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All buzz and no sting? Experts say ‘murder hornets’ are overhyped

They don’t want people bugging out.




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Racy photos and an undisclosed killing: Sheriff’s race is Broward County’s raucous election to watch

Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony is getting a political baptism by fire in an election that reads like a Hollywood screenplay with racy photos, a secret decades-old killing and a bitter union fight.




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Southwest Airlines plane hits and kills person as it lands on Texas runway

A Southwest jet traveling from Dallas fatally struck a person as it touched down at a Texas airport Thursday night, authorities said.




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April’s jobless rate is highest since Great Depression, hitting 14.7%

The U.S. unemployment rate suffered its worst monthly loss on record, hitting a startling 14.7% in April as the coronavirus pandemic and the drastic efforts to contain it forced employers to slash more than 20 million jobs.




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California to get $247 million refund after protective mask delivery delayed

California is slated to be refunded the $247 million it paid to a Chinese car company under a massive $1 billion deal for face masks, which were not federally certified by the agreed upon deadline.




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SYSTEM UPDATE: 5 Mother’s Day gifts for the ‘Gamer Mom’

You can always get your mom flowers for Mother’s Day, or chocolate, or your standard Mother’s Day gift. Or, if your mom is anything like mine, you can go in a completely different direction.




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Pete Davidson asks people to stop bringing drugs to his mom’s house on Staten Island

Pete Davidson, who recently said he quit using drugs, urged people not to drop off any weed or other illegal substances at his mom’s Staten Island house after a stranger did just that a few days ago.




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Coronavirus may linger in semen of infected men, poses small risk for COVID-19 infection via sex: study

The semen of men infected with coronavirus revealed that the disease lingered in only a few patients, suggesting there is a small chance COVID-19 can be transmitted sexually, researchers said.




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SEE IT: Gov. Cuomo approves of Robert De Niro playing him, gives his best ‘Taxi Driver’ impression

Gov. Cuomo is down with Robert De Niro portraying him in a movie about the coronavirus pandemic, should there be one, and he also took a moment to play the role of the Manhattan-born actor.




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Man who filmed Ahmaud Arbery killing also under investigation, Georgia official says

A day after a father and son were charged in the February killing of unarmed jogger Ahmaud Arbery, a Georgia official promised a thorough probe into the case and said the man who filmed the horrific incident is also under investigation. In a news conference Friday morning, Georgia Bureau of Investigation Director Vic Reynolds said “every stone will be turned over" and if the facts lead agents to make another arrest “they will do that.”




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Conservative talk-radio host Dennis Prager bemoans loss of racial slurs, gets history lesson

Conservative firebrand Dennis Prager has taken a break from pushing hydroxychloroquine and calling lockdowns “the greatest mistake” in history to rail against the loss of racist language.




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Trump calls video of Ahmaud Arbery killing ‘disturbing’ but trusts Georgia’s ‘very good’ law enforcement

President Trump on Friday called the viral video of Ahmaud Arbery’s killing “very, very disturbing,” but he said he’s confident that Georgia’s law enforcement authorities will handle the case properly despite a slow-moving investigation and conflict-of-interest questions surrounding the incident. “So I saw the tape, and it’s very, very disturbing," he said in a Fox New phone interview. “I looked at a picture of that young man. He was in a tuxedo... And I will say that that looks like a really good, young guy.”




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Vanessa Bryant files legal claim over images from Kobe Bryant chopper crash: report

The claim seeks damages in connection with the release of cellphone pictures taken by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies at the scene of the Jan. 26 tragedy in Calabasas.




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Record unemployment hits veterans hard, nearly 12% out of work

Veterans are being hit hard by unemployment due to the coronavirus pandemic.




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No burglaries were reported in neighborhood where Ahmaud Arbery was killed, contradicting suspects’ claim: report

An already-unlikely motive in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case became even more suspicious on Friday. The two Georgia men who were caught on video shooting the unarmed jogger to death in February claim they were chasing a suspect behind a series of burglaries in the area. But a local police official said the last break-in the neighborhood was reported nearly two months before the shooting.




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Disney Springs in Orlando starting phased reopening after coronavirus closures

Disney World is beginning to spring into action. Disney Springs, the company’s outdoor dining, shopping and entertainment complex near its Florida theme parks, is set to begin a phased reopening on May 20 following closures to reduce the spread of coronavirus.




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Costco shoppers upset the retailer is requiring customers to wear face masks during a pandemic

Some Costco customers are not happy about having to wear masks in stores.




