The Conrad Indianapolis temporarily suspended operations as occupancy rates for Downtown hotels nosedive because of the coronavirus outbreak.

The unemployment rate in the United States is surging because of business closures and disruptions related to the coronavirus pandemic.

Consumers could fight back by not shopping on Thanksgiving.

It's only two weeks into the legislative session and the Indiana General Assembly has already hit an ethical speed bump. Who's steering this bus?

Gov. Mike Pence's Scott County order allowing a needle-exchange program is a welcome step. But it's just a start.

More than 100 companies and nonprofits have pledged support for the Your Life Matters initiative, created to help the city's most vulnerable residents. That's a great start, but momentum is critical.

The payoffs for such turnarounds can be extraordinary for the residents who live nearby and for the city as a whole.

The BMV's pattern of poor performance hardly inspires confidence in its ability to adequately monitor itself.

At Indianapolis Motor Speedway, even the old and the great must constantly be made new in today's world, and that's happening. The greatness of the Indianapolis 500, and of race weekend, remains.

The pandemic has impacted us in many ways, but despite these challenges, our commitment to our community and you is stronger than ever.

An anonymous reader quotes CNN: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued an emergency use authorization for the first at-home Covid-19 test that uses saliva samples, the agency said in a news release. Rutgers University's RUCDR Infinite Biologics lab received an amended emergency authorization late Thursday. With the test, people can collect their own saliva at home and send their saliva samples to a lab for results... "Authorizing additional diagnostic tests with the option of at-home sample collection will continue to increase patient access to testing for COVID-19. This provides an additional option for the easy, safe and convenient collection of samples required for testing without traveling to a doctor's office, hospital or testing site," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn said in the FDA's press release on Friday... The test remains prescription only.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: GPS is facing a major interference threat from a 5G network approved by the Federal Communications Commission, U.S. military officials told Congress in a hearing on Wednesday. In testimony to the Senate Committee on Armed Services, Department of Defense Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy disputed the FCC's claims that conditions imposed on the Ligado network will protect GPS from interference. When the FCC approved Ligado's plan last month, the agency required a 23MHz guard band to provide a buffer between the Ligado cellular network and GPS. Deasy argued that this guard band won't prevent interference with GPS signals. Results from tests by federal agencies show that "conditions in this FCC order will not prevent impacts to millions of GPS receivers across the United States, with massive complaints expected to come," Deasy said. The FCC unanimously approved Ligado's application, but the decision is facing congressional scrutiny. "I do not think it is a good idea to place at risk the GPS signals that enable our national and economic security for the benefit of one company and its investors," Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) said at the hearing, according to CNBC. "This is about much more than risking our military readiness and capabilities. Interfering with GPS will hurt the entire American economy." A spokesperson for FCC Chairman Ajit Pai called the military's concerns "baseless fear-mongering" in a statement quoted by Multichannel News. "The FCC made a unanimous, bipartisan decision based on sound engineering principles," the spokesperson said. The FCC said "the metric used by the Department of Defense to measure harmful interference does not, in fact, measure harmful interference," and that "testing on which they are relying took place at dramatically higher power levels than the FCC approved." "Ligado said Wednesday in a statement that it has gone to great lengths to prevent interference and will provide 'a 24/7 monitoring capability, a hotline, a stop buzzer or kill switch' and will 'repair or replace at Ligado's cost any government device shown to be susceptible to harmful interference,'" CNBC reported. The FCC also said it imposed a power limit of 9.8dBW on Ligado's downlink operations -- "a greater than 99 percent reduction from what Ligado proposed in its 2015 application," Pai said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"Software developers, like everyone else, have had to transition to a work-from-home world," writes InfoWorld. For the users of GitHub, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant changes in work cadence and collaboration, along with an increased risk of burnout, a GitHub study of usage patterns on the Microsoft-owned code sharing site has found." In an "Octoverse spotlight" analysis published May 6, 2020, GitHub compared the first three months of 2020 with the first three months of 2019... GitHub said its analysis shows that developers have been resilient to the change wrought by COVID-19, with activity holding consistent or increasing through the crisis. But their analysis also found: Developers are working longer, by "up to an hour per day," seven days a week. Slightly more pushes, pull requests, reviewed pull requests, and commented issues. More collaboration on open source projects, and less time to merge pull requests into open source projects.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

"When we do start back, everybody will be off the same amount of time," McMillan says.

