| Trump says the measure of his success against coronavirus will be the final death toll. How's he doing? Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:41 PM PDT  For the past several weeks, a fixture of President Trump's daily coronavirus task force press briefings has been his insistence that the ultimate measure of his administration's handling of the pandemic will be the number of Americans killed by COVID-19.
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| Asia virus latest: China sued by US state; northeast China tightens curbs Posted: 22 Apr 2020 04:27 AM PDT  The US state of Missouri has sued China's leadership over the coronavirus crisis, prompting an angry rebuke from Beijing over the "absurd" claim. Missouri is seeking damages over what it described as deliberate deception and insufficient action to stop the pandemic. New clusters of coronavirus infections in northeast China near the Russian border led officials to tighten restrictions on movement as they seek to prevent another outbreak.
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| Wife of pastor arrested for nearly hitting protester with church bus flashes wads of cash as she bails him out Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:39 PM PDT  The Apostle Paul was jailed in Rome for preaching that Jesus Christ was God. Some 2,000 years later, another evangelist - Louisiana Pastor Tony Spell - was jailed for trying to hit a protester with a bus.While legend holds that Paul was eventually beheaded by Emperor Nero, Mr Spell will have to suffer no such fate; his wife, Shaye, flashed $5,000 at the local jail, made bail, and brought her husband home.
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| Germany sees future need to learn lessons of corona outbreak Posted: 22 Apr 2020 05:08 AM PDT  German Chancellor Angela Merkel spoke to her Australian counterpart on Tuesday about the coronavirus pandemic, her spokesman said on Wednesday, adding that establishing facts about the outbreak would help to learn lessons for the future. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has sought support for an international investigation into the origins and spread of the coronavirus pandemic and the response of the World Health Organization (WHO). "At an appropriate time, it will be necessary to analyse every phase of the pandemic," German government spokesman Steffen Seibert told reporters.
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| Fox’s Brit Hume Says Biden Is Senile: I Have the ‘Same Kind of Memory Problems’ Posted: 21 Apr 2020 07:15 PM PDT  Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume chose an unexpected tack to back up his accusations that presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is senile on Tuesday night—he pointed to his own age and memory issues.Appearing on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight, Hume was asked to weigh in on host Tucker Carlson's theory that Democratic Party leaders will look to replace Biden as the party's nominee with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo over fears about the former vice president's mental acuity. (Carlson has been pushing this prediction for weeks now.)Hume, who has repeatedly claimed that Biden is suffering from cognitive mental decline, said he thinks Democrats "have to be worried about Biden." Pointing to recent gaffes in TV interviews, Hume asserted that the 77-year-old ex-veep is "having a hard time keeping his thoughts together and being able to say what he needs to say."The 76-year-old longtime Fox personality then decided to use himself as an example to make the case that Biden had lost his mental faculties."I have no doubt about what the problem is," Hume continued. "I'm about the same age as he is and I experience the same kind of memory problems he does. I think he's senile and I don't think there can be much doubt about it."The Fox News analyst said "it's not necessarily crippling but it doesn't help," insisting that Biden is President Donald Trump's "best hope" of getting re-elected due to concerns over Biden's mental fitness."I think Donald Trump will have an uphill struggle," he added. "Biden might save him by being Biden."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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| Cuomo outlines plan for 'tracing army' to tame outbreak Posted: 22 Apr 2020 08:02 AM PDT  Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg will help create a "tracing army" that will help find people infected with the coronavirus and get them into isolation, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Wednesday. New York will coordinate the massive effort with neighboring New Jersey and Connecticut, accounting for the large number of people who commute into New York City for work. Wide-scale testing, tracing and isolation are considered crucial to taming the outbreak in the hard-hit region.
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| Factories Tip-Toe Back After India Partially Lifts Lockdown Posted: 20 Apr 2020 10:10 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- India's industrialists are tentatively reopening their factories, as the government eases the world's biggest lockdown to revive an economy that was slowing even before the coronavirus outbreak.Ajit Gupta, managing director of Ajit Industries Pvt., spent most of Monday supervising sanitization of his factory near the border of Delhi, which produces adhesive tapes used to insulate electric wires, package goods, or protect fridges and other electronics during transport. Printed signs at the gate urged staff to stay at least three feet from each other at all times and workers were hosed down with disinfectant after masked security guards took their temperature with thermal guns and handed out bottles of hand sanitizers. If even one employee tests positive for Covid-19, law mandates that the entire factory be shut for months."It's very risky for us to restart business," Gupta, 55, said by phone. "But the first quarter of this financial year will be washed out anyway and if the situation continues for a longer time, we may have to close down some operations."Following Monday's partial lifting of the lockdown, Nomura Holdings Inc. estimates as much as 60% of India's economy can now be open, but not before shrinking output by 0.4% for the year started April 1 compared with growth of 4.6% the previous year. One industry body predict labor shortages could last for as long as six months and as many as 40 million people may lose their jobs by September."India's decision to partly relax the lockdown highlights the growing trade-off faced by developing countries of the economic costs of a lockdown versus health," Nomura economists led by Sonal Varma wrote in a note. "Policies will need to be nimble because infection rates could resurge."Rural ExemptionsIndia has 17,615 confirmed cases, including 559 deaths. In an attempt to contain the outbreak, Prime Minister Narendra Modi doubled the duration of the initial 21-day lockdown but allowed farmers and certain industries outside virus hotspots to resume operations from Monday.Companies that wish to restart however need to first get approval from local authorities, which is a tough task, according to Amritanshu Khaitan, managing director at Eveready Industries Ltd., the country's biggest maker of flashlights and batteries. "Wherever we have got approvals, we are working with skeletal staff," he said by phone.The current fiscal year will also be a "litmus test" for Indian shadow lenders that depend on financial technology, according to the local unit of Fitch Ratings.It estimates that such firms have total outstanding debt of about 30 billion rupees ($392 million), of which half is funded by banks and other lenders that may now hold back refinance. So-called non-bank financiers were allowed to resume operations in Mumbai on Monday, joining traditional banks that continued to function during the lockdown as they were classified as essential services.'Tough Situation'"Immediate liquidity relief" from banks is a priority for Jindal Stainless Ltd., said managing director Abhyuday Jindal. India's biggest stainless steel producer plans to gradually restart both its factories located in the states of Haryana and Odisha after it deals with issues including supply chain disruptions, congestion at ports and a labor shortage.Companies in the petroleum industry, including Indian Oil Corp. and Hindustan Petroleum Corp., resumed work on projects worth 2 trillion rupees following relaxation of the lockdown, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a Twitter post. About 511 projects such as refinery, exploration and production, marketing and infrastructure, pipelines and city gas distribution have kick-started operations. Most of India's automobile and phone manufacturers remained shut on Monday and will reopen later.Indranil Pan, chief economist at IDFC First Bank Ltd., said firms will struggle to ramp up production to pre-lockdown levels. It's very likely these companies, especially smaller units that employ the bulk of India's workforce, will be forced to slash their staff, he said.Risks also loom for Gupta, whose revenue was lower than target last financial year as India's economy began slowing. He's concerned about the future of his 500 employees, about 150 of whom were expected to turn up on Monday, some with pay cuts. Only about 75 showed up."It is a tough situation for us," he said.(Updates on oil sector in 11th paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Americans overwhelmingly disagree with restarting the economy at the expense of public health Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:49 AM PDT  Some people are protesting ongoing social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Most Americans aren't on board.Just 14 percent of Americans believe the country "should stop social distancing to stimulate the economy even if it means increasing the spread of coronavirus," a Morning Consult/Politico poll released Wednesday found. A massive 76 percent meanwhile say social distancing should continue "even if it means continued damage to the economy," the poll taken just days ago found.Protesters have gathered in state capitols and, with prodding from President Trump, demanded businesses reopen and social distancing requirements be lifted even though medical experts warn against it. This poll reflects how small that movement is, despite its continued news coverage and the fact that it seems to have prompted some governors to buck federal guidelines and move to let businesses reopen before the pandemic has even peaked. The Morning Consult poll mirrors a recent survey from Pew Research, which found 66 percent of Americans were more concerned that social distancing guidelines would be lifted too soon than last too long.Morning Consult/Politico surveyed 1991 registered voters online from April 18-19, and the poll had a two percent margin of error.More stories from theweek.com How close are we to herd immunity? The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience Trump administration allegedly removed doctor developing COVID-19 vaccine for refusing to back hydroxychloroquine
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| Trump signs executive order limiting immigration Wednesday Posted: 22 Apr 2020 04:23 PM PDT  Trump said the order would "pause" issuing green cards for 60 days, and the policy would then be revisited.
