Archives for May 2021

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Mets are pushing back plans to unveil a statue honoring late Hall of Famer Tom Seaver to opening day in 2022.

The team had hoped to debut the sculpture for Seaver, who died on Aug. 31 at age 75, during the 2021 season.

“We are excited to unveil this one-of-a-kind tribute to Tom, but it has to be right,” Mets president Sandy Alderson said in a statement Tuesday. “Given delays related to the pandemic, the artist asked for additional time to complete his work. After conferring with the Seaver family, we made the decision to unveil the statue on opening day 2022.”

The Mets are wearing a “41” patch on their home and away jerseys this season as a remembrance to Seaver, the club’s career leader in wins, ERA and strikeouts.

Seaver earned three Cy Young Awards during his 12 seasons with New York and pitched the Mets to their first World Series championship in 1969.

Seaver also played for Cincinnati, the Chicago White Sox and Boston in a 20-year career. Overall, he had 311 wins, a 2.86 ERA and struck out 3,640.

The Mets retired his number in 1988, and he was inducted into the baseball Hall of Fame in 1992.

In 2019, the Mets changed the address of Citi Field to 41 Seaver Way.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Gas prices are rising. Auto prices are soaring. Consumer goods companies are charging more for household basics like toilet paper, peanut butter and soft drinks.

All of which is resurrecting fears of an economic threat that has all but disappeared over the past generation: Runaway inflation. It occurs when prices for most goods and services not only rise but accelerate, making the cost of living steadily more expensive and shrinking the purchasing power of Americans’ earnings and savings.

Growing jitters about inflation have contributed to a sharp sell-off in stock prices this week. Any significant acceleration of inflation would exert a drag on the market and potentially imperil the economic recovery.

In the past, rising inflation has usually led to higher pay as workers have demanded and received raises to keep pace. In fact, inflation can’t really accelerate for long without sizable wage gains. Yet pay raises — if they do occur — typically lag behind price increases, thereby squeezing consumers at least temporarily. And eventually, pay gains themselves will fuel further inflation: Companies raise prices further to offset higher wages for their employees.

Some companies, including Amazon, have recently raised or said they plan to raise wages.

Not since the late 1960s and early ’70s has the United States endured chronic high inflation, with consumer prices rising at or near double-digit percentages from one year to the next. In fact, the reverse has been true for about a decade: Inflation has remained persistently below the 2% annual target set by the Federal Reserve. Under Chair Jerome Powell, the Fed is betting that it can keep rates ultra-low even as the economic recovery kicks into high gear — and that it won’t have to quickly raise rates to stop runaway inflation.

Few economists think the nation is on the verge of uncontrollably high inflation. But worries among businesses, consumers and investors about uncomfortably high inflation are growing.

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WHAT’S BEHIND THE CONCERNS ABOUT INFLATION?

Mainly, it’s the fact that prices for so many things are rising and seem likely to do so for the next several months at least. One reason for that is that prices tumbled in March and April of last year, when the pandemic tore through the economy, and have since rebounded. As a result, year-over-year price increases now look much higher than most consumers are used to. The consumer price index rose 2.6% in March compared with a year ago, a significant rise from just 1.7% a month earlier. Analysts forecast that consumer prices will soar again in April when that month’s figures are reported Wednesday, to a year-over-year reading of 3.6%. If that prediction is accurate, that would be the largest increase in nearly a decade.

Another factor is a widespread shortages of raw materials and parts that is magnifying costs. Builders can’t find enough lumber to build new homes. Manufacturers are desperate for more copper and other commodities. Auto makers need more semiconductor chips. And some restaurants are scrambling for chicken wings.

Supply bottlenecks have occurred because companies were caught flat-footed by the speed of the economic recovery from the pandemic, with most consumers flush with cash, after multiple stimulus checks, and spending freely. With everyone now ramping up at once, manufacturers, shipping firms, miners and agricultural companies can’t keep up.

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WILL AMERICANS’ PAYCHECKS INCREASE, TOO?

Paychecks are starting to rise. Average hourly earnings jumped 0.7% in April, a substantial gain for a single month. Many companies have said they are struggling to attract applicants to fill their open jobs. Only 266,000 jobs were added last month, far fewer than expected. Rising pay is a sign that companies are trying harder to fill their jobs. That’s good for workers, and many companies may eat the higher cost or turn to automation to reduce their labor expenses. But if businesses start to raise their prices to cover higher wage bills, that would accelerate inflation.

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IT’S THE FED’S JOB TO KEEP PRICES IN CHECK. WHAT DO ITS OFFICIALS THINK?

Powell said last month that he expects higher inflation to prove temporary, once the supply shortages are worked out. The Fed’s policymakers have stressed that one-time increases are not the same thing as a difficult bout of inflation, which is characterized by ongoing, chronic price increases.

