Neil A. Carousso produces and co-hosts WCBS Newsradio 880’s Small Business Spotlight series with Joe Connolly. Click here to watch the weekly video segments featuring advice for business owners on survival, recovery and growth opportunities.

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    Blood Drives Seeking Donors As Supply Slows Down

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    NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — The New York Blood Center says that 75 percent of its incoming blood supply was interrupted when schools, business and religious institutions closed because of coronavirus.

    Andrea Cefarelli, the Senior Executive Director of Donor Recruitment for the New York Blood Center, says they’ve increased hours at their centers in an effort to bring in more donors.

    “We’ve added days and added shifts so many days we are open 12 hours per day, in the hopes that healthy individuals will come out to donate and give the gift of life,” Cefarelli told WCBS 880’s Neil A. Carousso.

    The centers have switched from walk-ins to appointment only, so that they can manage a safe distance between donors.

    “In New York, we usually have about 30,000 blood donations per month,” Cefarelli said. “We’ve seen cancellations of 25,000”

    The centers want to remind potential donors that a single pint of donated blood can be used to save multiple lives.

    The center’s 19 locations across New York and New Jersey do not test for novel coronavirus.

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    NYC To Open 1st Drive-Thru COVID-19 Test Site Thursday On Staten Island

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    NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — New York City’s first drive-through coronavirus testing site will open on Staten Island Thursday morning.

    The site will be located at the South Beach Psychiatric Center on Seaview Avenue.

    Congressman Max Rose, who represents Staten Island, took to Twitter to announce the testing facility will be open to all New Yorkers, but by appointment only. It will operate from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

    The Health Department notes that a person must be experiencing symptoms of the virus to be eligible for an appointment.

    If somebody suspects they may have the virus, they should call the New York State Department of Hospitality at (888) 364-3065.

    The state opened another drive-through testing center at Jones Beach on Long Island Tuesday morning.

    The site is also testing on an appointment basis, and patients must show identification at various checkpoints in order to ensure no tests are wasted.

    The first drive-through testing site opened in New Rochelle last week, when the city had the largest cluster of cases in the state. Most were connected to a 50-year-old attorney who worked in Manhattan.

    For information on how to make an appointment, call the New York State Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Hotline at 1-888-364-3065.

    Rockland County opened its first drive-through center on Wednesday afternoon at the MedRite Urgent Care in Spring Valley. Officials hope to be able to test hundreds of people per day at the location.

    Meanwhile, ProHEALTH, a private medical facility in New York, opened two other locations in Jericho and Little Neck on Wednesday.

    ProHEALTH patients who are experiencing symptoms of a high fever, sore throat and cough, and those who have been exposed to someone who tested positive for COVID-19, may call a dedicated hotline for a medical screening before they are able to make an appointment for a test, which includes a nasopharyngeal swab in both nostrils.

    “We try to make an assessment and then act accordingly,” Dr. Bonnie Simmons, chair of ProHEALTH Urgent Care, told WCBS 880. “It may be stay home and continue doing what you’re doing, it may be go to a hospital, it isn’t turning around fast enough.”

    Dr. Simmons said there are still hospital beds available, but medical professionals are concerned hospitals could reach maximum capacity. ProHEALTH is increasing its Telemedicine capabilities for doctor evaluations to prevent an overflow in its urgent care.

    “The best way to limit this entire pandemic is for everybody to stay home and self-isolate and self-medicate with Tylenol [or] Advil like you would with any other virus,” said Dr. Simmons who started tested patients in Jericho at 7 AM on Wednesday.

    ProHEALTH will be able to test a couple hundred in-network patients a day at both new locations. The healthcare system is offering testing for non-ProHEALTH patients at its other locations on Long Island and in New York City.

    The ProHEALTH coronavirus hotline is (516) 874-0411.

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    Super Tuesday 2020: Sanders Wins Prized California Primary As Biden Surges Nationwide

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    NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — Super Tuesday seemed to turn into a two-man battle between former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders early in the night, despite five candidates vying for delegates from 14 states and one U.S. territory.

    About one-third (1,344) of all delegates were up for grabs and it takes 1,991 pledged delegates to win the nomination.

    Biden saw a surge of support Tuesday after gaining endorsements from Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar and former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg on Monday night.

    RELATED: What You Need To Know On Super Tuesday

    Early in the night, Biden scored a series of wins taking Alabama, Oklahoma and the battleground states of North Carolina and Virginia. CBS News then projected the former Vice President to win the Tennessee primary and the Associated Press projected him to win Minnesota and Arkansas. He also took Massachusetts, upsetting Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her home state.

