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3:20 PM ET, April 20, 2020

memeorandum

 Top Items: 
Jonathan O'Connell / Washington Post:
White House, GOP face heat after hotel and restaurant chains helped run small business program dry  —  With program out of money, backlash prompts executives at Shake Shack to return $10 million loan.  —  The federal government gave national hotel and restaurant chains millions of dollars …
RELATED:
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: CNN, Axios, The Week, Bloomberg and Quartz
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.
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 …
Discussion: Mother Jones
RELATED:
CNBC:
Oil is getting crushed again with one futures contract down 90% to record low under $2  —  Crude oil is collapsing—Five experts on where it could be headed  —  U.S. crude prices plunged to their lowest level in history as traders continue to fret over a slump in demand due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Discussion: Power Line and The Week
Financial Times:
US oil trades at negative prices for first time in history
Discussion: National Review
Washington Post:   U.S. stocks tumble amid steep drop in crude prices
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.
RELATED:
Beth LeBlanc / Detroit News:
Poll: Michiganians favor Whitmer's COVID-19 handling over Trump's  —  Michigan residents favor Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's handling of the coronavirus over that of President Donald Trump, according to a poll done for the Detroit Regional Chamber that was released Monday.
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.
RELATED:
Aaron Blake / Washington Post:
The one poll number that could haunt Trump on coronavirus
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.
Joe Concha / The Hill:
Zuckerberg: Some stay-at-home protests organized on Facebook could qualify as ‘harmful misinformation’  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday told ABC's George Stephanopoulos that protests of stay-at-home orders that violate state social distancing rules organized through …
RELATED:
Washington Post:
Pro-gun activists using Facebook groups to push anti-quarantine protests
Hayley Peterson / Business Insider:
Amazon-owned Whole Foods is quietly tracking its employees with a heat map tool that ranks which stores are most at risk of unionizing  — Amazon-owned Whole Foods is tracking and scoring stores it deems at risk of unionizing, according to five people with knowledge of the effort and internal documents viewed by Business Insider.
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: CNN, Raw Story and The Week
Ed Scarce / Latest from Crooks and Liars:
Man Who Called Ohio's Lockdown Order ‘Bullshit’ Has Succumbed To COVID-19  —  John McDaniel railed against Ohio's Gov. Mike DeWine's lockdown order on social media.  Weeks later he contracted the virus.  A few days ago he died.  —  In March, John McDaniel called Ohio's shutdown order of non-essential businesses “madness.”
Discussion: Raw Story
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: The Hill and Raw Story
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.
ABC News:
National testing plan a sticking point in reaching small business aid deal  —  Schumer: “I believe that the president has not been focused enough on testing.”  —  Congressional leaders and the White House are inching closer to striking a bipartisan deal that will replenish …
Discussion: The Hill and HuffPost
RELATED:
Jennifer Rubin / Washington Post:   Cable news outlets fail us in a time of crisis
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
BFI:
Misinformation During a Pandemic  —  We study the effects of news coverage of the novel coronavirus by the two most widely-viewed cable news shows in the United States - Hannity and Tucker Carlson Tonight, both on Fox News - on viewers' behavior and downstream health outcomes.
Washington Post:
It's 5 o'clock.  Do you know where your president is?  —  It happens around happy hour, or what used to be happy hour, before the country shut down.  And like any happy hour, it starts late, runs long, and you end up stuck with some guy who loves to hear himself talk.  —  “Always health.
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 and Balloon Juice
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.
Discussion: The Week
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.
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 …
Washington Post:
Live updates: Trump defends U.S. protests against coronavirus restrictions as global lockdowns trigger unrest  —  The Washington Post is providing this story for free so that all readers have access to this important information about the coronavirus.  For more free stories, sign up for our daily Coronavirus Updates newsletter.
Discussion: Raw Story
New York Post:
Inmates committing crimes after coronavirus release ‘unconscionable’: De Blasio  —  It is “unconscionable” that Riker's Island inmates who were released due to coronavirus concerns are committing new crimes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday.  —  “I think it's unconscionable just on a human level …
Discussion: Townhall, Power Line and Twitchy
Nick Bilton / Vanity Fair:
In the Coronavirus Era, the Force Is Still With Jack Dorsey  —  Twitter's CEO, last of the Steve Jobs-like tech-founder demigods, was on the verge of being pushed out by private-equity investors.  But his will, and wiles—and COVID-19—gave him new purpose.  For now.
Discussion: Althouse
Harrison Smith / Washington Post:
Jerry Givens, Virginia executioner turned death-penalty opponent, dies at 67 of coronavirus  —  Most of his executions began the same way, with a haircut and a hand placed on the head of the condemned.  Then Jerry Givens prayed — for the prisoner and their families; for the inmate's victims …
Sen. Marsha Blackburn / Washington Examiner:
A bill to hold China accountable  —  The novel coronavirus has killed 100,000 victims globally and has infected over 2 million people, but the origin of the virus is still unclear.  The United States must demand an explanation.  —  Unverified theories attributing the outbreak to wildlife …
Discussion: Breitbart
 
 
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 More Items: 
Aaron Rupar / Vox:
Why Trump's efforts to blame Obama for the coronavirus make absolutely no sense
Discussion: Raw Story
Nick Pachelli / The Guardian:
'It's beyond frustrating': tensions peak as Hawaii locals urge tourists to stay out
Discussion: Raw Story
Politico:
White House still scrambling to cover virus treatment for the uninsured
Discussion: The Week
Chuck Ross / The Daily Caller:
FBI Informant Bragged About Links To Russian Spies In Secret Recording Of Trump Aide
Discussion: Redstate and National Review
Libby Cathey / ABC News:
Coronavirus government response updates: Trump defends protesters defying stay-at-home orders …
Discussion: The Hill and Twitchy
New York Times:
Zoom's Security Woes Were No Secret to Business Partners Like Dropbox
Axios:
Coronavirus brings clearer skies but darker world to 50th Earth Day
Mark R. Warner / Washington Post:
The national security cost of Trump's politicization of U.S. intelligence
 Earlier Items: 
Brett Samuels / The Hill:
US announces extended travel restrictions with Mexico, Canada
New York Times:
‘The Worst-Case Scenario’: New York's Subway Faces Its Biggest Crisis
Reuters:
South Koreans return to work, crowd parks, malls as social distancing rules ease
Shannon Watkins / The James G. Martin Center …:
Goodbye Meritocracy, Hello...What?
Discussion: National Review
Justin Wise / The Hill:
Trump calls FBI investigators in Russia probe ‘human scum’
Aaron Lorenzo / Politico:
The IRS is drowning in unopened tax refund requests amid pandemic
Discussion: National Review