The Rundown: COVID-19 Deaths Pass 40,000 In U-S

The number of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus passed 40,000 on Sunday amid more than 755,000 cases, according to the count being kept by Johns Hopkins University. That milestone was reached as Harvard researchers warned that nationwide testing must increase to at least 500,000 people per day from the current 150,000 per day in order for the economy to reopen and be able to stay that way without spikes in cases forcing quarantine orders again. The U.S. currently doesn't have that testing capacity needed for reopening, as governors have repeatedly called on the federal government for more tests and for help with getting supplies, like swabs, to carry them out. President Trump said Sunday he'll use the Defense Production Act to compel an unnamed company to produce 20 million more testing swabs every month

Trump said Sunday that the administration and Congress are near an agreement on another aid package that will provide more funding for the Payment Protection Program loan program for small businesses that already ran out of its initial $250 million as it was swamped by applications. The new package would provide up to $300 billion for the program, and also providing funding for hospitals dealing with the pandemic and for coronavirus testing. Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier in the day he believed a deal could be reached by late Sunday or early Monday.

The Washington Post reported Sunday that more than a dozen U.S. experts were working at the World Health Organization and giving the Trump administration information in December as the coronavirus spread in China. Trump last week said he was suspending U.S. funding for the WHO amid the pandemic, accusing it of mismanaging the response to the virus, covering up information to shield China, and failing to, quote, "share information in a timely and transparent fashion." But the Post said Trump administration officials helped guide WHO policy and worked to make sure the U.S. was informed of developments as soon as the international health organization learned about them. The WHO has faced wider questions and criticism over whether it waited too long to declare a global emergency and offered too much praise for China’s response.

In other developments:

• Nearly 20 Percent of Deaths Associated with Nursing Homes: At least 7,000 people, or nearly 20 percent, of U.S. deaths from the coronavirus were associated with nursing homes, according to the New York Times, and experts believe the likely total is higher. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that at least 400 of the long-term care facilities across the U.S. have coronavirus infections, but NBC reports estimate it's almost 2,500 of them in 36 states, while the Times says it's at least 4,100. The coronavirus is more deadly in older people, especially those with underlying health conditions, and it's able to spread quickly in places like nursing homes because staffers go from room to room to help residents.

• N.Y. to Begin 'Aggressive' Antibody Testing: Governor Andrew Cuomo said yesterday that "aggressive" coronavirus antibody testing will begin in New York this week after the Food and Drug Administration approved a test developed in the state. Antibody tests are meant to show if somebody was infected with the virus and developed antibodies to it. Cuomo said, "[W]e’re going to be rolling it out to do the largest survey of any state populated." Cuomo has repeatedly emphasized the importance of testing as a step toward reopening. The governor also said the daily number of deaths and hospitalizations continue to go down, and the state that's been the U.S. epicenter of the pandemic is, quote, "on the other side of the plateau," but he emphasized they can't ease off on containment measures yet, saying it could quickly go back up again.

➤16 KILLED IN NOVA SCOTIA SHOOTING RAMPAGE, GUNMAN DEAD: Sixteen people were killed in a shooting rampage in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia Sunday (April 19th) by a gunman who disguised himself at one point as a police officer. The suspect, 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, is dead. The bodies of several people were found in and outside a home in the rural town of Portapique, where Wortman is believed to have lived part-time, in what police said was the first scene of violence. Bodies were found at other locations, including that of a police officer, with authorities believing that while Wortman may have targeted his first victims, he then began killing others at random. They did not say what the initial motive was. Several homes in the area were also set on fire. Police first said they arrested Wortman at a gas station outside Halifax, but later said he was dead. While they did say there'd been an exchange of gunfire between him and police at one point, they didn't disclose how he'd died. The shooting is the deadliest such attack in Canada's history.

➤TEXAS MAN WHO KILLED OFFICER, WOUNDED TWO, WAS WAITING TO AMBUSH THEM: Officials in San Marcos, Texas, said Sunday that a man who killed one police officer and wounded two others a day earlier before killing himself was wearing body armor and waiting to ambush the officers when they arrived at his home in response to a domestic violence call. Killed was 31-year-old Officer Justin Putnam, and the two other officers are in critical but stable condition. Interim police chief Bob Klett identified the suspect as 45-year-old Alfredo Perez de la Cruz, but said they were working to confirm his identity because he apparently went by different names. The officers had responded to a 911 call about a man who'd hit his wife and was threatening other family members who were there. None of the family members other than the suspect were seriously hurt.

➤BOSTON GLOBE RUNS 16-PAGES OF OBITS: With coronavirus cases surging in Massachusetts, the Boston Sunday Globe offered a stark reminder of the death toll that COVID-19 is taking on the state, with the paper running 16 pages worth of death notices in the print edition.

➤NICK CORDERO HAS LEG AMPUTATED: Nick Cordero had his right leg amputated as he continues to fight coronavirus, his wife Amanda Kloots shared. The 41-year-old is on a ventilator and needs the surgery to fix a blood flow problem. “We got some difficult news yesterday. Basically we’ve had issues in his right leg with clotting and getting blood down to his toes and it just isn’t happening with surgery and everything. So they had him on blood thinners for the clotting,” Kloots said. The Tony-award nominee has been sedated for 18 days in the ICU at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in California.

