By Andy Hirschfeld
@andyreports
Happy Friday,
Here’s some stuff you may have missed and you should know about plus the latest on my work out this week.
THE COVID COUNT
As of Friday at 11:37 AM ET there are more than 1.4 million cases in the United States and almost 86 thousand deaths.
Globally there has more than 4.4 million cases and more than 303 thousand people died.
Money Problems Amplified
The Associated Press reports that nearly 36 million people have sought unemployment benefits since the onset of the COVID-19 outbreak. A whooping 3 million people applied for unemployment benefits last week.
The House passed a new relief package that would help fund local and state departments, provide more resources to families and give Americans another stimulus check. The President said the bill, if it makes it to his desk, is dead on arrival.
This bill would also protect first responders who are risking their lives on a daily basis and facing cuts because of lacking funds.
Lay offs, Lay offs and oh more lay offs
More layoffs across the board at Conde Nast, Quartz, and Buzzfeed this week for those of you in the media biz following this story.
Working From Home?
Earlier this week, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey announced that employees of the company can work from home ‘forever’ while other big tech giants like Facebook and Google will have work from home policies until the end of the year.
On the other-hand, despite public officials advising against opening, Tesla CEO Elon Musk opened up his plant in southern California.
This Week on The Coffee Break:
The Global Response to COVID-19 has showed us a lot about how to address climate change. With cars off the road, smog has declined and visibility is up in cities like LA and Seoul. Sea life has even returned to the Venice canals. Could this be a catalyst for bigger change? What are the takeaways? Lorah Steichen and Lindsay Koshgarian of The National Priorities Project sit down with me.
The Coffee Break Podcast is available on Bleav Podcast Network as well as anywhere you choose to listen to podcasts.
FIVE STORIES THAT SHOULD BE ON YOUR RADAR
Senate Votes to Allow FBI to Look at Your Web Browsing History Without a Warrant VICE
America’s Senators Are Just Like Your Colleagues: Pretty Bad at Zoom Mother Jones
If Landlords Get Wiped Out, Wall Street Wins, Not Renters Bloomberg
It took one question for a reporter to expose Trump’s latest baseless Obama conspiracy theory Vox
Which Businesses Should Reopen First? A New MIT Study Has Answers. Marker
A New Way To Help Essential Workers?
New Yorkers checkout this new service called ‘Coronametro’
It’s a MetroCard exchange that directly connects those of us working from home and aren’t using the train to help those essential workers who still need to. The site started by Ashley Stinnett has seen 2500 users signups since its launch.
Check it out!
ON THE BOOK: Because of the developments attached to COVID-19 the book will be released as part of this email newsletter but only open to paid subscribers (those who bought the book). The content will be released over the course of several months in a series of posts. The forward came out earlier this week.
A QUESTION FOR YOU—
What’s on your Quarantine playlist? What songs are keeping you going through this time? Get in touch and let me know. I’ll include include some in next week’s newsletter.
Email by Wednesday May 20 to have your answer considered. andy@andyreports.com
News tips, pitches, questions, concerns, and/or hate mail?
Email me: andy@andyreports.com //// for encrypted messages DM on Twitter for Signal.
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