Light News Dump

https://gisanddata.maps.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6
https://covidtracking.com/data/
https://www.ft.com/coronavirus-latest

Hungry and in chains, Thailand's tourist elephants face crisis; Underfed and chained up for endless hours, many elephants working in Thailand's tourism sector may starve, be sold to zoos or be shifted into the illegal logging trade, campaigners warn, as the coronavirus decimates visitor numbers
https://www.afp.com/en/news/3954/hungry-and-chains-thailands-tourist-elephants-face-crisis-doc-1qa4pk2

Italy flattens curve as daily rise in coronavirus cases hits lowest rate
https://www.newsweek.com/italy-flattens-curve-daily-rise-coronavirus-cases-falls-lowest-rate-1495086

Germany is giving its citizens a coronavirus test and giving those with antibodies permission to reenter society
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/03/29/germany-will-issue-coronavirus-antibody-certificates-allow-quarantined/

The U.S. is proposing a pathway to resolving #Venezuela’s political crisis. We ask all Venezuelans to carefully consider this framework, which calls for a transitional government to organize free and fair elections and creates a path for lifting of U.S. sanctions.
https://twitter.com/statedeptspox/status/1245015817139425281

The FDA has issued an emergency approval for a testing kit than can detect coronavirus in two minutes.
https://twitter.com/axios/status/1245012371845853184

The Trump administration says it will defy congressional oversight of coronavirus response funds — and they already classified coronavirus meetings. This kind of secrecy is the opposite of what the public needs.
https://www.americanoversight.org/a-pandemic-is-no-time-for-secrecy

Trump admin. illegally rolls back Obama-era vehicle mileage standards, raising the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come and gutting one of the US’ biggest efforts against climate change.
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-rollback-mileage-standards-guts-climate-change-push-n1173026?cid=sm_npd_nn_tw_np

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo diagnosed with coronavirus, he will continue working from home: In these difficult times that seem to get more difficult and complicated by the day, I just found out that I am positive for coronavirus
https://twitter.com/ChrisCuomo/status/1245011007711465478

Antarctica experiences first known heat wave | Scientists have recorded Antarctica's first documented heat wave, warning that animal and plant life on the isolated continent could be drastically affected by climate change. Australian Antarctic Program researchers recorded the heat wave event at Casey research station in East Antarctica during the 2019-2020 southern hemisphere summer. Findings by the team were published in the Global Change Biology journal on Tuesday, with authors warning that the changes could affect global weather patterns. Between January 23 and 26, a research team at Casey — directly south of Perth in western Australia — recorded the highest maximum and minimum temperatures ever seen at the base. | "Antarctica may be isolated from the rest of the continents by the Southern Ocean, but it has worldwide impacts," they said. "It drives the global ocean conveyor belt, a constant system of deep-ocean circulation which transfers oceanic heat around the planet, and its melting ice sheet adds to global sea-level rise." Co-author Dana Bergstrom said the hot summer could affect local populations positively at first, but could also lead to drought and heat stress on species adapted for the cold.
https://www.dw.com/en/antarctica-experiences-first-known-heat-wave/a-52963959

Report reveals ‘massive plastic pollution footprint’ of drinks firms: Plastic from Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, Nestlé and Unilever products could cover 83 football pitches every day
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/31/report-reveals-massive-plastic-pollution-footprint-of-drinks-firms

New blood test can detect 50 types of cancer
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/mar/31/new-blood-test-can-detect-50-types-of-cancer

A California scientist and his team say they have found a potential cure for COVID-19. News 8 introduced you to Dr. Jacob Glanville of Distributed Bio a couple of weeks ago. He's one of the doctors featured in the Netflix show "Pandemic." His team in the Bay Area has been working around the clock trying to come up with a drug to treat COVID-19. Monday he announced he believes they've found one. | We took a series of five antibodies from around 2002 that were able to neutralize SARS. We were able to use technology in our laboratories to evolve those antibodies against SARS to adapt them to recognize COVID-19. We tried with five different antibodies because we weren’t sure which one would work the best. All five worked so we have a pretty powerful tool chest available to us right now to produce a final therapeutic. | We are sending [the antibodies] to the military for confirmation testing and to Charles River Laboratories for safety and tox characterization. We’ve partnered with two different companies that will help us scale up large batches of the antibody for production. We're in discussions to start humane phase one/two trials that would happen at the end of the summer. Pending good results - [if] we see the drug is safe and helpful means we could start releasing it for compassionate use in September.
https://www.cbs8.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/pandemic-scientist-says-his-team-has-discovered-a-potential-cure-for-covid-19-coronavirus-california/509-4a895be1-80f6-46b0-8812-e2d49d20bebf

