There have now been 85,000 COVID-19 deaths in the United States.
In today's news:
• The conservative-dominated Wisconsin Supreme Court today struck down the Wisconsin governor's emergency stay-at-home order. Over 400 Wisconsin citizens have died due to the pandemic, some after the court ordered in-person elections to take place as scheduled despite the pandemic risk. The court ruled remotely rather than meeting in person.
• The White House is pushing the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention to reduce the number of reported COVID-19 deaths by excluding "presumed" positive cases from the official death toll; due to the lack of available testing, the bodies of those that die without tests can be performed are not necessarily tested postmortem, even if their symptoms and contacts were consistent with COVID-19 infection. Most experts, including administration expert Dr. Anthony Fauci, believe pandemic deaths are being significantly undercounted.
• Department of Health and Human Services whistleblower Dr. Rick Bright warned that "our window of opportunity is closing," and that without a national coordinated response "2020 will be the darkest winter in modern history."
• Childhood food insecurity in the United States has quadrupled since the pandemic began, but the Trump administration continues to block most relief.
• The Federal Reserve finds that nationwide, nearly 40% of Americans earning less than $40,000 a year were laid off last month.
• Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner refused to "commit one way or another" on whether the November presidential elections would be postponed. The White House later clarified that Kushner "knows" that the date of those elections is set by federal law.
• An Austin, Texas health official told the city council that "the people who are getting sick right now are generally people who are working. That risk is going to increase the more people are working."
• House Democrats unveiled "HEROES Act" allocates $3 trillion in additional pandemic relief funds. But it does not include the $2,000 monthly payments previously in discussion, and retains the troubled Paycheck Protection Program.
• In a begrudging move to acknowledge new pandemic realities, House Democrats will move forward with a rule change allowing for members to vote by proxy during the pandemic.
• The CDC guidelines on reopening states after pandemic conditions ease are even more detailed than previous news reports indicated. Agency experts were told the plans would "never see the light of day" after Trump officials objected to releasing them.
• Despite those and other expert warnings, Republican voters remain disproportionately convinced that the pandemic virus can be contained if social distancing rules are eased. Republican voters are also more likely to prioritize lessening economic damage over reducing U.S. deaths.
• Nearly eight hundred healthcare workers have signed a public letter calling on the CDC to end the Stephen Miller-pushed Trump administration order halting asylum requests by immigrants, instead summarily deporting refugee children in large numbers. The order is "not based on evidence or science" and "directly endangers tens of thousands of lives," write the signing health professionals.
• Thousands of U.S. citizens barred from pandemic relief by the Trump administration because they are married to immigrants are asking to be added to a lawsuit against the administration demanding that rule be overturned.
• Colorado State University is providing $1,500 in relief to each of 400 students who could not qualify for federal pandemic aid.
• Michigan militia extremists intend to lead another round of armed protests in Lansing tomorrow, after issuing numerous violent threats against Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and other state officials.
• The sister of a Salvadoran man who died in a privately-run Immigrations and Customs Enforcement detention center after testing positive for the virus says the facilities "don't care about the people" they are detaining. "These are private institutions making money off of immigrants."
• Convicted former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, who has remained loyal to Trump, will serve the remainder of his prison sentence for tax and bank fraud from home after being approved for release by the Department of Justice due to the COVID-19 threat. Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, who testified against Trump to lawmakers, had his own release rescinded after an order from Attorney General William Barr.
• College students remain eager to return to campuses in the fall, even if a vaccine is not available.
• A Colorado restaurant that defied lockdown orders to host a packed Mother's Day crowd has been shut down by public health officials.
• In California, 90 Yosemite National Park-based employees of food service giant Aramark were evicted from their subsidized park housing despite a statewide moratorium on evictions.