As critical care nurse John Haacke drove past reopened churches on Sunday, he figured Easter would prove to be yet another holiday followed by a surge in COVID-19: “It’s not like a guessing game” trib.al/9ICEae2
COVID-19 cases were already on the rise in recent days at the hospital in Eastern Maryland where Haacke works in the ICU.
“Things are picking up again. It seems like it won’t stop.” trib.al/9ICEae2
None of the patients had been vaccinated. They either had not yet been able to get a shot or they had declined the opportunity.
One clerical worker in her 50s had been given the chance but refused and ended up in the ICU with COVID-19 trib.al/9ICEae2
The woman’s chest x-ray looked like a white sheet of paper, something increasingly common among recent patients. “Some of these x-rays, with an untrained eye you wouldn’t know there’s a lung that exists in there," said Haacke trib.al/9ICEae2
"Jesus Christ, this is awful.”
Haacke's other patients with white-out x-rays include a patient in his mid-30s. And even if such a patient does survive, his lungs may be hopelessly scarred and damaged trib.al/9ICEae2
"No matter what state you live in, nobody is forcing you to go out for dinner or attend a game or take a fitness class. We all know what the CDC says, and it is our individual responsibility to do our part to curb the virus," writes @MichaelDalynyc
EXCLUSIVE: In two late-night Venmo transactions in May 2018, Rep. Matt Gaetz sent his friend, the accused sex trafficker Joel Greenberg, $900.
The next morning, Greenberg used the same app to send 3 young women varying sums of money that totaled...$900 trib.al/2SgYXyr
The first of Gaetz’s transactions to Greenberg was titled “Test.” In the second, Gaetz wrote “hit up ___,” using a nickname for one of the girls (who had only turned 18 less than six months before) trib.al/wQleRB4
When Greenberg made his Venmo payments to these three young women, he described the money as being for “Tuition,” “School,” and “School” trib.al/wQleRB4
EXCLUSIVE: Sackler family secrets are coming out. A new book, called “Empire of Pain” by Patrick Radden Keefe, contains emails that show the heirs complaining about how hard their lives were as they tried to downplay and shift blame for the opioid crisis. trib.al/cCEGNlW
It's the latest revelation concerning the family of secretive billionaires who kept America in steady supply of OxyContin, precipitating an epidemic that killed almost half a million people and triggered over 2,500 lawsuits against Purdue Pharma trib.al/cCEGNlW
In 2017, emails indicate that Mortimer Sackler requested a $10 million loan from the family trust to fund his lavish lifestyle, with instructions to keep it secret from his relatives: “I am LOSING money by working in the pharma business" trib.al/cCEGNlW
EXCLUSIVE: The bizarre years-long drama behind the story of Jeff Bezos’ secret extramarital relationship is about to get even weirder… trib.al/zvLxK59
A shady figure affiliated with the National Enquirer claims in court that one Hollywood’s most powerful players provided the tabloid with the sordid details of Bezos’ affair with Lauren Sanchez, a southern California-based television host and pilot trib.al/zvLxK59
Nikolaos Tzima Hatziefstathiou, who reported the story with the National Enquirer, is claiming one major source of the information was none other than Sanchez’s then-husband, William Morris Endeavor executive Patrick Whitesell trib.al/zvLxK59
But Watkins tried his best to finger Steve Bannon as the head of the violent, culty conspiracy movement.
@CullenHoback says: “Ron actually had been planting the seed for Bannon from the very first time I met him.” trib.al/JPnaXnT
“So he had known me for, I think, less than 48 hours. And at the end of that interview… he pulls me aside and he just says, ‘You know, you should look into Steve Bannon,’” @CullenHoback tells @willsommer and @swin24. trib.al/JPnaXnT
NEW: The NAACP’s lawsuit alleging Donald Trump, his lawyer, and far-right extremists at the U.S. Capitol conspired to deprive Americans of their civil rights with the Jan. 6 riot keeps getting bigger trib.al/6eHlVng
Lawyers for the NAACP are set to file an amended complaint on Wednesday adding ten new plaintiffs.
The new plaintiffs will include other members of Congress trib.al/6eHlVng
The amended complaint is also said to include additional information regarding the deadly Jan. 6 riot in Washington, DC, that then-President Trump and his personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani are accused of inciting, sources said trib.al/6eHlVng
The Republican Party is at a bit of a loss these days.
“They were just a different party on the night of Jan. 6. Everything changed in a 24-hour period. And you know, they’re still off-balance,” says @JamesCarville.
“The Republicans don’t know how to push back. The most effective pushback of Biden’s whole infrastructure relief plan has been from [Obama alum] Larry Summers,” @JamesCarville tells @MollyJongFast. “Intellectually, they’ve just lost their footing.” trib.al/ZvjJmW6