AP News in Brief at 6:09 p.m. EST
Tensions rise as US death toll from coronavirus reaches 9
SEATTLE (AP) — Tensions over how to contain the coronavirus escalated Tuesday in the United States as the death toll climbed to nine and lawmakers expressed doubts about the government's ability to ramp up testing fast enough to deal with the crisis.
All of the deaths have occurred in Washington state, and most were residents of a nursing home in suburban Seattle. The number of infections in the U.S. overall climbed past 100, scattered across at least 15 states, with 27 cases in Washington alone.
“What is happening now in the United States may be the beginning of what is happening abroad,” said Dr. Nancy Messonnier of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, noting that in China, where the outbreak began more than two months ago, older and sicker people are about twice as likely to become seriously ill as those who are younger and healthier. Most cases have been mild.
The nursing home outbreak apparently seeded the first case in North Carolina, authorities said. A Wake County resident who had visited the Washington state nursing home tested positive but is in isolation at home and is doing well, according to the North Carolina governor's office.
In suburban Seattle, 27 firefighters and paramedics who responded to calls at the nursing home were tested for the virus Tuesday using a drive-thru system set up in a hospital parking area.
___
Super Tuesday's Sanders-Biden fight to shape Democratic race
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Millions of voters from Maine to California were casting ballots in a series of high-stakes Super Tuesday primary contests that tested the strength of starkly different visions for America's future as Democrats hurtled toward a November rematch with President Donald Trump.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders began the day as the Democrats' undisputed presidential front-runner, backed by a coalition of energized liberals, young voters and Latinos. The progressive was fighting to beat back the sudden rise of former Vice President Joe Biden, who seized a wave of new support from some of his former Democratic presidential rivals just hours before polls opened in his quest to lead the party's moderate wing.
The clash between the two men, each leading coalitions of disparate demographics and political beliefs, peaked on a day that could determine whether the Democrats' 2020 nomination fight will stretch all the way to the party's July convention or be decided much sooner.
Yet with voting underway across 14 states and one U.S. territory, the political world was bracing for a long night almost certain to provide new drama. The crown jewel of Super Tuesday, California, continues voting until 11 p.m. ET, with final results not expected until early Wednesday or even later.
The day was also testing the strength of another Democratic heavyweight, New York billionaire Mike Bloomberg, who was appearing on a presidential ballot for the first time after skipping all four contests last month.
___
Dow sinks 2.9% after rate cut fails to stem market's dread
NEW YORK (AP) — Fear and uncertainty continue to control Wall Street, and stocks fell sharply Tuesday after an emergency interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve failed to reassure markets wracked by worries that a fast-spreading virus will slam corporate profits and the economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial average sank 785 points, or 2.9%. It had surged 5% a day earlier on hopes for aid from the Fed and other central banks. In another sign of the market's caution, the yield on the 10-year Treasury sank below 1% for the first time in history.
While the cut gave some investors exactly what they had been asking for, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell acknowledged that the ultimate solution to the virus challenge will have to come from health experts and others, not central banks. Some traders are also questioning whether more aid is on the way to stabilize the market, while others called the Fed's move premature.
Through it all, markets are still faced with the same quandary that has sent stock prices tumbling 11% since they set a record just two weeks ago: No one knows how far the virus will ultimately spread before authorities can get it under control, and by how much companies' profits will be shorn because of it.
Stocks rallied briefly in the morning following the Fed's surprise move, but it took just 15 minutes for the gains to evaporate. Treasury yields fell to more record lows as investors ratcheted back expectations for the economy and inflation. A gauge measuring traders’ fear of upcoming swings for stocks jerked wildly up and down through the day.
___
Virus spread prompts Fed to slash rates in surprise move
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a surprise move, the Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate by a sizable half-percentage point Tuesday in an effort to support the economy in the face of the spreading coronavirus.
Chairman Jerome Powell said at a news conference that the virus “will surely weigh on economic activity both here and abroad for some time.”
It was the Fed's first move since last year, when it reduced its key short-term rate three times. It's also the first time it's cut rates between policy meetings since the 2008 financial crisis, and it is the largest rate cut since then.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which had been down as much as 356 points shortly before the Fed's announcement, initially jumped on the news. The surge was short-lived. By late afternoon, the Dow had tumbled more than 600 points in a sign of nagging worries about economic damage from the virus. Still, on Monday, the Dow had rocketed up nearly 1,300 points — its largest percentage gain since 2009.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note briefly fell below 1% for the first time ever. Investors around the world bid up bond prices — which move in the opposite direction of yields — as they sought safety from the stock market's turmoil.
___
Tornadoes devastate Tennessee, killing at least 25 people
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Rescuers searched through shattered Tennessee neighborhoods for bodies Tuesday, less than a day after tornadoes ripped across Nashville and other parts of the state as families slept. At least 25 people were killed, some in their beds, authorities said.
The twisters that struck in the hours after midnight shredded more than 140 buildings and buried people in piles of rubble and wrecked basements. The storms moved so quickly that many people in their path could not flee to safer areas.
"It hit so fast, a lot of folks didn't have time to take shelter," Putnam County Mayor Randy Porter said. “Many of these folks were sleeping.”
The governor declared an emergency and sent the National Guard to the county to help with search-and-rescue efforts.
Early findings by National Weather Service survey teams indicated that the damage in Nashville and Wilson County to the east was inflicted by a tornado of at least EF-3 intensity, the agency said.
