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Shake Shack is returning a $10 million loan it received from the U.S. government under an emergency program that was touted as a way to help small businesses pay workers and keep their operations running during the coronavirus crisis. The burger chain was awarded the loan as part of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The $349 billion stimulus package, overseen by the Small Business Administration (SBA), ran out of funding last week. Over the last few days, there has been a growing backlash over the distribution of the funds. Several media outlets have revealed how large chunks of the package...

Georgia has had 733 coronavirus deaths since the beginning of the year. Kemp says gyms, salons, bowling allies will reopen by the end of the week and restaurants will be allowed to reopen next week. Tennessee has had 152 coronavirus deaths this year. The AJC reported: Gov. Brian Kemp outlined plans Monday to allow some businesses shuttered amid the coronavirus pandemic to reopen by the end of the week, as he starts to ease restrictions that have ravaged the state’s economy to stem the spread of the disease. The governor’s order will allow gyms, bowling alleys, salons and some other...

The governors of Georgia and Tennessee on Monday afternoon announced new plans to bring their states' economies closer to full force amid signs the coronavirus outbreak is slowing. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp said certain businesses including restaurants, gyms and hair salons can reopen beginning this Friday. Meanwhile, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee confirmed his state's stay-at-home order, previously extended to April 30, will end that day.

RUSH: They’re Chinese-made drones, and the data collected by these drones is going back to China, and New Jersey is bragging about it. Well, you want to hear the sound bite? Grab sound bite number 2. This ran on MSNBC, where they’re ecstatic about this. The correspondent is Rehema Ellis, a report about Elizabeth, New Jersey, using drones to monitor its citizens’ social distancing. And you’ll hear the mayor of Elizabeth on this sound bite as well. ELLIS: Elizabeth, New Jersey, is now using drones to spread the lifesaving message. The mayor hopes the drones message will reinforce the CDC...

AOC slipped a bit today when oil prices dropped below zero. First she retweeted this claim from “ecosocialist” Eric Holthaus that “oil is now worthless.” He added, “The is a turning point in the climate movement.” Then AOC quote tweeted someone else talking about oil prices going negative. She wrote: “You absolutely love to see it. This along with record low interest rates means it’s the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet. *cough*”

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo will meet President Trump for an Oval Office visit on Tuesday afternoon, just days after they bitterly clashed over the coronavirus pandemic, Trump announced. “I think the governor is coming to see us tomorrow, he’s coming to see us tomorrow afternoon,” Trump told reporters Monday during the White House coronavirus task force briefing. “Andrew is going to be coming in with some of his people and we’re looking forward to that,” he continued after praising the hard-hit Empire State’s response to the virus. The governor’s office confirmed the Washington visit to The Post.

President Donald Trump said Monday the U.S. is "looking to" add as many as 75 million barrels of oil to the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Trump spoke after an historic day in the oil [cl.1] markets, in which the May WTI crude contract closed at -$37.63 a barrel, a one-day drop of 306%. Trump said he was considering the move "based on the record low price of oil," and that the action would "top it out." Speaking at a White House press briefing, Trump said, "we'd get it for the right price."

The cinnamon roll craze continues in Fresno. Long lines formed yet again on Saturday after Country Fair Cinnamon Rolls set up shop at the fairgrounds in the morning. It was a chance for people to take home hot rolls to enjoy. The company's Facebook page kept people updated while they were in line, even noting a 4-hour wait at one point. They had to cut off sales at five but plan to hold more events like this in the future. If you are looking for a place to buy the rolls year-round, you can head to the Chowchilla Chevron off...

While leaders on Capitol Hill thrash about on replenishing their own program to protect small-business workers, a bipartisan group in the Senate have begun work on Phase 4 of COVID-19 pandemic relief. The new focus for federal cash will fall on state and local governments that have seen revenue streams dry up as businesses shut down. Senators Bob Menendez (D-NJ) and Bill Cassidy (R-LA) have crafted a $500 billion bailout package that attempts to provide baseline cash while adjusting for both population and outbreak size. Perhaps we should be surprised that the price tag is as low as it is....

For over a month now, the White House has been holding its daily coronavirus briefings, and most networks, cable news channels and major news websites have been carrying all or parts of them live, as millions of people, trapped inside and anxious, have tuned in. The briefings are marked by Trump’s own misinformation, deceptions, rage, blaming and boasting. He takes no responsibility at all for his abysmal handling of the crisis, while each day he seems to find another person to blame, like a child frantically flinging spaghetti at a wall to see which one sticks. He delivers his disinformation...

