https://twitter.com/JohnCleese/status/1256650332320354305
John Cleese ✔@JohnCleese

Bravo #yorkshiresillywalks This made me so happy to see.

Embedded video

2:22 PM - May 2, 2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/02/us/asian-giant-hornet-washington.html



Sightings of the Asian giant hornet have prompted fears that the vicious insect could establish itself in the United States and devastate bee populations.

By Mike Baker
May 2, 2020
Updated 12:04 p.m. ET

BLAINE, Wash. — In his decades of beekeeping, Ted McFall had never seen anything like it.

As he pulled his truck up to check on a group of hives near Custer, Wash., in November, he could spot from the window a mess of bee carcasses on the ground. As he looked closer, he saw a pile of dead members of the colony in front of a hive and more carnage inside — thousands and thousands of bees with their heads torn from their bodies and no sign of a culprit.

“I couldn’t wrap my head around what could have done that,” Mr. McFall said.

Only later did he come to suspect that the killer was what some researchers simply call the “murder hornet.”

With queens that can grow to two inches long, Asian giant hornets can use mandibles shaped like spiked shark fins to wipe out a honeybee hive in a matter of hours, decapitating the bees and flying away with the thoraxes to feed their young. For larger targets, the hornet’s potent venom and stinger — long enough to puncture a beekeeping suit — make for an excruciating combination that victims have likened to hot metal driving into their skin.

In Japan, the hornets kill up to 50 people a year. Now, for the first time, they have arrived in the United States.

</snip>

https://www.wrdw.com/content/news/90-active-COVID-19-cases-at-Plant-Vogtle-bringing-total-to-171-570093201.html



By Tyria Goines | Posted: Thu 6:10 PM, Apr 30, 2020 | Updated: Thu 9:51 PM, Apr 30, 2020

Thursday, April 30, 2020

WAYNESBORO, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -- Plant Vogtle confirms 90 active positive cases of COVID-19 from the Vogtle 3&4 workforce.

According to Plant Vogtle officials, 81 individuals who tested positive for COVID-19 have recovered and are available to return to work.

The overall test results now stand at 171 positive test results, while 439 have tested negative. 48 workers from the site are awaiting test results.

Statement from Plant Vogtle:
"With each person tested, we act quickly, self-isolating the individuals, along with the personnel who have been in close proximity to them, immediately after learning they have been tested for COVID-19.

Site leadership remains focused on protecting the safety and health of workers at the Vogtle 3 & 4 site, and comprehensive measures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic will remain in place. These proactive measures include worker distancing strategies, including adjusted break schedules, additional mobile facilities to add more distance between individuals onsite and suspending large group meetings and gatherings, along with an expanded onsite medical clinic."

</snip>

https://news.avclub.com/r-i-p-scrubs-sam-lloyd-1843205501?rev=1588371795950



Sam Lloyd has died. Best known for his role as sad-sack lawyer/a capella enthusiast Ted Buckland on long-running NBC sitcom Scrubs, Lloyd was a veteran character actor with more than 60 credits to his name, across a 30-year career. Lloyd was diagnosed with cancer last year; numerous members of the Scrubs family organized a GoFundMe at the time to help pay his medical costs. Lloyd’s death was reported on social media today by co-star Robert Maschio. He was 56.

Although he came up as a stage actor, Lloyd got his first break on the screen during the 1988 TV season, when he was cast in two different episodes—as two different characters—on NBC’s Night Court. He followed that with his first regular TV role, on the short-lived Valerie Harper sitcom City, but didn’t get his first real, high-profile exposure until 1993, when he had a memorable two-episode stint as TV Guide/Elaine Benes obsessive Ricky on the fifth season of Seinfeld.

