MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow found a great deal to mock after a transcript was released showing a deposition of Donald Trump last fall...

.In the section of transcript she read, Trump detailed his fear of being killed by a tomato throw by a heckler. Or, as The Washington Post put it, the "potentially lethal effects of projectile produce."

"With the release of this deposition in this past day, we now know a whole new thing we didn't know before about former President Trump, which is that he is apparently desperately afraid of a flying tomato," she said.

"I don't know. If I were a man in his position, I am not sure I would let the world know I had that kind of a phobia — just seems like you're it exposing your weakness to the world, right?" she continued. "But his fear of a flying tomato is apparently so all-consuming that when confronted verbally with a discussion about the possibility of somebody throwing a tomato, he immediately extrapolates that from the tomato to the threat of a flying banana and then to the threat of a flying pineapple."

FACT SHEET: Biden Administration Increases Access to COVID-⁠19 Treatments and Boosts Patient and Provider Awareness
APRIL 26, 2022
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STATEMENTS AND RELEASES
Driven by President Biden’s comprehensive COVID-19 response, there are now more tools than ever before to protect people from the virus, including highly-effective treatments. Over the past 15 months, the Administration has pulled levers across the federal government and deployed resources Congress provided to expedite the development, production, and procurement of COVID-19 treatments. As a result, the U.S. now has several treatments available that can help keep people out of the hospital and save lives.

One of the most effective available treatments is Pfizer’s oral antiviral pill, Paxlovid, which has been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization or death by about 90 percent. The U.S. has committed to purchase 20 million treatment courses—more than any other country in the world. Although Paxlovid was initially in short supply after Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorization, the Administration has worked with Pfizer to accelerate the delivery of these pills, and they are now in ample supply. The President’s National COVID-19 Preparedness Plan lays out a roadmap for ensuring that these pills, along with other treatments, are available for any American who needs one.

Since December 2021, the Administration has distributed COVID-19 oral antivirals directly to states, Tribes, territories, and community health centers for free. States and territories play an important role in distributing these treatments to health care providers, pharmacies, and other locations, and any doctor can prescribe treatments. In March, as supply began to ramp up, the President announced the Test-to-Treat initiative to help make it easier for people at high risk of severe disease to quickly access oral antiviral treatments. The Test-to-Treat initiative creates additional locations where people can get a COVID-19 test, a visit with a medical provider, and, if needed, free oral antiviral pills—all in one visit.

To date, the Administration has worked with pharmacies, long-term care facilities, community health centers, and other health care settings to establish more than 2,200 Test-to-Treat sites around the country, including sites specifically for military families and veterans. As a result, usage of oral antivirals has more than doubled over the last several weeks.

Today, the Administration is announcing new actions to make these treatments even easier to access and to make sure health care providers and patients know about their safety, efficacy, and availability. These actions will help strengthen and further build the infrastructure to ensure that lifesaving treatments for COVID-19 are quickly distributed around the country, widely available, and easy to access. At the same time, ensuring that this remains the case—and securing more and even better treatments—will require additional funding from Congress.

The President is announcing five new federal judicial nominees, all of whom are extraordinarily qualified, experienced, and devoted to the rule of law and our Constitution.

These choices also continue to fulfill the President’s promise to ensure that the nation’s courts reflect the diversity that is one of our greatest assets as a country — both in terms of personal and professional backgrounds.

For example, if confirmed, Ana Reyes—who immigrated to the United States as a child—would be the first Hispanic woman to ever serve on the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. She would also be the first openly LGBTQ person to ever serve on that court.

This is President Biden’s seventeenth round of nominees for federal judicial positions and his fifth slate of nominations in 2022, bringing the number of announced federal judicial nominees to 95.

President Biden has spent decades committed to strengthening the federal bench, which is why he continues to move rapidly to fill judicial vacancies. And he has won confirmation of the most lower court judges for the first year of a presidency since the Kennedy Administration.

