On Today’s Show

Chatham-Kent has launched its own tip line to report illegal and unsafe public activity during the COVID-19 crisis. Residents who have concerns about open non-essential businesses, unlawful use of public playgrounds, or illegal social gatherings of more than five people can now report their concerns by phone or email.

The public can call 519-360-1998, 24 hours a day, seven days a week or email Covid19enforcement @ chatham-kent.ca to report illegal activity across the municipality.

Residents in Chatham-Kent will no longer be allowed to pass the time while sitting around a campfire. Recreational burn permits are suspended, effective immediately.

Recreational burn permits will be suspended for 28 days as local officials wait for direction from provincial and federal levels of government. As a result, permits for recreational fires, campfires and fire pits will not be sold during this time. Residents who currently have a permit for 2020 will be able to extend the expiration date by 28 days.

Fire officials said restrictions will not be placed on agricultural fires in order to support local farmers.

How long Canadians need to self-isolate and self-distance is up to Canadians, according to the Prime Minister.

Justin Trudeau was asked Wednesday about internal government documents that suggest it could be at least until July.

Trudeau did not deny the existence of the documents but rebuffed suggestions his government is not being open with Canadians eager for the time when the threat of COVID-19 has passed.

On Tuesday, U.S. President Donald Trump warned Americans the weeks ahead will be very challenging, projecting between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in his country. The U.S. now accounts for 20 per cent of global infections.

Trudeau was not willing to offer a similar projection for Canadians.

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There’s footage in the #1 streaming Netflix docu-series “Tiger King” of Shaquille O’Neal hanging out with Joe Exotic.  He would like you to know he’s NOT friends with Joe.  He says he went to Joe’s zoo a few times, but stopped when he found out the shady stuff he’s involved in.

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Ralph Lauren is donating $10 million towards coronavirus relief efforts.

New Orleans Saints quarterback Drew Brees is giving $5 million to Louisiana for coronavirus relief.

Roger Federer is donating $1 million to families affected by coronavirus in Switzerland.  That’s where Roger is from.

TODAY IS……………….

• “International Children’s Book Day”, celebrated on the birthday of one of the most famous children’s authors, Hans Christian Andersen, born in Denmark on this day in 1805. He penned 168 fairytales in all, including “The Emperor’s New Clothes” and “The Little Mermaid”.
• “Peanut Butter & Jelly Day”, celebrating what may be the world’s most popular sandwich.

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COUNTRY MUSIC NOTE

APRIL 2^ND, 1956          Johnny Cash recorded his classic song, “I Walk the Line”, which became his first #1. Released in May of this year it remained on the charts for over 43 weeks, and sold over 2 million copies. The unique chord progression for the song was inspired by backwards playback of guitar runs on Cash’s tape recorder while he was in the Air Force stationed in Germany.

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COVID UPDATES

In less than 100 hours, engineers from the Mercedes Formula One team took an ordinary CPAP machine, like people use when they have sleep apnea.  And they tweaked it to help people with the virus stay OFF ventilators.  They’re about to start testing dozens of them, and should be able to roll them out fast if they work.

“American Idol” is running out of pre-taped episodes.  Live episodes were supposed to start airing in the middle of April, but that’s not happening now.  But that doesn’t mean the season’s a bust. TMZ supposedly got some inside info claiming that they might continue the show remotely, with the judges doing their thing from HOME.

“The Masked Singer” is donating 10,000 N95 surgical masks to New York hospitals.  The donation was announced by judge and former physician Ken Jeong on Instagram.

A guy in New Zealand put up a giant projector screen at the end of his cul-de-sac, so his whole neighborhood could have a movie night together from their balconies.  He chose the movie “The Incredibles” because it was kid-friendly.

Two healthcare workers in Pennsylvania decided NOT to postpone their “dream” wedding, and got married on their back deck instead.  Their neighbors watched from their yards, and even got dressed up for it.  They set up a computer, so their family and friends could watch online.  Even the officiant did it over video-chat.

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FOUR RANDOM FACTS

1.  The town of Spearfish, South Dakota holds the world record for the fastest temperature change.  On January 22, 1943, the temperature at 7:30 A.M. was minus-4 . . . then the winds picked up and two minutes later, it was 45 degrees.

2. Sony sold 12 million floppy discs in 2009.  The peak year was 2002, when they sold 47 million.  They stopped producing and selling floppy discs in 2011.

3. About half the cereal brands that come out are discontinued within five years.

4. There’s only one documented case of someone being killed with “cement shoes” . . . and it happened in May of 2016.  A gang member in Brooklyn washed up with his legs set in concrete.  Before then it was completely fictional.

