Against a spending deadline, counties express frustration over coronavirus aid restrictions

Local governments still have a lot of federal dollars to spend on their COVID-19 response and not a lot of time to do it. Meanwhile, the pandemic continues to move at its own deadly pace.Complicating matters are inconsistent messages and a perceived lack of trust coming from state leaders that has at least some county officials feeling confused, if not irked.“We all recognize this is our first pandemic, whether you’re at the federal level, the state level or local level,” said