Category: The News

Somehow, this week managed to be even worse than the last one, which is seriously saying something. I think one Twitter user put it pretty well: “I’m at the global pandemic. I’m at the civil unrest.  I’m at the combination global pandemic/civil unrest.”  (And I can’t even get a personal pan pizza, because this timeline is the worst.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a curfew–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!   

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

Though our focus is mostly elsewhere right now, we did see a lot of Disregard of Governing Norms–and these things are definitely related, because this administration is still using unrest to consolidate power.  Here are the main things to know:    

• Regulation Free-For-All. We’ve officially reached the point where Trump is doing every garbage regulation change his id desires and claiming it’s necessary for COVID reasons, so this was a hell of a week for proclamations. First up was an order expediting permitting of construction projects, which obviated a lot of environmental review typically done under the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act. Then that was followed by a relaxation of the way the Clean Air Act is implemented, and then that was followed by changes making it harder to dispute credit reports. Then he followed that by allowing commercial fishing at a marine sanctuary. All told, it’s a scary amount of regulatory smash-and-grab to squeeze into three business days.

• “Misclassification Error.” News outlets were reporting midweek that the economy was improving, with unemployment rates dropping and stocks increasing. And that is probably true, though we’re by no means out of the woods. But it’s hard to really say, because the numbers reflected from the Bureau of Labor Statistics were apparently flat-out wrong, mislabeling 2.5 million people who returned from furlough as finding new employment. Eventually the Bureau of Labor Statistics addressed this as a “misclassification error,” and experts seem to think this was incompetence rather than falsehood. Honestly, either way, it’s a pretty egregious discrepancy–2.5 million people is slightly less than the total number of jobs reported lost in May.

• Militarization Tango. As you may recall, Trump indicated he would use military force on Monday in a seeming invocation of the Insurrection Act, and then immediately had military police use tear gas to disperse a completely peaceful protest to illustrate the point.  As it happens, many military people did not approve of this, including but not limited to his current Secretary of Defense, Mark Esper.  Esper spoke out against the practice, and apparently also talked Trump down from putting 10,000 military troops on the streets of D.C., though he ultimately caved to pressure and declined to dismiss the hundreds that were deployed.  Another previous Secretary of Defense, Jim Mattis, spoke out against Trump’s protest militarization in general, rightfully saying, “We must reject and hold accountable those in office who would make a mockery of our Constitution.”  Mattis was backed by 89 former military officials in an op-ed in the Washington Post, and also backed by previous head of White House staff and former general John Kelly.  Eventually Trump backpedaled and ordered the troops to withdraw “now that everything is under control.”

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Other Election Oddities (Again).   With civil unrest comes strange election news, surprising no one.  Joe Biden apparently acquitted himself well in public appearances after the weekend’s riots.  Meanwhile, after weeks of Trump threatening to pull the RNC from Charlotte because they wanted literally any safety precautions, the GOP finally did pull the plug and now it’s anybody’s guess where it’s being held.  On Tuesday, several states and D.C. held freighted and confused primaries while protests raged, with some curfews starting before polling places closed.  (On the plus side, said primaries did result in the first Black woman elected mayor of Ferguson and no more Steve King in Congress.)  A judge in Tennessee ruled that voters must have the option to vote by mail during the pandemic, due to the risk presented by COVID.  And Trump was also in the news for trying to register in Florida despite living in D.C., which is against Florida’s voting rules.    

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*   COVID may be moving to backburner news, but it’s still very much worth tracking.  Florida gained 1,300 more cases in one day on Friday, bringing its total over 60,000.  Texas experienced a surge as well, with Dallas county reporting record highs.  In fact, experts report that 23 states have seen an increase in the rolling seven-day average over the last week, and this seems particularly true in rural areas at the time that I type this.  Numbers are also increasing internationally, particularly in South America, But nonetheless most states are opening back up, including New York as of today.  Meanwhile, Lancet is in the news for retracting the study that raised safety concerns about hydroxychloroquine, apparently due to inability to audit the data.  (The WHO has unpaused its study as a result.)

• Documenting Police Brutality.   Needless to say, one of the biggest stories of the week is the civil unrest which continued for another week.  There are many, many things to track here, so I’m beginning with stories that involve police forces directly.  On the one hand, there were several stories this week about police facing consequences for bad behavior, particularly when it was documented with cameras:  1) Six Atlanta officers face assault charges for dragging two college kids out of their car and stunning them during a protest; 2) All four cops involved in George Floyd’s death are now charged with murder; 3) The ACLU is suing the Minnesota police for their portion of over 149 documented police attacks on members of the press; 4) A Philadelphia officer faces assault charges after beating a Temple student with a baton without provocation; and 5) two officers in Buffalo were suspended for shoving an elderly man on camera.  But for each of these stories, there are seemingly even more new stories about violent police culture without consequences: 6) Officers who shot and killed Breanna Taylor in her own home still have not been charged, although there is now an FBI investigation pending; 7) 57 officers in Buffalo resigned in protest because the videoed assault mentioned above resulted in suspension; 8) Evidence of another asphyxiation-related homicide of a man in custody arose in Tacoma, Washington, with no charges filed; 9) Officers in Chicago assaulted their own police board president, again without any charges filed (though he did file an official complaint); 10) Officers in Asheville destroyed medical equipment and otherwise trashed a medic tent during a protest; and 11) Police in Vallejo fatally shot an unarmed man outside a Walgreens.  An attorney in North Carolina has documented over 300 violent incidents on camera since protests began two weeks ago, which is as disturbing as it is unsustainable.

