Wednesday News: “It’s Not Enough to ‘Get Back to Normal’”; “G.D.P. Is Expected to Show a Shrinking Economy, With Worse to Come”; Pence Maskless at Mayo; “Trump tests his most promising coronavirus antidote: Lies”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Wednesday, April 29.

VP Pence does not wear a mask during Tuesday’s visit to the Mayo Clinic, which is requiring all patients and visitors to wear a face covering or mask in effort to slow the spread of coronavirus. pic.twitter.com/qIddFN9UTW

— NBC News (@NBCNews) April 28, 2020

• China bristles at Australia’s call for investigation into coronavirus origin (“Beijing warns relationship could be damaged ‘beyond repair’ after Australian prime minister Scott Morrison cites ‘extraordinary’ impact of Covid-19”)
• Solar, wind and battery storage now cheapest energy options just about everywhere (“The latest benchmark report from research company BloombergNEF show that in just the last six months the levellised cost of electricity (LCOE) for onshore wind has fallen a further nine per cent, its most significant drop in five year.”)
• World’s Largest Solar Project Will Also Be Its Cheapest (“Abu Dhabi has set a global record-low solar price as authorities confirmed the winning bid in a 2-gigawatt tender. Upon its expected completion in mid-2022, it is slated to be the largest single-site solar energy project in the world. The Al Dhafra project had five bidders, with the lowest offer coming in at 1.35 U.S. cents per kilowatt-hour.” Wow, that’s practically free electricity – clean, no less, from the sun!)
• Locusts, Pandemics, Floods: East Africa Can’t Catch a Break
• The Trump Administration Is Suddenly Pretending That It Didn’t Blow Up the Iran Nuclear Deal (Shameless.)
• Senior Chinese official hits Trump over virus response, says U.S. wasted weeks
• Exclusive: Trump admin asks intel agencies to find out whether China, WHO hid info on coronavirus pandemic
• Jair Bolsonaro undermined Brazil’s coronavirus response. Now there’s a political crisis. (“The right-wing president downplayed the pandemic. It left him isolated politically — and then the real political turmoil started.”)
• How China is ruthlessly exploiting the coronavirus pandemic it helped cause
• We’re in a state of global emergency — and Trump’s foreign policy is missing in action
• Has Sweden found the best response to the coronavirus? Its death rate suggests it hasn’t.
• It’s Not Enough to ‘Get Back to Normal’ (“We can rebuild better. Here’s how.”)
• We need a survival plan for the pandemic era (“Don’t count on plans to get ‘back to normal’ anytime soon.”)
• G.D.P. Is Expected to Show a Shrinking Economy, With Worse to Come
• The U.S. Hits 1 Million Coronavirus Cases, One-Third Of All The World’s Cases
• How will the US reopen? Slowly, bit by bit, but we may never return to ‘normal’ (“Trump rolled out a blueprint for reopening the country. But businesses and governors will have as large a say as he will”)
• Much of U.S. economy still plugging along despite coronavirus pain (“For tens of millions of Americans, work has shifted from office to home and moved online. Other businesses were ordered to close, but have hunted for ways to cope and maintain some revenue.”)
• In 2019, U.S energy production exceeded consumption for the first time in 62 years
• U.S. First-Quarter GDP Expected to Show Sharp Decline
• US could be in for ‘a bad fall and a bad winter’ if it’s unprepared for a second wave of coronavirus, Fauci warns
• The False Hope of Antibody Tests (“The immunity tests were supposed to be a ‘game changer,’ but they are instead revealing that the majority of Americans are still vulnerable to COVID-19 infection.”)
• Trump is ‘somebody’ who could have helped stop covid-19
• Coronavirus Has Now Killed More Americans Than Vietnam War
• The U.S. plans to give $500 billion to large companies. It won’t require them to preserve jobs or limit executive pay.
• New Republican Pandemic Project: Making Corporations Immune from Liability
• Push to reopen economy runs up against wary workers and consumers
• Tyson Foods Helped Create the Meat Crisis It Now Warns Against (Horrible company.)
• Trump Orders Meat Plants to Stay Open in Move Slammed by Union (In no way/shape/form is “meat” essential. What a joke.)
• Trump suggests federal bailout for states could hinge on sanctuary city policies (Absolutely do NOT tie COVID-19 aid to states’ policies on whatever issues.)
• Pence Flouts Mask Policy While Visiting Staff, Patient at Mayo Clinic
• Mike Pence’s Reckless Refusal to Wear a Mask at the Mayo Clinic
• Pence comes under fire for going maskless at Mayo Clinic
• Mueller investigators said Roger Stone orchestrated hundreds of fake Facebook accounts in political influence scheme
• Roger Stone search warrants reveal new clues — and mysteries — about 2016 (“Nearly three-dozen search warrants unsealed late Tuesday reveal a web of contacts between longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and other key figures in the long-running probe”)
• ‘Whack-a-mole stuff’: Trump’s oil rescue hits a slippery path —
• Americans losing faith in what Trump says about the coronavirus: Reuters/Ipsos poll (Should be zero.)
• Trump tests his most promising coronavirus antidote: Lies
