Month: May 2020

On Wednesday evening, Republicans on the Wisconsin Supreme Court issued a broad order striking down that state’s stay-at-home order, which was issued by the head of the state’s health department to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Among other things, the court’s decision concludes that the state health department exceeded its authority by instructing people to stay at home, and by “forbidding travel and closing businesses” deemed nonessential.

The case is Wisconsin Legislature v. Palm.

The Court’s order was 4-3, with Justice Brian Hagedorn, a Republican initially appointed to a lower state court by former Gov. Scott Walker (R), …

Doctors in 15 US states are reporting that at least 164 children have fallen sick with a rare inflammatory illness similar to a condition known as Kawasaki disease. Symptoms include fever and inflammation and can affect organs, including the heart. Some of the children have tested positive for Covid-19 or have antibodies to the virus, and three have died.

Breonna Taylor’s mother was worried about her daughter getting coronavirus.

An EMT who wanted to be a nurse, the 26-year-old Taylor was an essential worker providing health care as the pandemic worsened earlier this year.

Her mother, Tamika Palmer, told her, “make sure you wash your hands,” Palmer recalled to the 19th, a nonprofit newsroom that partnered with the Washington Post for the story.

She didn’t think Taylor would be at risk in her own home. But late at night on March 13, Taylor was fatally shot by police in her Louisville, Kentucky, apartment. The officers were investigating two …

The connection between cartoons and youth often casts an unfair stigma: that cartoons are for kids, kids who can suspend disbelief to relate to talking to animals or who still believe that magic can exist.

That’s not only an unfair assessment, it’s inaccurate. Animation is a medium through which all kinds of stories can be told, including stories as emotionally complicated and textured as those of any prestige drama. Not all cartoons are cheeky or slapstick; not all cartoons are meant to impart lessons to kids who are still figuring out the world. Plenty aim to relate to and entertain …

A New York Times story in April chronicled the chaos within the Trump White House as it initially responded to the coronavirus pandemic. One of the throwaway revelations in that piece was that the president’s delayed reaction to the crisis was partially due to his fears about the “deep state.”

“Mr. Trump’s response,” the authors write, “was colored by his suspicion of and disdain for what he viewed as the ‘deep state,’ the very people in his government whose expertise and long experience might have guided him more quickly toward steps that would slow the virus, and likely save lives.”…

A special election to fill the US House of Representatives seat left vacant by former California Democratic Rep. Katie Hill’s resignation is being held Tuesday, May 12.

The race, considered a toss-up by Cook Political Report, is being closely watched in part because of the circumstances that led to Hill’s leaving Congress and in part because the race is widely seen as previewing how the coronavirus pandemic will affect November’s elections. It also represents an opportunity for the Republican Party to retake one of the seats Democrats successfully flipped in the 2018 midterms.

Whoever wins the race — either …

Dr. Anthony Fauci was careful not to directly rebuke President Donald Trump during Tuesday’s Senate hearing on the coronavirus pandemic. Even so, the totality of his testimony undermined talking points Trump has used to downplay the pandemic while pushing for the premature opening of businesses and schools.

Fauci — who as director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases is the government’s top infectious disease expert — made clear that he thinks states should pump the breaks on reopening until the number of new cases per day starts going down. And with one notable exception, senators — even …

Elon Musk has reopened Tesla’s factory in Fremont, California, pushing back against local public health officials who declined to give the company authorization to resume production. After previously doubting the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic, threatening to move Tesla’s headquarters out of California, and even filing a federal lawsuit, Musk has now volunteered to be the first one arrested for defying the county’s order, though that’s yet to happen.

“I will be on the line with everyone else,” the Tesla CEO tweeted on Monday afternoon. “If anyone is arrested, I ask that it only be me.”

On Monday, a local …

Aimee Stephens, the trans woman at the center of the first trans rights case to be fully heard by the US Supreme Court, died Tuesday while in hospice care at home, according to her brother-in-law John Pedit. She was 59 years old.

“Aimee is an inspiration. She has given so many hope for the future of equality for LGBTQ people in our country, and she has rewritten history,” Stephens’s wife, Donna Stephens, said in a statement. ”The outpouring of love and support is our strength and inspiration now.”

Stephens was fired from her job in 2013 when she told …