Posts on Saturday, March 21, 2020
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency authorization Saturday for a novel coronavirus (COVID-19) test kit made by Cepheid Inc. that can yield results in a matter of hours instead of days.
The new tool is called the "Cepheid Xpert Xpress SARS-CoV-2 test" and will be made available to the public by the end of the month.
"The test we're authorizing today will be able to provide Americans with results within hours, rather than days like the existing tests, and the company plans to roll it out by March 30," the FDA said in a press release.
Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar added: "With new tools like point-of-care diagnostics,
Joe Biden apparently doesn’t know where he is or who he is again. Maybe the loss of his mental faculties is accelerating? Biden recently decided it’d be a great idea to undercut the real administration by having “shadow briefings,” which are basically political ads that run the risk of misleading people and exacerbating the current pandemic. RedState first reported on this possibly happening in a recent article by Nick Arama. In the midst of an actual crisis, where people need a single, knowledgeable source of information, the former VP has decided to pretend he’s president. (Tweet)
The Food and Drug Administration approved a rapid coronavirus test on Saturday that will deliver results in about 45 minutes. The test will be available in the next few weeks and no training will be necessary to administer the tests. Cepheid, a California-based diagnostic testing company, announced on Saturday that the FDA approved the use of its XpertXpress Sars-CoV-2 rapid molecular diagnostic test for the detection of the Chinese coronavirus that causes COVID-19. The test is designed to work on any of the company’s more than 23,000 automated worldwide testing systems. The test provides results in about 45 minutes, company officials said in a written statement.
A federal judge in Seattle rejected three nonprofits’ effort to force U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to release migrants in a detention center in Washington state because of the threat from coronavirus.
U.S. District Judge James L. Robart on Thursday denied a request for a restraining order requested by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the ACLU of Washington, and the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project. The organizations argued that holding migrants who are older or have underlying medical conditions puts them at high risk for contracting the virus.
“There is no evidence that anyone at NWDC has COVID-19, and plaintiffs do not address the measures defendants are taking to prevent such
The China coronavirus and COVID-19 outbreaks, deaths and responses continue to dominate US, European and Asian news. Meanwhile, an equally or even more serious infestation is devastating East African crops and leaving tens of millions at risk of starvation and death. If COVID hits these weakened populations, amid their malaria and other systemic diseases, it would bring tragedy on massive scales.
“Across Somalia, desert locusts in a swarm the size of Manhattan have destroyed a swath of farmland as big as Oklahoma,” the Wall Street Journal’s Nicholas Bariyo reports. “In Kenya, billions-strong clouds of the insects have eaten through 800 square miles of crops and survived a weeks-long spraying campaign.
Lora Shiao, a career U.S. intelligence officer, will be named as acting director of the National Counterterrorism Center, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence confirmed.
Acting DNI Richard Grenell is expected to make the announcement on Monday, agency spokeswoman Maura Beard said on Saturday. Shiao will be the first woman to hold the post. Shiao’s appointment, which also means she’ll become the agency’s deputy director, will come as a relief to members of the intelligence community amid fears that Grenell dismissed her predecessor in the acting role, veteran counterterrorism official Russell Travers, as part of a political purge.
Italy -- a country at the heart of the coronavirus outbreak in Europe -- watched its number of cases and deaths due to the novel coronavirus astronomically leap once again, up 793 deaths with 6,557 newly confirmed cases recorded in just 24 hours.
Saturday's jump marks the worst day for fatalities since the crisis began just four months ago.
The country now counts 53,578 diagnosed infections, up 13.9 percent, with 4,825 deaths -- the highest in the world.
More than 60 percent of the most recent deaths occurred in the northern region of Lombardy. Hospitals in the area have been reeling under a staggering caseload that has left intensive care beds scarce
LOS ANGELES — Homeless people in California congregated in parks, popped into each other's tents on sidewalks and packed closely together to get food Friday, routine scenes that took on different and dangerous significance as state officials try to contain spread of the coronavirus. California is under a statewide stay-at-home order and residents have been told not to gather in groups greater than 10 and when outside to maintain a safe distance from others. The state's homeless population, estimated at at least 150,000, is seen as especially vulnerable to a disease that is spread by coughing and sneezing. State and local
Earlier today President Trump announced the closing of the southern border (Mexico) and northern border (Canada) to non essential travel. Entry/Exit for trade and business travel will continue to operate with additional Screening.Protecting Public Health: President Trump is taking action at our northern and southern borders to prevent further spread of the coronavirus in the United States.
