Just under 25 percent of Ohio's registered voterscast ballots in Tuesday's primary election, which was postponed from March due to coronavirus concerns.

Manufacturing, construction and distribution companies can reopen today , with employees wearing masks and observing cleaning and social distancing rules. State lawmakers are also coming back to work this week, and one has proposed a bill to open the state immediately while shutting down the authority of the governor and his health director.

Following a nearly billion dollar drop in the state's economic picture, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine plans to cut $775 in state spending over the next two months.

Ohio’s secretary of state says an election day with in-person voting is still the plan for this fall, but he’s suggesting some changes in case concerns about coronavirus keep voters away. A key voting rights group agrees, but wants to go further.

The state is in the process of reopening businesses, but leaders are calling on people to continue practicing social distancing. That includes Ohio's U.S. Senators who stress the importance of taking the coronavirus seriously as mitigation orders are lifted.

Salons, barbershops and outdoor dining can begin to reopen May 15th, under guidelines being released today by Governor Mike DeWine, and restaurants and bars can fully reopen by May 21. But he says reopening Ohio carries a risk.

One of the largest fireworks displays in the Midwest will not take place this year due to coronavirus concerns.

The Stamford Symphony Orchestra is celebrating the genius of Beethoven with concerts on Saturday, Feb. 22 and Sunday, Feb. 23. Kate Remington talks with Music Director Designate Michael Stern about the works on the program: the Coriolan Overture , the Symphony No. 7 and the spectacular Violin Concerto with guest soloist Pamela Frank.

Tory Bilski could have called her well-written and witty memoir of riding horses in northern Iceland “Wild Horses of the Midnight Sun,” but in naming it “Wild Horses of the Summer Sun,” shows her writing creds: the alliteration effectively plays on the popular image many people associate with this starkly beautiful land of lupine fields and black volcanic sand banks – not to mention Johnny Mercer’s lyrics in that old jazz standard, “Midnight Sun.” Like Mercer, Bilski evokes a nostalgic warmth for what is gone but indelibly remembered because it was so affecting. In “Wild Horses of the Summer Sun” the love is for Icelandic horses and the country, not far from the Arctic Circle. An unusual destination when Bilski started going years ago, having heard about the horses from a woman who owned a horse farm in the Berkshires. The marvel of this moving, funny, episodic narrative is that Bilski turns living on a horse farm in Iceland with other women for a week every June into a universal story

Led by arranger and founder Charlie Rosen, the 8-Bit Big Band has rekindled a love of swing with fans of game music. Following a sold-out show in New York City, the band has invited high-energy sax virtuoso Grace Kelly to join them for two concerts in Boston on March 1 . As Charlie told me, he has so much admiration for classic themes from Super Mario Brothers, The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy that he thinks of them as The Great Game Songbook. Charlie says his love of Broadway provides the inspiration for his arrangements, which range from classic Benny Goodman to a Frank Sinatra-style cover of Still Alive from Portal. Grace and Charlie performed together as part of The Late Show Band, and their energy just clicked. Grace has been a special guest for many of the 8-Bit Big Band's concerts. Both Charlie and Grace are planning to debut new arrangements of beloved game themes at the Boston concerts. The band has released two albums , and third is due out this summer. Episode tracklist

For their celebration of Beethoven's 250th birthday this year, the Fairfield County Chorale is performing one of his most famous works, the Emperor Piano Concerto with soloist Ilya Yakushev, and one of Beethoven's least known sacred works on Saturday, March 7 at the Norwalk Concert Hall. Kate Remington talks with Artistic Director David Rosenmeyer about what makes each of these two works so special.