___
Trump says he spoke to a Taliban leader, had 'good talk'
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump confirmed Tuesday that he spoke on the phone to a Taliban leader, making him the first U.S. president believed to ever speak directly with the militant group that harbored al-Qaida before the 9/11 attacks and is responsible for the deaths of thousands of U.S. troops in nearly 19 years of fighting in Afghanistan.
“We had a very good conversation with the leader of the Taliban today, and they're looking to get this ended, and we're looking to get it ended. I think we all have a very common interest,” Trump said. “We had, actually, a very good talk with the leader of the Taliban.”
Tuesday's call, which the Taliban said lasted 35 minutes, came days after the United States and the Taliban signed an agreement calling for the withdrawal of American troops — allowing Trump to make progress on a key campaign pledge to extract the U.S. from what he calls “endless wars” and paving the way for all-Afghan talks to begin on Tuesday.
Trump suggested the phone call was not his first. Asked if Tuesday was his first conversation with a leader of the Taliban, Trump said, “I don't want to say that.”
Earlier, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid tweeted that the president had spoken on the phone with Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban and head of their political office in Qatar.
___
Black voters seek to flex political power on Super Tuesday
HOUSTON (AP) — Martha Whiting-Goddard believes there’s power in voting — she’s seen it firsthand.
Her great-grandfather, the Rev. John Henry “Jack” Yates, was one of a handful of freed slaves who founded Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in 1866, Houston’s oldest African American Baptist church. The church has historically helped shape the city’s political discourse, ushering powerful African American political leaders through its doors such as Booker T. Washington and women’s suffrage movement organizers.
Parishioners here are planning to band together again Tuesday to shape the course of American history. They are heading to the polls to decide which Democrat should take on President Donald Trump in the fall in what many black voters say is the most important election of their lifetimes.
The Super Tuesday contest in Texas and a swath of other states with substantial black populations are the biggest opportunity yet for minority voters from coast to coast to weigh in on the tumultuous Democratic primary. And for people like Whiting-Goddard, it's a reminder of their power.
“For black people, we have someone in power that's kind of put us back in time and so we need to look to the future,” the 70-year-old said. “Voting was the one right that we recognized long ago that we had that was important."
___
Imprisoned for life as a teen, Myon Burrell finds his voice
BAYPORT, Minn. (AP) — When he was just a teenager, Myon Burrell lost his identity, his voice and even his name.
For much of the past 17 years, he has been trying to understand how it all happened. He walked into a police interrogation room, not knowing why he was there. By the time he left, the state of Minnesota had turned him into a number -- inmate 211839.
Sentenced to life after a young black girl was killed by a stray bullet, Burrell’s story has been told -- and told again -- by Sen. Amy Klobuchar while trumpeting her tough-on-crime record as a top Minneapolis prosecutor. But a yearlong Associated Press investigation discovered major flaws and inconsistencies in the case, raising questions about whether the 16-year-old shooting suspect may have been wrongly convicted.
On Sunday, Klobuchar cancelled a presidential rally in her home state two days before the Democratic primary election there after dozens of protesters waved signs and shouted “Free Myon!” Less than 24 hours later, she dropped out of the presidential race, saying she was throwing her support behind former Vice President Joe Biden.
Klobuchar, who has brought up the little girl as an example of her commitment to racial justice, has faced regular grilling by the African American community and the national media since the AP in January published its story about Burrell, who also is black. During the Democratic debate in New Hampshire, she repeated a well-worn statement that she has called for a review of Burrell’s case, which weighed heavily on a single eyewitness, who gave conflicting accounts about the shooter. But her successor at the county attorney’s office, Mike Freeman, doubled down last week, releasing a statement expressing confidence they got the right guy.
___
Netanyahu's future still uncertain after Israeli election
JERUSALEM (AP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's political future remained up in the air Tuesday as preliminary results and exit polls from Israel's third election in under a year indicated the embattled leader would fall short of securing the parliamentary majority needed to form a new government.
Netanyahu, set to go on trial on corruption charges in two weeks, claimed victory after exit polls projected his Likud party as the largest faction in parliament in Monday's election. But while exit polls and preliminary results appeared to give him a boost, they also signaled that a year-long political deadlock is far from over.
With 93% of the votes counted, preliminary official results showed that the Likud and its religious and nationalist allies had 59 of 120 seats in parliament, two seats short of the hoped-for majority. Exit polls on Israeli TV stations also indicated the Likud-led bloc would capture 59 seats.
Final results were expected Wednesday after officials counted several hundred thousand votes cast by Israeli soldiers and some 4,000 ballots cast by Israelis confined to home quarantine after possible exposure to the coronavirus.
Orly Ades, head of the Central Election Committee, said it was unable to find volunteers willing to count the coronavirus ballots.
___
Medication fog can mimic or worsen dementia in the elderly
Claire Dinneen's daughters thought that worsening dementia was causing her growing confusion, but her doctor suspected something else.
Dr. Pei Chen asked them to round up medicines in the 89-year-old woman's home and they returned with a huge haul. There were 28 drugs ordered by various doctors for various ailments, plus over-the-counter medicines. Chen spent a year sorting out which ones were truly needed and trimmed a dozen.
To her daughters' surprise, Dinneen got better, able to remember more things and to offer advice on what to wear and how to raise their kids. Her symptoms were from "medication fog," not her dementia getting worse, Chen told one daughter.
"I was just stunned,” Debbie Dinneen said. “No one had taken a look at the big picture" to see if medicines might be addling her mom, who lives near Berkeley, California.
"Unfortunately, it’s not unusual,” said Chen, a geriatrician at the University of California, San Francisco.