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10:55 AM ET, April 20, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
NBC News:
Shake Shack returning $10 million government loan meant for small businesses  —  With the Paycheck Protection Program already out of money, the burger chain says other restaurateurs need its loan more than it does.  —  Shake Shack, one of several large restaurant chains that got federal loans through …
Discussion: The Week and Bloomberg
RELATED:
Randy Garutti / LinkedIn:
Shake Shack is returning its PPP Loan.  Here's why:  —  A letter from Danny Meyer and Randy Garutti  —  On March 27, when both branches of Congress and the White House came to an agreement to provide sweeping financial assistance via the $2.2 trillion CARES Act, many of us in the restaurant industry cheered with a big sigh of relief.
Derek Wallbank / Bloomberg:   Shake Shack Will Return Its Entire $10 Million U.S. Government Loan
Michelle Toh / CNN:   Shake Shack returns $10 million emergency loan to the US government
Alicia Wallace / CNN:
Shake Shack, Ruth's Chris and other chain restaurants got big PPP loans when small businesses couldn't
Discussion: Redstate
Tom Boggioni / Raw Story:
White House worried Trump-inspired protests will blow up in his face if attendees are stricken with COVID-19: NYT's Haberman  —  Appearing remotely on CNN's “New Day” New York Times White House correspondent Maggie Haberman claimed that senior officials in Donald Trump's administration …
RELATED:
Alayna Treene / Axios:
First look: Victoria Coates denies being “Anonymous”
Discussion: Fox News and The Hill
Washington Post:
Pro-gun activists using Facebook groups to push anti-quarantine protests  —  A trio of far-right, pro-gun provocateurs is behind some of the largest Facebook groups calling for anti-quarantine protests around the country, offering the latest illustration that some seemingly organic demonstrations …
Charles M. Blow / New York Times:
Stop Airing Trump's Briefings!  —  The media is allowing disinformation to appear as news.  —  Around this time four years ago, the media world was all abuzz over an analysis by mediaQuant, a company that tracks what is known as “earned media” coverage of political candidates.  Earned media is free media.
James Arkin / Politico:
Democrats' momentum puts Senate majority in play  —  Republicans started this election cycle as heavy favorites to keep their Senate majority, with a lineup of elections mostly in red-tinted states and GOP incumbents favored over a slate of relatively unknown and untested challengers.
Discussion: Raw Story
Jasmin Barmore / Detroit News:
5-year-old with rare complication becomes first Michigan child to die of COVID-19  —  A month ago, 5-year-old Skylar Herbert complained to her parents that she had a bad headache.  —  On Sunday, after spending two weeks on a ventilator, the Detroit girl died.
Discussion: Fox News and New York Post
George Packer / The Atlantic:
We Are Living in a Failed State  —  When the virus came here, it found a country with serious underlying conditions, and it exploited them ruthlessly.  Chronic ills—a corrupt political class, a sclerotic bureaucracy, a heartless economy, a divided and distracted public—had gone untreated for years.
Discussion: Raw Story
Michael Kranish / Washington Post:
Brett Giroir, Trump's testing czar, was forced out of a job developing vaccine projects.  Now he's on the hot seat.  —  Brett Giroir, the federal official overseeing coronavirus testing efforts, says that his experience working on vaccine development projects at Texas A&M University helped prepare him for this historic moment.
Discussion: The Week and Raw Story
Daniel W. Drezner / Washington Post:
Everyone is in denial about November  —  The 2016 hangover  —  Over the weekend, the hard-working staff here at Spoiler Alerts read a lot of analysis about what the Trump administration was thinking and doing about reelection.  What all of this analysis had in common was a refusal to acknowledge some brute facts.
Justin Wise / The Hill:
Trump calls FBI investigators in Russia probe ‘human scum’  —  President Trump on Sunday lashed out at FBI leadership over the origins of the investigation into Russian election interference, calling investigators who led the probe “human scum.”  —  Trump made the remarks during …
RELATED:
CNN:   Trump won't say whether he will pardon Manafort and Stone, calls FBI investigators ‘human scum’
Kyle Cheney / Politico:
A watchdog out of Trump's grasp unleashes wave of coronavirus audits  —  Lawmakers handed President Donald Trump $2 trillion in coronavirus relief — and then left town without activating any of the powerful new oversight tools meant to hold his administration accountable.
Discussion: The Daily Caller and Raw Story
Helen Branswell / STAT:
The months of magical thinking: As the coronavirus swept over China, some experts were in denial  —  The response to the coronavirus pandemic in the United States and other countries has been hobbled by a host of factors, many involving political and regulatory officials.
Houston Chronicle:
Across nation, masks are the latest political, cultural divide  —  Kevin Krannawitter won't wear a mask because he just doesn't think it's necessary, whatever the scientists say.  Marilyn Singleton won't wear one either - and she's a physician - because she says it's un-American for the government to force people to cover their faces.
Maggie Haberman / New York Times:
Trump, Head of Government, Leans Into Antigovernment Message  —  With his poll numbers fading after a rally-around-the-leader bump, the president is stoking protests against stay-at-home orders.  —  First he was the self-described “wartime president.”  Then he trumpeted the “total” authority of the federal government.
Nova Scotia / Canadian Press:
RCMP officer among 17 confirmed dead in Nova Scotia killing spree  —  Suspected shooter was killed after being intercepted by officers in Enfield, N.S.  —  RCMP say 17 people are dead, including one of their officers, after a man who at one point wore a police uniform and drove a mock …
RELATED:
Bloomberg:
Oil in New York Plunges Below $15 as Storage Sites Fill  — Texan buyers offering as little as $2 a barrel for some crudes  — WTI plummets as much as 22%, though futures expire on Tuesday  —  Oil plunged below $15 a barrel in New York, a fresh 21-year low, as inventories soar …
Patrick Cooley / The Columbus Dispatch:
Coronavirus in Ohio: More than 1,800 inmates at Marion Correctional test positive  —  Patrick Cooley Jim Woods The Columbus Dispatch  —  The total number of confirmed cases of coronavirus rose to 11,602 cases on Sunday  —  Coronavirus has overtaken a vast majority of the prison population …
Discussion: The Hill and New York Post
David Catron / The American Spectator:
Democrats Ignore Lockdown Protests At Their Peril  —  The voters will exact a heavy price if the Democrats don't lift the lockdowns soon.  —  YouTube screenshot  —  🔊 Listen to this article  —  In addition to killing thousands of Americans and robbing millions more of their livelihoods …
Discussion: Fox Business
Wall Street Journal:
Coronavirus Testing Hampered by Disarray, Shortages, Backlogs  —  State officials and labs say competition for supplies and questionable results are prolonging the national crisis  —  Amid efforts to expand coronavirus testing, laboratory operators and state health officials are navigating …
Discussion: Raw Story
Marilynn Marchione / Associated Press:
Reports suggest many have had coronavirus with no symptoms  —  file photo, amid coronavirus concerns, a healthcare worker takes the temperature of a visitor to Essentia Health who was crossing over a skywalk bridge from the adjoining parking deck, in Duluth, Minn. A flood of new research suggests …
Discussion: Associated Press
David Edwards / Raw Story:
Idaho GOPer says stay-at-home orders ‘no different’ than sending Jews to extermination camps  —  A Republican state lawmaker compared Idaho Gov. Brad Little (R) to Adolf Hitler because she said that stay-at-home orders during the coronavirus pandemic are akin to Nazi extermination camps.
Meredith Deliso / ABC News:
Residents protest coronavirus stay-at-home orders in 5 states  —  Protests occurred in Colorado, Illinois, Florida, Tennessee and Washington.  —  Opposition to COVID-19 stay-at-home orders has continued to build from coast to coast, with at least five states the site of protests Sunday.
Charlie Warzel / New York Times:
Protesting for the Right to Catch the Coronavirus  —  The reopen America protests are the logical conclusion of a twisted liberty movement.  —  Mr. Warzel is an Opinion writer at large.  —  At a string of small “reopen America” protests across the country this week, mask-less citizens …
Aaron Lorenzo / Politico:
The IRS is drowning in unopened tax refund requests amid pandemic  —  The IRS is piling unopened business tax refund requests into storage trailers and advising companies to file by fax instead.  It's stopped answering phone calls on taxpayer assistance lines.
Discussion: National Review
Shannon Watkins / The James G. Martin Center …:
Goodbye Meritocracy, Hello...What?  —  Is meritocracy just?  Just a short time ago, it was commonly accepted that it is the fairest way to determine who wins and who loses in the competition of college admissions.  Now, it is one of the most hotly debated questions in higher education.
Discussion: National Review
 
