Honda announced Friday it would start resuming production at its U.S. and Canada plants, including one in Greensburg.

Consumers could fight back by not shopping on Thanksgiving.

It's only two weeks into the legislative session and the Indiana General Assembly has already hit an ethical speed bump. Who's steering this bus?

Gov. Mike Pence's Scott County order allowing a needle-exchange program is a welcome step. But it's just a start.

More than 100 companies and nonprofits have pledged support for the Your Life Matters initiative, created to help the city's most vulnerable residents. That's a great start, but momentum is critical.

The pandemic has impacted us in many ways, but despite these challenges, our commitment to our community and you is stronger than ever.

In a blog post yesterday, Samsung announced plans to launch a Samsung Pay debit card this summer. The Verge reports: Samsung will launch the card, which will be backed by a cash management account, in partnership with personal finance company SoFi, Ahn said. Samsung is also developing a "mobile-first money management platform," according to Ahn. His blog doesn't detail what features that money management platform or the upcoming debit card may have, but he does say that Samsung will share more details "in the coming weeks." Samsung joins Apple in offering a branded payment card. Google is reportedly working on its own branded payment card as well, though Google's will apparently be a debit card, like Samsung's. Google will also supposedly offer spending-tracking tools for the card.

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from NPR: As hospitals were overrun by coronavirus patients in other parts of the world, the Army Corps of Engineers mobilized in the U.S., hiring private contractors to build emergency field hospitals around the country. The endeavor cost more than $660 million, according to an NPR analysis of federal spending records. But nearly four months into the pandemic, most of these facilities haven't treated a single patient. Public health experts said this episode exposes how ill-prepared the U.S. is for a pandemic. They praised the Army Corps for quickly providing thousands of extra beds, but experts said there wasn't enough planning to make sure these field hospitals could be put to use once they were finished. "It's so painful because what it's showing is that the plans we have in place, they don't work," said Robyn Gershon, a professor at New York University's School of Global Public Health. "We have to go back to the drawing board and redo it." But the nation's governors -- who requested the Army Corps projects and, in some cases, contributed state funding -- said they're relieved these facilities didn't get more use. They said early models predicted a catastrophic shortage of hospital beds, and no one knew for sure when or if stay-at-home orders would reduce the spread of the coronavirus. "All those field hospitals and available beds sit empty today," Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said last month. "And that's a very, very good thing." Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, said: "These 1,000-bed alternate care sites are not necessary; they're not filled. Thank God." Senior military leaders also said the effort was a success -- even if the beds sit empty.

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IT services provider Cognizant said in an earnings call this week that a ransomware incident that took place last month in April 2020 will negatively impact its Q2 revenue. ZDNet reports: "While we anticipate that the revenue impact related to this issue will be largely resolved by the middle of the quarter, we do anticipate the revenue and corresponding margin impact to be in the range of $50 million to $70 million for the quarter," said Karen McLoughlin, Cognizant Chief Financial Officer in an earnings call yesterday. McLoughlin also expects the incident to incur additional and unforeseen legal, consulting, and other costs associated with the investigation, service restoration, and remediation of the breach. The Cognizant CFO says the company has now fully recovered from the ransomware infection and restored the majority of its services. Speaking on the ransomware attack, Cognizant CEO Brian Humphries said the incident only impacted its internal network, but not customer systems. More precisely, Humphries said the ransomware incident impacted (1) Cognizant's select system supporting employees' work from home setups and (2) the provisioning of laptops that Cognizant was using to support its work from home capabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. Humphries said staff moved quickly to take down all impacted systems, which impacted Cognizant's billing system for a period of time. Some customer services were taken down as a precaution.

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Google's move to put Javier Soltero, VP and GM of G Suite, in charge of Messages, Duo, and the phone app on Android, puts all of Google's major communication products under one umbrella: Soltero's team. Dieter Bohn reports via The Verge: Soltero tells me that there are no immediate plans to change or integrate any of Google's apps, so don't get your hopes up for that (yet). "We believe people make choices around the products that they use for specific purposes," Soltero says. Still, Google's communications apps are in dire need of a more coherent and opinionated production development, and Soltero could very well be the right person to provide that direction. Prior to joining Google, he had a long career that included creating the much-loved Acompli email app, which Microsoft acquired and essentially turned into the main Outlook app less than two months after signing the deal. Soltero has also moved rapidly (at least by the standards of Google's communication apps) to clean up the Hangouts branding mess, converting Hangouts Video to Google Meet and Hangouts Chat to Google Chat -- at least on the enterprise side. Google Meet also became free for everybody far ahead of the original schedule because of the pandemic. Cleaning up the consumer side of all that is more complicated, but Soltero says, "The plan continues to be to modernize [Hangouts] towards Google Meet and Google Chat." "Soltero will remain on the cloud team but will join Hiroshi Lockheimer's leadership team," Dieter adds. While Lockheimer believes there are opportunities to better integrate Google's apps into its platforms, he says it doesn't make sense to force integration or interoperability too quickly. "It's not necessarily a bad thing that there are multiple communications applications if they're for a different purpose," Lockheimer says. "Part of what might be confusing, what we've done to confuse everyone, is our history around some of our communications products that have gone from one place or another place. But we're looking forward now, in a way that has a much more coherent vision."