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Chris Cornell’s widow fires back at Soundgarden members in escalating legal war, says they’re tying to ‘browbeat’ her into giving up music

Chris Cornell’s widow is firing back at her husband’s Soundgarden bandmates, calling the lawsuit they filed against her Wednesday an attempt to “browbeat” her into giving up “copyrighted works.”




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Ohio State to pay almost $41 million to 162 alleged sexual assault victims of university doctor

Ohio State University will pay about $41 million to settle a dozen lawsuits by 162 men alleging sexual abuse by a team doctor, Richard Strauss.




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Boeing 737 fatally strikes pedestrian on Texas runway

A Boeing 737 ran over a man who was on an Austin, TX runway




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California to mail ballots to all voters because of coronavirus

Surprisingly, they didn’t do it years ago due to traffic.




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2 men arrested in Michigan store shooting over mask dispute

Two men were arrested in a fatal shooting in Flint, Mich.




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Seminal rocker Little Richard, singer of classic “Tutti Frutti” and “Lucille,” dead at 87

The wildly influential singer and pianist established rock ’n’ roll as a genre with just one rule — there are no rules.




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Search for pair of teens who vanished while tubing continues in Utah

The desperate search for two teens who vanished while tubing in Utah continued on Saturday, days after the pair were swept up in an intense storm.




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The downsides of working from home

How should those now working from home due to the coronavirus deal with guilt and exhaustion?



  • Work & careers

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'Lean on Me' - Limerick online voucher initiative

Their doors may be closed, but Limerick businesses are receiving support from their customers who are generating cashflow by buying vouchers online.




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US data to underscore divide between market and economy

A week packed with US economic data is likely to provide investors with more evidence of the extent to which the coronavirus pandemic has hit growth, sharpening the debate on whether a rebound in stocks has been justified amid an unprecedented slowdown.




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CCPC simplifies merger notification system

The Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC) has simplified the system for certain mergers to be notified to it.




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Lufthansa seeks €9 billion bailout amid political talks

Lufthansa is negotiating a €9 billion bailout with Germany's economic stabilisation fund to ensure its future, the airline said, confirming an earlier Reuters report.




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Over €3.5 billion in prize bonds held at end-2019

Over half a billion euro of prize bonds were sold last year, according to the latest report from the Prize Bond Company.




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Ability to work from home could limit job losses - ESRI

More workers should be facilitated to work from home in order to improve their chances of retaining their jobs, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute.




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374 staff at the IAA earned over €100,000 last year

The numbers of staff earning over €100,000 at the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) last year increased by 31 to 374.




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Covid-19 impacting 'well-being and relationships'

The Covid-19 outbreak is having a negative impact on personal relationships and well-being, while it has also led to an increase in the consumption of alcohol.




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State backed credit note for package holidays

The Government is to provide a State guaranteed refund credit note for package holidays booked through Irish travel agents and tour operators in effort to help the industry during Covid-19 crisis.




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Donohoe says Covid funding can't go on indefinitely

The Minister for Finance has said the State can afford to continue to fund the measures put in place by the Government to deal with the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.




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Ryanair criticises aircraft parking charges in Dublin

Ryanair has criticised what it has described as unjustified charges for aircraft that are parked at Dublin airport while not in use due to the Covid-19 crisis.




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EU court hits back at German ruling on ECB support

The European Union's top court has said it alone has the power to decide whether EU bodies are breaching the bloc's rules, in a rebuke to Germany's highest court, which this week rejected its judgment approving the ECB's trillion-euro bond purchases.




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US economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April

The US economy lost a staggering 20.5 million jobs in April, the steepest plunge in payrolls since the Great Depression and the starkest sign yet of how the coronavirus pandemic is battering the world's biggest economy.




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€240 billion in low-cost credit for eurozone states

Eurozone ministers have formally approved €240 billion in credit lines to help European countries meet the crippling costs of fighting the coronavirus outbreak.




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April unemployment rate jumps to record high of 28.2%

The unemployment rate for April, as measured by the Covid-19 adjusted measure, was 28.2% according to new figures from the Central Statistics Office.




