‘We can go bigger!’  Nancy Pelosi hints at a SECOND round of emergency checks to all Americans saying 'we haven't seen the end of direct payments' as unemployment hits 3.3 million  — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that Americans would likely see more direct checks in future coronavirus relief packages

Trump's Leadership  —  Rallying the United States through the coronavirus crisis is this president's path to greatness.  —  The costs of how the U.S. has conducted its politics the past three years are now obvious.  Beset by a crisis akin to wartime, the country's leadership is engulfed in political rancor.

UK has enough intensive care units for coronavirus, expert predicts  —  The UK should now be able to cope with the spread of the covid-19 virus, according to one of the epidemiologists advising the government.  —  Neil Ferguson at Imperial College London gave evidence today …

Jobless claims soar past 3 million to record as coronavirus sends Americans to the unemployment line  —  US unemployment surges to record-breaking 3.28 million amid coronavirus pandemic  —  Americans displaced by the coronavirus crisis filed unemployment claims in record numbers …

As U.S. struggles to stem coronavirus, China asserts itself as global leader  —  “Beijing's push for global leadership is able to get so much tailwind by virtue of the relative absence of any U.S. leadership,” one foreign affairs expert said.  —  With Italy in dire need of medical equipment, an economic superpower stepped in to help.

Job Vacancies and Inexperience Mar Federal Response to Coronavirus  —  Unfilled jobs and high turnover mean the government is ill equipped for a public health crisis, said many former and current federal officials and disaster experts.  —  WASHINGTON — Of the 75 senior positions at the Department …

Internal Emails Show How Chaos at the CDC Slowed the Early Response to Coronavirus  —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up to receive our biggest stories as soon as they're published.  —  On Feb. 13, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control …

Canada tells US not to put troops at border during pandemic  —  Canada has told the U.S. it is is strongly opposed to a Trump administration proposal to put troops at the U.S.-Canada border amid the pandemic and said if it goes ahead it would damage relations between the two longtime allies

He survived COVID-19.  He's broke.  But he thinks America is overreacting  —  Joey Camp was the first person in Georgia to be quarantined at a special site after being diagnosed with COVID-19.  —  3 AM  —  For three days, he was hooked up to an oxygen tube.

Worries About Coronavirus Surge, as Most Americans Expect a Recession - or Worse  —  Trump's job approval at highest point in three years  —  Americans are increasingly alarmed by the rapid spread of the new coronavirus, with sharply growing majorities saying the outbreak poses a major threat …

‘Economist’ Runs Chinese Coronavirus Propaganda Disguised as News  —  The Economist is running Chinese propaganda from an outlet that is violating U.S. law to spread the message that Chinese president Xi Jinping has done a masterful job handling the coronavirus pandemic.

Actor Arrested by FBI for Touting Coronavirus Cure  —  The suspect claimed Earvin “Magic” Johnson was a member of his company's board of directors.  —  FBI agents on Wednesday arrested a small-time SoCal actor for allegedly claiming he had invented a pill that would prevent and cure coronavirus.

Union Locates Massive Supply of N95 Masks  —  The Service Employees International Union - United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) has located 39 million critically needed N95 masks and is connecting states, counties, health systems and individual hospitals to the supplier so they can purchase them in quantity.

Inside the Story of How H-E-B Planned for the Pandemic  —  The grocer started communicating with Chinese counterparts in January and was running tabletop simulations a few weeks later.  (But nothing prepared it for the rush on toilet paper.)  —  The coronavirus pandemic has transformed the country in just a handful of weeks.

