Top Items:
Derek Wallbank / Bloomberg:
Shake Shack Will Return Its Entire $10 Million U.S. Government Loan — Shake Shack, the U.S.-based burger chain, will return its entire $10 million loan from the U.S. government, the company's leaders said in a statement, amid widespread criticism over who got access to the funds aimed …
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:
New York Post, The Week, ABC17NEWS and Bloomberg
Judd Legum / Popular Information:
A raw deal — The pandemic has been devastating for small businesses, particularly independent restaurants that rely on foot traffic. Congress created a $350 billion lifeline called the Paycheck Protection Program. The Paycheck Protection Program allowed small businesses with 500 …
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 …
Discussion:
The Verge, more at Techmeme »
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
Rob Gillies / Associated Press:
Police: At least 10 killed in shooting rampage in Canada — TORONTO (AP) — A 51-year-old man went on a shooting rampage across the northern part of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia Sunday, killing at least 10 people, including a policewoman. Officials said the suspected shooter was also dead.
Discussion:
The Week, Royal Canadian Mounted Police …, The Hill and ABC News
RELATED:
Nova Scotia / Canadian Press:
RCMP officer among 17 confirmed dead in Nova Scotia killing spree
RCMP officer among 17 confirmed dead in Nova Scotia killing spree
Discussion:
NBC News, The Gateway Pundit, The Week, New York Times, The US Sun and New York Post
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 …
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.
Discussion:
HuffPost, Mediaite, POLITICUSUSA, Raw Story, The Hill, Mother Jones and The Week
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
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
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 Wallace-Wells / New York Magazine:
The White House Has Erected A Blockade Stopping States and Hospitals From Getting Coronavirus PPE — Whenever you start to think that the federal government under Donald Trump has hit a moral bottom, it finds a new way to shock and horrify. — Over the last few weeks, it has started to appear as though …
CNN:
Trump won't say whether he will pardon Manafort and Stone, calls FBI investigators ‘human scum’ — (CNN)President Donald Trump Sunday would not say whether he will pardon several former associates who were convicted after being charged as part of the Mueller probe, including former campaign …
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.
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.
Discussion:
NBC News, Redstate and The National Interest
Josh Taylor / The Guardian:
Facebook and Google to be forced to share advertising revenue with Australian media companies — Mandatory code being developed by ACCC will create ‘level playing field’ in media landscape, Josh Frydenberg says — Facebook and Google will be forced to share advertising revenue …
Discussion:
The Verge, more at Mediagazer »
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.
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.
Ben Smith / New York Times:
The U.S. Tried to Teach China a Lesson About the Media. It Backfired. — American journalists were showing the world the devastating effects of China's botched response to the coronavirus. Now, many have been kicked out. — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is better known for yelling at journalists than consoling them.
Discussion:
The Daily Caller, more at Mediagazer »
CNN:
Piers Morgan says his friend President Trump is ‘failing the American people’ — New York (CNN Business)The coronavirus pandemic is “the biggest news story that any of us have every dealt with,” Piers Morgan says, and it requires “a different approach from the traditional news anchor approach.”
Discussion:
The Guardian
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 …
David French / The French Press:
Evangelicals Have Abandoned the Character Test. The Competence Test is Next. — On April 15, the United States hit a horrifying milestone. It not only crossed 30,000 total COVID-19 deaths, but for the fourth consecutive day, the daily death toll was so high that COVID-19 was the single leading cause of death in the United States.
Bernie Sanders / New York Times:
The Foundations of American Society Are Failing Us — The unequal impact of the pandemic and economic collapse are forcing us to rethink the assumptions of our system. — Mr. Sanders is a senator from Vermont and former Democratic candidate for president.
Discussion:
Common Dreams
Aaron Lorenzo / Politico:
Tax-refund delays mount as IRS struggles with snail mail amid shutdown — 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.
Alex Isenstadt / Politico:
Trump money machine overcomes coronavirus in March — The Republican National Committee raised a record $24 million last month, an early indication that President Donald Trump's fundraising machine could be able to withstand the economic collapse brought on by the coronavirus.
Will Bunch / The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Trump, Fox News are trying to gin up a new Tea Party to distract you from their deadly failures — One carried a sign with Patrick Henry's famed Revolutionary-era quote — “Give me liberty or give me death!” — and parked herself in front of a shuttered Baskin-Robbins to show her determination …
Discussion:
The Atlantic, The Mahablog and Vox
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:
Raw Story
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.