♦ The United States has reached mutual agreements with Canada and Mexico to restrict non-essential travel across our northern and southern borders.
♦ The United States will expeditiously return aliens who cross between ports of entry or are otherwise not allowed to enter the country, as the facilities in which these aliens would normally be
Ex-CBS Reporter Sharyl Attkisson Demands
New York Times Correct ‘False And
Defamatory’ Article replies
New York Times Correct ‘False And
Defamatory’ Article replies
Former CBS reporter Sharyl Attkisson had her lawyers send a letter to the New York Times demanding they correct the “false and defamatory” article titled “From Jerry Falwell Jr to Dr. Drew: 5 Coronavirus Doubters,” which painted Attkisson as one of those doubters. Attkisson published the legal threat to her personal website, saying her attorney would “pursue legal redress” if changes were not made. Attkisson’s attorney, G. Taylor Wilson of Wade, Grunberg & Wilson, LLC, says in the letter that she had attempted to get the article corrected previously
MADRID - Spain saw a huge leap of almost 5,000 infections in the past 24 hours, placing it in third place in the global ranking of infections behind China and Italy. Health authorities said on Saturday that the number of people who have tested positive for the pathogen reached 24,926, up from 19,980 the day before. The death rate soared to 1,326, up from 1,002 on Friday. At least 1,600 patients are in intensive care, health authorities said, admitting that these units are working at their limits. Madrid is the region with the highest number of infections, with at last 9,000
Math is math. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to do the math, understand the logistics of the current extreme demand, recognize that fixed assets are limited, and realize if you shut down essential services for truckers the total supply-chain will suffer. On March 17th Pennsylvania officially shuttered all Turnpike service plazas in response to coronavirus concerns. However, the decision was ridiculously short-sighted as long-haul and regional Truckers depend on fuel stations, bathrooms and restaurants along the route. Thankfully PA officials realized their error and reopened the service stations yesterday.
This is a winning strategy.Old Joe Biden is planning on holding shadow Coronavirus briefings beginning on Monday in order to attack President Trump amid a pandemic outbreak. Biden had to put his “No Malarkey” tour on hold and has been in hiding for over a week due to the *cough cough* Coronavirus, but he’s discovered some new technology that will allow him to give briefings from his home in Delaware.“They tell me there’s ways we can do teleconferencing via us all being in different locations,” Biden said.
California Governor Gavin Newsom’s stay-at-home order may well be necessary as a matter of public health in the face of the new coronavirus — I will leave that to epidemiologists to determine. But viewed as a legal declaration, it’s a total mess. (Snip) The order is also drafted so badly that it creates contradictions with the state’s own website explaining it; with the governor’s own speech rolling it out; and with common sense. As written, the order does not say clearly that Californians can leave their homes to buy food or medicine or other necessities. It doesn’t say whether they
A great-grandmother who contracted the coronavirus while a resident at the The Life Care Center in Kirkland, Washington, where 35 people have died is now in recovery and may soon be released from isolation. Geneva Wood, 90, was among the two-thirds of the care home's residents who fell ill with the coronavirus and had said her goodbyes to her family before making a miraculous recovery last week. She believes it was the homemade soup that she asked medical staff for every day which aided her speedy recovery.
Bay Area gun store refused to close
for shelter in place, until it
got shamed on social media replies
for shelter in place, until it
got shamed on social media replies
Up until Friday, the owner of Castro Valley’s Solar Tactical gun shop remained defiant, despite the countywide shelter-in-place order that began Tuesday due to the coronavirus outbreak. Mike Addis maintained that his business is enshrined by the Second Amendment and provides an essential service, and it would therefore remain open.
But a day after a spat between the gun shop and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office spilled onto social media — following a prosecutor’s warning to shut down — Addis reluctantly closed his doors to the public. For the day, anyway.
“It’s selective enforcement of what shops they’re targeting,” Addis said outside his store Friday morning.
The Islamic world is not suffering from COVID-19 the way non-Muslim nations are, because Islam naturally makes Muslims "cleaner" than infidels.
