| Florida curtails reporting of coronavirus death numbers by county medical examiners Posted: 01 May 2020 10:35 AM PDT  Florida health officials have halted the publication of up-to-the-minute death statistics related to the coronavirus pandemic that have, by law, been compiled by medical examiners in the state.
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| Trump wants to deliver 300 million doses of coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year. Is that even possible? Posted: 01 May 2020 07:11 AM PDT  The expectation is the U.S. won't return to normal until there's an effective vaccine against COVID-19 — and almost everyone in the country has been vaccinated.
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| Tara Reade is disputing a report that says her complaint against Joe Biden didn't refer to sexual assault or harassment Posted: 02 May 2020 01:49 PM PDT  Reade alleges Biden assaulted her in a Senate corridor in 1993 when he put his hands under her skirt and underwear without her consent.
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| Iran says Germany to face consequences over Hezbollah ban Posted: 01 May 2020 12:53 AM PDT  Iran has slammed Germany's ban on the activities of Lebanon's Hezbollah movement on its soil, saying it would face consequences for its decision to give in to Israeli and US pressure. Germany branded Hezbollah a "Shiite terrorist organisation" on Thursday, with dozens of police and special forces storming mosques and associations across the country linked to the Lebanese militant group. In a statement issued overnight, Iran's foreign ministry said the ban ignores "realities in West Asia".
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| 4 women arrested after Arizona mom found dead, blood found in bathroom Posted: 01 May 2020 04:36 AM PDT  Detective Jason Flam, a department spokesperson, confirmed in an email the arrest of the four women is related to Melissa Valenzuela's case.
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| Crowds gathered at National Mall to watch Blue Angels, Thunderbirds flyover Posted: 02 May 2020 02:57 PM PDT  "There are SOOO many people here. Not wearing masks. Not social distancing," one reporter tweeted.
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| Georgia businesses reopen and customers start returning, but only time will tell if it's the right decision Posted: 01 May 2020 09:05 AM PDT  Exactly one week since Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp began reopening the state's economy, small businesses shared early success stories as customers welcomed their return. But at what cost? Business owners say only time will tell.
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| Could These Rivals Stop Kim Jong Un’s Little Sister From Taking Power? Posted: 01 May 2020 01:43 AM PDT  SEOUL—Whatever the condition of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at the moment—and supposedly informed speculation ranges from dead, to comatose, to just chilling at his personal resort in Wonsan—his absence from public view for more than two weeks now is a reminder that his demise could plunge his country and the region, maybe even the world, into a huge new geopolitical crisis. For now his younger sister, Kim Yo Jong, looks like the understudy waiting in the wings to take the lead if her brother cannot function. He's positioned her for that role, and groomed her for it. But if Kim Jong Un dies, it's fair to say all hell could break loose.Many analysts believe China would move swiftly to consolidate control over North Korea if Kim Jong Un is no longer able to govern effectively. Chinese concerns, like those of the U.S. and just about every other country with a stake in the region, focus not only on who's in charge of North Korea but more specifically on what happens to North Korea's nukes. If there is a chaotic battle for succession, who will secure them?A Chinese medical team known to be in the North right now presumably is looking after Kim, and looking out for Beijing's interests. If Kim is indeed in grave condition, Chinese Leader Xi Jinping will be the first to know.And then what? "I'm very sure the Chinese will send their army into North Korea," says defector Ken Eom, who served 10 years in Pyongyang's military and is now a prominent analyst in the South. "They have already planned what they will do."Chinese concern about Korea goes deep into history, and was never more evident than in the Korean War, when half a million Chinese died driving U.S. and South Korean troops out of North Korea after they reached the Yalu River border between Korea and China in the early months of the war in 1950.It's not as though North Korea would threaten China, the source of all its oil and half its food, but the Chinese want to be sure the Americans don't get there first in the confusion of a power vacuum if Kim is no longer around, factions compete to succeed him, and the fate of his nuclear missile arsenal hangs in the balance.The results could be very bloody.Choi Jin-wook, former director of the Korea Institute of National Unification, believes it's "very unlikely" that North Korean authorities would invite the Chinese into their country as in the Korean War. "That is very dangerous," he says. "They will face a tough response from the North Korean side, probably an exchange of fire," he predicts, but if U.S. or South Korean troops enter North Korea, "that is a different story."It's been more than eight years since Kim Jong Un inherited the family dynasty, and North Korea's relations with China may never have been better since Kim first journeyed to Beijing—his first trip outside the country as North Korea's leader—in March of 2018. With sister Yo Jong always hovering nearby, he spent three days seeing President Xi Jinping and other top officials on a mission that set the course for future close ties.The encounter had much to do with Kim agreeing to see President Donald Trump for the first U.S.