• Societal Response. Needless to say, all of the above has prompted a lot of response all over the country–some of which was quite positive, honestly, though it doesn’t make up for the overall strain of the past two weeks. A memorial was held for George Floyd, which resulted in thousands of people gathering in cities all over the country, and protests continued all over the world as well. The New York Times had a giant fight about publishing a fascist op-ed from Tom Cotton about the Insurrection Act, which ultimately culminated in the op-ed editor resigning after admitting he hadn’t even read the piece. The NFL Commissioner admitted they were wrong to side against players who knelt during the anthem, apparently prompted by an appeal from the players released by video. A judge in Georgia has advanced the murder trial for three men charged with Ahmaud Arbery’s death. Twitter found itself discussing the Third Amendment for probably the first time ever after the mayor of D.C. tried to remove troops stationed in hotels there. And Kpop fans made the news for spamming police apps and hashtags to make it harder for police to identify protesters.

The Good:

• Recent Regulatory Resilience. Many officials are discussing ways to defund, dissolve, or regulate police forces better in the wake of the last two weeks. Most notably, the Minneapolis city council announced its intent to disband the police department and replace it with citizen patrols, a decision which came only a few days after they agreed to ban chokeholds and neck restraints. Seattle is considering defunding its force as well. Meanwhile, Democrats introduced sweeping police reform legislation in both the Senate and the House.

So that’s what I have for this week, and if things stay this bad we’re getting good news first next week. For making it through, you deserve goat kids visiting otters and Lucasfilm supporting John Boyega and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully more tolerable) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me uninterrupted sleep!

This week was a rough one on a lot of levels–so bad, in fact, that I considered changing the format for this week’s roundup.  In COVID news, we’ve made it to partially open, and now we may be here for a while–though everyone is anxious about a second wave, and we may end up moving backwards before we move forwards.  And in non-COVID news, we have a lot of disturbing official action and a very real reminder that we have a lot of work to do on the issue of police brutality. 

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a curfew–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!  

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

Though our focus is mostly elsewhere right now, we did see a lot of Disregard of Governing Norms–and these things are definitely related, because this administration is using unrest to consolidate power.  Here are the main things to know:    

• Social Media Standoff. After three years of honeymoon period, Trump’s now in an ongoing standoff with Twitter that has truly been a sight to behold.  The conflict started brewing over the previous week, when Trump repeatedly falsely claimed Joe Scarborough killed somebody and the deceased person’s widower publicly called on Twitter to delete his tweets.  Though the platform did not in fact delete his claims, this seems to have been some sort of tipping point, because they did fact-check his subsequent tweets about mail-in voting–which they’ve never done before.  Trump went ballistic in response, yelling that this was censorship that violated his First Amendment rights despite that being, y’know, definitionally untrue.  He then passed a bonkers executive order that will probably be successfully challenged in courts.   Twitter, meanwhile, has continued to fact-check his tweets and also started adding warnings to tweets they think are violating their policies by glorifying violence. So needless to say, this has been a very strange backdrop to everything else I’m going to write about today.

• Government Messed Up COVID-19 Response. Before all eyes were on civil unrest, we did manage to see some really messed up COVID news. Trump kicked things off by banning noncitizen travel to and from Brazil, because as we all know the virus definitely cares whether you’re a U.S. citizen. He also started taking concrete steps to force the United States to leave the World Health Organization, though it’s unclear if he legally can.  Meanwhile, the WHO is pausing a global trial on hydroxychloroquine, because it’s run by grownups who care when a drug’s prescription is contraindicated. And speaking of being the grownup in the room, Justice Roberts joined with his liberal colleagues on the Supreme Court to refuse to force governors to open churches during the pandemic, noting in his 5-4 opinion that it “seems quite improbable” that the situation merits the extraordinary remedy of injunctive relief. (Kavanaugh, meanwhile, wrote a tinfoil hat dissent literally claiming it was discrimination to close churches at all.) I’m glad the court came down on the correct side, just barely, but I find it unsettling that four justices wanted to force a governor to walk back restrictions on indoor gatherings during a pandemic.

