Supreme Court tosses gun case + orders payment to insurers under Obamacare; U.S. Intelligence warned Trump of virus in Jan/Feb; Pelosi suggests universal income + indicates voting by proxy a go.
NewsHero - April 28, 2020 - Issue 86
Welcome to today’s edition of NewsHero for April 28, 2020.
**Now through June 1, 2020, new annual subscriptions to NewsHero will each be contributing 25% to the World Health Organization’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund**
At NewsHero we put the heroes in the headlines and give them the attention that they deserve. Our coverage puts the focus on those who are helping, over those causing harm. Here you’ll find the same top-priority issues, but you won’t find clickbait, and what you read won’t be driven by ad sales.
Our heroes are identified as follows:
🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, hands down. - Meaning that it wasn’t even a close call.
🦸♀️🦸♀️ - the hero, but… - Meaning that in this situation the call needed to be looked at in a little more detail. For example, in this case, they did the right thing but there have been some questionable calls in the past.
🦸♀️ - the hero, but only here, and it was a close call. - Meaning that in this instance they did the right thing but it was either out of character or a maddeningly close call.
NewsHero Notes
The Pentagon - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
The Pentagon on Monday officially released three unclassified videos taken by Navy pilots showing interactions with “unidentified aerial phenomena.” One of the videos is from 2004, and the other two are from January 2015, according to Defense Department spokeswoman Sue Gough, reports CBS News.
CAMS scientists - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
Scientists tracking an ozone hole that formed over the Arctic—eventually growing into the largest ever recorded there—announced last week that it has closed, reports CNN. The scientists, at Copernicus’ Atmospheric Monitoring Service (CAMS), say the hole was not caused by human activity.
Afternoon Brief
Gun control advocates - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
The U.S Supreme Court on Monday pushed aside a major decision on gun rights in a dispute over New York City’s former ban on transporting guns.
The justices tossed out a challenge from gun rights groups, including the NRA’s New York affiliate. The court ruled that the city’s move to ease restrictions on taking licensed, locked and unloaded guns outside the city limits, coupled with a change in state law to prevent New York from reviving the ban, left the court with nothing to decide.
The news came as a disappointment to gun rights advocates and a relief to gun control groups, who thought a conservative majority might use the case to expand on decisions from a decade ago that established a right to keep a gun at home for self-defense.
U.S. Supreme Court - 🦸♀️🦸♀️
The federal government must “honor its obligations” and pay private insurers $12 billion owed to them under an Obamacare provision aimed at encouraging them to offer medical coverage to uninsured Americans, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday.
The 8-1 ruling authored by liberal Justice Sonia Sotomayor paves the way for a significant one-time cash infusion for major companies such as Humana Inc, Anthem Inc and Centene Corp. The justices reversed a lower court’s ruling that Congress had suspended the government’s obligation to make such payments under the Affordable Care Act, widely known as Obamacare.
“We appreciate that today’s Supreme Court 8-1 decision ensures that the federal government honors the obligations it made for services the private sector already delivered,” said Matt Eyles, president of America’s Health Insurance Plans, an industry group representing insurers.
Human Rights Watch - 🦸♀️🦸♀️🦸♀️
A 31-page report from Human Rights Watch, “‘Disability Is Not Weakness’: Discrimination and Barriers Facing Women and Girls with Disabilities in Afghanistan,” was published today.
The report is based primarily on research by Human Rights Watch researchers from April 2018 through January 2020, via interviews with women with disabilities and family members of women and girls with disabilities. Healthcare and education professionals, including representatives from the U.N. and international and local NGOs providing services to persons with disabilities in Afghanistan, were interviewed as well, the group says.
Human Rights Watch concludes with a number of recommendations to the government of Afghanistan, including a review of legislation and policies, increased public awareness, equal access to education, and establishing accessible and confidential complaint mechanisms.
U.S. Intelligence Reportedly Issued Trump Virus Warnings Throughout Jan. and Feb.
Democrats signal moving forward with proxy voting, with or without Republican support
“I Am Essential” is written on the back of a medical worker’s protective gear at a COVID-19 drive-thru testing facility in Farmington Hills, Michigan. (Emily Elconin/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
NewsHero is continuing to offer a compilation of stories and resources that best represent the current state of the coronavirus pandemic, centered on those individuals, institutions, and organizations stepping up to end this crisis as quickly and effectively as possible. The public, too, has a duty. This includes staying responsibly informed and taking the situation seriously, while remaining as cool-headed and as isolated as possible. These are strange and difficult times, but we will endure.
U.S. intelligence issued warnings about the coronavirus in briefings prepared for Donald Trump as far back as January and February, reports The Washington Post.
Scientists at Oxford’s Jenner Institute have a head start in the global race for a COVID-19 vaccine, already proving in earlier trials that some inoculations, including one last year against another coronavirus, were harmless to humans, reports The New York Times.
