Monthly Archives: April 2020

Karen Pence Claims VP Didn’t Know About Mask Rule

The Associated Press reports: Karen Pence, the wife of Vice President Mike Pence, is defending his decision to not wear a mask during a recent visit to the Mayo Clinic, saying he was unaware of the hospital’s coronavirus policy until after he left. In an appearance on Fox News Channel on Thursday morning, Mrs. Pence said the vice president was …

Read More »

Macy’s To Reopen 68 Stores In States Relaxing Rules

Reuters reports: Macy’s Inc plans to reopen 68 U.S. stores on Monday in states that have loosened coronavirus lockdowns, the department store operator said on Thursday, as more retailers sought to get business going after a crushing month of closures. Cincinnati, Ohio-based Macy’s, the largest U.S. department store operator by sales, said it expects to have all of its roughly …

Read More »

Agriculture Sec: Trump’s Order To Reopen Meat Plants Will Give Them “Defensible” Response If Workers Sue

Bloomberg News reports: Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said he expects meatpacking plants to reopen in “days not weeks” under President Donald Trump’s executive order invoking the Defense Production Act. Slaughterhouse workers should begin receiving more protective gear and access to coronavirus testing “virtually immediately,” Perdue said Thursday in a telephone interview. The USDA has “already begun” working on orders to …

Read More »

NYC Subway System To Close Nightly For Disinfecting

The New York Post reports: The transit system that never sleeps is taking a snooze. New York’s 24/7 subway system will shutter nightly from 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. to facilitate coronavirus cleaning, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Thursday in a historic move. “You never had a challenge of disinfecting every train every 24 hours,” said Cuomo in an Albany press …

Read More »

Top Graham Donor Flips Support To Dem Challenger

The Charleston Post & Courier reports: A former top South Carolina business executive and supporter of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has decided to back the Republican incumbent’s Democratic challenger in his 2020 re-election race. Richard Wilkerson, the former chairman and president of Michelin’s Greenville-based North America operations, said he chose to endorse Democrat Jaime Harrison because of his experience working …

Read More »

Trump Plotting Retaliation Against China Over COVID

The Washington Post reports: Senior U.S. officials are beginning to explore proposals for punishing or demanding financial compensation from China for its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to four senior administration officials with knowledge of internal planning. The move could splinter already strained relations between the two superpowers at a perilous moment for the global economy. Senior officials across …

Read More »

Sanders And Biden Reach Agreement On Delegates

Axios reports: Joe Biden’s campaign released a memo on Thursday announcing that it has come to an agreement with Bernie Sanders’ former team to allocate enough statewide delegates at the Democratic National Convention to ensure “fair representation” for the progressive wing of the party. Now that Sanders won’t be the nominee, this is one way for his team to sustain …

Read More »

NRA Leader Eggs On Protests: They Can’t Arrest Us All

Media Matters reports: In a series of Facebook Live videos, National Rifle Association board member Anthony Colandro called the novel coronavirus pandemic “bullshit” and encouraged his followers to join him at an anti-social distancing protest in New Jersey. In a April 27 Facebook video, Colandro announced he “may get arrested in Trenton tomorrow at the rally for our right to …

Read More »

Billionaire Donors Are Advising Trump On Reopening

CNBC reports: President Donald Trump has sought and received advice on tackling the coronavirus crisis in private conversations with several of his allies in the business world, according to people familiar with the matter. There are at least four executives Trump and his team have been in regular contact with, according to the people, who declined to be named due …

Read More »

Roger Stone To Appeal Sentence, Denial Of New Trial

The Hill reports: Roger Stone’s lawyers told a court on Thursday that they intend to appeal the right-wing political operative’s 40-month prison sentence and a judge’s decision to deny him a new trial. Stone was convicted in November following a jury trial on charges of lying to Congress and witness tampering in a case that stemmed from his efforts to …

Read More »