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BIRTHDAYS

[75] Linda Hunt, actress (‘Hetty Lange’ on “NCIS: Los Angeles” since 2009)/

[73] Emmylou Harris, singer/12-time Grammy winner

[59] Christopher Meloni, actor (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” 1999-2011)

[44] Adam F. Goldberg, TV producer/show creator (“The Goldbergs” since 2013)

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GOOD NEWS

Five years ago, a family in Victoria, B.C. helped a family of Syrian refugees resettle in their community. Now, that migrant family is supporting them while they are quarantined by bringing them and their elderly family members bags and bags of groceries.

Robin Stevenson says she and her family had gone on vacation to Mexico earlier this month, and were eventually caught there when countries began taking more drastic measures to curb the outbreak. Because they couldn’t change their tickets, they ended up staying there until their planned flight back to Canada and then were asked to self-quarantine for 14 days upon their return.

“We hadn’t really anticipated that or prepared for that, so we hadn’t stopped [for] groceries or food before we left,” Stevenson explained. “We had enough, we weren’t starving but Marwa heard from my parents that we were in quarantine and surprised us by showing up at our front door with bags and bags of groceries.”

Marwa Ataya and her husband Salem Ajaj own a Middle Eastern grocery store in the neighborhood that is still open and even extended the kindness to Stevenson’s elderly parents who live nearby. “They delivered groceries to my parents and brought them fresh fruits and vegetables,” Stevenson said.

Stevenson,her partner and 15-year-old son, explained that they came to know Ataya, Ajaj and their young children through Canada’s Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) program in 2015, which allowed Stevenson’s family, along with a couple of other families in their community, to come together to help facilitate Ataya and Ajaj’s arrival to Canada – whether it is helping them prepare their documents or helping them find a home.

“My involvement has been around the kids so over the summer when the kids were off school, I took them to camp, or the beach,” Stevenson explained. “My dad was helping get their business set up.”

“We need to stand together globally and extend a hand and open doors to people,” Stevenson said. “I’m hoping to show how much refugees contribute to the community they resettle in. It’s not a question of one country helping a group of people, but a very mutual relationship and just how much Canada has benefitted from the refugees that have come here.”

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PSYCHOLOGIST: LONGER, MORE INTENSE DREAMS ARE SIDE-EFFECT OF CABIN FEVER

It’s likely you’ve spent a lot more time at home lately due to the on-going pandemic, and you may have noticed you’re also having longer, more intense dreams.

Professor Mark Blagrove from Swansea University says a lack of stimulation caused by staying at home for long periods of time is changing the way people sleep and dream.

He says many are experiencing a surge in feelings of boredom and also in their levels of stress and worry—all of which can impact your dreams, in some cases making them more emotional.

Since many people are no longer commuting, they also are sleeping more and therefore have more time to dream, and to have longer dreams.

He adds that there may be an increase in dreaming about things at home, such as pets, or an increase in dreams about somebody you have not spoken to or seen in a while “due to long times spent on social media.”

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Four Possible Timelines for Life Returning to Normal

A question that, basically, everyone in the world is asking is:  When will life go back to normal?

The vague answer is:  When around 60% to 80% of the population is resistant to coronavirus, either from a vaccine or because they got it, recovered, and developed a temporary immunity.  And that’s IF getting it and recovering even leads to immunity.

But more specifically . . . when WILL life go back to normal?  “The Atlantic” interviewed several epidemiologists who gave 4 possible timelines . . .

1. One to two months. The experts think this is highly unlikely . . .

2. Three to four months.  This scenario could happen if we learn that lots of people have gotten the virus, worked through it with minor symptoms, and developed immunity.  Then we can isolate clusters or at-risk people as others get back to normal.

This scenario will require the U.S. getting up to speed on testing and, possibly, scientists quickly developing a treatment that can help ease symptoms and maybe even prevent some deaths from the virus.

3. Four to 12 months. This scenario is entirely dependent on whether the warm weather in the summer will slow down coronavirus like it slows down the flu.

If so, big crowds are probably still out of the question, but smaller groups might be okay.  We would probably need another round of social distancing in the fall, depending on how widespread testing and a vaccine are coming along.

4. 12 to 18 months . . . or longer.  It would be, quote, “world record, lightning speed” if a vaccine is ready before next spring . . . and once it’s ready, it needs to be produced and administered to 350 million people.

And if there’s no vaccine, then life wouldn’t really go back to “normal” until we hit a population-level immunity.