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An anonymous reader quotes CNN: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Friday issued an emergency use authorization for the first at-home Covid-19 test that uses saliva samples, the agency said in a news release. Rutgers University's RUCDR Infinite Biologics lab received an amended emergency authorization late Thursday. With the test, people can collect their own saliva at home and send their saliva samples to a lab for results... "Authorizing additional diagnostic tests with the option of at-home sample collection will continue to increase patient access to testing for COVID-19. This provides an additional option for the easy, safe and convenient collection of samples required for testing without traveling to a doctor's office, hospital or testing site," FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn said in the FDA's press release on Friday... The test remains prescription only.

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SpaceX's newest Starship prototype has fired its engine for the first time, potentially paving the way for a test flight in the very near future. Space.com reports: The SN4, the latest test version of SpaceX's Mars-colonizing Starship vehicle, aced a "static fire" Tuesday night (May 5), lighting up its single Raptor engine briefly while remaining on the ground at the company's South Texas facilities. "Starship SN4 passed static fire," SpaceX founder and CEO Elon Musk said via Twitter late on Tuesday. [You can see video of the static fire here.] With the static fire in the rearview mirror, SpaceX can begin prepping the SN4 for its next big moment: an uncrewed test flight, which Musk has said will take the vehicle to a target altitude of about 500 feet (150 meters).

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An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Crawling along the world's river bottoms, the larvae of the caddis fly suffer a perpetual housing crisis. To protect themselves from predators, they gather up sand grains and other sediment and paste them all together with silk, forming a cone that holds their worm-like bodies. As they mature and elongate, they have to continuously add material to the case -- think of it like adding rooms to your home for the rest of your life, or at least until you turn into an adult insect. If the caddis fly larva somehow loses its case, it's got to start from scratch, and that's quite the precarious situation for a defenseless tube of flesh. And now, the microplastic menace is piling onto the caddis fly's list of tribulations. Microplastic particles -- pieces of plastic under 5 millimeters long -- have already corrupted many of Earth's environments, including the formerly pristine Arctic and deep-sea sediments. In a study published last year, researchers in Germany reported finding microplastic particles in the cases of caddis flies in the wild. Then, last month, they published the troubling results of lab experiments that found the more microplastic particles a caddis fly larva incorporates into its case, the weaker that structure becomes. That could open up caddis flies to greater predation, sending ripple effects through river ecosystems. In the lab, the researchers found that the larvae chose to use two kinds of microplastics to build their cases, likely because the plastic is lighter than the sand, so it's not as hard to lift. The problem is that the cases with more plastic and less sand collapse more easily, weakening the larvae's protection from predatory fish, among other things. A more long-term concern is bioaccumulation. "A small fish eats a larva, a bigger fish eats the smaller fish, all the way on up, and the concentrations of microplastic and associated toxins accumulate over time," the report says. "The bigger predators that people eat, like tuna, may be absorbing those microplastics and the chemicals they leach." The study has been published in the journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research.

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The Boston Herald writes that a "video vigilante faces numerous charges after being arrested outside Massachusetts General Hospital where police say he was recording the emergency ramp at the height of the coronavirus pandemic." schwit1 shares their report: John L. McCullough, 41, was charged with trespassing, disturbing the peace and threats to do bodily harm after police say he refused to stop recording Sunday evening. "I informed him that I could not make him stop filming but I asked him to stop out of respect to patient privacy," the arresting officer wrote in a police report obtained by the Herald through a public records request. The next day the newspaper's senior editor posted a follow-up: John L. McCullough told the Herald Tuesday evening he is a First Amendment crusader who takes videos of police and posts them to YouTube. That's what got him a June 2 arraignment date. "I understand how people may feel, but that doesn't mean I should be locked up," McCullough said... "Did I break the law? No. I may have been rude," he added. "I understand people may feel jittery, but where peoples' feelings start my rights don't stop...." Cambridge civil-rights attorney Harvey Silverglate said McCullough will probably have his case tossed, even if what he was doing is seen as crass. "There's no amendment in the Constitution called the humanity amendment," said Silverglate. "It's a free country and you have a right to be a jerk." But taking video outside a hospital during a pandemic and as people try to social distance — and first responders, including the police, face all-too-real health risks — is "pretty distasteful," Silverglate added. Still, he added the judge will "have to throw it out." He added it's "punishment itself" to go to court in this climate. McCullough, records state, does not have an attorney yet. He did say he's ready to plead his case. "Don't be brainwashed," he added, "and it shouldn't be a problem when a black man has a camera." The Herald suggests one more interesting detail. "McCullough said '20 other cameras' were probably rolling at the same time as he was — alluding to security cameras in the area."

