Saturday News: “Global death toll passes 100K as Fauci says America’s re-opening could be dependent on mass antibody testing”; “Trump’s Press Conferences Are Just Infomercials Now”; “Social cost of carbon could further sway Virginia from fossil fuel power plants”

by Lowell

Here are a few national and Virginia news headlines, political and otherwise, for Saturday, April 11.

• Coronavirus live news: Spain in ‘stabilisation phase’ but US sees 2000 deaths in a day (“Global death toll passes 100,000, while IHME revises down forecast for number of deaths in the UK”)
• Global death toll passes 100K as Fauci says America’s re-opening could be dependent on mass antibody testing
• Spain Deaths at Two-Week Low; German Toll Slows: Virus Update
• Trump Pushes Historic Deal to Cut World Oil Output Toward Finish (Nice that Trump cares so much about his Russian and Saudi pals!)
• Coronavirus: who will be winners and losers in new world order? (“Experience so far shows that authoritarians or populists are no better at handling the pandemic. Indeed, the countries that responded early and successfully, such as Korea and Taiwan, have been democracies – not those run by populist or authoritarian leaders.”)
• Coronavirus Live Updates: As Health Experts Urge Caution, Trump Eyes the Calendar (“Businesses are urging President Trump to reopen the country as soon as possible, but medical experts want more time. Polls show slipping support for his handling of the pandemic.”)
• The Best-Case Scenario for Coronavirus Is That It’s Way More Infectious Than We Think (“The bigger that denominator, the less severe the disease at the population level…So, how big is that denominator number? Unfortunately, we don’t know. Worse, in the U.S., it is at this point, and for the very foreseeable future, unknowable.”
• US likely hit its peak daily death toll, expert says
• With the country distracted, the EPA tees off on the environment (Appalling.)
• CDC Director: ‘Very Aggressive’ Contact Tracing Needed For U.S. To Return To Normal
• A plan to defeat coronavirus finally emerges, but it’s not from the White House (“In the absence of federal direction, states and America’s top experts forge the path ahead.” It’s not an absence of “federal” direction generically, it’s *specifically* the Trump administration. Why won’t newspapers just say that?)
• CDC: U.S. Coronavirus Cases Doubled in 1 Week
• Coronavirus Strikes at Least 2,100 Senior Facilities Across U.S., Killing 2,300 People (“Tally of 37 states suggests pandemic has had bigger impact than federal government has reported”)
• More than 2,200 coronavirus deaths in nursing homes, but federal government isn’t tracking them
• Trump’s poll numbers dip over handling of coronavirus pandemic (“Republican allies and advisers said to be concerned; Biden leads in head-to-head match-up, CNN poll finds”)
• Joe Biden Must Convince Climate Voters He’s a True Believer (Agreed.)
• Trump asked what metrics he’s using for re-opening US. See his response
• How will coronavirus change the US presidential campaign? (“As the Democrats settle on a de facto nominee, the pandemic raises questions about primaries, conventions and election day”)
• Trump is lying about voter fraud again. Republicans, don’t fall for it.
• Biden must say it: Trump will get more people killed
• Endorsing Trump’s Firing of Inspector General, Barr Paints Distorted Picture (Shocked! Shocked! that Barr would paint a distorted picture.)
• ‘We’re Going Down, Down, Down, Down, Down’ (“Staggering job losses are not a foregone conclusion. There is still time to fix the federal government’s aid program.”)
• Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia faces blowback as he curtails scope of worker relief in unemployment crisis (Shocking that Antonin Scalia’s son would be like that, eh?)
• Why America is still failing on coronavirus testing (“To end social distancing, we need mass testing. America is not there yet.”)
• White House attacks Voice of America, claiming it promoted Chinese propaganda
• No, Mr. Trump, VOA is not Chinese propaganda. Now don’t turn it into U.S. propaganda.
• Trump is woefully confused about why more coronavirus testing is vital (“Trump wants to relax social distancing ASAP. His latest briefing showed he doesn’t understand how we get there.”)
• Biden’s Health Play In A COVID-19 Economy: Lower Medicare’s Eligibility Age To 60
• News Media Outlets Have Been Ravaged by the Pandemic
• Trump’s Watchdog Purge Is Vile—and It’s Working (“The idea is to fend off any oversight at least until after November.”)
• Navy commander says aircraft carrier crew ‘struggling’ after captain’s firing