Christopher Larkin's score for Hollow Knight is one of the most beloved soundtracks in recent games. I talked with arranger David Peacock and pianist Augustine Mayuga Gonzales about their project to adapt Chris' haunting music for solo piano. David says he appreciates Christopher's involvement in developing the arrangements. He says Chris advised him to use the lore of the game as inpiration for his arrangements. Augustine says he loved playing David's arrangements because they were challenging, but also allowed him to use his background as a classical pianist. The soundtrack is available through Bandcamp, and a vinyl release as well as a book of sheet music are also planned. Episode tracklist All tracks by Christopher Larkin, arranged by David Peacock and performed by Augustine Mayuga Gonzales Hollow Knight : Hornet; Greenpath; Resting Grounds; Dung Defender; Crossroads; City of Tears; Reflection; Radiance; Hollow Knight Follow Kate on Twitter Subscribe to Music Respawn in Apple

Before there was the Algonquin Round Table in New York in the ‘20s, a lunch group of literary bon vivants whose often quotable put downs would become famous, there was – and STILL IS – The Club, a unique London tavern assembly of intellectuals, started in 1764, that included some of the most dazzling verbal sharpshooters of the day. Their extraordinary, wide-ranging conversations, passionate arguments and often hilarious provocations and rejoinders have now been captured by the award-winning cultural critic Leo Damrosch. Called “ The Club: Johnson, Boswell, and the Friends Who Shaped An Age , ” this fascinating history will likely prove one of the most engaging, enlightening and delicious books you’ll come across in a long time. Damrosch wears his scholarship with ease and grace, including references, as he genially corrects or adds ironic commentary to the private lives and public careers he celebrates. As the title has it, he follows the arcs of the humbly born Samuel Johnson and of

There are celebrations of Beethoven's 250th birthday all over the world this year, but close to home, Musical Masterworks in Old Lyme is presenting every string quartet by Beethoven in two sets of three evening performances by the Ehnes Quartet beginning on Friday, March 13th. Kate Remington talks with series Artistic Director Edward Aaron about the concerts, which he'll be experiencing from the inside out as the cellist with the Ehnes Quartet.

Mutazione , a quirky game created by the studio Die Gute Fabrik, has one of the most laidback soundtracks ever. From his very relaxed studio on Sardinia, Alessandro Coronas created a wonderful mix of low-fi, accoustic and synth sounds to accompany young Kai on her voyage to save her grandfather on a very unusual island. Mutazione has been in development for ten years! Alessandro says the initial concepts remained from the beginning. They included the magical seeds the player can select for their various healing properties and musical sounds. That allows you to create your own soundtrack, too. Alessandro is also the sound designer for the game, so he was able to grow the music out of the sounds of the game world. He says working with the small team of Die Gute Fabrik, and especially artist Nils Deneken, was a wonderful experience because of the freedom and synergy they all had. The four-hour soundtrack, which includes extended suites adapted from the musical cues, is available through

The Legacy Theatre in Branford, Connecticut, isn’t technically open yet. But Artistic Director Keely Baisden Knudsen says they’ve done more than 70 performances without a building.

It’s a matter of fact that between 1840 and 1882 there were eight assassination attempts on the life of Queen Victoria, but in his suspenseful novel “The Darwin Affair,” Tim Mason adds a ninth, in 1860, and makes the target Prince Albert. The date is important: it’s just months after the publication of Charles Darwin’s “On the Origin of Species” and concomitant with the Oxford University Museum debate on evolution featuring those famous antagonists – biologist and anthropologist Thomas Huxley and Anglican Bishop Samuel Wilberforce. Prince Albert wants to give Darwin a knighthood. No way say fierce evolution deniers in Parliament and powerful members of the clergy, and so they conscript a sinister anti-evolutionist to kill the prince and thus head off what would otherwise be seen as royal approval of a theory that threatens The Great Chain of Being: the way things are, have been, and must be forever. Little do they know that their hired man, the wraith-like creature with the disturbing