Such is the contention Muslims around the world are triumphantly making. Thus, the recent article, "Coronavirus – an Islamic Perspective," opens up as follows:
Allāh has blessed us with a religion that is complete and perfect for all times and places. Allāh tells us in the Qur'ān:
"This day I have perfected for you your religion and completed My favour upon you and have approved for you Islam as your religion".
President Trump, moving with haste to slow the spread of the coronavirus, is preparing a plan to mobilize the National Guard to help enforce a two-week quarantine of the public if his tough-love efforts so far fail. The unprecedented action would require everyone to “stay at home,” according to a source knowledgeable of the evolving plan. The effort, which is still being mulled and wouldn’t be announced until early next week if needed, would urge that all businesses, except grocery stores and pharmacies, be closed.
Mark Robertson estimated his businesses will lose $250,000 this month. Robertson co-owns three gay bars in Chicago—The SoFo Tap and Meeting House Tavern in Andersonville and Jackhammer in Rogers Park—and all were forced to close after Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker ordered bars and restaurants to shut down amid the nationwide outbreak of COVID-19, also known as the novel coronavirus. Pritzker also halted public gatherings of 50 people or more. Even though the bars will be closed until March 30 at the earliest, Robertson said the issue is that their “fixed costs don’t go away.” He and partner Mike Sullivan still
Health officials in New York, California and other hard-hit parts of the country are restricting coronavirus testing to health care workers and people who are hospitalized, saying the battle to contain the virus is lost and we are moving into a new phase of the pandemic response. As cases spike sharply in those places, they are hunkering down for an onslaught, and directing scarce resources where they are needed most to save people’s lives. Instead of encouraging broad testing of the public, they’re focused on conserving masks, ventilators, intensive care beds — and on getting still-limited tests to health care
Israeli Pharmaceutical Company Donates
6 Million Doses of Chloroquine to US
to treat Coronavirus replies
6 Million Doses of Chloroquine to US
to treat Coronavirus replies
Israeli Pharmaceutical Company Teva is donating 6 million doses of chloroquine to the United States to treat the coronavirus.President Trump called the news of chloroquine’s effectiveness in treating the COVID-19 virus a “game changer” this week.This came after three international studies found chloroquine along with Azithromycin was successful in treating the coronavirus.(Tweet) The Washington Examiner reported: Israel’s leading drug producer announced Thursday it will donate 6 million doses of anti-malaria drugs to the United States
Cher has called President Donald Trump “a cancer ravaging our nation.” She demanded last week that the president step down before he ends up killing thousands of Americans. And now, the left-wing pop icon has declared President Trump a “murderer.”“trump has access 2 every mask, shield, gown, glove, bed, ventilator, respirator, test kit, national guardsman, soldier from Army corps of engineers, nurses, dr.’s, techs, 1st responders needed 2 save the lives of coronavirus patients, & caregivers,” Cher said
BROADVIEW HEIGHTS, Ohio — During tough times, everyone needs a little smile, and that’s just what one group of students that are home from school hope to accomplish with what has a become a part of their daily routine. A group of students who attend Royalview Elementary has gone outside every morning, rain or shine, to say the Pledge of Allegiance since their school is shut down. (Tweet/Video) The idea to do this was started by Kressler Family, who started going outside at 9 a.m. to recite the Pledge of Allegiance.
Dr Anthony Fauci has been caught smirking at President Donald Trump during a coronavirus press conference, further fueling rumors of tension between the pair. The incident occurred Friday afternoon, while the Commander-in-chief was giving the media an update on the COVID-19 outbreak flanked by members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force team, which includes Dr Fauci. The highly-respected immunologist looked to roll his eyes and suppress laughter as Trump lashed out at the State Department, describing them as the 'Deep State department'. Dr Fauci then placed his hand over his face, in what many described as a 'face palm' reaction to Trump's inflammatory remarks.
During his conference call on the coronavirus on Friday, former Vice President Joe Biden told his listeners that President Trump was not being the leader that we need during this unpredictable outbreak. [Tweet]
The Trump campaign was quick to respond and remind Biden about the Obama administration's lackluster leadership during the Swine flu outbreak.
“The only thing Joe Biden knows about handling a public health crisis is that the Obama White House had to apologize for his remarks that set off a panic during the swine flu outbreak in 2009," said Tim Murtaugh, Trump 2020 communications director.