COVID-19 Has Newspapers On Life Support

Even before COVID-19, America’s newspaper industry was on life support.

More than 1,800 newspapers have folded since the internet became a prime source for news. In 2000, at least 55 million American homes subscribed to a daily paper, about double what it is today, writes writes Meg James at The L-A Times citing data from the Pew Research Center.

During the last two decades, newspaper chains, including McClatchy, which owns the Sacramento Bee and Miami Herald, and the former Tribune Co., owner of the Chicago Tribune, have tumbled into bankruptcy. Leveraged buyouts and consolidations have left companies mired in debt. The nation’s largest chain, Gannett Co., which owns USA Today and 250 daily newspapers, including the Arizona Republic in Phoenix and the Desert Sun in Palm Springs, merged with another large company in November. It now reaches 1 in 4 daily newspaper subscribers, but its stock has dropped 85% this year.

Newsrooms have been hollowed, print pages slashed. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, for example, prints just three days a week. Billionaire Warren Buffett, who had owned the Buffalo News since 1977 and was hailed as a savior of local journalism, in January unloaded his chain, which includes the Omaha World-Herald, to Lee Enterprises, which owns the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Buffett previously conceded that newspapers were “toast.”

Since the Great Recession, nearly half of U.S. newspaper journalism jobs have disappeared, leaving fewer than 38,000 reporters, photographers and editors.

“It’s bad and it’s going to get worse,” news industry analyst Ken Doctor said, predicting the COVID-19 crisis will further strain local news: “It’s going to be the 2009 recession on steroids.”

In response to the pandemic, local governments and institutions — health departments, hospitals, schools and businesses — are making vital decisions that affect lives and livelihoods, highlighting how useful local newspapers can be.

The print industry’s demise has larger implications, Doctor and others say. Without reporters keeping tabs on city halls, state agencies and community organizations, there would be little accountability. Researchers have found that newspapers remain the nation’s most comprehensive, fact-based source of information.

Small dailies and alternative weeklies are among the most threatened. They rely on local businesses for advertising, rather than big-dollar national advertisers.

The Los Angeles Times, which was thrown a lifeline in 2018 when biomedical billionaire Dr. Patrick Soon-Shiong purchased the paper along with the San Diego Union-Tribune, also is feeling financial pain. The paper has spent 18 months rebuilding its newsroom and expanding its online offering only to be walloped by the virus.

“Advertising revenue has nearly been eliminated,” California Times President Chris Argentieri wrote in a memo to the newspaper’s staff this week, outlining initial cost-cutting measures, including furloughs and trimming salaries of high-level managers during the crisis, including the eight top editors.

On Thursday, the company folded three of its community newspapers — the Burbank Leader, the Glendale News-Press and the La Cañada Valley Sun — because they were losing money. The Glendale paper was a pioneer, publishing since 1905. The Valley Sun popped up in 1946 as the postwar building and population boom began to reshape California.

The widespread financial woes come even as traffic to newspaper websites has doubled, Doctor said, and subscriptions to digital sites have dramatically increased as readers rally to support trusted news outlets.

“This [coronavirus] story has been transformational: It has shown the absolute uniqueness and value of local news,” Doctor said.

Last week, 19 Democrats in the U.S. Senate urged their colleagues to provide coronavirus stimulus funding to news organizations.

“Local news plays an indispensable role in American civic life as a trusted source for critical information,” the senators wrote. Since the pandemic was declared, they said, local news outlets have been “providing communities answers to critical questions, including information on where to get locally tested, hospital capacity, road closures, essential business hours of operation, and shelter-in-place orders.”

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Disney To Save $500M A Month With Furloughs

Walt Disney Co. will stop paying more than 100,000 employees this week, nearly half of its workforce, as the world’s biggest entertainment company tries to weather the coronavirus lockdown.

The L-A Times reports suspending pay for thousands of so-called cast members will save Disney up to $500 million a month across its theme parks and hotels, which have been shut in Europe and the U.S. for almost five weeks.

But slashing fixed costs in a more severe way than other theme-park owners, such as NBCUniversal and Warner Media, poses significant risks to the reputation of the century-old empire behind Mickey Mouse.

The decision leaves Disney staff reliant on state benefits — public support that could run to hundreds of millions of dollars over coming months — even as the company protects executive-bonus schemes and a $1.5-billion dividend payment due in July.

By contrast, some big multinationals, including L’Oréal and Total in France, have vowed to forgo state aid in a show of solidarity with taxpayers.

Disney over the past month has raised debt and signed new credit facilities, leaving the company with about $20 billion in fresh cash to draw upon for a downturn. “They could afford” not to furlough staff, said Rich Greenfield, analyst at BTIG.

He cautions, however, that Disney is probably braced for a “very prolonged shutdown.” Disney made nearly $7 billion in operating income from its parks, experiences and products business last year, making up nearly half of all operating profits. Shares in Disney have fallen by a quarter since the outbreak of the virus.