-North Korean summit in Singapore in June 2018. Xi hosted Kim again in May, a month before the summit, in the industrial port city of Dalian, agreeing to send him and his entourage to Singapore on a Chinese plane. And one week after the summit, as if reporting back to his patron, Kim again called on Xi in Beijing.The presence of Kim Yo Jong, present for many of these encounters, would seem to guarantee continuity. She could pick up where her brother left off, but it's likely that long-suppressed rivalries will explode if Kim Jong Un is not, in fact, on one of his yachts lying low during the COVID-19 pandemic, and really is at death's door, or through it."If factions face off, a vicious internal conflict is certain, and a civil war not unthinkable," writes Michael Auslin at Stanford University's Hoover Institution in the journal Foreign Policy. "With North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile sites potentially falling into the hands of whoever acts most quickly, Asia could face an unprecedented nuclear crisis."Kim Yo Jong now owes her role as number two to him and to the authority that she's believed to exert over the North's Organization and Guidance Department, the entity with life-or-death power over all aspects of North Korean society. She's the de facto leader of the OGD as well as Bureau 39, the office that controls the North's money, including counterfeit U.S. currency printed on a press imported from Switzerland."She's in charge," says Ken Eom, but "that doesn't mean she'll be in charge when her brother is no longer around."Assuming Kim Yo Jong will face trouble from powerful men who just can't accept the notion of a woman dominating them, at least two other figures are to be reckoned with.One is Kim Pyong Il, the much younger half brother of the late North Korean leader Kim Jong Il. That makes him not only Yo Jong and Jong Un's uncle but also the son of Kim Il Sung, who founded the North Korean state after the Japanese surrender in 1945. At 65, he's still theoretically capable of carrying on the dynasty's bloodline.Kim Pyong Il faces, however, what may be insurmountable problems. He spent nearly 40 years in a kind of exile as ambassador to eastern European countries before he was summoned back to Pyongyang last November."Nobody knows him," says Shim Jae-hoon, who writes about Korea for Yale Global. "He's been away too long." But he still could serve as figurehead leader over restive, quarreling subordinates. "It's almost possible," says Ken Eom, "but he might not last long."And then there's the top non-family contender, Choe Ryong Hae, whose title as President of the Presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly makes him North Korea's titular head of state. Choe, who also is first vice chairman of the state affairs commission, through which Kim as chairman wields his power, has his own bloodline—his father fought with Kim Il Sung against Japanese rule as a guerilla in Manchuria.Choe, however, has had an up-and-down career, once having been forced out of the hierarchy for "reeducation" as a laborer for involvement in a scheme to sell scrap metal—a crime that sometimes merits execution. In his case, his father's old-time bond with Kim Il Sung saved him.On the plus side, Choe's son is rumored to have been married to Kim Yo Jong."Choe is next at the moment," says Choi Jin-wook, "but he is not a Kim, though from a guerrilla family." But would that lineage do the trick?"I cannot find any alternative to this Stalinist dynasty," says Choi. "This will lead to the end of the Kim dynasty. Enough is enough.There is no legitimate person, and it is going to be anybody's game. Maybe big chaos."Xi Jinping would like to stand above the fray, pressuring competing factions to get along.In that spirit Xi received Kim for the fourth time in extraordinary pomp and circumstance in Beijing in January last year, six weeks before Trump's second summit with Kim in Hanoi. Then, last June, after the failure of the Trump-Kim summit in February, Kim received Xi in Pyongyang—the first visit by a Chinese leader to the North Korean capital in 14 years.All those displays of mutual good-will, however, may have been for naught if Kim Jong Un is no longer around. "I do not think Kim is yet dead," says Ken Eom, but, "I think he's got a serious problem."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Russia's coronavirus cases hit new high, Moscow warns of clampdown Posted: 02 May 2020 01:47 AM PDT  Russia reported 9,623 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, its highest daily rise since the start of the pandemic, bringing the total to 124,054, mostly in the capital Moscow, where the mayor threatened to cut the number of travel permits. The death toll nationwide rose to 1,222 after 57 people died in the last 24 hours, Russia's coronavirus crisis response centre said, after revising the previous day's tally. Russia has been in partial lockdown, aimed at curbing the spread of the novel coronavirus, since the end of March.
