• Sometimes you just can’t make up stuff like this:
—News item:
Harvard Nets Nearly $9 Million in Coronavirus Aid from Federal CARES Act
—News Item:
Shake Shack Returning $10 Million in Government Loan Meant for Small Business
Reminder: Harvard has a $40 billion endowment, which enjoys tax-free gains and distributions.
Prediction: Harvard won’t return the federal aid, which is on top the multi-millions it gets in federal aid every year already. And—going out on a limb here—Harvard won’t stop lecturing America about “greed.”
• Understatement of the day, from the Washington Post:
There is a growing body of anecdotal evidence that releasing some convicts early due to fears of the virus is backfiring on authorities. The well-intentioned desire by government officials to protect at-risk inmates from exposure to the contagion has led to violent, even deadly, consequences. . .
In California, a man released under an emergency court order to reduce jail overcrowding during the coronavirus pandemic has been charged with allegedly carjacking someone and hitting someone else over the head with a hammer just days after his release, according to the San Jose Mercury News.
Who could have anticipated something like this happening? It’s a total mystery. . . And by all means, let’s keep arresting and fining people for leaving their homes and violating social distancing rules outdoors.
Chaser: New York City Mayor Gary Hartpence Warren Wilhelm Bill de Blasio finds this state of affairs “unconscionable.” No, really! He does:
It is “unconscionable” that Riker’s Island inmates who were released due to coronavirus concerns are committing new crimes, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Monday. . .
More than 1,400 city inmates have been granted early releases due to concerns of the spread of coronavirus inside jailhouses, Hizzoner said.
The Post reported Sunday that at least 50 of the newly released Riker’s Island prisoners were rearrested for new crimes in recent weeks — and in some cases were cut loose again.
• Good old fashioned American ingenuity at work: You know how some local governments have filled in skateboard parks with sand to keep kids from shredding? Well, some of these shortboard slackers look like they’re not so slack after all:
California authorities tried to stop skateboarders by dumping literally tons of sand into at least two area skateparks in an effort to enforce so-called “social distancing.” However, the effort was for naught, it seems.
Young residents in California responded to the government’s extreme social distancing enforcement action by grabbing a few shovels, buckets, and booms and turning at least one sand-filled skatepark into a park for both skating and dirt biking.
Coming next I hope: someone picks up their 12-gauge and dispatches a drone hectoring people about social distancing. Because ‘Murica!
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