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THURSDAY APRIL 2^ND                                               

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

[75] Linda Hunt, actress (‘Hetty Lange’ on “NCIS: Los Angeles” since 2009)/

[73] Emmylou Harris, singer/12-time Grammy winner

[59] Christopher Meloni, actor (“Law & Order: Special Victims Unit” 1999-2011)

[44] Adam F. Goldberg, TV producer/show creator (“The Goldbergs” since 2013)

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1. Residents in Chatham-Kent will no longer be allowed to pass the time while sitting around a campfire. Recreational burn permits are suspended, effective immediately.

Recreational burn permits will be suspended for 28 days as local officials wait for direction from provincial and federal levels of government. As a result, permits for recreational fires, campfires and fire pits will not be sold during this time. Residents who currently have a permit for 2020 will be able to extend the expiration date by 28 days.

Fire officials said restrictions will not be placed on agricultural fires in order to support local farmers.

2. Coronavirus is now the 3^rd highest cause of death in the U.S., leading to more deaths on a daily basis than heart disease and cancer.  It has surpassed Alzheimer’s, strokes, chronic lung disease, and accidents. It’s definitely looking like the U.S. government is going to officially recommend people start wearing face masks in public to try to slow the infection rate.

3. Keith Alberstadt says his father-in-law went to the doctor and had a gross misunderstanding of what they told him he had.  (Hyperkalemia, but he thought they said hyper-chlamydia.)

4. Adults are coloring, people are buying shirts, the Tour de France may get canceled, and Dolly Parton’s bedtime stories.  (From Seth Meyers, Jimmy Fallon, and Jimmy Kimmel’s home shows on Wednesday, April 1, 2020)

Remember all the spring breakers that ignored the social distancing guidelines?  Twenty-eight of them now have the virus.  And even though most colleges have already had spring break, Texas Rep. Dennis Bonnen has a blunt message to those remaining students that still want to party.

Coming into 2020, there were memes on the Internet about how culture was “CANCELING” everything.

Well, now the coronavirus has actually canceled everything . . . literally . . . and we’re becoming so desensitized to it that it’s easy to forget how wild it is.

Here’s the latest example:  Wimbledon has just been canceled for the first time since World War 2 in 1945.  It’s also the FIRST TIME since the tournament began in 1877 that it won’t be played during peacetime. It was supposed to run from June 29th through July 12th.

The various pro tennis leagues have announced that they’re all canceling EVERYTHING from now through July 13th.

By the way, it sound like golf’s British Open will be canceled, too.  It was scheduled to start on July 16th.  The last time the Open wasn’t played was also in 1945 because of World War 2.

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GAYLE KING TO HOST ‘ACM PRESENTS: OUR COUNTRY’

CBS This Morning co-host Gayle King has been tapped to host Sunday’s (April 5th) ACM Presents: Our Country, a new two-hour special airing on CBS at 8 p.m. ET. The special will feature intimate conversations and at-home acoustic performances with Country music’s biggest stars, including

Kelsea Ballerini, Dierks Bentley, Kane Brown & John Legend, Luke Bryan, Brandi Carlile, Eric Church, Luke Combs, Florida Georgia Line, Lady Antebellum, Miranda Lambert, Little Big Town, Tim McGraw, Old Dominion, Brad Paisley & Darius Rucker, Thomas Rhett, Blake Shelton & Gwen Stefani,

Shania Twain, Carrie Underwood and Keith Urban.

The special will also honor 10-time ACM Award winner Kenny Rogers with performances by Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker.

ACM Presents: Our Country fills the time slot originally scheduled for the 55th annual ACM Awards, which has been postponed until September due to coronavirus concerns.

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DOLLY PARTON TO READ TO KIDS VIA NEW YOUTUBE SERIES

Dolly Parton will start helping put your kids to bed via her new YouTube series called “Goodnight With Dolly.” Each episode, the icon will read one of the books from her Imagination Library program. The series launches TONIGHT at 7 p.m. ET.

In a statement about the series, Dolly said, “This is something I have wanted to do for quite a while, but the timing never felt quite right. I think it is pretty clear that now is the time to share a story and to share some love.”

DOLLY PARTON announced yesterday that she’s making a $1 million donation towards coronavirus research.  The money will go to the Vanderbilt University Medical Centre in Nashville.

In a statement she said:  “My longtime friend Dr. Naji Abumrad, who’s been involved in research at Vanderbilt for many years, informed me that they were making some exciting advancements towards research of the coronavirus for a cure.”

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TENILLE TOWNES convinced a bunch of her fellow artists to turn on their video devices and join her for a socially distanced performance of the Bill Withers classic “Lean On Me”.  It features Alex Hall, Adam Hambrick, Kassi Ashton, Keelan Donovan, Caylee Hammack, and Abby Anderson.

Categorised in: Mornings

This post was written by Dave Palmer