Ken Tarbous

In late November, the student-run Johns Hopkins News-Letter published a story, since retracted, about a study claiming that there have been no extra deaths, known as "excess deaths," this year due to COVID-19 compared to deaths expected in an otherwise normal year. Those claims proved to be false.

When the University of Dayton (UD) started its fall semester at the end of August, COVID-19 tests results on campus revealed a positivity rate well above 40%. But the time the students left for Thanksgiving break last week, they had reduced that rate to less than 1%.

Georgia voters are expressing keen interest in next month's runoffs for two U.S. Senate seats that will determine which of the two major parties will control the nation's top legislative body.

As Georgia's audit of the presidential race has ended with Joe Biden's victory confirmed, the Peach State's voters and political parties now turn their focus to two U.S. Senate runoffs that will determine who controls the Senate.

If Joe Biden raises student loan forgiveness to $20K, millions more borrowers would be free of the crushing federal education debt.

Democrats and Republicans are focused on runoffs in Georgia's two U.S. Senate races that will determine control of Congress. In Cobb County, pivotal in Joe Biden's electoral victory over Donald Trump, both major parties are preparing battle plans with national implications.

Georgia was a pivotal state in swinging the presidential election to Joe Biden, and no Georgia county was more important in turning the state blue than Cobb County, a suburb of Atlanta.

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, which Donald Trump won in 2016 after two Barack Obama victories, and Cobb and Gwinnett counties in Georgia, which Hillary Clinton captured after successive Republican wins, have played a pivotal role in determining the outcome of this year's presidential election.

The public opinion polling industry appears to be broken. As the votes continue to be counted, the partial results tell a different story than public polls in the final weeks before Election Day that incorrectly foretold a near-landslide victory for the former vice president.

In a poll conducted for Newsweek released on Wednesday, 32% of registered voters surveyed said they're better off than four years ago, 31% said they're about the same, and 26% said they're worse off. An additional 10% said they don't know how their current situation compares to 2016.

The results of a Redfield & Wilton Strategies poll released Wednesday found that 47% of likely voters favored the Democratic nominee, compared to 41% for the Republican president, in counties that Barack Obama won in 2008 and 2012 that pivoted to Donald Trump in 2016.

Reactions of voters in critical battleground counties after last night's debate evoke those of fans at a heavyweight championship fight between a seasoned challenger poised to claim the title and a "laid back" title holder claiming victory by raising both arms over his head at the final bell.

Cobb County, Georgia, is deep into this year's election. Nearly 30% of the county's registered voters have already cast their ballots.

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, has garnered nationwide attention and speculation as Election Day approaches, not only because Donald Trump turned the county red in 2016, but also because of its proximity to Joe Biden's birthplace.

Uncertainty has been roiling the financial markets for much of this year as the coronavirus and COVID-19 pandemic rages. Added to that uncertainty is the outcome of the presidential election—and health care and health facilities stocks are not immune.

The folks in Jefferson County, a bucolic, picture-postcard setting on the Florida Panhandle about 40 minutes east of the state capital in Tallahassee, are concerned about what's going to happen in Washington, D.C., the next four years.

Microsoft's decision to allow employees to work remotely on a permanent basis is part of a trend that could lead to widespread economic changes. The areas surrounding corporate headquarters may see business closures and job losses.

Enthusiasm for politics has been growing in Cobb County, Georgia, for some time, and that enthusiasm is blossoming in the Peach State at election time.

The September jobs report issued by the U.S. Department of Labor showed the economic recovery continues, but at a slower pace.

Since taking office in 2017, President Donald Trump has had a large and likely lasting impact on the federal judiciary. But it is neither historic nor unprecedented, as both his critics and supporters claim it is.

Donald Trump won rural Fillmore County, Minnesota, once a Democratic stronghold, in 2016, but he hopes to be the first Republican presidential candidate to win the state since 1972.

Last night's raucous presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden did little to change the minds of voters in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, a county that the president won in 2016 after it went twice for Barack Obama.

President Donald Trump worked the system to avoid paying taxes in10 of 15 years, including parts of the Obama presidency, according to published reports.

Voters say Joe Biden embodies better leadership characteristics than Donald Trump in 18 of 19 areas in a recent Redfield & Wilton Strategies survey of 3,000 voters.

Lawn signs from both Biden and Trump campaigns have been disappearing from lawns in Jefferson County, Florida. One local party official says it's a subtle form of aggression.

Business are avoiding President Trump's Payroll Tax Holiday because of the complexity and fears of being stuck with the tax bills of former employees.

Voters in Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, tuned out in large numbers in 2016, helping Donald Trump win in a community that went twice for Obama. This year, voter enthusiasm is again high in the former coal mining hub that could decide the presidential election.

Congressman Tim Walberg, a Republican who represents Monroe County, said the area's unemployment rate is a "hard pill to swallow."