Friday, the Dunking Dutchman took over the Indiana Pacers' Twitter to do a question and answer session with Pacer fans.

Pacers President Kevin Pritchard discusses the health of his team and how they're staying prepared for the season to resume.

Source: The Pacers will listen to the government and follow its lead before bringing players back

The Adidas move was expected; each side alleges the other is at fault

'Last Dance' brings back memories of tough 90's NBA for Pacers coach Nate McMillan

Italian beef and Chicago-style hot dogs are now being sold near Ronald Reagan Parkway and U.S. 36.

This mashed potatoes recipe and tips will ensure that you don't screw it up. Oh, and there's gravy too.

Wagyu steak, baby lamb chops, dumplings, pie and more were served with fine wine at the IndyStar Wine & Food Experience at Clay Terrace in Carmel.

Tucked into his porch, musician Tim Brickley sang classics for a tiny group of neighbors and passersby as relief from home isolation.

Empty seats. Silent screens. How Franklin's Artcraft Theater is weathering the pandemic.

IndyStar walks through the closed gardens at Newfields, Friday, April 24, 2020.

Restaurant owners are discussing what could change after coronavirus restrictions lift in Indiana. Here are some changes that could be on the way.

Join the Des Moines Storytellers Project LIVE in your home as five Americans share personal stories about belonging.

You can see this art in person while you social distance. The Harrison Center will send colorful "smoke" from its historic chimney for the first time.

Two Indianapolis restaurants have announced they will permanently close.

IndyFringe, the popular Mass Ave. theater festival, has been canceled. Social distancing requirements will not allow the artists to prepare.

Indianapolis rapper Tevin Studdard celebrates the return of Long's Bakery with "Long's Bakery Music Video," a tribute to glazed yeast doughnuts.

Symphony on the Prairie has been canceled, along with other popular concerts this summer. Here's when the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra will be back

During the coronavirus pandemic, it's business as usual at Mug-N-Bun restaurant, and Historic Steer In embraces its drive-in roots.

These restaurants are turning Indiana's ban on dining in restaurants to their favor by throwing back to olden days with drive-up service.

As The Children's Museum, Newfields and others wait for the OK to reopen, they are strategizing how to keep visitors safe from the coronavirus spread.

28 of the best Indianapolis restaurants serve tastings.

The sports bar and restaurant owned by former Colts football player and Super Bowl champion Gary Brackett is closing.

Sample Indy's best burgers, crush a bunch of ice cream and load up on discounts at restaurants.

Stefanovic was on the court after scoring when Griffin stepped on his chest

First-half incident resulted in an ejection for Illini player as he stepped on Boilermakers guard

Baylen, Bowen and Callen get a NBA-level call as they take to their lowered rim for a contest

Matt Haarms will join the Cougars as a graduate transfer with one season of eligibility remaining.

Austin Burton announced last week he's transferring from UCLA to Purdue. He'll be a graduate transfer with two years of eligibility.

The pilot told deputies he had mechanical difficulties and had to make a rough landing in the cornfield.

Energizer is planning to open a facility in Franklin. Here's how much money they'll save in a 10-year tax abatement.

McCorkle leads the Class A second-ranked Cougars in scoring (13.7 ppg), rebounding (6.9) and assists (4.2) through 11 games this season.

Champ McCorkle notched his 1,000th-career point as the Cougars beat Center Grove for the Johnson County tournament championship.

Meet Isabella Reed, the 5-9 Greenwood Christian Academy junior and superstar who doesn't know it. Or at least won't admit it.

Greenwood Mayor Mark Myers released interior designs for the city's downtown fieldhouse during his State of the City address Feb. 6, 2020.

A 15-acre park with amphitheater, playground and farmer's market plaza is planned for the southwest side of Franklin.