Today’s edition of quick hits:
* A costly mistake: “The Trump administration’s decision to let states chart their own responses to the coronavirus crisis rather than impose a national strategy will cost thousands of lives and is likely to result in an open-ended outbreak rolling across the country, a dozen public health experts told NBC News.”
* SCOTUS: “The U.S. Supreme Court Friday said it will scrap the oral argument schedule for the rest of the term amid the coronavirus pandemic but left open the possibility that it might hear a few cases before the term ends in late June.”
* The USNS Comfort: “On Thursday … the huge white vessel, which officials had promised would bring succor to a city on the brink, sat mostly empty, infuriating executives at local hospitals. The ship’s 1,000 beds are largely unused, its 1,200-member crew mostly idle. Only 20 patients had been transferred to the ship, officials said, even as New York hospitals struggled to find space for the thousands infected with the coronavirus.”
* Paid leave: “The Trump administration has substantially scaled back paid leave requirements for employers that were created by a new coronavirus relief law, effectively exempting many small businesses in a move that infuriated lawmakers who had fought to expand the benefit.”
* The USS Theodore Roosevelt: “A day after U.S. Navy Captain Brett Crozier was abruptly removed from his post as commanding officer of the coronavirus-infected aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, a Navy official confirms to NPR that acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly intends for Crozier to be reassigned rather than dismissed from the Navy.”
* This story isn’t over: “Senator Kelly Loeffler sold a total of $46,027 worth of stock in an online travel company in the day leading up to President Donald Trump’s announcement of a ban on most European travel to the U.S. Though the transactions were relatively small for Loeffler and her husband — whose net worth is estimated at more than $500 million — the sales represented an about-face.”
* Something to keep an eye on: “All over the country, businesses large and small are seeking breathing room from their lenders, landlords and business partners as they face the financial fallout from the coronavirus crisis. President Trump’s family company is among those looking for help.” * Justin Walker is just 37 years old: “President Trump is tapping a young district judge and former clerk to now-Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh to fill a vacancy on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.” * Remember this one? “[D]uring an interview on Maria Bartiromo’s Fox Business show on January 30 — 10 days after the first US coronavirus case was recorded — [Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross] made a case that the virus, which at that time was mostly hurting China, would ultimately be a good thing for the American job market.” Have a safe weekend.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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