Leaked memo from Delta reveals plans to cut worker hours and pay, despite protections in the coronavirus stimulus package. United and other airlines are doing the same.
https://www.businessinsider.com/airline-workers-hours-pay-cut-coronavirus-2020-3

Pentagon orders installations to stop reporting coronavirus cases as military-linked infections eclipse 1,000
https://www.stripes.com/news/us/pentagon-orders-installations-to-stop-reporting-coronavirus-cases-as-military-linked-infections-eclipse-1-000-1.624244

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham raised alarms with Donald Trump Monday about "incredible spikes" in coronavirus cases in Navajo Nation, warning that the virus could "wipe out" some tribal nations, according to a recording of a call between Trump and the nation's governors obtained by ABC News. "I'm very worried, Mr. President," Governor Lujan Grisham said, as she followed up on a request she made to the Department of Defense last Wednesday for a 248-bed U.S. Army combat support hospital (CSH) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Grisham told Trump she had not yet received a response.
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/mexicos-governor-warns-tribal-nations-wiped-coronavirus/story?id=69884997

In just two weeks, three states have passed laws criminalizing protests against fossil fuel infrastructure. Between March 16 and March 25, the governors of Kentucky, South Dakota and West Virginia all signed laws designating oil and gas pipelines and facilities "critical" or "key" infrastructure and imposing new penalties for anyone caught tampering with them, HuffPost reported Friday. The laws came as much of the nation was absorbed by the spread of the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 2,000 people in the U.S. so far. "While we are all paying attention to COVID-19 and the congressional stimulus packages, state legislatures are quietly passing fossil-fuel-backed anti-protest laws," Greenpeace USA researcher Connor Gibson, who alerted HuffPost to the laws' passage, told the news site. "These laws do nothing new to protect communities. Instead they seek to crack down on the sort of nonviolent civil disobedience that has shaped much of our nation's greatest political and social victories." The push to criminalize anti-fossil fuel protests predates the coronavirus pandemic, however, and is part of a broader conservative movement to pass legislation that makes civil disobedience more difficult, as Greenpeace pointed out last year.
https://www.ecowatch.com/anti-pipeline-protest-bills-2645583954.html
https://www.ecowatch.com/anti-protest-legislation-2636409012.html?rebelltitem=1#rebelltitem1

Brazil, São Paulo Has 6 Times More Deaths from Coronavirus than China in The First 13 Days. Death toll likely to surpass Italy.
https://www1.folha.uol.com.br/internacional/en/saopaulo/2020/03/sp-has-6-times-more-deaths-from-coronavirus-than-china-in-the-first-13-days.shtml

Another reason to go vegan: 20% of 'meat' in the UK was found to contain the DNA of 'unspecified animals.' 41% of mince meat; 31% of kebabs; 23% of curries and 20% of sausages were found to actually contain DNA from animals not on the official label.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-45371852

Bill De Blasio is a pathetic manchild Bernie Bro who is getting upstaged by his own Governor
https://www.politico.com/states/new-york/albany/story/2020/03/28/de-blasios-coronavirus-crisis-1269480

The stat I'm most interested in knowing is the day hospital discharges are greater than hospital admissions for the day. I feel like that's the day we can say things are starting to get better in terms of an overwhelmed healthcare system.

Cascadia Forever. Pickaxe - The Cascadia Free State Story.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIQZY593YGw

I want to share some of the results of our new coronavirus survey, out today, because the impact on people's lives, across the country, is already staggering. Not just health; it's work, income, and how and where it's felt. (1/?) The full report is here: https://civiqs.com/reports/2020/3/31/report-coronavirus-has-far-reaching-effects-on-americans-lives-and-work-trump-federal-government-rated-poorly-on-response
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039361415995392

As of 3/30, 94% of Americans are practicing social distancing. That's good! It's also a huge number and highlights how widespread the awareness of the crisis is. I have been doing survey research for 20+ years and almost never see percentages this high on anything. (2/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039362686857216