“A persistent material increase in inflation would require not just that wages or prices increase for a period after reopening, but also a broad expectation that they will continue to increase at a persistently higher pace,” Lael Brainard, a Fed governor and key voice on the central bank’s interest rate policies, said in an appearance Tuesday. “A limited period of pandemic-related price increases is unlikely to durably change inflation dynamics.”

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WHY IS THE FED SO SURE THAT PRICE INCREASES WILL PROVE FLEETING?

Two reasons: Because the public still largely expects inflation to remain in check and because of recent history.

The Fed is closely monitoring “inflation expectations.” These are measures of where consumers and financial markets expect inflation to be in the future. Inflation expectations have changed little for more than two decades, even amid sharp price fluctuations, such as a spike in oil prices in 2008 that took oil to nearly $150 a barrel. If the public expects inflation to stick around 2%, then consumers and businesses won’t likely change their behavior much even if commodity prices rise. Businesses won’t charge their customers more, because they’ll expect the increases to be temporary. And workers won’t generally demand large wage increases to offset higher prices.

Some measures of inflation expectations are rising, but not markedly so. Financial market measures, based on the yields of different Treasury securities, show that investors’ expectations for inflation are increasing in the short-run but less so over the longer-term. That suggests that they agree with the Fed: They expect a temporary increase in inflation. But they also think that entrenched inflation expectations will prevent price rises from running rampant.

Another reason the Fed thinks inflation will likely be temporary is that prices have been in check for roughly a quarter-century. Even when the unemployment rate fell to a 50-year low of 3.5% in 2019, forcing wages higher, consumer prices remained below the Fed’s 2% target.

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WHAT WILL THE FED DO IF INFLATION STAYS TOO HIGH?

Powell has said repeatedly that the Fed has the “tools” to address higher inflation: It could reduce its bond purchases of $120 billion in Treasurys and mortgage-backed securities each month, which are intended to lower long-term interest rates. And it could also raise its short-term rate from its current level near zero. This rate influences borrowing rates throughout the economy. Such moves would likely rein in inflation. But they could also slow the economy or even cause a recession.

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SAN DIEGO (AP) — Buoyed by a large budget surplus and swimming in federal pandemic recovery money, California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday proposed $12 billion to get more people experiencing homelessness off the streets and into homes of their own.

Newsom’s proposal includes $8.75 billion over two years to create an estimated 46,000 housing units, expanding on a program he launched last year to convert motels and other properties into housing. Nearly half the money would go toward housing in places where people with mental health and other behavioral issues can get services onsite.

Newsom also proposed spending $3.5 billion on rental subsidies, new housing and shelter with the aim of ending family homelessness within five years. It would help families with minors avoid losing their homes in the first place or help them get sheltered without spending days, weeks or months on a waitlist.

“As governor I actually want to get something done. I don’t want to talk about this for a decade,” Newsom said in a news conference at a former San Diego Residence Inn that has been converted into housing for 177 previously homeless people.

“What’s happening on our streets and sidewalks is unacceptable,” he said.

The Democratic governor, who faces a recall election this year, seized on the twin issues of homelessness and housing affordability early on in his first term as governor. The nation’s most populous state has an estimated 161,000 people experiencing homelessness, more than any other state. Advocates say they can’t house people quickly enough with a shortage of units and high rents.

The largest concentration of homelessness is in Los Angeles, where Mayor Eric Garcetti last month vowed to spend nearly $1 billion to move some of the 61,000 homeless people in Los Angeles County off the streets. Rows of tents, cardboard shelters, battered RVs and makeshift plywood structures have now expanded beyond the notorious Skid Row throughout the nation’s second-most populous city.

During the pandemic, Newsom launched projects “Roomkey” and “Homekey” using federal money to house homeless residents in hotels and helping cities, counties and other local entities buy and convert motels and other buildings into housing. Newsom officials said $800 million spent on the Homekey program created 6,000 more housing units, providing shelter for 8,200 people.

One of them is Lindsey Prescott, who made an unplanned appearance at Newsom’s news conference after her 18-month-old daughter Mia waved at the governor when he arrived at a converted Residence Inn operated by Father Joe’s Villages.

Prescott said she was homeless for five years, struggling with addiction after her mother died, and lost her daughter to foster care. She said she got Mia back in May after she stopped using drugs and was selected to move into the former hotel.

“I feel normal,” said Prescott, as Mia darted around an interior patio next to a tennis court. “I’m a mom. I have my daughter. She has her crib next to my bed. I go to the grocery store. I cook.”

Prescott expects to stay at the converted hotel for two years, then move to an apartment or house. There is no limit to how long people can stay at Father Joe’s, and some may choose to live permanently.

Nan Roman, president and CEO of the National Alliance to End Homelessness, called Newsom’s hotel and motel programs gamechangers that took advantage of the pandemic to make real changes. A topsy-turvy real estate market and the federal government throwing money at local governments makes it an ideal time to expand housing, she said, but lots of coordination is needed on things such as rental subsidies and ongoing care to make sure people don’t end up back on the streets.

