Disability accommodations for schoolwork and testing are not distributed equally across the socioeconomic spectrum, The New York Times reports.

More students than ever in the United States are reportedly securing disability diagnoses, which often allow them to receive extra time for class work and tests, including standardized tests like the ACT and SAT which have bearing on college acceptance. The Times reports that in the country's wealthiest school districts students are obtaining 504 plans — a federal disability designation — at higher rates.

For example, while analyzing Department of Education data, the Times found that in the top 1 percent of wealthiest districts, 5.8 percent of students held a 504 plan, which is twice the national average. In some communities, like Weston, Connecticut, where the average annual income is $220,000, the rate was as high as 18 percent. Meanwhile, in the Cleveland Metropolitan School district, less than 1 percent of students had obtained a 504 plan. Further, a larger percentage of white students held a 504 plan than any other race.

The data does not include private schools, but in some areas, private school students reportedly are even more likely to qualify for accommodations.

The Times reports that while cases of outright fraud are rare, the system is vulnerable to abuse, in part because private mental health practitioners can operate with limited oversight. But speculation about gaming the system aside, the Times reports that the disparity more broadly represents unequal access to resources. Tim O'Donnell

Jerry Falwell Jr. is conceding to Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam's (D) coronavirus-fighting demands with a mask that's almost certain to backfire.

Northam's recent order mandating everyone in the state wear a mask when they're in public has made conservatives pretty mad about preserving public health, and Falwell is at the top of the complainant list. So on Wednesday, the Liberty University president revealed he'd ordered a mask printed with the blackface photo found on Northam's college yearbook page — something anyone who sees Falwell wearing the mask will likely not know.

It's been more than a year since it was revealed Northam's 1984 yearbook page featured a photo of a person in blackface standing beside a person in KKK robes. While Northam said he had worn blackface before, he maintained that he wasn't either of the men in the photo, and a three-month investigation couldn't prove it was or wasn't him either. That photo is on Falwell's new mask, though without any context or explanation, those unfamiliar with Northam's scandal will likely just think Falwell is wearing a racist photo.

The News & Advance, a Virginia paper, asked Northam if he had anything to say to Falwell, and spokesperson responded that "the office of the governor will not dignify that tweet with a response." Kathryn Krawczyk

As the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic continues, Paul Krugman says he's feeling "more positive than I expected to be" about the recovery.

The economist and New York Times writer spoke in an interview with Bloomberg about the state of the U.S. economy amid the coronavirus pandemic, cautioning that the crisis should not be looked at as "a garden-variety recession" instead of a "shutdown enforced by social distancing."

Asked how long the economic fallout might last, Krugman explained that looking at past recessions, "until now we've had two kinds: 1979-82-type slumps basically caused by tight money and the 2007-09 type caused by private-sector overreach. The first kind was followed by V-shaped 'morning in America' recoveries; the second by sluggish recoveries that took a long time to restore full employment."

Krugman argues that the current crisis is "more like 1979-82 than 2007-09," not being caused "by imbalances that will take years to correct," which suggests a "fast recovery" once the coronavirus is contained. He offers a few caveats, though, nothing that it's unclear how long the pandemic will last and that states reopening too soon could "extend the period of economic weakness."

Almost 40 million Americans have filed initial unemployment claims since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, and economists from Goldman Sachs in a report earlier this month forecasted that the unemployment rate will reach 25 percent with the pre-virus rate not returning for years. Krugman tells Bloomberg, though, that all in all, he doesn't "see the case for a multiyear depression."

This interview with Krugman comes after Jason Furman, former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, predicted to Politico a "partial rebound" with "the best jobs and growth numbers ever" in the months before the November election. Read the full interview at Bloomberg. Brendan Morrow

President Trump took to his favorite social media platform to attack social media platforms on Wednesday morning, and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo certainly didn't do anything to help his boss' case.

Shortly after Trump claimed on Twitter he would "strongly regulate" or "close down" social media platforms that are allegedly silencing "conservative voices," Pompeo sent out a tweet saying the U.S. "will not tolerate" government-imposed censorship or shutdowns.

Pompeo's tweet isn't in response to Trump, exactly — it references the Freedom Online Coalition, a partnership of 31 governments seeking to improve Internet freedom. The group has been vocal about combating any attempts to limit freedom of expression or increase Internet surveillance as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 crisis.