• Trump’s China-bashing ad is more ridiculous than you thought
• How Close Are We To A COVID-19 Vaccine?
• Barack Obama Slams Wisconsin For Holding Election Amid Coronavirus Pandemic
• Two-Thirds of Severe Covid-19 Cases Improved on Gilead Drug (“All received remdesivir for up to 10 days on a compassionate use basis, a program that allows people to use unapproved medicines when no other treatment options are available. Over 18 days, 68% of the patients improved, with 17 of the 30 patients on mechanical ventilation being able to get off the breathing device.”)
• Trump ad slammed for depicting first U.S. Chinese American governor as Chinese official
• Trump’s sordid Navy debacle is actually part of a far more dangerous pattern
• The coronavirus doesn’t discriminate along racial lines. But America does. (“Minorities are being hit the hardest by covid-19. To address that, we need data.”)
• When you drown the government in the bathtub, people die
• The best way out of this pandemic is to massively scale up testing. Here’s how to do it.
• ’No one went for a knockout blow’: Inside Bernie’s campaign nosedive
• Virginia’s senators call on federal government to explain seizures of medical supplies
• Congressional Response: Virginia’s Delegation and Their Efforts to Combat the Virus
• How the coronavirus stimulus bill covered federal workforce concerns
• Qasim Rashid: Trump’s Cruelty and Maliciousness Still Hasn’t Stopped, While a Complicit Republican Party Continues to Enable Him
• Congressional delegation asks feds to protect Newport News airport from the loss of commercial air service
• Former Virginia Bernie Sanders Co-Chair Elizabeth Guzmán and Delegate Jennifer Carroll Foy Endorse Joe Biden
• Governor Northam Signs Virginia Reproductive Health Protection Act
• Virginia governor signs abortion protections into law
• Microsoft News Poll Has Gov. Ralph Northam at 68% Approval, Trump at Just 43% in Virginia
• UPDATE: More than 4,500 confirmed positive for COVID-19, but Virginia lags in testing
• To Prevent N95 Shortage, Hospitals Use New Decontamination Process (“Researchers at VCU have developed a new way to decontaminate N-95 masks in bulk. The masks are important protection for doctors and nurses treating coronavirus patients, and now VCU health officials say they can safely be reused.”)
• Governor Northam Signs Historic Gun Safety Legislation into Law
• Northam signs history-making batch of gun control bills
• Va. governor signs gun-control laws, delivering on Democrats’ campaign promises (“The new laws include limiting handgun purchases to one per month and expanding background checks.”)
• Northam signs 5 gun control bills into law
• Virginia’s Huge Unemployment Numbers Likely to Get “Huger” (Gig Economy Edition)
• Social cost of carbon could further sway Virginia from fossil fuel power plants (“The Virginia Clean Economy Act will force state regulators to factor in indirect costs associated with carbon emissions.” Looks like this might have been a de facto moratorium on new fossil fuel infrastructure after all?)
• Friday (4/10) Virginia Data on COVID-19 Finds +467 Cases (to 4,509), +87 Hospitalizations (to 772), +12 Deaths (to 121) From Yesterday
• To combat coronavirus in prisons, Northam wants to release many inmates with less than a year to serve (“The move would require approval by the General Assembly, which is already returning to Richmond on April 22.”)
• Live Video, Highlights: Gov. Ralph Northam’s Friday (4/10) Virginia COVID-19 Briefing
• Coronavirus in Virginia: 5 takeaways from this week
• Northam signs hundreds of bills, saves business, labor legislation for last
• We Protected Our Schools During Crisis, Protect Us with Collective Bargaining Rights
• Virginia contracts with McKinsey to secure more testing supplies, personal protective equipment
• Virginia Judge Denies Religious Exemption From Stay-at-Home Order
• Virginia’s May elections might be scrapped. People are still voting in them anyway.
• “I called them at 10:30 AM 4/8/20 because they love 3D Printing” (“By 6 pm that evening they had a prototype ready to go and were mass producing them the next day.”)
• ‘No facility, no group could have been prepared’: COVID death toll at Henrico’s Canterbury rises to 40
• ‘We were simply ripe for a spread like this’: Inside the COVID-19 spread at Henrico’s Canterbury
• Arlington Drive-Through Site Has Tested More than 1,000
• ‘Something you look forward to forever:’ Roanoke Valley high school seniors quietly grieve loss of traditions, milestones
• Sunny and seasonably cool today before we warm up more tomorrow