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It’s springtime in the Northwest: birds sing, emerald shoots are pushing up from the earth and the irrigation sprinklers tick, tick like clocks — same as always. 

But so much else has changed. 

Still, spring work starts up, ready or not. And Northwest growers are scrambling to figure out how to work around the global coronavirus pandemic and still bring in the coming harvest. 

Farmers wonder: Can they get it done safely?

First Up: Asparagus

As the United States tumbles into a coronavirus recession, the Federal Reserve is using its nearly unlimited power to generate cash to cushion the fall.

"The Fed is doing everything they can to keep financial markets functioning and credit available to households and firms," former Fed Chair Janet Yellen said during a forum organized by the Brookings Institution.

The sun keeps poking out from behind the clouds, taunting us with all the places we'd rather be than stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic. So the "Oregon Field Guide" team is raiding our archives to take you on a series of road trips.

Arlene Schnitzer died Saturday after a long illness. She was 91 years old. Schnitzer transformed the Northwest art scene in the 1960s and 1970s and championed the work of local artists. Schnitzer and her husband, the late Harold Schnitzer, were among Oregon’s most generous philanthropists. They donated more than $80 million to various causes. 

“If there’s a lesson from her life, what she said to me this morning is she said, ‘Don’t stop caring about the community,’” Arlene’s son, Jordan Schnitzer, said. 

The United States remains the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, with confirmed cases now at more than 300,000 and deaths climbing toward 9,000.

In Europe, another global hot spot, Spain has surpassed Italy for the leading number of cases, with Germany and France not too far behind. Worldwide, there are over 1.2 million cases and nearly 66,000 deaths.

UPDATE (April 4, 7:37 p.m. PT) — Oregon state and local health officials reported 100 new known cases of the novel coronavirus Saturday, bringing the state’s total to 999.

Two of those new cases are at the Oregon Veterans’ Home in Lebanon, according to the Oregon Department of Veterans’ Affairs. The department had previously said that new cases at the home had subsided.

 #160; 

Easter is next Sunday, April 12. But the country isn't close to being "opened up" by then, as President Trump said he'd like to see during a March 24 news conference, a suggestion that was panned by experts.

It was March 20 and Lynn Schore had a sore throat. Five hours later, she was struggling to breathe. 

The next two days were a blur: Schore fell asleep on her bed, hallucinating butterflies. She tried to reach for a thermometer and woke up hours later, realizing she’d passed out before she could read her temperature. She tried again — 104 degrees. 

Since the beginning of the global coronavirus pandemic, Americans have been told by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention not to wear masks unless they are sick, caring for a sick person who is unable to wear one or working in health care.

Updated at 10:09 a.m. ET

For the first time in nearly a decade, the U.S. suffered a net loss of jobs as the coronavirus began to take hold in the country. But a monthly snapshot from the Labor Department shows only the first pinpricks of what will soon be a gaping wound.

The Trump administration has finalized a plan to construct up to 11,000 miles of fuel breaks to control wildfire on federal land in six Western states, including Oregon. 

Gov. Kate Brown suggested Thursday she will not convene Oregon legislators for a special session in the near future, despite weeks of preparation by lawmakers to work up an emergency relief package for the state.

Citing more than $1 billion in expected emergency funding from the federal government, Brown said she’ll hold off on calling a session until the specifics of that aid are better understood.

UPDATE (4:30 p.m. PT) – Tens of thousands of Oregonians and Washingtonians filed new unemployment claims last week as the economic collapse wreaked by the coronavirus pandemic accelerated.

In Oregon, a record 92,700 people filed initial claims for unemployment insurance benefits during the week of March 22, according to the state employment department. That dwarfs the nearly 5,000 initial claims filed just two weeks before.