Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker (D-Ill.) is facing accusations of cronyism and financially profiting from the coronavirus pandemic after it has been revealed that his family owns stake in at least two companies currently working on coronavirus testing, according to Fox News.

The Chairman of the Illinois Republican Party, Tim Schneider, released a statement pointing out that Pritzker’s family firm, Pritzker Group, “controls the companies that are making millions off the pandemic…Governor Pritzker and his family are clearly profiting off the COVID-19 crisis, and it’s appalling.”

The Pritzker Group owns stake in two such companies: It has previously invested in the “anatomic, clinical, and molecular pathology company” PathGroup, and had also sent funding to Cue Health, a “health care technology company.” Both companies have been developing testing technology for the virus in recent weeks. Cue Health had also received a $13 million contract from the federal government for their testing work.0

Pritzker’s campaign had released a statement shortly after his election claiming that Pritzker had “given up as much control and knowledge of these trusts as is possible under the law” by putting his share of the company into a blind trust, while also attempting to justify such stake as ultimately being in compliance with state law.

On Tuesday May 19, 2020, Sidney Powell, the attorney for President Trump’s former National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, filed a petition for a “writ of mandamus” with the D.C. Circuit of the Court of Appeals. The petition seeks, “a Writ of Mandamus ordering the district court to (1) grant the Government’s Motion to Dismiss with prejudice, (2) vacate its order appointing an amicus curiae, and (3) assign the case to another judge for any additional proceedings.”

Powell’s petition challenges Judge Emmet G. Sullivan’s recent order appointing a “friend of the court,” or “amicus curiae” to brief the court on whether it should agree to dismiss the Flynn case and whether Flynn should be held in criminal contempt. Powell has argued that the judge exceeded his authority by delaying the prosecution’s bid to dismiss the case on its own motion. She wrote, “numerous decisions of the Supreme Court and this court made clear that courts generally lack authority to second-guess the prosecution’s constitutionally rooted exercise of charging discretion.” 

On the previous day, Judge Sullivan admitted retired judge John Gleeson as a “friend of the court” to advocate against the government’s motion to dismiss and explore whether to charge Flynn with contempt. Gleeson penned an op-ed in the Washington Post in which he urged the judge to appoint an attorney for this same purpose. Powell challenged the propriety of the amicus order generally and specifically objected to appointing the author of an opinion piece to a role in the case against her client. 

This author and others have raised ethical concerns regarding the conduct of Brandon Van Grack, the attorney who, until recently, managed the prosecution of Flynn. The government’s motion to dismiss relies on evidence of Flynn’s innocence that appears to have been withheld from Flynn until Van Grack’s supervisory chain intervened.

Additionally, there are concerns regarding a judge using contempt powers to punish a defendant for wrongfully entering a plea of guilty. Powell wrote, “The district judge in this case has abandoned any pretense of being an objective umpire—going too far as to suggest that a criminal defendant who succumbs to a coerced and unfair plea bargain should be prosecuted for contempt.”

The docket of the D.C. circuit contains no indication as to the next step in the process.

Senator Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) will serve as temporary chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, replacing the outgoing Senator Richard Burr (R-N.C.), as reported by Politico.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) made the announcement on Twitter on Monday. In his official statement, McConnell described Rubio as “the natural choice for this temporary assignment on the basis of accumulated committee service.”

Rubio first rose to prominence with his election to the U.S. Senate in 2010, as part of the massive Tea Party wave of Republicans elected to Congress that year. He eventually ran for president in 2016, famously losing his home state to Donald Trump in the primaries; after briefly announcing his retirement from politics overall following the loss, he changed his mind and decided to run for re-election to the Senate, winning easily. After Rick Scott (R-Fla.) defeated incumbent Senator Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) in 2018, Rubio became the senior senator from Florida.

Senator Burr had previously announced that he would be stepping down as chairman amidst an ongoing FBI investigation into alleged insider trading, where Burr has been accused of selling stocks after becoming aware of the then-imminent market crash due to the spread of the coronavirus. Burr is one of several senators accused of such insider trading, alongside Kelly Loefler (R-Ga.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers (D-Wisc.) announced that he will no longer be pursuing any attempts to initiate another statewide lockdown due to the coronavirus, as reported by The Hill.

Evers’ decision comes after the State Supreme Court struck down his attempted extension of the stay-at-home order last week, due to his failure to cooperate with the state legislature in doing so. Any further extension, the court ruled, would have to be agreed upon by both the governor and the legislature, which is controlled by Republicans.

“The Republicans have made it very clear that they don’t believe a statewide approach is the right way to go at this point in time,” Evers told the press on Monday. “Given that, it just doesn’t make any sense to spend a lot of time doing something that we know isn’t going to be successful.” Evers had previously criticized the court for its ruling, accusing the justices, without evidence, of being swayed by Republican lawmakers.

The court’s ruling essentially ended the statewide lockdown that very same day, thus unofficially reopening Wisconsin’s economy. As a result, any further restrictions will have to be implemented by local governments at the city and county level. Many Wisconsin citizens celebrated the end of the lockdown by returning to public venues such as bars and restaurants.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio has claimed that the federal government must step in to make up a projected shortfall of more than $7.5 billion brought about by the coronavirus pandemic.

