• Escape from Florida: My 2,400-km drive back to the sanity of Canada – Stephen Maher: In Florida, the beaches were open, people filled bars, and many just couldn’t seem to grasp ‘why everyone is panicking’
• The US now leads the world in Covid-19 cases. Following a series of missteps, the nation is now the epicenter of the pandemic
• “We may well be in a recession.” – Fed Chairman Jerome Powell
• Dow rallies more than 1,300 points, capping its biggest 3-day surge since 1931
• The Senate will recess after passing the stimulus package and not return until April 20. Senators were scheduled to go on a two-week recess starting on March 31, but will now cancel next week’s scheduled session and leave town for a total of three weeks.
• A record 3.28 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week – the largest number of unemployment claims ever recorded for a single week since the government began collecting data in 1967.

News Briefs are nearly daily summaries of the news of that day, if significant, and time permitting.