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"Software developers, like everyone else, have had to transition to a work-from-home world," writes InfoWorld. For the users of GitHub, the COVID-19 pandemic has meant changes in work cadence and collaboration, along with an increased risk of burnout, a GitHub study of usage patterns on the Microsoft-owned code sharing site has found." In an "Octoverse spotlight" analysis published May 6, 2020, GitHub compared the first three months of 2020 with the first three months of 2019... GitHub said its analysis shows that developers have been resilient to the change wrought by COVID-19, with activity holding consistent or increasing through the crisis. But their analysis also found: Developers are working longer, by "up to an hour per day," seven days a week. Slightly more pushes, pull requests, reviewed pull requests, and commented issues. More collaboration on open source projects, and less time to merge pull requests into open source projects.

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Despite a rough outing Tuesday night, Brad Stevens and Celtics believe the future is bright for the pride of New Albany.

Romeo Langford reflects on a tough outing Tuesday night and what it was like playing in Indiana again.

The Pacers final game before the NBA went on hiatus was vs. the Celtics, whose player Marcus Smart has tested positive for the coronavirus

Friday, the Dunking Dutchman took over the Indiana Pacers' Twitter to do a question and answer session with Pacer fans.

Joe Young has been playing in China since his time with the Indiana Pacers ended. He is a Houston native

Donnie Walsh has been plopped in the middle of America's most famous infectious disease doctor's basketball claim to fame.

If $200,000 is raised by Thursday, Herb Simon and Jim Irsay will boost the pot that goes to neighborhood centers linked to United Way

Mike Conley is Tamika Catchings' first-round opponent in the NBA's HORSE event on ESPN; competitors will remain separated

Victor Oladipo was rocking and the Pacers were rolling before NBA shutdown, leaving President Kevin Pritchard, team hopeful about possible resumption.

Pacers President Kevin Pritchard discusses the health of his team and how they're staying prepared for the season to resume.

Oladipo: 'I can look at it like I was just getting my rhythm back or as an opportunity to rest and ... continue building strength in my tendon.'

The Indiana Pacers would have started the 2020 NBA playoffs this weekend, but these memories will have to do for now.

Turner: 'It was a rough path for a couple of weeks'

Pacers Gaming kicks off NBA 2K League season on ESPN2

'Last Dance' brings back memories of tough 90's NBA for Pacers coach Nate McMillan

Landmark restaurant has been in business since 1927.

The iconic restaurant still conjures up fond memories of the food and the cruising.

Take a look at a variety of crepes being created at T-Swirl Crepe, a new place to eat in Downtown Indianapolis.

The owner of FoxGardin in Fortville transformed himself into Joe Exotic to help his workers.

If your schedule is wide open, consider sourdough. Zionsville baker Cathy Richardson shares her tips for making crusty, tangy loaves.

Whether it's out of necessity, to pass time or to calm nerves, bread baking is a hot topic during coronavirus pandemic

The Netflix series "Self Made: Inspired by the Life of Madam C.J. Walker" was produced in Ontario, Canada. But it references Indianapolis locations.

Restaurants and bars in central Indiana respond to the coronavirus, or COVID-19, health pandemic while operating under state-issued restrictions.

IndyStar walks through the closed gardens at Newfields, Friday, April 24, 2020.

Several Indianapolis-area restaurants are offering brunch deals and takeout specials to help mom relax and stay out of the kitchen on Mother's Day.

After coronavirus restrictions are lifted, Indianapolis bars and breweries will face challenges in terms of short-term staffing and long-term survival

Join the Des Moines Storytellers Project LIVE in your home as five Americans share personal stories about belonging.

You can see this art in person while you social distance. The Harrison Center will send colorful "smoke" from its historic chimney for the first time.

IndyFringe, the popular Mass Ave. theater festival, has been canceled. Social distancing requirements will not allow the artists to prepare.

New guidelines announced by Gov. Eric Holcomb include timeline for resuming social gatherings and entertainment events, including bars and nightclubs.

Indianapolis rapper Tevin Studdard celebrates the return of Long's Bakery with "Long's Bakery Music Video," a tribute to glazed yeast doughnuts.

During the coronavirus pandemic, it's business as usual at Mug-N-Bun restaurant, and Historic Steer In embraces its drive-in roots.

Sign up for IndyStar's Things To Do newsletter. "The IndianapoList" gives you new ways to explore your city and the quirky stories behind it.

These restaurants are turning Indiana's ban on dining in restaurants to their favor by throwing back to olden days with drive-up service.

As The Children's Museum, Newfields and others wait for the OK to reopen, they are strategizing how to keep visitors safe from the coronavirus spread.