Commenting on the mass shooting in Nova Scotia on Saturday, in which at least 18 people were killed along with the alleged shooter, Rev. Franklin Graham said Canada "has some of the strictest gun laws in the world" but "criminals don't obey" gun control laws. Graham also noted that London's gun laws apparently do not deter criminals because in recent years there has been an increase in knife attacks. Now, policy-makers want to impose tougher "knife control" laws, he said.

Hundreds of people openly defied a ban on mass gatherings and federal safety guidelines during a demonstration Monday against Pennsylvania’s coronavirus lockdown order. Protesters rallied in front of the state Capitol in Harrisburg, where they crowded together on the steps and sidewalk in defiance of social distancing guidelines, recklessly dismissing their own health risk and the risk to others — many without even face masks, according to video posted on social media. Some waved American and Revolutionary-era Gadsden, or “Don’t Tread on Me,” flags, wore Trump campaign gear and held hand-lettered signs that said “SOME PEOPLE WANT TO WORK” and...

A number of elite American universities are finding themselves in hot water for their miserly behavior in response to the coronavirus. Harvard University is taking well-deserved heat for laying off its food service workers while sitting on a $40 billion endowment. Yale University, too, has been twisting in the wind; when New Haven mayor Justin Elicker asked the university to provide temporary housing to the city’s firefighters and police officers, the university initially refused. Then, after taking a public relations and social media beating, Yale relented, grudgingly agreeing to allow city officials to stay in the university’s vacant dormitory housing....

New York City is extending its cancellation of permitted nonessential events through June as officials work to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) announced Monday. De Blasio said in a news conference that the move will apply to parades, concerts, rallies and other large gatherings. He noted that the LGBT Pride, Puerto Rican Day and Salute to Israel parades would be affected by the decision. "The bottom line is to think about safety, to think about saving lives, protecting people’s health, speeding us to that day when we get more normal," de Blasio said....

Good Evening And WELCOME To The Mark Levin Show!

On Friday, one of the world’s most senior epidemiologists, Professor Johan Giesecke, sat down with UnHeard and discussed lockdown policies across the globe, and what he perceives as the policies’ weaknesses in tackling the China-originated novel coronavirus, COVID-19. Professor Giesecke currently serves as an advisor to the Swedish Government, was the first Chief Scientist of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), and a former advisor to the director general of the WHO (he’s now retired and serves as an advisor to the WHO only in an honorary capacity). “The measures we should take against the pandemic should...

New York’s health commissioner on Monday defended a directive that requires nursing homes to readmit residents who’ve tested positive for the coronavirus — as Gov. Andrew Cuomo revealed he didn’t know the policy was in place. Cuomo was asked about the state’s policy on admitting or re-admitting to nursing homes people who’d tested positive for COVID-19. “That’s a good question, I don’t know,” the governor said. Cuomo’s startling admission came days after the state revealed last week that at least 3,316 people in nursing homes and adult care facilities had died of coronavirus at their residences or in hospitals across...

Hundreds of New Yorkers were caught flaunting coronavirus social distancing restrictions in Brooklyn’s Domino Park on Sunday — and cops did little about it, according to witnesses. The scene, captured on a video posted on Twitter, shows rows of people soaking in the sun at the riverfront park in Williamsburg despite City Hall’s professed crackdown on large gatherings — and Mayor Bill de Blasio’s initiative to have residents snitch when they see lockdown violations. It’s an indication of how New York’s Finest continue to grapple with how aggressively to enforce the restrictions. The video, shot from a moving car, shows...

—Sargent Shriver, brother in law of JFK and the “architect” of the “War on Poverty,” to socialist Michael Harrington (who wanted much, much more of the American taxpayers’ dollars), 1964. Amity Shlaes’ newest book, Great Society: A New History is a sequel to her two studies of 1930s and 1920s, 2007’s The Forgotten Man, and 2013’s Coolidge. The eponymous Forgotten Man was the taxpayer, the man footing the bill to fund FDR’s New Deal. As a UCLA press release explained in 2004, “FDR’s policies prolonged Depression by 7 years, UCLA economists calculate.” Even socialist Roosevelt worshiper Paul Krugman has been...

The Republican Party hasn’t changed plans to hold a full-scale presidential convention in August but will reassess the decision later this summer in light of the coronavirus pandemic. As states across the country prepare plans to reopen their economies, GOP Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told reporters Monday that party officials don’t yet believe they will have to come up with a different plan. “We are full steam ahead planning a traditional convention,” she said. “We do not think at this time we have to switch to an alternative plan, but of course, we will monitor circumstances and adjust accordingly.” While the...