memeorandum: Distressed Debt Balloons to Almost $1 Trillion, Nears 2008 Peak (Katherine Doherty/Yahoo Finance)

8:25 PM ET, March 25, 2020

Top Items:

CNN and MSNBC Staff Push Back on Airing Trump's Coronavirus ‘Lies’ — Trump's daily pandemic briefings have devolved into an “open-mic night” full of “misinformation,” cable staffers said, as networks weigh how much of the events they must air. — The nation's television news outlets …

Discussion: Twitchy, IJR, Townhall, The Guardian and Columbia Journalism Review, more at Mediagazer »

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:

Trump's Briefings Are a Ratings Hit. Should Networks Cover Them Live? — The president's viewership has rivaled the audiences for hit reality shows and prime-time football. But some worry about misinformation. — President Trump is a ratings hit, and some journalists and public health experts say that could be a dangerous thing.

Discussion: New York Post, Washington Post, Washington Free Beacon, Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion and Twitchy, more at Mediagazer »

New York Times:

13 Deaths in a Day: An ‘Apocalyptic’ Coronavirus Surge at an N.Y.C. Hospital — Hospitals in the city are facing the kind of harrowing increases in cases that overwhelmed health care systems in China and Italy. — In several hours on Tuesday, Dr. Ashley Bray performed chest compressions …

Discussion: Gothamist

Politico:

NYC morgues near capacity, DHS briefing warns — The Department of Homeland Security has been briefed that New York City's morgues are nearing capacity, according to a department official and a second person familiar with the situation. — Officials were told that morgues in the city …

Discussion: New York Post, The Hill, Vanity Fair, Gothamist, Raw Story, IJR, NewNowNext, LendEDU, BKLYNER, Breitbart, Fox News, WAVY-TV, Sputnik News, Chicago Sun-Times, Daily Kos and ABC News

Erin Allday / San Francisco Chronicle:

New York state has 10 times the COVID-19 cases California has. Why? — New York's coronavirus outbreak has violently erupted over the past few days, and the state is now driving the national epidemic — while on the West Coast, public health experts are wondering if an early …

Micah Zenko / Foreign Policy:

The Coronavirus Is the Worst Intelligence Failure in U.S. History — It's more glaring than Pearl Harbor and 9/11—and it's all the fault of Donald Trump's leadership. — Last September, I met the vice president for risk for a Fortune 100 company in Washington, D.C. I asked the executive …

Discussion: The American Independent, Washington Post and The National Interest

Joey Nolfi / EW.com: Kathy Griffin slams Trump's coronavirus response while in hospital with ‘unbearably painful’ symptoms

Rosie Perper / Business Insider:
'It's a two-way street': Trump suggests federal coronavirus aid will be given to governors who ‘treat us well’

Discussion: Vox and WND

Miriam Valverde / @politifact:
Donald Trump misses key facts in claim that New York governor refused to buy ventilators in 2015

Discussion: Redstate, The Dispatch, Washington Post, The Gateway Pundit and The Hill

Jacob Pramuk / CNBC:

Bernie Sanders threatens to hold up coronavirus bill after 4 GOP senators push to cut unemployment aid — The prospect of a planned Senate vote on a $2 trillion stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic dimmed Wednesday as senators threatened to hold up the legislation.

Discussion: Lawyers, Guns & Money and Fortune

Allan Smith / NBC News:
Handful of GOP senators threaten to delay Senate coronavirus bill over ‘drafting error’

Discussion: Redstate, HuffPost and Raw Story

Henry Rodgers / The Daily Caller:
Bernie Threatens Republicans — Says He Might ‘Put A Hold’ To Senate Coronavirus Package

Discussion: Townhall, Washington Free Beacon and Al Jazeera

Ariana Eunjung Cha / Washington Post:

Hospitals consider universal do-not-resuscitate orders for coronavirus patients — Worries that ‘all hands’ responses may expose doctors and nurses to infection prompts debate about prioritizing the needs of the many over the one — The Washington Post is providing this story for free …

Discussion: Vox

Washington Post:

G-7 failed to agree on statement after U.S. insisted on calling coronavirus outbreak ‘Wuhan virus’ — Foreign ministers representing seven major industrialized nations failed to agree on a joint statement Wednesday after the Trump administration insisted on referring to the coronavirus outbreak as the …

Discussion: Raw Story and The Week

Louis Casiano / Fox News:

Pompeo calls for united ‘message’ after reportedly pushing G-7 members to call it ‘Wuhan virus’ — Foreign leaders from the Group of Seven (G-7) failed to agree on a joint declaration because of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's request that they refer to the novel coronavirus as the “Wuhan virus,” according to media reports.

