Today’s edition of quick hits:
* White House: “A draft plan to reopen the economy being circulated by the Trump administration would advise areas with low numbers of coronavirus infections to begin pulling back on social distancing measures after May 1, with harder-hit areas possibly having to wait an additional month or more.”
* Heroism: “Across the country, exhausted health-care workers have changed the rhythms of their daily lives — sleeping away from their families and performing meticulous cleansing rituals — to protect family members and roommates and keep the pathogen contained behind hospital doors.”
* Glitches: “Many Americans woke up Wednesday expecting to find a payment of $1,200 or more from the U.S. government in their bank account, but instead they realized nothing had arrived yet — or the wrong amount was deposited. Parents of young children complained they did not receive the promised $500 check for their dependent children.”
* Proxy voting: “The House is inching toward ‘temporary, low-tech remote voting,’ according to recommendations that House Rules Chairman Jim McGovern made on a conference call with House Democrats on Thursday.”
* Nuclear testing: “China might be secretly conducting nuclear tests with very low explosive power despite Beijing’s assertions that it is strictly adhering to an international accord banning all nuclear tests, according to a new arms-control report to be made public by the State Department.”
* Crozier’s future: “U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper indicated Thursday that it’s possible Navy Capt. Brett Crozier, who was relieved of his command of the USS Theodore Roosevelt after raising concerns about a coronavirus outbreak, could be reinstated.”
* The JEDI contract controversy: “The Pentagon’s inspector general ‘could not definitively determine’ whether the White House influenced the procurement process for a major cloud computing contract because senior Defense Department officials were barred from answering questions on the subject during interviews, according to a 313-page report released on Wednesday.” * I meant to mention this yesterday: “Retail sales plunged in March, offering a grim snapshot of the coronavirus outbreak’s effect on consumer spending, as businesses shuttered from coast to coast and wary shoppers restricted their spending.” * Not a positive development at HHS: “The White House is installing Trump campaign veteran Michael Caputo in the health department’s top communications position, Caputo confirmed to POLITICO. The move is designed to assert more White House control over Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, whom officials believe has been behind recent critical reports about President Donald Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to two officials with knowledge of the move.” 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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