University of Washington will be a lot more quiet over the next few weeks.
University of Washington will be a lot more quiet over the next few weeks. Lester Black
Rep. Mark Meadows will be the new White House chief of staff: The Republican from North Carolina will replace acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, who will be moved to being the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland. Mark Meadows is a longtime Trump ally, and Trump appears to be pulling in every close ally he can to protect himself while he faces increasing criticism. Some people have referred to the Trump administration's mishandling of the coronavirus crisis as Trump's Katrina.

The stock markets: They're up. They're down. They're up. They're down. They're... up? No matter where the markets are, this virus is going to cost us.

I will be so embarassed if Washington state goes for Biden: Vote Bernie.

Okay, take a deep breath... Let's review the big local coronavirus updates from today:

• The New York Times is reporting that an employee working at a downtown Starbucks tested positive for the bug.

• A resident at the Ida Culver House in Seattle's Ravenna neighborhood tested positive for the coronavirus, according to the New York Times. The resident has been in the hospital since Wednesday.

• The Seattle Public Library has canceled all events and all external meetings at the Central Library and at its 26 neighborhood branch libraries through the end of March. However, all libraries will continue to operate with standard hours. The Library has also canceled all Bookmobile service for the month, though Books By Mail will continue.

• After White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told people to “avoid Seattle,” and after the President called Gov. Inslee a "snake," Mayor Durkan issued a statement calling the administration's "name-calling and inaccurate, off-the-cuff" comments "simply irresponsible."

• All U.S. District Court in-person grand jury proceedings in Seattle and Tacoma have been postponed until further notice because of the coronavirus outbreak.

• Kent's mayor is going to file a restraining order against King County after the county's plans to use a motel in Kent for a coronavirus quarantine site.

• The death toll locally is up to 14 people.

• The number of confirmed cases locally jumped to 79 on Friday. The Washington Department of Health has not updated the death count. The Seattle Times is reporting 15 deaths statewide.

• The University of Washington will suspend all in-person classes and exams starting Monday until March 20. The university will be online only. The campus is still open.

• Following in the University of Washington's footsteps, Seattle Pacific University announced that all winter classes and finals scheduled from March 9 through March 19 must be completed online. Seattle University will suspend classes and exams and transition to going online-only for two weeks.

• Emerald City Comic Con has officially been postponed until summer 2020.

• Keep up to date with our list of events around Seattle that have been canceled due to the coronavirus outbreak.

• Microsoft announced that it will continue to pay its hourly workers (cafe workers, shuttle drivers, etc.) normal wages even if their hours are impacted by a telecommuting workforce. Amazon followed suit and announced it will do the same, adding that it will subsidize a month of rent for small businesses operating inside Amazon's buildings.

Phew! For more updates, continue to follow our coronavirus updates. We will update our post three times a day on both Saturday and Sunday this weekend, so come on back.

If you've already voted, did you make sure to indicate which party you voted for? It's really important. Like, your-vote-won't-count important.

Mayor Durkan endorses Biden: Because, duh.

BuzzFeed report alleges that an upcoming RuPaul's Drag Race contestant catfished multiple actors: The performer, named Sherry Pie, repeatedly catfished actors, convincing them that he was a casting agent auditioning for a play or HBO series. In one case, an actor masturbated on camera, thinking it was a part of the audition process. Pie took to Facebook to make an apology:

The apology was not well received: VH1 announced today, hours before Sherry Pie was to make her debut on national TV, that she will be disqualified from winning the show. However, she will remain in the season, which was filmed last fall, up until the grand finale, which will be filmed later this year.

Sorry, no pups this weekend:

What are you doing this weekend? Are you quarantined? I've been at home since Monday because I had a 103 degree fever and a cough. It passed yesterday. Was it corona? I'll never know because no doctor would give me a test!