GOP attacks progressive over a plea deal she never touched ahead of Wisconsin Supreme Court race

Both the Republican State Leadership Committee and Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, an industry group that regularly supports conservative judicial candidates, went up with ads last week falsely attacking progressive Judge Jill Karofsky over a prosecution and plea agreement she had no involvement in whatsoever.

Both groups tried to slur Karofsky by claiming she had let sexual predators off lightly, relying on the 2000 sentence of a man named Donald Worley to make their point. Worley was charged the previous year with sexually assaulting a child, and he was later sentenced to three years of probation without jail time as part of a plea bargain. However, as PolitiFact notes, Karofsky only took over as prosecutor for the case more than a year after Worley was sentenced and had absolutely nothing to do with his plea deal.

Karofsky’s campaign responded by saying that it would send a cease-and-desist letter to TV stations demanding the false advertisements be removed from the airwaves. Karofsky is running to unseat conservative incumbent Dan Kelly in next week's election for a key seat on Wisconsin's Supreme Court.



https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2020/3/30/1932790/-GOP-attacks-progressive-over-a-plea-deal-she-never-touched-ahead-of-Wisconsin-Supreme-Court-race

House Democrat Sick After Being Near Pelosi

Rep. Nydia Velazquez said Monday she's been "diagnosed with presumed coronavirus infection," three days after she spoke on the House floor and stood near 80-year-old House Speaker Nancy Pelosi during the signing of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus bill.

In a statement, the Democrat from New York said she first started feeling sick "in the wee hours of Sunday morning."

"I developed the abrupt onset of muscle aches, fevers, nasal congestion and stomach upset. I noticed that I could no longer smell my perfume or taste my food. After speaking with The Attending Physician by phone, I was diagnosed with presumed coronavirus infection," said Velazquez, 67.

"My symptoms are mild at the present time and I am taking Tylenol for fever, and isolating myself at my home. At the advice of The Attending Physician, neither COVID 19 laboratory testing nor a doctor's office visit was recommended. I am carefully monitoring my symptoms, working remotely and in constant contact with my staff."

Dozens of members of Congress had to rush back to Washington, D.C. on Friday to vote for the $2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package after Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., said he planned to try to force a recorded vote on the legislation, which required a quorum of at least 216 members to be in attendance.




https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/velazquez-has-presumed-covid-19-infection-was-near-pelosi-other-n1172311

Cenk Uyngur turns on AOC.

More Americans trust Joe to handle COVID-19 crisis.

Az. mayors request stay-at home order from Gov. Ducey

WISCONSIN: Today is the last day to register to vote in your April 7 primary.

Trump Administration, in Biggest Environmental Rollback, to Announce Auto Pollution Rules

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is expected on Tuesday to announce its final rule to roll back Obama-era automobile fuel efficiency standards, relaxing efforts to limit climate-warming tailpipe pollution and virtually undoing the government’s biggest effort to combat climate change.

The new rule, written by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation, would allow vehicles on American roads to emit nearly a billion tons more carbon dioxide over the lifetime of the cars than they would have under the Obama standards and hundreds of millions of tons more than will be emitted under standards being implemented in Europe and Asia.

Trump administration officials have raced to complete the auto rule by this spring, even as the White House is consumed with responding to the coronavirus crisis. President Trump is expected to extol the rule, which will stand as one of the most consequential regulatory rollbacks of his administration, as a needed salve for an economy crippled by the pandemic.

The lower fuel-efficiency standard “is the single most important thing that the administration can do to fulfill President Trump’s campaign promise of reforming the regulatory state, and to undo the impact that the previous administration has had on the economy,” said Thomas J. Pyle, the president of the Institute for Energy Research, an organization that supports the use of fossil fuels.



https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/30/climate/trump-fuel-economy.html?smtyp=cur&smid=fb-nytimes

If there is a silver lining to this clusterfuck....

it's that home cooking has never been better.

Detroit surpasses 1,800 cases, 50 deaths from COVID-19 outbreak

Detroit — Mayor Mike Duggan on Monday will update the press on the city's response to the coronavirus as cases here continue to climb.

As of noon Monday, Detroit's Health Department recorded 1,804 positive cases of COVID-19 in the city and 50 deaths.

The city last week designated the old State Fairgrounds as a regional coronavirus testing site and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced Sunday that the TCF Center downtown will get 900 hospital beds from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for potential hospital overflow patients during the pandemic.

The city, in a news release, said the mayor would provide a "significant update" on the Detroit Police Department's quarantine numbers. On Friday, close to 500 members of the police force had been under quarantine, including Police Chief James Craig, who is confirmed to have the virus.



https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/detroit-city/2020/03/30/covid-19-detroit-cases/5087810002/

NE-02: Democrat Ann Ashford's virtual town hall delayed by person posting porn during video chat

Omaha congressional candidate Ann Ashford halted her virtual town hall meeting Saturday morning after it was interrupted by someone posting pornography.

Most local campaigns are shifting their events online because of concerns about the novel coronavirus.

Ashford, an Omaha lawyer, is one of three Democrats running in Nebraska’s May 12 primary. The others are Kara Eastman and Gladys Harrison. The winner will face U.S. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., this fall.

Ashford was about to open her Saturday virtual town hall to questions on the video chat service Zoom when someone logged in and started posting explicit images.

“It was a Russian name,” said Eric Aspengren, a spokesman for Ashford’s campaign. “We just shut it down immediately because we didn’t know what was going on.”



https://www.omaha.com/news/local/ann-ashford-s-virtual-town-hall-delayed-by-person-posting/article_0fcbc30c-1fc1-5393-8b11-087f71399588.html