March 16, 2020, 8:48 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 8:48 p.m. ET By The last theaters in New York make a quiet exit. Cast members of “STOMP” at the Orpheum Theater in 2019, when it celebrated 25 years onstage. Credit... Vincent Tullo for The New York Times Before the last theaters went dark in New York City, at the final performance of “STOMP” on Sunday evening, the show’s symphony of found-object rhythms echoed through the Orpheum Theater — a space meant to hold 347, but which now held about 10 — with a cavernous finality. Even though the entire audience would have comfortably fit in an elevator, and its call-and-response claps fell with the pitter-patter of raindrops in the sepulchral space, the eight cast members did their best to maintain the lively tone of the pen-clicking and sink-slapping percussive comedy. The cast got a standing ovation at the show’s end (one man even leapt to his feet, clapping, mid-performance), one they wholeheartedly deserved. It was a marked change in atmosphere from the show I saw on Saturday night — “The White Blacks,” Off Off Broadway at Theater for the New City, a play set in the 1970s about African-Americans in a New Orleans family who could pass for white. That show played to around 50 people in a space that was about three-quarters full. The woman behind me had a lingering cough — which she assured those around her was no more than seasonal allergies. “I don’t have coronavirus, I swear!” she said, while coughing into her sleeve. My first choice for a Saturday night show had been “The Siblings Play” at Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, which holds 89 people, but I was turned away at the door because the venue had reached capacity. The smaller theaters survived longer than Broadway houses, which closed starting Thursday. By Sunday night, live theater’s faithful flock had vanished. Read more

March 16, 2020, 8:28 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 8:28 p.m. ET By Corina Knoll and Parents are scrambling to adjust their daily routines in the wake of school closures. Sandra Martinez, 42, shopped for groceries with her daughter, Nicole Martinez, 11, in Queens on Sunday. Credit... Desiree Rios for The New York Times Sandra Martinez and her daughter, Nicole, wore face masks on Monday and headed to a grocery store in the Queens neighborhood of Jackson Heights to pick up canned goods and toilet paper. Nicole, 11, would normally be in class at her middle school, while her mother worked as a waitress at a Colombian restaurant. But the closure of New York City’s public school system forced them to overhaul their daily routines. “I’m worried about the bills, the car, the rent,” said Ms. Martinez, 42, who will be out of work and going without a paycheck for an indefinite period as restaurants and bars shift to offering only delivery and pickup services. Families across New York City and the nation have found themselves scrambling for resources and child care at a time when the threat of the coronavirus has led to shutdowns of school districts and put a strain on parents, many of whom were already struggling with changes in their work lives. Ivonne Flores, 35, and her 7-year-old son, Obby, waited on Monday morning outside a school in the Woodside neighborhood of Queens for a free breakfast that the school system has offered to parents in need. “We are depending on this,” Ms. Flores said, adding that her relatives had stocked up on groceries as a precaution because they were unsure of how long the schools would provide food. Schools will be closed until at least April 20, but could stay closed for significantly longer, Mayor Bill de Blasio said. Read more

