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 …

Trump's Wasted Briefings  —  The sessions have become a boring show of President vs. the press.  —  By The Editorial Board  —  A friend of ours who voted for President Trump sent us a note recently saying that she had stopped watching the daily White House briefings of the coronavirus task force.

Biden holds lead in latest general election polls  —  Apparent Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is hanging onto his lead in two general election polls against President Trump this week.  In the latest Quinnipiac University poll, released Wednesday, and Monmouth University poll released Thursday …

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.

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 …

Senate fails to approve new coronavirus relief after partisan stalemate  —  The Senate adjourned on Thursday with no deal to deliver coronavirus aid as Democrats and Republicans rejected each other's bids for new spending.  —  Senate Democrats blocked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's attempt …

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.

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.

Bernie's Gone, and Trump Is Screwed.  Here's How Biden Wins.  —  Never let up.  Never stop reminding voters that both the deaths and the economic depression we're entering are a disaster of Trump's making.  —  BEAST INSIDE  —  There are few things Donald Trump wanted more in 2020 than Bernie Sanders as the Democratic nominee.

Bill O'Reilly's Macabre Take: Many Who Died From Coronavirus ‘Were on Their Last Legs Anyway’  —  Former Fox News host Bill O'Reilly offered a decidedly macabre take on the mounting global death toll from coronavirus, telling his former primetime colleague Sean Hannity that many of the fatalities …

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 …

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.”

Jerry Falwell Jr. says warrants are out for 2 journalists after critical stories on coronavirus decision  —  Jerry Falwell Jr., the president of Liberty University, said on Wednesday that arrest warrants had been issued for journalists from The New York Times and ProPublica …

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.

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 …

The briefings aren't working: Trump's approval rating takes a dip  —  In times of national crisis, the American people typically come together behind their president.  —  But not this one.  —  Donald Trump isn't benefiting from what political scientists refer to as a “rally 'round the flag” …

Federal Support Ends For Coronavirus Testing Sites As Pandemic Peak Nears  —  Some local officials are disappointed the federal government will end funding for coronavirus testing sites this Friday.  In a few places those sites will close as a result.  This as criticism continues that not enough testing is available.

British news outlets ‘could fail due to coronavirus ad-blocking’  —  Firms urged to abandon blocklisting as online stories generate record traffic but little revenue  —  Ministers are demanding advertisers start placing their promotions next to online news stories about the coronavirus …

Ricketts encourages vote by mail, eyes gradual easing of COVID-19 restrictions possibly in May  —  In a rare divergence of opinion from the views expressed by President Donald Trump, Gov. Pete Ricketts on Wednesday urged Nebraskans to take advantage of the opportunity to vote by mail in the May 12 primary election.

As pandemic deepens, Trump cycles through targets to blame  —  In this April 7, 2020, photo, President Donald Trump calls on a reporter for a question as he speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House in Washington.  First, it was the media that was at fault.

Former Trump campaign adviser denied campaign was involved in DNC hack in recorded conversation  —  In late October 2016, less than two weeks before the presidential election, a former adviser to then-presidential candidate Donald Trump, George Papadopoulos, denied to an FBI confidential source …

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 …

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.

Voters Support Extending the Census to Ensure an Accurate Count  —  By Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez  —  COVID-19 has revealed stark inequities in our society.  My district, which is overwhelmingly working-class and one of the most diverse in the country, is also one of the districts hardest hit by the virus.

Fauci Slashes U.S. Death Projection, Raising Hope for Reopening  — Top infectious disease official credits social distancing  — Fatalities of as many as 200,000 Americans had been estimated  —  One of President Donald Trump's top medical advisers slashed projections for U.S …

US rocked by 6.6 million more initial unemployment claims last week  —  An unprecedented economic collapse continues.  —  The US Department of Labor registered 6.6 million initial unemployment insurance claims for the week ending April 4, according to data newly reported on Thursday morning.

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.

Recovery law allows Fed to rope off public as it spends billions  —  Tucked into the recent recovery bill was a provision granting the Federal Reserve the right to set up a $450 billion bailout plan without following key provisions of the federal open meetings law, including announcing …