Coronavirus has reared its ugly head in the United States, the second case being of a Chicago woman who started manifesting symptoms 
several days after returning from China. Reports the Boston Globe, “Doctors with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say the woman is hospitalized to prevent spread of the virus and is doing well, and people she had close contact with are being monitored.” Since coronavirus has a two-week incubation period we may not know the extent of the threat until it is too late. (Where’s a government-imposed travel ban when we really need one?) The CDC says the risk “remains low” but Chinese authorities felt the same way and are now canceling Chinese New Year Eve events in Macao. Speaking of which …
Could there be any worse way for gambling’s capital city to kick off a new year, one which was expected to bring an economic upturn? Casino stocks swooned accordingly. This is going to be a much more insidious and lingering problem than, say, a typhoon such a those Macao has shrugged off in the past. The silver lining? “Bus stops, taxi stands and wet markets will be cleaned more frequently.”
* Station Casinos got good news earlier this week, as Wall Street ratcheted RRR stock-price targets upward. Then it got some bad news from the National Labor Relations Board, which said it tends to enforce the outcome of a June 2019 election at Green Valley Ranch that went in the 
Culinary Union‘s favor. One of the NLRB’s conditions is that Station publicly eat crow by posting a notice saying it will not make changes to relevant-employee salaries or working conditions without negotiating with the Culinary first. The union is requesting that “Any past changes the company illegally made–going back to 2017–must be now reversed and negotiated.” We’ll believe Station is serious about negotiating when it actually happens but note the Culinary won the election with 78% and that Station has made several public commitments to honoring the results of secret-ballot elections … a commitment it has proceeded to flout with impunity.
* OMG! OMG! It’s #JoBro! No, seriously, MGM Resorts International has inked a pact with the Jonas Brothers for a residency at Park MGM. Who knew that teenyboppers were MGM’s new target demographic? Or does the April 1 opening date betoken some April Fool’s joke? Either way, ticket sales are set to begin Jan. 31. We’re actually a little hesitant to call this a “residency,” since the Jonases aren’t announced for any more than nine dates in April. Then again, their aspirations are taking them in different directions, so maybe MGM was lucky to get them for as many evenings as it did. By the way, my favorite moment in Midway was when the Japs tied an anchor around Nick Jonas and threw him overboard. Is that bad?
* Jim Lehrer, former host of the NewsHour on PBS and outstanding moderator of presidential debates, has died at age 85. Regarding his and broadcast partner Robert MacNeil‘s journalistic ethic, Lehrer wrote, ‘We both believed the American people were not as stupid as some of the folks publishing and programming for them believed. We were convinced they cared about the significant matters of human events … And we were certain they could and would hang in there more than 35 seconds for information about those subjects if given a chance.” Words for any journalist to live by. Added NewsHour managing editor (and Augusta native) Judy Woodruff, “I’m heartbroken at the loss of someone who was central to my professional life, a mentor to me and someone whose friendship I’ve cherished for decades.”
As for his three-year stint in the Marine Corps, Lehrer wrote, ‘‘I had no close calls, no rendezvous with danger, no skirted destinies with death. What I had was a chance to discover and test myself, physically and emotionally and spiritually, in important, lasting ways.’’ We are all the beneficiaries of Lehrer’s journalistic legacy.