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March 16, 2020, 8:15 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 8:15 p.m. ET By When will baseball and hockey return? At this point, it’s anyone’s guess. A gate to the Chicago Cubs’ practice facility in Mesa, Ariz., was locked on Monday. Major League Baseball has encouraged players to return to their off-season homes, but it cannot deny them from their teams’ spring training facilities in Florida and Arizona. Credit... Sue Ogrocki/Associated Press Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League each acknowledged the obvious on Monday: They will not be playing any games as early as they had originally predicted. M.L.B., which was originally set to hold opening day on March 26, postponed its season for at least two weeks on Thursday. Now, it is only offering a vague pledge to have each team complete as much of their regular 162-game schedules as possible this year. “I think the commitment of the clubs is to play as many baseball games in 2020 as we can, consistent with the safety of our players and our fans,” Commissioner Rob Manfred told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch in Florida on Monday. The N.H.L. seemed to acknowledge the same on Monday — announcing that teams won’t be playing regular-season games again until May at the earliest. The announcements came a day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that events of more than 50 people be restricted for the next eight weeks. Because of that, M.L.B. is also trying to limit the number of players currently working out at spring training facilities in Florida and Arizona. Those players have been encouraged to return to their off-season homes, but for now M.L.B. cannot deny access to facilities for those players. “We’re really encouraging players to make a decision where they want to be over an extended period of time and get to that location as soon as possible,” Manfred said. One big question also remains unclear: How many games M.L.B. teams will be able to play once the season does start (assuming there is a season this year)? While some officials hold out hope of beginning the season by the middle of May, starting around Memorial Day (May 25) or early June seems more likely. The regular season is scheduled to end on Sept. 27, and one scenario under consideration is to make up some games after that and extend the postseason into November. Read more

March 16, 2020, 8:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 8:00 p.m. ET By Isolation doesn’t require you to forgo good food or good wine, our wine critic writes. Credit... Dominic Bugatto In short order, the world has changed, and so has the thinking about public gatherings. Parties have been postponed. Restaurants have closed, and we have had to reconsider such commonplace activities as gathering with our friends. Under orders to socially distance ourselves, isolate and even self-quarantine, communal activities cannot be taken for granted. And what’s more communal than drinking wine? In our new cautionary, stay-at-home environment, drinking wine may seem as much of a balm as making soup or binging on Netflix. Sharing a bottle with roommates or a spouse raises no issues or eyebrows. But what if social distancing means you are actually by yourself? Is it all right to open that bottle? Our wine critic Eric Asimov answers with a resounding yes.

March 16, 2020, 7:30 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 7:30 p.m. ET By Working from home with musical accompaniment. More and more Americans are working from home alongside their school-age children learning remotely. Credit... Getty Around 10 a.m., my 9-year-old performed a rousing karaoke-machine rendition of “I Will Always Love You” to no one, as my son aggressively practiced his violin in the next room. Through it all, my husband managed to carry on his Zoom conference call, as if the cacophony didn’t exist. Theoretically, I was also working. Welcome to the new American home office, a setup being replicated around the country as millions of workers and their school-age children hunker down amid the onslaught of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m something of a pro when it comes to working from home. I’ve been doing this full-time for more than a decade, and have successfully navigated many snow days with restless children stuck at home while I’m on deadline. I also co-authored a book, “The New York Times: Right at Home,” which includes guidance on how to decorate and organize a home office, and plenty of advice for how to set up a child’s playroom. But the coronavirus has tested my skills and resolve, calling on every trick I know to keep my family sane and functioning in these unpredictable times. Over the weekend, I did what I do best. I organized. We cleared out old toys from the basement playroom, setting up a workstation in a corner that once held Beyblades, trains and dolls. For the time being, it will be my husband’s new office — if he ever relinquishes the dining room. My daughter’s bureau, cleared of the clutter, now doubles as a desk. My son will work in his room, and I in mine. Millions are trying to work out this new normal. The hashtag #homeschooling is proliferating on Twitter, with parents sharing their ad hoc school schedules, inspirational shout-outs and photographs of classrooms at dining-room tables. So far, from what I can see, not much is getting done. “Went from home schooling to a roller skating party real quick,” wrote one parent, who posted a picture of the spontaneous indoor skating event, which appeared to involve only the siblings of the house — so not a violation of social distancing protocol. My sister, 3,000 miles away in Los Angeles, texted me early in the afternoon to ask if my son was up for a game of Fortnite with his cousin. “As you can tell, we’re having a very educational day,” she wrote. On my neighborhood Facebook group, parents lamented their new reality and shared schedules with activities like “fight over video games,” “raid pantry” and “drink.” One day in, and it’s dawning on us that this is no snow day. We’re looking at facilitating our children’s schooling for weeks while carrying on with conference calls, deadlines and the other responsibilities of work. All while staying calm. We’ve been advised to create schedules and routine in a world where all routine has been swept away. My daughter’s principal now gives his morning announcements over ClassDojo, an educational communication app. (One Brooklyn parent said her daughter’s high school urged students to “dress like they were at school” for video instruction.) I find it soothing, sitting beside my daughter on the edge of my bed reciting the Pledge of Allegiance and hearing the daily joke. Overall, I’ve lowered expectations. The work will get done. The days will pass. As I write these words, my daughter is in the midst of her very first FaceTime play date. It’s a huge success, as we all can hear. Read more

