WHAT'S BREWING
WORKERS FORCED TO CHOOSE BETWEEN INFECTION OR LOSING UNEMPLOYMENT CHECKS Some of the millions of American workers laid off because of the coronavirus are beginning to face a tough choice — return to work and risk infection, or stay home and risk losing unemployment payments. The decision is most pressing in states where governors have started allowing businesses such as restaurants to reopen. Tyler Price, 26, was called back to his job at Del Frisco’s Grille in the Nashville suburb of Brentwood. Price says he's “highly susceptible” to respiratory illness and was hospitalized with pneumonia as a child. [HuffPost]
PUERTO RICANS ARE STILL WAITING FOR STIMULUS CHECKS Tens of millions of people across the U.S. have received coronavirus stimulus checks from the federal government, but one group of Americans is still waiting for theirs: people in Puerto Rico. While the COVID-19 pandemic and related shutdowns have left a record number of people across the country jobless, the U.S. Treasury still has not approved a plan to distribute $1,200 relief payments to residents of Puerto Rico. [HuffPost]
FEDERAL PRISONS HAMMERED BY CORONAVIRUS The Bureau of Prisons, the largest prison system in the world’s most incarcerated nation, had a number of deep-rooted problems long before COVID-19 and recently came under national scrutiny over the death of multimillionaire sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein. The pandemic has highlighted how unprepared BOP was for such a health care crisis. At least 33 inmates in the federal system have died of the coronavirus. As of Thursday, nearly 1,700 inmates and 349 BOP staffers had confirmed cases ― and the true number is likely to be far higher. [HuffPost]
MCCONNELL'S PLAN TO LET STATES GO BANKRUPT COULD DEVASTATE HIS OWN Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reluctance to approve what he dismissively called a “blue state bailout” for states struggling to shore up their budgets could devastate the Republican leader’s home state of Kentucky, which is looking at massive budget problems of its own. Kentucky will face a budget shortfall of at least $318.7 million this year as the coronavirus pandemic hammers tax revenues. Under the worst-case scenario, state budget director John Hicks predicted, the shortfall could be nearly $500 million. [HuffPost]
TRUMP WOULD CONSIDER REHIRING MICHAEL FLYNN Trump said he would “consider” rehiring Michael Flynn if he is “exonerated,” as Trump’s first national security adviser seeks to withdraw his guilty plea for lying about conversations with the Russian ambassador. “I would certainly consider it,” the president told reporters at the White House, adding that he might not even need to think about pardoning Flynn. “It looks to me like Michael Flynn would be exonerated, based on everything I’ve seen,” the president said. [HuffPost]
SEALS TRIED TO LOCATE U.S. CITIZEN TAKEN BY AFGHAN MILITANTS In the days following the capture of an American contractor in Afghanistan earlier this year, Navy commandos raided a village and detained suspected members of the Taliban-linked Haqqani network while the U.S. intelligence community tried to track the cellphones of the man and his captors. While the circumstances surrounding the abduction remain unclear, the previously unreported operation shed new light on early efforts to locate Mark R. Frerichs, a contractor from Illinois whose disappearance has been shrouded in mystery. [AP] | 
0 comments:
Post a Comment