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| Exclusive: Sen. Marsha Blackburn, ‘China, you had the information, you lied. You need to be held to account for this.’ Posted: 21 Apr 2020 12:53 PM PDT  Senator Marsha Blackburn spoke with Fox News about the Stop COVID Act and how the legislation will allow Americans to file lawsuits against China for its role in the origin and spread of the coronavirus.
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| Beijing names islands in disputed South China Sea Posted: 21 Apr 2020 03:45 AM PDT  China on Tuesday defended its naming of 80 islands and other geographical features in the South China Sea in a move likely to anger neighbours as the country asserts its territorial claims. A joint announcement of the names on Sunday from the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of Civil Affairs came a day after China established new administrative districts for the contested Spratly and Paracel island chains. China last released such a list in 1983 when it named 287 geographical features across the disputed waterway.
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| Coronavirus outbreak in Philippines jail sees 123 inmates infected Posted: 22 Apr 2020 04:26 AM PDT  A prison in the Philippines is suffering from a major outbreak of the new coronavirus with 123 infected inmates, officials said on Wednesday, adding to concerns among activists about contagion risks in some of the world's most overcrowded jails. The mayor of Cebu City said a new building in the prison capable of handling 3,000 people would be used as an isolation facility to contain an outbreak that accounts for 40% of cases in the Philippines' second biggest city. Eighteen cases have been found at a jail in Manila's Quezon City, among them nine members of staff, and media has reported infections at other facilities.
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| Trudeau: Canadian planes sent to China to pick up medical supplies returned empty Posted: 21 Apr 2020 11:35 AM PDT |
| 'That makes no sense': Anderson Cooper stunned by Las Vegas mayor during wild CNN interview Posted: 22 Apr 2020 12:40 PM PDT  At one point, Anderson Cooper had to remove his glasses, rub his eyes, and take a breath before continuing.
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| Airlines, Amazon Upped Lobbying as Virus Hit Economy Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:22 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- U.S. industries including airlines, pharmaceutical firms and Big Tech boosted their lobbying in the first three months of 2020 as the coronavirus went from a regional concern to a worldwide pandemic that prompted governments to spend trillions of dollars in aid.The airline trade association Airlines for America spent nearly $2 million in the first quarter, up more than 50% from almost $1.3 million in the same period a year earlier, and secured financial assistance as demand for air travel plunged, according to lobbying disclosures filed with Congress Monday.The U.S. Treasury Department disbursed $2.9 billion to passenger airlines Monday in the first round of payroll assistance to industries.The airlines had sought $58 billion in aid for passenger and cargo carriers from Congress, and with supportive messages from President Donald Trump, the industry eventually secured $50 billion in loans and payroll assistance for passenger carriers and $8 billion for cargo carriers as part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus that Congress assembled at the end of March. The forms represent lobbying from the start of the year to March 31.The government is also requiring large carriers to repay some of the assistance at low interest rates, and the Treasury has the ability to take stock warrants. On both provisions, there was pushback from the industry, as carriers have cut capacity as much as 80% while parking thousands of planes and flying many routes nearly empty.Several lobbying groups including the National Association of Manufacturers and the National Association of Realtors, as well as companies including Gilead Sciences Inc. and Amazon.com Inc., increased their spending on government influence in the first quarter, according to disclosures filed with Congress.Records SetCalifornia-based Gilead, a major producer of HIV and hepatitis C drugs, spent almost $2.5 million on lobbying in the second quarter, a record for the company and up more than 30% from a year earlier, when it set its prior record. Earlier in April, the company's shares jumped after a report that a group of patients being treated in Chicago with one of its drugs as part of an experimental trial were "seeing rapid recoveries in fever and respiratory symptoms."Amazon and Facebook Inc. also set records in the quarter. Amazon spent more than $4.3 million, up more than 11% from the first quarter of 2019 and beating its previous quarterly record of $4.2 million, which it set in the last three months of 2019. The e-commerce giant, which has become a lifeline for Americans in lockdown seeking to obtain supplies without venturing outside, reported lobbying on combating price gouging in response to the pandemic, among other issues. Some sellers on Amazon had raised prices of goods on the platform dramatically as the virus outbreak took hold in the U.S.Facebook spent nearly $5.3 million, up more than 50% from the same period a year earlier, on "Coronavirus response" alongside its more typical issues such as privacy, competition and cryptocurrency.Manufacturers' IssuesThe National Association of Manufacturers, meanwhile, spent nearly $3.4 million, up almost 50% from a year earlier. The group called for the federal government to create a $1.4 trillion fund with interest-free loans to manufacturers affected by the outbreak. It praised the $850 billion in financing and guarantees for large and small businesses ultimately included in the stimulus legislation that its members could tap.Manufacturers also pushed the administration to designate the supply chain as "essential" to avoid business disruptions and keep workers on the job.Realtors, meanwhile, spent almost $14 million, an increase of nearly 20% from the first quarter of 2019. The National Association of Realtors worked on a number of issues related to the coronavirus response, including relief for independent contractors and the self-employed, according to its filings. It reached out to Congress, the White House, the Treasury Department, the U.S. Small Business Administration and the Labor Department.The Business Roundtable spent nearly $5 million, up more than a third from the same period in 2019. The group, which counts chief executives of major companies as its membership, said in its filing that it lobbied on the financial stimulus, as well as labor and supply chain issues related to the virus and federal recommendations on workers who should be labeled "essential" amid lockdowns.Earlier: From Banks to Plumbers, Lobby Groups Win Lockdown ReliefBRT, some of whose members are advising the White House on reopening the economy, recently urged the administration to follow a strategy that is "guided by public health officials." Spending by groups including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Retail Federation was flat to lower despite lobbying in response to the outbreak, which intensified in the final weeks of the reporting period.The American Hotel & Lodging Association, the Cruise Lines International Association and the International Franchise Association spent less than the year before.(Updates to add BRT lobbying in fourth from last paragraph. Figures for approved airline aid were corrected in an earlier version of the story.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Florida governor responds to #FloridaMoron backlash, defends beachgoers Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:50 PM PDT  Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Wednesday defended Floridians who went to beaches after they reopened, saying they didn't deserve the backlash they received on Twitter.Photos showed thousands of people filling the beaches over the weekend, despite the coronavirus continuing to spread across the state. People online shared the pictures, adding the hashtag FloridaMoron. Jacksonville Mayor Lenny Curry on Monday said beachgoers were all following the rules, which allowed them to exercise but not gather in large groups or sunbathe.During his press conference, DeSantis praised Curry and "the people of Jacksonville," saying they are "doing a great job. And to those who say you're morons, I would take you over the folks who are criticizing you any day of the week and twice on Sunday." The city has done "a great job of keeping folks out of the hospital, particularly the vulnerable, and I think that they deserve credit," he added.