Trump's social media threats came after Twitter labeled two of his tweets as misleading on Tuesday, the first time that distinction was given to the president on the platform.

Seeing as Pompeo specifically boosted the FOC's statement and has been vocal about combating COVID-19 disinformation, it's unclear if his tweet was a targeted dig at Trump's situation or just a case of bad-timing.

After all, Trump isn't exactly known for being on the same page as his employees. Marianne Dodson

Archaeologists have revisited an ancient Roman dig site that hasn't been touched in a century — and found something incredible underneath.

In a vineyard outside the Italian city of Verona, under several feet of vines and dirt, researchers have uncovered what appears to be a perfectly preserved mosaic floor and pieces of a villa foundation dating back to the third century A.D. Surveyors in the commune of Negrar di Valpolicella north of Verona shared images of the site, providing a glimpse at a discovery that's largely still hidden beneath the dirt, BBC reports.

Archaeologists first mapped out what appeared to be the remains of an ancient Roman villa outside Verona back in 1922 before the site was abandoned. The Superintendent of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape of Verona decided to revisit the site last October and again in February, but their efforts to unearth the site were cut short when COVID-19 arrived in Italy, the Guardian reports. Excavation resumed last week and, by Monday, there was something incredible to show for their efforts.

There's still a lot of careful work to be done before the whole floor and foundation can be revealed — along with some careful negotiation with the owners of the vineyard now growing on top of this ancient discovery. Kathryn Krawczyk

The U.S. State Department has determined Hong Kong no longer holds autonomy under Chinese rule, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday.

"No reasonable person can assert today that Hong Kong maintains a high degree of autonomy from China, given facts on the ground," Pompeo said in a Wednesday statement. Pompeo informed Congress of the department's decision on Tuesday, and there's a strong chance the move will change Hong Kong's trade relationship with the U.S., CNBC reports.

"While the United States once hoped that free and prosperous Hong Kong would provide a model for authoritarian China, it is now clear that China is modeling Hong Kong after itself," Pompeo said. America's economic and trade relationship with Hong Kong is separate of that with China, largely exempting Hong Kong from the tariff war between the two nations. But with the U.S. now considering Hong Kong to be more closely tied with the mainland, the region will now likely be subject to America's heavy trade restrictions.

The announcement comes just a day before Beijing is slated to pass a law that will let it curtail civil liberties in the administrative region — something Pompeo called a "death knell for Hong Kong," The New York Times reports. Hong Kong has long operated as an administrative region autonomous from mainland China, but Beijing has increasingly tightened its grasp on the area. Widespread protests by pro-democracy Hong Kong residents were a constant for months until COVID-19 spread throughout the country, and more demonstrations took place ahead of debate over the law at the city's legislature early Wednesday. Kathryn Krawczyk

Larry Kramer, the AIDS activist and playwright known for The Normal Heart, has died at 84.

Kramer died Wednesday morning in Manhattan from pneumonia, his husband, David Webster, told The New York Times.

Kramer in 1981 co-founded the Gay Men's Health Crisis organization for HIV-positive people and was a founder of Act Up (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) as well. He was, the Times writes, "among the first activists to foresee that what had at first caused alarm as a rare form of cancer among gay men would spread worldwide, like any other sexually transmitted disease, and kill millions of people without regard to sexual orientation," and he used "relentless, often antagonizing tactics to goad public officials, scientists and fellow gay rights proponents to stanch the AIDS epidemic," The Washington Post notes.

Kramer's autobiographical play The Normal Heart debuted in 1985, and his other notable work includes the play The Destiny of Me, which was a Pulitzer Prize finalist. He was also nominated for an Academy Award for the screenplay for Women in Love.

Among those who have paid tribute to Kramer is Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who the Times notes Kramer formed a "grudging friendship" with after Kramer in the 1980s called him an "incompetent idiot." The Times' obituary quotes Fauci as saying that "once you got past the rhetoric, you found that Larry Kramer made a lot of sense, and that he had a heart of gold."

Fauci had previously said in a 2002 interview with The New Yorker, "In American medicine, there are two eras. Before Larry and after Larry. There is no question in my mind that Larry helped change medicine in this country. And he helped change it for the better." Brendan Morrow