Discussion: ABC News, Associated Press, CNN, BuzzFeed and Breitbart

Zachary Petrizzo / Mediaite:

Twitter Deletes Post From The Federalist Proposing ‘Chickenpox Parties’ to Deliberately Spread Coronavirus — Twitter temporarily locked the account of The Federalist Wednesday after the conservative opinion site published a piece, written by a dermatologist based in Oregon …

Discussion: VICE, The Federalist, The Daily Beast, No More Mister Nice Blog, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, TechCrunch, Twitchy and The Hill, more at Mediagazer »

Bailey Lipschultz / Bloomberg:

Newest Shortage in New York: The City Is Running Out of Dogs to Adopt — Pet craze is spurring rally in Chewy shares amid a market rout — 'We definitely don't have any dogs left to match,' says rescue — Of all the shortages created by the coronavirus pandemic …

Discussion: Fox News, New York Post, The Week and The Hill

Adam Goldman / New York Times:

Ex-F.B.I. Agent Who Vanished on C.I.A. Mission to Iran Is Likely Dead, U.S. Concludes — The retired agent, Robert Levinson, was said to be the longest-held American hostage in history. A scandal erupted inside the C.I.A. over his disappearance. — WASHINGTON — Trump administration officials …

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Vandana Rambaran / Fox News:
Robert Levinson, retired FBI agent, presumed dead in Iranian custody over a decade after disappearance

Discussion: TheBlaze

J. Edward Moreno / The Hill:
Family of American hostage in Iran says he has died

Discussion: Associated Press, Breitbart, The Gateway Pundit and The Daily Beast

Marisa Taylor / Reuters:

Exclusive: U.S. slashed CDC staff inside China prior to coronavirus outbreak — WASHINGTON(Reuters) - The Trump administration cut staff by more than two-thirds at a key U.S. public health agency operating inside China, as part of a larger rollback of U.S.-funded health and science experts …

Discussion: POLITICUSUSA

Washington Post:

Politicians jockeying for covid-19 tests find proximity to Trump is the fastest route — Late last month, Mick Mulvaney, who was still the acting White House chief of staff at the time, told a crowd of conservative activists that the media was exaggerating the threat posed by covid-19 because …

Discussion: Raw Story

Sylvan Lane / The Hill:

Boeing CEO says company may reject stimulus if Treasury seeks equity stake — Boeing chief executive David Calhoun on Tuesday suggested that the aircraft manufacturer would not accept federal aid as part of a pending economic rescue bill if it meant giving the Treasury Department a stake in the company.

Discussion: HuffPost, Pittsburgh City Paper and American Prospect

Washington Post:
Stimulus bill prevents Trump and his family from benefiting from loan programs

Discussion: Fox News, NBC News, The Hill, New York Times, The Moderate Voice, Politico, The Guardian, Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, IJR, Tangle and Althouse

Jennifer Shutt / Roll Call:
Pelosi: Coronavirus stimulus deal an improvement, but under review

Discussion: The Week, Washington Post, Redstate, Washington Free Beacon, CNN, The American Independent and Politico

New York Times:

Fine Print of Stimulus Bill Contains Special Deals for Industries — Small banks, retailers and for-profit colleges got provisions they wanted. So did Boeing. Among those who could potentially benefit: President Trump's company. — WASHINGTON — Restaurants and retailers will get a tweak …

Discussion: Mother Jones

WCVB:

Gov. Baker prohibits reusable shopping bags during coronavirus emergency — Part of new public health order regarding grocery stores and pharmacies — HIDE TRANSCRIPT SHOW TRANSCRIPT — Gov. Charlie Baker on Wednesday announced a new public health order related to grocery stores …

Discussion: The Gateway Pundit and Twitchy

Ed Yong / The Atlantic:

How the Pandemic Will End — Editor's Note: The Atlantic is making vital coverage of the coronavirus available to all readers. Find the collection here. — Three months ago, no one knew that SARS-CoV-2 existed. Now the virus has spread to almost every country, infecting …

Discussion: Portland Mercury

Brad Brooks / Reuters:

New Orleans emerges as next coronavirus epicenter, threatening rest of South — (Reuters) - New Orleans is on track to become the next coronavirus epicenter in the United States, dimming hopes that less densely populated and warmer-climate cities would escape the worst of the pandemic, and that summer months could see it wane.