The Florida Department of Health on Wednesday reported 440 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing the total number of cases up to 28,309. The department also reported 26 new deaths, with the death toll now at 893. More than 90 percent of tests in the state are being completed by private labs, and health experts say that because it can take up to two weeks for those results to be reported by the Florida Department of Health, the state's total number of cases is likely much higher.More stories from theweek.com How close are we to herd immunity? The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience Trump administration allegedly removed doctor developing COVID-19 vaccine for refusing to back hydroxychloroquine
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| Anti-Vaxxers and Lockdown Protesters Form an Unholy Alliance Posted: 22 Apr 2020 01:42 AM PDT  Protests against social distancing and stay-at-home guidelines in states across the country have become fertile ground for anti-vaccine activists, foreshadowing future showdowns over government-led efforts to help bring an end to the coronavirus pandemic.Del Bigtree, a notorious anti-vaccination activist before the emergence of COVID-19, attended a reopening rally in Austin last weekend to find out why the protesters were showing up. Bigtree told The Daily Beast that he saw a lot of overlap between anti-vaccine activists who distrust vaccines and the rally-goers, who were complaining that the public health policies put in place by state governments are unconstitutional and draconian relative to the health crisis at hand."I think the science is falling apart," Bigtree said, citing models he called "a disaster." On April 17, Bigtree featured Wendy Darling, founder of anti-stay-at-home-order group "Michigan United for Liberty" and an attendee of one of the Michigan protests, on his online show The High Wire, which usually dedicates programming to questioning health professionals and settled science. Asked by Bigtree whether the demonstrations showed that at least some Michiganders "are not afraid of dying from the coronavirus," Darling said: "In our group, in particular, we've got thousands of people in Michigan United for Liberty and the consensus there is, you know, we are not. We're more afraid of the government than we are of the virus at this point." Trump Calls Rule-Breaking Coronavirus Protesters 'Very Responsible People'Bigtree isn't the only drawing connections between the anti-vaccine movement—which advocates for the fallacious notion that vaccines cause autism or other ailments—and the movements against the stay-at-home orders. Anti-vaccine activists have pushed a hashtag calling for President Donald Trump to fire the government's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci—a message that evolved into a "Fire Fauci" chant at the Texas rally Bigtree attended. Some participants in the reopening rallies have also adopted "I Do Not Consent" as their go-to sign formulation, which is the same language that's become a popular phrase for anti-vaccination activists. "That's one of their biggest slogans," said Amy Pisani, the executive director of pro-vaccine group Vaccinate Your Family. The predominantly right-wing activists calling for states to reopen businesses amid the pandemic have also criticized vaccines in their online communities. On "Michiganders Against Excessive Quarantine," a Facebook group with more than 350,000 members that has become a hotbed for anti-social distancing protests in the state, thousands of members said they wouldn't take any future vaccine. Some posters pushed conspiracy theories that the vaccine would be the "mark of the Beast" or a tracking device used by billionaire Bill Gates. A user in "Reopen Missouri," another Facebook group devoted to rapidly reopening businesses, made a popular post that included a vow to never take any future coronavirus vaccine. "I refuse to receive said vaccine to make others feel more safe," it read. "I won't set myself—or my children—on fire to keep you warm."Facebook Axed Pro-Vaccine Ads, Let Anti-Vaxxer Conspiracies Slip ThroughThe possibility of anti-vaccine advocates gaining a foothold in the protests against public safety laws could portend even dicier problems for government agencies ahead. Health officials have said that a vaccine for coronavirus is one of, if not the, surest ways to emerge through the crisis and return to a semblance of social normalcy. But that depends on wide-scale cultural acceptance of the vaccination—which optimistically could be 18 months away from production—and the coronavirus pandemic has drawn more online interest to anti-vaccine causes. Jackie Schlegal, the founder of well-funded anti-vaccine group Texans for Vaccine Choice, claims that her group has received an "overwhelming influx of support" and a load of traffic from people concerned about coronavirus vaccine exemptions. The anti-vaccine language used by the reopening activists marks the latest confluence between anti-vaccine activists and anti-government groups, who have teamed up in the past to fight vaccine mandates, according to Pisani. "It's not new that these libertarians and ultra-anti-government individuals have been working together with anti-vaccine activists in recent years," she said. Much of the rhetoric at the reopening rallies mirrors the language of anti-vaccine activists, according to Professor Jennifer Reich, a University of Colorado Denver sociologist who has studied why parents don't vaccinate their children. According to Reich's research, the rise in non-vaccinations among children has come as a result of two trends: pressure on parents to research every detail of the choices available to their children; and the idea that individuals, not public health experts or doctors, are best positioned to handle their own health decisions. "We've perfectly set the stage for parents not to trust vaccines," Reich said. Now those same trends are coming into focus during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to Reich. Just as anti-vaccine parents claim they can best handle the decision to vaccinate their children, anti-social distancing protesters have vowed to judge the risks of walking around in public, not wearing masks, or not taking any vaccine themselves. "A lot of their rhetoric is really about individual self management, and that they want to be in control of mitigating their own risk," Reich said of the rally goers. Reich fears that the demands for public health officials to move expeditiously in finding a solution to coronavirus could only feed skepticism of vaccines, as the skeptics will point to shortened clinical trials to cast doubt about its safety or efficacy. Already anti-vaccine activists like Bigtree are questioning the coronavirus vaccine process. "It's going to affirm the worst fears of those who already distrust the vaccine system," Reich said. For Pisani, the head of the pro-vaccine group, the coronavirus pandemic represents a crucial point for the ongoing fight pitting pro-vaccine forces and health experts against anti-vaccine groups. The pandemic could ramp up skepticism about government health advice, giving anti-vaccine activists a broader platform. But at the same time, the general public has never been so interested in vaccines and virology in recent memory, or more desperate for a vaccine. "I just can't understand if they had an elderly family member and there was a vaccine — they wouldn't want to give the vaccine to that person?" Pisani said. "It's unbelievable."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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| Trump tweets order to 'destroy' Iranian boats. Pentagon calls it a warning. Posted: 22 Apr 2020 12:42 PM PDT  Three U.S. defense officials said they were caught off guard by Trump's tweet because he had not ordered a change in policy.
