THE BIG STORY

What comes next in California

California Gov. Gavin Newsom gave a briefing yesterday on what will need to be done for the state to begin reopening, and what things will look like when that happens. What he described was far from a return to normal — more like the beginning of a strange, temporary new way of life that’s somewhere between the current lockdown and the world we remember.

“Normal it will not be, at least until we have herd immunity and we have a vaccine," Newsom said.

People will be wearing masks, including the waiters in restaurants, where tables will be spaced out further apart, with disposable menus and temperatures taken at the door. Schools will rearrange their seating, and maybe have staggered starting times and new arrangements for cafeterias and locker rooms. And there will be a whole lot of regular deep cleaning of public spaces.

And that’s when the state reopens. Before that can happen, Newsom made clear that California will need to have expanded its testing capacity, developed plans to protect highly vulnerable populations and made a plan for how and when new stay-at-home orders will be announced. He didn’t give a date on when that’s expected to happen.

Jeff Chiu / AP

STAYING ON TOP OF THIS

Banished from home because of the virus

The first person to test positive for the coronavirus on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in North Dakota has been kicked out of her home and banished from the reservation by the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council, Clarissa-Jan Lim reports.

Neither the woman nor her husband are Native American — the couple moved to the reservation last year to teach at a school there. She was in a nearby hospital being treated for the virus, with her husband on the way back to their house to pick up some things she needed, when they learned the reservation’s leaders had voted to banish them.

"We had none of our belongings," her husband told BuzzFeed News. "When you get kicked out of your house, you don't have — all the things that you need: toothbrush, clothes, medication, CPAP machine — things that you need to live. We had to replace all those items."

Chase Iron Eyes, a spokesperson for the president of the tribal council, acknowledged that the decision "doesn't appear to be very welcoming of us" and that it has “caused division” among the community. The couple can appeal the decision.

SNAPSHOTS

Liberty University is being sued by a student for its handling of the coronavirus crisis. Its decision to remain open during the pandemic was “extremely dangerous and irresponsible,” the complaint says.

Barack Obama has endorsed Joe Biden for president. In a video released yesterday he also praised Bernie Sanders as an “American original” who “has devoted his life to giving voice to working people’s hopes, dreams, and frustrations.”

NASCAR driver Kyle Larson was fired by his racing team after using the N-word during a live-streamed virtual race. Larson’s sponsors, including McDonald's, Credit One Bank, and Fiserv, canceled their deals in the lead-up to his firing.

Lawyers in Florida are showing up for court hearings via Zoom, and they’re letting their dress code slide in the process. One appeared shirtless, and another was still in bed.

Kyle Larson (Russell Labounty / AP)

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ONE HOUR EACH DAY TO BREAK YOUR BRAIN

Trump’s daily coronavirus show is pure madness

“It’s exhausting,” writes Miriam Elder. “Last week, a stream of consciousness riff about reopening the US economy took him from talking about the fourth fiscal quarter to comparing the September 11 death toll with that of COVID-19 (‘we’ve more than doubled it, and it’s still going’), then sideways into the stock market (‘we’re going to have the best stock market week — shortened week — in 50 years, almost broke the all-time record’), around to airlines, into one of his favorite new lines (‘we’ve learned a tremendous amount’) before ending, finally, with ventilators (‘we have a lot of very exciting things taking place’).

The mental energy it takes to follow his train of thought, let alone suss out new or important information and flag the lies, is enormous.”

NEW LIFE IN THE OUTBREAK

Expecting a baby at the epicenter of the pandemic

“Everything outside our home feels uncertain. Every time either one of us leaves and comes back, we bring the outside in — a bad feeling that could harden into a reflex with lasting consequences for the city. Every time we come back, we have rolled the dice again. Only, we don't know the rules of the game,” writes Joe Bernstein in this beautiful essay on life in New York City with a baby due next month.

The baby will come, and the virus will go. “Recently, when I’m lying in bed and I can’t sleep for running the odds, I picture him. I don’t see him in my arms or my wife’s arms. But I see him, new and good, with a chance — whatever that number is — and I stop imagining what could go wrong.

Start imagining what will go right today,

Tom