• The Shifting Position of the Press. Though I’ll talk more about the weekend’s protests below, we need to spend a moment on the shrinking protection of the press, which definitely reflects a disregard of governing norms. Historically, established press members have always been able to cover protests, and even riots, as necessary information sources for what is unfolding–press covered the Stonewall Riots in the 1960s, for example, and the Los Angeles riot of the early 1990s. Given this backdrop, it’s understandable that the sudden arrest of a CNN team in Minneapolis on Friday startled even the journalism team–in the associated video, the reporter can be heard asking “Why am I under arrest?” as he’s being cuffed mid-report in broad daylight. This was escalated dramatically and violently over the weekend, as police action against the press began to seem intentional and systemic. At the time that I type this on Monday, outlets have identified over two dozen incidents around the country: a reporter in Louisville lost her eye when police shot her in the face with a rubber bullet; journalism teams in Denver reported paint balls and tear gas used against them; a team in Detroit took pepper spray to the face while holding up their badges; a team in D.C. report physical assault; several teams in Minneapolis report police threw them to the ground or fired rubber bullets at them; teams in the larger LA area report rubber bullets and tear gas used as well. Many of these incidents occurred after the press had identified themselves, and many of them also have accompanying video. Though violence is part of the landscape right now, we need to pay particular attention to any state action that involves knowingly committing violence against the press, because it has major First Amendment implications.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Other Election Oddities (Again).  Honestly, it feels weird to even be talking about these stories, because the earlier half of last week feels like a lifetime ago, but here we are.  Joe Biden was in the news for saying Black voters who consider voting for Trump “ain’t Black,” which he of course later had to apologize for saying.  Trump keeps threatening to pull the RNC from Charlotte because…reasons?  Ostensibly he says they might not be open, but there doesn’t seem to be much to support that claim, so I’m guessing he just likes Florida better.

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*   We have officially surpassed 100,000 deaths in this country at the time that I type this, and over 1.7 million cases have been reported. Given this news, combined with high rate of asymptomatic infection and a country that is increasingly reopening, an effective method of contact tracing has become extremely important.  It’s particularly alarming that we’re also seeing news of businesses banning masks and government officials hiding COVID-positive test results.    WHO is warning about a second peak, but Disney World is reopening, and so is New York City–or at least, that was the plan before all the riots; I’m not sure if that changes anything.

• Black Lives Still Matter (Part I).   This was, frankly, a very bad week for civil rights of Black Americans.  The unrest started gaining steam in Minneapolis, where an unarmed man named George Floyd was choked to death by police, with videotape very clearly showing one officer’s knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.  Protests of the death resulted in even more deaths and mass arrests, and there were fatalities from Louisville protests as well.  Eventually the officer in question was arrested and charged with third-degree murder as we went into the weekend, but the other officers present have not faced charges.  Meanwhile, in New York, a white woman was caught on camera calling 911 and filing a false report that claimed a Black fellow park-goer was assaulting her because he asked her to leash her dog.  So things were a bit of a powder keg by the time we went into the weekend.

• Black Lives Still Matter (Part II). The situation in Minneapolis continued to devolve as more and more awful details about Floyd’s death came out, police response became more brutal, and protesters began setting fires and damaging property. The governor of Minnesota mobilized the National Guard, and the Pentagon put military police on standby. Protests of all types continued to grow in response in over 140 cities all around the world. Increasingly, police escalation and increased violence has been reported, as I noted above–everything from cruisers driving into crowds of protesters to rubber bullets and pepper spray to people being fatally shot. Many cities now have curfews in place in an attempt to get things back under control, but it’s unclear whether that is working. All of this was exacerbated by 45’s response, which has oscillated between bravado (inciting state officials to violence and threatening to declare antifa a terrorist organization) and utter cowardice (literally turning all the White House lights off so he could pretend no one is home). Today, we careened back into bravado, with Trump indicating he would use military force in DC in a seeming invocation of the Insurrection Act. He immediately put his money where his mouth was by having military police use tear gas to disperse a completely peaceful protest, apparently so that he could have a photo op in front of a nearby damaged church. Folks, I know we have become inured over the past few days, but use of military force on a peaceful gathered assembly is definitely not constitutional and it is not the system working as intended. The next few days are going to be very critical on a lot of levels.

The Good:

• Recent Space Resilience. This week did see the first successful space shuttle launch in nearly a decade, as the private company SpaceX had their first launch and rendezvoused with the International Space Station on Sunday. As one Twitter user put it, “Congratulations to the Astronauts that left Earth today. Good choice.”

So that’s what I have for this week, and if things stay this bad we’re getting good news first next week. For making it through, you deserve this stunned koala and animals in swings and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me uninterrupted sleep!

New week, same holding pattern–we’ve made it to partially open, and now we may be here for a while. That said, given that everyone is anxious about a second wave, I’ll take the holding pattern.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not an Obamagate–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!   

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

When compiling this section, I found myself thinking “This is a quiet week for Disregard of Governing Norms“–and that’s on a week when our sitting President had a meltdown about churches and a fourth inspector general was fired.  I guess it’s all relative by now?  At any rate, here’s what is happening:    

• ‘Obamagate’ Investigation. Though William Barr was quick to downplay its importance, Republican Senators are trying to subpoena several Obama-era officials. The request is extremely broad, covering everything from the Carter Page surveillance to Hunter Biden’s work in Ukraine–welcome to 2020, where everything’s made up and the points of law don’t matter. They did this, by the way, at the same time that they narrowly voted in a new Director of Intelligence that even said GOP senators wouldn’t endorse in July, forcing his nomination at the time to be withdrawn. (It’s kind of hilarious to compare Rubio’s quote from July with his lukewarm vote of confidence this week.) This does, however, mean we see the retreating back of acting director and MAGA horrorshow Richard Grenell, so that’s something, but it likely has implications for the Obamagate investigation.

