Pruitt, a former administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency under Trump, to lobby on its behalf, disclosure records show.
A lawyer for Pruitt told NBC News, “Please be advised that any inference that Mr. Pruitt had knowledge of or involvement in whatever Hallador may have submitted … is false.”
In an email, Pruitt said he had not had any involvement with Hallador Energy since May 2019. “I advised and represented them with regard to policy discussions exclusively as a subject matter expert regarding Indiana’s public utility commission and Indiana statutes,” he said.
Hallador also shares a director in common with another loan recipient, Ramaco Resources, SEC filings show. Ramaco, a coal producer in Lexington, Kentucky, received $8.4 million under the loan program. Ramaco is one of the companies receiving PPP funds with a valuation of at least $100 million.
Hallador and Ramaco did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Crawford United, a holding company based in Cleveland, Ohio, received a $3.7 million loan. Edward F. Crawford, a board member of the company since 2012, was sworn in as U.S. ambassador to Ireland last June. He resigned from his board position at that time.
Reached by NBC News, the company’s chief financial officer, Kelly Marek, did not immediately provide comment.
Flotek Industries, an energy services company in Houston, said it received a $4.6 million loan. Richard Grenell, Trump’s acting director of national intelligence and ambassador to Germany, had worked as a consultant for Flotek, disclosure records filed in 2017 show. The documents did not say when Grenell last worked for the company.
A Flotek spokeswoman said Grenell had no involvement arranging the loan, and that the company, with 118 employees, needs the money as it reels from a weakened petroleum market as well as the economic fallout of the pandemic.
The SEC filings analyzed by NBC News also show three related hotel property companies and one restaurant concern that received more than the $10 million maximum under the program. They did so by applying through subsidiary companies, which the rules do not prohibit
The Dallas-based hotel owners — Ashford Inc., Ashford Hospitality Trust, and Braemar Hotels & Resorts — received a combined $58.7 million. The companies, which own hotels throughout the country, trade separately on the stock market and are each chaired by Monty Bennett. The companies needed the money because of the sharp decline in the hotel industry, and sought it “exactly how the government intended at the time as the mechanism to help hotel companies that have been hit so hard,” said spokesperson Jordan Jennings.
The Nashville-based restaurant chain J. Alexander’s, which received $15.1 million, did not respond to requests for comment.
The parent company of Ruth’s Chris Steakhouses received $20 million but announced Thursday it was returning the money.
Other recipients under the program also stand out.
MiMedx Group, a maker of skin grafts that received $10 million, is trying to move forward after settling with federal investigators over its accounting and sales practices. Three weeks ago it agreed to pay $6.5 million to settle Justice Department accusations it had overcharged hospitals run by the Veterans Administration. The settlement did not include admission to the allegations.
MiMedx’s former chief executive, Parker H. Petit, was Donald Trump’s finance chairman in Georgia in 2016. Petit is under indictment for securities fraud and awaiting trial in the southern district of New York. He has pleaded not guilty.
A MiMedx spokeswoman said the loan was “needed to sustain the company’s operations” and would not be used to pay the Justice Department settlement costs. In an email, Petit said he had nothing to do with helping his former company get the government-backed loan.
MiMedx is one of the companies receiving PPP funds with a valuation of at least $100 million.
Cinedigm Corp., a Los Angeles-based entertainment concern, received $2.15 million in small business loans. The company is controlled by a Chinese investment firm, Bison Capital Holding Co. Ltd., and provides digital content distribution in China and the United States. The Trump administration has long complained about policies that benefit Chinese companies.
A company spokeswoman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Asked for comment about the first round of PPP funding, Treasury referred NBC News to previous comments by Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza. Mnuchin had said at a White House press briefing that 1 million small businesses with fewer than 10 workers had received support through PPP. In a press release earlier this month, Mnuchin and Carranza said, “The PPP enjoyed broad-based participation across the country from lenders of all sizes and a wide array of industries and businesses. … The vast majority of these loans — 74 percent of them — were for under $150,000, demonstrating the accessibility of this program to even the smallest of small businesses.”
A senior Treasury official noted that Treasury and SBA had launched the program in just one week and that SBA had processed “more than 14 years’ worth of loans in less than 14 days.”
Some merchants are hoping the government’s second fund of $320 billion may reach more Main Street businesses. That’s possible because the new program assigned $30 billion to small banks and community development financial institutions serving low- and moderate-income communities.