Bill Maher Rips The News Media's Panic Porn

On this week’s “Real Time,” Bill Maher took issue with how people, especially in the media, have been reacting to the coronavirus pandemic, the Wrap reports.

Expressing the worry that “panic porn” will cede any optimism about this crisis to President Trump, Maher complained about how news organizations have covered the pandemic, saying media should “calm down and treat us like adults.”

“Now that we’re starting to see some hope in all this, don’t hope-shame me,” Maher began. “You know the problem with nonstop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist. And optimists tend to win American elections.”

As an example, Maher cited Franklin Roosevelt’s famous quote, “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself,” then said he worries that “as s— as he is, I can see Trump riding that into a second term. And then there will be no hope left for you to shame.”


Maher turned his attention specifically to the media. “If this insanity happens, again, news sources have to rein it in. Everyone knows corona is no walk in the park because you literally can’t walk in the park. But at some point, the daily drumbeat of depression and terror veers into panic porn,” Maher continued. “Enough with the ‘life will never be the same’ headlines.”

He noted a recent Washington Post headline that read “It Feels Like a War Zone,” which included a photograph of a supermarket stocker unloading boxes in a store’s eggs and deli meats section. “This is not a war zone,” he said. “This is a man with a box of eggs. And I’ve never seen a war zone with this much bacon.”

A recent news story on “Inside Edition” also drew Maher’s criticism. “Two weeks ago, ‘Inside Edition’ said 76,000 in the world had died so some are making comparisons to the apocalypse. The apocalypse? Really? Because most of us are sitting at home smoking delivery weed and binge-watching a show about a gay zookeeper,” Maher said. “Unless you’re a front-line health care worker for whom the phrase ‘above and beyond the call of duty’ doesn’t even begin to cover it, this is not the apocalypse.

Maher cited a New York Times headline, “‘It’s Terrifying': Millions More Out of Work,” adding, “What the f— is ‘it’s terrifying’ doing in a headline? Granted, it’s a quote, but who are they quoting? Trump? Fauchi? Stephen King? No, they’re quoting an event planner in North Hollywood. No offense to the event planners of the world, it’s amazing what you people can do with pine cones and silver spray paint.”

Maher complained that he’d rather get a straight headline and make his own decision about how to feel.

Poll: More Americans Fear Lifting Coronavirus Restrictions Too Soon

Americans are worried about lifting stay-at-home orders too quickly amid the coronavirus pandemic, which has dramatically upended life in a month marked by business shutdowns, job losses and illness, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Nearly six in 10 in the survey said they were concerned that the country would move too fast to loosen restrictions aimed at slowing the outbreak, compared with about three in 10 who said the greater worry was the economic impact of waiting too long.

Views on when to reopen split along partisan lines, with 77% of Democrats expressing concern about opening too quickly, compared with 39% of Republicans. By contrast, 48% of Republicans are worried the U.S. will take too long, compared with 19% of Democrats. President Trump has expressed an eagerness to lift restrictions as soon as possible, though he also has laid out public-health guidelines for governors to follow as they decide when to lift constraints.

The survey of 900 registered voters also revealed more anxiety over the virus, compared with a similar poll in March.

All-Star Event Features Somber Faced A-Listers

Lady Gaga, Stevie Wonder, Lizzo, Shawn Mendes and others sang classic songs brimmed with messages of hope and change during a TV special aimed at fighting the coronavirus, while Beyoncé and Alicia Keys spoke passionately about how the virus has disproportionately affected black Americans.

Beyoncé made a surprise appearance on Saturday’s TV special “One World: Together At Home,” thanking “delivery workers, mail carriers and sanitation employees” for their hard work during the pandemic.

Gaga, who curated the all-star TV event, kicked off it off by urging people weathering the coronavirus pandemic to find a way to smile through the pain with a performance of Nat King Cole’s version of the song “Smile.”



She performed during the second part of an eight-hour event supporting the World Health Organization alongside advocacy organization Global Citizen.

“I care so much about the medical workers that are putting their lives at risk for us,” Gaga said.

Wonder performed “Lean On Me” by Bill Withers — who died on March 30 — while playing piano. He told viewers: “During hardships like this we have to lean on each other for help.” John Legend and Sam Smith, each from their own homes, duetted on “Stand by Me”; Lizzo sang “A Change Is Gonna Come” with passion; and Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello, sitting together, performed “What a Wonderful World.”



Paul McCartney sang the Beatles’ “Lady Madonna” and talked about the work his mother did as a nurse. The members of the Rolling Stones — from four different locations — joined forces to perform “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”



And Taylor Swift sang “Soon You’ll Get Better” while playing piano.



“One World: Together At Home” featured stars appearing in intimate settings, beamed virtually to the world. It aired simultaneously on ABC, NBC, CBS, iHeartMedia and Bell Media networks and was hosted by Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Fallon and Jimmy Kimmel.



Johnny Oleksinski at The NY Post writes Saturday’s two-hour primetime concert, “One World Together At Home,” achieved the impossible: it made many feel even worse about our already miserable circumstances:

The insufferable show pieced together saintly speeches from A-list celebrities and somber United Nations officials between womp-womp acoustic ballads. Didn’t we tune in for some uplift?