• Retaliatory Firing (Again Again). Speaking of investigations, the acting Transportation Department inspector general, Mitchell Behm, was removed from the role over the past week–so that makes four inspectors general removed in two months. And wouldn’t you know it, just like the State Department IG removed, Behm was looking at the conduct of his department’s head–in this case, whether Elaine Chao was improperly favoring Kentucky for project priority. (Chao is the wife of Kentucky Senator and overall nightmare man Mitch McConnell, for those of you playing the home game.) The replacement acting IG, “Skip” Elliott, works in the Transportation Department and literally reports directly to Chao, so that’s nice and normal and in no way an obvious conflict of interest.

• Trump’s Messed Up COVID-19 Response. Trump continued to publicly illustrate his obvious unfitness for office this week, visiting a Ford plant and refusing to wear a mask, then yelling at the state’s Attorney General about it on Twitter. He also refused to close down the country if there’s a second wave of COVID outbreaks on the same tour.  For an encore, he threatened to “hold up” federal funds for states that expand mail-in voting–but only the Democrat-controlled ones. He also implied the official death toll is inflated, and he ended the week by throwing a tantrum about houses of worship, demanding governors reopen them regardless of COVID threat level.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Election Oddities (Again).  This was another strange week for election news, between Trump’s outburst about mail-in voting and the strange circus surrounding Joe Biden’s shortlist for Vice Presidential candidates.  Georgia also canceled its state election for a seat on its Supreme Court, opting to let its governor appoint someone for the next two years.  And outlets are starting to voice increasing unease about how the election will even work in November if we’re still in the middle of a pandemic–which I am also wondering, so I can’t say I blame them.

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*    Remember how last week, I said that Georgia’s numbers looking more promising than Texas or Florida’s? Yeah, about that: News broke this week that they were doctoring their numbers, which apparently was intended in Florida as well (but their top data scientist refused, and was fired for her efforts.) Current national data suggest that more infections are happening in rural areas, and we are nearing 100,000 deaths at the time that I type this. Over 1.6 million cases have been reported. Given the high rate of asymptomatic infection and a country that is increasingly reopening, an effective method of contact tracing has become extremely important.

• Market Mess Continues.*  The market continues to be…struggling, to put it politely.  The unemployment rate isn’t really slowing, and another 2.4 million Americans filed for the first time in the past week.  Experts worry that these lost jobs may not be coming back–even a White House official has expressed concern, contradicting Trump and probably becoming next week’s retaliatory firing paragraph.  Despite this, Mitch McConnell wants to end unemployment supports, even as our Treasury Secretary says we need another stimulus bill.  There’s growing support in Congress for paycheck subsidy, but the SBA subsidy loans are still a mess, so hopefully any new efforts will be better managed.

The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience. This was another good week for court cases, for the most part! In Florida, a federal judge struck down a law that would prohibit voting for people with outstanding court fees. The court used very clear language when calling the law unconstitutional, noting that it created “a pay-to-vote system” that is reminiscent of poll taxes. And another federal judge ordered the FCC to server logs on its net neutrality public comments, which the New York Times is alleging were fraudulently filed. Progress!

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve Alexandra Petri reading Rousseau and this bewildered bear investigation and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me ethical chocolate cause I’m almost out!

The news remains strange and a bit hard to fully process this week, in part because America feels like it’s on two different tracks at once. We’re still not in the clear, COVID-wise, but now we have a bunch of other Trump-era nonsense to contend with as well. It’s exhausting, and a part of “normalcy” that I would have happily left behind, but here we are.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a college campus!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!   

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

I can’t say I missed the old Disregard of Governing Norms stories, but they’re sure back with a vengeance–so now we get to contend with that as well as the COVID crisis.  Here’s what is happening:    

• Retaliatory Firing (Yes, Again). The biggest story this week is that Trump unceremoniously fired yet another inspector general on Friday evening, this time from the State Department–which makes three watchdogs fired since the COVID crisis began. To make matters worse, said inspector was investigating Mike Pompeo for potential misconduct at the time he was fired, and it would appear that Pompeo was the one to suggest the firing. It’s noteworthy that this inspector general had nothing to do with COVID response, unlike the two before him–it’s a clear indication that the administration has returned to combating entities that combat corruption. Unsurprisingly, House Democrats have opened an investigation into the matter.

• Other Administrative Malfeasance.* It says something about this administration that “we fired the guy who was investigating us for corruption” is only the first sketchy news of the week. A Congressional oversight commission found that a $500B COVID fund basically hasn’t been touched since it was allocated in late March, and the terms of the program have kept changing without any disbursement. (The report is particularly bad because most of this fund was intended for state and local governments, which the administration keeps claiming it doesn’t have to help.) Official White House Son-in-Law Jared Kushner was reluctant to confirm we would have elections in November, which would concern me if it were remotely up to him. And Eric Trump announced that COVID would disappear after the 2020 election, but at least he appeared to believe the election was happening.