Famed NYC DJ Warren Gluck Dies At Age 65

According to multiple reports on social media, longtime gay nightclub DJ Warren Gluck has died at the age of 65. No cause of death is yet known. From his bio: Warren has played almost every major party in the U.S. from coast to coast, including the GMHC Morning Party on Fire Island, The Pines Party, The Saint-at-Large White and Black …

Read More »

Fed Chair: US Is Seeing Worst Economy In Its History

CNN reports: How bad is the coronavirus economy? The worst ever, says Fed Chairman Jerome Powell. “We are going to see economic data for the second quarter that is worse than any data we have seen for the economy,” Powell said. “There are direct consequences of the disease and measures we are taking to protect ourselves from it.” The recovery …

Read More »

Elon Musk Rages To Investors: Lockdown Is “Fascist”

The Washington Post reports: Elon Musk launched into an expletive-laden rant on Tesla’s earnings call Wednesday, calling shelter-in-place orders “fascist” and demanding political officials “give people back their god damn freedom.” “To say that they cannot leave their house and they will be arrested if they do, this is fascist,” he said, before the call abruptly cut out. “This is …

Read More »

California Gov Expected To Close All Beaches And Parks

NPR reports: A California Police Chiefs Association memo sent Wednesday informed its members that Gov. Gavin Newsom will order all California beaches and state parks to close, effective Friday, May 1. “After the well-publicized media coverage of overcrowded beaches this past weekend, in violation of Governor Newsom’s Shelter in Place Order, the Governor will be announcing [Thursday] that ALL beaches …

Read More »

3.8M New Jobless Claims Push Recent Total To 30M

USA Today reports: About 30 million Americans filed for unemployment benefits over the past six weeks, a grim marker revealing how badly the coronavirus pandemic has crippled the U.S. economy. Roughly 3.8 million people filed for unemployment last week alone, the Labor Department said Thursday, lower than the 4.4 million who filed the week before and down from the all-time …

Read More »

Man Was Paid $69M After Tweeting To Trump That He Could Provide Ventilators, None Were Ever Delivered

Buzzfeed News reports: On March 27, as emergency rooms in New York and across the country began filling with coronavirus patients struggling to breathe, President Donald Trump posted on Twitter to urge Ford and General Motors to “START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!” One of the thousands of replies that the tweet attracted struck an equally urgent tone: “We can supply ICU …

Read More »

LOUISIANA: Police Swamped With Calls After Mother Of Branch Covidian Pastor Posts Their Emergency Number

The Baton Rouge Advocate reports: People dialing the Central Police Department are reportedly having difficulties getting through after supporters of an arrested pastor have flooded the lines, according to a post from the agency. Central Police Chief Roger Corcoran said that the mother of arrested Central pastor Tony Spell posted the agency’s phone number on her Facebook page and encouraged …

Read More »

Florida Gov Unveils Plan For “Step By Step” Reopening

NBC News reports: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis unveiled a plan Wednesday night to lift the state’s stay-at-home orders amid the coronavirus crisis that he called “safe, smart and step by step.” The plan will go into effect Monday in every county except Dade, Palm Beach and Broward counties, where most of the state’s COVID-19 cases have been reported, DeSantis said. …

Read More »

Trump Rages Against Media In Midnight Tweetstorm

Mediaite reports: President Donald Trump is mad as hell and he’s not going to take it anymore. At least that appeared to be the case judging by a late-night Twitter screed in which he went after a number of cable news personalities who he feels have done him wrong. All this amid a deadly pandemic that has led to the …

Read More »

Up To 60 Bodies Found In U-Hauls At NY Funeral Home

The New York Post reports: Police found dozens of bodies being stored in unrefrigerated trucks outside a Brooklyn funeral home and lying on the facility’s floor Wednesday, law enforcement sources told The Post. Between 40 to 60 bodies were discovered either stacked up in U-Haul box trucks outside Andrew Cleckley Funeral Services in Flatlands or on the building’s floor, after …

Read More »