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| Argentina doesn't make payment, starting default countdown Posted: 22 Apr 2020 04:52 PM PDT  Argentina said it didn't make $500 million in debt payments due Wednesday, starting a 30-day countdown to a possible default unless the government and bondholders can reach a deal on restructuring its massive foreign debt. The failure to pay came a week after the government of President Alberto Fernández presented a proposal to restructure roughly $70 billion in debt involving the suspension of its debt obligations for three years and a 62% reduction for interest payments. Argentina will use the period to seek creditor acceptance of its proposal, which it has said will remain in force until May 8 and aims at "restoring the sustainability of public debt in foreign currency."
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| Taiwan president apologises for virus infections on navy ship Posted: 21 Apr 2020 05:01 PM PDT  Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen apologised Wednesday for "major shortcomings" within the military after a cluster of coronavirus infections emerged on a navy vessel recently returned from a goodwill mission to Palau. "I am the Commander-in-Chief, the military's business is my business and my responsibility," Tsai said in a speech broadcast live.
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| Coronavirus to accelerate Social Security, Medicare depletion dates, U.S. officials say Posted: 22 Apr 2020 12:35 PM PDT  Job and revenue losses prompted by the coronavirus will likely accelerate the depletion of Social Security and Medicare reserves, U.S. officials said on Wednesday as they released reports showing little change in the federal benefit programs' pre-pandemic finances. The 2020 Social Security and Medicare trustees reports released on Wednesday did not reflect projections from the coronavirus pandemic but showed continued long-term funding shortfalls for retirement, disability and seniors' healthcare benefits. Medicare's Hospital Insurance Trust Fund can pay scheduled in-patient hospital expenses until 2026, also the same as in last year's report.
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| Coronavirus Kills More Americans in One Month Than the Flu Kills in One Year Posted: 21 Apr 2020 09:25 AM PDT  Although there is still much we don't know about the coronavirus, we know enough to say that it is far more dangerous and deadly than the flu. It took twelve months and 61 million infections for the H1N1 swine flu to kill 12,500 Americans in 2009–10. The Centers for Disease Control estimated that the seasonal flu killed 34,200 Americans during the 2018–19 flu season. In 2019, car crashes killed 38,800 Americans.As for the new coronavirus? On March 20, the death toll in the United States was 225. By April 20, the coronavirus had killed more than 42,000 Americans.Last week The New Atlantis produced a chart that starkly portrays just how quickly COVID-19 became one of the leading causes of death in the United States:> Why "it's not as bad as flu" — or car crashes or the 1957 pandemic — is not credible.> > New from the @tnajournal team: https://t.co/SVNscTHZrQ> > -- Ari Schulman (@AriSchulman) April 13, 2020Despite the rapidity with which the coronavirus has killed tens of thousands of Americans, some on the right have continued to argue that the pandemic will end up being no more serious than a bad flu season. On Fox News last week, Bill Bennett said that "we're going to have fewer fatalities from this than from the flu." He pointed to the fact that the IMHE model from the University of Washington estimated that COVID-19 would most likely kill about 60,000 Americans and that the seasonal flu killed 61,000 Americans in 2017–18, a particularly bad flu season.But as Rich Lowry pointed out last week, "if we are going to have 60,000 deaths with people not leaving their homes for more than a month, the number of deaths obviously would have been higher — much higher — if everyone had gone about business as usual." Indeed, the IMHE model is making an estimate of the death toll only for a first wave of infections, and most of the country will still be vulnerable to infection after the first wave passes.While there are 800,000 confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States — that's 0.24 percent of the U.S. population — former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb has noted that anywhere between 1 percent and 5 percent of Americans may have actually already been infected with the virus. But that's far short of the 50 percent to 70 percent required to achieve herd immunity. The seasonal flu, by contrast, infected 12 percent of the American population last year because we have a flu vaccine and some more immunity from previous infections.Not only does the new coronavirus have the potential to infect many more people than the seasonal flu does, it appears to kill a greater percentage of those infected. You don't need to rely on various statistical models to come to that conclusion. You just have to look at the reality of what has already happened around the world and in our own country.The seasonal flu kills 0.1 percent of people infected, but the new coronavirus has already killed 0.1 percent of the entire population of the state of New York. That may seem like a small percentage. But imagine the entire country getting hit as badly as New York state: 0.1 percent of the U.S. population is 330,000 people. And there's no reason to believe that New York's current death toll marks the upper limit of the virus's lethality.The Wall Street Journal reported that confirmed coronavirus cases in the Italian province of Bergamo (population 1.1 million) had killed 0.2 percent of the entire population in one month. The true percentage may be higher: There were 4,000 more deaths in Bergamo in March 2020 than the average number of deaths in March in recent years, but only 2,000 of those deaths were attributed to confirmed COVID-19 cases.We are talking not about statistical models of what might happen in the future but about the reality of what has already happened. The virus has killed 100 Italian doctors. That doesn't happen during a bad flu season. The virus has killed 30 employees of the New York City Police Department. That doesn't happen during a bad flu season.And then there's the experience of China, where the official death toll in Wuhan is 2,500, according to the Communist regime. But there are reports that the true death toll in Wuhan (a city of 10 million) was more than 40,000 people. That's 0.4 percent of the city's entire population.Almost all conservatives are skeptical of Communist China's official coronavirus death toll. Why, then, do some think that the coronavirus is not much more deadly than the flu? Did Communist China, a regime not known for valuing human life, shut down much of its economy for a couple of months because of a bad flu? Or did Communist leaders fear that without the costly shutdown the virus would inflict much greater harm on their nation and threaten their grip on power?You don't have to have a Ph.D. in epidemiology to answer those questions.No nation can afford to endure a lockdown until a vaccine is developed for the new coronavirus. But having a proper understanding of the virus's past and present danger matters. Knowing that it is extremely unlikely that the threat will be gone once the first wave passes will help guide the government, businesses, and individuals to take precautions that will limit the virus's death toll in the months to come.