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March 16, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 7:00 p.m. ET By The networks built on sports programming are struggling for substitutes. An empty sports bar in Manhattan showing news of the Masters golf tournament’s postponement. Credit... Vincent Tullo for The New York Times Sometime after 7:30 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday morning — after brewing coffee and taking the dog for a walk — I should have been watching Leicester City take on Watford in the English Premier League. Instead, because the coronavirus outbreak has caused a near worldwide suspension of games, I watched a replay of a Liverpool match from earlier this season. Instead of Inter Miami’s home debut, I watched half of its substitute on Fox: the movie “Whiskey Tango Foxtrot” that came out a few years ago. Sports are shut down. But the some three dozen cable channels built solely around live sports are not. For weeks or months, they will have to figure out how to attract viewers when they cannot show the single thing those viewers want. It’s a tall task. On Friday, the day after many sports leagues announced suspensions of their seasons, no sports programs were among the 50 most watched on cable, according to ShowBuzzDaily. The week before, sports programs made up 10 of the top 50, and seven of the top 15.

March 16, 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 6:00 p.m. ET By Art galleries and fairs take their viewing rooms online. From Art Basel’s new Online Viewing Room, the virtual exhibition by Mitchell-Innes & Nash gallery of Keltie Ferris’s “Cloud Line.” Credit... via Mitchell-Innes & Nash As art fairs are canceled, museums close and auction houses consider whether to call off their spring sales in response to the coronavirus, the dealer David Zwirner seems prescient for deciding to develop virtual viewing rooms in 2017. This week Art Basel will, for the first time, offer online viewing rooms to replace the Hong Kong fair that was canceled this month because of the pandemic. More than 230 dealers who planned to bring work to Asia will instead offer some 2,000 pieces through the virtual fair with an estimated value of $270 million, including 70 items over $1 million. And galleries throughout the United States are considering web-based works and curated online exhibitions. Such virtual buying experiences may become increasingly necessary for the art market, given current restrictions on congregating. The Tefaf Maastricht fair closed early last week after an exhibitor tested positive for the coronavirus. Art Cologne, the world’s oldest art fair, has been postponed from April to November. Whether Frieze New York and Tefaf New York Spring will take place in May, as planned, or Art Basel Switzerland in June, has yet to be determined, but it seems unlikely if European dealers cannot enter this country. After the Metropolitan Museum of Art announced its decision on Thursday to temporarily close, the rest of the art world fell like dominoes, with one major museum after another following suit, as well as just about every gallery — though some are shifting to appointment-only visitation. Galleries are adjusting to this new reality. Not all of those in the Hong Kong fair have signed on for the online version (Marc Spiegler, the global director of Art Basel, said about 95 percent are participating). Some galleries are encouraging potential visitors “to visit and explore our exhibitions online,” as Van Doren Waxter said in a recent email announcing its temporary closure, “and our Richard Diebenkorn exhibition is accessible here.” Jack Shainman gallery in Manhattan said in its announcement that “digital walk-throughs” of shows by the artists Becky Suss and Vibha Galhotra “are available upon request.” Pace, which first launched online viewing rooms privately last year, began offering them to the public on Monday, starting with one on the artist Sam Gilliam. Pace, a New York gallery, will continue with a series of thematic online presentations — including others on ceramics and photographic artists — during its temporary closure. Scott Ogden of Shrine Gallery, which shares space with Sargent’s Daughters gallery on the Lower East Side, said the coronavirus crisis had accelerated his exploration of an — albeit technologically modest — online store. “For us, it’s going to be Squarespace — the simple do-it-yourself solution,” he said, referring to the popular website builder. “I think we’re all going to have to figure it out rather quickly.” Read more