The White House announced a new strategy Monday to help states boost their capacity to test for coronavirus, saying most of its work is done, CNBC reports.
According to new analysis by Harvard researchers and STAT, more than half of U.S. states need to greatly increase COVID-19 testing to consider easing stay-at-home orders beyond May 1.
Give “The State of Testing,” today’s edition of The Daily podcast from The New York Times, a listen here.
Andy Slavitt, former director of Medicare and Medicaid in the Obama administration, and Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA chief for Donald Trump, are calling for a $46 billion public health investment in a future coronavirus aid package in order to safely reopen the economy, reports NPR.
CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, and Kroger are among the retailers announcing plans Monday to expand their COVID-19 testing capacity as states look to loosen sat-at-home orders, reports CNBC.
A nursery created this aerial spectacle by snapping the heads off 3 million tulips in a field in Bant, the Netherlands. (Wilbert Bijzitter/ANP/AFP via Getty Images)
The IRS announced on Sunday it had made “significant enhancements” to the Get My Payment app for the public to check on the status of coronavirus stimulus payments.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Monday that Congress might need to consider a universal basic income for Americans amid the pandemic.
Democrats intend to move forward with voting by proxy during the coronavirus crisis, regardless of Republican support, reports Politico.
A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds Democrats are now much more likely than Republicans to support their state conducting elections exclusively by mail, 47% to 29%.
Stanford Internet Observatory researchers say Facebook and YouTube should not allow paid political ads from state-controlled media outlets, reports The Washington Post.
Committee to Protect Journalists is calling on Chinese authorities to release and drop all charges against two media workers arrested for sharing censored news articles.
Committee to Protect Journalists says Iranian authorities should immediately drop their investigations into journalists Masoud Heydari and Hamid Haghjoo, arrested for their alleged connection to a cartoon mocking the country’s leaders over their response to the coronavirus pandemic.
Extra! Extra!
We mentioned here on April 15 Tom Moore, the 99-year-old British World War II veteran, who, as of then, had raised more than $9 million in donations for the NHS—the U.K.’s National Health Service.
Moore planned to walk 100 laps of the back garden at his home near London before his 100th birthday on April 30. His original fundraising goal was $1,250.
With his birthday fast approaching, Capt. Moore has now raised over $36 million. He “extended his challenge to 200 laps after he completed the first 100 laps 14 days ahead of schedule,” reports BBC News.
In honor of his birthday and accomplishments, Royal Mail is stamping all letters this week with a special postmark: “Happy 100th Birthday Captain Thomas Moore NHS fundraising hero 30th April 2020.”
Happy birthday, good sir.
All mail sent until Friday will be stamped with the commemorative postmark. (Royal Mail /PA Media)
Sources:
Pentagon formally releases 3 Navy videos showing "unidentified aerial phenomena" - CBS News
The largest-ever Arctic ozone hole developed this spring. Now, scientists say it's closed. - CNN
Supreme Court dismisses anticipated New York gun rights case because the law in question has been rescinded - Washington Post
Court tosses NY case that could have expanded gun rights - AP News
Supreme Court declines to rule on its first guns case in a decade - CNBC
Supreme Court rejects Republican effort to sabotage Obamacare - Vox
Supreme Court tells U.S. government to pay insurers $12 billion under Obamacare - Reuters
Supreme Court Says US Must Pay Obamacare Insurers $12B - NPR
Supreme Court rules government must pay billions to Obamacare insurers - Politico
Discrimination and Barriers Facing Women and Girls with Disabilities in Afghanistan - Human Rights Watch
Afghan Women, Girls With Disabilities Face Discrimination, Obstacles: HRW - RFE/RL
President’s intelligence briefing book repeatedly cited virus threat - Washington Post
With a head start, Oxford scientists say their vaccine could be available by September. If it works. - The New York Times
Trump coronavirus strategy: White House claims most testing groundwork done - CNBC
Many states short of Covid-19 testing levels needed for reopening - STAT News
The State Of Testing - The Daily
Slavitt, Gottlieb Seek Money For Contact Tracing, Self-Isolation - NPR
Coronavirus: Retailers will detail plans for testing at White House - CNBC
IRS says it has upgraded the coronavirus stimulus payment app - CNBC
Pelosi says universal basic income could be 'worthy of attention now' as coronavirus stifles economy - CNBC
Did the Paycheck Protection Program Hit the Target? - SSRN via Axios
Democrats to plow ahead with proxy voting over GOP resistance - Politico
AP-NORC poll: Rising support for mail voting amid pandemic - AP News
China Muzzling Covid Critics: Daily Brief - Human Rights Watch
Chinese police detain 2 volunteers who collect and share censored news, 1 more missing - Committee to Protect Journalists
Iran arrests 2 journalists for allegedly sharing cartoon mocking government’s COVID-19 response - Committee to Protect Journalists
Coronavirus: Captain Tom Moore gets Royal Mail birthday postmark - BBC News