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| Almost 25,000 email addresses and passwords reportedly for groups like WHO and the Gates Foundation were dumped on the internet Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:55 PM PDT  Cybersecurity expert Robert Potter told The Washington Post that WHO's password system was "appalling" — saying 48 people had "password" as their password.
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| Trump Is Urged to Pressure China on Its Promise to Buy U.S. Oil Posted: 21 Apr 2020 09:54 AM PDT |
| Las Vegas mayor leaves CNN's Anderson Cooper baffled while pushing for reopening Posted: 22 Apr 2020 01:38 PM PDT  In a wild interview Wednesday afternoon, CNN's Anderson Cooper grew increasingly bewildered as the mayor of Las Vegas pushed for the city to reopen amid the coronavirus pandemic, dismissing health concerns.Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman told Cooper on Wednesday she'd call for casinos, hotels, restaurants, and more to reopen after previously describing Nevada's stay-at-home order as "insanity.""I'd love everything open," Goodman told Cooper, "because I think we've had viruses for years."Cooper seemingly couldn't believe that Goodman would be advocating for "hundreds of thousands of people" to flock to Las Vegas and then return to other areas of the country amid a pandemic, asking her, "how is that safe?" In response, Goodman insisted Cooper was being an "alarmist."Asked by Cooper how casinos could implement social distancing upon reopening, Goodman declared, "that's up to them to figure out," an answer that made Cooper literally laugh out loud before he asked why she's calling for something that "you have no plan for how it would be done safely." Goodman again responded that the casinos should simply "figure it out."Later, Cooper showed research from China demonstrating how the coronavirus spreads in a restaurant, information Goodman quickly dismissed because "this isn't China, this is Las Vegas, Nevada.""Wow, okay, that's really ignorant," Cooper shot back. "That's an ignorant, ignorant statement."As Cooper continued to raise health concerns, Goodman told the CNN host "you're talking disease, I'm talking life," to which a confused Cooper responded in a moment that summed up the whole exchange, "Okay, that makes no sense." Watch a portion of the stunning interview below. > "Wow, that's really ignorant."@AndersonCooper clashes with Las Vegas Mayor Goodman after she justified her wish to quickly reopen casinos saying, "this isn't China, this is Las Vegas," after he showed her a graphic of how coronavirus could spread in a restaurant in China. pic.twitter.com/w3QscYmiIH> > -- Anderson Cooper 360° (@AC360) April 22, 2020More stories from theweek.com How close are we to herd immunity? The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience Trump administration allegedly removed doctor developing COVID-19 vaccine for refusing to back hydroxychloroquine
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| Speeding car filmed flying from road and crashing into side of family home in California Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:48 AM PDT  Shocking CCTV footage has shown the dramatic moment a speeding car crashed through the wall of a family's home in California.In the video, a Toyota Camry soars from the pavement into the side of a house, and two men can be seen running away from the crash moments later.
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| Trump 'strongly' disagrees with Georgia governor's reopening plan Posted: 22 Apr 2020 04:11 PM PDT 
"It's just too soon. I think it's too soon," Trump said at the White House coronavirus news briefing. "They can wait a little bit longer, just a little bit - not much. Because safety has to predominate. We have to have that. So I told the governor very simply that I disagree with his decision but he has to do what he thinks is right." Kemp, a Republican, is allowing gyms, hair salons, bowling alleys and tattoo and massage parlors to reopen on Friday, followed by movie houses and restaurants next week. The easing of sweeping restrictions in Georgia, along with South Carolina and other mostly Southern U.S. states, follows protests against rules imposed during the pandemic that shut down businesses and largely confined residents to their homes.
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| Iran Guard reveals secret space program in satellite launch Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:14 PM PDT  Iran's Revolutionary Guard launched its first satellite into space Wednesday, dramatically revealing what experts described as a secret military space program that could advance its ballistic missile development amid wider tensions between the Islamic Republic and the U.S. Using a mobile launcher at a new launch site, the Guard said it put the "Noor," or "Light," satellite into a low orbit circling the Earth. While the U.S., Israel and other countries declined to immediately confirm the satellite reached orbit, their criticism suggested they believed the launch happened.
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| Hong Kong teens charged with murder over protest death Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:55 AM PDT  Luo Chang-qing died in November when pro-democracy supporters and government loyalists started hurling bricks at each other in the border town of Sheung Shui. Luo, 70, died from a blow to the head. Hong Kong's protests were sparked by an attempt to allow extradition to China's opaque justice system but soon morphed into a popular revolt against Beijing's rule.
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| Estonia opens healthcare, schools to follow in easing of lockdown Posted: 22 Apr 2020 09:13 AM PDT |
| A coronavirus patient thought he was recovering. Then doctors found blood clots in his lungs — a new and potentially deadly complication of the virus. Posted: 22 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT  "It feels like a toxin is in my body," Michael Reagan, a coronavirus patient who was told he had dozens of blood clots in his lungs, said.
