Media

WASHINGTON — Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif., fears for his safety when leaving his home to get groceries, he told USA TODAY in a recent interview.

Lieu said he had pepper spray and was considering bringing it with him when he left his home.

"Now, I think about if I'm going to go to the grocery store, I wonder if I should carry this on me. And no one should be thinking about that," said Lieu, who represents a Los Angeles-area district.

BY MORGAN MCKAY NEW YORK STATE

PUBLISHED 6:39 AM ET MAR. 24, 2020

New York officials on Monday announced it was launching a hotline number New Yorkers could call to report hate crimes and bias-based incidents.

Even during this pandemic, hate crimes are still a pervasive problem in New York.

Recently, there has been a rise in the number of incidents against Asian-Americans, with people being called racial slurs, attacked for wearing a protective masks and even sprayed with chemicals.

By Jesse McKinley and Shane Goldmacher

ALBANY, N.Y. — Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo awoke before dawn on Tuesday, emerging after a few hours' sleep to board a helicopter to New York City for the coronavirus briefing that has become a daily ritual for him and for the millions of people now watching.

But this event would be different. The outbreak was moving faster than he had expected, with the number of confirmed cases doubling every three days, and he decided he needed to show people — including the White House — how desperate the situation had become.

• By Carlotta Mohamed