    Meanwhile, Sanders claimed the biggest Super Tuesday prize with the Associated Press projecting he would take California, which has 415 delegates up for grabs. Sanders also pulled off an expected home-state win in Vermont and took another victory in Colorado, which has 67 delegates at stake, as well as Utah.

    Maine and Texas were too close to call after midnight, with Biden holding a slim lead in Maine (about 2,000 votes) and a growing lead in Texas (about 25,000 votes).

    Votes were still being called early Wednesday, but the Associated Press allocated 362 delegates to Biden, 285 to Sanders, 30 to Bloomberg, 20 to Warren and one for Rep. Tulsi Gabbard.

    Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, appeared on the ballots for the first time on Super Tuesday, but saw a poor performance overall.

    While he took at least five delegates from American Samoa, according to the Associated Press, the former New York City mayor will reassess whether he will continue his bid for president on Wednesday.

    Hawaii Sen. Tulsi Gabbard remains in the race but has not reached double-digits – nor has any other candidate that has since dropped out.

    California poll numbers suggest Sanders also has the most support among potential voters with 35%. He is followed by Warren at 14%, Biden at 13% and Bloomberg at 12% support.

    Despite struggling in the polls, Warren vowed to remain in the race. Early results showed her polling in third in her home state, and that could be a bad look for her campaign.

    “Symbolically it’s bad. It hurts her narrative. The question then is if you can’t win in your home state where can you win?” CBS News reporter Zak Hudak told WCBS 880. “It’s embarrassing for her if that happens. Does it threaten her Senate seat in the future? I don’t know, maybe? At the very least it’s really embarrassing and it kind of creates this mentality of her own people, her own constituents, don’t want her to be president.”

     

    Neil A. Carousso is the 2020 Elections Producer for WCBS Newsradio 880, producing all multi-media content of WCBS’ Election Night special coverage.

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    New Hampshire Primary 2020: Sanders Declares Victory

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    CONCORD, N.H. (WCBS 880) — Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has won the New Hampshire primary.

    After a tight race, Sanders came out on top with over 69,000 votes in the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary. In second place was former South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg followed by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.

    Shortly after a number of outlets began to call the race, Sanders took to Twitter to declare his victory.

    “We are going to unite together and defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country,” he told a cheering crowd of supporters in Manchester. “The reason I believe we are going to win is that we have an unprecedented grassroots movement from coast to coast of millions of people. The reason that we are going to win is that we are putting together an unprecedented multi-generational, multi-racial political movement. And this is a movement from coast to coast, which is demanding that we finally have an economy and a government that works for all of us, not wealthy campaign contributors.”

    CBS News estimates Sanders will walk away with at least 8 delegates, Buttigieg at least 7, and Klobuchar at least 4.

    A total of eight candidates had been vying for votes: Sanders, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, former Vice President Joe Biden, Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, former hedge fund investor Tom Steyer and former tech executive Andrew Yang — who decided to drop out of the race as polls closed.

    Michael Bennet, a 55-year-old senator from Colorado who entered the race in late April, also dropped out during the evening, after failing to stand out in the crowded Democratic field.

    Despite falling short, Klobuchar sounded confident when she addressed supporters as results continued to come in.

    “I came back and we delivered,” she said. “America deserves a president who is as resilient as her people.”

    She firmly stated that she would be the person to defeat President Donald Trump in the general election.

    Meanwhile, Warren vowed to continue her efforts in other states.

    “The fight we’re in, the fight to save our democracy, is an uphill battle, but our campaign is built for the long haul and we’re just getting started,” Warren said.

    At his election night event, Buttigieg didn’t seem too upset by the loss and said he “admired” Sanders as a teenager.

    “I respect him greatly to this day, and I congratulate him on his strong showing tonight,” Buttigieg said.

    Meanwhile, the night proved to be slightly disappointing for Biden, who did not attend any events in New Hampshire. Instead, the 77-year-old had gone to South Carolina to get a head start on campaigning in the state before it holds the second primary in a number of days.

    “We just heard from the first two of the states … where I come from, that’s just the opening bell, not the closing bell,” Biden said.

    Klobuchar surged in the race following a strong showing in the most recent debate.

    “This is a state that Bernie Sanders won last time over Hillary Clinton,” Dr. Lee M. Miringoff, director of the Marist College Institute for Public Opinion, said. “What we’re seeing is people like Peter Buttigieg and tonight Amy Klobuchar as clearly gotten into the top tier she’s broken away from the pack where Elizabeth Warren and former Vice President Joe Biden are dropping almost out of sight.”

    The first votes in the race were cast in Dixville Notch, New Hampshire, where residents often take part in a tradition of casting their votes at midnight. There was one confirmed vote for Buttigieg, one vote for Sanders and two write-in votes for Mike Bloomberg, who received an extra vote from a Republican, even though he does not appear in the New Hampshire ballot.