• Trump’s Messed Up COVID-19 Response. In case anyone was worried, Trump is continuing to be, well, Trump. He opined that the country should reopen “vaccine or no vaccine,” (no it shouldn’t) but said we’ll have a vaccine by January (no we won’t). Then he said even if we don’t have a vaccine, coronavirus will just go away (what). For an encore, he called testing ‘overrated.’ And just today, he announced he apparently is taking hydroxychloroquine as a COVID prophylactic, which is a bad idea on a truly impressive number of levels–but more on that below.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Election Oddities (Again).  Election news is a study in contrasts this week.  Despite everything else going on, the RNC is expecting 50,000 people to attend their convention in Charlotte in a few months.  Democrats, conversely, are looking into remote voting for theirs.  And in libertarian news, Justin Amash announced he isn’t running after all, so we’re down to just Trump and Biden again as we head into June.

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*   At the time that I type this, over 90,000 people in this country have passed away from COVID-19 and over 1.5 million people have been infected. The CDC has finally issued some brief guidance after a lengthy fight with the White House about them.  Top health official Anthony Fauci testified before the Senate about the dangers of reopening the country too quickly, and ousted vaccine official Rick Bright’s testimony was similarly dire.  Trump, for his part, called Fauci’s testimony “not an acceptable answer.”  And hydrochloroquine was in the news as potentially killing people with COVID, which makes 45’s life choices interesting to say the least.

• Reopening Rodeo.  Reopening continues to be an unsafe hot mess for a third week, despite how many states have started the process. In Texas, and Florida, cases are already rising, and that’s without full data even available. (Georgia is looking more promising, but again, early data may be incomplete.) In Wisconsin, a state supreme court decision that struck down the governor’s order has created chaos across the state. And scary protests are continuing in Michigan, one of the few states that isn’t reopening–hinting at dangers that exist either way.  Many states lack benchmarks for progressing forward with the opening process, and it seems like something of a free-for-all. I agree with this columnist’s take that we seem to be moving to a harm reduction model of operations.  

• Market Mess Continues.*  Market news is a lot of ups and downs.  House Democrats unveiled and subsequently passed a $3T proposal for coronavirus response, but Trump is threatening to veto it.  Unemployment rates appear to be slowing somewhat, but three million new people still filed this week.  The Dow is riding high after vaccine news made people optimistic, but several news outlets are suing the Small Business Administration over its messy loan practices.  So it’s all kind of a mixed bag.

The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience. There was a lot of promising court actions in the past week. The Supreme Court heard arguments about whether Congress can subpoena Trump’s taxes this week, though a final decision likely won’t be out for some time.  The FBI obtained a search warrant and seized Senator Richard Burr’s phone to investigate his handling of stock trading ahead of the COVID crisis, forcing him to step down from his role as Intelligence Committee Chair.  The Fourth Circuit more-or-less revived the emoluments case about Trump’s D.C. hotel, which is particularly timely given news about 45 making the secret service pay for golf carts this summer (yes, really).  And the judge on Flynn’s case has invited other parties to weigh in, and has appointed someone to argue against dropping charges.  So all of those things are promising!

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this otter birthday party and this message from Alice Cooperand an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a governor who makes better decisions!

The news this week is ten pounds of garbage in a five-pound hat, as the parts of the country reopening bring a wider news cycle with them. Here in New England things remain quiet for now, but that might not remain the case for long. As always, I’ll keep folks posted on what’s going on.

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a college campus!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!   

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

I can’t say I missed the old Disregard of Governing Norms stories, but they’re sure back with a vengeance–so now we get to contend with that as well as the COVID crisis.  Here’s what is happening:    

• Flynn Flyover (and other foul federal news). The Department of Justice truly stunned the legal field this week by dropping charges against Michael Flynn, an unprecedented move given Flynn had pleaded guilty literal years ago. It illustrates just how much William Barr appears to follow Trump’s agenda rather than leading an independent department–a point only punctuated by Trump’s follow-up attack on the head of the FBI, and Trump’s request that SCOTUS block the release of other evidence from the Mueller investigation. Meanwhile, things aren’t great on the federal judicial side either, with the Senate considering McConnell’s truly unqualified protege for an appeals court appointment and the GOP doing its best vulture impression when asked about Justice Ginsburg’s recent hospitalization. Betsy DeVos used a chaotic week to release her new regulations about sexual assault on campus, despite many college campuses housing no students at the moment. And rounding everything out, Trump appointed a Republican fundraiser to head the U.S. Post Office instead of, y’know, someone from the post office. Given the giant pile of everything in this paragraph, it’s hardly a surprise that the House wants to continue investigating Trump for impeachable offenses.

