GOP pushes extreme anti-LGBTQ judge who hates Obamacare.
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TOP STORIES
Thursday, May 21
GUARDS AND INMATES: UNPROTECTED AND OVERWHELMED Corrections officers are facing uncertainty and fear as the virus sickens prisoners and Michigan Department Of Corrections staff. As of Monday, 334 officers have been confirmed positive, though the true figure is thought to be much higher because the department has conducted limited testing. Staff say MDOC is failing to manage sick inmates in a safe way and isn’t providing enough personal protective equipment. Officials have also failed to address staffing shortages, forcing fatigued officers to work up to 25 hours of overtime weekly. When prison staff gets sick, they are using paid time off ― and if they run out, they don’t get paid. [HuffPost]
TRUMP THREATENS KEY 2020 STATES OVER MAIL VOTING President Donald Trump intensified his attacks on mail-in ballots by casting threats and falsehoods. Trump, who previously said he was “allowed to” vote by mail in Florida’s March 17 primary, has railed against Democratic-led states offering that same opportunity to their voters. Despite the risk of casting in-person ballots during the coronavirus pandemic, Trump has encouraged Republicans to fight against mail-in voting, claiming it “doesn’t work out well” for their party politically. Lately, the president and his allies have amplified the conspiracy theory that voting by mail encourages voter fraud. [HuffPost]
COHEN TO BE RELEASED ON HOME CONFINEMENT Michael Cohen, Trump’s former fixer and longtime attorney, will be released from prison early and serve the remainder of his three-year term under home confinement. Cohen will be released from a facility in New York later this week, The Wall Street Journal reported. He has served about a year of his sentence after being convicted on charges of lying to Congress and violating campaign finance laws when he directed hush-money payments to women who said they had sex with Trump. He had been scheduled to be released in November 2021. [HuffPost]
VIRUS DITHERING COST THOUSANDS OF LIVES -- New disease models from Columbia University show that 36,000 fewer people would have died in the U.S. if stay-at-home measures had been imposed just one week earlier in March. And if the lockdowns started March 1 -- about two weeks earlier than when most Americans started staying home -- about 83% of deaths could have been avoided. [New York Times] |
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GOP ADVANCES JUDICIAL NOMINEE WHO CALLED AFFORDABLE CARE ACT 'ILLEGITIMATE' Amid a national health emergency that has left millions of Americans out of work and worrying about health insurance, Senate Republicans moved toward confirming a judicial nominee -- Cory Wilson -- who has called the Affordable Care Act “illegitimate,” “perverse” and “liberal-utopia-dictated healthcare.” In 2012, Wilson called same-sex marriage “an attempt to cast Republicans as intolerant, uncaring and even bigoted.” In 2016, as a state legislator, he voted for what has been dubbed the nation’s most extreme anti-LGBTQ law. [HuffPost]
WEATHER DISASTERS MOUNT AMID PANDEMIC Rivers swollen from days of record-breaking rain topped two dams in Michigan’s Midland County this week. By Wednesday, fears mounted that the deluge could endanger a nuclear research reactor. In India and Bangladesh, millions braced for Cyclone Amphan, the most powerful storm on record to hit the Bay of Bengal. The southeastern United States, meanwhile, faced Tropical Storm Arthur, the eighth storm this decade to form before June 1, the start of hurricane season. The storms were hardly the only global warming-linked events to stir panic as public health officials struggled to contain the virus and prepare for another wave of infections. [HuffPost]
BRAZIL IS THE NEW EPICENTER OF THE GLOBAL PANDEMIC Brazil’s coronavirus outbreak surged to cataclysmic levels on Tuesday afternoon when the country recorded 1,179 deaths from COVID-19 ― a record daily high for a nation that now has more than 270,000 confirmed cases overall. Brazil passed Italy and Spain on the list of countries with the most coronavirus cases last weekend, then passed the United Kingdom on Monday afternoon. Only Russia and the United States have more ― although researchers have said that a lack of testing means Brazil’s count is likely far higher than official figures suggest. [HuffPost] |
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WHAT'S BREWING
