Government just cuts you a check . Soledad im soledad obrien. Welcome to matter of fact. With lockdowns loosened across the country, were watching a balancing act play out in real time. How do you get people back to work, and how do you keep people healthy in the middle of a Global Pandemic . Michigan has had more than 4600 covid19 deaths, the fourth highest death toll in the country, behind new york and new jersey and massachusetts. Detroit has been the hardest hit city in the state, but they are now seeing a small decline in cases. Michigans democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer has allowed some industries, like construction, manufacturing, and real estate, to reopen this month. Jessica gomez takes us to thebad crisis. Youre good to go, sir. Jessica new safety procedures in place at ford as automakers plan to start phasing in production on monday. Lane one jessica a different kind of Assembly Line at the detroit fairgrounds. Health care providers, testing for the coronavirus. What we want to do is make tests available for anyone that needs it. Jessica the city, requiring all essential workers to get tested, symptoms or not. Grocery store owner zak yatim, bringing in his employees. So far, no one has gotten sick. Thats extremely uncomfortable, but im glad its done. Jessica at the citys health department, detroit police, who had some 600 members quarantined last month, getting tested, along with other city workers, employees, before they can go back to work. Well get results in about 15 minutes. Jessica medical students from local universities, volunteering their time. Of the first 20,000 people the city of detroit tested, about 1 4 tested positive. Residents and staff at detroits nursing and group homes also getting tested. About 10 of those who are positive had no symptoms. Hello. Jessica detroits chief Public Health officer denise fair, on the job for only 9 months. Denise i think what keeps me up at night is the number of cases, the number of deaths, but whats also really helpful, really rewarding, is that people are recovering. I really believe that detroiters are taking this seriously, and thats how we are beating this. We are staying at home, wearing our masks, and practicing social distancing. But if were not following the guidelines, we are going to be just back where we were a couple of weeks ago. Jessica bakery owner april anderson. Her mother, father, and grandmother are still recovering from the virus. She knows many others who didnt make it. April in my circle, we have known 15 people who have died from it. Not just infected, but have died from it. So i know its real and i know its serious. Jessica now with delivery and wholesale only, her revenue has been cut in half, but until theres a vaccine, she cant see her business back the way it was. April i do have to make a living, but i want to be here making a living. I dont want to be dead. I dont want one of my employees get sick and in the hospital or pass, and thats on me. Jessica at zak yatims Grocery Store, the results are back. He and his employees, all negative. With Safety Measures in place, business has been good. His small restaurant, though, zak i dont know how that future looks. I dont know if our Grocery Store becomes largger or we eliminate the restaurant portion. I hope we dont have to do that. Five people in your family. How many kids . Jessica the Economic Impact of an invisible virus, clear to see. Here, the Assembly Line is one of need. Cars lining up for blocks at the forgotten harvest mobile food bank, one of 15 in the area. There you go kirk weve seen need coming from directions we would never predict and we are finding ourselves having to meet the need of new kinds of people. Jessica its norms first time asking for help. We ran out. Jessica but behind him, people pointed elsewhere. Theyve run out of food here. Norm it almost makes me want to give my box to somebody else. It almost makes me want to give what i have to someone who cant even get anything. Jessica motor city stalled, but on the road to recovery. Well figure out how to get tougher, well figure out how to learn from this. Jessica in detroit, for matter of fact, im jessica gomez. Next on matter of fact, mailing it in. Voting at home is the safest way to go. People in oregon have picked the president by mail for more than 20 years, so why not just let everyone do it that way in november . Plus, would you open your door for a stranger . Why your neighbor is counting on you to do it. Olays retinol24 faced the competition and we broke through. Olays retinol24 complex hydrates better than the 100 retinol cream. Visibly smoother brighter skin in just 24 hours. Olay retinol24. Doprevagen is the number oneild mempharmacistrecommendeding . Memory support brand. You can find it in the vitamin aisle in stores everywhere. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. [female vo] restaurants are facing a crisis. And theyre counting on your takeout and delivery orders to make it through. Grubhub. Together we can help save the restaurants we love. You know your kid doesnt step around puddles. And you know cheap leaky diapers are an amateur move. You need luvs prolevel protection. Luvs. Parent like a pro. Matter of fact. Were roughly 170 days out from the election, and with the pandemic still likely a threat in the fall, is it time to shift to a mailin election . Five states, colorado, hawaii, oregon, washington, and utah, conduct all elections entirely by mail, and the residents of the state of oregon have voted this way for 22 years. I talked to Oregon Governor kate brown via skype. Governor kate brown, its so nice to have you. Thanks for talking with me. So, walk us through how it works. What are all the ways that people in the state of oregon can vote . Gov. Brown its pretty simple. Basically, we get our voters pamphlet, which is like our bible, tells us which candidates are on the ballot, all about them, and what initiatives are on the ballot. And then our ballots come about 2 1 2 weeks before the election. And in a number of places, people vote early. And oregonians now, we have prepaid postage, so every single mailbox is truly a drop box. And if you want to vote at a polling place, those are