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March 16, 2020, 5:30 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 5:30 p.m. ET By Michael Wilson and Orders to close leave New York restaurant and bar owners ‘completely lost.’ Brandon Clayton waiting for customers on Monday at the Indian Road Cafe in Inwood, a northern Manhattan neighborhood, on the last day before all bars and restaurants were to close in New York City. Credit... Chang W. Lee/The New York Times New York City’s renowned restaurant and nightlife industries — global destinations and trendsetters for generations — awoke Monday to a devastating new world, finding themselves all but completely shut down in an open-ended battle against a microscopic threat. From storied steakhouses to humble corner saloons, owners, waiters, chefs and bartenders arrived for work Monday as if for a funeral, with Mayor Bill de Blasio’s order to close by the next morning only hours old. “We’re completely lost,” said Odalys Rivera, pouring coffee at a new taqueria, Cena, that opened in Brooklyn’s Windsor Terrace just last year, the if-we-can-make-it-here dream of her brother and her cousin, the owners. The shutdown promises to affect all strata of the industry, from the owners and their celebrity chefs to the waiters and waitresses, bar-backs and busboys effectively facing layoffs and unable to make rent. Under the mayor’s order, restaurants would be allowed to serve takeout meals or deliveries, but the bars could face a complete loss. Never has the future appeared so uncertain: The coronavirus will almost surely do what neither terrorist attacks nor catastrophic storm could, wiping out many of the places New Yorkers have turned to for comfort and company. “The problem with modeling this is that there’s no sense of what the time is going to be,” said Andrew Carmellini, the chef-owner of the Dutch, Locanda Verde and 12 other restaurants. “There’s the time when people are going to come out of self-quarantine, and then there’s the time of economic recovery. It’s not that in one day, restaurants are going to be full again and people are spending money.” Historically, restaurants and bars have been celebrated for reopening after catastrophes and have been treated as barometers of the city’s recovery. Today, they find themselves pariahs. “For those of us that were here for 9/11, once everyone started to come out of the fog, you wanted to socialize,” Mr. Carmellini said. “You wanted to go get drunk, you wanted to get a burger, you wanted to see your friends to feel safe and comfortable.” “This,” he said, “is the opposite of that.” The timing of the shutdown carried a particular sting for bars and Irish pubs, arriving on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day, a windfall they count on and had long prepared for with gorged inventories of beer and spirits. “We were anticipating a slam, bam, thank-you-ma’am weekend,” said Pepe Zwaryczuk, a bartender of 46 years at McSorley’s Old Ale House in the East Village, the venerable watering hole. “It didn’t happen.” Read more