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| Europe’s Call-to-Arms Moment May Disappoint Investors, Again Posted: 21 Apr 2020 05:52 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- A video call between European Union leaders on Thursday may fall short of giving investors clarity over how the bloc will finance economic recovery efforts, risking a prolonged paralysis that has pushed borrowing costs higher across peripheral euro-area countries.EU institutions are focusing on a proposal to boost the bloc's common budget, largely shunning demands by Italy and Spain for joint debt issuance to share the costs of cushioning a pandemic-induced recession. The plan being prepared would instead see the European Commission use the multi-annual budget to borrow from financial markets and then channel cheap loans to the worst-hit nations, according to two diplomats briefed on the ongoing preparations.The bulk of the leverage created in the so-called recovery instrument of the new EU budget would take place over the next two years and the loans would be repaid after 2027, according to one of the diplomats, who asked not to be named as negotiations are ongoing. Even though the use of the budget is a more palatable solution to countries such as Germany and the Netherlands, the plans have so far failed to sway Southern nations, which demand more solidarity and concessions from their richer peers, in the form of joint debt sales."We're pulling in the same direction as Germany, the Netherlands and other hard currency countries," Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said about the upcoming summit. "We want to show solidarity, we want to support other states, but what we reject is a mutualization of debt. I hope that at the end of the day we'll have a solution that's as good as possible and that we can work on it together."Europe is entering what is projected to be the steepest recession in living memory, while the timing of recovery depends on factors largely outside the control of policymakers, such as the availability of a vaccine or an antiviral cure for the lethal coronavirus. The drop in economic output and the massive funds needed to keep businesses and households afloat has investors doubting whether highly indebted European countries can foot the bill.The Commission told EU government envoys that the bloc's economic output will contract between 7.5% and 10% this year, according to an official familiar with Monday's briefing.Bonds FallItalian bonds fell again on Tuesday, with yields on 10-year notes rising by 5 basis points to 1.99%. That's more than double the borrowing costs from mid-February, as a package of economic measures adopted so far by EU finance ministers has left loose ends to be sorted out and is seen by many economists as insufficient.One of the officials familiar with the matter said that Thursday's video call between leaders will have to be followed by others until a concrete solution is reached. Failure to come up with a convincing plan would put more pressure on the European Central Bank to boost its bond purchases to prevent spreads between German and peripheral yields from widening.A French official concurred that an agreement at Thursday's call was unlikely, and that a few more weeks of negotiations was needed. The official also said that the size of the fund would have to be around 1 trillion euros ($1.1 trillion) and that it probably wouldn't be available for at least six months.The plan to be presented on Thursday by EU institutions revolves around four pillars, according to the officials briefed: mobilizing massive investment, repairing the bloc's single market after border closures, supply chain breakdowns and export restrictions disrupted the flow of goods, global action to fight the pandemic, and better communication between Brussels and national capitals.(Updates with Austrian Chancellor comments in fourth paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Local authorities worry New Zealand is getting complacent as police record 1,000 lockdown breaches in two days. But an expert says it's a small number in the scheme of things. Posted: 21 Apr 2020 07:58 PM PDT  The rise in breaches happened days before Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced the country's level 4 lockdown would move to level 3.
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| American among tourists found living in Indian cave during lockdown Posted: 22 Apr 2020 08:13 AM PDT  Local police said the six spent nearly four weeks in the cave after running out of money for a hotel.
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| Vote by Mail in Wisconsin Helped a Liberal Candidate, Upending Old Theories Posted: 21 Apr 2020 11:59 AM PDT  The liberal candidate in Wisconsin's hard-fought state Supreme Court race this month prevailed in voting by mail by a significant margin, upending years of study showing little advantage to either party when a state transitions from in-person to mail voting.The gap suggests that Democrats were more organized and proactive in their vote-by-mail efforts in an election conducted under extraordinary circumstances, with voters forced to weigh the health risks of voting in person against the sometimes unreliable option of requesting and mailing in their ballots. Still, it is likely to add to the skepticism President Donald Trump and Republicans have expressed about mail voting, which they worry would increase Democratic turnout at Republicans' expense.The liberal jurist, Jill Karofsky, performed 10 percentage points better than her conservative opponent in votes cast by mail than she did in votes cast at Election Day polling places, a gap that powered a surprising 11-point victory overall in a state both parties view as crucial to winning November's presidential election.The voting data, collected by The New York Times from 27 Wisconsin municipalities that segregate ballots cast on Election Day from those sent by mail, shows that Karofsky's advantage in mail ballots over the conservative incumbent, Justice Daniel Kelly, was consistent across communities of varying size, geography and partisan lean. In a state with little history of voting by mail, more than 1.1 million of 1.55 million votes cast came by mail.The Times analysis of Wisconsin records shows a staggering gap between in-person and mail voting in some communities. At a single precinct, Beloit's 11th Ward, Kelly won 64% of the Election Day vote while Karofsky took 70% of votes cast by mail.Barry Burden, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison who is among the academics who have produced studies that found no partisan advantage to mail voting, said the Times analysis of the Wisconsin data did not align with any previous studies from states such as Colorado and Utah, which transitioned to fully vote-by-mail systems in recent years."I'm surprised by the results," Burden said when told of the gap between in-person and mail results. "It is convincing and surprising that Karofsky appears to have done better among mail voters than in-person voters. That's a change from past trends. It's unclear if that's going to be a permanent change or something very specific to this particular election."Karofsky performed better in the mail voting in every Wisconsin community in which results were made available to The Times. In Milwaukee, the state's largest city, her performance among mail ballots was 5.8 points better than it was on Election Day, when voters waited in line for hours to vote at the five polling places that remained open.Even in the Republican heartland of Waukesha County, Karofsky performed far better among mail voters than she did on Election Day. In New Berlin, she won just 33% of votes at polling sites, but 43% in the mail, where 4 in 5 of the city's votes were cast. In the city of Pewaukee, she took 27% of the Election Day vote and 37% of the mail ballots.The pattern helped Karofsky carry swing communities that are crucial to winning statewide races in Wisconsin. In Neenah, in the Fox Valley south of Green Bay, Kelly won the Election Day vote, 53% to 47%. But Karofsky took 60% of the mail ballots. She won the citywide vote, 58% to 42%.None of the academic studies cited as evidence that there was no partisan advantage to mail voting had been able to segregate mail voting results from in-person ones for a single election.Such results are available from Wisconsin's April 7 election because 32 of the state's municipalities, including Milwaukee, count absentee ballots at a central location using separate tabulating equipment. The state's other 1,800 cities, villages and towns do not segregate absentee ballots from those cast on Election Day when counting them, according to Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Wisconsin Elections Commission.Robert Stein, a political scientist at Rice University who has helped put in place vote-by-mail systems across the country, said the Wisconsin results showed the ability of Democrats there to build a statewide vote-by-mail system essentially from scratch just weeks before the election."You probably had much more core frequent and Democratic voters voting by mail and late-deciding voters waiting to vote at the polls," he said. "The Democrats proved they can mobilize their voters to vote by mail."The gap in mail voting may have been influenced by the diverging concerns about the coronavirus pandemic among Wisconsin's Democrats and Republicans. A Marquette Law School poll released six days before the election found 87% of Democrats were very concerned about the coronavirus, compared with just 56% of Republicans.Amelia Showalter, the data analytics director for Barack Obama's 2012 campaign, said the Wisconsin results might change the perception of mail voting."The people who used it were older voters who voted more Republican," Showalter said. "As you get more widespread adoption, you get into more of those