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TODAY'S HEADLINES:

The Trump Administration has been busy trying to slip a whole handful of draconian laws and decisions under the radar while the country is distracted by the deadly epidemic. We’ve got a rundown of what you might have missed.

Meanwhile, the Wisconsin primaries are in turmoil, as Republicans in the state legislature refuse to advance bills to shift to a vote-by-mail system, which could force thousands out of their homes to vote in person, risking exposure to the virus.

And lastly, the Supreme Court gave the final go-ahead to a novel democracy voucher program in Seattle that could break the grip that dark money has on our politics.

THESE ARE THE STORIES YOU NEED TO KNOW:

STORY ONE

The news for weeks has been all about the coronavirus epidemic sweeping the nation, and rightly so.

But during the national crisis, the Trump administration’s efforts to make everything else worse have not slowed down. Here’s a short rundown on what they’ve tried to slip under the radar in just the past few days.

On Friday night, Trump fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who first tipped off Congress about the whistleblower complaint that eventually led to impeachment. In a letter to Congress, Trump wrote that he no longer had confidence in Atkinson, which makes sense, seeing as Atkinson did his job properly, which is not a trait Trump likes in his civil servants.

Next up, the Trump-controlled National Labor Relations Board finalized a rule late last week that critics think could make unionizing quote “nearly impossible for workers” endquote.

The rule change effectively makes it so a minority of workers could mess with union election results or decertify a newly-formed union, even if the majority of employees want to organize. Considering organized labor is one of the only safeguards against predatory capitalism amidst a global recession this… doesn’t look good!

Trump rounded out the week by nominating two hard-right, quote “anti-healthcare” endquote judges to lifetime seats on the country’s appellate courts.

And finally, after all that, Trump is still determined to play warmonger.

Per a new report by the Guardian, Trump’s state department is still determined to withdraw from the Open Skies Treaty, which lets nations do routine surveillance flights over each others borders as a way to increase transparency between rival powers.

Just what we need right now -- more international tension!

STORY TWO:

Wisconsin is supposed to hold a primary election on Tuesday, which is probably the worst possible idea as the coronavirus epidemic continues to spread through the country.

The state’s Democratic governor, Tony Evers wants to postpone the election and switch to a safe vote-by-mail system, but Republicans in the statehouse refuse to bring the issue to a vote. And so far, Evers seems unwilling to force the issue, telling reporters on Saturday that he wouldn’t take further action to block the election.

And make no mistake, holding an in-person election right now is a dangerous thing. An infections disease expert told the Cleveland Plain Dealer that Michigan’s in-person primary earlier in March may be partially responsible for that state’s high rate of infections.

Back in Wisconsin, mayors of the state’s largest cities wrote to Evers, begging him to stop the election and protect their constituents.

Politico notes that Evers would face a pretty big political fight if he did try to step in: unilaterally cancelling the election would probably make Republicans take the issue to the State Supreme Court.

Some may argue that spending all your political capital is worth it if it means you save lives, but that’s not really how politicians think. We’ll see what kind of person Evers is.

STORY THREE:

There is some good news on the non-pandemic front, however. The U.S. Supreme Court has effectively given the green light to a Seattle program to use property taxes to give every resident a $100 coupon they could use to donate to local political candidates of their choice.

The program is a fantastic way to shore up local candidates and counteract the effects of special interests and dark money in politics, giving poor residents some measure of political power and agency.

Unfortunately, it immediately came under fire, as two land-owners, backed by a right-wing legal organization, sued the city, saying that the voucher program could force property owners to indirectly support candidates they don’t like.

The case, Elster v Seattle, made it all the way to the Supreme Court, which on Friday declined to hear it, effectively stopping it in its tracks. The Supreme Court noted that tax dollars indirectly going to another candidate through a public financing program did not constitute as compelling the plaintiff’s free speech.

That means Seattle’s groundbreaking program, first passed in 2015, is pretty much good to go, and will be used again in the 2020 campaign cycle.

AND NOW FOR SOME QUICKER QUICKIES:

Remember the tenuous Afghan peace deal with the Taliban? Well, it looks to be in danger again, as the Taliban accuse the U.S. of continuing drone strikes and the Afghan government of delaying a prisoner swap. Meanwhile, the Taliban continues to attack Afghan government forces, so clearly everything is going very well.

United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been hospitalized with COVID-19, after battling the disease for 10 days. The announcement was made shortly after the Queen made a rare televised speech reassuring the nation that the crisis would pass.

Amazon workers in Chicago are organizing an upstart protest campaign like the workers in Staten Island, pushing the company for better protections for workers and a temporary shutdown at the facility, which has seen two confirmed cases so far. To keep themselves safe, they’re picketing in their cars.

The U.S. is assigning the label of terrorist to a white nationalist group based in Russia. While it’s an important step to broaden the definition of terorrism from “groups of brown people we don’t like,” the government could look a whole lot closer to home than Russia if it’s trying to find white nationalist terror organizations.

HOSTS - Sam Seder & Lucie Steiner

WRITER - Jack Crosbie

PRODUCER - Dorsey Shaw

EXECUTIVE PRODUCER - Brendan Finn