Three things for March 25
1. Trump shares hopes to reopen the US by Easter
During a virtual news conference on Tuesday, President Trump announced his goal to “ease guidelines and open things up to very large sections of our country” by Easter, April 12.
While health experts continue to share great concern with the increasing cases of COVID-19, Trump shared his concern for the importance of opening up businesses as well.
“You’re going to lose more people by putting a country into a massive recession or depression,” Trump said.
Trump and Vice President Mike Pence also warned that due to the extensive outbreak in New York City, all recent guests of the city should self-quarantine for the next 14 days. New York Governor Andrew Cuamo later stressed his hospitals were soon to be at capacity, even with the current health safety regulations.
Trump stated officials are “working to develop a sophisticated plan to open the economy as soon as the time is right — based on the best science, the best modeling and the best medical research there is anywhere on earth.”
Pence has since shared that any drastic decisions will only be made after the current 15-day period of social distancing is completed.
2. Warner Brothers delays release dates of movies
On Tuesday, Warner Brothers announced the anticipated release of “Wonder Woman 1984” will be delayed due to COVID-19 related complications, as well as “In The Heights,” “Scoob,” and “Malignant.”
“Wonder Woman 1984” has been postponed from its previous release date, June 5, to Aug 14th,” Director Patty Jenkins tweeted. “We made ‘Wonder Woman 1984’ for the big screen and I believe in the power of cinema. In these terrible times, when theater owners are struggling as so many are, we are excited to re-date our film to August 14th, 2020, in a theater near you, and pray for better times for all by then.”
Jenkins said she remains hopeful the movies will be released at the needed time to not further virus-related concerns and to assist the business owners of theaters.
3. Tennessee Valley Authority looks to expand solar power by 2023
In the past year, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has increased its solar energy capacity by 44%. Now, they look toward more solar power developers to further increase this solar energy.
The TVA is creating proposals to reach new bids until April 24 and will announce its selection in the fall. In the future, this newly acquired solar power will replace many coal-fired generating units as the state of Tennessee has goals to further grow their renewable energy.
"We know that large scale solar costs about 80% less than most rooftop solar power," said Scott Fiedler, a TVA spokesman. "So it just makes sense to move to these bigger, utility-scale solar farms, especially as we see more companies like Google and Facebook wanting to buy renewable power."
TVA President Jeff Lyash said they are looking forward to further growth as Nashville Electric Service and Knoxville Utilities Board have recently joined TVA’s system to produce renewable power for local businesses.