Ori and the Will of the Wisps by Moon Studios continues the adventure begun with the beloved Ori and the Blind Forest. Will of the Wisps takes Ori on an emotional journey as he searches for his new friend, Ku. Gareth Coker, who also scored Blind Forest , told me that writing the score for Will of the Wisps gave him plenty of fresh ideas because of all of the new characters in the game. Gareth was part of development of Will of the Wisps since the game's beginning, which gave him plenty of time to finetune themes for each of the new characters. Gareth worked with some outstanding musicians, including Kristin Naigus, who plays 21 different wind instruments on the score, and vocalist Aeralie Brighton, whose voice was so memorable in Ori and the Blind Forest. The digital release of Gareth's soundtrack is over three hours long, and follows the story arc of the game. A vinyl release by IAM8Bit is planned as well, and because LPs hold fewer minutes of music, Gareth describes it as "composer's

He didn’t at first appreciate the scare and chose to stay in the crowded city. And he hadn’t at the start stockpiled food or self-isolated or realized the extent of the contagion. But he did come to acknowledge the horror and the “brutal courage” of those who tried to help. “He” was Daniel Defoe. The time was 1722. The occasion, the publication of “A Journal of the Plague Year,” three years after Robinson Crusoe. In the “Journal” Defoe is looking back 57 years to when The Great Plague hit London, one year before The Great Fire would destroy just about anything that was left. Ironically it was probably the fire that helped finally destroy the vermin carrying the infecting bacteria. Writer, merchant, at times spy, Daniel Defoe created in the “Journal” a chronological first-person narrative of the epidemic in the voice of a middle-class tradesman, a saddler. Defoe would have been 5 when The Plague broke out, so his gripping on-the-scene account, augmented by research, must be considered

The Stamford Symphony Orchestra has launched its very own video channel as a way for the musians to connecct with audience members from around the world. Kate Remington talks with Music Director Designate Michael Stern about the diverse videos on the channel, and the most recent project featuring musicians in the orchestra and soloists of next season coming together to perform Amazing Grace , dedicated to all healthcare workers in Fairfield County on the frontlines during the COVID-19 crisis.

The spy-thriller, Spyder , from studio Sumo Digital, is an homage to a classic genre that had its golden age in the 1960s. The Apple Arcade game features an adorable mechanical spider, Agent 8, created like one of James Bond's gadgets, that players control during missions that are increasingly dangerous. Composer Winifred Phillips created the perfect '60s and early '70s inspired soundtrack, featuring elements of jazz, orchestral, and even early synth rock sounds. She says doing the research by reviewing classic spy and adventure films and TV shows helped her keep the score pitch-perfect. Winifred says the first music she wrote for Spyder was the trailer soundtrack, which encapsulates lots of aspects of the game: suspense, heroics, and Agent 8's confident swagger. Winifred's insightful articles about writing game soundtracks appear regularly on Gamasutra, and her sessions at the annual Game Developers Conference are among the most well-attended. She was planning to present a session

Yet another go at the Founding Fathers? Well, to judge from historian and documentary filmmaker Tom Shachtman’s new book, “The Founding Fortunes,” Yes and No. Subtitled “How the Wealthy Paid for and Profited from America’s Revolution,” Shachtman’s analysis of the years 1763-1813 merits a yes because he does revisit some of the big names and battles of the day. But the answer is also no because “The Founding Fortunes” is not just another look at Colonial and post-Colonial politics and economics. Shachtman has a timely and provocative take on who in America supported the War for Independence, and why. Relying on hundreds of historical documents and contemporary scholarship, Shachtman’s out to dispel what he calls “myths” about some of the movers and shakers of the day. And to suggest, by comparison, the less-than-generous or suspect ambitions of some of the wealthy today who would influence current events under the heading of patriotism. It’s a complicated and complex story Shachtman

