David A Johnson

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NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Hurricane Zeta sped toward storm-weary Louisiana on Wednesday with New Orleans squarely in its path, threatening to push up to 9 feet of sea water inland and batter homes and businesses with fierce winds in a Gulf Coast region already hit by multiple storms during a historically busy Atlantic hurricane season.

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The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 943 points Wednesday as surging coronavirus cases in the U.S. and Europe threaten more business shutdowns and pain for the economy. The S&P 500 dropped 3.5%, its third straight loss. The index has now given up 5.6% so far this week and is on track for its biggest weekly fall since March, when markets were in a downward spiral. European markets also sank. Crude oil prices fell sharply as investors anticipated that demand for energy will weaken along with the economy. Treasury yields fell as investors sought shelter in safer assets.

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BERLIN (AP) — France announced a full nationwide lockdown for the second time this year and German officials imposed a partial four-week lockdown Wednesday, as governments across Europe sought to stop a fast-rising tide of coronavirus cases.

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The farther north you go in Florida, the saying goes, the deeper South you'll get. For generations, the Old South flourished in Duval County, a sprawling metropolis on the state's northern Atlantic coast that is home to Jacksonville and was once a reliable bastion of Republican power.

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LAS VEGAS (AP) — Joe Biden vowed Wednesday not to campaign “on the false promises of being able to end this pandemic by flipping a switch,” pledging instead to prioritize science, while President Donald Trump used the race's final days keeping a whirlwind schedule aimed at focusing on anything but the coronavirus.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — With next week's election looming, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google received a hectoring from Republicans at a Senate hearing Wednesday for alleged anti-conservative bias in the companies' social media platforms — and were warned of coming restrictions from Congress.

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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Calmer weather on Wednesday helped firefighters beat back two wildfires that drove nearly 100,000 Southern Californians from their homes amid fierce winds and extremely dry conditions.

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SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Tupperware relied on social gatherings for explosive growth in the mid 20th century. In the 21st century, it is social distancing that is fueling sales.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans may feel whiplashed by a report Thursday on the economy's growth this summer, when an explosive rebound followed an epic collapse.

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NEW YORK (AP) — With love and pranks, Ian Paget and Chris Olsen are among millions of U.S. newbies looking to soak up social media stardom on TikTok.

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PICO RIVERA, Calif., Oct. 28, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Did you think that Halloween festivities were out of the question this year due to the pandemic? Most communities are discouraging or banning house-to-house trick or treating to prevent virus transmission. All is not lost, however. Families can gather for Happy Halloween L.A., the largest, most immersive, drive-through event in Southern California. The event follows all COVID-19 rules and regulations as dictated by the “Los Angeles County Department of Public Health’s Guidance for Celebrating Halloween.” Along with the generous sponsorship of Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers and Vans Shoes, among others, it is the first joint venture of Life Changing Charities, a 502(c)(3) non-profit organization, and PartyWorks Interactive, a Southern California events company. The event is a great example of how industries are re-inventing themselves to address the limitations imposed by Covid-19.

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SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump’s campaign has a bold theory for how he will win reelection: It can tap a universe of millions of supporters who did not vote for him in 2016 but will do so this time.

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TORRANCE, Calif., Oct. 28, 2020 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — DocMagic, Inc., the premier provider of fully-compliant loan document preparation, regulatory compliance and comprehensive eMortgage services, announced that that its president and CEO, Dominic Iannitti, was recognized as a Lending Luminary award winner in the second annual list of honorees. Winners were announced on Oct. 15 at the 10th annual ENGAGE event, which PROGRESS in Lending held virtually this year.

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Here’s what’s happening Wednesday in Election 2020, six days until Election Day:

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NEW DELHI — India’s tally of confirmed coronavirus cases is moving closer to 8 million, with 43,893 new cases reported for the latest 24-hour period.

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Today in History

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PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — When Republican Sen. Susan Collins had to vote on a Supreme Court justice in 2018, she deliberated under the spotlight for weeks, building suspense that ended with a dramatic floor speech. When she announced her support for President Donald Trump’s nominee, she triggered an onslaught of Democratic anger.

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PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The family of a Black man killed by Philadelphia police officers in a shooting caught on video had called for an ambulance to get him help with a mental health crisis, not for police intervention, their lawyer said Tuesday.

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NEW YORK (AP) — Disgraced self-improvement guru Keith Raniere, whose NXIVM followers included millionaires and Hollywood actors, was sentenced to 120 years on Tuesday for turning some adherents into sex slaves branded with his initials and sexually abusing a 15-year-old.

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MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Democrats and Republicans in the battleground state of Wisconsin were pushing Tuesday to get 320,000 outstanding absentee ballots returned by the close of polls on Election Day, after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to extend the deadline to receive and count ballots as Democrats had wanted.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeing chaos where others don't, President Donald Trump is falsely asserting that voting by mail is proving to be rife with problems across the country. For the most part, the surge in early votes has been managed smoothly.

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NEW YORK (AP) — A panel of health experts wants U.S. adults to start getting colon cancer screenings at age 45, five years younger than it previously recommended.

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NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump’s request that the United States replace him as the defendant in a defamation lawsuit, which alleges he raped a woman in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, was denied Tuesday by a federal judge.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump spent four years upending seven decades of American trade policy.

Today president-elect Barack Obama gets to drop the "elect" and become president-proper. Whether he'll make a proper president, no one knows for sure, but everyone except bigots and professional partisans certainly has to be hoping he will, out of self-interest if not patriotism.

It's only natural when the New Year comes to start to think of all things new and yet to come.

I hate Christmas lights.

I've heard it said that the essence of music is to make people enjoy patterns without realizing it. As far as I can tell, this is true. I can't grasp music, whether I hear it, see a sheet of notes or play Guitar Hero. It's beyond me, but I like to listen.

I apologize in advance for my column this week. I had a very bad weekend, and the worst thing about it is nothing bad actually happened to me.

The other day I sat down to watch all of the old Disney films I have on VHS.

By the time Nov. 4 comes and goes, the 2008 election may prove to be the most popular in American history. Even in Texas where the national races should be safely checked off for the Republicans, there's more excitement than usual.

My friend once told me a story of an ant farm of his. For a while they went around digging, eating and digging some more. You know, typical ant stuff. Then they started to die, one after another. Bacteria in the dirt of a closed container - or some such.

If you have a basic cable package, you probably have C-SPAN and C-SPAN2. And you probably watch them about as much as if you didn't own TV. But you should watch them more (and by that I mean "some") because when you complain that "nothing is on," C-SPAN is, and you can learn a lot.

I don’t know if you noticed (or remember), but the other day the OA published its weekly poll on the subject of offshore oil drilling. Something like 87 percent of our respondents were in favor of doing it while just 13 percent were against. Not a surprising result for this area, really.

I was talking to someone the other day about the Odessa American’s online discussion forum. You may not have been aware the OA had any forums, and that’s what we were talking about.