Advocates cheered the governor’s proposal. But they voiced concerns about California’s decades-old resistance to building new homes: politics, long-term funding issues, neighborhood opposition and political jockeying.

“If we couple it with actually taking steps to close our affordable housing gap, it could be good,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the Center for Vulnerable Populations at the University of California, San Francisco. “The people who are homeless right now do need a response today, and not five years from now.”

Focusing on homelessness could prove politically helpful for Newsom in the recall campaign. Republican challengers, including John Cox and former San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer, issued statements calling Newsom ineffective.

If Newsom’s plan wins support from the state Legislature, its implementation would depend heavily on the willingness of local governments and communities to go along, which is often a significant barrier.

“Every community group that you go to demands that you solve the problem of homelessness, and then in the exact same meeting they’ll demand you don’t solve it anywhere near them,” said San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher, a fellow Democrat who appeared with Newsom.

The governor’s proposal is part of a $100 billion pandemic recovery plan Newsom is rolling out this week, thanks to an astounding $76 billion budget surplus and $27 billion in new funding from the federal government’s coronavirus spending bill.

A new state database shows that nearly 250,000 people sought housing services in 2020. Of that number, 117,000 people are still waiting for help while nearly 92,000 people found housing.

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Har reported from San Francisco. Associated Press writers Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California and Christopher Weber in Los Angeles contributed to this story.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare will require nursing homes to report COVID-19 vaccination rates for residents and staff, the government said Tuesday. Officials hope to nudge facilities to keep giving shots as the worst ravages of the pandemic ease, but the danger of a rebound still lurks.

“We’re hoping to drive increased vaccination rates among residents and staff, as well as transparency for residents and their families,” Dr. Lee Fleisher, chief medical officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, told The Associated Press.

Medicare’s move to sustain the pace of vaccinations comes as an initial effort to get shots to nursing homes across the country has wound down. That partnership between the government and retail pharmacy giants CVS and Walgreens is being succeeded by an ongoing collaboration with specialized long-term care pharmacies that cater to the needs of the nursing home industry. Assisted living facilities and other care centers serving older people can also participate.

A smooth transition will be critical because the coronavirus is far from eradicated, even as new residents are being admitted to long-term care facilities and staffing ebbs and flows.

People living in long-term care facilities have borne a heavy toll from the pandemic. They represent about 1% of the U.S. population but accounted for roughly 1 in 3 deaths, according to previous estimates from the COVID Tracking Project.

“This is an important development that is months overdue,” said David Grabowski, a Harvard health policy professor who has tracked the industry’s struggles with the outbreak. “Many of us argued that this information should have been published starting in December when the federal long-term care vaccination effort began.”

Nursing homes will now be required to submit weekly vaccination numbers for residents and staff to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That requirement will take effect within two weeks. Medicare officials say it may take two to four more weeks after that for the data to start flowing. The plan is to post facility-level information on the internet so residents and families can easily access the details from Medicare’s “Compare Care” website.

“Residents of nursing homes and their families have every right to this basic information,” said Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., part of a bipartisan group urging the change.

Fleisher said the agency will also gain greater insight into levels of vaccination across the entire industry. That would let health officials direct vaccines and support services to nursing homes lagging behind.

For example, a new AP analysis of nursing homes in New York found that rates of vaccination have been far from even across the state. Overall, 79% of residents were fully vaccinated, as well as 55% of staff. But in Brooklyn, the corresponding vaccination rates were 63% for residents and 40% for staff. New York facilities reported 782 infections among staff and residents in the 14 days ending April 25, the most in the nation.

Academic researchers believe that the virus most likely entered nursing homes through staffers who were infected in their communities and became unwitting carriers. Many aides in the low-wage industry work shifts in different facilities.

Medicare’s new rule also requires nursing homes and facilities serving people with intellectual disabilities to offer shots and factual education about vaccination to residents, staff and clients.

Nursing homes are now required to report COVID-19 cases and deaths but not vaccinations. A relatively small number of facilities provide the data voluntarily to the government.

“Publicizing this information will hopefully encourage facilities and policymakers to continue efforts to vaccinate staff and residents,” Grabowski said. “Many staff were initially hesitant about the vaccine, and new staff and residents also need to be vaccinated. There is still a lot of work left to do.”

Cases and deaths plummeted after the government launched a concerted effort to vaccinate residents and staff. The CDC reports that nearly 2.9 million nursing home residents and staffers are fully vaccinated. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities have opened up family visits again after spending a year in lockdown.

Nursing homes are already required to report rates of flu vaccination. But until the new requirements were issued Tuesday, there was no similar requirement for COVID-19 vaccines even though disease from the coronavirus is far more lethal.

The main nursing home industry trade group, the American Health Care Association, says that it supports public reporting of vaccination data but that it shouldn’t just apply to them. Hospitals, home health agencies and other providers should also be required to post their numbers. Results should not be used to “judge” nursing homes with low vaccine rates, the group said, but to help them improve.

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