memeorandum: Feds dropping case for 2 Russian companies in troll probe (Associated Press)

9:45 PM ET, March 16, 2020

Top Items:

Alex Wickham / BuzzFeed:

The UK Only Realised “In The Last Few Days” That Its Coronavirus Strategy Would “Likely Result In Hundreds of Thousands of Deaths” — Scientists advising the government say an aggressive new approach adopted to attempt to “suppress” the virus may have to be in place for 18 months.

Discussion: Redstate

New York Times:

Trump Gives New Guidelines for Containment in the U.S. — President Trump announced new guidelines to control the spread of the virus, advising against gatherings of more than 10 people, as European nations sealed their borders. — RIGHT NOW Health officials ordered millions in six counties …

Discussion: The Week, Breitbart, The Daily Beast, UPI, Townhall, Foreign Policy, The Daily Caller, Bloomberg, CNN, Minnesota Reformer, Mediaite, Forbes, Talking Points Memo, The Gateway Pundit, The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, HuffPost, Twitchy, VICE and Daily Kos

Jonathan Martin / New York Times:

Trump to Governors on Ventilators: ‘Try Getting It Yourselves’ — On a conference call with the nation's governors, President Trump said they should try to get ventilators on their own ahead of an expected crush of coronavirus cases. — WASHINGTON — President Trump told a group of governors …

Discussion: Political Flare, Vanity Fair, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, Breitbart, The American Independent, Raw Story, Daily Kos and UPI

Ben Smith / New York Times:

Andrew Cuomo Is the Control Freak We Need Right Now — In ordinary times, Mr. Cuomo's relentlessness and bullying drive New Yorkers crazy. In the age of the coronavirus, they soothe our battered nerves. — “A crisis shows you a person's soul,” Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo mused during a conference call with reporters on Sunday.

Discussion: Security, IJR, Townhall, Redstate and Gothamist

Spencer Hsu / Washington Post:

U.S. Justice Dept. abandons prosecution of Russian firm indicted in Mueller election interference probe — The U.S. Justice Department moved Monday to drop its two-year-long prosecution of a Russian company charged with orchestrating a social media campaign to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Discussion: The Hill and Raw Story

New York Times:

Justice Dept. Moves to Drop Charges Against Russian Firms Filed by Mueller — The companies funded Russia's social media-fueled interference in the 2016 election, prosecutors said. But they tried to weaponize the case instead of fight it. — WASHINGTON — The Justice Department moved …

Associated Press:

Feds dropping case for 2 Russian companies in troll probe — FILE - In this July 4, 2017 file photo, Russian businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin is shown prior to a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping in the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia.

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Josh Gerstein / Politico:
Justice Department drops plans for trial over Russian interference in 2016 U.S. election

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Carl Hulse / New York Times:

McConnell Has a Request for Veteran Federal Judges: Please Quit — The Senate majority leader has encouraged judges thinking about stepping down to do so soon to ensure that Republicans confirm their replacements this year. — WASHINGTON — Running out of federal court vacancies to fill …

Discussion: The American Independent, New Republic, Political Flare, Daily Kos and TheBlaze

Daniel Desrochers / Lexington Herald-Leader:

McConnell calls on McGrath to take down political ads as coronavirus cripples Kentucky — U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's campaign called on a potential Democratic opponent — former Marine Corps pilot Amy McGrath — to stop running political advertisements during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Discussion: CNN

Politico:
Senate to take up coronavirus package after House passes revised bill

Discussion: Associated Press, The Hill, One America News Network, Daily Kos, The National Interest, The Independent, PJ Media Home, The Gateway Pundit, Gothamist and The American Independent

Rebecca Shabad / NBC News:
Rep. Louie Gohmert delays House coronavirus relief bill from moving to Senate

Discussion: Washington Post, Fox News, Townhall, Daily Kos, Lawyers, Guns & Money and MSNBC

Politico: Senate GOP punts on surveillance bill amid coronavirus crisis

Washington Post:

On Fox News, suddenly a very different tune about the coronavirus — For weeks, some of Fox News's most popular hosts downplayed the threat of the coronavirus, characterizing it as a conspiracy by media organizations and Democrats to undermine President Trump.

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Rolling Stone

Laura Hancock / Plain Dealer:

Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus — COLUMBUS, Ohio - A Franklin County judge on Monday night denied an effort backed by Gov. Mike DeWine, who sought to move Ohio's primary election until June over concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight

Laura Hancock / Plain Dealer: Judge denies request to delay Ohio primary election until June over coronavirus

Rick Rouan / The Columbus Dispatch:
Coronavirus: Judge denies request to move Ohio Primary to June 2

Discussion: The Hill and New York Post

Dan Merica / CNN:
Court denies Ohio governor's request to delay Tuesday's primary until June due to coronavirus

Discussion: Twitchy

Washington Post: Uncertainty looms over Ohio primary as state judge rejects governor's efforts to postpone Tuesday vote

Tim Morrison / Washington Post:

No, the White House didn't ‘dissolve’ its pandemic response office. I was there. — Tim Morrison is a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former senior director for counterproliferation and biodefense on the National Security Council. — President Trump gets his share of criticism — some warranted, much not.

Discussion: Redstate, Erick Erickson's Confessions …, Twitchy and The Independent, more at Mediagazer »

Jeremy Konyndyk / Just Security:
Lessons Ignored: John Bolton's Bogus Defense of “Streamlining” Away Our Bio-Readiness

Discussion: Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Politico:

Before Trump's inauguration, a warning: ‘The worst influenza pandemic since 1918’ — Seven days before Donald Trump took office, his aides faced a major test: the rapid, global spread of a dangerous virus in cities like London and Seoul, one serious enough that some countries were imposing travel bans.