Amoeba Battle, a real time strategy game, gives teams of players a chance to save the world, defeating one virus at a time. Composers Kenny Wood and Igor Nemirovsky were encouraged by developer Grab Games to create music that gives an epic scale to the microscopic world the amoebas inhabit. Players in Amoeba Battle can explore different worlds, and adapt their army of amoebas to the different enemies they encounter. Kenny and Igor say the developers at Grab Games provided lots of inspiration for the various enviroments. Amoeba Battle has been in development since 2011, and both Kenny and Igor say it's been a great experience to revisit the music they wrote all those years ago and adapt it to the finished game. They're planning to release a soundtrack in the near future as well. Episode tracklist: All tracks performed by Kenny Wood and Igor Nemirovsky Amoeba Battle: Kenny Wood: Battle 2 Igor Nemirovsky: Obsidian Peak Kenny Wood: Final Battle Igor Nemirovsky: Mushroom Kingdon; Primorial

Award-winning composer Peter McConnell is no stranger to the world of Plants vs. Zombies . Battle for Neighborville is his third soundtrack for the series. He's also no stranger to the banjo! He's been playing since he was 13, but when he spied a gorgeous 1928 Gibson five-string in a music store he regularly haunts, he knew it would be perfect for the Cheese Mines levels in the game. Peter gave the whole soundtrack a real roots feel, also using a slide guitar. He even wrote his own, in his words, "earnest" folk song, Where Have All the Plants Gone , inspired by legendary folksinger Joan Baez, who's actually a neighbor. Because Plants vs. Zombies Battle for Neighborville is a science fiction game at heart, Peter also added plenty of classic synths. He says the developers at Pop Cap also suggested the sound of the score for The Time Machine, based on the novel by H.G. Wells. Peter says getting the right emotion in his music for a game keeps the writing interesting, whether it's the

Hailed as “The new master of the slide guitar” by the Montreux Jazz Festival and “The real thang” by the legendary Bootsy Collins, Lincolnshire, England folk/blues musician Jack Broadbent has spent the the past few years wowing international audiences with his unique blend of virtuosic acoustic and slide guitar and songs. You've likely heard us play songs from his new album Moonshine Blue lately. He plays Isis in West Asheville Saturday night.

Dana and Sue used to call Marshall, NC home, and many in WNC will remember this sweet couple contributing to the local old-time and folk music scene. They moved back to Vermont a few years back, and are back in the area in support of The Town That Music Saved: A Collection of Vermont-Inspired Songs. They play Isis in West Asheville Thursday night.

This Asheville alt-country trio consists of singer/songwriter, guitarist Kevin Fuller, bassist Ryan Kijanka and drummer Ryan Sargent. The band meshes crunchy guitar noise with folk, country and Americana stories. They play the Mothlight in West Asheville on Sunday the 23rd.

Adopted from Texas and raised in Mississippi, Krista Shows was a kid who grew up singing in church. She spent time in Los Angeles, Hawaii, and Western North Carolina before returning to Mississippi in her early 20s. She's now back in Asheville, and has a sweet blend of folk, R&B, and country influences. She performs (with a full band!) at Isis Restaurant & Music Hall in Asheville on Saturday the 22nd.

Chris Masterson & Eleanor Whitmore have a 4th album of their own material coming out next month, "No Time For Love Songs." As for one of the possible themes of this new collection: "Only by cataloging and acknowledging loss and grief can we move forward with gratitude for what we have." When not working on their own songs, they are The Dukes in Steve Earle & The Dukes. Before joining Steve, Chris used to work with Son Volt among others, and Eleanor with Regina Spektor and Angus & Julia Stone. They're passing through our area briefly on an East Coast tour.

Heartfelt songs from this Los Angeles-based artist, passing through the area on a radio station tour for her new album I Know a Gun . “All of the songs come from emotions that I needed to process,” says Hart, who partly attributes her intricate inner world to growing up in a troubled home and learning to tend to herself at a young age. “In the end, I needed to make this album for my own wellbeing and healing and peace, almost as a balm for my own hurt. Now I want everyone to take this medicine for themselves, and realize the value of their own magic." Get to know her more here .

