He Could Have Seen What Was Coming: Behind Trump's Failure on the Virus  —  An examination reveals the president was warned about the potential for a pandemic but that internal divisions, lack of planning and his faith in his own instincts led to a halting response.

White House rejects bailout for U.S. Postal Service battered by coronavirus  —  The pandemic has pushed USPS to the brink, but Trump and Mnuchin shot down emergency aid  —  Through rain, sleet, hail, and even a pandemic, mail carriers serve every address in the United States …

Trump administration has many task forces — but still no plan for beating covid-19  —  The Trump administration still has no clear plan for ending the coronavirus crisis, but it does have many task forces.  —  There is the official task force led by Vice President Pence that meets daily …

Texas to Ease Coronavirus Lockdown Under Executive Order to ‘Restore Livelihoods,’ Governor Says  —  Republican governor of Texas Greg Abbott said he plans to allow businesses to reopen with an executive order that would lift the coronavirus lockdown in a “safe” way.

With Each Briefing, Trump Is Making Us Worse People  —  There has never been an American president as spiritually impoverished as Donald Trump.  And his spiritual poverty, like an overdrawn checking account that keeps imposing new penalties on a customer already in difficult straits …

Trump leaves trail of unmet promises in coronavirus response  —  WASHINGTON (AP) — For several months, President Donald Trump and his officials have cast a fog of promises meant to reassure a country in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic.  Trump and his team haven't delivered on critical ones.

How a stockpile of 39 million masks was exposed as fake  —  A powerful California union that claimed to have discovered 39 million masks for healthcare workers fighting the novel coronavirus was duped in an elaborate scam uncovered by FBI investigators, the U.S. attorney's office said Friday.

Footnotes in watchdog report indicate FBI knew of risk of Russian disinformation in Steele dossier  —  The FBI was warned sections of the controversial Steele dossier could have been part of a “Russian disinformation campaign to denigrate U.S. foreign relations,” according to newly declassified footnotes …

The Costly Toll of Not Shutting Down Spring Break Earlier  —  People got sick — and some died — after attending crowded parties and theme parks in Florida as the coronavirus spread.  —  MIAMI — You could find Beatriz Diaz at this spring's Winter Party Festival in Miami Beach, giving out hand sanitizer.

Life and Death as Hospitals Fight the Coronavirus in the Bronx  —  “If people saw this, they would stay home.”  What the war against the coronavirus looks like inside two Bronx hospitals.  —  This is not a time to die.  —  Terror, pain and loneliness mingle in the air with the coronavirus in the …

Experts fear ‘national naivete’ on COVID optimism  —  After an unprecedented month of strict social distancing and an economic lockdown that has cost tens of millions of jobs and untold billions in damage, Americans saw the faintest glimmers of hope last week that the worst of the coronavirus crisis may be passing.

Coronavirus In Five States  —  The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation produces the coronavirus model that currently seems to be getting the most attention.  For now, IHME is sticking with its projection of 61,545 COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. by August 4.

‘Playing games with numbers’: Florida COVID-19 test backlog worse than state says  —  Florida is significantly under-reporting the state's COVID-19 testing backlog, a blind spot in the data that could obscure the pandemic's size and hamper efforts to decide when it's safe to end restrictions …

Trump's Socially Distanced Campaign Backed by a new loyalist press secretary, the president's coronavirus briefings have replaced reelection rallies.  —  We're committed to keeping our readers informed. … Donald Trump glances up at the TVs on the wall or down at the newspapers on his desk.

Why Ron DeSantis' popularity has taken a hit since the pandemic started  —  The approval ratings of most governors have soared during the crisis.  DeSantis has seen his support plummet amid a confusing, conflicting response.  —  TALLAHASSEE — From New York to Ohio to California …

EXCLUSIVE: Public given sparse details on deadly outbreak  —  State agencies, hospitals, senior homes hold tight to key details about the coronavirus pandemic  —  Several times a week, Albany's elected leaders and health officials deliver sobering news updates to a besieged community …

Democrats look at the presidential contest with a new sentiment: Optimism  —  Harvard philosopher Cornel West, a prominent champion of Bernie Sanders's presidential ambitions, defiantly threw his support to the Green Party when Hillary Clinton, a politician he called a “neoliberal disaster,” sealed the Democratic nomination in 2016.

