The Daily Parker

More than 6.6 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance last week (including 178,000 in Illinois), following the 3.3 million who filed the week before. This graphic from The Washington Post puts these numbers in perspective:

Hotel occupancy has crashed as well, down 67% year-over-year, with industry analysts predicting the worst year on record.

In other pandemic news:

• Testing in Illinois shows about 20% of the 34,000 people tested have come up positive for SARS-CoV-2, which is about the same as national results, but we still lag behind other places in the numbers of tests performed.
• As Zoom becomes more popular for social-distancing-appropriate social gatherings, its inherent vulnerabilities and lack of transparency have come to the fore.
• NBC has a handy map showing lockdowns by state. As of this writing, the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska, and Arkansas have no order issued. The governor of Arkansas went on NPR's 1A this morning to demonstrate his disdain for thinking things through.
• Another Republican said the quiet part out loud yesterday: Georgia House Speaker David Ralston complained that universal vote-by-mail in the state will help Democrats get elected.
• Continuing the theme, their response to COVID-19 has demonstrated clearly that the Republican Party is almost entirely responsible for gridlock in Washington.
• Top chefs who pivoted their Michelin-starred restaurants to take out and delivery are deciding it's not worth the risk.

Finally, unrelated to the coronavirus but definitely related to our natural environment, the Lake Michigan/Huron system recorded its third straight month of record levels in March. The lake is a full meter above the long-term average and 30 cm above last year's alarming levels.