Just listening to him tell a story will transport you to his hometown of Tupelo, Mississippi, growing up the son of a pentecostal preacher who charted his own course: from furniture factory full-timer to professional boxer to the great professional blues/rock musician he is today. Paul Thorn returns to WNCW Thursday afternoon before a string of shows in our area: Asheville Thursday night, Johnson City on Friday, Shelby, NC on Friday the 6th, and Newberry, SC on Saturday the 7th.

Tom Rush helped shape the folk revival in the ’60s and the renaissance of the ’80s and ’90s, his music having left its stamp on generations of artists. James Taylor told Rolling Stone, “Tom was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences.” His voice and guitar skills remain as rich and vibrant as ever, and we are honored to host him for a live morning session before his concert at Isis Restaurant & Music Hall Wednesday evening.

"The cosmic American love child of Howlin Wolf and Link Wray…" He's been making music and performing around the world for over two decades now, and it feels like almost that long since we had him on for a live session. The long absence ends this Friday when he visits us on his way to Ambrose West in West Asheville.

Firecracker has played everywhere from street corners, secret speakeasies, jazz festivals, & swing-and-swill dance halls, to Bonnaroo and the Kennedy Center. They've returned to the 20's -- as in the 1920's, give or take a few decades -- on their fine new collection of songs from the Teens through today, centered around their great Dixieland and New Orleans jazz heroes. Album release show Saturday the 14th at The Mothlight.

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Western NC has some of the freshest, most innovative bluegrass being made, thanks in part to Fireside Collective. It's Joe Cicero on guitar, Alex Genova on banjo, Jesse laquinto on mandolin, and Tommy Maher on resonator guitar, and Carson White on upright bass. Their brand new album is a real winner! And they officially release it at the Grey Eagle in Asheville on Saturday the 14th. We have a rather firy streak of local Studio B acts this week, with Firecracker Jazz band live Friday at 3.

This Charlotte band started off as a solo project of singer/guitarist and SC native Jeremy Davis, but their sound has morphed to the great fiddle/mandolin/bass lineup they have today. And their indie-rock roots still show with a new cover of My Morning Jacket's "Golden". We welcome them back to Studio B in advance of their Friday the 13th show at Pisgah Brewing in Black Mountain.

Johnson City's own performs solo and with her own band, when not part of Our Native Daughters (for which she received particular acclaim for her song "Black Myself".) Following are words from Amythyst herself, in a Facebook post regarding the current COVID-19 pandemic: "...I love what I do and I am thinking of all of the beautiful, hardworking, full-time musicians I've met that this will affect. It's important now more than ever for us to talk to and support one another in the music industry - most of us musicians are not millionaires with Swiss bank accounts. I'm proud to see so many resourceful folks finding new ways to do things. We'll make it through this, but also remember it's okay to freak out if you need to, and then use that energy and anxiety to make it work. We'll see you all back out on the road soon enough."

We've got a special "Ten O'Clock Doc" set for you this time, with two of Doc's visits to WNCW back in the 1990's: Doc with Wayne Henderson and Charles Welch from March of 1996, and with Jack Lawrence from March of 1997.

Google says most of its employees will likely be allowed to work remotely through the end of year. In a companywide meeting Thursday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said employees who needed to work in the office would be allowed to return in June or July with enhanced safety measures in place. The rest would likely continue working from home, a Google spokesperson told NPR. Google had originally told employees work-from-home protocols would be in place at least through June 1. Facebook also said it would allow most of its employees to work remotely through the end of 2020, according to media reports. The company had previously announced it was canceling large events through June 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both companies began telling employees to stay home in March . Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Primary schools in France are reopening next week. There will, of course, be social distancing measures in place. Class sizes will be limited to 15 and no games at recess. It's a gradual three-week process beginning with preschoolers. The government says the reopening is voluntary and students won't be forced to return. Still, many parents and administrators are against the plan. More than 300 mayors in the Paris region signed an open letter to President Macron, urging a delay in reopening and saying the timeline is " untenable and unrealistic ." They said schools needed more time to implement the required sanitary measures. Jean-Michel Blanquer, France's minister of education, talked with Mary Louise Kelly on All Things Considered about bringing students back to class for the first time since mid-March. Here are selected excerpts: Do you think they will come? Do you think you will have 15 students in classrooms come next week? Yes, because we are asking the parents during the last

