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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Trump's support for right-wing protests just got more ugly and dangerous  —  At bottom, President Trump's ongoing support for right-wing agitators who want to own the libs by throwing off the oppression of policies limiting their own exposure to a deadly pathogen should sound unsettlingly familiar.

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.

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.

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 …

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 …

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 …

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.

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.

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.

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 …

Supreme Court: Criminal juries must be unanimous to convict  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that juries in state criminal trials must be unanimous to convict a defendant, settling a quirk of constitutional law that had allowed divided votes to result in convictions in Louisiana and Oregon.

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.

South Koreans return to work, crowd parks, malls as social distancing rules ease  —  Hyonhee Shin, Heekyong Yang  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - South Koreans are returning to work and crowding shopping malls, parks, golf courses and some restaurants as South Korea relaxes social distancing rules amid …

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.

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 …

US announces extended travel restrictions with Mexico, Canada  —  The United States, Canada and Mexico will extend restrictions barring non-essential travel across their respective shared borders for another 30 days amid the coronavirus pandemic, the Trump administration announced Monday.