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Did the Paycheck Protection Program Hit the Target? -- by João Granja, Christos Makridis, Constantine Yannelis, Eric Zwick

This paper takes an early look at the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a large and novel small business support program that was part of the initial policy response to the COVID-19 pandemic. We use new data on the distribution of PPP loans and high-frequency micro-level employment data to consider two dimensions of program targeting. First, we do not find evidence that funds flowed to areas more adversely affected by the economic effects of the pandemic, as measured by declines in hours worked or business shutdowns. If anything, funds flowed to areas less hard hit. Second, we find significant heterogeneity across banks in terms of disbursing PPP funds, which does not only reflect differences in underlying loan demand. The top-4 banks alone account for 36% of total pre-policy small business loans, but disbursed less than 3% of all PPP loans. Areas that were significantly more exposed to low-PPP banks received much lower loan allocations. As data become available, we will study employment and establishment responses to the program and the impact of PPP support on the economic recovery. Measuring these responses is critical for evaluating the social insurance value of the PPP and similar policies.




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Trade Credit and the Transmission of Unconventional Monetary Policy -- by Manuel Adelino, Miguel A. Ferreira, Mariassunta Giannetti, Pedro Pires

We show that trade credit in production networks is important for the transmission of unconventional monetary policy. We find that firms with bonds eligible for purchase under the European Central Bank’s Corporate Sector Purchase Program act as financial intermediaries and extend more trade credit to their customers. The increase in trade credit flows is more pronounced from core countries to periphery countries and towards financially constrained customers. Customers increase investment and employment in response to the additional financing, while suppliers with eligible bonds increase their customer base, potentially favoring upstream industry concentration. Our findings suggest that the trade credit channel of monetary policy produces heterogeneous effects on regions, industries, and firms.




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A bridge too far: Bill Baroni, Bridget Kelly and Chris Christie committed moral crimes against New Jersey

By the time in 2015 when prosecutors indicted Chris Christie flunkies Bridget Kelly and Bill Baroni for shutting down Fort Lee’s George Washington Bridge lanes for four days in 2013 to punish the mayor for failing to endorse the big man in Trenton’s reelection, the two sick sycophants had long lost their stupid sinecures in the State House and Port Authority. And Christie had already rightly lost the trust of Jerseyans for building the hothouse in which the lichens could grow.




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Gov. Cuomo, don’t cry over spilled milk: Edie Falco says N.Y. shouldn’t prop up dairy farmers

Like many New Yorkers — indeed, many Americans — I’ve looked to Gov. Cuomo’s decisive leadership during the coronavirus crisis. But his Nourish New York initiative, while well-intentioned, is a step in the wrong direction. With federal funds stretched to the limit, why would the governor squander $25 million to bail out the dairy industry, which is rife with disease and cruelty?




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Immigration detention is a public health hazard

As physicians who work in New York City hospitals, we are witnessing how COVID-19 is ravaging the communities we serve. The only way to slow this pandemic is to stop the transmission of the disease. Yet despite everything we know about how the virus spreads and the unprecedented sacrifices workers have made to slow the spread, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) continues to endanger the lives of over 40,000 immigrants in more than 200 jails and prisons nationally. Most people in immigration detention have committed no criminal offense and have been deemed by ICE to pose no danger, yet they are held arbitrarily pending disposition of their asylum claims or deportation orders.




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Bring on the e-scooters: A Bird executive explains how New York City can smartly and safely welcome the micromobility devices

Electric scooters are coming to New York and, with a little planning and preparation, they can safely thrive here. To understand how, it helps to start with some context.




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Readers sound off on a historic game, Trump and blue laws

Manhattan: With no sports to watch, I’m relying on my memory for gratification. My greatest sports memory happens to coincide with the great moment in New York Knicks’ history, which happened 50 years ago today, on May 8, 1970, when the team won its first championship.




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How to save the world: A VE Day salute to the men and women who defeated Hitler

The monster who started it, Hitler, was dead, with a coward’s bullet to the head. Also gone was FDR, the man who mobilized a nation and built a worldwide coalition to defeat Germany. As were millions of men who fought in the second war to end all wars to crush an insane regime that had murdered millions of civilian men, women and children, Jew and gentile. Churchill, who stood sometimes alone against the threat, would soon be turned out by the voters.




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Losing jobs, saving jobs: As unemployment soars, the nation and individual states try to balance health and economic concerns

The patient, laid up in the ICU, gets sicker. Thursday, 3.2 million more people joined the ranks of the unemployed, bringing to 33.5 million the number of Americans who’ve lost jobs since mid-March. Believe it: One in five of those employed before this living, dying hell began is now seeking jobless benefits.




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Pass an essential workers’ bill of rights: During crisis, give those doing critical jobs added protections and pay

The COVID-19 crisis is laying bare our city’s extreme racial and economic inequality. Not only have communities of color borne the brunt of the pandemic, but workers of color make up 75% of New York’s essential workers, the people who are risking their health to provide the services on which we all rely.