Yes, but we got none of that when couple Shawn Mendes and Camila Cabello dueted on “What A Wonderful World,” Louis Armstrong’s signature number, surrounded by candles like a Bonnie Tyler music video.

Or when Taylor Swift softly crooned “Soon You’ll Get Better” as though she was a hospital resident scrawling out a prescription.

Nearly every musician opted for the saddest, most obvious tune they could muster, while — lucky us! — giving a shaky tour of their fabulous homes that would make Robin Leach scowl.

If you didn’t know John Legend was an EGOT before, you sure do after gawking tonight at his awards shelf, conveniently located next to his piano.

Saturday's virtual concert event, One World: Together at Home raised $127.9 million for health care workers and coronavirus relief, according to Global Citizen.

Drudge Disputes Trump Claim

In a rare statement, Matt Drudge, the prominent conservative news mogul, refuted President Trump's Saturday claim that traffic to his website has plummeted as its coverage has grown more critical of him, CNN reports.

"The past 30 days has been the most eyeballs in Drudge Report's 26 year-history," Drudge said in an email to CNN. "Heartbreaking that it has been under such tragic circumstances."

The Drudge Report, founded in 1995, is arguably the most influential conservative news website.

Drudge rarely reports or writes stories himself. Rather, he and his site serve as an aggregator, linking to other news organizations — and often providing them with large volumes of traffic.

Drudge supported Trump during the 2016 presidential election and in the early days of the Trump presidency was even a frequent visitor to the White House. But since the summer of 2019, the Drudge Report has spotlighted a significant amount of negative news about the Trump.

Regardless, the negative coverage has apparently miffed Trump, who openly criticized Drudge on Saturday afternoon.

Trump retweeted an attack from a far-right blogger who argued Drudge's coverage of the coronavirus has been misleading and sensationalistic:

I gave up on Drudge (a really nice guy) long ago, as have many others. People are dropping off like flies! https://t.co/L77SXS2mE8

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 18, 2020

The president did not provide any evidence to support his assertion that people were abandoning Drudge's website en masse. Web analytics data do not support Trump's claim that Drudge is losing web traffic amid the coronavirus crisis.

In fact, page view data directly from the Drudge Report's server, provided to CNN by a person with access to the numbers, shows no significant traffic dips since January 2019. The data shows a significant traffic surge in March, up to 1.2 billion page views from 781 million page views in February.

Additionally, data from Quantcast, a web analytics firm, showed that the Drudge Report had 201 million visits in November, 2016, a high-traffic month given it was the climax of the 2016 presidential election.  In the last 30 days, however, the Drudge Report has received 228 million visits, according to Quantcast.

Trump, Pelosi Trade Insults

President Donald Trump tore into Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) on Twitter after appearing in a Fox News Sunday interview with anchor Chris Wallace, blasting the speaker as “inherently dumb,” while further ripping Wallace and the cable network.

Nervous Nancy is an inherently “dumb” person. She wasted all of her time on the Impeachment Hoax. She will be overthrown, either by inside or out, just like her last time as “Speaker”. Wallace & @FoxNews are on a bad path, watch! https://t.co/nkEj5YeRjb

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 19, 2020

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), in an interview with ABC anchor George Stephanopoulos, swatted down President Donald Trump’s insults blasting the president over “avoid[ing] responsibility and assign[ing] blame.”

Mediaite reports the speaker Sunday morning on This Week with George Stephanopoulos further refocused the conversation on how the nation should be responding to the coronavirus pandemic.

“As we come on the air this morning the coronavirus continues to spread. Now more than 730,000 cases across America. And as the fight to contain the virus goes on the White House, Congress and governors also now focused on containing the economic devastation caused by the pandemic,” Stephanopoulos began.

The anchor continued, “At the White House last night, the president stepped up his attacks on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi claiming she’s blocking new funding for the paycheck protection plan program for small business.”

“You know, over the last 48 hours, President Trump has leveled a series of tweets and attacks against you, calling you weak, crazy, away on vacation, and more importantly, he’s accused you of costing American jobs by blocking new finds for the paycheck protection program,” Stephanopoulos stated.

“What’s your response?” the anchor asked Pelosi.

Fox News' Chris Wallace calls out Nancy Pelosi for promoting tourism during the coronavirus pandemic. pic.twitter.com/yg4Tgt12ln

— TV News HQ (@TVNewsHQ) April 19, 2020

Analyst: ‘Best and Worst Of Times’ For Video Streaming Services

As Americans are hunkered down at home and consuming more content, one analyst says the current situation “bodes really well” for NBCUniversal’s new video streaming service, Peacock.

“You see in the data traffic, the peak hours are still in the streaming times,” Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson, told “Squawk Box” on Wednesday. “We’re all consuming a ton of entertainment, a ton of cable news.”

CNBC reports Peacock rolled out last week for Comcast subscribers and then launches July 15 for everyone else. However, Peacock Chairman Matt Strauss said that moving up the launch date is under consideration. Comcast owns NBCUniversal.

In an increasingly saturated environment for streamers, Peacock has emphasized the unique aspects of its service, most notably that it has a free, ad-supported option. With the Olympics and new content creation postponed, Peacock is also relying on news content as well as its strong library, which will include “The Office” and “Law and Order.”