Dumped Milk, Smashed Eggs, Plowed Vegetables: Food Waste of the Pandemic  —  With restaurants, hotels and schools closed, many of the nation's largest farms are destroying millions of pounds of fresh goods that they can no longer sell.  —  In Wisconsin and Ohio, farmers are dumping thousands …

‘Unimaginable’ pain: Coronavirus robs Michigan woman of whole family  —  COVID-19 AFFECTED EVERY FACET OF A GRAND BLANC WOMAN'S GRIEF AS SHE DEALS WITH THE VIRUS-RELATED DEATHS OF HER HUSBAND AND ONLY CHILD  —  Grand Blanc — Sandy Brown tried to calm her son, Freddie, alone and scared in a hospital intensive care unit.

Slow Start for Rapid Coronavirus Tests Frustrates States  —  Most states received materials to conduct about 100 tests, regardless of population; 'I'm banging my head against the wall'  —  A rapid test for the new coronavirus that was touted by the White House as a game-changing development …

Furor Erupts: Billions Going To Hospitals Based On Medicare Billings, Not COVID-19  —  Probably few hospital systems need the emergency federal grants announced this week to handle the coronavirus crisis as badly as Florida's Jackson Health does.  —  Miami, its base of operations …

Abortion providers ask Supreme Court to intervene after Texas bans procedures citing coronavirus  —  The legal tug-of-war between Texas abortion providers and the state's leaders who want to ban the procedure during the coronavirus pandemic landed at the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday night.

As feds play ‘backup,’ states take unorthodox steps to compete in cutthroat global market for coronavirus supplies  —  Rushing to stave off a shortage of medical-grade protective gear to combat the spread of the coronavirus, Minnesota officials leaned on a local company's global connections …

5 Increasingly Hardball Versions of the Next Stimulus  —  The news out of Washington this week made it sound like Democrats are playing hardball on economic relief, blocking a Republican bill that didn't include their top priorities.  But the Democrats aren't really playing hardball.

India Press: Government Links Hydro Medicine Delivery to Trump's Support of India's H-1B Visa Workers  —  India's president is linking the delivery of U.S.-purchased hydroxychloroquine medicine to his demand that President Donald Trump help India's outsourcing workers stay past the expiration …

The Most Important 2020 States Already Have Vote by Mail  —  In the states that will likely decide the 2020 presidential election, Donald Trump has already lost his newly declared war against voting by mail.  —  All six of the swing states that both sides see as the most probable tipping points allow …

Cruz Slams Feinstein: Trying To Send Millions To Iran, While Blocking Relief To American Businesses  —  Texas Sen. Ted Cruz unloaded on his Democratic colleagues on Friday in response to Sen. Dianne Feinstein sending a letter to President Trump declaring that she is “disappointed” …

Bernie Sanders Proposes Emergency Version Of ‘Medicare For All’ For The Pandemic  —  Now off the campaign trail, the senator joined Rep. Pramila Jayapal to float a temporary universal health care program.  —  Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) is a full-time senator again, and he wants Democrats …

How many missed?  Texas is second-worst in the nation for COVID-19 testing  —  Six times in three weeks, Marci Rosenberg and her ailing husband and teenage children tried to get tested for the new coronavirus — only to be turned away each time, either for not meeting narrow testing criteria …

'IT'S NOT THE END' NY Gov Cuomo channels Winston Churchill and warns re-opening the country too fast will end more lives  —  NEW York Governor Cuomo declared “this is not the end” of the coronavirus crisis as he cautioned against re-opening the country too quickly.