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| The inside story of the Wuhan virus laboratory blamed by President Trump for releasing Covid-19 Posted: 01 May 2020 06:23 AM PDT  A state-of-the art facility purpose-built to handle research into the world's most deadly pathogens, the Wuhan Institute of Virology played a crucial role in identifying the virus now known as Covid-19. It was Shi Zhengli, the laboratory's globally respected expert in the transmission of animal-born coronavirus to humans, who led a team that worked round the clock to establish the cause of the mysterious disease that appeared in Wuhan, a city of 11 million on the Yangtze river 600 miles south of Beijing, in late December. Now Donald Trump has accused the laboratory of causing the very pandemic it helped identify - to the fury of scientists and Chinese authorities. "We're going to see where it comes from," Mr Trump said at a White House event late on Thursday. "We have people looking at it very, very strongly. Scientific people, intelligence people, and others. We're going to put it all together. I think we will have a very good answer eventually. And China might even tell us." Mr Trump refused to say what, if any, intelligence he had seen suggesting Covid-19 may have originated in the WIV. He wasn't allowed to tell us, he said. The United States Intelligence Community on Friday said it - like most scientists - had ruled out the theory that the virus had been manmade or genetically modified, but did say it was looking into the possibility it escaped as "a result of an accident at a laboratory in Wuhan." That, experts say, is highly unlikely. But far from impossible.
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| Some top Democrats say they want the country to move past Tara Reade's sexual assault allegations, even though Biden is calling for an investigation Posted: 01 May 2020 02:39 PM PDT  On Friday morning, Biden appeared on nation TV and vehemently denied Tara Reade's allegations, but said he supports an investigation.
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| ICE detainees clash with Massachusetts jail officials over coronavirus Posted: 02 May 2020 03:00 PM PDT  It is the ninth time since a national emergency was declared that staff at detention centers used pepper spray on protesting ICE detainees.
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| White House blocks Fauci from testifying at 'counter-productive' House hearing, Senate appearance still on Posted: 02 May 2020 04:47 AM PDT  The White House confirmed Friday it is blocking Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease who has taken on a prominent role in the Trump administration's coronavirus response, from testifying before the Democrat-led House Appropriations Committee about the pandemic next week.White House spokesman Judd Deere said "it is counterproductive" to have someone like Fauci, who is heavily involved in the government's efforts to re-open the American economy and expedite a coronavirus vaccine, step away from those tasks and testify."It's not muzzling, it's not blocking, it's simply trying to ensure we're able to balance the need for oversight, the legitimate need for oversight, with their responsibilities to handle COVID-19 work at their respective agencies and departments," a senior administration official told The Washington Post on condition of anonymity.Deere did say the White House would work with Congress to find a more "appropriate time" for Fauci to testify.Fauci, who at times has dissented from President Trump on certain coronavirus-related matters such as testing capacity and whether some states are re-opening too soon, will reportedly still appear before the Republican-led Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee the following week. Read more at The Washington Post and CNN.More stories from theweek.com The angst over Joe Biden's assault allegation has an easy resolution Mitt Romney sides with Democrats calling for $12 hourly raises for essential workers 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit
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| Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin tells tells President Vladimir Putin he has the coronavirus Posted: 01 May 2020 06:48 AM PDT  Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he had been diagnosed with the coronavirus and was temporarily stepping down to recover.
