US: 33.6M Cases - 598.5K Dead - 26.6M Recovered
Worldwide: 161.9M Cases - 3.3M Dead - 139.7M Recovered

Former Senior Loss Prevention Executive
Know of any fallen LP exec? Let's remember & recognize.

Private Industry Security Guard Deaths: 279   Law Enforcement Officer Deaths: 298
*Red indicates change in total deaths

Is it now reasonable to discuss the end of the pandemic? Yes, but with caveats.
New coronavirus infections in the United States have dropped to their lowest rate since mid-September and, if trends continue, will within days be lower than they have been in nearly 11 months. The numbers are good across the coronavirus data dashboard. More than half of adults have had at least one shot of vaccine, and the shots are remarkably effective at preventing severe illness and death.

Still, pandemics start quickly and end slowly. And there is a huge caveat: Infectious-disease experts have repeatedly made clear that the coronavirus, known officially as SARS-CoV-2, is unlikely to be eradicated.

Some measures to combat the novel coronavirus - including booster shots and perhaps mask-wearing and social distancing during winter, when respiratory viruses spread more easily - could remain part of our lives.

But the pandemic as we know it - a massively disruptive, lethal and terrifying health emergency that for months and months has been killing at rates comparable to cancer - could soon begin a gradual fade into memory.

That, at least, is the current, rather nuanced and potentially confusing consensus of scientists and public health officials. washingtonpost.com

'We have all longed for this moment'
Federal guidance says vaccinated Americans may go without masks
Federal health officials on Thursday advised Americans who are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus that they could stop wearing masks or maintaining social distance in most settings, the clearest sign yet that the pandemic might be nearing an end in the United States.

The new recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention caught state officials and businesses by surprise and raised a host of difficult questions about how the guidelines would be carried out. But the advice came as welcome news to many Americans who were weary of restrictions and traumatized by the past year.

Permission to stop using masks also offers an incentive to the many millions who are still holding out on vaccination. As of Thursday, about 155 million people had received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, but only about one-third of the nation, 119 million people, had been fully vaccinated.

And the pace of vaccination has slowed: Providers are administering about 2.09 million doses per day on average, about a 38 percent decrease from the peak of 3.38 million reported in mid-April. nytimes.com

Should retailers continue to require associates and customers to wear masks?
The recent CDC guidance did not specifically address businesses, although the takeaways seem clear for public-facing companies. Masks should continue to be worn by all that have not been vaccinated even when state or local rules say otherwise. That means, in practical terms, that unless a retailer has a way to verify people have been vaccinated before they enter stores, it is prudent that they continue to enforce mask wearing rules. This seems to be particularly true in locations where COVID-19 disinformation is prevalent and vaccination rates are low.

Business owners and employers are being cautioned by workplace experts not to fling open the doors and throw away their masks just yet.

Kevin Troutman, an attorney with Fisher Phillips in Houston, told SHRM Online, that employers should wait until the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) updates its workplace safety guidance before making any changes.

The New York Times reports that some states have lifted mandates following the CDC's announcement and others are holding off. Governors in Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, North Carolina and Virginia all said they were reviewing the guidance. Others in Connecticut, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, Oregon and Pennsylvania have begun to lift mandates

Businesses want clarity so it's no surprise that many are not doing a happy dance after the CDC's announcement.

Lisa LaBruno, senior executive vice president, retail operations and innovation at the Retail Industry Leaders Association, said yesterday that the CDC had created ambiguity and "conflicting positions put retailers and their employees in incredibly difficult situations."

"We urge all retail customers and guests to follow a store's safety protocols including wearing a mask and social distancing," said Ms. Bruno. "Frontline workers deserve this respect. Retailers encourage customers that do not want to wear a mask to shop online or via curbside pickup offerings." retailwire.com

Retail America Responds to New Mask Guidance
Walmart, Target, and Starbucks are keeping mask mandates despite CDC relaxing guidance for vaccinated people
Walmart, Target, and Starbucks are among those who are still making masks mandatory for shoppers and workers in their stores, they said Thursday. Other retailers are still on the fence.

