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A campaign asking residents of one rural Colorado county to share their federal stimulus checks raised nearly $120,000 for local businesses suffering from the effects of the pandemic, the Colorado Sun reported.

To ensure their favorite spots survived, 125 people in the small town of Holyoke raised more than $90,000 for 19 shuttered local businesses.

In nearby Haxtun, which has less than 1,000 residents, 47 people helped raise roughly $25,000 for 10 local businesses.

Recipients were free to use the funds to pay furloughed employees, invest in personal protective equipment or do whatever was needed to ensure their businesses remained solvent.

It is a message being repeated by coaches and players across the NFL: The teams who win the most games this season, which will be played amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, might be the ones whose players are the most disciplined off the field — the ones who resist the temptation to break the invisible cocoon that protects them from the virus outside.

Caseloads in the Oklahoma City metro area were surging dramatically when the city council approved a mask mandate on July 17, requiring face coverings in all indoor public spaces.

“Over the course of this last week, we’ve seen cases drop about a third here in Oklahoma City, and we have seen hospitalizations drop about 20 percent.”.

In a Facebook post, he noted that the encouraging numbers come from the entire Oklahoma City metro area, which spans three counties and includes many other smaller cities.

Many other Oklahoma communities introduced their own mask mandates around the same time that Oklahoma City did, which seems to have had an impact statewide.

Trump has been attacking mail balloting and the integrity of the vote for months, but his latest broadside makes explicit his intent to stand in the way of urgently needed money to help state and local officials administer elections during the coronavirus pandemic.

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