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| Sajid Hussain: Swedish police find body of missing Pakistani journalist Posted: 01 May 2020 07:55 AM PDT  Sajid Hussain fled Pakistan for Sweden in 2012 after receiving death threats connected to his work.
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| 5.4-magnitude earthquake hits near Puerto Rico Posted: 02 May 2020 07:59 AM PDT  The quake caused damage in the city of Ponce and other southern towns on Saturday morning.
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| After Decades of Service, Five Nuns Die as Virus Sweeps Through Convent Posted: 01 May 2020 05:26 AM PDT  CHICAGO -- Our Lady of the Angels Convent was designed as a haven of peace and prayer in a suburb of Milwaukee, a place where aging, frail nuns could rest after spending their lives taking care of others.Songbirds chirped in the sitting area. A courtyard invited morning prayers and strolls for the several dozen nuns who lived in the facility, a low-slung cream-colored building with a turret.The quiet convent has become the site of a deadly cluster of the coronavirus. Four staff members have tested positive, a health official said. Since April 6, five nuns have died from the virus.COVID-19, difficult to contain in any circumstance, has spread within Our Lady of the Angels with a particular invisibility. All five nuns who died were only discovered to have the virus after their deaths.The women had moved into the convent after decades of service in Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. They worked in parishes, schools and universities, teaching English and music, ministering to the aged and the poor and nurturing their own passions for literature and the fine arts. Our Lady of the Angels, which specializes in caring for people with dementia, was meant to be their final home.Officials say that this week, as alarm has grown surrounding the outbreak in the convent, medical staff quickly increased testing, ensuring that every resident was tested for the coronavirus. Earlier in April, the facility had temporarily stopped testing nuns for the coronavirus, according to investigative reports by the Milwaukee County medical examiner.Records show that administrators at the convent had reasoned that the process of testing the nuns, by inserting a long nasal swab through a nostril into the back of the throat, was too difficult for them to endure.In early April, Sister Mary Regine Collins was several weeks away from her 96th birthday. She had retired to Our Lady of the Angels after a life filled with religious service and education, according to a biography provided by her ministry, the School Sisters of Notre Dame.She taught in Catholic schools and at a university in Milwaukee; she earned a master's degree in art at the University of Notre Dame in 1962 and was known for her wood carvings.On April 3, she developed a mild cough. The next day she was short of breath. On April 6, she died.The convent staff had attempted to test Collins for the virus, but she had dementia and was "too combative to tolerate" the process, an investigator's report from the medical examiner's office said."Staff is treating her death as if she had COVID," the report said.A post-mortem coronavirus test, conducted by the medical examiner's office, came back positive.There have been at least 6,854 confirmed cases of coronavirus in Wisconsin, according to a New York Times database, and as of Thursday, at least 316 people had died.Most of the deaths have occurred in Milwaukee County, the most populous county in the state. In March, local health officials hosted conference calls with administrators of nursing homes and long-term care facilities, warning them that their residents -- in advanced age, with underlying medical conditions -- would be especially vulnerable."The convent administrator and staff have been following, and continue to follow, all the guidelines and recommendations of the local health department, the facility's infection control coordinator, and the sisters' primary care physician," said Michael O'Loughlin, a spokesman for the School Sisters of St. Francis, a co-sponsor of the convent."They are very aware that the convent's residents, who are elderly and receive specialized memory care, are a vulnerable population, which is why the convent suspended all communal activities and enforced social distancing long before any of the residents tested positive for COVID-19."Darren Rausch, director and health officer for the Greenfield Health Department, said Our Lady of the Angels was among the facilities in the small suburb of Milwaukee that had kept in close touch with his office.From the beginning of the outbreak, the convent staff followed the advice of his department, he said. Isolate positive cases. Make sure staff members are wearing personal protective equipment. Monitor the temperatures and symptoms of residents."It's definitely very challenging," Rausch said, noting that it can be more difficult for medical staff to detect symptoms of the coronavirus in patients with dementia. "They can't always vocalize