| THE BIG STORY
Michigan is being hit hard by the coronavirus
The outbreak is spreading rapidly in the Detroit area, and the state now has the highest death toll in the country outside of New York and New Jersey. It has taken a particularly tough toll on Michigan’s healthcare workers, with almost 3,000 either testing positive or displaying symptoms of being infected by the virus.
“There has been a shortage of nursing staff throughout the hospital,” a nurse at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, who has tested positive, told Emma Loop. “I can honestly say the nervousness is apparent in many of us. Seeing each other getting sick just increases the anxiety that one of us might be next and bring it home to our family.”
The coronavirus is also tearing through Michigan’s nursing homes. While state officials don’t have official data on what’s happening at the facilities, an investigation by the Detroit Free Press found hundreds of confirmed cases and dozens of deaths at the state’s nursing homes.
BuzzFeed News published the investigation this weekend, as part of our project to promote local journalism from across the country. You can read the full article here.
Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. There are reportedly nearly 1,500 Beaumont employees that have coronavirus symptoms including 500 nurses. (Elaine Cromie / Getty Images) STAYING ON TOP OF THIS No relief money for sex workers
As part of its multi-trillion dollar economic relief package, the federal government is making loans — which in many cases don’t need to be paid back – available to businesses large and small. But not if those businesses employ strippers, or sell sex toys, or do any number of adult-oriented things.
An obscure federal regulation forbids the Small Business Administration, which is in charge of distributing about $350 billion in relief dollars, from making any money available to businesses that make money from activities of a “prurient sexual nature,” Otilia Steadman reports.
Preventing a whole bunch of legal, legitimate businesses from getting relief money purely because their line of work is “prurient” (Merriam Webster: marked by or arousing an immoderate or unwholesome interest or desire) is constitutionally dubious, First Amendment lawyers say. There has already been one lawsuit filed against the rule, and more are likely to follow.
SNAPSHOTS Ohio’s coronavirus outbreak is hitting hardest in Youngstown. It’s the latest blow for the steel town, whose population and wealth has been shrinking for decades.
The US Postal Service needs a bailout, but President Trump says it’s not going to happen. Post office supporters are buying up stamps in a symbolic show of solidarity.
Amazon says its staff who cannot work due to quarantine will be paid. Some staff under quarantine say that isn’t happening.
Tom Hanks hosted SNL from his home this weekend. “Ever since being diagnosed, I have been more like America’s dad than ever before since no one wants to be around me anymore and I make people uncomfortable,” he joked.
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HOW TO PLAGUE Etiquette for a pandemic How To Plague is BuzzFeed News' advice column for these incredibly confusing times, hosted by the one and only Katie Notopoulos. In this week’s edition, she tackles reader questions including: are we really meant to remain celibate until there’s a vaccine? Can you visit your boyfriend if you’re both socially isolating otherwise? And can nail biters keep up their favorite habit?
Do you have a question you want answered? Let it rip.
BuzzFeed News; Getty Images VOICES FROM BLAINE COUNTY
They’ve seen what’s coming
Blaine County, Idaho has one of the highest rates of coronavirus infections in the country – 452 confirmed cases in a population of just 23,000. The rural area surrounding the famous Sun Valley ski resort got hit by the virus early — thanks in part, many believe, to people fleeing big cities to their vacation homes.
“All of the problems facing Blaine County before COVID-19 are still there, but are now exacerbated by the crisis,” Anne Helen Petersen reports. The Hunger Coalition is now serving nearly triple their normal weekly numbers, with more people in need every week. Thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on the tourist economy, which has ground to a halt, are struggling to make ends meet. The school district is scrambling to figure out how to continue educating in a way that’s fair and equitable when at least a quarter of their students don’t have high-speed internet at home, either because of cost or remote location.
Peterson spoke with Blaine County residents about what their town has been through — something so many towns across the country are going to go through in the coming months. You can read everything they had to say here. A warning to backcountry users on Highway 75, north of Ketchum, Idaho. (Nick Price for BuzzFeed News) BUSTED FOR SMUTTY EASTER EGGS
Was I not supposed to do that?
A Florida woman was arrested for placing porn-filled Easter eggs in her people’s mailboxes.
Police arrested Abril Cestoni, 42, and say she admitted to distributing the eggs, which contained pamphlets and porgnographic images. She said she was “educating people,” the Flagler County Sheriff's Office said in a Facebook post.
A bag of porn was found in her car, and she told police she had distributed more than 400 pamphlets. “Thankfully she did not appear to be sick with COVID-19 symptoms,” Sheriff Rick Staly said, “but she certainly needs some help."
To be on the safe side, you should probably eat all your Easter eggs today,
Tom P.S. If you like this newsletter, help keep our reporting free for all. Support BuzzFeed News by becoming a member here. (monthly memberships are available worldwide) 📝 This letter was edited and brought to you by Tom Gara and BuzzFeed News. You can always reach us here.
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