• White House Messed Up COVID-19 Response. Despite our apparent return to commerce, this was a real banner week for White House COVID response–by which I mean, it will make you want to Hulk out and smash something. Trump continued to block coronavirus task force members from testifying before the House because–and I quote–“the House is a bunch of Trump haters.” The White House also threatened to disband the task force entirely, before reversing course and resuming coronavirus briefings instead, and refused to release CDC guidance on safely reopening. Meanwhile, a watchdog agency found that scientist Rick Bright had a credible complaint of retaliation because he was removed from his position when he refused to support Trump’s sudden push for hydroxychloroquine. Trump refused to wear a mask while touring a mask production facility, and Trump’s personal valet and Pence’s press secretary both tested positive for COVID. Trump continued to refuse to wear a mask, saying “the whole concept of tests isn’t great,” and Pence refused to change his patterns on the grounds that he “has tested negative every single day.” There are also, apparently, no plans to keep Trump and Pence apart.

• Reopening Rodeo.  Needless to say, reopening is not smooth sailing on the state level either, despite most states beginning the process as I type this. Data suggests that most reopening states do not meet the criteria put forward by the White House for reopening, and that guidance was more modest than the CDC’s. As if to punctuate the point, a recording of Texas governor Greg Abbott also surfaced this week acknowledging that reopening will increase spread of COVID-19. And early reopening data suggests that official steps don’t make consumers return to their prior patterns anyway, which frankly is pretty understandable given the rest of this paragraph.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Arrests in Georgia.  Over two months after a Georgian man was killed while jogging, police have arrested two Georgia residents for his murder.  The official action was likely spurred by video of the murder, which was posted to the Internet in the past week–apparently by a local defense attorney.  There is much about this story that is strange or confusing, but one aspect definitely isn’t, and that’s the racist underpinnings of the entire story. 

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.*  COVID news is… still not great.  Scientists have begun to study an apparent COVID-related infection that has begun to surface in young kids, though this version thankfully appears treatable.  The food supply chain still has issues, with beef shortages and pork shortages reported, and over a thousand workers have tested positive at Tyson plants in Iowa and Indiana.  Meanwhile, the drug with modest treatment efficacy in trials, remdesivir, is being inconsistently administered to hospitals.  In a silver lining, blood thinners are showing promise as a secondary treatment for patients with severe infection, and the FDA also granted emergency approval for a new antigen test.

• Market Mess Continues.*    Financially speaking, things are still a mess.  Unemployment is continuing to grow at the same rate as previous weeks, resulting in the highest rate since the Great Depression.  Needless to say, this makes federal response in the coming weeks particularly important.  It’s not surprising that several Senators have begun promoting universal base income, introducing a bill that would grant $2K per month for the duration of the crisis.  And speaking of granting funds, the Small Business Administration’s programs are still a total mess–they’re in the news this week for dramatically lowering maximum loan amounts on one of their programs without telling any applicants about it. 

The Good:

• Recent California Resilience. The state of California is suing Lyft and Uber for refusing to classify its drivers as employees under a recent California law that expands worker protections to gig laborers. We’ll have to see what happens, but this is a promising bit of news–given the dire employment news above, this is a way to potentially get more protections without workers taking a hit for it.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this new Waititi-directed Star Wars movie and this 30th-anniversary Good Omens short and an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me sinuses with fewer allergies!

This week, I spent considerable time wracking my brain to come up with a better summary than “This week sucked.” But you know what? The news this week sucked. Sometimes you just gotta call it like you see it. (Here’s hoping next week is better.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a sea turtle!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!   

Constitutional Crisis Corner:

True to form, this week all of the Disregard of Governing Norms stories have a particular flavor, as leaders on state and national levels just refuse to listen to experts.  It’s a form of willful disregard that would be impressive if it weren’t so terrifying. Here’s what I have for you:    

• Reopening Rodeo. Despite medical recommendations to the contrary, several states are either reopening now or reopening imminently, and the public discourse does not inspire confidence. Georgia took an initial step on Friday and reopened restaurants, tattoo parlors, gyms, movie theaters, and massage parlors–you know, those businesses that you think of first when you hear the phrase “social distancing.” South Carolina is also reopening some retail stores and beaches, and several other Southern states are opening retail stores as well. Experts say this is very risky, a fact underscored by 40 new COVID cases in Wisconsin traced back to their recent primary election. But the Texas lieutenant governor responded to this by saying that “there are more important things than living,” a quote so yikesworthy that Andy Borowitz barely had to change it in his satire column.

• Trump’s Messed Up COVID-19 Response. Trump really outdid himself this week, and I know I say that every week but seriously, this week was a whole new level of longing for the 25th Amendment. The real nadir was likely when he publicly asked about injecting bleach into people as a way of treating COVID-19 during Thursday’s press conference, forcing the good people at Lysol and health experts everywhere everywhere to tell people not to do that. Trump apparently got the idea from prominent snake oil salesman Mark Grenon, who wrote to the President a few days before praising the virtues of “wonderful detox” product chlorine dioxide. (Spoiler: Chlorine dioxide is exactly as bad to ingest as you think it is, and the FDA had already publicly warned Grenon to knock it off when he sent the letter.) Trump tried to backpedal by claiming he was being ‘sarcastic,’ which might have even worked, except that he immediately went on a tear on Twitter the next day. The whole thing capped with Trump threatening to stop doing coronavirus pressers, calling them not worth “the time and effort”. We should be so lucky, dear readers.

