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Above the Fold

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• In a 388-5-1 vote, the House yesterday sent to President Trump’s desk another relief package totaling $484 billion. According to The Hill, “The massive package is the fourth coronavirus bill to move through Congress over the last seven weeks, and brings the federal response to the global pandemic up to a whopping $2.8 trillion.” And guess what? “Pelosi and House Democrats have already been working feverishly on that next package, dubbed CARES 2.”

• “The Treasury Department said Thursday that it was asking approximately 150 publicly traded firms to repay nearly $600 million in loans they received from the federal program designed to help small businesses,” National Review reports. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated: “The intent of this money was not for big, public companies that have access to capital.”

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The Latest on Coronavirus

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• According to Bill Bryan, the head of the DHS science and technology directorate, “Our most striking observation to date is the powerful effect that solar light appears to have on killing the virus both [on] surfaces and in the air. We’ve seen a similar effect with both temperature and humidity as well where increasing the temperature or humidity or both is generally less favorable to the virus.” Bring on summer!

• Analysis from the New York State Health Department reveals that 13% of New Yorkers may contain COVID-19 antibodies. In other words, the true infection rate is inexorably higher than data currently implies.

• Meanwhile, a new study finds 94% of virus patients in the New York City hospital system had underlying conditions (The Daily Wire)

• Worse-case scenario avoided: The 500-bed U.S. Navy hospital ship Comfort is leaving New York City after treating just 179 patients in three weeks (Business Insider)

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Government & Politics

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• Barack Obama this week wrote that “we continue to wait for a coherent national plan to navigate this pandemic.” The negligent former president, Matt Margolis reminds us, “is the last person in the world who should be criticizing the federal response to a pandemic” given the reality that “he botched not one, but two pandemics.”

• A Democrat super PAC ad alleges that Trump “shipped China 17 tons of American masks and medical supplies.” But even The Washington Post says “the specific instance highlighted in the ad is framed in a misleading way,” adding that said medical supplies were donated by non-government entities for distribution by the international healthcare organization Project HOPE.

• The Washington Examiner says that “U.S. Attorney John Durham has expanded his team as his review of the Trump-Russia investigators ramps up during the coronavirus pandemic.” The Examiner also recently reported that Durham was tasked by Attorney General William Barr “to focus just as much on the FBI’s actions after Trump’s election in November 2016 as those before it.”

• Adding even more credence to Durham’s probe, “Christopher Steele told a British court last month that he no longer has documents and other information from his meetings with the main source for his Trump dossier, suggesting that the former British spy has no way of backing up his side in a dispute with the Justice Department’s inspector general (IG), according to a deposition transcript obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.”

• Good luck finding that in the U.S. Constitution… Divided Sixth Circuit Panel discovers a constitutional right to a “basic minimum education” (The Volokh Conspiracy)

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Culture & Heartland

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• Exhibit A in how the welfare state grows: Small-business owner gets relief loan to keep employees on payroll, but now her employees are angry over having to forgo their $600-a-week incentive in weekly unemployment (The Daily Wire)

• The burgeoning Nanny State was further exemplified in low-populated (read: lower risk) Idaho this week. A 40-year-old mother “was noncompliant and refused to leave [a playground structure] after being given many opportunities, so she was arrested on one count of misdemeanor trespassing,” according to the Meridian Police Department.

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Other Notables

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• At least 840 sailors on the USS Roosevelt test positive for coronavirus (New York Post)

• White House planning major health deregulation push as coronavirus needs smash “obsolete rules” (Washington Examiner)

• Isn’t it a little late to “oversee the response”? House votes to create coronavirus investigative panel GOP calls political (Washington Examiner)

• Michigan Gov. Whitmer faces protest outside her home as lawmakers mull curbing her powers (Fox News)

• The Left must be thrilled: Church donations have plunged because of the coronavirus. Some churches won’t survive. (The Washington Post)

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Closing Arguments

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• Policy: Central banks and the next crisis: From deflation to stagflation (Mises Institute)

• Policy: Creative entrepreneurialism and Special Economic Zones: Two things that can rescue the world when the COVID-19 pandemic is over (Foundation for Economic Education)

• Satire: Nancy Pelosi assures Democrat reps they don’t need to try being productive during stressful pandemic (The Onion)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit In Our Sights.

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