However, because of the reliance on advertising, Moffett said Peacock’s success will have to be measured differently than other services.

“It won’t be measured just by people trying it,” he said. “You have to stick to the engagement type of metrics, the time people are spending with the service, how much people are committed to being regular users.”



Many more people can be considered regular users as of now — Nielsen data shows streaming up 85% year over year in March; Disney+ recently reported it had reached 50 million global subscribers; and according to a Wall Street Journal-Harris poll, Americans spent an average of $37 on streaming services during the month of March. The question for Moffett remains whether these viewers keep streaming when circumstances change — and which services they ultimately choose.

“The hope is that Peacock will be one of those services that comes out the other side with a large group of customers,” Moffett said. “Eventually it will be much easier to sell advertising.”

No Sports On TV..But You're Still Paying for It

NY Post

Americans shell out nearly $20 a month in pay-TV fees to watch sports programming, but the main attractions—live events—are all canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.

So can you get a refund? In short, no, The Wall Street Journal reports.

WSJ Graphics

Pay-TV providers say they are still paying to carry sports channels in their packages despite the lack of live games, so they are just passing on the cost to customers. Several large providers said they would issue rebates if entire sports seasons are canceled—right now they are technically suspended—depending on the refunds they get from the networks.

“Networks continue to charge the cable company full price for sports programming, since leagues believe sports will take place again,” a spokesman for Cox Communications Inc. said. Representatives of Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc.’s DirecTV took a similar view.

For now, that $20 will buy you reruns of classic games and documentaries.

Industry analysts have said pay-TV providers that keep charging customers for nonexistent sports content risk losing them to less expensive internet-TV bundles or streaming services—a phenomenon known as cord-cutting.

Weather Channel Owner Sues Nielsen Ratings Over Fees

The owner of the Weather Channel accused Nielsen Co. in a lawsuit of using a monopoly over TV ratings to force it to pay more than 10 times what it was paying before it bought the popular news site in 2018.

Nielsen jacked up Byron Allen's CF Entertainment Inc.’s monthly bill from $41,000 to $475,000 after it bought the channel, according to the complaint filed Friday in Chicago federal court.

The California-based media company says this violated its 2017 contract with Nielsen and is “yet another attempt by Nielsen to abuse its monopolistic power over television ratings to extort a massive windfall from a smaller market participant.”

The Weather Channel's owner says Nielsen is engaging in "predatory pricing" because of its monopoly on ratings services.

"Nielsen’s stranglehold on viewership data and the fact that it supplies the only currency accepted by advertisers gives it lopsided leverage when entering into ratings agreements with broadcasters such as CF Entertainment," writes attorney Sean Berkowitz in the complaint, which is posted in full below. "Nielsen knows that its ratings information is essential to a network’s ability to recover revenue from advertisers, because advertisers only pay based Nielsen’s upon proof of performance. If a network cannot provide proof of performance in the form of Nielsen ratings data, the network cannot earn and receive any revenue for its advertisements."

According to the complaint, CF in 2017 amended its longstanding deal with Nielsen and agreed to pay $41,667 per month in exchange for ratings services for any cable networks it owned or acquired. The amendment was designed to avoid piecemeal renegotiations each time the company acquired a new network, and specifies that any newly acquired channel could receive Nielsen services for that rate for up to four years.

Then, in 2018, CF acquired The Weather Channel and it claims Nielsen refused to honor that fee structure.

"Instead, without any basis in the operative contract, Nielsen demanded that CF Entertainment pay a monthly fee that was more than ten times the fee set forth in the 2017 amendment — a sum that would result in over $30 million in illicit gain for Nielsen, and far greater, catastrophic economic damage to CF Entertainment’s business," writes attorney Berkowitz.

CF argues the move amounts to extortion because it and companies like it "cannot survive without Nielsen’s ratings services, as television advertising is sold based on viewership as measured by Nielsen."

In response to a request for comment, a Nielsen spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter, "We do not comment on pending litigation."

Admissions Scam Judge: Alleged Gov't Misconduct 'Disturbing'

Lori Loughlin and daughters

A federal judge Friday called allegations of law enforcement misconduct in the nation's college admissions scandal headlined by actress Lori Loughlin "serious and disturbing" as he ordered prosecutors to provide more information in the blockbuster case.

U.S. District Judge Nathaniel Gorton made the comments in a written order as defense attorneys for 14 parents, including Loughlin, seek dismissal of the case because of the alleged misconduct.

Judge Gorton

At issue are notes Rick Singer, the mastermind of a nationwide college admissions scheme, took on his iPhone after discussions with FBI investigators on Oct. 2, 2018 about recorded phone calls they directed him to make to parents who were his clients.

Singer was cooperating with the FBI. He wrote that agents told him to lie and get his clients to restate they were making bribes to college officials – counter to what he claimed he actually told them before they paid him to get their children into college.

"The Court considers the allegations in Singer's October notes to be serious and disturbing," Gorton wrote. "While government agents are permitted to coach cooperating witnesses during the course of an investigation, they are not permitted to suborn the commission of a crime."