Discussion: NBC News and Forbes

Reuters: New York epicenter of U.S. coronavirus makes some headway, New Orleans worsens

ProPublica:

Walmart Was Almost Charged Criminally Over Opioids. Trump Appointees Killed the Indictment. — Even as company pharmacists protested, Walmart kept filling suspicious prescriptions, stoking the country's opioid epidemic. A Republican U.S. Attorney in Texas thought the evidence was damning.

New York Times:

How the Stimulus Bill Would Affect American Businesses: Live Updates — Here's what you need to know: — Questions remain for the hotel industry. — Stocks rose as Congress moved toward passing the aid package. — Stocks on Wall Street rose on Wednesday as investors sized …

Discussion: VICE

Katie Way / VICE:

Cuomo's Prison Workers Say They're Not Actually Making Hand Sanitizer — On March 9, New York governor Andrew Cuomo announced a measure to fight “egregious” price-gouging: an initiative to produce 100,000 gallons of New York State-produced hand sanitizer every week, to be distributed for free …

Discussion: Breitbart

Katherine Doherty / Yahoo Finance:

Distressed Debt Balloons to Almost $1 Trillion, Nears 2008 Peak — (Bloomberg) — The amount of distressed debt in the U.S. has quadrupled in less than a week to nearly $1 trillion, reaching levels not seen since 2008 as the collapse of oil prices and fallout from the coronavirus shutters entire industries across the globe.

Greenwich Time:

Thousands of inmates released as jails face coronavirus threat — http://www.washingtonpost.com/video/ national/prisoners-threaten-suicide- stage-protests-as-the-coronavirus- sickens-inmates-and-prison-staff/2020/ 03/25/8232738e-0b1e-4fdb-8538- 456e269a8eb7_video.html(REF:Luis Velarde,REF:bennettd/The Washington Post)

Manu Raju / CNN:

AOC warns she may force House members to return for stimulus vote, potentially delaying final passage — (CNN)Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the high-profile freshman from New York, is leaving open the option of forcing House members to return to Washington to cast a vote on the $2 trillion stimulus package barreling through Congress.

Discussion: Slate and Daily Kos

New York Times:

‘Plz Cancel Our Cleaning’: Virus Leads Many to Cast Aside Household Help — One family laid off their nanny, but wondered if she would continue to video chat with their children, who missed her. Across the country, undocumented household workers are being cast out with little help.

Brian X. Chen / New York Times:

The Dos and Don'ts of Online Video Meetings — Do your co-workers really need to make their pets or toddlers part of the call? No. — In the age of coronavirus, many of us have transformed overnight from office workers into telecommuters. And we are increasingly relying on videoconferencing apps …

Discussion: VICE

Politico:

Trump team failed to follow NSC's pandemic playbook — The 69-page document, finished in 2016, provided a step by step list of priorities - which were then ignored by the administration. — President Donald Trump's administration was briefed on the playbook's existence in 2017, said four former officials.

Edmund Lee / New York Times:

Nurses Share Coronavirus Stories Anonymously in an Online Document — A health care worker in New Jersey created a digital venue for people in the field to chronicle poor working conditions that may put patients at risk. “It is disgusting,” one nurse wrote.

Rebecca Ballhaus / Wall Street Journal:

National Security Veterans Urge Trump to Invoke Emergency Mobilization Law — A bipartisan group of more than 100 former national security officials are urging President Trump immediately to use a Korean War-era defense mobilization law “to the full extent” to support companies making supplies critical …

Media Matters for America:

Fox's Brit Hume says it's an “entirely reasonable viewpoint” to expect that grandparents would be willing to die to protect the economy — Hume: “We don't shut down the economy to save every single life that's threatened by a wide-spread disease. We just don't”

Discussion: PJ Media Home and alicublog

Wall Street Journal:

Is the Coronavirus as Deadly as They Say? — Current estimates about the Covid-19 fatality rate may be too high by orders of magnitude. — If it's true that the novel coronavirus would kill millions without shelter-in-place orders and quarantines, then the extraordinary measures being carried …

Discussion: Townhall, Twitchy and Cafe Hayek

Sky Palma / Raw Story:

Trump cabinet Bible study leader blames coronavirus on gay people and environmentalists — The minister who hosts a weekly bible study session for President Trump's cabinet has an opinion about the origins of the coronavirus. According to Ralph Drollinger, it's just another form of God's wrath …

Discussion: The Intercept, WND, Right Wing Watch and Human Rights Campaign