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Gabriel Sherman / Vanity Fair:

“There's No Boogeyman He Can Attack”: Angry at Kushner, Trump Awakens to the COVID-19 Danger — For weeks, Trump and his son-in-law saw the novel coronavirus mostly as a media and political problem. But the spiraling cases, plunging markets, and a Mar-a-Lago cluster finally opened eyes.

Discussion: HuffPost, The Verge, Political Flare, Raw Story, New York Post and POLITICUSUSA

Politico:
‘This is a very bad one’: Trump issues new guidelines to stem coronavirus spread

Discussion: ABC News, Hollywood Reporter, No More Mister Nice Blog, Politico, Eater, Breitbart and The Verge, more at Mediagazer »

CNN:
White House press secretary works from home after exposure to Brazil delegation with coronavirus

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and Deseret News

Erin Allday / San Francisco Chronicle:

Bay Area ‘shelter in place’ expected: Only essential businesses open in 6 counties with 6.7 million people until April 7 — The San Francisco Chronicle has lifted the paywall on our coverage of this developing story to provide critical information to our community.

Discussion: Townhall, Los Angeles Times, The Root, TechCrunch, National Review, The Gateway Pundit, Herald, The Verge, WND, The Week, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion, Sean Hannity and Balloon Juice

Washington Post:

How U.S. coronavirus testing stalled: Flawed tests, red tape and resistance to using the millions of tests produced by the WHO — When Olfert Landt heard about the novel coronavirus, he got busy. — Founder of a small Berlin-based company, the ponytailed 54-year-old first raced …

Washington Post:

Casinos ask Congress for emergency aid as coronavirus toll sweeps industry — Gaming association says leaders should move ‘urgently’ to back casinos and their employees — Casinos have joined the airline industry in asking Congress for emergency financial help as Las Vegas …

CNBC: White House braces for political fight as it readies coronavirus airline bailout package

Tim Wu / New York Times:
Don't Feel Sorry for the Airlines

Discussion: Boondoggle, HuffPost and BIG by Matt Stoller

New York Times:

Mayor Resisted Harsh Steps on Virus. Then Aides Said They'd Quit. — Mayor Bill de Blasio hesitated to close schools and restaurants, but pushback from advisers changed his mind. He still went to the gym Monday. — For most of last week, as Mayor Bill de Blasio continued to urge …

Discussion: Redstate, Raw Story and Mediaite

Lindsay Schnell / USA Today:

California, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington close bars and restaurants in effort to slow coronavirus — The governors in five states — California, Ohio, Illinois, Massachusetts and Washington — closed bars, restaurants and wineries in an effort to slow the spread of coronavirus.

Discussion: DCist, New York Magazine, The Boston Globe, The Root, TheBlaze, Deseret News, The Tennessean, NBC News, Reason and Slate

Nolan D. McCaskill / Politico: America begins drinking at home

Mihir Zaveri / New York Times:

Be Wary of Those Texts From a Friend of a Friend's Aunt — Text messages claiming to have inside knowledge were the latest example of misinformation spreading amid anxiety about the coronavirus. — The text messages have largely followed a pattern: The author claims to have a connection …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Bloomberg and IJR, more at Techmeme »

Ben Collins / NBC News: False coronavirus rumors surge in ‘hidden viral’ text messages

Mark Weiner / Syracuse Post-Standard:

Former Rep. Richard Hanna, GOP moderate from Upstate NY, dies at 69 — WASHINGTON - Former U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, a fiercely independent Republican from Upstate New York who championed LGBT and women's rights, died Sunday at a hospital in Oneida County. He was 69.

Washington Post:

Live updates: U.S. sees largest one-day increase in death toll since the outbreak began; San Francisco area asked to shelter at home — The Washington Post is providing this story for free so that all readers have access to this important information about the coronavirus.

Discussion: Florida Politics, UPI, The Week and The Wrap

Chris Christie / Washington Post:
What Trump must do now to reduce the coronavirus risk

Discussion: Raw Story

Associated Press:

Coronavirus vaccine test opens as US volunteer gets 1st shot — SEATTLE (AP) — U.S. researchers gave the first shot to the first person in a test of an experimental coronavirus vaccine Monday — leading off a worldwide hunt for protection even as the pandemic surges.

Discussion: Redstate, Breitbart, The Daily Caller and TheBlaze

Dareh Gregorian / NBC News:

NBC News projects Joe Biden wins Washington state primary — Bernie Sanders won the state in a landslide in the 2016 Democratic caucuses there. — NBC News projects that former Vice President Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in Washington state. — With 99 percent of the vote …

Discussion: Politico and New Republic

Philip Rucker / Washington Post:

Americans kept wondering what the president wanted them to do about coronavirus. Finally, Trump offered some guidance. — President Trump for weeks dismissed the danger of the novel coronavirus. He distracted himself by stoking unrelated feuds and nursing grievances.

Discussion: NPR, Mediaite, The Hill and CNN

John Solomon / Just The News:

Obama DOJ officials privately told Mueller they were alarmed by FBI treatment of Flynn — A little-noticed letter from special counsel Robert Mueller's office divulges Obama DOJ concerns about FBI treatment of ex-Trump national security adviser. — Former acting Attorney General Sally Yates …

Jonathan Capehart / Washington Post:

The buck never, ever stops with Trump — My conversation with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute on March 7 in Birmingham, Ala., was quick. It was on the sidelines of the Faith and Politics Institute's annual civil rights pilgrimage and just moments …

Discussion: Common Dreams

ABC News:

Coronavirus live updates: Major cities shutdown — COVID-19 has reached 49 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. — Major cities are shutting down restaurants, bars, gyms and schools to try to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus, which has killed at least 73 people in the United States.