The judge did not decide whether to dismiss the case, instead ordering prosecutors to respond to the allegations. The defendants then have until May 1 to respond to the government.

In one note, Singer wrote that FBI officials got "loud and abrasive" and "continue to ask me to tell a fib" about what he told clients before they paid into his scheme.

FCC Has Votes To Approve Spectrum Plan Pentagon Rejected

FCC Chair Ajit Pai (Getty Images)

The Federal Communications Commission has introduced a draft order reallocating a specific portion of the radio spectrum for broadband communications, a change that Department of Defense leaders claim will cause "unacceptable” harm to the GPS system, Defense News reports.

The potential move has drawn criticism from members of Congress and raised concerns among other government agencies.

FCC Chairman Ajit Pai circulated the draft order among his colleagues April 16, according to an agency news release. The five person commission will now have to vote on the measure, with a simple majority needed to implement the agreement. Industry watchers expect that that the measure will pass.

“After many years of consideration, it is time for the FCC to make a decision and bring this proceeding to a close,” Pai said. “We have compiled an extensive record, which confirms that it is in the public interest to grant Ligado’s application while imposing stringent conditions to prevent harmful interference. The draft order that I have presented to my colleagues would make more efficient use of underused spectrum and promote the deployment of 5G and Internet of Things services." (The next generation of technology to boost wireless connectivity capabilities in known as 5G.)

The order, Pai said in the release, includes language to help protect incumbents, such as GPS, by reporting its base station locations and technical operating parameters before kicking off operations, continuously monitoring the transmit power of its base station sites and shutting down operations if necessary in the event of credible reports of interference.

“Although I appreciate the concerns that have been raised by certain Executive Branch agencies, it is the Commission’s duty to make an independent determination based on sound engineering," Pai continued. “And based on the painstaking technical analysis done by our expert staff, I am convinced that the conditions outlined in this draft order would permit Ligado to move forward without causing harmful interference.”

Attorney General Bill Barr also praised the decision in an April 16 release.

Later in the day, a coalition of commercial interests filed a petition with the FCC to dismiss the application.

The FCC move comes less than 24 hours after three key defense lawmakers sent a note to President Donald Trump, asking him to intercede and convince the FCC not to move forward with the plan.

FCC Call Sign Activity During March 2020

During March 2020, The FCC accepted the following call sign applications:

R.I.P.: Barney Ales, Helped Make Motown A Powerhouse

Berry Gordy Jr and Barney Ales

Barney Ales, a natural-born salesman whose charisma and aggressive instincts helped turn Motown Records into a music-industry powerhouse, died Friday of natural causes in Malibu, California, his family said. He was 85, USAToday reports.

Though he wasn't a household name, the white executive was a pivotal figure at the black-owned label, helping penetrate key power corridors of the industry establishment while overseeing Motown's sales division in the 1960s. He later served three years as company president.

Born Baldassare Ales, he grew up in northwest Detroit, the son of a Sicilian-native father and a mother from northern Michigan. Having started as a stock boy with Capitol Records, he eventually rose to manage that company’s Detroit branch, and was running his own record-distribution firm in 1961 when he was tapped by Berry Gordy Jr. to head up sales and promotion for the fledgling Motown.

The street-savvy wheeler-and-dealer proved critical to crossover success for Motown, which had already run up a string of hits on the R&B charts: Within months of his arrival, Motown landed its first No. 1 pop hit, the Marvelettes' "Please Mr. Postman."

Assembling a diverse staff of Detroit music-biz veterans, Ales gave Motown an entree to the industry establishment — the white-dominated record distributors and radio promoters behind the scenes who could quietly make or break a mainstream hit.

His efforts helped Motown’s black artists — figures such as the Supremes, Marvin Gaye and Smokey Robinson — become some of the biggest pop stars of the era.

“I just thought Barney was the greatest salesperson in the world, and he had, like, the United Nations in his sales department,” Gordy said. “When he came in, he said he would build me a great team. I wanted to sell music to all people: whites, blacks, Jews, gentiles, the cops and the robbers.”

R.I.P.: Gene Shay, The Father Of FM Rock Radio In Philly

Gene Shay 1935-2020

Gene Shay, 85, the affable and influential deejay who was a much-loved mainstay on Philadelphia radio and the face of the Philadelphia Folk Festival for more than 50 years, died Friday night of the coronavirus.

According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Shay’s impact on the Philadelphia music scene was immense. He began hosting a Sunday night folk-music show on WHAT-FM in 1962, the same year he cofounded the Philadelphia Folk Fest. He was the host at the event, always ready with a corny joke, until 2015.

“He’s one of our forefathers,” said Lisa Schwartz, festival and program director for the Folk Festival and its presenting organization, the Philadelphia Folksong Society. “His mellifluous voice and that mischievous grin and a twinkle in his eye are as synonymous with the Folk Festival as the iconic smiley banjo logo that he helped design.”

“His 50 years in radio were celebrated concurrently with the 50 years of the Folk Festival," Schwartz said. “Gene is part of the Philadelphia Folk Festival’s DNA, and vice versa. You hear his voice, and whether it’s on the radio or behind the mic on the main stage, it’s like, ‘Welcome home.’ He’s been a lighthouse.”

