Democrats keep winning the popular vote. That worries them.

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Military voters fear they’re part of unsupported fraud claim

By MICHAEL RUBINKAM 
 Health officials in Pennsylvania's third-most populous county ordered schools Friday to temporarily halt classroom instruction in what they said was an effort to contain the spread of the coronavirus.
 The Montgomery County Board of Health mandated that all public and private K-12 schools in the suburban Philadelphia county offer virtual instruction for two weeks beginning Nov. 23. 
 The unanimous vote came one day after dozens of parents and school administrators expressed vehement opposition to the plan, calling online education insufficient and accusing the health board of failing to present any evidence linking schools to the wider outbreak. 
 Board members said Friday that rising cases counts and hospitalizations, along with the potential that children will contract the virus over Thanksgiving break and then spread it in schools, required them to act.
 “I completely understand their concerns,” said board member Dr. Francis Jeyaraj, a pediatrician. “But these are difficult times for all of us. It’s a total community effort.”
 Board member Barbara Wadsworth, senior vice president and chief nursing officer at Main Line Health, said her four hospitals were treating 33 patients for COVID-19 four weeks ago, with that number rising to 106 now.
 She said virtual instruction is "difficult and certainly not easy, but I think that if we don't do this then we will be in a significantly worse situation post-Thanksgiving holiday.”
 The board made one small concession, dropping language that made the shutdown more open-ended.
 Across Pennsylvania, some schools, including in the state's largest school district in Philadelphia, have yet to return to classroom instruction, while others started the academic year virtually and then invited students to return to class at least part time. Schools that are open for in-person instruction have responded to small clusters of virus cases by shutting down for several days at a time.
 Gov. Tom Wolf ordered a statewide schools closure after the pandemic arrived in Pennsylvania last March. For this academic year, the Pennsylvania Department of Health recommends that schools go virtual if the surrounding county is determined to have a “substantial” level of community spread for two consecutive weeks — the status in 23 counties right now — but leaves the ultimate decision to local authorities.

Populous Philly suburban county orders schools to go remote