Detroit Casinos Can Reopen December 21, But No Indoor ...

"Why don’t we just put everybody in a space outfit or something like that?" - Stephen Moore, economic advisor to the president and grown man

Mitch Better Have My Money

More than 4.4 million Americans filed new jobless claims in the last week, bringing the reported unemployment total over the past five weeks to 26 million. Faced with those numbers, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has decided it’s time to pump the brakes on any additional economic relief, and possibly force blue states and cities into bankruptcy, reminding us all why he's the most popular politician in America.

• Members of the House returned to the Capitol to approve the $484 billion stimulus bill passed by the Senate earlier this week, modeling varying degrees of personal responsibility on the floor. The funding in that package is expected to be depleted within days: Banks have been swamped with small-business loan applications, and the bulk of the $310 billion being added to the program is already spoken for.
  
• The House also voted to establish a select committee, led by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, to oversee the administration’s coronavirus spending. The text of the resolution actually gives the panel more far-reaching power than House Speaker Nancy Pelosi initially indicated—it has the authority to investigate Trump’s larger response and U.S. pandemic preparedness, including internal administration deliberations. Pelosi said today that it won’t actually...do that, at least not in the near future.
  
• As Congress shifts its focus to the next major piece of coronavirus legislation, McConnell has suggested that perhaps instead of lawmakers allocating more funds for state and local governments on the brink of economic disaster, those governments should just go fuck themselves? McConnell, who has bizarrely characterized that federal help as “Blue State Bailouts,” said he’d rather invent a way for states to declare bankruptcy than approve more relief, a proposal that Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) today called “one of the really dumb ideas of all time.” More tellingly, McConnell is also at odds with President Trump and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, who have both signaled that they’re on board with Democrats’ call to include that funding in the next bill.
  

In New York, preliminary results from antibody studies indicate that the state’s 250,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus may be just the tip of the iceberg.

• Nearly 3,000 people across the state were randomly tested in supermarkets, and about 14 percent of them tested positive for COVID-19 antibodies. In New York City the rate was higher: 21 percent of roughly 1,300 people tested positive. The lag in testing left New York in the dark: A new model from researchers at Northeastern University suggests that there were thousands of infections in NYC, and four other major U.S. cities, long before testing revealed there was a problem.
  
• Further south, Gov. Brian Kemp (R-GA) is forging ahead with his plan to reopen some nonessential businesses tomorrow, even after Trump abruptly threw him under the bus on Wednesday, saying he “strongly disagreed” with Kemp’s decision, a day after publicly praising him. (The coronavirus task force reportedly convinced Trump to reverse course.) Many business owners and workers in the state do not feel comfortable returning to work, but if they refuse, they risk losing their unemployment aid.
  

Even with unemployment numbers rising by the millions every week, an overwhelming majority of Americans understand that reopening the economy prematurely isn’t the solution. A Politico/Morning Consult poll from last weekend found that 76 percent of respondents felt social distancing measures should continue for as long as necessary. Kemp and reckless Republican leaders like him are ignoring public opinion in addition to national guidelines, and endangering public health.

Look No Further Than The Crooked Media

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Under The Radar

Florida has distinguished itself as a nightmarish place to be unemployed. The state is one of the slowest in the country to process its jobless claims, which means hundreds of thousands of unemployed Florida workers have been waiting weeks to receive their first checks, and many haven’t even been able to file their claims. The state agreed to start accepting paper applications this month, after its unemployment website broke down under the volume of traffic. Florida’s GOP leaders have intentionally weakened its unemployment system over the last decade, leaving its workers particularly vulnerable in this crisis: The state’s unemployment benefits max out at $275 a week.
Nearly all of the major battleground states in the 2020 election are experiencing higher-than-average layoffs. In addition to prying more relief funding out of Mitch McConnell’s cold bloodless hands, it will be on all of us to make sure those voters realize that this level of economic fallout, and the broken systems exacerbating it, were preventable.

What Else?

