WHAT'S BREWING
RELIEF FUND WATCHDOG OUSTED BY TRUMP RESIGNS FROM PENTAGON Glenn Fine, who was set to monitor the government’s $2 trillion in coronavirus relief spending until Trump abruptly removed him last month, has resigned from the Defense Department. He had been serving as the Pentagon’s acting inspector general when Trump outsted him from that role in early April. Meanwhile, senior GOP Sen. Chuck Grassley said the White House's response to his demand for an explanation for Trump's firing of two other inspectors general was insufficient. [HuffPost]
INSIDE A FEDERAL PRISON WITH A DEADLY OUTBREAK Nine inmates incarcerated at Butner, North Carolina, have died since the pandemic began. The latest was Eric Spiwak, a 73-year-old man serving a 15-year sentence for possession of photos of child sexual exploitation, who had been at Butner since 2009. Like most other Butner inmates who died, Spiwak was not brought to the hospital until after he had experienced respiratory failure. “The situation inside Butner is dire,” a new class-action lawsuit filed on inmates' behalf states. [HuffPost]
WHO SUSPENDS TRIAL OF DRUG TOUTED BY TRUMP OVER SAFETY FEARS The World Health Organization is suspending its international trial of hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug repeatedly touted by Trump as a coronavirus treatment, because of concerns that it’s not safe to use on people with COVID-19. “The Executive Group has implemented a temporary pause of the hydroxychloroquine arm within the Solidarity Trial while the safety data is reviewed,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a news briefing. Three other drugs in the trial involving 17 countries will continue to be tested. [HuffPost]
WHEN THE WATERS RISE, HOW WILL WE KEEP SCHOOLS OPEN? As sea level rise drives more people to seek higher ground — a phenomenon sometimes known as “climate migration” — those who remain will be increasingly left to make do with less. Hampered by funding formulas based on property tax dollars and student enrollment, some schools are already being forced to cut teaching positions and scrimp on materials and technology. Schools farther inland, meanwhile, are under pressure to accommodate arriving students — forced to increase class sizes and provide support for transient students who lose learning time with each move. [HuffPost]
HOW CONFIDENT ARE CANADIANS, AMERICANS, BRITONS POST-PANDEMIC? The polling shows a vast majority of people in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K. are hesitant to engage in many of the major activities that compose daily life following the coronavirus pandemic, from going to work or school to eating in restaurants and attending large gatherings. Even as the economy reopens, “a quiet nervousness will give the economy a collective pause, and people everywhere will focus anew on income security and health security,” wrote John Stackhouse, a senior vice president at Royal Bank of Canada, in a report. [HuffPost] |