Here’s Lloyd talking to us for a Random Roles interview in 2011, describing how he got the part:

That was one of the easiest auditions I ever had. I had done this [play] a few years before called The Nerd, and I had played the title character. And that guy, I got to know very well, that character. I continued to do him over the years in a cabaret setting, and kind of a stand-up thing. So when I got that audition, I thought, “I could do this guy. He might fit.” And his name was even Ricky, and the character’s name [in the play] was Rick Steadman. So that was kind of a sign to me. Originally I had made this great set of teeth that I had used for the part, and it became married to the part. I couldn’t do the part without the teeth. But the teeth were, even though they were subtle, they weren’t that subtle. So I couldn’t bring it into an audition. That was the first time I was ever able to do the character without the teeth. But anyway, I went in for that and read. There were two scenes, and I read the first scene, and Jerry Seinfeld was there, and of course Larry David was there. And the reaction was fantastic. And then I read the second scene, and I think reality set in. They were like, “Do we really want to put this guy into the show?” And so after it was over, I’m like, “Mmm… this could go either way.” Sure enough, my agent was like, “Hang in there. They’re still going to see people, but you’re one of their choices.”

</snip>

https://abcnews.go.com/US/michael-cohens-early-prison-release-coronavirus-concerns-rescinded/story?id=70456164

He had been notified in mid-April that he would be released to home confinement.

By Victor Ordonez

May 1, 2020, 1:27 PM

resident Donald Trump's former attorney and fixer Michael Cohen will not be leaving prison to serve out the rest of his term in home confinement, according to sources familiar with the matter.

Two weeks ago, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) had notified Cohen that he would be released early from prison due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Cohen's attorney Roger Adler told ABC News at the time.

Cohen is serving a 3-year sentence at the federal prison camp in Otisville, New York, where several staff and inmates have tested positive for the novel coronavirus.

He is scheduled for release in November 2021. Cohen would have been allowed to serve the remainder of his sentence from home confinement.

It appears that other prisoners at Otisville who were granted home confinement have also lost those privileges, according to the sources. The BOP has not responded to requests for comment from ABC News.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/jessemckinley/status/1256262048721375235
Jesse McKinley ✔@jessemckinley

NOW: Anti shutdown protesters in front of State Capitol in #Albany



12:39 PM - May 1, 2020

https://www.cnn.com/us/live-news/us-coronavirus-update-05-01-20/h_a000cfdbefdac4c0fcb950fa6c63731a

From CNN's Adrienne Vogt

New York schools will remain closed for the remainder of the academic year, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.

The schools – kindergarten through high school as well as college facilities — will continue to provide distance learning.

Summer school programming plans will be announced by the end of the month, Cuomo said.

"In the meantime, meal programs will continue, the child care services for essential workers will continue," Cuomo said.

"And then we want schools to start now developing a plan to reopen, and the plan has to have protocols in place that incorporate everything that we are now doing in society and everything that we learned."

Cuomo said those plans for schools and colleges will be approved by the state.

The New York City school system is the largest in the country. According to Cuomo, there are 4.2 million students in the entire state — including those at 4,800 public schools, 1,800 private schools, 89 SUNY and CUNY college campuses and additional private colleges.

</snip>

https://thelaughbutton.com/matty-simmons-co-founder-of-the-national-lampoon-has-passed-away-at-93



Matty Simmons, co-founder of “National Lampoon” has passed away at 93

April 30, 2020 The Laugh Button Staff

Today, the world of comedy has been dealt a pretty sad blow with the news that Matty Simmons, who co-founded the National Lampoon magazine and produced National Lampoon film’s such as Animal House and Vacation, has passed away at 93.

<snip>

In April 1970, comedy was in for a rude awakening and was bound to never be the same when the very first issue of National Lampoon hit the newsstands. Behind it was Harvard Lampoon alumni Doug Kenney and Henry Beard. To help oversee the magazine, they enlisted the help of Matty Simmons, best known at that time for the Weight Watchers magazine. Together, they changed the landscape of comedy and usher in a changing of the guards.

National Lampoon helped introduce us to some of the sharpest minds of comedy, with a long roster that includes John Belushi, Gilda Radner, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Christopher Guest, Richard Belzer, and Michael O’Donoghue. In addition to the magazine, they were responsible for a popular stage show, Lemmings, a radio show dubbed The National Lampoon Radio Hour, and countless records.