The flip side of massive social distancing is that 67% of Americans right now are spending nearly every day at home, leaving only for exercise or essential items. Repeat: Two-thirds of the country right now is spending nearly every day locked at home. (3/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039363488010240

Americans increasingly know someone who is infected. In this survey (March 28-30), 13% say they know someone who has been infected or are infected themselves. So you don't think that's exaggerated, in our last survey 3 weeks ago, that number was 1%. (4/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039364238761984

The coronavirus outbreak is not an urban-only phenomenon. Not even close. Two-thirds of Americans living in urban areas (68%) have experienced an outbreak -- but so have 55% of people in suburban areas, and 43% of people in rural areas. (5/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039365706797056

Those statistics you've seen about jobless claims are all very real. Through 3/30, one in FIVE Americans who were working before the outbreak say that they have been laid off or furloughed from their position. Fully 39% (!) of households have lost income. (6/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039365706797056

In sum, more than half of US households (54%) have either lost work or had hours cut (26%), or are insecure/at risk: 28% are extremely or moderately concerned about the financial impact of coronavirus on their household. (7/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039366474313728

There is an education split on *where* people are working. 79% of employed Americans with post-graduate degrees are working from home, up from 15% pre-outbreak! In contrast, 60% of non-college graduates are still going into work. Big implications for public health & safety. (8/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245039367174799360

Democrats, Republicans, and Independents agree: The coronavirus is a real threat, not blown out of proportion. Even so, there is still a big partisan divide.
Percent saying "real threat" by party:
Democrats: 94%
Republicans: 51%
Independents: 73%
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245045049219399681
(9/?)

More impacts on people's daily lives: 82% have recently experienced grocery shortages or had difficulty buying household items like toilet paper. Interestingly, these shortages have been felt most strongly in *rural* areas (86%) rather than urban areas (80%). (10/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245045050024660992

Americans don't see the coronavirus outbreak settling down anytime soon. There's an optimistic 20% who think things will be back to normal by the end of April. But 36% say it will take until the end of June, 30% say September, and 8% think we'll never get back to normal. (11/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245045050813198336

Meanwhile, people are concerned that they're going to get sick, and if they do, that they won't be able to get a test. Most Americans are extremely (19%) or somewhat (41%) worried about becoming ill. Only 11% are very confident they could get a test if they wanted one. (12/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245046901805682688

Let's look at policy responses. The new coronavirus stimulus bill receives 69% support. Going further -- most people support a total, national quarantine right now: 44% strongly, 25% somewhat. Even a majority of Republicans (52%) support a national stay-at-home quarantine. (13/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054428144496640

One of the big things that Democrats and Republicans disagree about is what's more worrisome: the health or economic impacts of the coronavirus. 77% of Democrats are more worried about health; 69% of Republicans are more worried about jobs & the economy. (14/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054429444759552

Democrats and Republicans are also divided on the news media. Democrats think the media is giving an accurate picture (64%) or even under-reporting the outbreak (15%). Republicans overwhelmingly believe (71%) that the media is making the outbreak sound worse than it is. (15/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054430589804544

Overall, the U.S. government receives poor marks on its response to the outbreak. 57% think the U.S. government acted too slowly to respond; 52% are not satisfied with the government's current response, and 51% disapprove of how President Trump is handling the response. (16/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054431558684672

State and local governments are earning higher ratings for their outbreak response, compared to the U.S. government. 70% of Americans are satisfied with their state/local governments, including 72% of both Democrats and Republicans. (17/?)
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054432477188096

We'll keep watching this. Thanks for reading. Be safe, everyone. (18/18)
The complete questionnaire and crosstabs, @Civiqs national survey, March 28-30, 2020: https://civiqs.com/documents/Civiqs_DailyKos_monthly_banner_book_2020_03B_x2nf9sb.pdf
https://twitter.com/DrewLinzer/status/1245054433358049286

The #EqualPayAct made it illegal for employers to pay unequal wages to men and women for equal work. Yet, the #PayGap persists: A typical woman earns only 82 cents for every dollar that a typical man makes. #EqualPayDay
https://twitter.com/JECDems/status/1245052909856993280

Interesting that the application for $32 Billion in airline grants is shorter than a SNAP (food stamp) application.
https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Guidelines%20and%20Procedures%20for%20Payroll%20Support%20to%20Air%20Carriers%20and%20Contractors.pdf

