memeorandum: Supreme Court Throws Out ‘Bridgegate’ Convictions (Brent Kendall/Wall Street Journal)

11:55 AM ET, May 7, 2020

Top Items:

AP Exclusive: Admin shelves CDC guide to reopening country — GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A set of detailed documents created by the nation's top disease investigators meant to give step-by-step advice to local leaders deciding when and how to reopen public places such as mass transit …

Discussion: The American Independent, ABC News, Axios, The Moderate Voice, Talking Points Memo, New York Times, The Hill, Gizmodo, The Daily Beast, IJR, POLITICUSUSA, The Daily Caller, Daily Kos, Mediaite, Raw Story and The Week

CNN:

One of Trump's personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus — (CNN)A member of the US Navy who serves as one of President Donald Trump's personal valets has tested positive for coronavirus, CNN has learned Thursday, raising concerns about the President's possible exposure to the virus.

Discussion: IJR, CNBC, Raw Story, The Daily Caller, The Sun, Deadline, The Week, The Hill and New York Post

Associated Press:

Face masks make a political statement in era of coronavirus — WASHINGTON (AP) — The decision to wear a mask in public is becoming a political statement — a moment to pick sides in a brewing culture war over containing the coronavirus. — While not yet as loaded as a “Make America Great Again” …

Discussion: Washington Post, Raw Story, The Week, Fox News and KTLA

Philip Bump / Washington Post:

The sharp hypocrisy of the White House position on testing — There's a straightforward way in which businesses and other institutions can relax social distancing measures without spurring a surge in new coronavirus infections: frequent and repeated assessments of employee health, including tests for those showing signs of infection.

Discussion: NPR and Axios

Associated Press: Trump tells allies his wearing a mask would ‘send the wrong message’, make him look ridiculous

New York Times:
Most States That Are Reopening Fail to Meet White House Guidelines

Discussion: National Review and Forbes

New York Times:
Coronavirus Task Force Gets Its ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moment

Discussion: McSweeney's, Al Jazeera, WBRZ, Just The News and Mediaite

CNN:
Trump administration rejects CDC guidance on reopening US amid coronavirus

Discussion: Raw Story, POLITICUSUSA, Mediaite and The Hill

Libby Cathey / ABC News:
Government coronavirus response updates: Trump assistant tests positive for COVID-19, White House says

Discussion: NBC News, WBRZ and The Daily Caller

Politico:

Supreme Court overturns ‘Bridgegate’ convictions — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday tossed the federal government's case in the infamous “Bridgegate” scandal, clearing the convictions of two allies of former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. — In a unanimous ruling that further chips away …

Discussion: Washington Post, NBC News, Fox News and Axios

Brent Kendall / Wall Street Journal:

Supreme Court Throws Out ‘Bridgegate’ Convictions — High court rules political retribution didn't rise to the level of federal fraud — WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court on Thursday threw out a pair of public-corruption convictions in the New Jersey scandal known as Bridgegate …

NBC New York: Supreme Court Tosses Out ‘Bridgegate’ Convictions

Conrad Swanson / Denver Post:

Colorado GOP Chair Ken Buck pressured local official to submit incorrect election results — Fellow Republican says congressman tried to bully him into committing a crime — Colorado Republican Party Chair Ken Buck, a U.S. representative from Windsor, pressured a local party official …

Discussion: The Week and Mediaite

New York Times:

Travel From New York City Seeded Wave of U.S. Outbreaks — The coronavirus outbreak in New York City became the primary source of infections across much of the country by early March, researchers have found. — Munich — Paris — London — Rome — Barcelona, Spain — Rafina, Greece

Discussion: National Review, Twitchy and Instapundit

George Conway / Washington Post:

Trump lashed out at me on Twitter. It's because he knows the truth. — Americans died from covid-19 at the rate of about one every 42 seconds during the past month. That ought to keep any president awake at night. — Not Donald Trump. — Just days ago, the president flipped …