Shay helped shape the course of history of Philadelphia music over half a century.

Legendary Philly DJ Ed Sciaky, who was Shay’s assistant in the 1960s, called him “the father of FM rock radio in Philadelphia.”

“I always tell people he’s the reason I’m doing what I’m doing,” said David Dye, the former host of World Cafe. The nationally syndicated show on WXPN-FM (88.5) was named by Shay when it was founded in 1991 as part of his side gig as an advertising copywriter.

When Shay retired from the XPN iteration of his Folk Show in 2015 after hosting it for 20 years at the University of Pennsylvania station, Dye said: “He had a great, non-announcer announcer’s voice. And he also had complete command of the subject matter. His interviews were always really casual, informed, and interesting.”

"Without Gene Shay, I would never have had the career I did,” said Michael Tearson, who was at WMMR with Mr. Shay in the 1970s. “He was one of the most universally liked and loved people I have ever known.” At the Folk Festival, “his terrible jokes became an institution.”

He held down The Folk Show at WHAT for six years, then moved around the FM dial to WDAS, WMMR, WIOQ, and WHYY in the following decades. He was on WXPN from 1995 to 2015, when he stepped down and the show was taken over by its current host, Shay protégé Ian Zolitor.

To remember all the stations where he worked — “I had a show on WXTU in there somewhere” — Mr. Shay would consult the career timeline on the box for the Gene Shay Bobblehead presented to him in 2002 to celebrate 40 years in Philadelphia radio.

April 20 Radio History

➦In 1935...'Your Hit Parade' debuted on NBC, as a 60-minute program with 15 songs played in a random format.

Initially, the songs were more important than the singers, so a stable of vocalists went uncredited and were paid only $100 per episode. In 1936-37, it was carried on both NBC and CBS. The first number one song on the first episode was "Soon" by Bing Crosby. The dramatic countdown to the #1 song was adopted several years later, after the show had moved to CBS.

Some years passed before the countdown format was introduced, with the number of songs varying from seven to 15. Vocalists in the 1930s included Buddy Clark, Lanny Ross, Kay Thompson and Bea Wain (1939–44), who was married to the show's announcer, French-born André Baruch. Frank Sinatra joined the show in 1943, and was fired for messing up the No. 1 song, "Don't Fence Me In" by interjecting a mumble to the effect that the song had too many words and missing a cue. One source says his contract was not renewed due to demanding a raise and the show being moved to the West Coast. As he zoomed in popularity he was rehired, returning (1947–49) to co-star with Doris Day.



Hugely popular on CBS through the WWII years, Your Hit Parade returned to NBC in 1947. The show's opening theme, from the musical revue George White's Scandals of 1926, was "This Is Your Lucky Day", with music by Ray Henderson and lyrics by Buddy G. DeSylva, Stephen W. Ballantine and Lew Brown.

Dozens of singers appeared on the radio program, including "Wee" Bonnie Baker, Dorothy Collins, Beryl Davis, Gogo DeLys, Joan Edwards (1941–46), Georgia Gibbs, Dick Haymes, Snooky Lanson, Gisèle MacKenzie, Johnny Mercer, Andy Russell, Dinah Shore, Ginny Simms, Lawrence Tibbett, Martha Tilton, Eileen Wilson, Barry Wood, and occasional guest vocalists. The show featured two tobacco auctioneers, Lee Aubrey "Speed" Riggs of Goldsboro, North Carolina and F.E. Boone of Lexington, Kentucky. The radio series continued until January 16, 1953.

The success of the show spawned a spin-off series, Your All-Time Hit Parade, sponsored by Lucky Strike and devoted to all-time favorites and standards mixed with some current hits.

➦In 1952...the "Big Show" finished a two year run on the NBC Radio Network.

The Big Show was radio 90-minute variety program featuring top-name comics, stage, screen and music talent, and was aimed at keeping American radio in its classic era alive and well against the rapidly growing television tide. For a good portion of its two-year run (November 5, 1950-April 20, 1952), it was hosted by legendary stage actress and personality Tallulah Bankhead,

The Big Show began November 5, 1950 on NBC with a stellar line-up of guests: Fred Allen, Mindy Carson, Jimmy Durante, José Ferrer, Portland Hoffa, Frankie Laine, Russell Knight, Paul Lukas, Ethel Merman, Danny Thomas and Meredith Willson.

Tullulah Bankhead

The show's success was credited to Bankhead's notorious wit and ad-libbing ability in addition to the show's superior scripting. She had one of the funniest writers in the business on her staff: Goodman Ace, the mastermind of radio's legendary Easy Aces. She included renowned ad-libbers in the show—particularly Fred Allen (he and his longtime sidekick and wife, Portland Hoffa, appeared so often they could have been the show's regular co-hosts) and Groucho Marx, both of whom appeared on the first season's finale and appeared jointly on three other installments.

As Bankhead recorded in her memoirs, she took the show because she needed the money but nearly changed her mind when she feared she'd be little more than a glorified mistress of ceremonies with nothing to do but introduce the feature performers. "Guess what happened?" she continued. "Your heroine emerged from the fracas as the Queen of the Kilocycles. Authorities cried out that Tallulah had redeemed radio. In shepherding my charges through The Big Show, said the critics, I had snatched radio out of the grave. The autopsy was delayed."

