*Wuhan eases coronavirus lockdown as restrictions intensify outside China.*

BlackRock hopes to reduce the demand to tax it properly on the billions of dollars it makes, so it is offering a mere $50 million to various community needs.

London has cut down service on trains to the point that the many who must still travel to work are packed together dangerously in them.

Boston and other cities are cutting train and bus service and presenting this as some sort of safety measure. This is announced as a measure to reduce contagion, and we are asked to take for granted that it does so. Perhaps it is a sacrifice that is supposed to cure by magic.

If the aim is to reduce the amount of travel, making travel more risky is a perverse way to do it.

If the number of riders falls very far, it could happen that some bus or train trips are useless and wasteful. If there are typically one or two passengers in each bus on a certain line at a certain hour, perhaps it is a harmless efficiency to cut the number of bus trips then and there in half, and have three or four riders in each bus. But this should not be carried too far.

I have not been on a subway train since a week ago, and I don't know how many riders there are nowadays on Boston trains at various times. I don't know whether Boston currently has the problem reported from London. But the MBTA should know, roughly. I do think the MBTA should explain just how this measure is supposed to help protect passengers, and the facts about how it is working out.

Eric Prince, former head of Blackwater, is a right-wing fanatic. He recruited former US agents to spy on organizations that the right-wing considers enemies. He attacked the American Federation of Teachers, perhaps at the request of his sister, Betsy DeVos, who is Saboteur of Education. I suppose the teachers' union got in her way.

It is legitimate, and admirable, to conduct stings by making recordings of meetings in which groups propose corrupt practices. However, right-wingers don't always limit themselves to that. Prince's infiltrators rummaged around in the office files and secretly recorded the others in the office. They did not find real corruption.

They also don't limit themselves to the truth. If they don't find corruption, they may fabricate some. ACORN used to help poor people and members of disprivileged groups register to vote. Right-wingers ran a sting against ACORN. They found no real corruption, but released misleadingly edited videos that falsely suggested corruption.

US citizens: support the Universal School Meals Program bill.

If you sign, please spread the word!