what's going on."Health officials say that monitoring for COVID-19 is especially crucial in a residential setting full of older, medically vulnerable patients; about one-fifth of coronavirus deaths in the United States have been linked to nursing facilities.Nursing homes and long-term care facilities, which struggled with a widespread lack of tests in the early days of the outbreak, have significantly ramped up testing in recent weeks, even for residents who are asymptomatic.The Wisconsin Department of Health Services has asked long-term care facilities with an outbreak to test residents who appear sick; the specimens can then be sent to a state lab for free COVID-19 testing.Many people who undergo coronavirus tests using the most common method -- swabbing through the nose -- find the test uncomfortable or even painful. Other methods, using a sample of saliva that is spit into a vial, are being introduced in a small number of states but are not widely available yet.O'Loughlin, a spokesman for the ministry, said that since testing at the convent resumed, all of the residents have now been tested, some multiple times.As the convent staff fought to contain the coronavirus outbreak in early April, it took steps to protect the women inside, locking down the facility to visitors and keeping patients who had tested positive for the virus away from others. Each sister has a private room and bathroom, an arrangement that has helped to isolate the sick.But it was too late to stop the spread. A day after the first coronavirus death, another nun died: Sister Marie June Skender, 83, a former elementary schoolteacher and musician whose symptoms had begun with a fever a few days earlier.Sister Mary Francele Sherburne, 99, died two days later. Before retirement, she was a full-time college professor, a music teacher to elementary students and a volunteer instructor for decades to Milwaukeeans learning English as a second language. "Sister Francele had a passion for kite flying," said a biography provided by her ministry.When a doctor at the convent called the medical examiner's office in Milwaukee to report the death, she noted that no COVID-19 test had been performed.The facility "stopped testing as the patients are mostly dementia patients and it was too traumatic," an investigator wrote in the report. "Several other patients had tested positive before they stopped testing."Sister Annelda Holtkamp, 102, the fourth nun at the convent to die of the coronavirus, had been exposed to three people who had already tested positive, records show.Even when testing was performed, it was sometimes difficult to understand which patients were at risk. Early in April, Sister Bernadette Kelter, 88, tested negative for the coronavirus.She later developed a cough, fever and body aches, and lost her appetite. On Sunday, Kelter, a teacher and home health aide before retirement, became the fifth nun at the convent to die of COVID-19.Jane Morgan, the administrator of the convent, said in a statement that she was cooperating with health authorities to prevent further spread of the virus."We welcome prayers for the health and comfort of our residents and staff as we grieve the loss of our sister," Morgan said.This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Italy's daily coronavirus death toll jumps, new cases stable Posted: 02 May 2020 09:11 AM PDT  Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy jumped by 474 on Saturday, against 269 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, posting the largest daily toll of fatalities since April 21. The steep increase in deaths followed a long, gradual declining trend and was due largely to Lombardy, the country's worst affected region, where there were 329 deaths in the last 24 hours compared with just 88 the day before.
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| Opinion: Trump actually wants Michigan's governor to 'make a deal' with armed protesters Posted: 01 May 2020 10:11 AM PDT  Since when is it a good idea for the president of the United States to encourage political leaders to cave in to demands by armed protesters?
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| A US researcher who worked with a Wuhan virology lab gives 4 reasons why a coronavirus leak would be extremely unlikely Posted: 02 May 2020 05:11 AM PDT  A fringe theory posits that the coronavirus accidentally leaked from a Wuhan lab. But a US researcher says there's no evidence for that.
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| Joe Biden joked that he'd love to have USWNT star Megan Rapinoe as his VP, but that she'd 'have to take a pay cut' to take the job Posted: 01 May 2020 09:59 AM PDT  "You know I'm not into that," Megan Rapinoe replied during her Instagram Live with Biden, referencing the USWNT's equal pay lawsuit against US Soccer.
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| Thousands storm California beaches to protest closures Posted: 02 May 2020 11:09 AM PDT  Governor Gavin Newsom decided to close Orange County beaches after 80,000 people flocked to them during a heatwave last weekend.