SNAP application forms: 12 pages plus 10 pages of instructions
https://portal.ct.gov/-/media/Departments-and-Agencies/DSS/Common-Applications/W-1E.pdf

Democratic Rep. Max Rose announced he has been deployed to the front lines of the nation's coronavirus epicenter in New York as a member of the National Guard.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/max-rose-deployed-national-guard-157150

Trump spent almost two months denying that the virus was a serious problem and spreading incorrect information about it.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/opinion/coronavirus-cases-united-states.html

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says a State Department official has died from the coronavirus, the first American fatality among the U.S. diplomatic corps from the pandemic. Pompeo didn’t give details about the official who passed away or where the person contracted the disease. He says about four to five dozen State Department employees had tested positive for the virus, including locally employed staffers at a handful of the 220 U.S. embassies and consulates abroad. | Those officials say they were tracking 105 confirmed cases among the agency’s global workforce of about 75,000. Of those, 75 are overseas and 30 are at State Department offices in the United States in nine cities.
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/state-department-official-death-coronavirus

Climate-damaging products should come with smoking-style warnings | Graphic imagery should be used on petrol pumps and air tickets
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/mar/31/climate-killing-products-should-come-with-smoking-style-warnings

Turkmenistan bans the word ‘coronavirus’ and wearing of masks
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/coronavirus-turkmenistan-ban-masks-word-a9438266.html

Just three ventilators to cope with Covid-19 in Central African Republic - a country with population of 4.7 million people.
https://www.nrc.no/news/2020/march/just-three-ventilators-to-cope-with-covid-19-in-central-african-republic/

MIT researcher says droplets carrying coronavirus can travel up to 27 feet.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/health-news/is-6-feet-enough-for-social-distancing-an-mit-researcher-says-droplets-carrying-coronavirus-can-travel-up-to-27-feet/ar-BB11Ww71

A huge sinkhole just made Ecuador's tallest waterfall disappear
https://www.newsweek.com/huge-sinkhole-ecuador-tallest-waterfall-1495294

Presidents don’t usually get involved in local tiffs over a planned 900-room casino hotel. And even though this president has a four-decade record of slamming American Indian casinos as scams that pose unfair competition to other gambling enterprises, notably his own, Trump’s decision to weigh in on a measure that had strong bipartisan support seemed unusual for a chief executive who doesn’t like to be bothered with the little stuff. But a closer look at House Resolution 312 and the favor it would do for the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reveals a sprawling network of Trump-related interests, from the National Enquirer to a Rhode Island casino company - a small but strikingly intricate example of the ways this president’s business dealings, personal bonds and political alliances can complicate and color the ordinary doings of government. On the surface, the matter is a simple dispute over who wants a casino and who doesn’t. The Mashpee Tribe seeks to build a casino in southeastern Massachusetts. If the federal government decreed the land to be the tribe’s sovereign property, the casino would be exempt from many taxes. But some residents of the town where the casino would be built sued over the project, and after the tribe broke ground, a federal judge sided with the residents, ruling that, because of the history of that parcel of land, the feds didn’t have the authority to guarantee it to the tribe. So far, no Trump connection. | Twin River has paid Schlapp’s company, Cove Strategies, $30,000 this year, according to federal records. Another lobbyist, Black Diamond Strategies, also got $30,000 from the casino firm to work on the Mashpee case, records show. One of Black Diamond’s lobbyists working for Twin River, Doug Davenport, was a delegate strategist for Trump’s 2016 campaign and formerly worked for ex-Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort’s lobbying company, where he handled public affairs for clients, including Trump. | The intersections between Trump and entities involved with Twin River can be complex. Among Twin River’s major investors is a $4 billion New Jersey-based hedge fund called Chatham Asset Management and its founder, Anthony Melchiorre, according to SEC records. Chatham also owned about 80% of American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, the supermarket tabloid that took payments from Trump’s longtime lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, to make certain that no stories were published about two women’s allegations that they had affairs with Trump. A spokesman for Chatham declined to speak on the record about Twin River’s involvement in the Mashpee Indian matter, but Chatham and Twin River have been embroiled in a lawsuit in Delaware, where Chatham accused top executives at the casino company of self-dealing and “placing their personal financial interests above those of Twin River’s stockholders.” Twin River has denied the allegations. David Pecker, AMI’s CEO and a longtime Trump ally, has said that Chatham saved his company from financial collapse. Pecker last fall signed an agreement to cooperate with federal prosecutors in New York who were investigating the payments made to Trump’s accusers. As part of the agreement, Pecker and the Enquirer’s chief content officer, Dylan Howard, admitted to paying the women to “influence the election.” According to the company’s website, AMI’s four-person board of directors consists of Pecker, two Chatham executives and a former CFO of Trump Entertainment Resorts, David Hughes. American Media agreed last month to sell the Enquirer to the CEO of Hudson News, a chain of airport newsstands, for $100 million. The sale was prompted by Melchiorre’s unhappiness with the Enquirer’s actions on Trump’s behalf, including the “catch and kill” gambit in which the tabloid bought the two accusers’ stories and then published nothing about them, and the Enquirer’s expose of an extramarital affair conducted by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who also owns The Washington Post. American Media’s board and Melchiorre “didn’t want to deal with hassles like this anymore,” according to an individual familiar with the board’s deliberations who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private talks. That individual said Trump “has been somewhat estranged from Pecker” since the Enquirer executive began talking to federal prosecutors.
https://www.providencejournal.com/news/20190513/derailment-of-mass-casino-spotlights-trumps-ri-twin-river-connections