    A new Quinnipiac University national poll had Bloomberg just a couple of points behind Biden, whose support among Democrats and independents has plummeted in the past two weeks.

    Earlier, exit polling from CBS News found almost half of Democratic primary voters decided on the candidate in the last few days, with many saying the most recent debate was an important factor in making their choice.

    Meanwhile, there seemed to be division among New Hampshire voters as to what kind of policies they want to adopt. About 40% say they want to return to Barack Obama’s policies, while 38% want to change to more liberal policies.

    The most unifying factor seemed to be the desire to vote President Donald Trump out of office. More than 9 in 10 voters in the New Hampshire Democrats primary said they were unhappy with the Trump administration – including 81% who are angry.

    Many also said they prefer a nominee who can beat Trump, a sentiment that was often observed by WCBS 880’s Steve Burns on the road in the state.

    Voters in New Hampshire say the most important issue is health care, followed by climate change, income inequality and foreign policy.

    President Donald Trump also made a stop in the Granite State on Monday night to rally supporters, and possibly sway some undecided Democrats to vote red.

    During the rally, the president focused on his goals should he be elected again in 2020 and took time to criticize House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for ripping up her copy of the State of the Union speech last week.

    The crowd responded with chants of “Lock her up.”

    Trump easily won New Hampshire’s Republican primary against minimal opposition.

     

    Neil A. Carousso is the 2020 elections producer for WCBS Newsradio 880, including producing and editing all video content.

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    Iowa Caucus 2020: Caucus Results Delayed By Mobile App Issues

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    DES MOINES, Iowa (WCBS 880) — Problems with a mobile app appeared to force a delay in reporting the results of the Iowa caucuses Monday, as the campaigns, voters and the media pressed party officials for an explanation and got few answers.

    An Iowa Democratic Party official pointed to “quality control” as the source of the delays — but noted that about a quarter of the state’s nearly 1,700 precincts have reported their data already. The party also said the delay was not caused by a “hack or an intrusion.”

    But other officials blamed technology. Des Moines County Democratic Chair Tom Courtney said he heard that in precincts across his county, including his own, a mobile app created for caucus organizers to report results to the party was “a mess.”

    RELATED: Everything You Need To Know About The Iowa Caucus

    The statement came as Iowa voters packed caucus sites across the state as Democrats balanced a strong preference for fundamental change with an overwhelming desire to defeat President Donald Trump in the opening contest of the 2020 presidential primary season.

    Precinct leaders were instead calling in their results to the Democratic Party headquarters, and “they weren’t answering the phones in Des Moines” because, Courtney speculated, they were mobbed with calls.

    The apps were barely working, forcing party aides to record results from the precincts via phone and enter them manually into a database, according to a person involved in processing the data who requested anonymity to discuss the party’s internal process.

    The slowdown came as the party attempted to report more data about the caucus than in years past — promising to release both a headcount of each candidates’ supporters and the delegate winners from each site.

    Quiz: See Which Democratic Frontrunner You Align With Most (in Their Own Words)

    “The integrity of the results is paramount,” Iowa Democratic Party spokeswoman Mandy McClure said in a statement. “We have experienced a delay in the results due to quality checks and the fact that the IDP is reporting out three data sets for the first time. What we know right now is that around 25% of precincts have reported, and early data indicates turnout is on pace for 2016.”

    The problems were an embarrassment for a state party that has long sought to protect its prized status as the first contest in the primary race. The delay was certain to become fodder for caucus critics who call the process antiquated and exclusionary.

    President Donald Trump’s campaign quickly seized on the issue to sow doubt about the validity of the results.

    “Quality control = rigged?” Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale tweeted Monday evening, adding a emoji with furrowed brows.

    Linn County Auditor Joel Miller, who ran a precinct in the Cedar Rapids suburb of Robins, said some app users may not have gotten the instructions on how to log into the system.

    “If people didn’t know where to look for the PIN numbers or the precinct numbers, that could slow them down,” said Miller, who said he had no problem using the system to report his precinct’s figures and it worked fine.

    Helen Grunewald, a precinct caucus chairwoman in Benton County, said she had been on hold with the party trying to report her results for a significant amount of time.

    Earlier in the night, however, Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Troy Price said while there were some reports from precinct officials that they couldn’t log into the mobile app, a team of trouble-shooters was working to address any technical issues.

    “We’ve had an app before but we’ve also had a hotline before, and folks have had the option to do that, and so we expect that we’ll be able to report the results in a timely manner this evening,” he said.

     

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Neil A. Carousso is the WCBS Newsradio 880 2020 Elections Producer.

     

     

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