Discussion: Raw Story, The Wrap, IJR, HuffPost, Breitbart, Political Flare, Palmer Report, Mediaite and Common Dreams

Brian Schwartz / CNBC:
Lincoln Project has its biggest day of fundraising after president attacks ‘Never Trump’ group

Discussion: The Hill, POLITICUSUSA, Mediaite, Newsweek and IJR

USA Today:

Kristol, Coons: Republicans should reject Trump's divisive approach to pandemic — Too many members of Congress, following the lead of President Donald Trump, continue to engage in coronavirus denialism. — One of us is a Democratic senator, who, though certainly willing to seek common ground across …

Discussion: In These Times

Politico: Republicans praise Trump's pandemic response with Senate majority at risk

John Daniel Davidson / The Federalist:
Democrats Are Suddenly Okay With Voting For A Man Accused Of Rape

Discussion: The Bulwark, Fox News and Redstate

Charles M. Blow / New York Times:

The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery — Another black man falsely assumed to be a criminal is dead. — The video is short and shocking. — It's taken from the perspective of a vehicle following a young black man running at a jogger's pace. The jogger is 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery.

Discussion: Hotair, Washington Post, The Bread Line, Daily Kos, The Week, ABC News and Vox

Christian Living / Russell Moore:
The Killing of Ahmaud Arbery and the Justice of God

Discussion: Raw Story

David French / The Dispatch:
A Vigilante Killing in Georgia

Discussion: Common Dreams, Law & Crime, The Sun and Redstate

New York Times:

Germany and U.S. on Divergent Paths to Reopen — Online retailers, backed by Amazon, are beginning a campaign to press for billions of dollars to rescue the Postal Service. Nearly one in five children in the U.S. are not getting enough to eat. — Here's what you need to know:

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Daily Kos

Jason DeParle / New York Times:
As Hunger Swells, Food Stamps Become a Partisan Flash Point

Discussion: VICE, Brookings, Raw Story and Center for Economic …

Nicholas Kristof / New York Times:
The Virus Is Winning — Magical thinking won't protect us.

Discussion: Raw Story and Second Nexus

Jeffrey Collins / Associated Press:

Woman killed by alligator in SC was doing homeowner's nails — COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The woman attacked and killed by an alligator in a gated community along the South Carolina coast was visiting the homeowner to do her nails and was trying to touch the animal when it grabbed her, authorities said.

Meghann Myers / Military Times:

Coronavirus survivors banned from joining the military — As the Defense Department negotiates its way through the coronavirus pandemic and its fallout, military entrance processing stations are working with new guidance when it comes to bringing COVID-19 survivors into the services.

Discussion: The Hill, CNN and New York Post

Daniel Villarreal / Newsweek: Coronavirus Survivors ‘Permanently Disqualified’ from Joining U.S. Military, Recruitment Memo Suggests

ProPublica:

On the Same Day Sen. Richard Burr Dumped Stock, So Did His Brother-in-Law. Then the Market Crashed. — The brother-in-law, a Trump appointee, sold between $97,000 and $280,000 worth of stock. Burr is under federal investigation over whether he traded on non-public information gathered through his work in the Senate.

Discussion: Fox News, Slate, New York Post, Axios, CNN and The Hill

Nancy Rommelmann / Reason:

She Said Anthony Fauci Sexually Assaulted Her. Now She Says Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman Paid Her to Lie — After failing to frame Robert Mueller, Elizabeth Warren, and others for sexual misconduct, the infamous Trumpster hoaxers tried to go after Fauci. But the woman they hired to play the victim had second thoughts.

