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"Building capacity for customer-centered health, human services, and labor systems aligment. Allign capacity-building efforts across state agencies."

Today, executives everywhere are adapting to the reality of the Covid-19 pandemic. Information is changing daily, solutions are unclear and supplies are often limited, and decisions bear life-or-death consequences. At the same time, with the social justice movement gaining momentum in the United States and Europe, customers and employees are holding companies to a higher standard of social responsibility than ever before. Military leaders have experienced challenges of similar magnitude. For insight we can turn to their lessons: BE DECISIVE: Don’t dwell on your losses. In 1812, after Napoleon invaded Russia, Mikhail Kutuzov, the celebrated field marshal, knew that strategically...

The predictions were dire: Coronavirus lockdowns would put millions of Americans out of work, stripping them of their health insurance and pushing them into Medicaid, the health insurance program for low-income people. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsoms administration projected that the pandemic would force about 2 million additional people to sign up for the states Medicaid program, called Medi-Cal, by July, raising enrollment to an all-time high of 14.5 million Californians — more than one-third of the state’s population. But July is almost over, and Medi-Cal enrollment has hovered around 12.5 million since March, when the pandemic shut down much...

CNN is asking a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign which accused CNN of making false and defamatory statements. In March, the Trump campaign sued CNN in federal court in Atlanta, charging that Atlanta-based CNN, which is owned by AT&T Inc.'s WarnerMedia, published the statement that the campaign "assessed the potential risks and benefits of again seeking Russia's help in 2020 and has decided to leave that option on the table," and that "CNN was well aware that these statements were not true..." (Read the complaint here.) The Trump campaign in February sued The New...

Executive Summary The Social Security Administration serves as the primary steward of death records at the federal level. Despite federal agencies’ need for accurate death information, accurate death data are not universally available to federal agencies, including those with payment functions. Improvements to federal payment integrity could include legislative changes that would ensure accurate death information is more widely available to federal agencies. Introduction Perhaps the most conspicuous element of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic fallout has been economic impact payments (EIPs) or “stimulus checks,” sent to nearly 160 million Americans, and totaling $267 billion....

Researchers at Arizona State University this week announced work underway to develop artificial intelligence software that can detect fake news and help prevent the spread of disinformation. The algorithm, called Defend, is being developed by ASU professor Huan Liu and doctoral student Kai Shu to scrutinize news being shared on social media and warn consumers of its potential falseness. “The idea of Defend is to create a transparent fake news detection algorithm for decision-makers, journalists and stakeholders to understand why a machine learning algorithm makes such a prediction,” Shu said in an interview with ASU. By using data sets of...

The case-fatality rates is the ratio of fatalities to cases, so a high case-fatality rate could be the result of a low testing rate (a smaller denominator) as well as greater number of deaths (a larger numerator). Nguyen and his colleagues note that data from Los Angeles County and Illinois suggest that Asian Americans may be receiving disproportionately low rates of testing.

The World Health Organization is acknowledging the possibility that COVID-19 might be spread in the air under certain conditions — after more than 200 scientists urged the agency to do so. In an open letter published this week in a journal, two scientists from Australia and the U.S. wrote that studies have shown “beyond any reasonable doubt that viruses are released during exhalation, talking and coughing in microdroplets small enough to remain aloft in the air.”

As more local officials wrestle with whether to mandate mask use in public, metro Atlantans are taking a clear stand with their own mouths and noses: Most already are wearing masks. About 80% of shoppers wore face coverings inside local groceries during spot checks by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The informal checks were made this week of 100 shoppers in each of certain Kroger stores in Duluth, Johns Creek, South Fulton, Marietta, Lithonia and Atlanta.

President Trump signed an executive order making federal hiring "merit-based," which means skills and competency for a job will take precedence over a college degree for many types of jobs. In making this change, the White House believes it is playing catch-up to the private sector. "An over reliance on college degrees excludes capable candidates," Trump's order stated. It was signed June 26. But the change to merit-based hiring may become a monumental task for federal agencies. It might mean rewriting job ads that emphasize competencies over degrees, as well as adopting technology that can translate an applicant's experience into...

