Names and faces
■ After catching some criticism for not mentioning the coronavirus in a March speech to a parent-teacher group, first lady Melania Trump has increased her engagement on the issue, mostly through social media since she is staying home like most Americans. Last week, she posted a photo of herself wearing a white face mask, reinforcing the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s recommendation that everyone cover their nose and mouth in public. “It is another recommended guideline to keep us safe,” she said in a video released Thursday. The first lady is retooling her spring plans because of the virus threat. Before the pandemic shut down activity in the U.S., she was preparing for the annual Easter Egg Roll, once set for Monday. Instead, she’s been checking in with her counterparts in U.S.-allied countries that also are struggling to control the virus, including Spain, Canada, France, Italy and Japan. The first lady is also using her social media accounts to provide a steady stream of guidance and tips for coping under stay-at-home orders, including reposting CDC guidance about frequent hand-washing, keeping a social distance from others and other suggestions for avoiding infection. She has thanked medical professionals, urged blood donation, suggested email and FaceTime as alternatives for keeping in touch with friends and family, and shared resources from Scholastic for the millions of K-12 students now learning online at home because their schools are closed. “I encourage parents to let children know this will not last forever,” the first lady said in one video message.
■ For more than a year, prosecutors have said that, as part of the fraudulent attempt by actress Lori Loughlin and her husband, Mossimo Giannulli, to get their two daughters admitted to the University of Southern California as rowing recruits, Giannulli sent a private college adviser photographs of the girls posing on rowing machines. This week, as part of a legal battle with the couple and with other parents accused of helping their children get into schools with false claims of athletic credentials, prosecutors made those photographs public, along with emails between the adviser, William Singer, and Loughlin and Giannulli. Loughlin and Giannulli, who prosecutors say paid $500,000 as part of the scheme, are scheduled to go to trial in October. It is to be the first trial in a sprawling case that involves accusations of cheating on college admissions exams and bribing college coaches to recruit students as athletes based on false credentials. More than 20 parents have already pleaded guilty in the case and 16 have received sentences, ranging from no prison time to nine months.