Katherine Shaver / Washington Post:

Smartphone data shows out-of-state visitors flocked to Georgia as restaurants and other businesses reopened — One week after Georgia allowed dine-in restaurants, hair salons and other businesses to reopen, an additional 62,440 visitors arrived there daily, most from surrounding states …

Ben Collins / NBC News:

‘What are we doing this for?’: Doctors are fed up with conspiracies ravaging ERs — “I left work and I felt so deflated,” one doctor said about an effort to counter misinformation he saw on Facebook. “I let it get to me.” — At the end of another long shift treating coronavirus patients …

Discussion: Althouse

Ben Harris / Jerusalem Post:

Meet the 107-year-old woman who survived the coronavirus and Spanish flu — “It's remarkable,” Shapiro said. “That's all I can say. It's just unbelievable. I think perhaps it's because of her art that she's still involved in.” — After Marilee Shapiro Asher was admitted to the hospital …

Washington Post:

Arizona halts partnership with experts predicting coronavirus cases would continue to mount — Hours after Doug Ducey, the Republican governor of Arizona, accelerated plans to reopen businesses, saying the state was “headed in the right direction,” his administration halted the work of a team …

Laurie Roberts / Arizona Republic:
Gov. Doug Ducey fires the scientists who warn he's making a mistake by reopening Arizona

Discussion: Raw Story, Digby's Hullabaloo and The Hill

Washington Post:

Top Republican fundraiser and Trump ally named postmaster general, giving president new influence over Postal Service — A top donor to President Trump and the Republican National Committee will be named the new head of the Postal Service, putting a top ally of the president in charge …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Fox News, The Leadership Conference …, IJR, NBC News, Common Dreams, Unfogged, New York Times, HuffPost, The Hill, Raw Story, Politico, The Week, The Root and Axios

Peter Baker / New York Times:

Trump's New Message: Time to Move On to the Recovery — The president's cure-can't-be-worse-than-the- disease logic is clear: As bad as the virus may be, the cost of the virtual national lockdown has grown too high. — WASHINGTON — Confronted with America's worst public health crisis in generations …

Discussion: HuffPost, Vanity Fair, Common Dreams, Raw Story, Washington Post and The Daily Caller

Politico:

Azar faulted workers' ‘home and social’ conditions for meatpacking outbreaks — The country's top health official downplayed concerns over the public health conditions inside meatpacking plants, suggesting on a call with lawmakers that workers were more likely to catch coronavirus based …

Discussion: Daily Kos, Raw Story, Wired and The Sun

Josh Rogin / Washington Post:

GOP to launch ‘China Task Force’ that Democrats bailed on — For more than a year, top leaders from both parties in the House of Representatives worked to form a bipartisan committee to oversee congressional strategy on China. But in February, the Democrats bailed on the project.

Discussion: Axios, Fox News, The Daily Caller and Politico

Kevin Rudd / Foreign Affairs:

The Coming Post-COVID Anarchy — The Pandemic Bodes Ill for Both American and Chinese Power—and for the Global Order — In January and February of this year, there was audible popping of champagne corks in certain quarters of the U.S. foreign policy establishment.

Discussion: Raw Story and HuffPost

Kevin Yamamura / Politico:

California faces $54B budget deficit — SACRAMENTO — California faces a $54.3 billion deficit as the coronavirus pandemic hammers the economy, the state's worst budget gap since the Great Recession, state finance officials said Thursday. — The shortfall is almost 37 percent …

Discussion: One America News Network

Miami Herald:

FDLE releases list of COVID-19 deaths. Top medical examiner calls it a sham. — Acting under intense pressure from a coalition of Florida news organizations and open-government advocates, the state Wednesday evening released a list of every Florida fatality documented by a medical examiner resulting from the coronavirus pandemic.

CNBC:

Cuomo says it's ‘shocking’ most new coronavirus hospitalizations are people who had been staying home — Early look at data from 100 New York hospitals shows that 66% of new admissions related to the virus are people who were at home, Cuomo said. — He also said a majority of the cases …

Discussion: Redstate and Big League Politics

Lis Smith / New York Times:

How Joe Biden Can Defeat Trump From His Basement — If he can win the battle for our screens, he can benefit from the death of the traditional presidential campaign. — Ms. Smith advised campaigns by Pete Buttigieg, Andrew Cuomo and Barack Obama. — If Joe Biden plays his cards right …

Discussion: Axios