Buttigieg ends historic presidential campaign, urges unity
WASHINGTON — Pete Buttigieg, who rose from being an Indiana mayor to a barrier-breaking, top-tier candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, ended his campaign on Sunday.
“The truth is the path has narrowed to a close for our candidacy if not for our cause,” Buttigieg told supporters in South Bend, Indiana. “We must recognize that at this point in the race, the best way to keep faith with those goals and ideals is to step aside and help bring our party and country together.”
The decision came just a day after one of Buttigieg’s leading rivals, former Vice President Joe Biden, scored a resounding victory in South Carolina that sparked new pressure on the party’s moderate wing to coalesce behind Biden.
Buttigieg had been critical of Biden, charging that the 77-year-old lifelong politician was out of step with today’s politics. But his criticism had shifted in recent days more toward front-runner Bernie Sanders, a polarizing progressive who was benefiting from the sheer number of candidates dividing up the moderate vote.
France closes Louvre as virus spreads to new fronts
PARIS — Coronavirus cases surged in Italy, and France closed the world-famous Louvre Museum as the epidemic that began in China sent fear rising across Western Europe, threatening its tourism industry.
The virus has spread to more than 60 countries, and more than 3,000 people have died from the COVID-19 illness it causes.
New battle fronts in the battle opened rapidly, deepening the sense of crisis that has already sent financial markets plummeting, emptied the streets in many cities and rewritten the routines of millions of people. More than 88,000 have been infected, on every continent but Antarctica.
Australia and Thailand reported their first deaths Sunday, while the Dominican Republic and the Czech Republic recorded their first infections.
Italian authorities said the number of people infected in the country soared 50% to 1,694 in just 24 hours, and five more had died, bringing the death toll there to 34. Cases in France jumped to 130, an increase of 30 in one day.
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Genetic clues hint at hidden virus cases in Washington state
SEATTLE — The coronavirus may have been circulating for weeks undetected in Washington state, a preliminary finding that could mean hundreds of undiagnosed cases, researchers said Sunday after analyzing the genetic sequences of viruses from two people.
Washington state, home of the nation’s first confirmed infection, has seen eight confirmed cases, including the nation’s first death from the virus this weekend.
State and local authorities stepped up testing for the illness as the number of new cases grew nationwide, with new infections announced in California, Illinois, Rhode Island, New York and Washington state. Authorities in the Seattle area said two more people had been diagnosed with the COVID-19 virus, both men in their 60s who were in critical condition, and two health care workers in California were also diagnosed.
A man in his 50s died in Washington on Saturday, and health officials said 50 more people in a nursing facility in Kirkland, Washington, are sick and being tested for the virus. The first U.S. case was a Washington state man who had visited China, where the virus first emerged, but several recent cases in the U.S. have had no known connection to travelers.
In California, two health care workers in the San Francisco Bay area who cared for an earlier coronavirus patient were diagnosed with the virus on Sunday, the Alameda and Solano counties said in a joint statement.
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Biden fights for momentum in Democrats’ shifting primary
SELMA, Ala. — An emboldened Joe Biden tried to cast himself as the clear moderate alternative to progressive Bernie Sanders on Sunday as the Democrats’ shrinking presidential field raced toward Super Tuesday.
While other rivals appeared undeterred, Biden pressed his case during a round of national television interviews that reflected a stark reality a day after his resounding primary victory in South Carolina: The former vice president was forced to rely upon free media coverage because he was understaffed, underfunded and almost out of time as he fought to transform his sole win into a national movement.
Biden vowed to improve his campaign operation, his fundraising haul — and even his own performance — in an interview on ABC’s “This Week.” He warned of a “stark choice” between him and Sanders, while making the case he was the candidate who could win up and down the ballot and in states beyond those voting next week.
Biden added a swipe at one of Sanders’ signature lines during an appearance on “Fox New Sunday”: “The people aren’t looking for revolution. They’re looking for results.”
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Biden warmly welcomed in Selma as Dems court black voters
SELMA, Ala. — Joe Biden received a warm reception Sunday in this crucible of the civil rights movement as he and other Democratic presidential hopefuls appealed for black support in a town where demonstrators were once beaten for marching for the right to vote.
Themes of fighting voter suppression, providing the poor with a way up and defeating President Donald Trump took center stage at events marking the 55th anniversary of “Bloody Sunday,” the day in 1965 white police attacked black marchers in Selma. This year’s commemoration came two days before Alabama Democrats join voters in more than a dozen states in the Super Tuesday cluster of primary elections.
Just hours after strong support by black voters in South Carolina lifted Biden to his first primary victory, the former vice president spoke during the morning worship at historic Brown Chapel AME Church.
An excited buzz and cheers arose as Biden entered the sanctuary, and many in the congregation stood to applaud as he moved toward the pulpit. Quoting the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., former President Barack Obama and the Bible, Biden said the country has moved the wrong way under Trump.
“We’ve been dragged backward and we’ve lost ground. We’ve seen all too clearly that if you give hate any breathing room it comes back,” he said.
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Virus accelerates in Italy; US urges citizens to avoid north
MILAN — Coronavirus infections in Italy rose 50% Sunday and the U.S. government issued its strongest travel warning yet, advising Americans against any travel to two regions in northern Italy that have been hard hit by the virus that first emerged in China in December.
Authorities said the total number of people infected in Italy had risen to 1,694, a 50% jump from just 24 hours earlier. Five more people infected with the virus have died, bringing the deaths in Italy to 34, while 83 people have fully recovered.
Italian health authorities said the increases were expected, since it takes as long as two weeks for containment measures to take effect, and because Italy has a large number of elderly people. Still, the numbers highlighted the rapid impact the virus is having on Italy, the epicenter of the outbreak in Europe.
”This acceleration was expected, unfortunately,” said Giovanni Rezza, director of the infective illness department at the National Health Institute. He said it would be another week or 10 days until the spread of the virus slowed down in the country.
With numerous cases in other European countries traced back to Italy, many countries have issued travel warnings for the 11 Italian towns that have been on lockdown since the virus exploded there on Feb. 21. But none have gone as far as the U.S. government, which on Sunday urged Americans not to travel to the regions of Lombardy and Veneto, raising the warning to the highest level. It is one step shy of the U.S. travel advisory for China, which urged Americans to leave the country.
Some states make it harder for college students to vote
MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Vanderbilt University student Will Newell wishes it was easier for college students like him to cast ballots in Tennessee, one of 14 states holding a presidential primary on Super Tuesday.
The campus has no locations for early voting, so students must visit an off-campus polling location to cast a ballot on Election Day. Newell drives but worries that many students who don’t have their own transportation won’t make it to a precinct. He said some campus groups offer rides to students, but the university itself does not provide a shuttle.
He supports a bill introduced in the Tennessee Legislature that would require early voting locations at large colleges and universities in the state. That’s not the only restriction working against college students in the state. Tennessee, where overall voter turnout is low, is among several states that does not allow a college student ID. But it does allow a handgun license.
As Democratic candidates seek a boost from young voters in 2020, their impact at the polls could be blunted in a number of states that make voting more difficult for college students. Those include laws related to voter IDs, residency requirements and on-campus polling places. Critics say many of those laws are designed to dampen turnout among voters who typically lean Democratic.
By wire sources