Stranger Than Fiction

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TOP NEWS

• New York begins to reopen. New York will ease some coronavirus-related restrictions and open "certain low risk businesses and recreational activities" statewide starting May 15.

• Outdated state unemployment systems turn to Google and Amazon. Google is working with New York and Illinois, among others, to upgrade their labor departments’ decades-old computer systems. Rhode Island and Kansas employed Amazon Web Services, using the same system Amazon uses during Black Friday sales events.

• Bitcoin halved. Bitcoin has just experienced a once-in-four-years event: its third halving, which has cut the miner block reward from 12.5 BTC to 6.25 BTC. Bitcoin miners use high-powered computers to “mint” bitcoins and in return receive a reward in the form of bitcoin. The halving events are intended to stabilizing the price of bitcoin by managing the supply. As Bitcoin’s supply is limited to 21 million coins, Bitcoin halving events should continue to take place until the year 2140, or until the 21-millionth BTC. There are currently just over 18 million bitcoins in circulation.

• SCOTUS hears arguments on Trump’s income tax returns today. President Trump’s personal lawyers, backed by the Justice Department, will ask the Supreme Court on Tuesday to quash subpoenas seeking documents he has guarded fiercely for years: his financial records including income-tax returns.

WHAT I’M READING + WATCHING + LISTENING TO

• Quibi films cost up to $100,000 per minute.

• 📺 Trial By Media on Netflix

• TSA stockpiled N95 masks at empty airports, sat unused as hospitals struggled

• When COVID-19 hits food deserts

THE COMMENT

“The Feb. 23 killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery demonstrates that the use of deadly violence to control black citizenship continues. Arbery was running in a neighborhood where white residents deemed he didn’t belong. A 911 caller simply described Arbery as “a black male running down the street.” Within minutes, he was hunted by white men in a pickup truck, who shot and killed him. A police investigation apparently identified more than a dozen witnesses. Nevertheless, neither the shooter, Travis McMichael, nor any of his accomplices — his father, George McMichael, and apparently one other man — were arrested until a video of the shooting was released two months later, sparking outrage and demands for justice.” - Sherrilyn Ifill

THE STRANGEST

• Snake climbs into ATM machine in India

THE AV ROOM