The Philadelphia School District canceled all remote learning for students while they are off from school because not all kids have access to a computer and high-speed internet. So all online learning will be canceled. The superintendent said, “If that’s not available to all children, we cannot make it available to some.” TIME reported: The Philadelphia School District will not offer remote instruction during the coronavirus shutdown, the superintendent announced Wednesday, citing equity
Students to get free meals from
400 NYC schools; several locations
turning into childcare centers replies
400 NYC schools; several locations
turning into childcare centers replies
New York—Beginning Monday, free meal services for students will be distributed at certain schools while other locations will turn into childcare centers for essential workers’ children. Students can get three free meals a day at 400 sites across the city, according to the Department of Education. No ID is necessary. All meals will be available to all NYC children Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. During the past week, grab-and-go meals were available for any student at any school. As NYC schools prepare for remote learning, the Dept. of Education wants to ensure
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has demanded that networks stop airing White House updates about the coronavirus pandemic, excoriating President Donald Trump for making optimistic promises about an unproven drug to treat the infection. 'I know we ought to be getting used to this kind of thing by now, but I'm not,' Maddow said on her show Friday night. 'President Trump today, again, just flat-out wrong in public about this malaria drug that has gotten stuck in his mind, quite some distance from the facts.' Maddow was referring to Trump's sweeping claims about a malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine, which is being investigated as a potential treatment
Lou Dobbs self-quarantines after Fox Business
staffer contracts coronavirus, NBC News
employee dies replies
staffer contracts coronavirus, NBC News
employee dies replies
The growing legions of home office workers gained a news-media warrior in the person of Fox Business host Lou Dobbs. Dobbs is in self-quarantine as a precaution after a member of his production team tested positive for coronavirus.All of Dobbs’ team are self-isolating at the direction of the network’s medical advisers due to their potential exposure to COVID-19.Shortly before Friday’s broadcast of “Lou Dobbs Tonight,” the news network learned of the unidentified employee’s test result. David Asman filled in for the 74-year-old Dobbs and made the announcement regarding the news at the top of the show.
We all remember the horrible fall and winter of 2017-2018, when a terrible epidemic ravaged America. Schools closed, restaurants shut down, and sporting events were canceled to control the monster, but it still killed 90,000 men and women.You don’t remember the closings and cancellations because they never happened. But the epidemic did occur. According to CDC statistics, during the 2017-2018 flu season influenza killed 46,000 to 95,000 people. (The CDC estimates deaths in a range because a definitive diagnosis of the cause of death via respiratory failure is often impossible.) Ninety thousand deaths is the high end of the estimate, but it is still
Calling themselves “The Steady State,” more than 80 former national security officials have signed a letter endorsing Joe Biden for president. There are some familiar names on the list, like former Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Rand Beers and former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, but you probably have never heard of most of the signatories. They have held important positions like Assistant Secretary of State, chief of staff at FEMA, Director of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the Department of (Snip)
With a few exceptions, these folks have never been openly partisan before, and most of them have served under both Democratic and Republican
Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler has vehemently defended herself against allegations of corruption after it was revealed she sold off $3.1 million in stocks in the days after she attended a coronavirus briefing for senators on January 24. In an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight Friday, Loeffler, who is the junior senator from Georgia, claimed her financial advisors handle her stock transactions, and tend to her vast fortune. Loeffler told Carlson that she did not know about the sales of her stocks until February 16, and thought little of it.(Snip) The 49-year-old is married to Jeffrey Sprecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange,
A group of President Donald Trump’s campaign staffers conducted a Bible study online on Friday morning as the spread of the coronavirus continues in the United States.“We managed to do our weekly Bible study digitally!” wrote National Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Twitter, sharing a photo of her participating with campaign colleagues on a live stream feed. “Loved joining my friends from the Donald Trump campaign and GOP this Friday morning.”But this was not the first time the group met to read scripture and pray together.Trump campaign employees started the weekly Bible study in February, according to campaign sources,
Donald Trump is right now facing easily the biggest test of his presidency. That’s a crazy thought considering Trump was impeached just three months ago, spent his first two-plus years in office battling claims his campaign colluded with Russia, and faced allegations of campaign finance violations that included paying hush money to a porn star. But the pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus is totally out of Trump’s wheelhouse. He’s not fighting against a political opponent, the media, or the courts; instead, as the president pointed out on Twitter, he is battling an ‘invisible enemy’ — an unpredictable and deadly illness that’s quickly spread across the globe.