low-propensity voters. It might advantage Democrats."Ben Wikler, chairman of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, attributed Karofsky's success in mail voting to the party's mid-March decision to focus entirely on educating Democrats about how to request and complete a mail ballot."The Democratic Party decided weeks out from the election to switch 100% of its efforts to vote-by-mail in the first time in its history," Wikler said. "I think Republicans bought some of their own disinformation."Wisconsin Republicans acknowledged that the state's Democrats became far more invested in encouraging their voters to request and return absentee ballots before this month's election."They were invested in doing this starting as early as the first week in March," said Robin Vos, the Republican speaker of the Wisconsin State Assembly who, on Election Day, was photographed in full personal protective equipment during his stint as a poll monitor in his hometown, Burlington. "I would say that, stereotyping, Republicans like to go vote on Election Day."Vos said the Wisconsin election was evidence that no changes in the state's voting laws and procedures are necessary before the November general election, when twice as many people are expected to vote. Democratic requests to mail ballots to all registered voters and to remove requirements that voters upload a photo identification to request an absentee ballot and obtain a witness signature before returning ballots are out of the question, Vos said."The only reason they would want to expand voting would be to create an opportunity for potential fraud or because they want to give themselves some kind of partisan advantage," Vos said. "The current situation is pretty fair to everybody."Vos and other senior Wisconsin Republicans rejected the idea that Trump's repeated dismissal of mail voting depressed conservative voters' interest in voting absentee."The daily hubbub in Washington, that stuff doesn't necessarily break through with our voters," said Brian Reisinger, who served as a senior aide to former Gov. Scott Walker and Sen. Ron Johnson.Yet there was some acknowledgment that the GOP's political apparatus in Wisconsin, which built a powerful get-out-the-vote machine that elected Walker three times and gave Trump a shocking 2016 victory, was slow to adapt to a rapidly changing public health situation."The right is more rigid," said Matt Batzel, the Cedar Grove, Wisconsin-based national executive director of American Majority Action, a conservative grassroots training organization. "People on the right need to use the rules of the game and use all the voting opportunities that are available."This article originally appeared in The New York Times.(C) 2020 The New York Times Company
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| Man dies after being denied coronavirus tests at three emergency rooms because of racism, family alleges Posted: 22 Apr 2020 09:42 AM PDT  A man who died in Michigan was denied coronavirus testing at three different emergency rooms because he was black, his family has alleged, as state officials said a "medical bias" may exist in Covid-19 testing.Gary Fowler, 56, was reportedly not tested for the novel virus at the three Detroit-area emergency rooms despite having many symptoms associated with the disease, according to his stepson, Keith Gambrell.
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| China calls virus lawsuit brought by US state 'very absurd' Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:06 AM PDT  China on Wednesday slammed a lawsuit brought against it by the U.S. state of Missouri over the coronavirus pandemic as "very absurd." Foreign ministry spokesman Geng Shuang said the legal action has "no factual and legal basis at all" and repeated China's defense of its response to the outbreak, which has largely subsided in the country where it was first detected. The ministry and other Chinese government departments have strenuously denied accusations that officials delayed reporting on the extent of the outbreak in the central Chinese city of Wuhan late last year, despite reports that worries over political stability were placed above public health concerns.
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| When will schools reopen? Not soon, education leaders say, despite Trump's declarations Posted: 21 Apr 2020 01:10 PM PDT  With little guidance from the federal government on reopening schools, state leaders are debating when to end closures. Their answer so far: not soon
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| Pakistani doctors urge government to reimpose mosque restrictions Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:06 AM PDT  Leading Pakistani doctors on Wednesday urged the government and clerics to reverse a decision to allow prayer congregations at mosques during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, warning that the spread of coronavirus could spiral out of control. Pakistan on Saturday lifted precautionary restrictions on congregational prayers. Congregations increase in size during Ramadan, which is expected to begin on Friday in Pakistan.
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| How Singapore went from being applauded for its coronavirus response to facing an alarming second wave with thousands of new cases Posted: 22 Apr 2020 06:59 AM PDT  Singapore appeared to contain its outbreak until a cluster of new infections in poorly-kept migrant dorms forced the country to clamp down harder.
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| 'Like the horror of war': mayor of virus-ravaged Ecuador city calls for drastic response Posted: 22 Apr 2020 03:40 AM PDT  Cynthia Viteri, leader of Latin America's hardest-hit city, says Guayaquil offers a lesson to other governments * Coronavirus – latest updates * See all our coronavirus coverageThe mayor of the Latin American city hardest hit by the coronavirus has urged regional governments to take drastic steps to slow its spread and avoid the devastation she said had left Guayaquil looking like a war zone.Cynthia Viteri told the Guardian she believed thousands had probably lost their lives in the Ecuadorian port city in recent weeks and compared Covid-19's deadly impact there to "an unexpected bomb falling on a peaceful town"."It was as if we were attacked from the air like in Hiroshima," said Viteri, a 54-year-old lawyer and former presidential candidate who sent desperate tweets as the scale of the dystopia unfolding there became clear."It was the horror of a war – there were dead in the streets, dead in homes, there were dead outside the hospitals," remembered Viteri, who was infected and placed in quarantine but has recovered.The precise scale of Guayaquil's tragedy remains unclear although few doubt the number of deaths far exceeds Ecuador's official nationwide death toll of 507.Viteri said independently gathered figures from cemeteries and graveyards suggested the death toll in Guayaquil alone could be more than 8,000.She claimed the figures showed that in the first two weeks of April alone, more than 5,000 people had died of Covid-19 in Ecuador's main commercial hub, which has close to 3 million inhabitants.Last week, official data suggested the number of deaths in Guayas province – of which Guayaquil is the capital – leapt from a normal average of 3,000 to nearly 11,000 in the six weeks between the beginning of March and mid-April.Viteri said she hoped the political leaders of other Latin American countries and cities could learn from Guayaquil's calamity.Last week, Brazil's former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva told the Guardian he feared some parts of his country could witness similar scenes to the "horrific, monstrous images we saw in Guayaquil" in the coming weeks and months.Lula accused Brazil's current leader, Jair Bolsonaro, of leading Brazilians "to the slaughterhouse" by deliberately undermining social distancing measures and efforts to lock down major cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, which have been partially paralysed by their governors.Viteri said such shutdowns were essential."If we have learned a lesson that Guayaquil can leave for the world, and it's a painful lesson, it is: 'Don't run from the disease; pursue it, knock on doors and save people before [the virus] gets in their lungs,'" she said.Viteri said any country that had so far failed to lock down should "look in our mirror and apply preventive measures straight away".Three weeks after the collapse of Guayaquil's health and mortuary services shocked the world, Viteri claimed authorities were regaining control and said officials had "resisted [the virus] like Spartans".Soldiers and police have cordoned off often poorer virus-hit neighbourhoods, enforcing strict lockdowns, and a municipal taskforce made up of medics, firefighters and city workers has gone house to house looking for potential cases while sanitary workers have disinfected and fumigated public areas.Authorities have also created a corpse-collecting taskforce and distributed cardboard coffins to bereaved families.Viteri said Guayaquil was building two cemeteries for victims in addition to two others being built by the central government but she admitted hospitals continued to be overwhelmed by the number of coronavirus patients.Experts say one possible reason for the number of cases in Guayaquil is the high level of air traffic between Ecuador and Spain, which has the world's third-highest number of deaths, after the United States and Italy.Spain, where more than 21,000 people have died, is home to more than 400,000 Ecuadorian migrants and the first Covid-19 case recorded in Ecuador was of a 71-year-old woman who flew into Guayaquil from Madrid in mid-February. She died there on 13 March.A failure to properly enforce social distancing in the weeks after coronavirus arrived is also suspected to have played a role.
