White House aide Hope Hicks tests positive for coronavirus, Trump begins quarantine

President Trump said Thursday night that he and first lady Melania Trump would begin “the quarantine process” after one of his closest advisers, Hope Hicks, who traveled with him several times this week aboard Air Force One, tested positive for the coronavirus.

Hicks, 31, served as Trump’s 2016 campaign spokeswoman from the beginning of his candidacy and then as White House communications director before leaving in March 2018 for a job at Fox News. She returned to the White House in February in the role of counselor to the president.

The Tampa Bay Lightning won the Stanley Cup after two months inside playing environments in Toronto and Edmonton that were carefully controlled and successfully prevented infiltration by the novel coronavirus. Days later, they staged a raucous celebration with fans in Tampa and what appeared to be little regard for social distancing.

Lightning players were photographed letting several fans drink directly from the Stanley Cup during the celebration, a boat parade up the Hillsborough River and an outdoor rally at Raymond James Stadium. Reports from the event indicated that many who turned out were clustered together while also not wearing masks.

Two right-wing operatives infamous for inventing outlandish conspiracy theories face felony charges in Michigan for allegedly intimidating voters with inaccurate robocalls that discouraged residents in urban areas from casting their ballots by mail.

Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman were charged with four felonies of intimidating voters, conspiring to violate election law and using a computer to commit a crime, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced Thursday, after thousands of residents from at least five states received the robocall aimed at discouraging absentee voting, at a time when many Americans are expected to vote by mail rather than in-person during the coronavirus pandemic.

The Treasury Department and Small Business Administration have not yet forgiven any of the 5.2 million emergency coronavirus loans issued to small businesses and need to do more to combat fraud, government watchdogs told Congress Thursday.

Small businesses that received Paycheck Protection Program funds, as well as their banks, have been frustrated by the difficulty in applying for loans to be forgiven despite rules saying if the funds are spent mostly on payroll they will not need to be paid back. SBA announced last week that it had received only 96,000 loan applications — less than 2 percent of the total number of loans — and has not processed any applications so far.

A grim portrait of the U.S. economy is emerging more than six months into the pandemic, as a cascade of new layoffs announced this week puts pressure on an already strained labor market and further raises the specter of an economic u-turn with the recovery only partially underway.

The parade of bad news has picked up in recent days, with several large companies announcing wide layoffs.

Disney announced it would lay off 28,000 from its theme park division, insurance company AllState said it would cut 3,800 positions, and the airline industry, already battered by months with levels of consumer demand, saw more than 30,000 additional furloughs at American and United Airlines.

House Democrats passed a $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief bill Thursday over intense GOP opposition, even as bipartisan talks between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin continued.

The legislation, which passed 214-207, has no chance of advancing in the Republican-led Senate and is opposed by the White House. But it’s been nearly five months since the House passed the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act -- which also went nowhere in the Senate. So with the House set to recess Friday through the election, Pelosi (D-Calif.) acceded to demands from moderate Democrats who wanted to take new action to address the toll of the coronavirus before heading home to campaign for reelection.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) on Thursday said each of the state’s counties could only provide one mail-in ballot drop-off location for the November election, a proclamation that quickly spurred criticism and legal threats from Democrats and election officials.

The executive order, which amended a July 27 order by Abbott that expanded early voting and absentee ballot drop-offs, cites election security as the reason that counties must close sites that were already collecting early ballots. The news was immediately seized on by critics who threatened legal challenges and argued the change does not prevent fraud but hurts populous cities that are Democratic strongholds. Texas Democrats called Abbott’s move “a blatant voter suppression tactic.”

Thirty-five days before the election, food assistance boxes, doled out at food banks around the country, are coming with a surprise: a signed letter from President Trump. Anti-hunger advocates and food bank workers are outraged, saying the move violates the Hatch Act and compromises relationships with the food-insecure Americans they serve.

A letter in English and Spanish, on White House letterhead, exhorts needy Americans to wash hands and maintain social distance, closing with: “We will support Americans’ recovery every step of the way. Together we will overcome this challenge, and our Nation will emerge from this crisis stronger than ever before.” And then Trump’s distinctive signature.