At the final debate of the Democratic presidential primary on Sunday, Senator Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden clashed on the coronavirus. Sanders contended the pandemic laid bare “the incredible weakness and dysfunctionality” of the US healthcare system, and called for single-payer reform. Biden countered that Italy’s universal system had failed to protect the Mediterranean nation, and asserted that Covid-19 “has nothing to do with Bernie’s Medicare for All”. At first glance, the ex-vice-president seems right: of course single-payer can’t close the door to a novel virus, any more than it can forestall a deadly earthquake or fend off a zombie apocalypse. Nonetheless, a national health program with unified financing
Dangerous Curves
replies
If you weren’t very ill in late January or February, you probably know someone who was. The complaints often sounded the same: A fever for days, a stubborn and unusual-sounding cough, a persistent sore throat—the severity of the symptoms seemed worse than the usual influenza.
Doctors, assuming it was a version of the seasonal flu, administered flu-fighting drugs without testing. (My college daughter was very sick with the same symptoms; her flu test was negative.) Plenty of afflicted Americans just stayed in bed without ever seeing a physician.Obviously, anecdotal evidence that the COVID-19 illness has been around for at least the past few
With every passing moment, nations are establishing precedents for how to contain and ultimately stop a global pandemic. Because the novel coronavirus apparently originated in Wuhan and was immediately covered up by the Chinese Communist Party, the health and welfare of the Chinese people and all other affected populations have suffered from this lethal malfeasance.
But one of the less reported consequences of the Beijing regime’s cover-up (and subsequent propaganda blaming the United States for the virus) is that nations are being forced to establish pandemic precedents on an ad hoc basis, largely upon what we do not know rather than the little we do know about the coronavirus.
By Friday morning, the governors of New York and California had ordered — with significant exceptions — all their residents to stay home, to try to limit, as much as possible, the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Other states soon followed: New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois. At least 1 in 5 Americans have been ordered to stay home.
Residents of Western Washington, where the outbreak hit first and, initially, hardest, have not. Instead, Gov. Jay Inslee is doing everything he can to keep people from leaving the house without outright ordering it.
Hillary Clinton has chosen sides, and she is so firmly enlisted in the Chinese propaganda effort to evade responsibility for foisting the COVID-19 virus on the world that an ambassador from that country has publicly endorsed her on Twitter in the name of “justice.”
Perhaps in the twisted worldview of pathological Trump hatred, it is a good thing to side with the progenitor of a plague upon the world, the country that openly plans to displace the United States and establish itself as the world’s hegemon.
Joe Biden continues to lead just a few minutes behind.
The former vice president issued a demand on Wednesday that President Trump invoke the Defense Production Act related to coronavirus recovery products.
Biden’s plan says to “prioritize and immediately increase domestic production of any critical medical equipment required to respond to this crisis — such as the production of ventilators and associated training to operate — by invoking the Defense Production Action.”
(Snip)
“This action must be built on forecasted demand, using the best modeling currently available for negative scenarios,” he wrote.
But just minutes prior, Trump did just that.
Hat Tip GKJoe
I knew there was something sketchy about Dr. Anthony Fauci. Within the WikiLeaks HRC email files there’s a letter from Fauci to Hillary Clinton through her aid/lawyer Cheryl Mills: “Please tell her that we all love her and are very proud to know her.” LOOK: (Image)
Andy Cohen, the host and producer of Bravo’s “Watch What Happens Live,” has announced that he has tested positive for coronavirus — and two weeks ago he was doing a “shotski” with Hillary Clinton. Clinton appeared on the show to promote her new documentary on March 6 and took shots with the host from glasses attached to a ski. “That was amazing!” Andy said to the camera as Real Housewife of New York Dorinda Medley and Hillary hugged.
Our concern about Donald Trump in the campaign of 2016 was not about his personal morals. ...
It feels increasingly like Americans are watching execution of a plan to take down America as a constitutional republic, and Trump as president, fed by a CIA-type psychological assessment of Trump that bet on his ‘go big’ instincts that are untethered by a deep ideological understanding and appreciation for what truly makes America exceptional and great.