March 16, 2020, 4:25 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 4:25 p.m. ET By With the kids at home, parents are seeking some normalcy. A playground at Ruskin Elementary School in Dayton, Ohio, sat empty on Friday ahead of the statewide school closures in Ohio and elsewhere in an effort to curb the spread of the coronavirus. Credit... Kyle Grillot/Reuters For parents of school-age children, it was a Monday like no other. Not only has school been suspended, in many cases for weeks, but after-school activities and even playtime with their friends and loved ones have been put on hold. “I have two small children, one of whom might have had his last day of preschool today,” said Molly Hideg of Cleveland, who is a clinical social worker for a large hospital. “Mine and my husband’s parents help us with child care, but will be taken out of the equation for fear that one of us is a carrier, as I’m scared to infect them, they’re elderly.” She added: “I don’t know how to explain to my 4-year-old why he no longer has school, why we can’t see Granny and Pa or Gam and Pa, and why everything is closed.” In Erie, Colo., Amber Flora also had some explaining to do, but her son is 7. Her family lives on a street where there are children playing outside year-round, but the neighborhood kids are mostly keeping to their homes or yards. “I explained to him that there is a virus going on and that we’re trying to protect others,” Ms. Flora, who also has a 2-year-old son, said of her older child. During the telephone interview, Ms. Flora’s older son was outside playing with his father. On Friday, during a parent-teacher conference, Ms. Flora was given the contents of her son’s desk. “They handed me everything, it was a mess of paper scraps and shavings,” she said, laughing. Ms. Flora, a nutrition coach, said that the administrators at her son’s private Christian school then told her that there would be no school this week, adding five more days to the following week’s spring break. “They want to be prepared” for the chance that school will be out for longer and move to online learning, she said. On Monday morning, she sought structure “for her sanity,” and awakened her son at his usual time, and he brushed his teeth and made his bed before doing an hour of schoolwork. Do you have kids who are now home from school or day care? We want to hear your Tiny Victories, the ways you’re getting through our new normal. Share them here, and we’ll collect the best ideas so everyone can benefit from them. Read more

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March 16, 2020, 4:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 4:00 p.m. ET By How you can help your local food pantry. Charles Blewitt and other volunteers have been packing boxes with pantry items for the local senior community at the Weinberg Northeast Regional Food Banks’s Commission of Economic Opportunity in Wilkes-Barre, Pa. Credit... Sean Mckeag/The Citizens' Voice, via Associated Press As businesses nationwide suffer and more workers are laid off, food banks and pantries need financial donations and volunteers to meet increasing demands. The Northern Illinois Food Bank had 500 volunteers cancel shifts for the coming weeks, said Elizabeth Gartman, a spokeswoman for the organization. The food bank supplies 900 local pantries, soup kitchens and youth and senior feeding programs with more than 1.2 million meals every week. It serves 13 counties in the region, and its volunteers are crucial to the organization and the pantries it supplies. “If you are feeling well and are healthy, if you are a parent with kids at home from school now — it is still safe to volunteer,” Ms. Gartman said, adding that many of the food bank’s regular volunteers are seniors who are most at risk from the coronavirus and need to self-isolate. To protect volunteers, the food bank is taking extra precautions, including practicing social distancing by spreading people throughout the service center, providing hand sanitizer and increasing cleaning of all surfaces and packages. If you are unable to volunteer, consider donating money instead. “Every dollar donated provides $8 in groceries,” Ms. Gartman said. Most food banks stock their shelves by buying in bulk from manufacturers or relying on donations from private companies. “What could you or I buy with a dollar? Not much. But if you donate $10 then you’re basically donating $80 — that’s a whole week’s worth of food for a family,” she said. So far, the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank’s supply chain is unaffected, according to Michael Flood, the bank's president and chief executive officer. But he expects the organization’s operating costs will go up soon, as it are already seeing an increased demand for food delivery to people in self-isolation and quarantine. Financial donations help pay for temporary staff to supplement a decrease in volunteers and logistical costs like home deliveries. With many municipalities beginning to close bars and restaurants, the organization is assessing how the new rules apply to them and the 600 community and faith-based organizations they serve. Over the weekend, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles called for food pantries to remain open, but Mr. Flood said the food bank was taking the situation hour-by-hour. Just one of the food bank’s programs feeds 28,000 seniors each month. Typically the food bank would deliver the food to senior centers where seniors could gather to pick it up but with the new guidance from Gov. Gavin Newsom instructing people 65 and older to self-isolate, the organization is still assessing how to continue to serving this vulnerable population. Read more