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| Kim reappears in public, ending absence amid health rumors Posted: 01 May 2020 02:49 PM PDT  North Korean leader Kim Jong Un made his first public appearance in 20 days as he celebrated the completion of a fertilizer factory near Pyongyang, state media said Saturday, ending an absence that had triggered global rumors that he may be seriously ill. The North's official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA, reported that Kim attended the ceremony Friday in Sunchon with other senior officials, including his sister Kim Yo Jong, who many analysts predict would take over if her brother is suddenly unable to rule.
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| New Yorkers cannot be evicted for not paying rent through June, says Cuomo Posted: 02 May 2020 07:35 AM PDT  New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said that no one in the state can be evicted for non-payment of rent through June.In his daily coronavirus response press briefing, the governor said: "A landlord cannot evict a person for non payment of rent ... that is a law in place through June."
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| Missing Idaho kids: Judge won't lower Lori Vallow's $1 million bond Posted: 01 May 2020 05:40 PM PDT  The defense believes attorney-client conversations are being recorded in jail.
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| Hundreds of cruise crew members have been stuck on ships for months, and they say there's no end in sight Posted: 02 May 2020 05:57 AM PDT  Cruise employees from major lines like Norwegian Cruise Lines, Cunard Line, and MSC Cruises are still unable to leave their ships.
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| Former Green Beret led failed attempt to oust Venezuela's Maduro Posted: 02 May 2020 09:11 AM PDT  About 300 heavily armed volunteers had planned to sneak into Venezuela from South America. Along the way, they would raid military bases in the country and ignite a rebellion that would end in President Nicolás Maduro's arrest.
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| McConnell Was Warned D.C. Hadn’t Hit COVID Benchmarks Prior to Reconvening Senate Posted: 01 May 2020 10:14 AM PDT  At least one official with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's (R-KY) office was on a call last week with the Capitol's attending physician during which that physician, Dr. Brian Monahan, said Washington, D.C. had not yet cleared coronavirus-related benchmarks needed to safely reopen. According to two sources familiar with the call, McConnell's chief of staff, Sharon Soderstrom, stressed to individuals on the call that they should take seriously the likelihood that the Majority Leader would reconvene the Senate on May 4 even amid the pandemic. A third source who was informed of the call's exchanges confirmed that account.Despite Monahan's warnings, McConnell did just that, telling lawmakers this week that they would be called back next Monday.McConnell has defended his position by noting that the government is asking and demanding a host of essential workers to remain on the job during the spread of coronavirus and, therefore, that federal lawmakers should be prepared to do the same. But his decision to call back the Senate has been met with criticism by some of its own members, who say it defies basic public safety guidelines to make lawmakers (many elderly) and their staffs—not to mention the hundreds of workers needed to keep the Capitol and Senate offices running—cram into the buildings when COVID-19 cases in Washington, D.C. are just about peaking. McConnell to Move Quickly on Confirming His 38-Year-Old Protégé to the BenchThose warnings took on additional urgency this Thursday when Monahan held a separate call with top GOP officials during which he relayed that his office lacked the capacity to test all 100 senators for coronavirus and that the tests they did possess could take two or more days to process. It is unclear if the state of testing was discussed on Monahan's call the week prior. A request for comment to his office was not returned. One source also said that Monahan made no actual recommendation as to whether the Senate should or should not reconvene as his job is not to advise on those matters but to give lawmakers "the lay of the land." "He gave a nearly 20 minute update on the situation in D.C.," said the source. "He did outline that they didn't expect the benchmarks to be met by May 4." According to the source, the call featured at least one aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer's office, the Senate parliamentarian, the Architect of the Capitol, the Senate's Sergeant at Arms, the Secretary of the Senate, top Republican and Democratic floor staff, and the Rules Committee Chair and ranking members as well as their staffs. Schumer's office declined to comment. David Popp, a spokesman for McConnell, said, "I do not have any readouts or guidance to provide from any recent calls at the member or staff level."Washington, D.C. authorities have extended the