Work from home, we're told. You can tele-commute with your computer. True, but only up to a point. If you lack a speedy Internet connection--broadband--there could be a lot of time waiting for documents and messages to flow back and forth. Vice reporter Karl Bode recently pointed this out in an article, "The Coronavirus Will Shine a Bright Light On Crappy US Broadband."

Life has changed, then changed again, due to the coronavirus. Schools around Oregon got a lengthened spring break in order to keep students apart; then the governor tacked on four more weeks, leaving schools out until the end of April. So far. Health and school officials are getting many questions, only some of which they are able to answer. Educators are scrambling to come up with ways to teach students remotely, and have them keep up with the work.

It's one thing to watch the stock market crash because of the coronavirus pandemic. It's quite another to watch your own bank account slide into the red because you're not working. Even if Congress committed right now to a cash relief program, it'd take a while for the money to arrive. So how handle finances in the interim? Jill Gonzalez has few ideas from her perch at WalletHub .

The coronavirus outbreak has changed food purchasing and consumption, but we still have to eat. And it's still spring (as of March 19th), so nature is greening up around us. We acknowledge both the season and its unwelcome companion in this month's edition of Savor, our food segment. Food stylist Will Smith is back to talk about the tasty vegetables of spring, including asparagus (recipe below). And he brings along guest Tom Beam, who owns Ashland restaurants Pie + Vine and Sesame.

If you were out of high school before the year 2000, you're probably safe. Anybody who graduated after that time may have an Internet trail that can follow them through life, especially the people who attended school in the age of social media. Misuse of social media can hurt social lives and grades, sometimes with very grim consequences. Ana Homayoun has made a career of counseling young people through life's challenges. She takes up the current issues in her book Social Media Wellness .

Not all the scary diseases affect humans. The disease that wiped out so many sea stars--"starfish"--a few years back changed entire ecosystems. The disappearance of one kind of sea star removed predators for sea urchins, and they munched up the kelp forests in the Pacific off California. Jennifer Caselle at the University of California-Santa Barbara's Marine Science Institute was one of the researchers who recently published details of their work.

Even smaller cities on the West Coast--think Yreka--once had a Chinatown, home to people from Southern China. They came here in the 19th century, to work on the railroads and in mines, and other places that needed laborers. The departure of masses of workers from the other side of the Pacific is identified as the Chinese Diaspora, and it is a constant topic of study for historians and archaeologists. Digs in Jacksonville and many other places around the region have helped tell the story of the

In the age of social media, there are all kinds of people we call friends. But how many of those friends would come to your aid if you were in need? That's the question Val Walker confronted when living along and recovering from surgery. She tells her story, and those of many people in similar situations, in her book 400 Friends and No One to Call: Breaking through Isolation and Building Community .

The economy is taking a major thrashing from the efforts to contain the spread of Covid-19. Donnie Maclurcan has proposed giving it a thrashing for a long time now. Maclurcan advocates a steady-state economy, one that does not require constant increases in consumption, through his work leading the Ashland-based Post Growth Institute . PGI's annual events include Free Money Day, where institute staff hand out money. Congress is considering something like it to stimulate the economy now.

Many workers have been ordered to stay home, as all kinds of workplaces shut down to thwart the growth of the Covid-19 outbreak. But plenty of people still have to work in a workplace outside the home, and more than a few are known to take the risk of working while feeling ill. Oregon's Bureau of Labor and Industries , BOLI, reminds Oregon workers that even part-timers accrue sick time under state law.