Mike Baker
Correspondent for , based in the Northwest. Reporting on coronavirus. Tips welcome via DM or Signal: 646-394-3002
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Hospitals Are Reeling Under a 46 Percent Spike in Covid-19 Patients
Simon Romero - Nytimes.com 121d 12 tweets
The number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus has climbed significantly from a month ago, straining cities that have fewer resources to weather the surges.
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Mike Baker As the president downplays the rise in coronavirus cases, attributing much of it to increased testing, hospitals are seeing a daunting surge in patients. Covid-19 hospitalizations are up 46 percent from a month ago. w/ + 121d
She Used to Clean City Hall. Now, She Runs It.
Andrew E. Kramer - Nytimes.com 125d 12 tweets
In Russia, elections are typically theatrical affairs with the winner and loser preordained. Sometimes, though, they go off script.
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Mike Baker The mayor of a Russian village was looking for someone, anyone, to be on the ballot against him to sustain the farcical illusion of democratic choice. He finally convinced the woman who cleans city hall. And then she won. 125d
‘At Capacity’: Covid-19 Patients Push U.S. Hospitals to Brink
Nytimes.com 126d 8 tweets
Utah officials issued urgent pleas and said they were planning to open a field hospital, which Wisconsin has already done. At least 14 states have a record number of coronavirus hospitalizations.
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Mike Baker In Idaho, one hospital may have to start sending coronavirus patients to Seattle or Portland. In Missouri, medical centers have had to turn away ambulances. In Wisconsin, an emergency field hospital at the state fairgrounds has started taking patients. 126d
Worried About Covid-19 in the Winter? Alaska Provides a Cautionary Tale
Nytimes.com 128d 5 tweets
The state is seeing record case numbers, adding to evidence that the virus is poised to thrive as the weather grows colder.
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Mike Baker In one Alaska community with a coronavirus outbreak and without running water, officials have at times struggled to deliver supplies due to weather. In another, 68 out of 800 residents have tested positive so far, and 4 have needed medevac flights. 128d
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Mike Baker As temperatures fall, coronavirus cases are rising, with weekly records reached in many states. Not only is the cold weather sending people indoors, there is evidence that the coronavirus is more virulent in colder weather and lower relative humidities. 128d
The Pandemic’s Real Toll? 300,000 Deaths, and It’s Not Just From the Coronavirus
Nytimes.com 128d 7 tweets
A C.D.C. analysis finds that overall death rates have risen, particularly among young adults and people of color.
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Mike Baker CDC researchers say there have been nearly 300,000 excess deaths in the U.S. this year. Most are from Covid-19, but deaths linked to other causes are also higher, perhaps due to trends such as delayed medical care and psychological stress. 128d
‘Straight to Gunshots’: How a U.S. Task Force Killed an Antifa Activist
Nytimes.com 135d 9 tweets
New accounts from the scene raise questions about whether Michael Reinoehl, suspected of killing a far-right Trump supporter, pulled out a gun before officers fatally shot him.
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Mike Baker NEW: After a federal task force gunned down antifa activist Michael Reinoehl last month, Attorney General Bill Barr reported that Reinoehl was shot after he had "produced" a gun. But it turns out the gun was found in Reinoehl’s pocket. 135d
Anchorage Mayor Admits to ‘Inappropriate’ Relationship With TV Anchor
Nytimes.com 135d 13 tweets
Mayor Ethan Berkowitz apologized for engaging in a “consensual, inappropriate messaging relationship” with a local news anchor after she posted a photo on social media.
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Mike Baker The headline can't capture the totality of what's going down in Anchorage. It includes a rogue journalist, a nude photo, a laughing emoji, an admission, a fight, an arrest, an anti-Semitic voicemail, a murder threat... And that's just since Friday. 135d
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Mike Baker NEW: Anchorage Mayor Ethan Berkowitz is resigning 135d
Trump Makes First Public Appearance Since Leaving Walter Reed
Maggie Haberman - Nytimes.com 138d 24 tweets
The president continued to play down the threat of the virus, but the event that the White House had previewed as a huge “peaceful protest for law and order” was uncharacteristically brief.
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Mike Baker Trump had an idea... emerge from Walter Reed looking fragile, and then pry open his shirt to reveal a Superman logo underneath By and 138d
74 and Overweight, Trump Faces Extra Risks From ‘a Very Sneaky Virus’
Sheryl Gay Stolberg - Nytimes.com 146d 6 tweets
The president has boasted of his health and is sure to receive the best possible care, but he carries a number of risk factors as he begins his battle with Covid-19.
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Mike Baker In Trump's age group, CDC data shows that about 64.7 percent of Covid-19 patients with underlying health conditions have required hospitalization, and 31.7 percent have died. 146d
Tracing Trump’s Contacts Before He Tested Positive for Coronavirus
Nytimes.com 147d 22 tweets
A visual guide to the president’s movements and contacts in the days before he announced his positive test for the coronavirus.
