A tip of the hat to the Oregon Legislature’s Emergency Board for including $50 million for rural hospitals in its latest relief package for COVID-19.

While it would be easy to assume that a global pandemic would mean a financial boon for hospitals, the reality has been that hospitals have been hit hard financially as they have had to close down services, such as health screenings and elective surgeries, for months.

The $50 million will help stabilize the finances of hospitals that provide a vital, sometimes lifesaving service to Oregonians in rural areas. According to Sen. Bill Hansell, hospitals in his district that will receive funds are Good Shepherd Medical Center in Hermiston, St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton, Grande Ronde Hospital in La Grande, Wallowa Memorial Hospital in Enterprise and Pioneer Memorial Hospital in Heppner.

The package also includes welcome relief for others struggling during the pandemic, from $30 million for child care providers to $3.5 million to expand broadband internet to more low-income homes.

A kick in the pants to the hoaxes that caused panic in several Oregon cities last weekend, where residents believed that busloads of “Antifa” were on their way from Portland to burn their towns to the ground.

The idea that troublemakers would go through the effort to rent buses for a nine-hour round trip just to loot Klamath Falls strains credulity, but a local NBC affiliate reported “hundreds” of visibly armed residents lined the downtown area there last weekend, prepared for a showdown with any big city intruders. None ever materialized, and neither did evidence they ever existed in the first place.

We hope in these tense times people will take vague, anonymous online rumors with a grain of salt.

A tip of the hat to educators who will be working this summer to come up with a plan for reopening classrooms in the fall.

The guidelines released by the state this week may be important in protecting students’ health, but they will also be difficult to implement. Increasing class sizes have forced desks far closer than 6 feet apart in most schools, and trying to keep the same kids together all day presents a scheduling nightmare for high school counselors.

We wish our local school districts all the luck in the world in trying to make it all work.