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If you woke up this morning in Texas, Florida, or other southeastern states, and noticed a hazy or vivid sunrise there’s no need to wipe your eyes. What you noticed was the effects of a giant dust cloud sweeping across the southern U.S. in what many experts have dubbed, “The Godzilla Dust Cloud”. NPR reports, “The technical name for the phenomenon is the Saharan Air Layer according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.” Regardless of the name, we’ve never seen a dust cloud of this magnitude since data was recorded using a MODIS satellite back in 2002. Atmospheric scientist, Michael Lowery of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, shared data captured from the MODIS satellite which puts this dust cloud into perspective.

Public colleges and universities are not immune from the financial distress in the wake of Covid-19. “Public colleges and universities across the nation have had to spend enormous sums of money to support their students through the pandemic; switch to online education; and issue refunds to students for parking, housing, and dining services for the period of time when they were not on campus in the spring.”[1] While there is the CARES Act to provide funding for these institutions, the funding verses the lost revenue is leaving a huge divide.

Last year, Eastern Ohio was affected by a major loss when General Motors made the decision to close their Lordstown facility, a major part of this small town. Since then, a banker by the name of Steve Burns, now CEO for Lordstown Motors, is starting from the ground up with hopes to revive the facility once again.

United States and Chinese trade relations appear to have hit a new low after White House trade adviser Peter Navarro said that the trade deal was “over” on Fox News last night. Navarro later walked back his comments and said that his comments were taken out of context and, “was simply speaking to the lack of trust we now have of the Chinese Communist Party after they lied about the origins of the China virus and foisted a pandemic upon the world.”

With California reporting a new daily high for new COVID-19 cases, 4,515 new cases on Sunday, the continual concern for virus spread should still be at the top of everyone’s priority list. Over just the last two weeks The United States has seen a 15% case increase. Typical travel destinations in the southeast and on the west coast seem to be the most dramatically affected. The work we have all put in to “flatten the curve” may all be for naught if we, as a nation, continue to jump back to the norm too early. Hospitals are feeling the effects of the dramatic spike in cases already. The White House is making efforts to concentrate on stocking up supplies to combat a potential COVID-19 case rise this coming Fall as lower temperatures may increase the spread.