By MATT SEDENSKY The Associated Press WARNER ROBINS, Ga. — In the activity room, where birthdays were celebrated and Sunday services were held, the aquarium and its brightly colored tropical fish are the only signs of life. Off quiet hallways, Southern Pines residents pass the time with word-search books or a nap. Meals once were a social time enjoyed at tables of neighbors; now most are delivered bedside. Visitors are resigned to muffled conversations through windowpanes, and the only tickets out may be a trip to dialysis or an ambulance ride to the hospital — or something worse. Life has…

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp sued the city of Atlanta over its face-mask requirement just after President Donald Trump arrived in the city without wearing a mask, Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Friday. In an interview on CBS “This Morning,” Bottoms questioned the timing of the lawsuit filed shortly after Trump’s Wednesday visit to the city, calling the litigation “really odd.” “I pointed out that Donald Trump violated that order when he landed at our airport and did not wear a mask,” she said. She said Kemp “is a Trump loyalist and he seems to work very hard…

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO The Associated Press NEW YORK — Target, CVS Health and Publix Super Markets on Thursday joined the growing list of national chains that will require customers to wear face masks regardless of where cities or states stand on the issue. Target’s mandatory face mask policy will go into effect Aug. 1, and all CVS stores will begin requiring them on Monday. Publix Super Markets Inc., based in Lakeland, Florida, said that its rule will kick in on Tuesday at all 1,200 stores. More than 80 percent of Target’s 1,800 stores already require customers to wear masks due…

By JOSH BOAK and CHRISTOPHER RUGABER The Associated Press BALTIMORE — Rising coronavirus infections across dozens of states are threatening the U.S. economic recovery, forcing businesses and consumers to freeze spending and keeping the unemployment rate stubbornly high. The government reported Thursday that retail sales rose a sharp 7.5 percent in June, but the positive trend was undercut by more recent data showing that credit card spending has stalled. A separate report showed that more than a million Americans sought unemployment benefits last week – a sign that companies continue to cut jobs as the virus slashes through the heavily…

By MIKE STOBBE and BERNARD CONDON The Associated Press NEW YORK — Hospital data related to the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S. will now be collected by a private technology firm, rather than the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a move the Trump administration says will speed up reporting but one that concerns some public health leaders. The CDC director said Wednesday that he’s fine with the change — even though some experts fear it will further sideline the agency. The CDC has agreed to step out of the government’s traditional data collection process “in order to streamline…

By CAROLYN THOMPSON The Associated Press New York parents and educators got some long-awaited answers to their back-to-school questions Monday, with Gov. Andrew Cuomo saying schools will be allowed to open in areas where the coronavirus is under control and education officials outlining a raft of guidance for whether that happens in-person, remotely or a combination of both. Each of the state’s 700 school districts has until the end of this month to detail school-by-school reopening plans. Cuomo said they will be able to move forward with them in regions that are both in phase four of the state’s overall…