open as well. So we have lots of options. Soledad so take me back 20 years when this was happening. What was the debate like around this . Gov. Brown we had been voting in local elections by mail since the early 1980s. But our secretary of state was adamant that our statewide races and our legislative races should be by mail as well. So he went to the ballot through Initiative Process and oregonians overwhelmingly voted yes to support our vote by mail system. Soledad people who often talk about not supporting vote by mail talk about voter fraud. Id be curious what youve seen in your state. Gov. Brown the reality is this that voter fraud is extremely rare. And in our vote at home system, we have a number of security measures in place to ensure the integrity of the ballot. In addition, barcodes on every envelope. Signature, every single signature is verified. The wonderful thing about a paper ballot is that it is nonhackable. And you can verify the results of the election, plus running elections via mail, substantially less expensive. And the integrity of the election can be secured. Soledad have you had to make changes to the process over the last 20 years . What have you tweaked . Gov. Brown so weve tweaked a couple of things. We had online registration and then we expanded into automatic Voter Registration. We have 91 of eligible voters registered to vote. Most recently we did two things. We allowed 16yearolds and 17yearolds to preregister to vote, and now we have postage paid ballots. Soledad do you think other states could replicate what youre doing . Gov. Brown most states have some type of Absentee Ballot Program and this would simply be expanding access to absentee ballots. We know given the covid19 crisis that some states are moving in this direction. Voting at home is the safest way to go. Soledad do you see winners and losers by party through giving people an opportunity to vote by mail . Gov. Brown no. I think its really about which candidates can run the best ground games. And i think the research is really clear that it doesnt benefit a particular party. What i would say is this, is that our automatic Voter Registration system, it has enabled more people of color to participate. Oregon went from being one of the lowest states in terms of people of color registered to second. We know that folks in more rural parts of the state are participating as a result of our automatic Voter Registration. And i think thats really important that we have a greater diversity of voices making decisions during our election. I think thats a good thing. Soledad governo the best things that the ourernment can do is just get help with soledad how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state will have. Seats and Electoral College votes each state will have. And it only takes a few each of us has a purpose. We are destined to do something meaningful. What do you think a private, christian, education looks like . Gcu offers over 175 high quality online programs. Find your purpose at grand canyon university. Visit gcu. Edu. Americans were facing income instability. According to the federal reserve, 23 million americans said they lived paycheck to paycheck, 20 struggling to pay their monthly bills, and 40 unable to cover an unexpected expense of 400. With millions today still waiting on unemployment and stimulus checks, some members of congress say they want a 2000 Monthly Payment during the crisis and a 1000 Monthly Payment for a year afterward. A guaranteed monthly income is not a new idea. President nixon, a republican, floated it twice, in 1969 and 1973, and most recently ubi was embraced by democratic president ial candidate andrew yang. Annie lowrey is a staff writer at the atlantic and author of the book, give people money. Ms. Lowrey, thank you for talking with me. So a universal basic income, we b im curious, what are the basic arguments for and against . Ms. Lowrey so i think the basic argument for is one of simplicity and immediacy. This is a really easy proposal for the government to enact, unlike something like, you know, the obama insurance exchanges, which are really complicated. And, you know, the kind of argument against is that this is a really expensive thing to do, depending on the scale that youre doing it on. Soledad so crises, i have found, sometimes pave the way for big ideas. Do you see this making a change hill talk a lot about is can we make these proposals automatic so that we dont need multiple acts of congress and tons of legislating to have assistance get to families really quickly. So one proposal, which is created by a former fed economist named claudia saam, would tie Cash Payments to the unemployment rate. So if you had a sudden unemployment shock, government would just start sending checks out. Thats not exactly ubi, but its based on ubi. Soledad the numbers that are being batted around 2000 through the crisis and then 1000 a month after the crisis. Are those numbers that you in your analysis would say, yeah, that would work . Ms. Lowrey absolutely. So the idea with a basic income is that you are giving people enough money to kind of keep their heads above water, to help them through sort of a sudden calamity in their lives. They dont want to give people so much money that you utterly reduce the incentive to work. And so 1000, thats roughly what folks in alaska get from the alaska permanent fund, which it basically sends out money from the state pot of oil revenue to alaskans every year. And its been shown to have a pretty powerful antipoverty effect without changing peoples work lives too, too much. Soledad and do you see that then getting rid of some other things like snap or free college or medicare for all or child care grants . Would that sort of be rolled in together or would that just have another be another sort of layer on top of those programs . Ms. Lowrey some people talk about it as being kind of Social Security for all, but its really important if its sending everybody just 1000 a month even though thats a huge amount of money, thats actually a pretty significant cut in benefits. For lower income and middle income families, if its literally replacing everything, which is kind of the libertarian argument, giving