Target: Target said in a statement shared with Fox Business that it was upholding all of its coronavirus safety measures in stores. As a result, customers and workers will be required to wear masks and stay socially distanced.

Kroger: Grocery chain Kroger is also keeping masks mandates for all of its customers and workers at its nearly 3,000 stores.

Walmart: Walmart is sticking to its mask policy in stores for the time being.

Starbucks: Starbucks shoppers and workers will still be required to wear masks in its stores, the company said, according to CNN.

Home Depot: Home Depot told The New York Times that it had no plans to change its mask policy in stores.

Macy's, Walgreens, CVS, Gap, and Publix are still reviewing their mask policies or awaiting additional guidance before implementing any changes. businessinsider.com

COVID Rules - Masks - Personal Space & Seats Arrangement Causing
766% Increase in 'Unruly Behavior' & Actual 'Brawls' @ Airports & In Planes

Another brawl breaks out at Miami International Airport.
It's part of a national trend
The fight is part of a troubling trend airports across the nation are seeing, now that many people have resumed traveling. Recently, videos have surfaced showing face-mask confrontations, seat disagreements and personal space arguments. Clashes between passengers on planes have spilled over into airports.

"Airports nationwide are facing an unprecedented increase in unruly passenger behavior this year," Lester Sola, the director and CEO of Miami International Airport, said in a statement.

Citing a Federal Aviation Administration report this week, Sola said incidents of unruly passenger behavior are up from 100 to 150 formal cases in an average year to 1,300 so far in 2021, nationwide. miamiherald.com

Less than Half of California State Prison Workers Are Vaccinated
All, who spoke to CalMatters only on condition of anonymity, are among the 57% of California prison employees skipping free COVID vaccinations offered on the job as of May 10, according to data from the California Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections. Experts don't think it's common that those workers chose to be vaccinated anyplace less convenient.

As California pursues herd immunity - or something close to it - some 37,000 state prison workers remain unvaccinated. In 30 of 35 institutions, less than half of employees are fully vaccinated. Currently, less than 3% of staff are waiting on their second jab, according to the statewide data.

Active COVID cases inside California prisons have slowly declined since peaking in late Dec. 2020, around the time the system rolled out its voluntary vaccination program for inmates and staff. In the past two weeks, state data shows just 14 COVID cases reported among California prisoners - but 108 cases among prison staff.

"We ended up reaching herd immunity in some prisons the tragic way - because people just got sick and died."

Since last summer, the coronavirus has swept through the state prisons, leaving at least 222 people dead and infecting more than 50,000 prisoners. Guards were also infected. Throughout the system, more than 16,000 prison staff have tested positive for the virus, and 26 employees have died, according to the data. latimes.com

Vaccine Lottery in Ohio
Ohio's million-dollar idea: Lottery prizes for vaccinations
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine unveiled a lottery system Wednesday to entice people to get COVID-19 shots, offering a weekly $1 million prize and full-ride college scholarships in a creative bid to overcome the vaccine hesitancy that remains a stubborn problem across the nation.

The move comes as governors, health officials and community leaders are coming up with creative incentives to get more shots in arms, including insider access to NFL locker rooms and an Indianapolis 500 garage, cash incentives, various other promotions.

With three weeks to go before most state restrictions lift, DeWine rolled out the big-ticket incentives during a prime-time address. Beginning May 26, adults who have received at least one vaccine dose may enter a lottery that will provide a $1 million prize each Wednesday for five weeks. In random drawings, the state will also provide five full four-year scholarships to an Ohio public university - including tuition, room-and-board, and books - to vaccinated Ohioans under 18.