“If our apex is 14 to 21 days ... then have to come down the other side of the mountain once you hit the apex,” he said. “So calibrate yourself and your expectations so you’re not disappointed every morning you get up.”
https://www.cnbc.com/2020/03/31/gov-cuomo-says-coronavirus-is-more-dangerous-than-expected-as-new-york-cases-jump-14percent-overnight-to-75795.html

Trump blames past administrations for a flawed COVID-19 test. The test couldn’t have existed earlier because covid-19 did not exist earlier.

South Dakota Republicans block bill to temporarily expand absentee voting while conducting session remotely (absentee) due to coronavirus fears.
https://www.keloland.com/news/capitol-news-bureau/governor-wanted-and-legislators-gave-more-ways-for-south-dakota-to-out-wait-covid-19/

This makes my blood fucking boil: In 40 years, less than 10% of plastic has ever been recycled. PBS/NPR report reveals plastic industry lobbyists knew all along, but pushed recycling propaganda campaigns to sell more plastic. | In a joint investigation, NPR and the PBS series Frontline found that oil and gas companies — the makers of plastic — have known that all along, even as they spent millions of dollars telling the American public the opposite. | But their own internal records dating back to the 1970s show that industry officials long knew that recycling plastic on a large scale was unlikely to ever be economically viable. | "The feeling was the plastics industry was under fire, we got to do what it takes to take the heat off, because we want to continue to make plastic products," Thomas says. "If the public thinks the recycling is working, then they're not going to be as concerned about the environment." | But the more plastic is recycled, the less money the industry will make selling new plastic. And those profits have become increasingly important. Companies have told shareholders that profits from using oil and gas for transport are expected to decline in coming years with better fuel efficiency and the increasing use of electric cars. Industry analysts expect oil and gas demands from the chemicals industry will surpass the demand from the transport side in the coming decade. Plastic production overall is now expected to triple by 2050, and once again, the industry is spending money on ads and public relations to promote plastic and recycling. Plastic is now more prevalent than it's ever been and harder to recycle. Gas prices remain at historic lows, making new plastic cheaper than recycled plastic. And the industry now produces many more different — and more complex — kinds of plastics that are more costly to sort and in many cases can't be recycled at all. Efforts to reduce plastic consumption are mounting nationwide, but any plan to slow the growth of plastic will face an industry with billions of dollars of future profits at stake.
https://www.npr.org/2020/03/31/822597631/plastic-wars-three-takeaways-from-the-fight-over-the-future-of-plastics
https://www.epa.gov/facts-and-figures-about-materials-waste-and-recycling/plastics-material-specific-data
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9jkUPahh7to

Plastic Wars, a documentary by Frontline and NPR, premieres March 31 at 10/9c on PBS stations and online.
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/plastic-wars/