• COVID Cover.  One trend we should definitely be keeping an eye on is this administration’s tendency to use COVID as cover for other things, which doesn’t appear to be slowing down in the slightest. One major example of this is the immigration executive order Trump signed earlier in the week, which he says is in response to coronavirus but really just seems to limit family reunification. He also used the fourth COVID response bill to lash out at the postal service yet again, though he did ultimately sign the bill on Friday (and more on that below). All things considered, it’s not surprising that the House wants to investigate his administrative response to the crisis and super PACs are zeroing in on it as a campaign strategy.

Your “Normal” Weird:

• North Korean Speculation.   Speculation is starting to mount after two weeks of absence from North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un, but nobody can agree on what it means.  Some outlets are focused on likelihood of COVID infection, and TMZ is touting the rather dubious claim that he has died, while South Korea is saying there is nothing unusual happening at all.  No matter what else is going on, the speculation itself may have potential implications for North Korea, and might forecast a closer look into whether there is COVID infection there in general.  (Boris Johnson, in contrast, definitely returned to work this week.)

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  The overall COVID news this week is not exactly uplifting.  At the time that I type this, over 55,000 people in this country have lost their lives to the virus, and nearly one million people have been infected.  The FDA has cautioned against hydroxychloroquine use to treat COVID, noting that it has been linked to heart rhythm problems and there is increasing indication that the virus impacts the blood.  New York is also reporting high fatality rates among patients on ventilators, derailing medical expectations about treatment methods.  Nurses are starting to organize in response to inadequate workplace protections, bringing three lawsuits against the state of New York and multiple hospitals.  And the United States is not participating in a WHO global initiative to develop a COVID vaccine, which may reflect growing antagonism towards the global organization as our administration seeks a scapegoat.

• Market Mess Continues.*    The fourth COVID response bill did pass this week, making it through the Senate on Tuesday and the House on Thursday before being signed by Trump on Friday.  The bill contains more money for the small business loan program, which relaunched today, but is already rife with problems.  Meanwhile, another 4.4 million people filed for unemployment, bringing our total to over 26 million people since this crisis started.  The IRS was in the news for sending stimulus payments to dead people, and state and local governments worry about major budget shortfalls while Mitch McConnell tells them to just file for bankruptcy.

• “If You’re Sick, Still Come” (Part II).    More news has come out about the “grassroots” movement encouraging people to go protest at city capitals, which unsurprisingly has a lot of money and power behind it.  It also had several legislators helping the movement, which at least contextualizes the GOP trying to force Congress to vote in person.  When all of this is over, I hope none of these people have the audacity to call themselves “the pro-life party” for at least a decade.

The Good:

• Recent Court Resilience.The Supreme Court had some promising cases come down today. They opted to punt on a second amendment case, which given the current court constellation I’m considering a win–especially because the decision made Gorsuch, Thomas, and Alito unhappy. But the real good news from SCOTUS today is that the court decided 8-1 that it wanted to leave the ACA standing, at least when it comes to risk corridors. That majority is nearly as encouraging as Sotomayor’s excellent majority opinion, which pointedly notes that “The Government should honor its obligations.”

• Turtle Triumph.* We may not be enjoying the stay-at-home advisories, but apparently they are good news for turtles. Outlets report that the leatherback sea turtle has begun to experience a comeback in the wake of reduced beach traffic in places like Thailand and Florida. We’re also seeing a positive impact on manatees for similar reason. At least somebody’s having a good month!

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve these adorapathetic sad wolves and these Studio Ghibli Zoom backgroundsand an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me a Time-Turner; I swear I’ll use it responsibly!

Quick news about the news: I can’t make the current cycle better, but I can reach out about how I can help–which is why I’m beginning to seek weekly feedback, launching topic-based polls on Sundays and collecting answers until Saturday. We’re kicking off with a coverage poll that can be answered at the link above or via the NNR answer box (if you are not a Patreon user or prefer to stay anonymous).

The COVID crisis is looming large again for the umpteenth week in a row, and I think I can safely say this is the most terrifying monotony I’ve ever experienced. Speaking as a social worker: Now might be a time to think about emotional first-aid, your personal coping strategies, and stages of loss. (Speaking as a lawyer: I know, Social Worker Kara can be really annoying. Sadly, that doesn’t make her suggestions incorrect.)

Standard standing reminders apply: I am no journalist, though I play one in your inbox or browser, so I’m mostly summarizing the news within my area of expertise. NNR summaries often contain some detailed analysis that’s outside my expertise–I’m a lawyer, not a resignation!–but all offroad adventures are marked with an asterisk. And, of course, for the things that are within my lane, I’m offering context that shouldn’t be considered legal advice. Okay, I think that’s about it for the disclaimers.  Onward to the news!   

