All countries urged to make public health affordable, while caution against early cancellation of measures. California expands telehealth video-chats and Angelenenos are advised to wear masks in public. Santa Monica enforces strict measures as will shut down construction sites that do not follow COVID-19 guidelines. $1,200 on the way, as unemployment claims skyrocket and rent along with water bills are suspended.

As of 5 p.m. on March 31, Santa Monica College (SMC) announced to its faculty via email that all instructor-initiated dropped courses taking place on or after March 4 through the “Guaranteed Withdrawal deadline” will be recoded, in which the W will be removed from transcripts. SMC will perform a “catch-up batch job” today, April 1, to take care of any outstanding W’s on student transcripts resulting from student or instructor-initiated drops, according to the announcement.

As colleges across the country close their campus and switch to online format due to COVID-19, many students fear the unknown. International students face an even more unpredictable outlook as they grapple with the choice to stay in America or attempt to rush back home to familiar surroundings.

President Trump extended the timeline for the social distancing rules enacted in response to the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) to April 30. The move comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and point man on the U.S.’ response to the coronavirus predicted that COVID-19 could take as many as 200,000 American lives even after stringent preventative measures were enacted.

As COVID-19 expands it raises the case's numbers of the world and two SMC students test positive. California adopts rougher orders as public places close, while the 2.2 trillion Emergency Financial Package gets Signed and the Navy hospital ship USNS Mercy docks in Los Angeles.

Layoffs threaten the U.S. economy. Financial back up and health insurance become available to protect yourself from the coronavirus and to avoid penalties from the California mandatory health coverage law. During this process be aware of online scammers.

A visual guide to the updates students of Santa Monica College (SMC) have received to how the college is adjusting during this pandemic.

Leaders in the Senate and the White House reached a compromise early Wednesday morning on a $2 trillion plan to resuscitate the U.S. economy from the unprecedented economic damage in response to the growth of the coronavirus epidemic.

COVID-19, a pandemic has taken the world’s breath away, by transforming every area of human life in the nation. The constant efforts to contain it include, but are not limited to closures, stay at home orders and a financial battle is spread with furloughs around the country.

As the coronavirus has spread throughout the world, with China picking up the pieces in Wuhan and Italy’s death toll still rising, a sudden and continual blast of media coverage has translated in to fear and empty shelves in Southern California.

In a whirlwind of a week, Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles has taken tremendous action to reassure Angelenos of their safety and to prevent the coronavirus COVID-19 from spreading.

Santa Monica College (SMC) took drastic measures on Wed. March 11 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and ensure the safety of the students, by moving most classes to remote learning, while still keeping the campuses open to make available their resources.

President Trump addressed the nation on Wednesday evening, announcing a ban on all travel between mainland Europe and the United States, in response to the growing threat of coronavirus (COVID-19) throughout the world and inside of the United States. This was the 46th president’s second address over three years in power, the first of which concerned a illegal immigration and the government shutdown of January, 2019.

The Los Angeles Community College District (LACC) has announced today (March 11) that they will be shifting to online classes due to worries about the spread of coronavirus.

Former presidential candidate Andrew Yang made an appearance on the daytime television show “The View” on March 5 where he announced the launch of his non-profit, Humanity Forward, that wants to build a "Human Centered Movement." Endorsing political candidates who share the same platforms as Yang, such as Universal Basic Income (UBI) and data privacy protection, lay the foundation for this movement. The non-profit has already secured $3 million for these projects and issues important to Yang and those who join Humanity Forward.

Santa Monica College’s (SMC) Center for Media and Design (CMD) found its first major food vendor in Everytable this February.

The voting public in America is quite familiar with general election terms such as “popular vote” and the often-debated “electoral college” to elect the President of the United States. However, during primary season, the process becomes a bit more complicated.

Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, the independent senator of Vermont, held a rally in the Los Angeles Convention Center on March 1, two days before the crucial California vote on Super Tuesday. The rally, which had well over 15,000 attendees, featured several acts and speeches from various musicians and activists such as Dick Van Dyke, Public Enemy, and Ana Tijoux.

Tues., March 10 was supposed to be a scheduled staff development Flex Day, but instead, it was changed to accomodate an evolving COVID-19 preparedness effort. To prepare for the possibility that Santa Monica College (SMC) may close its campus and move classes online, faculty members were invited to participate in both hands-on and webinar-based classes to learn about internet education. This comes amidst a smattering of statewide school closures to decrease campus-wide risk of contracting coronavirus.

Prior to the start of the Spring semester, the International Education Center (IEC) of Santa Monica College (SMC) received approximately 169 emails from Chinese students whose recent travels to China inhibited them from returning in time for their classes.