The virus has been found in the faeces of as many as 53%[55] of hospitalised people and more anal swab positives have been found than oral swab positives in the later stages of infection.[59] The virus was found in faeces from one to twelve days, and seventeen percent of patients continued to present the virus in faeces after no longer presenting them in respiratory samples, indicating that the viral gastrointestinal infection and the potential fecal-oral transmission can last even after viral clearance in the respiratory tract.[55] Reoccurrence of the virus has also been detected through anal swabs suggesting a shift from more oral positive during the early stages of the disease to more anal positive during later periods.[59]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coronavirus_disease_2019#Cause

Louisiana Pastor Arrested for Violating Stay-at-Home Order
https://www.wwltv.com/mobile/article/news/health/coronavirus/louisiana-pastor-arrested-after-holding-services-despite-coronavirus-order-report-says/289-4394a314-3c13-4047-95d7-e4f65f517752

Reminder: Trump's Republican Administration Promised 27 Million Coronavirus Tests By End of March, But U.S. Just Hit 1 Million
https://www.newsweek.com/white-house-promised-27-million-coronavirus-tests-end-march-us-just-hit-1-million-1495356

Mitch McConnell blames delayed coronavirus response by President Trump on impeachment | Trump was too distracted by impeachment, Mitch says. But it didn't stop him from playing golf at least eight times
https://www.salon.com/2020/03/31/mitch-mcconnell-blames-delayed-coronavirus-response-by-president-trump-on-impeachment/

-------------------
Trump held rallies on:
    Jan 9th
    Jan 14th
    Jan 28th
    Jan 30th
    Feb 10th
    Feb 19th
    Feb 20th
    Feb 21st
    Feb 28th

He golfed on:
    Jan 18th
    Jan 19th
    Feb 1st
    Feb 15th
    Mar 7th
    Mar 8th

But sure, impeachment (ended Feb 5th) is what stopped him from responding to the coronavirus.
-------------------

Federal Court Tosses Florida’s Poll Tax; Formerly Incarcerated People Can Vote in 2020
https://lawandcrime.com/2020-election/federal-court-tosses-floridas-poll-tax-formerly-incarcerated-people-can-vote-in-2020/

Hard for folks to vote by mail (and pay their bills....) if there's no mail.....: USPS warns it might have to shutter by June as $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package provides no funding
https://fortune.com/2020/03/30/usps-postal-service-stimulus-package-no-funding-post-office-mail-delivery-could-shutter-june-coronavirus-relief-bill/

https://aflcio.org/2012/1/19/how-republicans-crippled-united-states-postal-service
https://washingtonmonthly.com/magazine/april-may-june-2019/congress-is-sabotaging-your-post-office/
https://fortune.com/2019/12/27/usps-privatization-postal-service-going-private/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postal_Clause

Trump claimed he could “cause panic even better than you” to Acosta. But he says he doesn’t want to. Sort of a weird and scary statement.

The captain of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Pacific Ocean has pleaded with the Pentagon for help as the coronavirus spreads aboard the warship, which has more than 4,000 crew on board. “We are not at war,” he wrote. “Sailors do not need to die." | In a four-page letter dated Monday, first reported by The San Francisco Chronicle on Tuesday, Capt. Brett E. Crozier laid out the dire situation unfolding aboard the warship, the Theodore Roosevelt, which has more than 4,000 crew members. He described what he said were the Navy’s failures to provide him with the proper resources to combat the virus by moving sailors off the vessel. “We are not at war,” Captain Crozier wrote. “Sailors do not need to die. If we do not act now, we are failing to properly take care of our most trusted asset — our sailors.” | Thomas B. Modly, the acting Navy secretary, told CNN in an interview that the Navy was working to move sailors off the ship — but that there were not enough beds in Guam to accommodate the entire crew.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/31/us/politics/coronavirus-aircraft-carrier-theodore-roosevelt.html
https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Exclusive-Captain-of-aircraft-carrier-with-15167883.php#
https://twitter.com/CNNnewsroom/status/1245035254244671488

Verified Chinese government Twitter accounts, Chinese embassies and consulates, and some Chinese media outlets have promoted several different conspiracy theories about the origins of the coronavirus.
https://www.axios.com/coronavirus-china-russia-disinformation-playbook-c49b6f3b-2a9a-47c1-9065-240121c9ceb2.html

Brooks Brothers will begin producing medical masks and gowns, as part of efforts to fill shortages. The company predicts it will produce up to 150,000 masks a day.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/brooks-brothers-to-produce-medical-gowns-and-masks-for-healthcare-workers