Darrin Williams heads Southern Bancorp, a community development institution operating in Arkansas and Mississippi. His company secured 553 loans totaling $82 million for local businesses under the first PPP program. None went to a public-traded company, he said.
Companies employing between 1 and 10 people received 61 percent of Southern’s loans, Williams said. The smallest loan was for $600, he added, the largest $4.2 million.
“Our philosophy is centered around helping customers build net worth,” he told NBC News.
Among the recipients of loans through Southern Bancorp was H & T Truss Mill in Arkadelphia, Arkansas, and A Healthy You Medical Clinic, a minority-owned business in Clarksdale, Mississippi.
Dr. Lulu Hoskins and her husband Greg own the medical clinic. Greg told NBC News that the loan they received through Southern Bancorp meant meeting payroll for their five employees.
“So many people got loans that didn’t need them and it hurts people like me who are a small business,” Hoskins said. “We were so fortunate. You just don’t know how big of a help that was for us and our business.”
FOOTNOTE: Rich Gardella reported from Washington.
The City-County Observer post this article without bias, opinion, or editing.
By Mary Beth Schneider
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS — In every horror movie there is that moment when someone opens the door.
They know that people have been killed. They feel hunted. They feel desperate.
Maybe they can race for the car. Maybe they can get help.
They open the door.
Maybe nothing is on the other side, and they escape. Better yet, maybe help is coming, a rescue.
But maybe the monster is there.
We are now in that movie. Too many of us will be the extras, the expendable actors who are victims; very few of us will be the heroes, the ones who not only escape but save the world.
We are faced with the horror-movie decision: Do we open the door?
Do we open the door knowing that more people will be killed by the monster, Covid-19 if we do? Do we keep the door shut, knowing the monster has us under siege?
As of Thursday morning, there were more than 835,000 positive cases of Covid-19 in the United States and more than 42,000 deaths. In Indiana, there were more than 13,000 positive cases and 706 deaths. And those are only the ones we know about, as many more cases have gone untested.
But we also learned the nation is in the steepest economic downturn since the Great Depression. About 26.5 million people nationwide, and about 515,000 in Indiana, have filed jobless claims in recent weeks.
Unlike the depression that started in 1929, this downturn is the result of government efforts to save lives. With the virus spreading from person-to-person and no vaccine yet available, businesses were ordered closed with only workers deemed essential still on the job.
On March 23, Gov. Eric Holcomb issued his first stay-at-home order, which was to expire April 7. It’s now been extended to May 1. This week, he said the state is eyeing “phase one†of reopening, and sought input from both medical experts and industries about how to proceed.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce weighed in with a survey of 1,400 business leaders that showed the deep fear that their companies will be casualties of the pandemic. Asked to rank the impact of coronavirus on their business on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 the worst, 24% said 10. And 67% ranked it from 7 through 10.
Asked when the state should reopen businesses, however, there is trepidation as 33% opted for “after May 1†but an identical number wanted to wait until more testing has taken place. Currently, Indiana has tested only about 72,000 and is nowhere near reaching the goal of 6,300 people per day.
The economy may reopen but some doors never will. Retailers and restaurants, from iconic brands to mom-and-pop diners, will vanish. Even as I sympathize with the owner of a small business that will go bankrupt if they can’t open soon, I’d like to hear from the workers. Are they willing to risk their health to return to the job? There’s a reason the Indiana Chamber wants Holcomb to declare businesses immune from lawsuits if employees return only to get sick.
Holcomb, in making his decision, can’t look to President Trump for advice. The president has attacked governors who have shut down, even as his own administration called for the social distancing that necessitates it. And he’s backstabbed Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for reopening too soon. Because whatever decision a governor makes, Trump wants to inoculate himself from any fallout.
Holcomb has repeatedly said he will follow expert advice and pay attention to the numbers. Keeping the door closed has meant fewer fatalities but more unemployed. We know we have to open it someday, but when and how? Holcomb has said reopening will not mean business as usual, that masks will be the fashion accessory of choice, and distancing will continue. But will that be enough protection enough? Would you be comfortable turning the knob knowing at least some will die?
Soon, we will find out if the monster — which won’t have gone away — is at least manageable or if, like in the horror movie, was just waiting for us to make a mistake.
Soon, Holcomb has to decide whether to open the door.
FOOTNOTE: Mary Beth Schneider is an editor at TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalists.
The City-County Observer post this article without bias, opinion, or editing.
