Coronavirus Quick Hits: 46 Public Companies That Pay Zero Taxes Got Huge Small Business Loans, and More

Here are some of the major coronavirus developments that are making headlines right now . . .

1.  110 publicly traded companies received at least $4 million that was meant for small businesses . . . and 46 of them paid ZERO in corporate taxes last year.

2.  Republicans in the Pennsylvania state House of Representatives apparently hid one member’s positive coronavirus test and he continued to go to work, putting countless people at risk . . . because the test would hurt their arguments it’s safe to re-open.

3.  At least a dozen states inflated testing numbers or deflated death tallies to try to make it look like it was safe to re-open.

4.  Another 2.1 million people filed for unemployment for the first time last week . . . meaning a total of 41 million people have filed since the pandemic began.

If there’s any speck of positivity here, it seems some people are getting their jobs back, because “only” 21.05 million people have been collecting for at least two weeks.

5.  New York’s Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order that allows businesses to require face masks to enter.

6.  The White House will take a rare step and not release an updated economic forecast for the year . . . which is a sign they aren’t really anticipating a fast rebound.

7.  The Boston Marathon has been canceled for the first time ever . . . it’s been going for 124 years straight.  They’re encouraging runners to do “virtual marathons” by running their own marathons and submitting their times.

The world’s largest outdoor rodeo, Cheyenne Frontier Days in Wyoming, has also been canceled for the first time in ITS 124-year history.

8.  One out of 11 Americans say they can’t afford to pay their rent or mortgage for June.

9.  68% of healthcare workers say they’re planning to leave the industry, mainly because of the stress and anxiety of the pandemic.

10.  Researchers are finding that even as coronavirus mutates, the new versions are not more likely to spread to other people.  In other words, the mutations fortunately aren’t making it MORE contagious.

It also looks like asymptomatic cases may be more common than suspected.

11.  A woman in Connecticut was arrested after she spit in someone’s face at the grocery store for going the wrong way down a one-way aisle.