city's stay-at-home order through May 15 as the coronavirus' spread has yet to abate sufficiently to reasonably relax social distancing restrictions. On Thursday, the District had its deadliest date yet, while the greater metro region recorded 2,000 new COVID cases. Officials have warned that businesses may not be able to open for another two to three months under the current trajectory.Earlier in the week, House Democratic leadership reversed course on their own scheduled return to business on May 4, apparently based on similar warnings. After announcing on Monday that the House would reconvene on that day, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said Tuesday they would in fact not return, citing guidance from the attending physician and backlash from rank-and-file members. As the Senate reconvenes next week, some precautions are being taken. According to Politico, staff is being encouraged to telework and Senate offices are being asked to screen staffers who have to come to the Hill. Both lawmakers and aides are also being asked to wear masks at all times.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| Michigan governor extends coronavirus state of emergency until May 28 Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:27 PM PDT  Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Thursday extended a coronavirus state of emergency declaration through May 28, saying "common sense and all of the scientific data tells us we're not out of the woods yet."The Republican-controlled state legislature did not approve her order to extend the declaration, which was set to expire on Friday. Whitmer continued the state of emergency by executive order, and GOP lawmakers are now planning on taking her to court over her exercise of state emergency powers, the Detroit Free Press reports. Whitmer said in a statement that by "refusing to extend the emergency and disaster declaration, Republican lawmakers are putting their heads in the sand and putting more lives and livelihoods at risk."There are now 41,379 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Michigan, with the death toll at 3,789. Conservative groups have complained that Whitmer's stay-at-home order is too strict, and on Thursday, dozens of demonstrators, some of them carrying rifles, entered Michigan's statehouse, calling on Whitmer to end the state of emergency. This was a "political rally," Whitmer said, and if participants become infected from COVID-19 because they didn't practicing social distancing, the stay-at-home order could last even longer.More stories from theweek.com The angst over Joe Biden's assault allegation has an easy resolution Mitt Romney sides with Democrats calling for $12 hourly raises for essential workers 5 scathingly funny cartoons about Mike Pence's unmasked hospital visit
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| Wages Seized. Bank Accounts Frozen. The Poor Are Getting Poorer as Creditors Pursue Debts Posted: 01 May 2020 10:22 AM PDT  'Things were bad before the COVID emergency, they got worse with COVID, and they're going to get even worse.'
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| North Korea tries to end speculation over supreme leader's health with ribbon cutting pictures Posted: 02 May 2020 05:57 AM PDT  Most ribbon cutting ceremonies are unremarkable affairs, the stuff of local newspaper photographs at most. But this one was different. It involved North Korea's supreme leader Kim Jong-un in his first reported appearance in 20 days, during which there has been intense speculation about his health and even whether he was still alive. The newly released footage of Kim glad-handing at a North Korean fertilizer production plant north of Pyongyang on Friday would appear to have put an end to that. He was even pictured standing in front of a banner reading May 1, to drive home the point, much in the way hostages are forced to hold up that day's newspaper for the camera as proof of life. The date is also written in the Latin alphabet, in case there were any doubts about which audience this 'proof ' is for (see picture below).
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| A woman fell 115-feet to her death after posing for a cliffside photo to celebrate the end of a lockdown Posted: 02 May 2020 12:40 AM PDT  Tour guide Olesya Suspitsyna, from Kazakhstan, died after slipping on grass and falling off a cliff in the Duden Park in Antalya, Turkey.
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| Biden asks the secretary of the Senate to direct a search for an alleged sexual harassment complaint filed by a former staffer Posted: 01 May 2020 11:39 PM PDT  Biden allows access to his Senate records to see if there are documents to corroborate accusor's claims after previously denying access.
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| Fact Check: Reps. Omar and Ocasio-Cortez are not trying to ban Pledge of Allegiance Posted: 01 May 2020 05:30 AM PDT  There is no evidence in any public record or legitimate news report of either member of Congress regarding a purported Pledge of Allegiance ban.