By Victoria Ratliff
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—With labs lined up and ready to process more COVID-19 tests, the lack of basic supplies is keeping the state from expanding testing further.
“We have the ability to run the tests, we need to now be sure we’ve got the ability to take the test,†Dr. Kristina Box, the state health commissioner, said at Gov. Eric Holcomb’s virtual press briefing Wednesday.
Box said getting the swabs used to get a sample from a person as well as the solution known as “viral transport medium†needed for the tests is difficult.
“We have tried to buy swabs,†Box said. “…The federal government has taken over the supply of a lot of this. It’s not a question of money. I have plenty of money. If I can find them, I’d buy them and will buy them.â€
Previously, Indiana was restricting coronavirus tests to individuals who had symptoms and were either in high-risk categories such as elderly or with underlying health problems, or were essential workers including those in health care and first responders.
Box said that the state now wants physicians to test anyone whom they believe may have contracted COVID-19.
She said she has heard stories from Hoosiers who had symptoms, such as a sore throat and fever, but were unable to get tested. With the appropriate amount of supplies, she said increasing testing will be critical to identifying those who came in contact with the sick individual and to track the spread of the virus.
“Now the questions is, are all the places open and available to do tests for individuals? Are they accessible? Do we have them all over the state, and do they have the swabs and viral transport media that they need to do that testing,†she said.
The state reported 394 additional positive COVID-19 cases Wednesday, bringing the state’s total to 12,438. There were also an additional 31 deaths, making the toll now 661 fatalities. Box said those numbers may grow, both because there had been problems with the state’s online system for reporting positive cases and deaths that have now been resolved and because some earlier cases may only belatedly be found to have been from coronavirus.
At the press briefing, Lt. Gov. Suzanne Crouch announced that 13 rural Hoosier communities will receive nearly $2 million in grants from the state’s Office of Community and Rural Affairs to aid them during the pandemic. These funds may be used to expand medical facilities to help with the patient load, provide fixed or mobile testing and provide grants or loan to small businesses.
As the state begins the process of reopening the economy, Holcomb said he will work closely with neighboring states in the Midwest. Governors of seven Midwest states announced recently they are coordinating their efforts to phase-in the reopening of businesses due to their shared borders and the numbers of people who live in one state but work in another.
Holcomb said he has calls with the other governors nearly daily and keeps a real-time conversation about how to reopen the economy in the region.
“It’s very important that we know what each other is doing,†he said, not just in terms of the numbers of infections but also “what are we thinking in terms of long-term, short-term, opening up, and how we’re considering doing that.â€
Victoria Ratliff is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
By Victoria Ratliff
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—Site-specific data on illnesses and deaths at long-term care facilities will not be released by the state, despite a quarter of the state’s COVID-19 fatalities occurred in these facilities.
Dr. Kristina Box, the state health commissioner, said that while families with loved ones in nursing homes should be getting that information directly from the facilities, the state will only be releasing aggregate data to the public.
“At this point, that is the extent to which we want to report data,†Box said when pressed on the issue by multiple reporters during Gov. Eric Holcomb’s daily virtual press briefing.
As of Tuesday, Box said there have been a total of 1,568 positive cases of COVID-19 in 199 facilities across the state, with 162 deaths in 74 facilities.
She said families should be notified by nursing homes and facilities of COVID-19 outbreaks per new requirements from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates the homes.
One reporter said families are frustrated that they cannot get the information, or even have someone at the facility answer the phone. Box said if families are not being notified by the facilities as they should be, they should notify the State Department of Health which can then investigate specific facilities.
Indiana reported an additional 431 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the state’s total to 12,097. Box said the number of newly reported cases is low because of a technology error that left out many positive tests to be included with the data.
The state reported 61 new deaths, bringing the statewide total at 630. Box said Tuesday’s number was higher than new deaths reported in the past due to the dates they occurred. Deaths included in Tuesday’s report dated as far back on April 7, with the majority occurring since April 17.
As the state prepares to reopen the economy, Holcomb said he will continue to let daily data influence his decisions regarding lifting restrictions in the state.
Holcomb said the state’s economic relief and recovery team is meeting or calling daily to discuss how the state can effectively reopen restaurants, theaters, malls, and other businesses.
Cris Johnston, director of the Indiana Office of Management and Budget, said the team is trying to blend health officials’ recommendations with the needs of industries in the state.