 
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 More Items: 
Sam Brodey / The Daily Beast:
Five Million People Need This Lifeline. But It's Gone Broke.
Discussion: ABC News
Associated Press:
Trump says he's close to a deal with Congress on virus aid
Discussion: Redstate, FOX40 and Twitchy
Los Angeles Times:
How Trump let the U.S. fall behind the curve on coronavirus threat
Fred Hiatt / Washington Post:
Trump should be playing to America's strengths. Instead, he sinks to China's level.
Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Trump money machine overcomes coronavirus in March
Paul Bedard / Washington Examiner:
DNC cheers 23 tweets from reporters ripping Trump, New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, NPR, and Al Jazeera
Discussion: NB Blog
David French / The French Press:
Evangelicals Have Abandoned the Character Test. The Competence Test is Next.
 Earlier Items: 
Bernie Sanders / New York Times:
The Foundations of American Society Are Failing Us
Discussion: Common Dreams
CNN:
Piers Morgan says his friend President Trump is ‘failing the American people’
Discussion: The Guardian
Josh Taylor / The Guardian:
Facebook and Google to be forced to share advertising revenue with Australian media companies
Ben Smith / New York Times:
The U.S. Tried to Teach China a Lesson About the Media. It Backfired.
Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Scoop: Klobuchar to appear on Biden podcast amid VP rumors
Discussion: The Hill
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:
Hold these Republicans accountable for deaths caused by recklessness
Discussion: Raw Story
Uri Friedman / The Atlantic:
New Zealand's Prime Minister May Be the Most Effective Leader on the Planet
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Trump, Fox News are trying to gin up a new Tea Party to distract you from their deadly failures
Discussion: The Atlantic and The Mahablog
 

 
From Techmeme:

New York Times:
Docs: OpenAI's monthly revenue hit $300M in August, up 1,700% since 2023 beginning; it expects ~$3.7B in 2024 sales but may lose ~$5B, and had 350M MAUs in June

Mariella Moon / Engadget:
The Irish Data Protection Commission wraps up an investigation into a 2019 breach, fining Meta €91M for violating GDPR rules by storing passwords in plain text

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft details how it has overhauled its controversial AI-powered Recall feature, including making it opt-in and giving users an option to uninstall
 
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