Coronavirus has hit Capitol Hill, as the first members of Congress have tested positive for the virus.
Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.) and Ben McAdams (D-Utah) announced diagnoses late Wednesday. Diaz-Balart’s office said he had developed symptoms Saturday evening and was notified Wednesday of a positive test. Both had voted on the House floor as recently as Saturday morning, to pass the coronavirus relief bill.
Rep. Ben McAdams, D-Utah (Left), Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla. (Right)
At least five other members of Congress are quarantining because they had contact with the lawmakers, including Rep. Steve Scalise, the second-highest ranking Republican in the House.
Some lawmakers had been pushing for ways to vote remotely, particularly since congressional members are disproportionately in higher-risk categories for coronavirus complications. Forty-eight senators are over the age of 65, the age at which some states have recommended individuals to stay inside their homes.
Senator Dick Durban (D-Ill.) has said “it’s time for the Senate to wake up to the 21st century and make sure we’re using technology that allows us to communicate with each other without any danger or risk to public health.”
A record number of women are running for political office, and one congresswoman thinks America has one man to thank. "The best recruiter we've had, his name is President Donald Trump," Rep. Lois Frankel (D-FL) said Wednesday in an interview on Cheddar.
Tesla shares are surging as investors prepare for the company to release quarterly earnings Wednesday after the markets close. President Trump criticized Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell (again) in an interview with the Wall Street Journal. And Kerry Bishé and Corey Stoll join Cheddar to talk about their roles on Amazon's new series 'The Romanoffs.'
Apple CEO Tim Cook made his most forceful comments yet on the privacy concerns plaguing the tech industry, telling a conference in Brussels, Belgium that a "data-industrial complex" has led to eroding privacy rights around the world. Cook then called on the U.S. to adopt a landmark federal privacy law like the GDPR that went into effect earlier this year in the EU.
The explosive device sent to CNN in New York was an "effort to terrorize," said New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. Investigators described the device as an apparent "live" pipe bomb at a press conference outside the Time Warner Center, which houses CNN's New York studios and was partially evacuated Wednesday morning when the mailroom discovered the suspicious package.
Markets may have closed off their lows of the day, but Jack Kramer, co-founder and co-CEO of MarketSnacks, said there's still plenty that could weigh on investors over the next year.
The midterm "wave" may be neither blue nor red ー but green. In two weeks, North Dakota and Michigan ー which both already allow cannabis for medicinal use ー will vote for legalized recreational marijuana. On the non-recreational side of the issue, Missouri and Utah will potentially make a push toward medicinal cannabis. Depending on the outcome, these states may send a message to the nation ーwhich is slowly getting greener.
When the anti-substance abuse platform "Truth Initiative" began in 2000, the smoking rate for teens was 23 percent ー almost two decades later, it stands at 5 percent. And now, after major inroads with young smokers, the organization is shifting its efforts to another pressing danger facing teens, according to its managing director Mary Dominguez.
The Trump administration has declared it may change the legal definition of gender, but GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis thinks that whatever the White House decides, the damage has already been done.
Women on both sides of the aisle may be enraged, but that anger is still sharply divided. Women are running for office in record numbers this year ー yet the outcome hasn't been the same for Republicans and Democrats, said author and political columnist Rebecca Traister.