“We’re going to have a merger of both of those disciplines in order to have a concerted effort with the roll-out when the word comes that it’s time to do that,†he said.
Holcomb said he still doesn’t know if restrictions will be lifted statewide or regionally. He said he will continue to watch the data from all regions of the state and will decide depending on what restrictions are being lifted and how each region is doing.
One issue: Watching what surrounding states are doing. Holcomb said he shares the concerns of mayors whose cities border other states that if restrictions are lifted here, those areas will see an influx of people crossing the border and potentially increasing the risk of spreading the virus.
That issue is being discussed with state officials in surrounding states, Holcomb said. “While we’re not dependent on them, we want to be sure that when we do make a move, that it’s the right move in that region,†he said.
Holcomb said he shares the frustrations of Hoosiers who want to see more businesses open — including hair salons and joked that he’d considered going to a dog groomer to get his hair cut. Those businesses, unlike barbers, are open.
FOOTNOTE: Victoria Ratliff is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.
When using an EPA-registered surface disinfectant, always follow the product’s directions and remember:
EPA provides additional information on disinfectant safety messages on its twitter feeds, @EPA and @ChemSafety. These channels will be updated with new materials throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
EPA is also continuing to add additional chemicals to its list of common inert ingredients. These actions are intended to help address supply chain issues for EPA-registered disinfectants and other pesticides. It allows manufacturers of already-registered EPA products to change the source of listed inert ingredients.
By Erica IrishÂ
TheStatehouseFile.com
INDIANAPOLIS—As the Congress is expected to approve the next round of COVID-19 relief funding for Americans, U.S. Sen. Todd Young, R-Indiana, said his goal is to ensure the more than $484 billion in aid is used for the right reasons.
In a virtual press conference Thursday, Young addressed questions about inconsistencies in the first coronavirus relief package, which included payments to businesses and employees to support them during state-mandated shutdowns.
“It’s important these monies go towards their intended purpose,†Young said. “The intent of this program was to try and make whole businesses and our households. We want these employees who are sheltering in place or social distancing in response to public health mandates to have businesses to go back to.â€
The U.S. Senate passed the new relief package Tuesday. It will allocate $310 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, an initiative to provide loans to business affected by COVID-19 shutdowns. The package also includes $75 billion in aid for hospitals and $25 billion for testing.
More than 515,000 Hoosiers have filed for unemployment over the last five weeks as the COVID-19 pandemic worsened and state leaders issued a stay-at-home order, according to numbers released by the U.S. Department of Labor Thursday. About 75,000 Hoosiers filed claims in the last week alone.
The Indiana Chamber of Commerce released results Thursday from a survey it devised to measure the consequences of the COVID-19 state shutdown on businesses. Around 1,393 business officials responded to the survey, which asked them to rank the impact of the pandemic on their business on a scale of 1 to 10. More than half — 56% of the respondents — rated the impact an 8, 9 or 10, according to the chamber.
The respondents also identified the biggest effects of the pandemic on their business, with 80% citing revenue loss as the leading challenge. Around 51% of respondents said they were most concerned about cash flow, while 34% cited suspended operations and 32% cited employee layoffs.
“The numbers speak for themselves,†Indiana Chamber President and CEO Kevin Brinegar said in a statement. “Businesses and their employees are hurting. The survey reinforces the importance of resuming business activity as soon as possible, with the appropriate levels of safety in place.â€
Young said he is prioritizing support for Hoosier businesses. But he also said he wants to ensure the relief package works toward its original mission: Keeping businesses viable and giving employers enough assistance to reopen.
In the press conference, Young said he didn’t want to see money in the next relief package “bail out†overspending by officials in states like Illinois, whose Democratic state senate leader recently asked for $41 billion in federal aid. This would include $10 billion in aid to Illinois’ pension system.
Young’s concern remains the subject of a debate between Democrats and Republicans in Washington. In a recent radio interview, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, said any additional funds made available to state and local governments should be carefully monitored.
“What I do not want is this to turn into a bailout of those states and local governments who have been fiscally profligate over the years,†Young said. “What I don’t want is for the people of Indiana to have to pay the bills.â€
FOOTNOTE: Erica Irish is a reporter for TheStatehouseFile.com, a news website powered by Franklin College journalism students.Â
ON JPEG OSAGE RANCH
Gavel Gamut By Jim Redwine
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) sought wisdom in living simply on Walden Pond outside Concord, Massachusetts just twenty-five miles from Boston. Thoreau spent two years there is a hut he built himself. Part of the wisdom he imparted then that speaks to our COVID19 society now was the observation that government is best that governs least and less can be more in many aspects of life.