Gov. Ron DeSantis says the White House task force hasn't told him to issue a statewide stay-at-home-order: "The task force is not recommending this. If they do, that’s something that would carry a lot of weight with me."
https://twitter.com/SamanthaJoRoth/status/1245093605213114368

At least 42 States with statewide non-essential business closures, or announced closures AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, KY, LA, MA, MD, ME, MI, MN, MT, NV, NH, NM, NJ, NY, NC, OH, OK, OR, PA, RI, SC, TN, TX, UT, VA, VT, WA, WI, WV, WY + Wash DC via @ABC
https://twitter.com/ABCNewsHealth/status/1245096244847968256

Fuck this, I seriously hope this tanks bad, his character was shit and held Benson back, when Meloni left, Benson's character took flight and the series went from excellent-despite-Meloni to masterpiece: NBC has given a 13-episode series order to a new Dick Wolf crime drama series starring Christopher Meloni reprising his Law & Order: SVU role as Elliot Stabler. The SVU spinoff drama, which marks the actor’s return to Wolf World, revolves around the NYPD organized crime unit led by Stabler (Meloni). It is the first show to come out of the massive new five-year, nine-figure, multi-platform deal Wolf signed with Universal Television last month, which includes multiple series commitments. | On NBC, the new series will join the four existing Dick Wolf series, SVU and the three Chicago dramas, all of which received massive three-year renewals last month as part of Wolf’s new pact. The network also has been developing a Law & Order: Hate Crimes offshoot series.
https://deadline.com/2020/03/christopher-meloni-returns-new-dick-wolf-series-elliot-stabler-nbc-law-order-svu-1202896323/

By the metrics Trump himself chose to use to measure his coronavirus response, he’s doing poorly | It was literally one week ago when Trump’s comparison of the coronavirus epidemic to the number of deaths in car accidents each year prompted me to explain why that analogy made little sense. The argument came down to rate of change. Yes, nearly 40,000 people die in car accidents each year, far more than had died at that point from covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. But the number of people dying from covid-19 was escalating quickly and was expected by some experts to pass the number of annual automobile deaths. We don’t shut down the economy for 40,000 annual vehicle fatalities — but we also don’t see the number of automobile fatalities increase by a factor of 10 every 10 days. One main point of that article (and another looking at Trump’s comparison of the coronavirus to the seasonal flu) was that we simply didn’t know how many deaths covid-19 would cause in the country. That was on March 24, when the number of deaths totaled 706. Since then, 2,710 more people have died. In the past four days, including incomplete data from Tuesday, an average of 459 people have died of covid-19 each day. The total just passed the number of deaths in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, a significant marker for a variety of reasons. But it’s also a somewhat arbitrary comparison, given that the 3,400 deaths as of writing occurred over more than a month while the Sept. 11 deaths occurred on one day. These comparisons are necessarily a bit ghoulish, but it’s worth keeping in mind how the two differ. A better comparison at this moment might be the Vietnam War. Nearly 60,000 Americans were killed in that conflict, including nearly 17,000 in 1968 alone. Those figures are far higher than the number of coronavirus deaths. On a daily basis, though, the virus has exacted a larger toll. The deadliest day of 1968 came with the Tet Offensive that January, during which 246 Americans were killed. The rate at which covid-19 is killing Americans is nearly equivalent to two Tet offensives every day. These gory examples are still somewhat awkward fits since the nature of a virus is distinct from armed conflict and terrorism. Compared with other prominent causes of death each year, the number of covid-19 deaths is still relatively small. But, again, a comparison by day shows why the ongoing pandemic is so worrisome. As many Americans are dying of covid-19 on a daily basis at this moment as die from any sort of accident on an average day. More than four times as many are dying from the virus each day as die on average in car crashes.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/03/31/by-metrics-trump-himself-chose-use-measure-his-coronavirus-response-hes-doing-poorly/

Republicans reject PPACA special enrollment period amid pandemic
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/31/trump-obamacare-coronavirus-157788

The FBI has arrested a New York man for hoarding enough medical supplies “to outfit an entire hospital.” The FBI raided a New Jersey warehouse that housed his "suspected stash of 80,000 masks"
https://nypost.com/2020/03/30/brooklyn-man-arrested-for-hoarding-masks-coughing-on-fbi-agents/