Today’s edition of quick hits:
* Stock market: “Wall Street recorded historic losses on Thursday as fears intensified over the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic amid what some saw as an anemic response from the White House.”
* The Fed: Wall Street briefly pared its losses on Thursday as investors reacted to the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would dramatically increase liquidity by injecting as much as $1.5 trillion into the economy with an unprecedented series of asset purchases.
* The obvious call: “The Senate is canceling its recess next week in hopes of passing a coronavirus relief package, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced Thursday.”
* Speaking of the Hill: “Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell’s office said Wednesday a D.C.-based staffer has tested positive for COVID-19. It’s the first known case on Capitol Hill.”
* I don’t generally mention sports stories, but that’s quite a paragraph: “On Monday, Rudy Gobert joked with members of the media by making sure to touch all the microphones and recording devices reporters had placed on the table in front of him as he left a news conference. On Wednesday night, he became Patient Zero for the NBA in the coronavirus crisis.”
* In Iraq: “Two American troops and a British soldier were killed in a rocket attack Wednesday that targeted an Iraqi base where coalition troops are stationed, and U.S. officials said they are considering retaliatory options.”
* Trump’s past: “Five former city employees and a former Trump Organization employee say the company used middlemen to pay New York City tax assessors to lower building assessments and pay less taxes in the 1980s and 1990s.” * Quite a critique: “Lynn S. Adelman, a U.S. district judge in Milwaukee, has riled conservatives by publishing a blistering critique of the Supreme Court’s record under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., focusing on a string of decisions that he argues have fostered ‘economic inequality,’ ‘undermined democracy’ and ‘increased the political power of corporations and wealthy individuals’ at the expense of ordinary Americans.” * He just won’t stop: “Rush Limbaugh on coronavirus: ‘Who cares if it’s 10 times more lethal than the flu?’” See you tomorrow.
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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