The money will come from existing federal pandemic relief dollars, DeWine said, and the Ohio Lottery will conduct the drawings. apnews.com

Rooms to Go: No Physical Loss - No Insur. Coverage, For Pandemic Losses
Insurer Asks 11th Circ. To Drop Rooms To Go's Virus Loss Bid
Aspen Specialty Insurance Co. has urged the Eleventh Circuit to uphold a trial court's ruling that Rooms to Go is not entitled to coverage for its pandemic-related losses, asserting that the lower court properly applied Florida law in throwing out the case. Under Florida law, the COVID-19 pandemic and stay-at-home orders did not cause "direct physical loss of or damage to property," which is the basis for coverage under the policies. law360.com

Minnesota to lift masks mandate today

Expert says he found why some COVID-19 vaccines trigger clot issues
 

Hedge fund founder Dan Kamensky gets prison sentence for fraud during Neiman Marcus bankruptcy
Kamensky had previously fought the retailer in Dallas courts over the transfer of its former Germany-based Mytheresa unit to the retailer's private equity owners

The New York hedge fund founder who was charged with committing fraud during Neiman Marcus' bankruptcy last year has been sentenced to six months in prison. He could have gotten five years in prison.

Marble Ridge Capital founder Dan Kamensky, 48, pleaded guilty to bankruptcy fraud and extortion committed while he was on a committee of unsecured creditors in the Neiman Marcus bankruptcy.

Kamensky admitted he pressured a rival bidder to abandon a higher offer for Mytheresa, an asset owned by Neiman Marcus at the time, so that his hedge fund could buy it for a lower price. Kamensky had a legal duty to represent the interests of all unsecured creditors and secure the best offer.

Kamensky, who was a successful bankruptcy lawyer before starting his hedge fund, admitted he tried to cover up his actions by telling a Jeffries LLC investment banker to lie on his behalf. According to an FBI investigation and prosecutor's court documents, Kamensky told the banker, "This conversation never happened" and "Do you understand ... I can go to jail?" dallasnews.com

Over 100,000 Retail Jobs Open Right Now
Amazon, McDonald's, Others Woo Scarce Hourly Workers With Higher Pay
The fight is on for lower-wage workers.
Some of the biggest U.S. employers of entry-level workers are adding tens of thousands of new positions as the economy roars back from the coronavirus pandemic. Many are raising wages or adding perks to entice workers from other jobs or off the sidelines of the labor market.

Many companies have struggled to find enough available workers, though there are signs that more are entering the labor market to take some of those open positions.

Demand for workers is so high that wages are rising, too.

Amazon.com Inc. said Thursday that it would hire 75,000 more workers and offer $1,000 signing bonuses in some locations, its latest hiring spree in a year of tremendous job growth at the e-commerce giant. McDonald's Corp. said it wants to hire 10,000 employees at company-owned restaurants in the next three months and that it would raise pay at those locations. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc., Applebee's and KFC are among other chains seeking to hire tens of thousands of workers as they restore indoor seating and seek to bolster staffing there. wsj.com

Business Insider Rips Low Paying Retail Jobs
Low hanging fruit

The Labor Market in Retail - Low Wages - Dwindling Labor Force
 - Verbal Assaults & Abuse @ Record Highs
UK Measures these Assaults & Abuse every day & is lobbying Parliament for more
retail protection laws

Retailers and restaurants losing workers over poor pay and crazy customers
Some workers are leaving retail and restaurant jobs to get away from low pay and difficult customers, and a growing number of openings in the labor market is making it easier to transition to new careers.

Restaurants and stores are looking to staff up and return to normal as COVID-19 restrictions lift and the country slowly reopens. Hiring has been difficult for many companies, which have reported a lack of candidates for open positions. But retail and restuarants are are also struggling to retain workers who want to leave for new opportunities. That's making the sector's labor crunch even worse.

Nearly a dozen Starbucks workers across the US told Insider about issues keeping locations staffed amid a shortage of applicants and as many current employees look for other jobs.

The labor shortage in many sectors of the economy is a boon to some dissatisfied retail workers who are suddenly able to shop around for new jobs. Now, the Starbucks manager says she is about to start a job in healthcare sales making double her current wage. She will also get better benefits.

Another Starbucks employee said after a dangerous and difficult year because of the pandemic, fatigue and treatment are top concerns. "Employees have been fired or people are quitting because we're so overworked and stressed and abused," an employee at a Midwest Starbucks told Insider.