POMPEO ADMITS HE WAS QUESTIONED OFFICE BEFORE INSPECTOR GENERAL'S FIRING Secretary of State Mike Pompeo admitted that he submitted written answers to questions from the State Department’s Office of the Inspector General before recommending the inspector general be fired. Pompeo, however, denied that he was retaliating against IG Steve Linick when he recommended his termination to Trump last week. “I have no sense of what investigations were taking place here inside the inspector general’s office," Pompeo said. [HuffPost]
SUPREME COURT BLOCKS HOUSE FROM MUELLER GRAND JURY MATERIAL The Supreme Court temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. The court’s order keeps previously undisclosed details from the investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election out of the hands of Democratic lawmakers at least until early summer. The court will decide then whether to extend its hold. [AP]
WHY IT MATTERS THAT JANE ROE SAYS SHE WAS PAID BY THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT In “AKA Jane Roe,” an FX documentary filmed shortly before her death, Norma McCorvey revealed that she was paid to advocate against abortion. One activist confirmed this; others have denied it. The film might not change minds ― the anti-abortion movement is well-funded and energized by an increasingly religious Republican Party. But it shows the lengths to which anti-abortion groups are willing to go to fight against the right to terminate a pregnancy. Caught in the middle was a woman who grew up poor, survived a physically abusive childhood and later escaped an abusive husband. [HuffPost]
COMPANY WINS $1.28 BILLION WALL CONTRACT AFTER WOOING TRUMP ON FOX NEWS A construction company whose CEO regularly went on conservative news shows to appeal to Trump was awarded a $1.28 billion contract to build a large section of the border wall in Arizona earlier this month. Fisher Sand and Gravel, a firm from North Dakota, has drawn scrutiny over its unusual strategy to win the bid. The Washington Post reported that CEO Tommy Fisher was initially passed over when the government requested bids to build the structure, but went on a media blitz on networks including Fox News and appealed to allies of the president, including former advisor Steve Bannon. [HuffPost]
INDIA TROTS OUT MEANINGLESS DATA AS CASES SKYROCKET On May 17, the day the Union government significantly relaxed India’s punitive national lockdown, the country recorded the largest single day spike in fresh cases of and fatalities due to the novel coronavirus. The same day, Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan delivered some cautiously upbeat statements about India's progress tackling the disease. HuffPost India's data analysis has revealed a grim pattern emerging: The Union government is using incomplete national-level data to justify arbitrary policy decisions, defend its record, and underplay the extent of the COVID-19 crisis. [HuffPost]
EUROPE RISKS IT ALL TO RESTART INTERNATIONAL TRAVEL As the coronavirus pandemic spread around the globe, countries rushed to seal their borders and place restrictions on nonessential travel. Tourism is a crucial economic driver for many European countries, however, making up 10% of the European Union’s overall GDP. And with the number of new coronavirus cases falling across the continent at the same time as unemployment rises, there is a widespread desire to restart vacation-related travel in time for the summer holiday season. The European moves represent a contrast with the United States, which shut its borders to travelers from China and Europe in March. [HuffPost] |
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The world is trying to cope with the coronavirus, from the serious to the mundane. We’re dealing with jamming full lives into one apartment or house, and trying to stay calm about a world full of an invisible virus. We’re trying to learn how to homeschool our kids, or to make bread for ourselves. It’s a whole new world, and HuffPost is launching a new illustrated series about how to live in it. Each week, we’ll feature an artist offering their vision for how to handle the world as it is today. We hope they make you think, make you smile, or just offer something to do other than staring wistfully out the windows. Click on the image to see a full-size version. See previous entries in the series here. |
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Join HuffPost for a live virtual Q&A on what the coronavirus is teaching us about creating different and better work environments. |
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