In 1978, the National Lampoon brand brought us Animal House, starring John Belushi and produced by Simmons. A runaway hit at the box office, it helped mold every raucous college and teen film that would come. And to follow that up with the Vacation series of films just goes to show what a lasting impact both National Lampoon as well as Simmons has had on us all.

</snip>

https://twitter.com/NatashaBertrand/status/1256215485806452747
Natasha Bertrand ✔@NatashaBertrand

Omg. He literally emailed one of the prosecutors just tasked with investigating coronavirus-related crimes.

Josh Dawsey ✔@jdawsey1

Jerome Corsi, the commentator who narrowly escaped charges in Mueller probe, meant to email Zev Zelenko, a White House-allied doctor, about a hydroxychloroquine project. He instead emailed Aaron Zelinsky, the Mueller prosecutor. A new probe has begun...

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/vladimir-zev-zelenko-fox-news-trump-hydroxychloroquine-jerome-corsi/2020/04/30/82622456-8af2-11ea-ac8a-fe9b8088e101_story.html …

9:34 AM - May 1, 2020

Justice Dept. scrutinizes White House-connected doctor linked to disputed coronavirus treatment

By Rosalind S. Helderman and Matt Zapotosky

April 30, 2020 at 11:06 p.m. EDT

Federal prosecutors are examining the communications of a New York family doctor who appears frequently on Fox News and has been in touch with the White House to tout an anti-malarial as a treatment for the novel coronavirus, according to people contacted as part of the inquiry.

The examination of Vladimir “Zev” Zelenko’s records began when an associate, conservative commentator Jerome Corsi, accidentally sent an email intended for Zelenko to another “Z” name in his address book — federal prosecutor Aaron Zelinsky, who as a member of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s team had spent months scrutinizing Corsi’s activities during the 2016 presidential election.

During episodes of his daily podcast this week and in a YouTube video he posted late Thursday in response to questions from The Washington Post, Corsi said that Zelinsky responded to the unexpected email by reaching out to Corsi’s lawyer and requesting all of Corsi’s communications with Zelenko.

Corsi said he and Zelenko are collaborating on a website designed to connect people with doctors. They have acted lawfully, Corsi added, but he plans to cooperate with the request and has handed over his communications.

</snip>

https://www.thedailybeast.com/photo-of-andrew-d-cleckley-funeral-home-shows-how-horribly-theyre-treating-the-dead-in-brooklyn



Before police found decomposing bodies in trucks outside a Brooklyn funeral home, a mourner saw a horrifying sign it was overwhelmed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Michael Daly
Special Correspondent
Updated May. 01, 2020 8:19AM ET / Published May. 01, 2020 4:40AM ET

Zeqway Clarke was in the back pew in the upstairs chapel at the Andrew D. Cleckley Funeral Home in Brooklyn when he chanced to gaze under the coffin and see what looked like a bare foot.

“You could see it,” he later told The Daily Beast. “You could actually look under the casket and see it. I asked somebody else, ‘Is that a foot?’”

Clarke was there on April 9 with his wife and daughters and a small number of relatives in masks and gloves, bidding farewell to her grandfather, 88 year-old Francois Jules. The pastor continued conducting the service as Clarke gazed at what was indeed a bare foot visible beneath the hem of the cloth backdrop closing off the front of the room.

At the end of the service, Clarke went up for a final parting moment with Jules, a military veteran and retired graveyard security guard, who was recovering from a stroke in Kings County Hospital when he was fatally struck by COVID-19. Clarke used the moment by the coffin to raise his cellphone above the cord on which the backdrop hung.

“I stuck the phone up and took a picture,” the 39-year-old entrepreneur recalled.

He did not see the result until he returned to his seat and checked his phone.

“It was just bodies, bodies on the floor, people on top of each other,” he said.
</snip>