President Trump’s immigration executive order temporarily restricts some visas, but doesn’t contain the broad freeze on green cards he announced earlier this week.
China pledged an additional $30 million to the World Health Organization after Trump froze U.S. funding. If the U.S. wants to surrender its influence over a key international institution, China is happy to take up that role.
Elizabeth Warren’s eldest brother has died after contracting the coronavirus. Don Reed Herring, an Air Force veteran, died at age 86 on Tuesday.
Las Vegas, NV, workers have pushed back on Mayor Carolyn Goodman’s calls to reopen the city as a “control group,” to see what happens without social distancing. Goodman said she wanted hotels and casinos to reopen quickly, but doesn’t have jurisdiction over the Las Vegas Strip. Goodman also said she wouldn’t go to the reopened casinos herself because “I don’t gamble,” which is (chef’s kiss).
Leaked results from a clinical trial of remdesivir in China showed it carries no benefit for coronavirus patients, though the study ended prematurely because it had too few patients. Other studies are still in progress.
Two cats in New York have become the first U.S. pets to test positive for coronavirus. Health officials emphasized there’s no evidence that pets can transmit the virus to people.
Scientists in the U.K. think dogs might soon be able to sniff out asymptomatic COVID-19 cases. Labradors and spaniels have already been trained to detect malaria, and within weeks, some very good boys may play an important role in identifying coronavirus superspreaders.
The San Clemente, CA, plan to deter skateboarders by filling a skate park with sand has backfired by attracting dirt bikers. The wild BMX bikes have returned to the skate park. Nature is healing.

Be Smarter

In a New York Times op-ed this week, Dr. Richard Levitan described volunteering at New York’s Bellevue Hospital for 10 days. Levitan shared a new insight into what makes COVID pneumonia uniquely dangerous: Unlike most pneumonia patients with very low oxygen saturation (hypoxia), many COVID-19 patients don’t feel short of breath until they’re close to respiratory failure. That seems to be a result of the peculiar way the coronavirus attacks the lungs, and when patients breathe faster and harder to compensate for their “silent hypoxia” without realizing it, their lungs sustain further damage. That may explain why so many patients on ventilators ultimately die: They didn’t get to the hospital until their pneumonia was well advanced. Levitan recommended more widespread use of pulse oximeters to detect hypoxia early.
Since the op-ed was published, pulse oximeters have become impossible to find, which Levitan says is no cause for panic. (Hospitals don't use the same devices, so this isn't an N95 mask situation.) Think of it like a thermometer—something you should probably have in your home eventually.

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Is That Hope I Feel?

Publix has launched an initiative to purchase milk and fresh produce from struggling farmers, and donate it directly to Feeding America food banks.
Braskem America workers voluntarily lived at the factory for 28 days, producing tens of millions of pounds of the raw materials needed for PPE.
Ruth's Chris Steak House, Sweetgreen, and King Sushi announced they’ll return the small-business loans they received from the Payroll Protection Program. Yelling at companies on the internet works!
A federal appeals court ruled that Detroit students (and by extension, all children in the U.S.) have a fundamental right to a basic education.
Virginia has become the latest state to end prison gerrymandering, the practice of counting incarcerated people where they’re detained, rather than at their last known residence.

Enjoy

Geoff Lemon 🍋 on Twitter: "The Pope being schooled in theological biology by an account dedicated to bat PR is perhaps the best combination of things to happen on this website."

