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from Europe to the United States for the next 30 days,” said Trump in his address to the nation from the Oval Office.

He stated that young and healthy people should recover quickly if they contract the virus and that the highest risk was for the elderly population and that all nursing homes for the elderly should suspend all medically unnecessary visits.

However, on March 25, the New York State Department of Health, under the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a directive to nursing homes instructing them to accept coronavirus-positive residents returning from hospitals if they are medically stable. At the time, many hospitals, particularly in New York City, were overwhelmed with patients and were looking for ways to free up beds. The directive states that “No resident shall be denied re-admission or admission to the (nursing home) solely based on a confirmed or suspected diagnosis of COVID-19.”

Since then, the FBI and federal prosecutors in Brooklyn are investigating Cuomo's coronavirus task force with a particular focus on his administration's handling of nursing homes early in the coronavirus pandemic.

The scandal really began to pick up steam after new numbers showed some 15,000 nursing home residents died of COVID19, up from the under 10,000 earlier reported. The Wall Street Journal revealed in March of this year that members of the Cuomo administration edited out a higher nursing home death toll from a July report on COVID-19 in nursing homes. It’s the earliest example of action taken by Cuomo and his aides in what many see as a coverup of the true toll of COVID -19 on nursing homes.

That initial spike of deaths in New York set the stage for the panic in the country. Without the massive number of initial deaths in nursing homes, the narrative for keeping the country shut down would have been more difficult.

The results of the shutdown nearly immediately began to playout with the upcoming presidential election. Members of the media began to initiate serious discussions about the need for mail-in voting all across the country.

The following was written in the Howe Enterprise on April 13, 2020—one month after the pandemic was announced:

“The effects of the Coronavirus have impacted the Trump rallies that pack stadiums across the country. They also wiped out a lot of Trump’s economic gains, hampered US/China trade negotiations, all but cancelled debates with opponent Joe Biden, and negated public appearances by Biden. It also has put aside all mention of Hunter Biden and the grossly under-spotlighted corruption with Ukraine and China.

Coronavirus has completely changed the upcoming election. Even so much as to now have Democrats calling for mail-in ballots and for federal control of the election process.

Democrat lawmakers are discussing options to withhold future aid to Americans in exchange for ways to change the entire way we elect officials and even advocate for the mail-in ballots to be accepted even after the tallies have been read.

New negotiations from Democrats in the upcoming aid package could see a holdout for the Green New Deal which Republicans say would wipe out Americans with high taxes and government control. 2020 proves that this is not just another election.

Voting matters.” In that same publication, we were suspicious of the WHO (World Health Organization) through the first month of the epidemic. The WHO is a specialized agency of (Continued on page 9)

is funded primarily through the contract with Grayson County for the unincorporated areas that the fire department serves and also the city has a fire department budget in the city budget too. The overall complexity of operation has changed. Much more records keeping and reporting. Run reports have to be sent to the Forestry Service and the county. Records of safety inspections of equipment have to be kept. Training records have to be kept on personnel. All members have to satisfy National Incident Management System requirements and have a Class B driver’s license. When I started, we responded to the fire in our street clothes with almost no capability for making an interior attack. Now personal protective gear makes that possible but though necessary is expensive and must be replaced if out of date or damaged. So, with technical advancements come much more capability along with complexity."

He also stated that he does not miss the days when he'd be up all night working a fire and then have to go to work the next morning carrying the mail route. Park and his wife moved to Howe in August of 1964 and started with the US Postal Service the same week. He and his wife Joyce cele-

Jerry Park. Courtesy photo.

brated their 50th wedding anniversary this month (Editor’s note: Written in May 2014).

The Howe Fire Department give two scholarships each year to graduating Howe seniors and have done this for quite some time. After the retirement of Park and with his long tenure of service and dedication to the city, the department decided to name its annual scholarship after him.

CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE CHANGE

"It's an honor, I think they went (Continued on page 9)