Anthony Fauci, the NIH’s face of the
coronavirus, is a deep-state Hillary
Clinton-loving stooge replies
coronavirus, is a deep-state Hillary
Clinton-loving stooge replies
Anthony Fauci, M.D., the 79-year old head of the National Institute of Allegy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), has become the #1 point man on the government’s role in the coronavirus crisis. Fauci has worked for the National Institutes of Health (NIH) his entire professional life. In the past, for more than two decades starting in the mid-1980s, he was the medical establishment’s face of HIV-AIDS – omnipresent on television when AIDS was hot and ever present at international AIDS conferences well into the 21st century. Always, he was an enthusiastic advocate of throwing more federal money at the problem of AIDS. He's widely praised in the press.
That old Walter Mitty thing doesn't stop for Joe Biden.
He was there as vice president at the Parkland shooting. He was shot at in Iraq. He was a coal miner. His chopper was shot down by bin Laden himself over Afghanistan. Always the irrelevant placeholder, dating at least from his Obama years when he had to beg Obama to quit making fun of him, the former vice president and now Democratic frontrunner has now decided to conduct pretend-presidential briefings on the coronavirus crisis to upstage President Trump.
According to Fox News:
The all-but-certain Democratic presidential nominee – in a conference call
You, Xi
replies
I hold Xi Jinping guilty of starting the coronavirus pandemic, which began in the Chinese city of Wuhan and has now caused thousands of deaths around the world and an economic recession that will ravage all of us for years. My accusation is well-founded and well-documented. Early last December, a young doctor at a Wuhan hospital discovered the first case of illness caused by a heretofore unknown virus. He immediately established the link with an earlier epidemic that had begun in the same place and under the same circumstances, in 2002–2003: SARS, a viral pneumonia. The doctor, Li Wenliang, 37 years old, who died in February
Mix in a grandstanding TV reporter with an annoyed President Trump, and it usually doesn’t end well.
That’s what happened when NBC News correspondent Peter Alexander repeatedly laid the bait at Friday’s daily coronavirus briefing.
“What do you say to Americans who are scared, though? Nearly 200 dead, 14,000 sick, millions as you witness, who are scared now. What do you say to Americans who are watching you right now, who are scared?”
Yeah, we get it. Scared! Very subtle.
“I say that you’re a terrible reporter. That’s what I say,” Trump replied. “I think it’s a very nasty question and I think it’s a very bad signal
PARIS, Kentucky — You’d expect Eric Buckley to have a fairly blunt reaction to his family's fortunes changing overnight. But it’s the words he uses to react to the news that tells you everything about his character.
"Am I disappointed that my horse may or may not run the Derby and [that] the Derby is not even running when it's supposed to be? Yes," he says from the barn on his family farm. "But is my child healthy? Is my wife healthy? Are my parents alive? You know, those are what matter, and I have to look at the whole picture."
It’s just hours after Eric and his wife Elizabeth Buckley
Joe Biden is planning a regular shadow briefing on coronavirus to start as early as Monday to show how he would handle the crisis and address what he calls the lies and failures of President Trump.
Biden gave a preview of what’s to come in a conference call with reporters Friday, where he listed a litany of false and misleading statements from Trump, who has been holding regular White House press conferences concerning coronavirus preparedness and response that have been broadcast live on all major networks.
“President Trump stop saying false things, will ya?” Biden said. “People are worried they are really frightened,
Homeowners who have lost income or their jobs because of the coronavirus outbreak are getting some relief. Depending on their situation, they should be eligible to have their mortgage payments reduced or suspended for up to 12 months.
Federal regulators, through the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are ordering lenders to offer homeowners flexibility. The move covers about half of all home loans in the U.S. — those guaranteed by Fannie and Freddie. But regulators expect that the entire mortgage industry will quickly adopt a similar policy.
Under the plan, people who have suffered a loss of income can qualify
Remembering Mark Fidrych
replies
Last night, the MLB Network presented a one-hour program about the career of Mark “The Bird” Fidrych. Then, it showed the entirety of a game he pitched against the New York Yankees on June 26, 1976 — a complete game 5-1 win.
For those who missed the Mark Fidrych experience, here’s some background. Fidrych debuted as a 21 year old rookie for the Detroit Tigers in 1976. He made the club with only a year and a half of experience in the minor leagues.
Inserted into the starting rotation in mid-May, Fidrych won nine of his first ten starts. His only loss was to Boston, 2-0.
So, yesterday evening as I was sitting at my computer, along came a call from my very dear friend Mike Visser. He lives in Canada, but he had just seen on FNC that our Governor, “Pretty Boy” Gavin Newsom, had just ordered us Californians to stay indoors and in our homes for the foreseeable future.
