The middle of u. S. States. As far as the number of cases, and deaths. But there are case numbers and death numbers that are both going up. I should also say though, that what we know about what is happening in arizona in terms of cases is almost certainly a significant undercount. Because arizonas testing rate ranks 51st in the nation. 51st. Because they are behind all of the other 49 states, and theyre behind washington, d. C. , as well. Thats pretty good data from the Kaiser Family foundation. So arizonas testing is absolutely terrible and they know theyve got a pretty big problem on their hands so last week, arizonas republican governor doug ducey announced we extend arizonas stayathome order until at least mid may. He said he was following the data. And that makes sense. Looking at the data that weve gotten. And as we reported last night, we know that the data the governor was relying on included a very specific, arizonaspecific model, that was created at the states request, by experts at two of arizonas top universities. And this model, the most robust arizonaspecific coronavirus modeling project anywhere, it found that the only way the state could avoid an exponential growth in cases was to maintain the current stay at home restrictions until at least the end of may. The end of may. So last week, arizonas governor, looking at that data, told the people of the state, hey, we got to extend the stayathome order, were not out of the woods yet. But then, this week, surprise. As the president announced a planned visit to arizona, arizonas governor, doug ducey, suddenly did a uie, and decided that the state wouldnt have to keep in place its stayathome order anymore, he was going to accelerate the planned opening, hair salons and barber shops go for it, making the sudden change on monday and perhaps it did have something to do with the pending visit from the president and enkoushlging governors to open up right now everybody is fine now. In any event, governor duceys administration said that in making this new decision, and changing their mind, they were relying on the new model. A different model. From the one they had worked with the universities on. They said for the new decision, they were relying on a model that had been provided to the state by the Trump Administration. And that model said everything would be fine if the governor lifted the stayathome order right away. No reason to wait. And this new model that told the governor, go ahead and open everything up, its a secret. Nobody is allowed to see it. We just know what the Governors Administration has said. Just hours after governor ducey announced the new accelerated reopening based on those apparently reportedly rosy projections from the federal model thats a secret and were not allowed to look at, interestingly, he went beyond just stopping looking at the arizonaspecific model that had been made by the experts and scientists at universities, universities in his state, he went beyond not just looking at their work anymore and he actually ordered those modeling experts at those universities in arizona, that they should stop their work. He told them to stop down. Not just were relying on a different model now but we order you to stop your modeling work. We dont want your model to exist anymore. And governor ducey told the universities that the state would rescind its agreement to share data with them, and they wanted to claw back the data they had already given them. All the data sets we gave you to do your modeling, in terms of the epidemic, for the state of arizona, we want that back, and you have to stop working. Huh . I mean as i said last night, i dont know whats weirder about this story, the fact that the state of arizona ordered the expert Modeling Team to just stop, while the state is obviously still very much in the middle of this epidemic, or the fact that they are apparently now relying on a secret model from the Trump Administration that nobody is allowed to see but trust us, it says ha what were doing is exactly the right thing scientifically. You just cant check us. Well is, since this has come to pass over the course of this week, a number of officials have raised concerns about this decision. Including arizonas democratic u. S. Senator sinema and the ruben gallego, the congressman went so far as to tell the universities that they should ignore the governors order and they should keep working on the modeling for the state. That was the story as of last night. We reported it here, last night, we talked to a former head of the state Health Department of arizona, who called this decision astonishing and walked us through how it had happened and how crazy it was. Update. The Ducey Administration today changed their minds. The arizona Health Department announcing today, quote, we are pleased to announce an Ongoing Partnership to continue providing models. The state now says they were simply trying to be understanding of all of the demands on these researchers time. They didnt want to be a burden by asking them to continue working on this model for the state. But quote, since then, meaning since yesterday, the universities and team members have expressed a willingness to continue doing this work. Yeah. Yeah. Who knew they were willing to continue doing this work . In the middle of the epidemic . I questions we should have asked them before we told them stand down, stop working. But now theyre going to continue working on this. Hooray. So that weird situation in arizona appears to be resolved today. It appears to be one of those situations that just couldnt survive in the sunlight. The Ducey Administration tried to make this change in the dark. Enough people noticed and squawked about