The past year has exposed the massive demands put on retail workers, often for relatively low pay and few benefits, even as they were called heroes and essential workers. Tasked with enforcing mask mandates and interacting with customers during the height of a pandemic, abuse, harassment, and assault was not uncommon. A Service Employees International Union survey of 4,187 McDonald's workers in the summer of 2020 found that nearly half of respondents said that they had been physically or verbally assaulted.

In place of customer-facing retail jobs, some workers are turning to warehouse employment with companies like Amazon, even as those jobs make headlines for poor conditions. The e-commerce giant has hired about 2,800 people a day since July, mostly in warehouse roles. businessinsider.com

U.S. Retail Spending Unchanged/Flat in April
Shoppers pulled back on goods purchases while boosting spending on services

Retail sales-a measure of purchases at stores, at restaurants and online-overall were unchanged last month from March, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That was short of economists' expectations for a 0.8% increase and well below the upwardly revised 10.7% advance in March.

Shoppers last month reined in spending across a wide range of retail categories, such as clothing and accessories, furniture, sporting goods and general merchandise stores.

A tracker of credit- and debit-card spending from Bank of America showed that spending at department stores fell a seasonally adjusted 28% in April from March, while outlays on clothing and furniture also fell. Spending at restaurants and lodging jumped, however, as did outlays on airlines, which were up 23%.

Retail sales, excluding motor vehicles and gas stations, were up 43% in April, compared with the same month in 2020, when parts of the economy were shut down due to the pandemic, according to Affinity Solutions, a data firm that tracks credit- and debit-card spending. wsj.com

NYC Fashion Show Generates More Income Than Super Bowl - $600 Million
That's a Big Deal for NYC - the U.S. Fashion Industry & For Security Firms
Lots of Security Needed for all the High-End Events Across the City

New York Fashion Week Will Be a Thing Again
With a few American fashion brands showing their new collections in Paris in 2017 that was confirmation of a broader nagging feeling that New York Fashion Week, which typically had attracted 150,000 attendees every February and September, was losing its cachet. (That's 300,000 high-end high-fashion attendees with lots of high end functions - events - dinner party's, etc. Needing a lot of security)

For the next three years, that narrative persisted: New York Fashion Week was either dying or already dead. (Even after two of those departing brands, Proenza Schouler and Rodarte, came back to New York in 2018.)

Now, one long quarantine later, there are signs of resurrection.

"New York Fashion Week is still the No. 1 revenue-generating event in New York."

But Here's the Real Story - That NY Times Failed to Mention:

Continue Reading

Friday Funny: Shoplifting Seagull Gets Away With Help of Human Accomplice
Passerby helps shoplifting seagull make getaway after daring sandwich heist

A seagull known as Gus was filmed stealing a tuna sandwich from a branch of Co-op, and a witness said his crimes have escalated

The bystander watched on as Gus timed his entrance through the automatic doors to perfection, bolting straight for the display of packaged sandwiches. Jumping up onto the shelf, the brazen seagull grabbed himself tuna sandwich and walked back towards the exit, only to find he wasn't big enough to trigger the door's sensor.

With the net seemingly closing in on Gus, a well-meaning passerby spotted the bird trapped in the shop and opened the door for him to make his getaway.

But Gus hadn't come this far to fail now, throwing her a side step and a quick wing flap to make it to safety, before laying the sandwich on the pavement to admire his haul. mirror.co.uk

Insurer Freed Of $2M Jewelry Loss To Mobster's Fake J.Lo Vid
A New York appeals court held on Thursday that Lloyd's of London underwriters do not have to cover a jeweler's loss of $2 million in a plot orchestrated from prison by a Gambino crime family figure posing as a Sony Pictures representative renting the jewelry for a Jennifer Lopez video shoot. law360.com

This is going to get heated over the summer
There's an invisible wage war coming

McDonald's to Raise Pay by 10% at Company Owned Stores


Quarterly Results
Dillard's Q1 total new sales up 73%
Canada's Sleep Country Q1 comp's up 20%, sales up 20.7%
Grocery Outlet Q1 comp's down 8.2%, net sales down 1%