Thursday, April 30 coronavirus & top news briefs

Hello, welcome to The Daily Moth! It is Thursday, April 30. Here are coronavirus and top news briefs. 

A funeral home in Brooklyn had two U-Haul trucks parked outside with bodies of those who died from COVID-19. The trucks were not refrigerated and neighbors called police because there was a very strong odor. CBS News said the bodies were put on ice, but clearly that was not enough to control the odor. The funeral home was overwhelmed with bodies and that’s why they resorted to U-Haul trucks, but after a police response, now there is a refrigerated truck. 

The New York Times said Alabama, Maine, Tennessee, Texas, Iowa, North Dakota, and Wyoming will either end their stay-at-home orders or ease rules to allow some businesses to reopen. Texas will allow retail stores, restaurants, movie theaters, and malls to reopen and operate at 25 percent capacity. Georgia, Oklahoma, Alaska, Montana, and South Carolina have already started to reopen. California, New York, Illinois, and Michigan have extended their lockdown or stay-at-home orders. So they are going in different directions. 

mlive.com reported that a judge in Michigan said the state’s stay-at-home order does not violate the constitutional rights of state residents because of the public health risk posed by the coronavirus outbreak. This was in response to a lawsuit filed by five Michigan residents against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D).The judge said the stay-at-home order does “temporary harm” to the constitutional rights, but it doesn’t violate them. There were 400 to 700 protesters who entered the Michigan State Capitol building, some armed with long rifles and not wearing masks, to demand the state legislature to not extend the stay-at-home order past May 15. 

NASCAR said they would hold seven races in 11 days in North and South Carolina, but without spectators. 

An additional 3.8 million people filed for unemployment benefits last week. That means there are over 30 million people filing for unemployment over the past six weeks. It is likely there are many more that have not been able to file due to problems with state agencies being overwhelmed. We also have to consider all the “under the table” jobs that may have dried up because of the pandemic. 

New York City said starting next week, they would halt subway service between 1 a.m. and 5 a.m. to disinfect trains. The subway is normally a 24/7 service. 

Vice President Mike Pence used a face mask today during a visit to a General Motors plant in Indiana. He did not use a mask during a visit to Mayo Clinic in Minnesota on Tuesday and was criticized for it. Pence’s wife, Karen, said that Mike did not know about the policy, but Mayo Clinic said in a tweet that they had informed Mike about the policy prior to his arrival.  He’s now wearing a mask.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) said that the Maryland National Guard and state police is guarding coronavirus test kits that arrived from South Korea due to concerns that the federal government / FEMA might interfere with it. 

Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin has tested positive for COVID-19. This image from BBC News shows him telling Russian President Vladimir Putin via a video call about his diagnosis. The PM will go into isolation. Russia has over 100,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and just over 1,000 deaths. 

Joe Biden was endorsed by Hillary Clinton on Tuesday. The controversy over Biden’s sexual assault accusation is still swirling. Tara Reade said Biden digitally raped her in the mid-1990’s when she worked for the then-Senator. Biden’s campaign has denied that it happened. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said today that she is satisfied with how Biden has responded and said there was no information about the assault brought up by other people who worked with Biden at the time. 

Republican lawmakers have pushed Biden to release private documents from his time as a Senator to see if there was a complaint filed by Reade. They have also criticized Democratic leaders for not responding to Reade’s accusation in the same way that they did with the accusations against Brett Kavanaugh. 

In separate news, Biden announced a vice presidential selection committee. He promised that his pick would be a woman. 

There was a new controversy over Michael Flynn that surfaced overnight. There were documents that showed FBI agents discussing on if they wanted to catch Flynn in a lie or to make him admit that he broke the Logan Act when he told Russia in a private discussion after Trump’s election, but before his inauguration, that Russia did not have to worry about the Obama administration’s sanctions. Flynn was later fired in February 2017 for lying to Vice President Mike Pence about his conversations with Russia and was charged with lying to the FBI. Flynn pleaded guilty, but now wants to withdraw his plea. President Trump said Flynn was unfairly treated and recently said he was strongly considering pardoning him. His federal criminal court proceedings has been postponed. 

That is all the news updates for today. Check out our Deaf News story. See you tomorrow and stay with the light! 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bodies-u-haul-trucks-new-york-funeral-home-covid-19/

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/30/us/coronavirus-tracker-live.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

https://www.cnn.com/2020/04/30/politics/larry-hogan-coronavirus-masks-national-guard/index.html

https://www.axios.com/larry-hogan-maryland-coronavirus-tests-national-guard-10750734-7c9b-4bbe-8f9c-3d8ffcd236bf.html

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/coronavirus-government-response-updates-wh-social-distancing-guidelines/story?id=70425592&cid=clicksource_4380645_2_heads_hero_live_hero_hed

https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-europe-52491205

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/pelosi-says-she-remains-satisfied-with-bidens-response-to-sexual-assault-allegation-praises-his-integrity/2020/04/30/e3f3c49c-8ae6-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/flynn-bombshell-stirs-speculation-over-possible-dismissal-pardon

https://www.axios.com/fbi-documents-flynn-plea-case-3b9d87ba-e270-4509-a866-3996da53b117.html