As reported by Fox News, “President Trump and other Republican leaders have resisted handing out too much aid out of concern state and local leaders are hoping to be bailed out of economic trouble that began well before COVID-19 ravaged the nation. De Blasio insisted on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures” that this is not the case for his city, which needs the money to recoup losses needed to pay city workers.”

“That’s revenue that’s gone that pays for cops, firefighters, teachers, sanitation workers, it’s gone,” de Blasio said. “And there’s no way I’m going to get it back.” De Blasio said he expects even greater losses, and that the city’s economy “won’t come back without a stimulus.”

However Fox News reported on the $2 million Mayor Bill de Blasio just spent on new hires and pay hikes and at the same time de Blasio has threatened layoffs and furloughs.  De Blasio brought in or promoted at least 10 people, many with six-figure salaries, boosting payroll costs by $2 million.

The mayor’s “unfettered spending” never stops, rails City Councilman Robert Holden, D-Queens. The city claims it’s in a hiring freeze, yet “we see nothing but high-paying hirings and promotions” — even as the mayor threatens layoffs. As Councilman Eric Ulrich, R-Queens, notes, many of the hires and raises surely could have waited.

The mayor claimed that the money would not be going to fix past financial errors, insisting that before the pandemic, the city was doing better than ever.

“You’ve seen what has happened in the city in recent years. Right before this pandemic, the highest level of employment in our history, booming economy, lowest crime since the 1950s, more and more kids graduating on time in our public schools than ever in our history, you name it, this city was moving forward.”

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has taken heat for state policies that resulted in patients who tested positive for coronavirus returning to their nursing homes and spreading the virus. The virus has killed 20,316 people in the city, by far the highest toll in the country, and there are 185,206 confirmed cases of the virus.

“We all have to do better, there’s no question,” de Blasio said about the nursing home situation. “We’ve been providing protective equipment to those nursing homes. We’re going to do everything we can, this is a horrible human crisis.”

The mayor state not the city “has the regulatory role” in that situation, but said, “we’re all going to work together to fix this problem because we owe it to the people in those nursing homes and their families.”

More than 1,000 illegal boat migrants have crossed the Channel in small boats and reached British shores since lockdown began on March 23, with people-smugglers taking advantage of the coronavirus to traffic increased amounts of unaccompanied minors.

Breitbart reports, “on Saturday, 90 migrants claiming to hail from Algeria, Libya, Eritrea, Sudan, and Senegal were brought ashore at Dover after crossing the English Channel in small boats from France — a safe, first world country.”

The number of illegal migrants known to have successfully made it to Britain during the lockdown stands at 1,064.

The Immigration Officers’ Union told The Telegraph that the French government has reduced border patrols during the coronavirus crisis in favor of using officers to enforce the French lockdown.

The recent spate of warm weather, calm seas, and reduced shipping traffic in the Channel has led to the increased number of illegal crossings.

This is exclusive footage from Dover earlier today.

Are we really getting the truth on the numbers illegally entering the UK? pic.twitter.com/Sze1CjNE77

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) May 17, 2020

The British government has come under fire for its failure to protect the nation’s borders while imposing a lockdown on its residents. The Home Office was working on a deal with France that would allow British ships to patrol French waters and send back migrants, instead of bringing them ashore in England and allowing them the opportunity to apply for asylum.

However, that was not the case for the 90 migrants on Saturday.

Migration Watch UK, a leading think tank, said: “The biggest incentive for those attempting dangerous Channel crossings is the knowledge that being picked up by a British Border Force vessel or managing to set foot on our soil provides a strong chance of a permanent stay.”

“One way to neutralise this would be UK and French government agreement that anyone intercepted, whether in the Channel or on reaching UK shores, will be returned immediately to France where any application for asylum could be made. Ultimately, it would be in French interests to prevent such departures,” the mass migration sceptic group suggested.

In a virtual commencement address meant specifically for black-only colleges, former president Barack Obama criticized the Trump Administration’s response to the coronavirus and made several false claims, as reported by CNN.

In the speech, Obama claimed that “this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing,” also claiming that “a lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge.” While he did not mention President Trump by name, the line is obviously a jab at the current administration, which has been trying to respond to the coronavirus after the Obama Administration weakened the federal government’s pandemic response resources.

Later on in the speech, Obama falsely claimed that the coronavirus impacts minorities more than white Americans, saying that “a disease like this just spotlights the underlying inequalities and extra burdens that black communities have historically had to deal with in this country. We see it in the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on our communities.”

Obama also stoked racial tensions by addressing the killing of a black man in Georgia named Ahmaud Arbery, where he falsely described Arbery as “a black man [going] for a jog,” who “some folks [felt] like they can stop and question and shoot him if he doesn’t submit to their questioning.” Despite the initially one-sided narrative surrounding the controversial case when it first came to light, recent video evidence showed Arbery trying to take Travis McMichael’s shotgun away from him, proving that Arbery was not purely a victim in the fatal shooting.

Obama has been unusually outspoken against the Trump Administration in recent weeks, most likely due to the explosive revelations regarding his administration’s confirmed unmasking of General Michael Flynn. The scandal, long promoted by President Trump and his supporters but ignored by the media, has revealed direct efforts by the previous administration to sabotage the president’s campaign and presidential transition, via illegal surveillance on campaign officials and others.