Today, we welcome home Trevor Reed and celebrate his return to the family that missed him dearly. Trevor, a former U.S. Marine, is free from Russian detention. I heard in the voices of Trevor’s parents how much they’ve worried about his health and missed his presence. And I was delighted to be able to share with them the good news about Trevor’s freedom.

I’m grateful for the tireless and dedicated work of Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs Roger Carstens, U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation John Sullivan, and many others across our government to ensure that Trevor came home safely. The negotiations that allowed us to bring Trevor home required difficult decisions that I do not take lightly. His safe return is a testament to the priority my Administration places on bringing home Americans held hostage and wrongfully detained abroad. We won’t stop until Paul Whelan and others join Trevor in the loving arms of family and friends.

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Texas — The office of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is now asking the public for donations to help pay for charter buses transporting migrants to Washington, D.C.

After the Biden administration announced its decision to end Title 42 expulsions, Gov. Abbott directed the Texas Division of Emergency Management to charter buses to the nation's capital.

Donations are now live on the Office of the Governor's website, including options for payment by mail.

According to the governor's office, as of April 22, a total of 10 buses have made their way to D.C. from Texas. The buses have included voluntary migrants from Angola, Brazil, Colombia, Congo, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Panama, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.

As Florida legislators were rushing through passage of a bill to repeal the special district that governs Walt Disney World last week, they failed to notice an obscure provision in state law that says the state could not do what legislators were doing — unless the district’s bond debt was paid off.

Disney, however, noticed and quietly sent a note to its investors to show that it was confident the Legislature’s attempt to dissolve the special taxing district operating the 39-square mile parcel it owned in two counties violated the “pledge” the state made when it enacted the district in 1967, and therefore was not legal. The result, Disney told its investors, is that it would continue to go about business as usual.......

Disney’s statement says, “In light of the State of Florida’s pledge to the District’s bondholders, Reedy Creek expects to explore its options while continuing its present operations, including levying and collecting its ad valorem taxes and collecting its utility revenues, paying debt service on its ad valorem tax bonds and utility revenue bonds, complying with its bond covenants and operating and maintaining its properties.’’ In essence, the state had a contractual obligation not to interfere with the district until the bond debt is paid off, said Jake Schumer, a municipal attorney in the Maitland law firm of Shepard, Smith, Kohlmyer & Hand, in an article for Bloomberg Tax posted on Tuesday and cited in a Law and Crime article......

Randolph calls the measure the “no lawyer left behind act,” and predicts that there will be many lawsuits, including one from bondholders, alleging the state illegally impaired the contract.

As Florida legislators were rushing through passage of a bill to repeal the special district that governs Walt Disney World last week, they failed to notice an obscure provision in state law that says the state could not do what legislators were doing — unless the district’s bond debt was paid off.

Disney, however, noticed and quietly sent a note to its investors to show that it was confident the Legislature’s attempt to dissolve the special taxing district operating the 39-square mile parcel it owned in two counties violated the “pledge” the state made when it enacted the district in 1967, and therefore was not legal. The result, Disney told its investors, is that it would continue to go about business as usual.......

Disney’s statement says, “In light of the State of Florida’s pledge to the District’s bondholders, Reedy Creek expects to explore its options while continuing its present operations, including levying and collecting its ad valorem taxes and collecting its utility revenues, paying debt service on its ad valorem tax bonds and utility revenue bonds, complying with its bond covenants and operating and maintaining its properties.’’ In essence, the state had a contractual obligation not to interfere with the district until the bond debt is paid off, said Jake Schumer, a municipal attorney in the Maitland law firm of Shepard, Smith, Kohlmyer & Hand, in an article for Bloomberg Tax posted on Tuesday and cited in a Law and Crime article......

Randolph calls the measure the “no lawyer left behind act,” and predicts that there will be many lawsuits, including one from bondholders, alleging the state illegally impaired the contract.