it, that it sort of went away in the light of day. You would be surprised at the number of bad decisions that can be reversed that way. There is still the matter of this secret supposed federal model that nobody can see. It still has not been released as of today, but like i said, the problem a little bit solved at least. The University Model from experts in arizona, will apparently continue their modeling work with the state. We will see if that modeling work affects the ongoing decisions of governor ducey with what he says about opening up given that University Researchers say that opening up before the end of may will put arizona back into exponential growth in terms of their epidemic. But that is just one development out of the million today. It has been that kind of day. There are heartening stories and disheartening stories. But so much stuff happened today, it is one of those days where i think it is sort of hard to keep up with the news. Arizona, for example, is just one of 30 states that have either started some degree of reopening, or they will start reopening soon. The New York Times reports today, in a serious report that we will all look back on and shake our heads at, the New York Times reports today that most of states that are reopening are not only meeting the ostensible requirements issued by the white house but theyre going in the opposite direction, quote, in half of the states easing restriction, case counts are trending upward, positive test results are rising or both. And virtually none of the states are reopening have anywhere near the minimum rate of testing that experts say is required to reopen safely. As of this evening, there are over 1 1 4 million coronavirus confirmed cases in the United States and over 76,000 americans have died. And our numbers continue to go up and up and up. That appears to be completely dislocated from what our political decisions in places with rising epidemics, to open up anyway, and pretend like things are already getting better. I mean to have lost 76,000 americans already, it is just a staggering, staggering number. And of course, it is likely a significant undercount of the deaths because of the thousands of people who have likely died from covid19 who were never tested and therefore not officially counted, because our testing access in this country continues to be severely restricted. I mean everybody is looking at this, from a scientific or basic third grade math understanding, and knows that the official death count in the United States is astronomical and also probably too low. Unless you were president donald trump, if you are president donald trump, apparently you think the coronavirus death toll in the United States is too high. Its fake news. And really the numbers are much smaller. Axios is reporting now that President Trump has quote complained to advisers about the way coronavirus deaths are being calculated, suggesting that the real numbers are actually lower, the number of his senior aides share this view, according to sources with direct knowledge. A Senior Administration official says he expects the president to begin publicly questioning the death toll as it closes in on his predictions for the final death count, and damages him politically. Apparently, the white house thinks that hospitals are running some sort of grift where theyre overreporting coronavirus cases and making up fake coronavirus patients in order to cash in on sweet sweet medicare money for treating coronavirus patients. Apparently were supposed to prepare for the president to start blaming american hospitals for inventing this epidemic, that this many people arent really dying, if it wasnt for the greedy hospitals, wed see the real much lower death counts. While thats happening, at the political level, the virus is hitting close to home for the president , literally. From nbc news today, quote, one of president Donald Trumps personal valets who works in the white house, works in the west wing, serving the president his meals, among other duties, has tested positive for the coronavirus. The closest the virus is known to have come to the president per the white house official. Staffers who come into close contact with the president have said they are tested regularly for coronavirus but a few aides have been seen wear, but few aides have been seen Wearing Masks around the west wing. After learning one of his valets was infected, trump became lava level mad at his staff and said he doesnt feel they are doing all he had can to protect him from the virus. Now it turns out it is really hard to work to contain this virus. I mean whatever the president and the white house or the republican governors might wish or want to be true about this epidemic, the virus is the virus, and the science is the science, i mean you can deny that it is as bad as everybody says, and you can deny that it is really a risk and it is safe to open everything back up, but then somebody in the white house, who is probably been close to the president to touch him, a lot, because hes his valet, then that guy turns out to have it, scary, right . Scary to be in that much of a bulk as you thought you were to not be in that much of a bubble as you thought you were. And the guidelines to reopen the economy, it turns out that is a hard thing. You cant just wave a magic wand and say it is over and we want it to be over and therefore it is over and the economy will come right back to where it should be. The reason the mi is shut down is not because of some sort of blue state plot. Its because there is a virus that has killed 75,000 americans and infected more than a million of us and isnt slowing down at all and the only way we can slow it down, because we dont