Comments by President Trump:
- Negotiation is underway with the Democrats to continue funding the Paycheck Protection Program. Hospitals may get help too, in this package.
- To date in the US, 4.18 million Americans have been tested for the coronavirus.
- There is a scheduled call Monday with the nation’s governors. One item to emphasize is the number of unused testing capacity in each state, through commercial labs such as Quest and LabCorp. They are being used at only a 10% level now, 90% is available.
- The Wall Street Journal wrote a favorable article about the administration, by Christopher DeMuth, called “Trump rewrites the book on emergencies”, about how well federal, state, and local heads of government are working together.
- Thank you to the doctors, nurses, orderlies, and truckers.
- We’re close to finalizing a second partnership through which a U.S. manufacturer would convert its existing plant to produce over 10 million additional swabs for a month.
- We’re preparing to use the Defense Production Act to increase swab production in one U.S. facility by over 20 million additional swabs per month.
- We’re working with Oak Ridge National Laboratory to use its injection molding capacity to produce 10 million collection tubes per week.
- Testing is the responsibility of the states.
- Governor Cuomo is going to be sending up to Massachusetts some of the excess ventilators from New York
- The number of new hospital admissions is significantly down. 50% decline over a 9 day period in New York City.
- Numbers are indicating that the coronavirus is NOT similar to the flu.
- New guidelines are coming out to doctors and patients to resume elective surgeries.
- A massive military operation is still underway to supply our hospitals with equipment they need and beds if necessary. Through Project Air Bridge, we’ve completed 64 flights carrying over 600 million pieces of personal protective equipment such as gloves, gowns, and other medical gear with 50 more flights scheduled in the very near future.
- The federal government is currently procuring more than 100,000 ventilators through new production or purchases with thousands already delivered.
- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that heroic efforts have been made by government, federal and state.
- FEMA is working to commit another $384 million to produce another 64 million gowns for healthcare.
- US companies, Hanes and Standard Textile, are on track to produce five million gowns by the end of the month.
- Honeywell recently began manufacturing N95 masks in Rhode Island, where they converted a factory in less than five weeks instead of the nine months it was normally expected to take.
- Honeywell is hiring more than 1,000 American workers to produce 20 million masks per month.
- 500 million more N95 masks have been ordered.
- This pandemic has underscored the vital importance of reshoring our supply chains and bringing them back into the United States where they belong.
- We’ve launched an unprecedented effort to develop new treatments and therapies to battle the coronavirus.
Comments by Vice President Pence:
- 746,000 Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. Fortunately, more than 68,000 Americans have fully recovered, but sadly more than 41,000 Americans have lost their lives to the coronavirus. We always want to express our deepest sympathies to the families in their loss.
- Large metro areas continue to stabilize and even see progress. The New York metro area, including New Jersey, New York, Long Island, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Detroit, New Orleans, and Denver all appeared to be past their peak.
- 5,528 military personnel have been deployed across 24 hospitals and facilities and 28,700 National Guard are on duty.
- We have 9,055 ventilators on hand. We added 91 ventilators to that supply because of the production that the president has activated. In the next seven days, we’ll be adding 576 ventilators to the strategic national stockpile.
- We’re going to be working with governors tomorrow on the subject of testing and supplies.
Comments by Administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Seema Verma:
- We’ve put out $90 billion in accelerated payments under the Medicare program, and provided $30 billion of grants.
- Guidelines are going out how hospitals can restart elective surgeries, and manage surges in coronavirus cases.
- FEMA is working on a plan to make sure that nursing homes have the supplies that they need.
- We are announcing that we are requiring nursing homes to report to patients and their families if there are cases of COVID virus inside the nursing home. We are also requiring nursing homes to report directly to the CDC when they have cases of COVID virus.
Questions from the White House Press Pool:
Q1: If there were groups of people planning to protest tomorrow against the government shutdown, what would be your advice?
A1: You’re allowed to protest. Some governors have gone too far.
Q2: Are you considering giving any aid to Iran?
A2: Yes, if they ask for it.
Q3: Which governors have gone too far?
A3: Virginia, on guns.
Q4: Do you hope that a deal may come tomorrow on the small business loan program?
A4: Well, I hope so. We are negotiating with the democrats. We want to take care of our workers. We want to take care of our small companies.
Q5: Do you want the reopening of the US economy to be safe?
A5: Yes. We are starting to open our country.
Q6: Why would the virus suddenly be different?
A6: (Dr. Hahn) I don’t think we have evidence that one would be more susceptible or less.
Q7: Is there a chance of sort of rebounding if you reopen too soon without the type of mitigation efforts that we’ve had still in place?
A7: (Mike Pence) Yes.
Q8: Why did you wait so long to warn people in February about the virus?
A8: I banned China from coming in. There were no US deaths at the time I closed up the country.
Q9: Germany is allowing small stores to open tomorrow. Does this give you confidence that some European countries are on the mend of recovering?
A9: Well, I hope so.
Q10: The mayor of Las Vegas thinks it’s total insanity for business to be shut down in Nevada, which Governor Sisolak ordered. Who’s right?
A10: Well, they shut one of my hotels down too, okay? I’m not involved in that.
Q11: Is the paycheck protection money going to small casinos?
A11: They are looking into it right now because they have small casinos that don’t have too many people, and they’re going to make a ruling, I understand, next week.
Q12: States say they can’t get reagents.
A12: We’re in great shape. It’s so easy to get.
Q13: Will the latest stimulus package have funding for states and local governments?
A13: Well, I don’t want to comment on it, but we will be saving that for another time.
Q14: What is the administration doing to make sure that hotel chains and hedge funds can recover?
A14: Hopefully they’re going to be able to open up relatively quickly.
Q15: Is this really the time for self-congratulations?
A15: I’m standing up for the men and women that have done such an incredible job.
Q16: Should publicly traded companies like Shake Shack, and Quantum Corp, and Ruth’s Chris have access to the PPP program?
A16: Not if they are owned by large franchises.
Q17: Are you concerned that your talk about liberation the second amendment, are you inciting violence among a few people?
A17: They want their life back.
Q18: Have you thought any more about pardoning Paul Manafort or Roger Stone so they’re not exposed to the coronavirus in jail?
A18: You’ll find out what I’m going to do.
Q19: The CDC has finally admitted to profound failures with testing kits from the beginning of the outbreak. Is this a function of lax oversight from the Obama/Biden administration?
A19: Well, it’s not from me. We’ve straightened it out.
Q20: On President Xi, you now talk about the missteps that China made early on in this crisis and how it put the United States. So when you repeatedly praised Xi in January and February you said he will solve the problem. You said he was doing a great job. Where you duped by President Xi?
A20: Well, based on an investigation we’re going to find out. Yeah.
Q21: The first of the month is next week, so for people that are worried about whether or not they’re going to see a stimulus check again next month, will there be another stimulus check?
A21: Well, we’re looking at it, we’re talking about it.
Q22: Do you plan to coordinate with Mexico and Canada to ensure U.S. manufacturers have what they need?
A22: We’re coordinating right now with both. I spoke with the President of Mexico yesterday. I spoke with the Prime Minister of Canada a lot, Justin, and we’re in very good coordination right now.
Q23: The White House announced a congressional task force for reopening America, and included every Republican senator but Mitt Romney. Does that show that you’re still holding a grudge against Mitt Romney?
A23: Yeah, it does. You know, I’m not a fan of Mitt Romney.
Q24: Why on that task force did you include Senator Kelly Locklear? There’s some questions about whether she was involved in insider trading.
A24: Well, that I don’t know.
Q25: Many of the countries that maybe have taken their eye off the ball and let coronavirus let rip in their countries. Which ones were you talking about? The UK?
A25: I don’t say that, but you just have to look. What’s happened to Italy is very, very tough.
Sunday, April 19, 2020 6:29pm EDT to 7:58pm EDT

