Pence's office blocks public health officials from appearing on CNN  —  New York (CNN Business)Vice President Mike Pence's office has declined to allow the nation's top health officials to appear on CNN in recent days and discuss the coronavirus pandemic killing thousands of Americans …

Joe Biden Outlines New Steps to Ease Economic Burden on Working People  —  Two important steps we can take to help ease the economic burden on working people — and that I will take when I am President.  —  The news this morning of another enormous number of unemployment claims …

People are luring Instacart shoppers with big tips — and then changing them to zero  —  New York (CNN Business)In late March, Instacart worker Annaliisa Arambula accepted a grocery order that came with a big tip: $55.  The store was just down the street, everything the customer wanted was available …

PPE and Ventilators Becomes Patronage in Trump's Hands  —  As we work to find out the scope and goals of the White House's seizure of medical goods across the United States, a simpler pattern is coming into view: the White House seizes goods from public officials and hospitals across the country …

The Viral ‘Study’ About Runners Spreading Coronavirus Is Not Actually a Study  —  In the last 24 hours, a computer simulation by a team of Belgian engineers that tracks the “spread droplets” and “slipstream” of the exhalations, coughs, and sneezes of people who are running, walking, or cycling has gone viral.

White House to require coronavirus tests for journalists covering daily briefing  —  The White House will conduct coronavirus tests on all journalists slated to attend Thursday's coronavirus task force briefing as a precautionary measure, the White House Correspondents' Association announced.

Feds Warn Alex Jones to Stop Hawking Coronavirus Scams  —  The FDA sent a letter to the infamous conspiracy theorist on Thursday saying he needed to stop pushing colloidal silver as a therapy for COVID-19  —  The Food and Drug Administration is demanding that conspiracy theorist Alex Jones …

Cut salaries, taxes to reopen U.S. economy says Laffer, conservative fave  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican economist Art Laffer, an architect of the Reagan era tax cuts that paved the way for historic budget deficits in the United States, has a plan to rejuvenate today's pandemic-crippled economy.

I spent six days on a ventilator with covid-19.  It saved me, but my life is not the same.  —  David Lat is the founding editor of Above the Law, a website covering the legal profession, and a managing director at Lateral Link, a legal recruiting firm.  —  The ventilator has become an object …

Nature magazine apologises for reports linking Covid-19 with China  —  Scientific journal admits it ‘was an error on our part’ to erroneously link the pathogen with Wuhan and China 'It would be tragic if stigma, fuelled by the coronavirus, led Asia's young people to retreat from international campuses …

Trump: Absentee Voting Is Fraud Unless It's My Supporters  —  “Mail-in voting is horrible.  It's corrupt,” declared President Trump earlier this week.  When a reporter asked how he could reconcile that position with the fact that he had personally voted by mail in the last election, Trump replied, “Because I'm allowed to.”

The Two States Where Trump's COVID-19 Response Could Backfire in 2020  —  A handful of swing states will almost certainly decide the winner of November's presidential election.  And in two of them, Michigan and Florida, Donald Trump's complicated relationship with their governors could expose …

Running out of body bags.  People dying in the hallway.  Coronavirus has Michigan hospital workers at a breaking point.  —  DETROIT — Krysti Kallek has worked for the past decade in the emergency department at Detroit's Sinai Grace Hospital.  But she's never experienced anything like Michigan's coronavirus crisis.

Fran Lebowitz Is Never Leaving New York  —  The writer on growing old, life in quarantine, and the sadness of seeing her city shut down.  —  Fran Lebowitz is the patron saint of staying at home and doing nothing.  She is famously averse to working, and famously resistant to technology; she has no cell phone or computer.

A Brooklyn courthouse was still packed as coronavirus spread.  Judges, their staffs and lawyers are paying the price.  —  Dozens of lawyers, court officers and clerks crowded onto the wooden benches in Judge Johnny Lee Baynes' courtroom on March 12 as they waited for the judge to hear cases …

Gavin Newsom Declares California a ‘Nation-State’  —  The state is at odds with the federal government over coronavirus plans and much else.  —  California this week declared its independence from the federal government's feeble efforts to fight Covid-19 — and perhaps from a bit more.

