Empty Tables, Cancelled Reservations, Lost Shifts: Restaurants Scramble to Recalibrate
A waiter stands at a restaurant in Monterey Park, Calif., Thursday, March 12, 2020. Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP Amid the chaos of the COVID-19 pandemic, restaurants are already taking a massive hit. In Seattle, an early hotspot for the spread of the infection in the United States, the prominent Tom Douglas Seattle Kitchen group announced it…
Denying Reality Is Finally Biting Republicans in the Ass
Shealah Craighead/White House/ZUMA Politico reporter Dan Diamond on President Trump’s listless attitude toward coronavirus testing: My understanding is he did not push to do aggressive additional testing in recent weeks, and that’s partly because more testing might have led to more cases being discovered of coronavirus outbreak, and the president had made clear — the…
Lunchtime Photo — Throwback Thursday
This week’s edition of Throwback Thursday is curated by my sister. The picture is of the Bridge of Sighs in Venice, which famously led convicted criminals from the courthouse to the prison and—poetically speaking, at least—gave them their last look at beautiful Venice. The song is Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street,” presumably because my sister is…
Joe Biden’s Coronavirus Speech Was Everything Trump’s Wasn’t
Matt Rourke/AP On Wednesday night, President Donald Trump addressed the nation from the Oval Office and offered a series of false statements about the global coronavirus pandemic and his administration’s plan to stop it. The United States is “more prepared” than similarly afflicted countries. (No, it isn’t.) He would be blocking virtually all people and…
Will the Coronavirus Make Voting by Mail the New National Reality?
It seems that the steps to address the spread of the Coronavirus are becoming more intense with every hour. The NBA is putting its season on “hiatus,” as other sports leagues around the world are doing or have done the same. The president is canceling speaking engagements, and banning certain travel from Europe. Everybody is buying…
Rep. Katie Porter Just Got a Trump Administration Official to Promise Free Coronavirus Tests
Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP As the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread across the country, one of the underlying problems that has emerged in the federal government’s bungled response has been the potential costs associated with seeking COVID-19 testing. As Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) explained during a House oversight committee hearing on Thursday, an…