Since March 5, 2020, Peg and I have discovered that as long as the computers keep turning out our Social Security checks and Medicare continues to cover us a great deal of government is superfluous, at least for us. We used to dine out regularly and occasionally engage in person with friends and family. If the UPS driver is excluded, we are now as though on an unknown archipelago where armadillos play the role of giant sea turtles, coyotes stand in for killer orca whales, rattlesnakes imitate Komodo dragons and mooing cattle provide cacophonous concerts. We no longer commune in coffee shops and cafes but find ourselves quietly hiking up the rocky tor we call JPeg Peak or around the cloudy pond down from our cabin. Our interaction that once was among friends, family, and general society is now almost solely between us. And while I have never considered myself misanthropic,
I find solace in the absence of unlimited casual connections. Also, after lifetimes of sowing and sometimes reaping crops of worldly goods we are less compelled to further heed those siren calls. Our satisfaction is now found among non-speaking species and sweat-producing projects where the rewards are temporary fatigue and long-term practicality. Netflix is our new opiate along with the rest of the socially distanced masses and George Orwell’s Newspeak dominates public discourse through the TV.
Our government that only a few months ago considered itself so essential to most aspects of our lives that it always took our tax tribute and sometimes rewarded us with services now declares its services susceptible until further notice but still collects the tribute. One might wonder if we could not permanently forego many of these costly bureaucracies whose only purpose may appear as “noisy gongs or clanging cymbalsâ€, (1 Corinthians 13). When our government buildings lock us out for months at a time we may find there is no need to completely reopen them. Perhaps the trillions of treasure our government borrows from countries such as China could be reduced to levels that our grandchildren can afford to repay long after we have matriculated.
Neither Thoreau nor I call for a complete lack of government or society but instead better versions of both. As we gradually and carefully emerge from our individual Waldens perhaps we should take this opportunity to reevaluate what parts of our government and our general culture actually serve us. After all, what some may find to be the bitter medicine of isolation we are forced to take may not have just negative side effects if we properly apply the lessons taught by history.
It is not only our various tiers of governments, local to federal, that have exposed much of their avoirdupois by doing us the favor of shutting us out. Many businesses and other organizations have been forcefully confronted with the reality that much of what they do can be done better with less expense and fewer people or need not be done at all.
As we face the possibility that COVID19 may give us a few choices and all of those bad, perhaps we can salvage some good from our situation. Just as President Lincoln used the horror of the four years of the Civil War as the means to end slavery when he had not been able to persuade America to do so earlier, maybe we can take the harsh punishment of the Coronavirus and emerge with a more productive and more egalitarian society. Some experts estimate it will take up to four years to develop an effective, safe, and universally deliverable vaccine. The most hopeful estimate is twelve months from January 2020.
When it comes to treatment we have a shorter estimated timeline but still will have several more months to go. Of course, any treatment has to be deliverable on a wide basis. If we soberly consider the scientific opinions, we probably have to conclude that our most reasonable currently available option is to institute and maintain social distancing for several more months and may be for up to four years. Of course, we can decide that approach is of more harm to us than the virus is. In that event, we might concentrate on categorizing different at-risk groups and then apply different procedures to each one.
For example, Peg and I are in our seventies and our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchild are not. Maybe Peg and I should take responsibility for our own health and proceed accordingly. If we were at war folks such as Peg and I would be the draftee soldiers and the rest of the country would support us with supplies and care as the non-soldiers, the less vulnerable members of society, carry on with their lives. As a country, we have generally accepted that we are at war with this enemy. Perhaps we should address this fight as we would have in World War II. Peg and I have already volunteered by isolating since the beginning of March and believe it is our obligation to continue to do so until it is safe for us not to.
As the generation who benefitted most from the great sacrifices of the World War II generation, the Greatest Generation, we see it as fitting that we take our turn. And, frankly, a Walden Pond, or JPeg Osage Ranch, lifestyle is a lovely respite. We look forward to once again joining the rest of the less vulnerable society when science shows us the way. In the meantime, we express our best wishes to those who can more safely join into all those social activities that Peg and I have already enjoyed for many years. That is, if that is their choice and they can safely do so.
For more Gavel Gamut articles go to www.jamesmredwine.com
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