With critics' groups across the country starting to hand out their awards, the Oscar race is officially on. Cinemablend's Sean O'Connell joins us to handicap the major categories. With no clear frontrunner, it's anyone's guess which movie is going to break out before the big night.
In the Best Picture category, it's looking like things are boiling down to a showdown between "The Post" and "Lady Bird." O'Connell weighs the pros and cons of each, noting that he thinks the Steven Spielberg political drama is the best movie of the year. We also consider whether "Star Wars: The Last Jedi" could be the franchise's first Best Picture nominee since the 1977 original, "A New Hope."
Then, we tackle the contenders duking it out in the acting categories. Meryl Streep is looking to win her fourth Oscar for her leading role in "The Post." If anyone can stop her, O'Connell says it will likely be "Lady Bird's" Saoirse Ronan or "I, Tonya's" Margot Robbie. As for the actors, "Darkest Hour's" Gary Oldman is pulling ahead as the one to beat for his portrayal of Winston Churchill.
Tatyana Popkova, chief strategy officer for the health system, talked to Cheddar about how the innovative medical center was designed to take on challenges such as a patient surge from a pandemic.
Vinny Variale, a Lieutenant for the Fire Department of New York City and president of the Uniformed EMS Officers Union said regardless of CDC or FDNY recommendations, EMS workers should always have protective gear on emergency calls amid the pandemic.
While Alinea, located in Chicago, Illinois, serves high-end meals, co-owner Nick Kokonas said they recognized early on that the stay-at-home orders were going to be in place for a while.
Tommy Berges, a veteran paramedic and firefighter out of Washtenaw County, Michigan, said the outbreak has extended emergency response times from the outset.
Transit unions are calling for greater protections for their employees, as coronavirus has taken a heavy toll on bus drivers and train operators working on the frontlines.
The severe weather outbreak came with much of the nation shut down because of the new coronavirus. In Alabama, people huddled into community storm shelters wearing protective masks to guard against the threat.
For Sasha Kogan a Peace Corps volunteer, border closures caused by the pandemic meant a frantic multi-day evacuation from Cameroon to Washington, DC, culminating with her far from her NYC roots to find herself in Illinois without benefits or a clue as to what's next.
Social workers at Woodhull Hospital in Brooklyn are urging hospital administrators to let them work from home but say they are coming up against a company line that maintains every health care worker needs to do their part and show up in person, whether their job demands it or not.
Circle K, the international convenience store chain, is donating a meal to those in need with every fuel transaction, even as the company's own sales have fallen precipitously due to coronavirus.
The sailor was found unresponsive on April 9 and moved to ICU at a hospital. He died Monday. The Roosevelt has been in a coronavirus crisis that prompted the acting Navy secretary to fire the ship's captain on April 2.
