Coronavirus stimulus plan, PG&E plea deal and Woody Allen's book.
Your Monday Evening Briefing |
Good evening. Here’s the latest. |
 | | Andrew Harnik/Associated Press |
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1. The Senate is stalled on a plan to stabilize an economy racked by the coronavirus. |
Talks continued this evening and a deal could come anytime, but Democrats were blocking action on the $1.8 trillion package to get stronger protections for workers and restrictions for bailed-out businesses. Above, Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary. |
 | | Stephanie Keith for The New York Times |
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2. A big Fed move failed to placate markets. |
In a grim forecast, Morgan Stanley economists said they now expect the U.S. economy to contract at an annualized rate of 2.4 percent in the first quarter and 30 percent in the second — which would be the worst single-quarter drop recorded. |
 | | Philip Cheung for The New York Times |
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3. More than 100 million Americans are under orders to stay home. |
In sharp contrast, President Trump suggested that he would soon re-evaluate the federal guidance urging social distancing. |
New York State now has over 20,000 confirmed cases — about half of the U.S. total and 6 percent of the global tally — and more than 150 deaths. |
 | | Cayce Clifford for The New York Times |
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4. A double threat for Asian-Americans. |
Yuanyuan Zhu, above, said a middle-aged man started shouting at her while she was walking to her gym in San Francisco and then spit at her as she waited to cross the street. |
Many interviewed by our reporters said they’d been yelled at in public in a spasm of aggression similar to the one experienced by Muslim- and Arab-Americans after the Sept. 11 attacks. |
 | | Hannah Yoon for The New York Times |
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5. Whatever happened to the presidential campaign? |
The coronavirus outbreak has eclipsed news on the Democratic presidential primary race, leaving Joe Biden struggling for visibility while the president has appeared daily at White House news briefings. |
Now, Mr. Biden’s team is scrambling to increase his presence online and on the airwaves — without appearing to politicize a crisis. In his first public appearance in six days, Mr. Biden criticized President Trump’s response to the pandemic as insufficient and too slow. |
 | | Jenn Ackerman for The New York Times |
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6. Remembering the lessons of a drug gone wrong. |
In the rush to get coronavirus therapies to market, there’s a push to ignore some pharmaceutical checks and balances — safety measures that were put in place after 10,000 babies were born with severe defects caused by the drug thalidomide. |
The babies whose mothers took thalidomide in the U.S. were largely forgotten until recently. Documents show how the drug, never approved for use in the United States, was passed along by doctors and family members in the 1950s and ’60s with seemingly little awareness that it was experimental. |
“They took a pharmaceutical bullet for all of us,” Jennifer Vanderbes, who is researching a book about thalidomide, said of the babies. |
 | | Josh Edelson/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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7. California’s largest utility will plead guilty to involuntary manslaughter. |
California regulators determined last year that PG&E’s equipment caused the wildfire, which engulfed the town of Paradise and led to the deaths of 85 people. |
On Friday, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would approve PG&E’s plan to emerge from bankruptcy, under which victims of the wildfires agreed to a payment of $13.5 billion. |
 | | Miguel Medina/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images |
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8. Woody Allen’s autobiography is in print. |
The news came two weeks after the original publisher, Hachette, abandoned the book following protests from employees and one of its key authors — Ronan Farrow, Mr. Allen’s son. |
Arcade is an imprint of Skyhorse, a company that has published provocative authors like the attorney Alan Dershowitz and the conspiracy theorist Jim Garrison. |
 | | Doug Mills/The New York Times |
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9. Obamacare turned 10 today. |
Our health reporters looked back to see what the Affordable Care Act has accomplished. About 20 million more Americans have health insurance coverage now than before the law, with the largest coverage gains among racial minorities. |
But, they write, the law is not without its flaws. Deductibles are too high for many people; the act has enriched insurers; and in 2018, for the first time since it passed, the percentage of the population without health insurance grew. |
As the coronavirus brings widespread layoffs, New York, California and nine other states reopened A.C.A. enrollment to allow unemployed people to get subsidized health insurance. The Trump administration is considering opening the federal exchange to new customers. |
 | | Stewart Butterfield |
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10. And finally, guess who’s logged on from the laundry room? Your C.E.O. |
Even executives are working from home, trying to keep their businesses afloat, their employees healthy and sane and their dogs quiet on video calls. Above, Stewart Butterfield, the chief executive of Slack, in a Zoom meeting. |
Read how the bosses of Nasdaq, Pfizer and others are managing — and see their W.F.H. selfies. |
“It’s a miracle you can run a company this way,” said Sundar Pichai, head of Google’s parent company Alphabet. |
Your Evening Briefing is posted at 6 p.m. Eastern. |
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