Attorneys for Rick Bright, the government scientist who said he had been reassigned and subsequently filed a whistleblower complaint , say a government watchdog agrees that he should be reinstated to his post. Bright was serving as director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, which is working on a vaccine to combat the coronavirus. He said he was ousted from the position last month because he wanted to spend money on safe and vetted treatments for COVID-19 — not on ones without "scientific merit," such as hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug that President Trump and others had been touting. Trump on Wednesday called Bright "a disgruntled employee who's trying to help the Democrats win an election." Bright's attorneys say that the Office of Special Counsel, which hears whistleblower cases, determined there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that his removal was retaliatory and therefore prohibited. Bright's attorneys say OSC plans to contact the

A slickly produced 26-minute video called Plandemic has exploded on social media in recent days, claiming to present a view of COVID-19 that differs from the "official" narrative. The video has been viewed millions of times on YouTube via links that are replaced as quickly as the video-sharing service can remove them for violating its policy against "COVID-19 misinformation." In it, filmmaker Mikki Willis conducts an uncritical interview with Judy Mikovits, who he says has been called "one of the most accomplished scientists of her generation." Never heard of her? You're not alone. Two prominent scientists with backgrounds in AIDS research and infectious diseases, who asked not to be identified over concerns of facing a backlash on social media, told NPR that they did not know who she was. If you were aware of Mikovits before this week, it is probably for two books she published with co-author Kent Heckenlively, one in 2017 and another last month. Heckenlively has also written a book

The Census Bureau says it is continuing the gradual relaunch of limited field operations for the 2020 census next week in nine states where the coronavirus pandemic forced the hand-delivery of paper forms in rural areas to be suspended in mid-March. On May 13, some local census offices in Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Washington are scheduled to restart that fieldwork, according to an updated schedule the bureau published on its website Friday. All workers are expected to be trained in CDC guidance in preventing the spread of COVID-19, and besides a new reusable face mask for every 10 days worked and a pair of gloves for each work day, the bureau has ordered 2 ounces of hand sanitizer for each census worker conducting field operations, the bureau tells NPR in an email. The announcement means more households that receive their mail at post office boxes or drop points are expected to find paper questionnaires left outside their

The Pan American Health Organization this week warned of an impending humanitarian crisis in Haiti due to the coronavirus pandemic. Haiti has reported relatively few cases of COVID-19 but it shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic, which is experiencing one of the worst outbreaks in the hemisphere. With the Dominican Republic under lockdown, thousands of laid off migrant workers have headed home to Haiti and presumably some of them are carrying the virus with them. "There is real danger of a large-scale outbreak followed by a humanitarian crisis in Haiti," said Carissa Etienne, the head of PAHO, in a briefing this week with reporters. She said Haiti's health-care system is ill-equipped to deal with an outbreak of a highly-infectious, potentially-fatal respiratory disease. And the measures used elsewhere to stem the spread of COVID-19 are impractical or impossible in Haiti. "It is extremely difficult to institute proper social distancing in Haiti," she said —

A meat-packing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, where a coronavirus outbreak exploded a few weeks ago, resumed operations on Thursday after a two-week closure. The reopening of Tyson Foods' largest U.S. pork plant came the same day that health officials in Black Hawk County, where the plant is located, announced that 1,031 of the plant's estimated 2,800 employees have tested positive for the virus. That's higher than previous estimates by state officials. Tony Thompson, sheriff of Black Hawk County, was among the public officials who called for the Waterloo facility to shut down temporarily. His call to close the plant came after he first toured the facility on April 10. Thompson says that when he toured the plant then, he "fully expected" to see barriers, masks and other personal protective equipment in place. That wasn't the case. "What I saw when we went into that plant was an absolute free-for-all," he says. "Some people were wearing bandannas. Some people were wearing surgical masks. ....