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| White House blocks Fauci from testifying to Congress on coronavirus response Posted: 01 May 2020 02:47 PM PDT  Top U.S. health official Anthony Fauci will not testify next week to a congressional committee examining the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus pandemic, the White House said on Friday, calling it "counterproductive" to have individuals involved in the response testify. The White House issued an emailed statement after a spokesman for the House of Representatives committee holding the hearing said the panel had been informed by Trump administration officials that Fauci had been blocked from testifying. "While the Trump administration continues its whole-of-government response to COVID-19, including safely opening up America again and expediting vaccine development, it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those efforts appearing at congressional hearings," White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
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| Unmasked Protesters Storm Huntington Beach After California Governor’s Closure Posted: 01 May 2020 05:18 PM PDT  Give them Vitamin D or give them death.Hundreds of demonstrators swarmed Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, on Friday to protest California Gov. Gavin Newsom's closure of the Golden State's sandy shores—an anti-lockdown display organized in part by the owner of a "health and wellness center."Reporters on the scene captured footage of banners for President Donald Trump's campaign, "Don't Tread on Me" flags, and homemade signs with slogans such as "Freedom is Essential." Overhead shots showed mounted cops corralling the demonstrators onto sidewalks and out of the road. It was clear that many protesters were not wearing masks that health officials say can help curb the spread of COVID-19.One of the organizers behind Friday's event is Vivienne Reign of an organization called "We Have Rights." She is also owner of the East Bay Health and Wellness Center and multiple companies marketing medical devices, corporate records show. Reign, however, refused to confirm her ties to the clinic, which specializes in chiropractic treatment and "regenerative medicine." In an interview hours before the protest began, Reign said she was not connected to Freedomworks, the right-of-center advocacy network which has backed other protests demanding shuttered states reopen, or to any groups bankrolled by libertarian billionaire Charles Koch, who has ties to Freedomworks.'Very, Very Scary': Officials Dumbfounded as Florida Beaches Reopen, 3 Days After Death SpikeShe claimed that We Have Rights had simply capitalized on the grassroots outrage Newsom provoked with his order, which he issued after crowds packed the coastline last weekend in defiance of the need for social distancing amid a global pandemic that has killed more than 2,000 Californians and another 60,000 Americans."'When that came out, people were pissed," she said, arguing the war with COVID-19 is effectively over, even though health experts say reopening could trigger a second wave. "The curve has essentially been beaten, so we decided we've gotta go do something about this."WeHaveRights.com, which calls itself without any backup "the biggest movement in California," was first registered just two weeks ago.Reign claimed her organization, which she characterized as an umbrella group encompassing multiple pro-reopening factions in California, has a wealthy benefactor—though she would not say who. "There's a lot of powerful people behind this, and we can get things done," she insisted.The East Bay Health and Wellness Center attracted criticism last year for marketing unproven stem cell injections as a treatment for joint pain.Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| President's 'So what?' as 5,000 die sparks fury in Brazil Posted: 01 May 2020 06:29 PM PDT  "So what?" said Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Tuesday when a journalist asked him about the fact that more than 5,000 Brazilians had died of the coronavirus. The far-right leader's off-the-cuff comment has been sparking anger ever since, with governors, politicians, healthcare professionals and media figures all weighing in to express their outrage at his lack of empathy. Bolsonaro is no stranger to controversy.
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| 17 guns, thousands of ammo rounds found at home of suspect in Alabama bike gang murders Posted: 30 Apr 2020 05:25 PM PDT  Tyrone Johnson, 37, was arrested in Nashville in connection to the fatal shootings of two men outside a motorcycle club in Huntsville, Alabama.
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| WH press secretary says she will 'never lie' to the media Posted: 01 May 2020 12:16 PM PDT  At her first briefing as White House press secretary, Kayleigh McEnany said she will never lie to reporters.
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| Meet Amazon's head of safety, who gave us an inside look at how she spends her days in the midst of the pandemic Posted: 02 May 2020 06:07 AM PDT  "There are times when you don't know what you don't know; so we are at the tip of the spear in this," said Amazon head of safety Heather MacDougall.
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| US tweets support for Taiwan, sparking opposition from China Posted: 01 May 2020 11:56 PM PDT |
| United sees 'zero' travel demand, says major layoffs loom if bookings don't pick up by fall Posted: 01 May 2020 11:22 AM PDT  United Airlines says it will have to lay off employees this fall if travel demand doesn't resume by then.
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