➦In 1961…The U.S. Federal Communications Commission approved FM stereo broadcasting.

Invented in 1933 by American Edwin Armstrong, wide-band FM is used worldwide to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. FM broadcasting is capable of better sound quality than AM broadcasting

In the late 1950s, several systems to add stereo to FM radio were considered by the FCC. Included were systems from 14 proponents including Crosby, Halstead, Electrical and Musical Industries, Ltd (EMI), Zenith, and General Electric. The individual systems were evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses during field tests in Uniontown, Pennsylvania using KDKA-FM in Pittsburgh as the originating station.

The Crosby system was rejected by the FCC because it was incompatible with existing subsidiary communications authorization (SCA) services which used various subcarrier frequencies including 41 and 67 kHz. Many revenue-starved FM stations used SCAs for "storecasting" and other non-broadcast purposes. The Halstead system was rejected due to lack of high frequency stereo separation and reduction in the main channel signal-to-noise ratio.

The GE and Zenith systems, so similar that they were considered theoretically identical, were formally approved by the FCC in April 1961 as the standard stereo FM broadcasting method in the United States and later adopted by most other countries.


➦In 1972...Bertram Lebhar Jr., a retired radio and television station operator, who formerly broad cast sports in NYC under the name of Bert Lee and who was long a leading tournament bridge player, died at age 65.

Bert Lee

He gave up a law career to go into radio advertising sales. He got his initial training with the Columbia Broadcasting System, switched to WOR for four and a half years, and for four years was vice president of WMCA. In 1939, he became director of sales for WHN.

Bert Lee, sportscaster, broke into sports announcing while at WMCA, when he had to pinch hit for an announcer who was ill. He did one of the earliest New York Rangers hockey broadcasts.

At WHN, doubling as sales director and sportscaster, he did the shows “Warm‐Up Time” and “Sports Extra” before and after the Brooklyn Dodgers’ baseball games.

On his WHN sports program “Today's Baseball,” with Marty Glickman, he gave listeners a play‐by‐play description of the best games of the day—all crowded into a quarter of an hour with sound effects.

He sold the idea of this specially compressed baseball game to a sponsor, not expecting to take part in it himself. But when the sponsor was not satisfied with the work of several announcers who auditioned for the job, he stepped up to the mike to show them how it should be done.

In his enthusiastic play‐by play description of a game he hadn't seen, Bert Lee would draw with such enthusiasm on his vivid imagination that he sometimes ran over his allotted time. When listeners, not interested in sports, sent in letters of complaint, Bertram Lebhar, executive, wrote hack apologies for Bert Lee, sportscaster.

From 1957 to 1964 he was a partner in and general manager of WEAT radio and television station in West Palm Beach. He continued as a part owner until 1966. From 1968 to 1970 he operated radio station WXVI in Riviera Beach, Fla.

➦In 1985...Flashback..From the pages of Radio&Records...

➦In 2011…Ted Quillin died (Born Theodore Quillin: February 17, 1930 in Oklahoma City). He  was a radio personality who was one of the original "Swingin' Seven DJ's" who brought rock and roll into its first major market in 1958 at KFWB in Los Angeles. He was in radio for over 60 years.

Ted Quillan

Born in Oklahoma City, Quillin moved to El Paso, Texas where he finished high school and attended Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy now known as UTEP. During this time, while still in high school Ted started his broadcast career at KEPO, an ABC station in El Paso. He started as a ‘gofer’ on a morning show from 6 to 7 AM, before he went to school. He graduated to staff announcer. After that he took a job in Corpus Christi, Texas at KSIX. The program director from KXYZ in Houston heard him, and hired him as a staff announcer. From there he went to WACO in Waco, Texas. Ted moved to KELP which was a Gordon McClendon station, doing top 40. This is where he met Chuck Blore and when Chuck got the call to Hollywood he took Ted with him and Ted became one of the original "Seven Swingin’ Gentlemen", who took Rock and Roll into its first major market, at KFWB. His listeners became known as the "Quiverin' Quillin Clan."

Quillin's years in radio include: KFWB–Hollywood, 1958–61; KRLA–Pasadena, 1962–64; KORK–Las Vegas, 1964–1966, KFI- L.A, 1969; KFOX-Long Beach 1969-71; XPRS-1972, and finally, KORK-Las Vegas, 1972, when he became a permanent resident of Las Vegas.



In 2005 Ted was inducted into the Broadcasters' Hall of Fame in Nevada.


HAPPY BIRTHDAY:

Carmen Electra

• Actor Joey Lawrence, 44.
• Reggae singer Stephen Marley, 48.
• Actress Carmen Electra, 48.
• Actor Shemar Moore, 50.
• Country singer Wade Hayes, 51.
• Actor Crispin Glover, 56.
• Actor Clint Howard, 61.
• Actress Veronica Cartwright, 71.
• Actress Jessica Lange, 71.
• Actor Ryan O’Neal, 79.
• Singer Johnny Tillotson, 82.
• Actor George Takei, 83.