President Trump wants states to begin relaxing stay-at-home orders and reopen businesses after the spread of the coronavirus pummeled the global economy and killed millions of jobs. The White House coronavirus task force released guidelines on April 16 to encourage state governors to adopt a phased approach to lifting restrictions across the country. Some states have moved ahead without meeting the criteria . The task force rejected a set of additional detailed draft recommendations for schools, restaurants, churches and mass transit systems from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that it considered " overly prescriptive ." A number of states have already begun to lift restrictions, allowing for businesses including hair salons, diners and tattoo parlors to once again begin accepting customers. Health experts have warned that reopening too quickly could result in a potential rebound in cases. States are supposed to wait to begin lifting any restrictions until they have a 14

For the first time in its 231-year history, the Supreme Court justices heard oral arguments remotely by phone and made the audio available live. The new setup went off largely without difficulties, but produced some memorable moments, including one justice forgetting to unmute and an ill-timed bathroom break. Here are the top five can't-miss moments from this week's history-making oral arguments. A second week of arguments begin on Monday at 10 a.m. ET. Here's a rundown of the cases and how to listen. 1. Justice Clarence Thomas speaks ... a lot Supreme Court oral arguments are verbal jousting matches. The justices pepper the lawyers with questions, interrupting counsel repeatedly and sometimes even interrupting each other. Justice Clarence Thomas, who has sat on the bench for nearly 30 years, has made his dislike of the chaotic process well known, at one point not asking a question for a full decade. But with no line of sight, the telephone arguments have to be rigidly organized, and

Very briefly, at the end of 2019 and the start of 2020, there were slightly more women on American nonfarm payrolls than men. That's no longer true. The historically disastrous April jobs report shows that the brunt of job losses fell on women. Women now account for around just under half — 49% — of American workers, and they accounted for 55% of the increase in job losses last month. One way of looking at why that matters that is to look at the gap that opened up between women's and men's unemployment last month. The below chart shows women's unemployment rate minus men's unemployment rate since 2007. Usually, the line bumps around near or just below zero — meaning men's unemployment is usually near or slightly higher than women's. But that spike on the far right shows how women's unemployment leapt to be 2.7 points higher than men's in April. Women had an unemployment rate of 16.2% to men's 13.5% last month. That's uncommon for a recession. The below chart is a longer view, and the

Updated at 9:44 a.m. ET As a young woman growing up in a poor farming community in Virginia in the 1940 and '50s, with little information about sex or contraception, sexuality was a frightening thing for Carole Cato and her female friends. "We lived in constant fear, I mean all of us," she said. "It was like a tightrope. always wondering, is this going to be the time [I get pregnant]?" Cato, 78, now lives in Columbia, S.C. She grew up in the years before the birth control pill was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, on May 9, 1960. She said teenage girls in her community were told very little about how their bodies worked. "I was very fortunate; I did not get pregnant, but a lot of my friends did. And of course, they just got married and went into their little farmhouses," she said. "But I just felt I just had to get out." At 23, Cato married a widower who already had seven children. They decided seven was enough. By that time, Cato said, the pill allowed the couple to

For the past 18 years, saxophonist, flutist and educator Vincent York has carved out a unique niche in the Southeastern Michigan jazz and educational community with his multi-media and live performance program, Jazzistry. Saturday, November 12th, Vincent, his band and Jazzistry board members will receive national recognition for the program from The National Association for Multicultural Education, N.A.M.E. At the closing banquet of the convention Vincent York and Jazzistry will receive The Founder's Award for outstanding national multicultural program: The Rose Duhon-Sells Award of the National Association for Multicultural Education.