• Senators demand answers from Pompeo on Wuhan lab cables
• Treasury wants stimulus payments to dead people repaid
• Inside Donald Trump and Jared Kushner’s Two Months of Magical Thinking
• Trump wants the military to glorify himself, not serve the nation
• Pelosi to Trump: Ice cream in freezer is ‘better than having Lysol in somebody’s lungs’
• Trump’s Response to Virus Reflects a Long Disregard for Science
• Another Way the 2020s Might Be Like the 1930s (“The strikes at Amazon and elsewhere over working conditions and low pay have been small, but they may spark a new movement.”)
• Fact check: Trump falsely suggests he was right when he predicted ‘close to zero’ virus cases in February
• Trump is seizing the courts – only a Democratic win in November can stop him (“Trump’s transformation of the federal judiciary means the stakes have never been higher in an election than they are for Democrats”)
• Elected Republicans Are Chickensh*t
• Trump’s Too Stupid to Do Better. His Senators Have No Alibi. (“They understand the state of the crisis and the stakes. They just don’t seem to care, so long as those deaths are slow enough that they don’t get in the way of November.”)
• Ex-Bush Aide Has Chilling Theory About Donald Trump’s Coronavirus Strategy (“The president’s ‘desperate gamble to save himself by sacrificing others’ is all about the 2020 election, argued David Frum.”)
• ‘HHS has been kicked in the teeth’ (“After 100 days of coronavirus, mixed signals from Trump and near-daily pounding by critics, the health department is at its wits’ end.”)
• America’s Elections Won’t Be the Same After 2020
• Rep. Justin Amash to seek Libertarian Party nomination for president
• GOP faces pressure to get tougher with Trump
• Majorities of Americans prefer Biden over Trump on handling coronavirus, economy (“The NPR-PBS NewsHour-Marist poll finds that 55 percent of Americans would prefer that Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, handle the coronavirus response, compared to 40 percent for Trump. On the economy — previously a strong suit for Trump — Americans prefer Biden by a margin of 51 percent to 44 percent.”)
• Tara Reade allegations stir Democratic unrest (“Democrats are reassessing the potential damage to Joe Biden after new details surface.”)
• Biden wins Ohio’s mail-in primary delayed by coronavirus
• Andrew Yang sues over New York’s shutdown of presidential primary
• MLB discussing plan to start season in late June, playing in home stadiums with realigned league
• Two men in Georgia drank disinfectants in efforts to prevent COVID-19, officials say
• Beshear called it a prank, but Tupac Shakur really does need his unemployment check
• Nearly 70 dead in ‘horrific’ outbreak at veterans home
• Diamond and Silk take the fall for Fox’s irresponsible coronavirus coverage
• Why are Florida Republicans trying to keep 1.4 million citizens from voting?
• State bankruptcy furor shakes up McConnell reelection bid
• Professor Rachel Bitecofer Releases Her Eagerly Anticipated 2020 Congressional Elections Forecast
• Audio: Former Rep. Scott Taylor Dismissed Scientists, Ignored Facts
• Region hasn’t seen virus recede enough to reopen society
• AG Mark Herring Reaches Agreement to Promote Safe Absentee Voting by Mail in Virginia
• Dominion tries again on rejected AMI plan amid Virginia’s new clean energy law
• Stalled utility contract means some in Virginia miss out on solar expansion
• Governor Northam Acts to Ensure Liability Protections for Healthcare Workers
• Gov. Ralph Northam’s executive order ensures protections for health care workers
• Corrections Officers’ Union Calls on Governor to Immediately Start Wide-Spread Testing
• Failure to file death certificates electronically could be behind lag in demographic reporting on COVID-19 deaths
• Editorial: The case for re-opening Virginia on a regional basis
• Michael P. McDermott and Steve Arner column: Prepared to reopen Virginia’s health care system
• As Virginians Face Water Shutoffs, Coalition Calls for Governor Northam to Issue a Moratorium
• Tuesday (4/28) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +804 Confirmed/Probable Cases (to 14,339), +99 Hospitalizations (to 2,165), +34 Deaths (to 492) From Yesterday
• COVID-19 spread at chicken plants on Virginia’s Eastern Shore alarms health officials
• Voting in a Pandemic: The Debate Over Next Month’s Local Elections
• Virginia can do better for local dogs destined for experimentation
• Questions still loom over Richmond Public Schools’ 2021 budget, teacher raises
• Henrico to close voting precincts at high-risk elder care facilities ahead of June primary
• Elections will be held May 19 in Newport News. Some voters won’t be able to cast ballots at their normal locations.
• ‘Trying to give them a lifeline’: Fund gives grants to 100-plus small Va. businesses including 15 in Richmond area
• Fund set up in honor of NYC doctor hailed as hero for pandemic effort
• Limpert: Here’s why pipelines are dangerous
• Video: Arlington County School Board Candidates Debate
• Eden Center Watches Doors Close One-By-One During The Pandemic
• EDITORIAL: Municipal elections must go on
• Wheeling around: Pulaski County’s Volvo plant produces PPE
• Warmer and brighter for a change today; period of heavy rain likely tomorrow