March 16, 2020, 3:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 3:00 p.m. ET By When the outbreak hit, everyone at The Seattle Times ‘snapped into gear.’ The Seattle Times has encouraged its staff of about 150 people to work from home. Credit... Grant Hindsley for The New York Times SEATTLE — It was supposed to be a quiet Saturday. Sydney Brownstone was in the newsroom at The Seattle Times, monitoring the police scanner for any activity and planning to spend the day, Feb. 29, working on an upcoming article. Then came an email saying someone had died at the Life Care Center of Kirkland, an assisted-living facility about 20 minutes to the northeast. More people were sick. It was the coronavirus. Journalists began streaming into the newsroom. The disease had already been on people’s minds: The paper’s health reporter, Ryan Blethen, had started reading up on the coronavirus when the outbreak began in China, figuring that if it came to this country, it could hit the West Coast first. In January, when the first person in the United States got sick — in nearby Snohomish County — the newsroom began preparing, making a spreadsheet listing all members of the staff and what they would need to work from home. Soon after the news broke on Feb. 29, the staff realized that this wasn’t just a one-off story. This was an outbreak, and The Times was at the epicenter. “The whole newsroom just snapped into gear,” Ms. Brownstone said. The Times has 58 reporters, and nearly all of them are covering the coronavirus, likely making them the largest group of journalists from a single outlet on the ground in Seattle. As the national media began descending on Kirkland, The Times remained focused on telling residents which schools had closed, how they could buy groceries online and how local health care workers were beginning to ration medical supplies. “That’s what local papers are meant to do,” Ms. Brownstone said. “We’re not built for a lot of other things, but we’re built for this.” In the newsroom, tubs of Clorox wipes sit on tables. Editors have started to hold meetings remotely, even for those in the office, who log in from their desks. The executive editor, Michele Matassa Flores, has encouraged the staff to work from home, but many aren’t listening. The tone of her emails has gotten more forceful. This week, she had a conference call with editors from seven other regional papers who were preparing for the virus to reach their communities. They wanted to know how Ms. Flores was covering the outbreak while keeping her staff safe. “We all know each other and talk on occasion,” she said. “It’s like a support group for regional papers.” Read more

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March 16, 2020, 2:45 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 2:45 p.m. ET By ‘The end of the restaurant business as we know it.’ Del Frisco’s Grille, in Rockefeller Center, provided a preview Friday of what New York restaurants will look like for at least the near future. Credit... Jeenah Moon/Getty Images I had a real peach of a review lined up for this week, too. Last Wednesday, when I finished it, I still imagined that New York City’s restaurants would continue to look and act in some recognizable manner through March and maybe April, if only we could slow the spread of the new, terrifyingly contagious coronavirus. The next day brought the news that the state had ordered them to cut their crowds to half of the legal capacity. The review I had ready to go was about a below-ground sushi counter with eight seats. Was it going to become a four-seat sushi counter? Would a review of such a place look weird in a week? Was there any restaurant review that wouldn’t look weird in a week? My editors and I wondered about all this in emails that make surreal reading now. I still ate out that night at a restaurant I was getting ready to review. Reservations there had been hard to come by for the past couple of months, and the place was full when I got there, although later in the night the table next to me sat empty for a while. I remember feeling relieved. If restaurants began seating every other table, maybe we could all keep acting as if it was all going to be fine. It was Friday afternoon when we decided to hold the review. Friday night, I stayed home. People who went out reported that, despite the 50 percent rule, many restaurants were full and bars were packed, some of them with lines out the door. I always knew that when the end came, New Yorkers would watch it from a bar. But this was not the end any of us had imagined. Crowding together, not just a survival skill but an engine of the city in normal times, was the most dangerous thing of all. I spent the weekend chasing rumors and talking to bar and restaurant owners. The crash of stocks and the violent plunge into a bear market, which in another time would have these owners in a panic, barely came up. Instead they talked about surviving. Or not surviving. “I’ve been telling my staff for three weeks, guys, get ready for a big hit,” Tom Colicchio said. “This is terrible. This is the end of the restaurant business as we know it.” Read more

