Some housekeeping: I put the day in these headlines as a reminder to myself. I keep thinking it’s Friday today. Isn’t it Friday? It’s Thursday.
Few Americans trust Trump’s info on COVID-19, according to a new AP-NORC poll. Here’s what they found:
Just 28% of Americans say they’re regularly getting information from Trump about the coronavirus and only 23% say they have high levels of trust in what the president is telling the public. Another 21% trust him a moderate amount.
Confidence in Trump is higher among his supporters, though only about half of Republicans say they have a lot of trust in Trump’s information on the pandemic—and 22% say they have little or no trust in what he says about the COVID-19 outbreak.
Yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell suggested cash-short states could go bankrupt instead of receiving more federal aid: The comments drew strong rebukes from a number of governors. Gov. Cuomo of New York referred to McConnell’s comments as “one of the saddest, really dumb comments of all time.”
Andrew Cuomo absolutely DESTROYS Mitch McConnell for his “stopping Blue States bailouts” comment:
“Sen. McConnell, who’s getting bailed out here? It’s your state that is living on the money that we generate”#MitchMcConnellpic.twitter.com/gWf4hSZpMu
— Matt 👀 (@Anxious_Matt) April 23, 2020
Our gov is on The View today talking about our coronavirus response. I haven’t watched the episode yet but I love Joy’s “I Love New York” sweater. Also, Jay keeps using his “dial” metaphor.
Washington Gov. @JayInslee says states planning to reopen as soon as this week “should not be happening,” calling it “a disappointing decision… for a lot of their citizens.”
“I don’t think it’s safe probably anywhere in America right now.” https://t.co/cVclFZQmjA pic.twitter.com/hkULu0dy96
— The View (@TheView) April 23, 2020
Will someone send Nancy a mask?
Pelosi social distancing in @uscapitol. Sign of times. pic.twitter.com/5oRR8My1cF
— Alan K. Ota (@Alankota) April 23, 2020
Last week, Washington received over 82,000 initial claims for unemployment insurance: Nationally, 4.4 million people sought unemployment last week.
Washington’s most recent update from its Department of Health lists 692 deaths and 12,494 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Washington state.
Facebook says it’s removing Facebook events that violate stay-home orders: Media Matters found that they haven’t removed many of them.
Elizabeth Warren announced that her brother died of COVID-19 complications Tuesday night: “I’m grateful to the nurses and frontline staff who took care of him, but it’s hard to know that there was no family to hold his hand or to say ‘I love you’ one more time, and no funeral for those of us who loved him to hold each other close,” she continued. “I’ll miss you dearly my brother.”
My oldest brother, Don Reed, died from coronavirus on Tuesday evening. He joined the Air Force at 19 and spent his career in the military, including five and a half years off and on in combat in Vietnam. He was charming and funny, a natural leader. https://t.co/b8m0xKzAmM
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) April 23, 2020
Ugh: Conspiracy theories are already racing around social media accusing Waters and Warren of lying about their relatives being sick and dying of coronavirus.
Rep. Maxine Waters: “I am going to take a moment to dedicate this legislation to my dear sister who is dying in a hospital in St. Louis, Missouri, right now infected by the Coronavirus.” pic.twitter.com/sX58UK1A3L
— The Hill (@thehill) April 23, 2020
Dr. Rick Bright will be filing a whistleblower complaint with the Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general, his lawyers announced Thursday. Bright claimed yesterday that he was “involuntarily transferred” from his Health and Human Services position after bringing up concerns about hydroxychloroquine.
The House is expected to pass the next $484 billion coronavirus aid package very soon. Here’s what it covers:
The bill will provide an immediate $321 billion infusion for the Paycheck Protection Program, the small business rescue fund that ran out of money last week. The $484 billion package also provides another $60 billion in economic disaster loans for small businesses, $75 billion in emergency relief for hospitals and $25 billion to ramp up coronavirus testing.
SDOT is opening 6 more miles of its “Stay Healthy Streets” this Friday: “We’re aiming to convert approximately 15 miles to Stay Healthy Streets in the coming weeks,” SDOT wrote on their blog today. “We will continue to evaluate the effort and work with community and stakeholders on recommendations for improvement. Additional closures will be subject to change based on new orders, construction, and availability of our crews and signs.” Here’s where the new Stay Healthy Streets will be located:
