The Core

>more that a few universities depend on sports to be their money-makers.

Iowa State allowing 25,000 fans at first football game despite rising COVID cases in state
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/iowa-state-football-25000-fans-first-game-coronavirus-pandemic/

Parents sent child to Massachusetts school despite positive COVID-19 test
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/516859-parents-sent-child-to-massachusetts-school-despite-positive-covid-19

Rural counties are running 7-13%, though.

Strange. In our rural county we have one of the lower rates in CA. I think of urban areas with their bars and stores as being at more risk.

THIS:

But our eagerness for good news at the expense of being realistic is bigger than anything manufactured by this administration; Trump, rather, is only playing to what is an inherently American tendency toward optimism, as my colleague Damon Linker has written. Most of us have never lived through a crisis of this magnitude, and it can seem impossible, in our otherwise relatively safe lives, that this is really happening. Sometimes we absolutely need to cling to good news for our mental health's sake (although that usually means one has a realistic understanding of the bad parts, too). There are also grimmer explanations for why so much of our population does not seem to engage with the bad news: They just don't care. As The Atlantic has compellingly argued, "Part of the reason this majority-white, majority-non-elderly country has been so blasé about COVID-19 deaths is that mostly Black people and old people are dying."

America needs to hear the bad news first
https://theweek.com/articles/938990/america-needs-hear-bad-news-first

Why the U.S. Stopped Caring About COVID-19 Deaths - The Atlantic
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/09/covid-death-toll-us-empathy-elderly/616379/

Fauci says Vermont should be a model for the nation
https://www.necn.com/news/coronavirus/vermont-gov-to-give-coronavirus-update-4/2323238/

I mentioned in the real-estate thread, this is a bonanza for my sister-in-law's real-estate business. Non-stop calls from out-of-staters wanting to look at homes in Vermont since the Fauci comment.

>>Until the winter hits.

Funny you should mention that. My brother had that realization and bought this fancy new connected bike (Wahoo Kickr). He said that a week later they were sold out... everyone is starting to think about what winter is going to look like. Limited skiing. No gyms.

Keep in mind, though, that most of these people are coming from large Northeastern cities, and I will take winter in Vermont over winter in Boston just about any year.

Here we go....

Florida Lifts State Restaurant Restrictions
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/25/world/covid-coronavirus.html#link-42149007

"
DeSantis, a Republican and avid supporter of President Trump who spoke at the president’s rally in Jacksonville on Thursday, said that he would sign an order allowing restaurants and many other businesses to operate at full capacity as part of Phase 3 of his administration’s reopening plan.

County governments would be allowed to limit capacity but not by more than 50 percent, Mr. DeSantis said — a new restriction on local control.
/"
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Gov. DeSantis Lifts Coronavirus Restrictions The Day After Florida Had Highest Daily Death Rate In US
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/gov-desantis-lifts-coronavirus-restrictions-the-day-after-florida-had-highest-daily-death-rate-in-us/