... 75,000 “excess deaths” during that period, 17,000 more than the number officially attributed to covid-19, the disease the virus causes. While several experts said some of the excess deaths in the analysis were almost certainly unrecognized fatalities from covid-19, the review suggests that many patients suffering from serious conditions died as a result of delaying or not seeking care as the outbreak progressed and swamped some hospitals. Normally, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States. But in the early months of the pandemic, some hospital departments were nearly devoid of the heart, cancer, stroke...

Vice is calling on marketers and agencies to once again reassess keyword blocklists as new words have been added to advertisers’ do-not-buy lists amid the protests against racial injustice. During its NewFront presentation on Wednesday, the company said brand marketers need to call upon their agencies to review and question the words that make up their blocklists. Over the past few weeks, the company notes that those words now include “George Floyd,” “protest,” and “Minneapolis.” And one agency that represents a large entertainment company sent a blocklist that even included "Black Lives Matter" and "Black people" the same week the...

The owners of Buckhead's OK Cafe sparked an uproar with a banner that carried a message in opposition to recent Black Lives Matter protests. Liberty House Restaurant Corporation operates OK Cafe, along with Blue Ridge Grill and Bones. Owners Susan DeRose and Richard Lewis hung the banner, which said "Lives That Matter Are Made With Positive Purpose," at OK Cafe so it would be on display during a protest march that passed by the restaurant over the weekend. OK Cafe also set up a refreshments table that offered tea and lemonade under a smaller "tea party" banner. The display was...

The first test of Georgia’s new $104 million system of voting machines ran into problems all day Tuesday, with polling places reporting difficulties setting up equipment, touchscreens malfunctioning and supplies of provisional paper ballots running low, causing some voters to wait three hours or longer to cast their ballots on a hot day in the middle of a pandemic. The bulk of the issues, according to local reports, appeared at polling sites around the Atlanta metropolitan area shortly after voting commenced at 7 a.m. Georgia’s primary is the first time the state’s voters are using a fleet of new machines...

Throughout January, the World Health Organization publicly praised China for what it called a speedy response to the new coronavirus. It repeatedly thanked the Chinese government for sharing the genetic map of the virus "immediately," and said its work and commitment to transparency were "very impressive, and beyond words." But behind the scenes, it was a much different story, one of significant delays by China and considerable frustration among WHO officials over not getting the information they needed to fight the spread of the deadly virus, The Associated Press has found. Despite the plaudits, China in fact sat on releasing...

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Two men were arrested, but it's unclear if they were involved in the shooting. Two people were killed, including a teenager, when gunfire erupted at a rural South Carolina block party that drew up to 1,000 revelers in spite of government warnings against large gatherings during the coronavirus pandemic, authorities said. The shooting broke out just before 8 p.m. on Saturday in an unincorporated area about nine miles outside Union, South Carolina, after the Union County Sheriff's Department responded to a complaint of vehicles blocking a roadway, Major Scott Coffer told ABC News on Sunday.

Data collected at the county level shows that COVID-19 is more prevalent among black and Hispanic populations, revealing significant racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. County-level data collected during the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed staggering racial and ethnic disparities in care, with the virus disproportionately impacting black and Hispanic populations. For more coronavirus updates, visit our resource page, updated twice daily by Xtelligent Healthcare Media. A new report from the Commonwealth Fund shows that COVID-19 is more prevalent and deadly in US counties with higher black populations. While African Americans make up about 30 percent of the population in Chicago,...

The Chinese government has adopted known disinformation techniques and utilized social media harassment campaigns to try to increase its influence in Asia, according to new findings that add to a growing body of research. In recent months, two distinct Chinese internet campaigns have sought to influence public opinion with fake news ahead of an election in Taiwan, and intimidate pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong by posting their personal data online. Both efforts mimic similar Russian operations, and reflect how governments’ use of social media for propaganda efforts have become an everyday reality for much of the world’s population. The latest...

A publicly-released European Union report on disinformation campaigns related to the novel coronavirus is watered down and less detailed in describing Chinese government activity compared to an internal assessment, according to a copy of the document obtained by CyberScoop. The internal assessment from the European External Action Service (EEAS), the EU’s diplomatic service, was more direct in describing Chinese efforts to manipulate public perceptions of the pandemic. The document, which also covers Russian and Iranian disinformation efforts, singled out “official Chinese sources” for making a “continued and coordinated push” to deflect blame for the virus’s spread. It pointed to reports...