Nicolas Cage.
Nicolas Cage. GETTY IMAGES

The Trump administration predicts 3,000 daily deaths by June: And the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington now predicts 134,000 people will die of COVID-19 in the United States, which is almost double its original prediction. From the New York Times:

The projections, based on government modeling pulled together in chart form by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, forecast about 200,000 new cases each day by the end of the month, up from about 25,000 cases a day currently.

The numbers underscore a sobering reality: While the United States has been hunkered down for the past seven weeks, significant risks remain. And reopening the economy will make matters worse.

“There remains a large number of counties whose burden continues to grow,” the Centers for Disease Control warned.

A warning from the Guardian: "The expert who created the referenced projection said that it showed a range of possibilities and should not be taken as a forecast, although he emphasized that relaxing social distancing too quickly could put the country on a dangerous trajectory."

Meanwhile, this is what Trumpers are up to: This looks like Florida. I hope all my family down there doesn't die.

Did you hear about the murder hornets? Of course you did.

Tim Bray, a veteran Amazon engineer and vice president, resigned from Amazon in protest after publishing a loud blog post pushing back against Amazon firing two leaders of an employee climate group who spoke out about the treatment of Amazon warehouse workers. "I quit in dismay at Amazon firing whistleblowers who were making noise about warehouse employees frightened of COVID-19," Bray wrote. "What with big-tech salaries and share vestings, this will probably cost me over a million (pre-tax) dollars, not to mention the best job I’ve ever had, working with awfully good people. So I’m pretty blue."

Bray said Amazon's power could be reined in by “a combination of antitrust and living-wage and worker-empowerment legislation, rigorously enforced.” Speaking of antitrust investigations, the New York Times published a great feature on Rep. Pramila Jayapal and her often uneasy relationship with Amazon on Sunday.

Elizabeth Warren says Joe Biden's comments on the sexual assault allegations against him were "credible and convincing." Joe Biden has flatly denied allegations against him from a former aide, Tara Reade, who alleges he pushed her against a wall and sexually assaulted her in 1993.

It might get to be 80 degrees in Seattle this weekend: Don't forget to stay inside or Keep It Moving™.

Carnival Cruise plans on setting sail again starting at the beginning of August, according to a press release from the company. It will start with eight ships in Galveston, Miami, and Port Canaveral. Would you dare get on one of those things?

I liked what Craig Jenkins wrote for Vulture today: An Accurate Representation of Quarantine Brain in One Music Video

I love the concept of "quarantine brain." 645AR's stuff is really fun.

The Pulitzers are out for 2020: The Seattle Times won an award for Dominic Gates, Steve Miletich, Mike Baker, and Lewis Kamb's national reporting on "coverage that exposed design flaws in Boeing’s 737 Max." It is Seattle Times' 11th Pulitzer win. Mudede thinks Gates is a fraud.

The finalists for the 2020 James Beard Awards have been announced and Seattle is well represented. It was already announced that the Pike Place Market-based Oriental Mart won the "America’s Classics" James Beard award, but today the finalists for the rest of the James Beard Awards were announced. Here's who is from Seattle:

Best Chef Northwest: Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi, Joule
Outstanding Hospitality: Canlis
Restaurant Design (75 seats and under): Rupee Bar

More awards: By Tae joined Rupee Bar on GQ's list of "Best New Restaurants in America in 2020."

California will start to open up some businesses on Friday: They're already moving into their "Stage 2"! For a refresher on our four phases, read Rich Smith here.

Washington's most recent update from its Department of Health lists 841 deaths and 15,462 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Washington state.

ICYMI: Kim Jong-un is alive.

Nicolas Cage is set to star in a scripted series about... Joe Exotic. I know all you cool cats and kittens are purring over this news. Variety broke the casting this morning.

Pivoting to livestock: Some very lively livestock...

Why did three doctors in Russia fall out of hospital windows? "Three frontline health care workers have mysteriously fallen out of hospital windows in Russia over the past two weeks, heightening public attention to the working conditions for doctors and medical professionals amid the coronavirus pandemic," writes CNN. "Two of those health care workers are dead, and one remains hospitalized."

Let's end the day with some good news: Great news, actually. The Stranger is excited to announce that our furloughed arts and culture staff writer Jasmyne Keimig will be rejoining the staff full-time starting tomorrow. Seattle's arts scenes continue to fight through this pandemic and we need all the reporters and culture writers we can get to cover them. We're so happy to have Jasmyne's discerning, creative, and funny writing back on Slog.

It's thanks to your support that we're able to bring on more staff. Cheers to you, and here's to climbing out of this crisis.