have a treatment and we dont have a vaccine, is to keep americans apart from each other. And that must be very frustrating, but thats the science here. That said, the white house is apparently deciding that they are going to stand against that science as well. The Associated Press saying today that step by step detailed guidance created by experts by the cdc to advice governments on how and when to open various parts of their economies, that cdc guide was shelled by the white house. Scientists say they were carefully researching on the slow way to reopen things safely, that document they were told would never see the light of day. No time for all of that hard work. Certainly this white house is not going to tell states and localities to do all of that work and be careful and deliberate about it. They want you to just open up. Just pretend this isnt a big deal. We will have more on that story, including the reporter who broke that story later on in the show tonight. There was more today. I mean there was Vice President mike pence, at an alexandria, virginia, nursing home today, holding a big celebratory, notice how he is not wearing gloves or a mask. Holding a big celebratory throw the paper towels style photo op for the federal governments first shipment of personal protective equipment, to a single nursing home in america. Why is he working with that guy and not wearing a mask . Not wearing gloves . Where is that hand going after you have been touching without gloves on. We are 20,000 americans dead in Nursing Homes into this. 20,000 americans have died in Nursing Homes already. The Trump Administration is really excited to brag that they are doing something for the Nursing Homes, for the first time, today, now that 20,000 americans are already dead. They say this is one of over, one of thousands of deliveries theyre going to make to Nursing Homes between now and the end of june, no rush, but they didnt start doing anything until now. And thats what theyre bragging about. Also, i will tell you, if this administration is capable of organizing and carrying out some sort of systematic and actually helpful delivery of necessary supplies of ppe to every nursing home in this country, i will be surprised, and ill tell you why. Next to mike pence today, among all of the other people he touched and spoke face to face to without march, was sema verna, you can see in the frame with him, she runs the part of the Trump Administration that oversees Nursing Homes and that part of the Trump Administration has been telling us now for two and a half weeks that theyre just about to start releasing data on coronavirus deaths and cases in Nursing Homes around the country. That would be really helpful information to have, because some governors, some states, havent been releasing that information. Which is cruel to the people who live in those homes, and to the people who have family members in those homes and it is cruel and self defeating for the communities in which those homes are located, because when their there are outbreaks in specific nursing home, the communities in which those homes are located need to know it, because nursing home outbreaks wont stay there. They will become Community Outbreaks because those homes just like prisons, just like meat packing plants, just like all of these other facilities that are housing huge outbreaks, theyre porous and they create outbreaks where they are located in the community. So if in fact, the agency is going to start releasing facility by facility information, about where there are nursing home outbreaks in this country, thats great, because then a lot of states, you cant get that information. The federal government is going to do it. Thats great. Theyve been telling us for two and a half weeks that its coming soon. Its almost, its almost, weve been checking in with them regularly, every few days, they keep telling us its about to come out, its about to come out and today they told us that data will start to be released maybe at the end of may. So i guess well just wait then. Thats also the time frame they have announced for when theyre going to have their Nursing Homes task force meet for the first time. Maybe they will convene around the end of may. Busy till then. Thats just the kind of day it has been. And the news has been fast and furious today. From the judicial branch, and from the Justice Department today as well. We got a big ruling from the Supreme Court today. That may finally put to rest the great new jersey bridgegate scandal of 2013, which aged me approximately 17 years. Seems also quite by current, quaint by current standards the way a staffer and political appointee and Governor Chris Christies Administration died it was time for some plastic problems in fort lee new jersey in order to get back at that mayor for not endorsing Chris Christie in the bid for governor, and the christie staffer kelly who wrote the infamous email and baroni, another trustee, were convicted of charges of fraud and conspiracy by cooking up this plot by jamming, by changing lanes of the George Washington bridge, the busiest Passenger Car bridge. Bridget kelly was facing a year and a half in prison and bill baroni facing two and a half years but in an unanimous decision, the Supreme Court rejected the entire premise and threw the entire case out and saying yes there was evidence of deception and corruption and abuse of power but the fraud statute does not criminalize all such conduct. And so our National Hunt for what counts as punishable criminal corruption in Public Service continues. We are starting to need brighter and brighter lights to find it. And that was not the only news today. Just of the Supreme Court. The Trump Adminis