The reason, of course, is the highly contagious Coronavirus which apparently has spread like wildfire all over the Golden State in the last two months. Governor Newsom had also said that if current trends continue, something like 55 percent of Californians would contract the virus. Immediately thereafter,
Even if legal, politicians profiting
off inside information amid
coronavirus crisis is outrageous replies
off inside information amid
coronavirus crisis is outrageous replies
As the novel coronavirus works it way through the United States, many Americans have seen their savings dwindle as the stock market continues its unprecedented free fall.
But for a handful US senators, the crisis was cause for a windfall. That’s because Richard Burr and Kelly Loeffler, both of whom were briefed for weeks as the coronavirus approached America, decided it was a good idea to use their inside information to dump over a million dollar in stocks. Sens. Diane Feinstein and Jim Inhofe also sold significant amounts of stock.
Kenny Rogers, a longtime star of country music, died Friday night, according to a statement posted by his family. He was 81.
Known for such hits as “The Gambler,” “Lady,” “Islands in the Stream,” and “Lucille,” Rogers died peacefully at home in Sandy Springs, Ga., of natural causes at 10:25 p.m., the statement said.
Rogers later developed "The Gambler" into a series of television movies in which he starred.
In all, Rogers had 24 No. 1 hits and was the winner of six CMA Awards and three Grammys, the family's statement said.
A staff member for Vice President Mike Pence has tested positive for the coronavirus, the White House revealed Friday.“This evening we were notified that a member of the Office of the Vice President tested positive for the Coronavirus,” the vice president’s press secretary Katie Miller said in a statement to White House reporters. “Neither President Trump nor Vice President Pence had close contact with the individual.”
The identity of the staffer was not disclosed. Miller said that recent contacts with the individual were currently being traced in accordance with CDC guidelines. On Saturday, Pence sent a staff email to his team to recommend
Interpol has announced a huge takedown in 90 countries targeting crooks cashing in on the coronavirus endemic.
Items seized as part of Operation Pangea XIII included 34,000 bogus surgical masks, Interpol said Thursday.
The outbreak of the coronavirus disease has offered an opportunity for fast cash, as criminals take advantage of the high market demand for personal protection and hygiene products, officials said. “Once again, Operation Pangea shows that criminals will stop at nothing to make a profit,” Interpol Secretary General Jürgen Stock said in a news release. ”The illicit trade in such counterfeit medical items during a public health crisis shows their total disregard for people’s wellbeing, or their lives.”
I can’t stop laughing…. (Photo) According to the New York Post Michael Bloomberg spent $935,360,675 in his failed attempt to win/buy the democrat presidential nomination. WASHINGTON — Mike Bloomberg’s failed White House bid cost the media mogul nearly $1 billion, according to a new FEC filing — double what was previously reported. The total cost of the Big Apple billionaire’s fully self-funded campaign was a stunning $935,360,675.56, the filing made public Friday shows. (link) For comparison, Donald Trump spent $66 million on his 2016 campaign and won the presidency. Bloomberg spent over 14 times more than Trump… and LOST. Bigly.
Calls are increasing for cable networks to stop airing President Donald Trump’s press conferences live as critics believe Trump is turning White House news briefings into virtual campaign rallies that can “get people killed” with lies about the Coronavirus crisis. The pressure only increased after Trump’s Friday briefing.The Atlantic’s James Fallows believes the attention-starved Trump is turning the press conferences into “virtual campaign” rallies and Trump would actually lose interest in showing up if the media did not cover the briefings live.“Also, as a practical matter, if the briefings were no longer covered live, Trump would lose interest in attending himself,” Fallows argues.
First lady Melania Trump sent a Twitter message to her son Barron on Friday wishing him a happy 14th birthday. “Happy Birthday BWT,” she tweeted, along with three heart emojis. (Tweet) The tweet was liked and retweeted by thousands of people.
“HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR FUTURE PRESIDENT!!” one Twitter user responded. “WE LOVE BARRON!!” “Happy birthday to the coolest first son,” another user wrote.Barron Trump, Melania Trump’s only child, was born in 2006 and has lived a relatively private life compared to President Trump’s other, older children.Barron is the first boy to live in the White House since John F. Kennedy Jr. lived there in the early 1960s.