Stranger Than Fiction

You can support the newsletter that you’re reading right now using PayPal, Venmo, CashApp, or purchase a subscription on Substack.Don’t forget to join us in the Stranger Slack for access to source documents and a running feed of news throughout the day.

TOP NEWS

• New York sent recovering COVID-19 patients to nursing homes. 5,398 people are either confirmed or presumed to have died from COVID-19 in New York nursing homes as of May 12, the highest of any state. “The fact we maintained and pushed Covid-positive patients into facilities that were not equipped to handle them, it was a fatal error.”

• An additional three million workers applied for unemployment benefits last week. About 36.5 million Americans have filed applications in the past eight weeks, with weekly totals remaining at or above three million a week.

• Senator being investigated for stock trades steps down from intel committee chair. Sen. Richard Burr will temporarily step down as the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after FBI agents seized his cellphone as part of their probe into his stock trades ahead of a market sell-off over COVID-19 fears.

• Ousted health official warns House committee outbreak would “get worse and be prolonged” without a national testing strategy. The whistle-blower had been removed as head of a federal medical research agency. He claimed top Trump administration officials failed to heed his early warnings to stock up on masks and other supplies to combat the coronavirus, and that Americans died as a result.

• CDC guidelines severely edited by White House. The CDC issued six pages of recommendations to guide schools, businesses, day-care facilities and others into the next phase of COVID-19. The White House at first shelved the CDC guidelines. When asked about them, the White House said they were “overly specific” and in the process of being revised.

WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO

• “The Eagle Plan” offers $10,000 in exchange for a reduction in your federal retirement benefits.

• Almost 40% of households earning less than $40,000 a year experienced at least one job loss in March.

• Gravediggers unearth corpses to make room for a mega-resort that will include a Trump-branded hotel and golf course.

• There haven’t been a lot of stories of foresight and preparedness in this pandemic. This is one.

THE COMMENT

“While most New Yorkers appear to have embraced masks, it is a different story in other parts of the country. Everything is partisan in the US now, even death. As such, masks have become a political statement. Democrats are far more likely than Republicans to say that they will wear one (76% versus 59%), according to a recent poll. Wearing one signals that you believe in science; that you believe in putting the greater good ahead of your individual comfort. To some people, they are a sign of solidarity; to others, they signify that you are a liberal snowflake. They have become the opposite of Donald Trump’s “Make America Great Again” caps.” - Arwa Mahdawi

THE STRANGEST

• One of the country’s most renowned restaurants says mannequins will add a touch of whimsy and help with social distancing when customers return to its grand dining room later this month.

THE AV ROOM