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| How to identify and remove a skin tag Posted: 22 Apr 2020 01:58 PM PDT  Skin tags are benign skin growths that you may find annoying and unsightly. Though you don't have to remove a skin tag, a doctor can get rid of it.
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| 26 Cheap, Neutral Rugs That Actually Look Good Posted: 21 Apr 2020 10:10 AM PDT |
| Liberal candidate for Wisconsin Supreme Court seat performed far better among mail-in votes, bucking past trends Posted: 21 Apr 2020 09:32 AM PDT  Wisconsin's elections earlier this month were odd in many ways, most notably because they took place during the coronavirus pandemic, when many other states were pushing their in-person voting back. But the fact that the election took place wasn't the only anomaly.A New York Times analysis found that liberal jurist Jill Karofsky, who won a seat on Wisconsin's Supreme Court in an upset, significantly outperformed her opponent, the incumbent conservative Justice Daniel Kelly, when it came to mail voting. The Times reached the conclusion after looking at data from the 27 Wisconsin municipalities which separated their in-person votes from those sent by mail. In one precinct, for example, Kelly won 64 percent of the election day vote, while Karofsky took 70 percent in the mail.The news was a shock for many political scientists, who have traditionally found that voting by mail doesn't provide much of an advantage for either party. "It's convincing and surprising that Karofsky appears have done better among mail voters than in-person voters," said Barry Burdern, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "That's a change from past trends. It's unclear if that's going to be something permanent or very something very specific to the election."Either way, the Times notes, the results likely won't do much to dispel the opposition to mail voting from President Trump and Republicans who worry it will enhance Democratic turnout. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com The Navajo Nation outbreak reveals an ugly truth behind America's coronavirus experience Georgia's dangerous coronavirus experiment How close are we to herd immunity?
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| Child sex trafficking survivor supported by Kim Kardashian West freed from jail Posted: 22 Apr 2020 11:57 AM PDT  "She will be sent to an appropriate group home and she will be under supervision for an extensive period of time," Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said.
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| Pennsylvania stay at home order to remain in effect until May 8; some restrictions to be eased Posted: 20 Apr 2020 08:25 PM PDT  Pennsylvania reported 92 additional coronavirus deaths and 948 additional cases on Monday.
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| Biden Has His Best Monthly Fundraising, Narrowing Gap With Trump Posted: 20 Apr 2020 08:18 PM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Joe Biden raised $46.7 million in March, his best monthly haul of the U.S. presidential campaign, even though the coronavirus pandemic shut down large swathes of the U.S. and prevented in-person fundraising.Biden ended March with $26.4 million cash on hand, according to his latest filing with the Federal Election Commission. He still lags behind President Donald Trump's fundraising juggernaut, but coupled with a strong showing by the Democratic National Committee, he has started to gain ground.Biden and the DNC brought in $79.4 million, topping the $63 million that Trump, the Republican National Committee and two supporting committees raised. The GOP still has more cash on hand -- $240 million at the end of March -- than the combined $62.2 million Biden and the DNC had.The DNC raised $32.7 million, topping the RNC's $24 million and besting its monthly total for the first time in the 2020 election cycle.The strong showing for the Democrats comes after a month in which Biden confirmed his status as the presumptive Democratic nominee with a string of primary victories that forced his remaining rival, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont, to drop out of the race.Throughout the nominating contest, Biden was one of the weakest fundraisers among the major Democratic candidates. Through the end of February, he'd raised less than Sanders, the Democrat's top fundraiser to that point, as well as Senator Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg.Democratic-aligned super political action committees also released their March numbers on Monday. Unite the Country, formed last October to shield Biden from attacks by Trump and his allies during the House impeachment inquiry, raised $10 million, its biggest month of fundraising. That was more than the $9.4 million that Trump's super-PAC, America First Action, raised in the first quarter.Top donors to Unite the Country included hedge fund manager James Simons, who gave $3 million, Choice Hotels International Chairman Stewart W. Bainum, who gave $2 million, and Baupost Group's Chief Executive Officer Seth Klarman, who gave $500,000. It spent $4.6 million and started April with $6.9 million in the bank.Priorities USA, which Biden designated last Wednesday as his campaign's preferred destination for big donors, raised $4 million, spent $4.4 million and ended the month with $21.1 million in the bank.Federal candidates can't coordinate spending with super-PACs, but they can solicit donations of up to $5,000 for them. Investor Bernard L. Schwartz, an early backer of Unite the Country, donated $100,000 to Priorities in March. The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund, which gave $2 million, was the biggest donor.Pacronym, which is focusing on digital ads, raised $1.6 million in the same period, spent $1.1 million and ended March with $7.4 million cash on hand. It got a $1.5 million donation from Democracy PAC, a super-PAC whose sole donor is hedge fund manager George Soros.Sanders raised $33 million in March while spending $35 million and ending the month with $16 million cash on hand, his FEC filings show.'Family Guy'Overall, Sanders took in $201 million for his second presidential run, making him the top fundraiser among Democrats. Most of the money came from contributors giving $200 or less. But Biden's resurgence in South Carolina and the narrowing of the field before and after Super Tuesday, combined with uncertainty over the resumption of primary season amid the coronavirus pandemic, led Sanders to exit the race on April 8.The DNC's strong month of fundraising came as it moved to Zoom to host virtual fundraisers amid the coronavirus crisis. It also received a boost from Seth MacFarlane, the creator of the TV series "Family Guy," who donated $865,000 to a committee that supports the DNC and state parties, and Schwartz, who gave $250,000.The DNC's biggest contribution was the $18 million transfered to the party by Michael Bloomberg, who put $1 billion into his short-lived Democratic presidential bid, a record-shattering amount for any campaign. The former New York mayor spent $176 million in March as he wound down his operation. His campaign ended the month with $11 million in the bank and $14.8 million in debts.Biden appeared to be on track for the best fundraising month of his career when the pandemic struck, upending campaigns and the primary season. The former vice president said he'd raised $33 million in the first half of March before the virus put the country, including political campaigns, into quarantine.The campaign said 70% of its donations came online, with the average donation coming in at $40.(Disclaimer: Bloomberg is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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