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 …

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.

US weekly jobless claims total 6.6 million, vs 5 million expected  —  Jobless rolls continued to swell due to the coronavirus shutdown, with 6.6 million Americans filing first-time unemployment claims in the week ended April 4, the Labor Department reported Thursday.

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 …

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.

Barr calls lockdown measures ‘draconian,’ and suggests they should be revisited next month  —  Attorney General William P. Barr said Wednesday that some of the government-imposed lockdown measures meant to control the spread of covid-19 were “draconian” and suggested that they should be eased next month.

Most New York Coronavirus Cases Came From Europe, Genomes Show  —  Travelers seeded multiple cases starting as early as mid-February, genomes show.  —  New research indicates that the coronavirus began to circulate in the New York area by mid-February, weeks before the first confirmed case …

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.

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.”

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

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 …

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.

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 …

Melania Trump sports face covering in public service announcement  —  While her husband has said he has no plans to wear a mask himself, the first lady's account tweeted a photo of her modeling CDC guidance.  —  Melania Trump wore a face mask in a new photo tweeted from the first lady's account Thursday …

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.

Trump's utter lack of grief, empathy is the coronavirus dog that didn't bark  —  If you'd spent the last five years trapped in a cave somewhere, you'd probably bet that Queens-accented kid from a place called Jamaica Estates would be better at relating to the sorrows and stresses …

Bill O'Reilly: Dead Coronavirus Victims ‘Were On Their Last Legs Anyway’  —  The former Fox News host resurfaces with the worst possible take on the COVID-19 pandemic.  —  Disgraced former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly resurfaced on Wednesday to share his thoughts on the wave of deaths due to the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.

Two black men say they were kicked out of Walmart for wearing protective masks.  Others worry it will happen to them.  —  As the nation is told to wear masks, black Americans must also weigh the risks of racial profiling  —  Kip Diggs glanced at his reflection in the rearview mirror …

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.

It's time to move past employer-based health insurance  —  Joe Biden holds a virtual campaign event on March 13, in Chicago, Illinois.  The scheduled in-person campaign event was canceled due to Covid-19.  Scott Olson/Getty Images  —  The coronavirus shows tying health insurance to jobs is a disaster.

Russian Trolls Hype Coronavirus and Giuliani Conspiracies  —  CAUGHT  —  A Daily Beast investigation reveals dozens of Russian accounts pushing disinformation on everything from Joe Biden to the origin of the novel coronavirus.  —  Suspected Russian government trolls are trying to pin …

Feds seize coronavirus test kit materials bound for Bellingham hospital and Northwest  —  A delivery of test kit materials that would have allowed Bellingham's St. Joseph hospital and other PeaceHealth medical facilities in the Northwest to run COVID-19 tests quicker were seized and diverted …