This week it’s just Disregard of Governing Norms all the way down, and I honestly can’t decide if that’s an improvement or not. Here’s what happened:    

• White House Departures. Several people have left the White House in the past week. First up was Acting Navy Secretary, Thomas Modley, who you may remember relieved a commander because he reported COVID spread on his aircraft carrier (and then Modley mocked the commander for making the right call).  Because there is occasionally justice in this world, Modley has been forced to resign, and will be replaced with Undersecretary of the Army James McPhearson.  Meanwhile the White House Secretary, Stephanie Grisham, is leaving her post after eight months of literally never briefing the press about anything.  (Grisham is returning to be Melania’s staff, from whence she came.)

• Trump’s Messed Up COVID-19 Response. Trump’s response to this crisis keeps getting uglier and uglier, y’all.  He keeps signaling he’ll reopen the country next month, hinting that he may force regions open and claim he supercedes governors’ orders if they stand in his way.  He also removed the Pentagon’s acting inspector general, who was named to lead the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, so that the CARES Act funds going to big businesses would have no oversight. Trump is also starting to signal that he may fire the leading specialist on COVID, Andrew Fauci, because Fauci keeps being the grown-up in the room.  And just in case anyone abroad wanted to help us, Trump keeps threatening to withhold funding from the WHO because he doesn’t like how they are reporting virus spread in the U.S.  The WHO is responding with big weary teacher energy, telling him that “now is not the time” and could he “please [not] politicize this virus”. If you get him to listen, WHO, let us know how you did it.

• Other COVID Misconduct. Of course, Trump’s administration has plenty of other malfeasance this week as well. An honorable mention goes to William Barr and Steven Mnuchin, both of whom lack any medical expertise whatsoever but are nonetheless loudly supporting Trump’s cockamamie plan to reopen the country on May 1st. And several people have enabled Trump’s bizarre vendetta against the U.S. Postal Service, which Trump refuses to support despite its struggles because he doesn’t want to allow voting by mail to happen. But the most obnoxious action from the White House this week was Mike Pence blocking top health experts from appearing on CNN–a retaliatory action because the station refused to cover any more of Trump’s dangerously misinformative “press briefings.”

Your “Normal” Weird:

• Weekly Election Oddities.   As noted last week, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court ordered in-person elections in the eleventh hour on Monday, resulting in a messy Tuesday election with only five polling locations open in the state.  While results were pending, Bernie Sanders ended his campaign, leaving Joe Biden the near-certain Democratic nominee for 2020.  Sanders also endorsed Biden today, presumably trying to avoid a mess like 2016.  Meanwhile, several states that aren’t Wisconsin continue to postpone their primaries, worried about public health risk during a pandemic.  And Elizabeth Warren has released a comprehensive proposal for voting during the pandemic, because of course she has a plan for that.

The Bad:

• State of the COVID-19.  We are unquestionably being hit hard by this pandemic–at the time that I type this, we definitely lead the world in cases, and over 23,000 people in this country have lost their lives to COVID-19.  We’re increasingly seeing fatalities in younger adults and food industry workers, and COVID-19 has become the leading cause of death in the United States. We’re also beginning to experience massive food waste because food migratory patterns have changed dramatically.  Experts say the pandemic is unlikely to improve with warmer weather, and New York is still hit particularly hard.   Several outlets have also started writing about the disproportionate infection rate experienced by Black Americans, which is exacerbating existing health disparities.  Immigrant communities and prisons are hit disproportionately hard as well.

• Market Mess Continues.*   Negotiations continue to go poorly on a fourth Coronavirus response bill.  Bill Mnuchin has requested more money for small business relief, saying the original amount in the CARES Act was gone within days, though SBS officials say the problem lies with big banks.   Mitch McConnell seems amenable to Mnuchin’s request, but refuses to negotiate with Democrats to get a final version of the bill.  So now Nancy Pelosi won’t negotiate either, and everything appears to be at a standstill.   The Congressional gridlock is unfortunate, because things are still very bad.  More than 17 million people have filed for unemployment in the past four weeks, and experts are starting to say we’re experiencing a depression.  

The Good:

• Recent State Resilience.Though things have been bleak, we’ve seen some glimmers of encouraging state action. A Kansas court upheld the governor’s order to limit in-person gatherings, ignoring “war on Easter” rhetoric to note that the governor had authority to make the order. As the Washington Post notes, Ohio has unusually low hospitalization rates due to its governor modeling ideal epidemic response early. And in Wisconsin, where the state Supreme Court forced an ill-advised election, constituents voted out one of the judges who made them vote during a pandemic.

• New Tracing Technology.* Apple and Google announced this week that they are working on new technology that would trace coronavirus contact, allowing people to receive warnings about recent exposure. The proposal is for new smartphone software that could be easily added to people’s phones, and it won’t be ready for several months, but that window would still cause it to arrive before vaccines. Though there is obvious potential for abuse, it also has great potential for expanding testing and tracking infection vectors, so I’m tentatively excited about it.

So that’s what I have for this week, and I’m sorry, there are no news refunds. For making it through, you deserve this predictive text haggadah and these lovely forest photosand an eventual better government.  I’ll be back next week with more (and hopefully better) news, and I hope you will be back as well–but in the meantime, feel free to ping the National News Roundup ask box, which is there for your constructive comments.  Send me questions! Send me feedback! Send me extra closing links, because we’re moving to two per week!