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Mike Baker Updated list of coronavirus infections in and around the White House: • POTUS • FLOTUS • Trump adviser Hope Hicks • Kellyanne Conway • RNC chair Ronna McDaniel • John Jenkins, president of Notre Dame • GOP Sen. Mike Lee • GOP Sen. Thom Tillis 146d
Trump’s positive test shocks markets and sets off a wave of reactions.
Mike Ives - Nytimes.com 147d 16 tweets
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Mike Baker Our live-updates article has essentially become a White House contact-tracing feed. Infections so far: • POTUS • FLOTUS • Trump advisor Hope Hicks • GOP Sen. Mike Lee • RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel • Rev. John I. Jenkins, president of Notre Dame 147d
Study Finds ‘Single Largest Driver’ of Coronavirus Misinformation: Trump
Sheryl Gay Stolberg - Nytimes.com 148d 85 tweets
Cornell University researchers analyzing 38 million English-language articles about the pandemic found that President Trump was the largest driver of the “infodemic.”
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Mike Baker “The biggest surprise was that the president of the United States was the single largest driver of misinformation around Covid,” says researcher. 148d
Proud Boys celebrate Trump’s mention of them at the debate.
Sheera Frenkel - Nytimes.com 149d 12 tweets
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Mike Baker The Proud Boys are already selling a "Standing By" t-shirt 149d
Breonna Taylor Live Updates: One Officer Charged in Shooting
Rukmini Callimachi - Nytimes.com 156d 7 tweets
Protesters and celebrities demanded justice after Ms. Taylor was killed by police officers in her Louisville apartment.
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Mike Baker New info released on the Breonna Taylor case: The officers fired 32 gunshots. Detective Hankison, the only officer charged, fired 10 times. Detective Cosgrove shot 16 times. 155d
SPD Statement Regarding Withdrawal of Media Subpoena
Spdblotter.seattle.gov 157d 2 tweets
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Mike Baker After media organizations united to fight subpoenas that sought their unpublished footage from one of the early George Floyd demonstrations, the Seattle Police Department has dropped the effort. 157d
Wildfires Live Updates: Dry Lightning Could Threaten Oregon
Nytimes.com 162d 4 tweets
Firefighters were making progress against several significant wildfires, but a coming change in conditions could allow fires to quickly spread.
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Mike Baker Officials in Oregon are still trying to dispel rumors linking Antifa to wildfires. Here's the sheriff in Clackamas County, which has had a lot of people fearing those rumors, talking about investigations into reports such as people carrying a gas can. 162d
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Mike Baker *screaming into my n95 mask* We are finally supposed to get some rain in Oregon, but now forecasters are warning that it might cause flash flooding. 161d
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Mike Baker A sheriff's office has issued criminal citations against three people for their role in a "civilian traffic stop" east of Portland. The office had warned about people setting up illegal checkpoints amid wild rumors about Antifa activists causing trouble. 161d
As the West Coast Burns, Communities Unravel With Each Death
Thomas Fuller - Nytimes.com 167d 2 tweets
The fires have killed at least 17 people, leaving families and communities devastated up and down the West Coast.
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Mike Baker 17 people have now been found dead from the wildfires, and more could come. This story takes a closer look at two of the deaths: • 16-year-old Josiah Williams in California • 13-year-old Wyatt Tofte in Oregon 166d
In Oregon, a Year of Political Tumult Extends to Devastating Wildfires
Nytimes.com 168d 15 tweets
A tumultuous summer of protests has become a complication in the wildfires raging around Portland.
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Mike Baker There’s a troubling fallout to those widely discredited social-media rumors that Antifa activists were out setting fires and looting homes: found a bunch of people who were defying evacuation orders because they feared the mobs were coming. 168d
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Mike Baker The FBI has now put out a statement saying they have investigated several reports of "extremists" setting wildfires in Oregon. They say it's not true. "Conspiracy theories and misinformation take valuable resources away" 167d
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Mike Baker "I'm getting texts." I hope you read this whole story, which offers a real-time window into the power of rumor and misinformation to stoke paranoia in life-threatening ways. 167d
A Climate Reckoning in Fire-Stricken California
Thomas Fuller - Nytimes.com 168d 32 tweets
If climate change was a somewhat abstract notion a decade ago, today it is all too real for Californians fleeing wildfires and smothered in a blanket of smoke, the worst year of fires on record.
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Mike Baker The crisis in California is an example of something climate experts have long worried about, but which few expected to see so soon: a cascade effect, in which a series of disasters overlap, triggering or amplifying each other. 168d
ArcGIS Web Application
Ccgis-mapservice.maps.arcgis.com 169d 3 tweets
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Mike Baker Wildfire evacuation orders (red) are increasingly moving into the Portland suburbs. 168d