She lost her job because of coronavirus.  Now she and her son sell masks on a street corner  —  Brenda Mendez stood at the busy street corner holding a small treasure in her teal-gloved hands, an offering to the oncoming traffic.  —  She was selling masks, each one wrapped in clear, crinkly plastic.

Meet the former NYT reporter who is challenging the coronavirus narrative  —  As daily life across America is upended by the coronavirus crisis — with mass business closures plunging the economy into freefall — one former New York Times reporter is sounding the alarm about what he believes …

Coronavirus May ‘Reactivate’ in Cured Patients, Korean CDC Says  —  The coronavirus may be “reactivating” in people who have been cured of the illness, according to Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  —  About 51 patients classed as having been cured in South Korea …

A rural corner of Virginia is starting to turn on Trump  — So far, Virginia's Northern Neck peninsula has largely been spared from COVID-19, but its rural and working-class residents fear the worst is ahead.  — This is a region where support for President Trump has been strong.

Did Ohio get it right?  Early intervention, preparation for pandemic may pay off.  —  On Feb. 26, two days before President Trump called the coronavirus outbreak the Democratic Party's “new hoax,” the Cleveland Clinic alerted the public that it was prepared to quickly open 1,000 additional hospital beds should the need arise.

Publisher of hydroxychloroquine study touted by Trump says the research didn't meet its standards  —  Trump's speculation caused some to hoard this drug  —  (CNN)President Trump has been a cheerleader for the drug hydroxychloroquine, pointing in a tweet and in person to a French study …

McConnell, Democrats jostle over urgent business virus aid  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — An urgent $250 billion request by President Donald Trump to supplement a business “paycheck protection” program for firms crippled by the coronavirus outbreak faces a roadblock Thursday in the Senate.

As Trump's failures mount, one governor sounds an ominous warning  —  With coronavirus deaths in the U.S. rapidly approaching 15,000, we are now learning that the federal government's national stockpile of medical supplies is almost depleted.  Meanwhile, the failure to ramp up testing …

‘A Tragedy Is Unfolding’: Inside New York's Virus Epicenter  —  In a city ravaged by an epidemic, few places have been as hard hit as central Queens.  —  Anil Subba, a Nepali Uber driver from Jackson Heights, Queens, died just hours after doctors at Elmhurst Hospital thought he might be strong enough to be removed from a ventilator.

Exclusive: Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, in solitary confinement  —  (Reuters) - Michael Cohen, U.S. President Donald Trump's former personal attorney, has been placed in solitary confinement at a federal prison in New York state where he is serving time for violating campaign finance laws …

Kansas Gov. Kelly to sue lawmakers over vote striking down limits on church gatherings  —  Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly said Thursday she will sue legislative leaders after they voted to overturn her executive order limiting in-person church gatherings ahead of Easter.

A city under siege: 24 hours in the fight to save New York  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Brooklyn is dark except for the streetlamps when Carla Brown's alarm goes off at 5:15 a.m. — much too early for an average Monday.  But with the coronavirus laying siege to New York, today looms as anything but ordinary.

Poultry Worker's Death Highlights Spread of Coronavirus in Meat Plants  —  Some employees are coming in sick, and one woman died after being ordered back to work.  “Our work conditions are out of control,” a longtime Tyson employee said.  —  Annie Grant, 55, had been feverish for two nights.

‘One of the greatest travesties in American history’: Barr drops all pretense about ongoing probe of Russia investigation  —  Attorney General William P. Barr hasn't been terribly subtle about where he stands on the appropriateness of the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Top Democrat accuses Trump of ‘purging’ the intelligence community  —  In a letter to Trump's intel chief, Sen. Warner said Trump's firing of intel IG Atkinson signals a purge.  Rep. Schiff sent a similar letter Tuesday.  —  WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump is conducting a “purge” …