Good Morning –
Today’s date is 3/11. Here is what you need to know today.
CORONAVIRUS
Public school systems and universities around the D.C. region are sharing their plans as concerns about the new coronavirus grip the U.S. and the world.
· Loyola University Maryland will be online until April 1
· American University and George Washington University both have put classes online until at least April 5
· University of Maryland and George Mason classes will be online until April 10
· Fairfax County Public Schools are taking off March 16, which will be designated as a staff development day for the school system to prepare for moving classes online
The Maryland congressional delegation spent yesterday talking about the next steps. “The good news is that we have capacity now in our private labs, in our hospitals,” Senator Ben Cardin said. “However, that is gearing up.”
WTOP is keeping a running list of all the cases in the D.C. area — You can get updated statistics here.
THE LOCAL PERSPECTIVE
While coronavirus grips the nation, a sentence came down for the D.C. bus driver that killed the mayor of a small Alaska town and her mother. Gerard James was sentenced to 6 months in prison after the sentence was suspended for three and a half years.
A man who is in prison for life, Lee Boyd Malvo, is now a married man. Malvo was a part of the 2002 sniper spree that terrorized the nation’s capital region. The 35-year-old had been looking to appeal his life in prison sentence up until last month, when the change in law made his appeal a failed effort, no matter the outcome.
In Annapolis, the Maryland senate voted 47-0 for sports betting in six casinos, horse racing tracks potentially at a Washington Redskins stadium. The bill now moves to the House.
A GOOD NIGHT FOR JOE BIDEN
Joe Biden decisively won Michigan’s Democratic presidential primary, seizing a key battleground state that helped propel Bernie Sanders’ insurgent candidacy four years ago. The former vice president’s victory there, as well as in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho, dealt a serious blow to Sanders and substantially widened Biden’s path to the nomination.
The six-state contest Tuesday marked the first time voters weighed in on the primary since it effectively narrowed to a two-person race between Sanders and Biden. And the first four states on Tuesday went to Biden, a dramatic reversal for a campaign that appeared on the brink of collapse just two weeks ago. Now it is Sanders, whose candidacy was ascendant so recently, who must contemplate a path forward.
“We need you, we want you, and there’s a place in our campaign for each of you. I want to thank Bernie Sanders and his supporters for their tireless energy and their passion,” Biden said. “We share a common goal, and together we’ll beat Donald Trump.”
BEAL DROPS 39
Last night, the Wizards beat the New York Knicks 122-115. Bradley Beal dropped 39 points and 7 assists, while Shabazz Napier added 21 points in 38 minutes. The Wizards move to 24-40 and play the Celtics in Boston on Friday. The Capitals are off until tomorrow when they take on the Detroit Red Wings. Howard University pulled an upset by beating S.C. State 70-63, while Vermont beat UMBC 81-74 to advance to the AEC title game.
BUSINESS NEWS
U.S. STOCK FUTURES:
DOW: -538.00 / -2.17%
NASDAQ: -180.50 / -2.17%
S&P: -67.00 /-2.34%
THE WORLD VIEW
Russia passed a bill allowing President Vladimir Putin to stay in power past 2024. The death toll in Iran from the coronavirus climbed to 354, with a total of over 9,000 cases in the country. The epicenter of the virus, Wuhan, may soon be getting back to business after President Xi visited the city Tuesday and signaled the crisis may be winding down in China.
That’s the news to start your day. We’ll see you tomorrow.