Rick Wiles Says God Is Spreading the Coronavirus in Synagogues as Punishment for Opposing Jesus  —  Virulent anti-Semite, bigot, and conspiracy theorist Rick Wiles used his “TruNews” program last night to warn Israel that it was seeing outbreaks of the COVID-19 coronavirus in connection …

Nicolás Maduro Moros and 14 Current and Former Venezuelan Officials Charged with Narco-Terrorism, Corruption, Drug Trafficking and Other Criminal Charges  —  Maduro and Other High Ranking Venezuelan Officials Allegedly Partnered With the FARC to Use Cocaine as a Weapon to “Flood” the United States

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie plans to vote ‘no,’ threatens to hold up coronavirus stimulus bill  —  LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Congressman from Kentucky plans to vote “no” on the $2 trillion coronavirus relief package, which the Senate passed 96-0 Wednesday evening.  —  U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie …

Worker at NYC hospital where nurses wear trash bags as protection dies from coronavirus  —  The shortage of safety gear at one Manhattan hospital is so dire that desperate nurses have resorted to wearing trash bags — and some blame the situation for the coronavirus death of a beloved colleague.

Joe Biden Is Spending His Time in the Coronavirus Bunker Thinking a Lot About His VP  —  On Sunday afternoon, nearly two weeks into his self-imposed isolation at home in Delaware, Joe Biden joined a private conference call for 72 donors from the Atlanta area.

New Orleans Faces a Virus Nightmare, and Mardi Gras May Be Why  —  Louisiana may be experiencing the world's fastest growth in new cases.  Medical experts said Mardi Gras might have accelerated the crisis.  —  NEW ORLEANS — Yanti Turang, an emergency room nurse at a New Orleans hospital …

When $2.2 trillion is not enough  —  Perhaps the most important thing about the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill the Senate passed late Wednesday night is that it is not a stimulus bill at all.  — It is not intended to stimulate growth and spending to offset a potential downturn …

Rashida Tlaib has a serious primary opponent - who's a Louis Farrakhan fan  —  Rep. Rashida Tlaib, the first Palestinian-American woman elected to Congress, has drawn the ire of many Jews during her first term for making statements that some saw as anti-Semitic.

Immigration chief on thin ice for adopting Obama's stance during crisis  —  The head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement drew fire from Trump officials for saying he would focus on risky offenders during the coronavirus outbreak.  —  ICE Director Matt Albence.  Win McNamee/Getty Images

The Coronavirus Is Trump's Latest Excuse to Militarize the Border  —  Leaked documents show Customs and Border Protection requested more than 1,500 extra troops to guard the Canadian and Mexican borders.  —  Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has requested the assistance …

Democrats delayed stimulus bill to insert tighter ban on Trump family profiting  —  The strengthened language was accidentally omitted due to a clerical oversight, according to people familiar with the situation.  —  From left to right, Ivanka Trump, Jared Kushner and Lara Trump.

Deborah Birx's important reminder about coronavirus worst-case scenarios  —  The novel coronavirus is spreading rapidly in certain areas of the country, killing hundreds, stretching hospitals to the brink in some cases and forcing the closure of large portions of our economy.

This Is a Man-Made Disaster, and That Man Is Donald Trump  —  We have literally gone from the most-prepared country in the world last fall to the country with the highest rate of spread of the virus in the world today  —  Thursday morning brought the news that U.S. jobless claims for last week were 3.3 million.

AG William Barr pushes expansion of home confinement to reduce prison populations amid coronavirus  —  Barr said he doesn't want prisons to become ‘petri dishes’ for the virus.  —  Amid concerns of the potentially devastating effects that an outbreak of the novel coronavirus could have within …

What Trump's coronavirus briefings are really about  —  If you've watched President Trump's daily press briefings about the coronavirus outbreak, you've learned how little you've learned.  Every time he talks about the pandemic, he tells us more about his narcissism than he does about the pandemic.

The wrong kind of American exceptionalism  —  Donald Trump's ambivalence on coronavirus threatens both the US and its global power  —  Within 48 hours, America's coronavirus infections will surpass China's total.  The US will probably replace Italy as the centre of the pandemic.

Heartland terror  —  Hi, and welcome to The Informant, a publication covering hate and extremism in America, written and edited by me, Nick R. Martin.  —  This is a breaking news article that will likely be updated.  Please subscribe to support independent journalism about these important topics.