families 1000 a month is not going to make a share insurance affordable for them. This is not a magic bullet. It is not the only policy. You need other supportive policies to go with it, absolutely. Soledad youve looked at experiments, i guess id call them, around the globe. What did you learn from what you saw . Ms. Lowrey i think one of the really big takeaways is that cash is efficient and effective. It doesnt increase things like vice spending, so people dont spend more money on things like lottery tickets or alcohol or drugs. Theres always these great concerns thaney like this or tl just waste the money. And we know from dozens and dozens of studies in countries around the world that thats not true. You can really trust people when you give them cash like this, even when it comes with no strings attached. Soledad annie lowrey writes for the atlantic. Thank you for talking with me. Ms. Lowrey thank you so much for having me. Ahead on matter of fact, making sure you still count in america. Plus, how the spirit of generosity still guides millions during a time of social distancing. Were all doing our part by staying at home. That could mean an increase in energy bills. You can save by using a fan to cool off. Unplugging and turning off devices when not in use. Or closing your shades during the day. Stay well and keep it golden. Theyre our neighbors. And theyre our friends. Theyre our parents. Our brothers and sisters. And our children. But now, they are more than that. They are forever our heroes, too. At prudential, were fortunate to know and serve them. And were grateful to the heroic men and women rking on the front line to move our nation forward. To all the heroes, we thank you. Matter of fact. The u. S. Census bureaus effort to get an accurate count of our population has been slowed by the pandemic, but they are working to catch up. Some local census offices are reopening, in florida, georgia, kansas, kentucky, missouri, north carolina, oregon, pennsylvania, and washington. Under new Safety Measures, workers will wear masks andques. Or you can do it online at my2020census. Gov. The results determine how many congressional seats and Electoral College votes each state will have, how voting maps get redrawn, and how federal funding is distributed for things like schools, roads, housing programs, and, indeed, Public Health. The National Response rate is about 58 . I filled out mine. It takes less than 5 minutes. If you havent responded to your survey yet, you can expect to see a census worker at your door in august. Next, prayer, feast, and reflection. How can billions of muslims worldwide keep up with the how can billions of muslims worldwide keep up with the traditions of ramadan online . When your vneck looks more like a uneck. Thats when you know, its halfwashed. Downy helps prevent stretching by conditioning fibers, so clothes look newer, longer. Downy and its done. For over 75 years people. With geico. Ohhh. Sorry . Directors voice here we go. From the top. And action for over 75 years people have saved money with gecko so. Directors voice cut it . What. What did i say . Gecko . I said gecko . Aw. For over 75 year. laughs. But still trying to keep it contained directors voice keep it together. Im good. Im good. For over 75. uncontrollable laughter . What are you doing there . Stop making me laugh. Vo geico. Saving people money for over seventyfive years. Gecko dont look at me. Dont look at me. Ive tried the 200 creams, the 400 creams Olay Regenerist microsculpting cream makes my skin feel so hydrated. I can face anything with my olay. And my latest beauty secret. For bright, smooth skin. Olay regenerist cream cleanser. Month of the year, where muslims fast from dawn until sunset. While ramadan is a time for reflection and spiritual discipline, its also a time for community, because muslims gather in the evenings after they break their fast, making ramadan also one of the most social months for many, until now. Our correspondent Leone Lakhani has more. [imam call to prayer] leone this lone imam stands in an empty prayer hall, signaling the end of the fasting day. His followers tune in online. Mosques like adams, the second largest in the country, closed its doors, but provides Services Like daily prayers and talks remotely. A remote ramadan is the only type Miguel Perdomo has known. This is his first, having just converted to islam in november. Miguel to prepare, i actually i started fasting really, really actually in november, i was already fasting. When i realized i was going to experience ramadan through the lockdown was probably, you know, less than a month before ramadan, and thats when it really hit, you know. Leone miguel says its going smoothly so far. Hes part of an online group with friends all over the world, even breaking fast over the internet. So tell me the type of things youre doing. Miguel we get up like 4 00 a. M. First. Before we eat, we pray, and then we get online. To be able to break fast with people at the same time online, it just creates this community and this bond. Leone other communities are finding new purposes. This center is closed for communal prayers, so its using the prayer hall to store food. Charity and feeding the needy are important components of ramadan, so volunteers are doing these curbside food giveaways. Its one of the few nonvirtual things you will see this year, but with lots of precautions. Masked volunteers prep the food, then put it in the trunks to maintain safe distances. So, despite the restrictions of an unusual year with unusual circumstances, muslims here are ensuring the spirit of ramadan persists. For matter of fact, this is Leone Lakhani in washington. Soledad this year ramadan ends the evening of may 23. Thats it for this edition of matter of fact. Well see you next week. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] hello and welcome to Asian Pacific america. Im robert handa, your host for our show here on nbc bay area. We start with c. A. M. , the center for Asian American media. The executive director will join uso talk about two ongoing projec series on pbs and their online film festival. Then we highlight one of our hon res for Asian Pacific heritage month, ann ihm. And then we s