March 16, 2020, 2:30 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 2:30 p.m. ET By Tim Arango, Thomas Fuller, John Eligon and California leaders take extreme measures. Image Hunan Taste, a Chinese restaurant in San Jose, was nearly empty at lunchtime on Friday when the restaurant would normally be overflowing with City Hall workers, lawyers and sheriff’s deputies. Credit... Jason Henry for The New York Times California, America’s largest state, with an economy bigger than the United Kingdom’s, has been remarkably resilient since the Great Recession, powered by technology, agriculture and Hollywood. No one knows how far the mounting toll from the virus will climb, but California is already one of the hardest-hit states, and stands as one of the places with the most to lose. So far the governor has enacted extreme measures. On Sunday, Gov. Gavin Newsom told every resident older than 65 to stay in their homes. He called for the closure of bars, nightclubs, restaurants and wineries. He banned visits to hospitals and nursing homes unless patients were on the edge of death. He announced plans to buy hotels to house some of the state’s 150,000 homeless people. With a $21 billion budget surplus, plus a rainy-day fund of close to $16 billion, Mr. Newsom said he is confident the state can manage the economic fallout from the crisis. “We are well positioned from a cash perspective to get through this,” he said. “More perhaps than any other state.” But at the ground level, the pain is coming fast. Drivers have been laid off and forced to sell their trucks. Those that are still working are putting off oil changes and maintenance to stay afloat. “We’re picking and choosing which bills to pay,” said Gio Marz, 30, a truck driver who hauls containers from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to warehouses in Southern California. Restaurants are closing, and real estate agents say buyers are pulling their offers because sagging stock portfolios have left them spooked and shriveled the amount of cash they have for down payments. Even the most optimistic economists are forecasting a recession. “This is the first time in 10 years that I’ve thought, ‘OK, this is the thing that could finally tip us into recession,’” said Chris Thornberg, founding partner of Beacon Economics, a consulting firm. Fallout from the coronavirus has been swift across the state. Read more

March 16, 2020, 2:00 p.m. ET March 16, 2020, 2:00 p.m. ET By No sitting at Starbucks: It is now grab-and-go only. Many Starbucks locations are still open for grab-and-go orders but for at least two weeks customers won’t be able to sit and sip, the company announced. Credit... John Minchillo/Associated Press Starbucks, the biggest coffee chain in the United States, has long marketed itself as a “third place” where customers could order a latte but also sit for a prolonged time with a notebook, newspaper or laptop. Bonus points for a table near an electrical outlet, or maybe a window seat. But in a statement on Sunday, the company said it was temporarily “pausing the use of all seating, including both the cafe and patio areas,” in its outlets in the United States and Canada. Customers can still order drinks and snacks using the Starbucks app and by delivery or drive-through. Many shops are open for customers to grab and go, but for at least two weeks, they won’t be able to sit and sip. The coffee chain is not alone. At a time of social distancing, many offices are off limits and service and retail businesses large and small are experimenting with ways to stem the spread of the coronavirus. On Monday, the governors of Connecticut, New Jersey and New York, announced broad restrictions on public life in those states: Casinos, gyms and movie theaters will be closed starting Monday evening, they said, and bars and restaurants will be limited to takeout and delivery. Some Starbucks locations in high-traffic areas, such as malls and campuses, will be temporarily closed entirely, the company said. “As we all know, the situation with Covid-19 is extremely dynamic and we will continue to review the facts and science and make the proactive decisions necessary to protect our partners, customers and communities,” said Rossann Williams, the executive who oversees the company’s 200,000 workers in the United States. Starbucks had previously responded to the spread of coronavirus by prohibiting customers from using their own cups and implementing a strict cleaning regimen, telling employees to wash their hands and disinfect “high-touch” surfaces every 30 minutes. Last week, some employees expressed concern about the added work, especially because many Starbucks locations follow a lean staffing model. Starbucks did not respond on Monday to a question about how the seating announcement would affect staffing. Read more

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