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The top Democrats on the House and Senate foreign affairs committees launched an investigation Saturday into President Trump's Friday night firing of State Department Inspector General (IG) Steve Linick. Rep. Eliot Engel, the chair of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, and Sen. Bob Menendez, the lead Democrat on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, wrote letters to the White House, State Department and the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to preserve all records related Linick's dismissal and to turn the information over by Friday, May 22. “President Trump’s unprecedented removal of Inspector General Linick is only his latest...

The case may be joined by state attorneys general in what would be one of the biggest antitrust actions by the United States since the late 1990s. WASHINGTON — The Justice Department is planning to file antitrust charges against Google as early as this summer, said two people with knowledge of the situation, in what would be one of the biggest antitrust actions by the United States since the late 1990s. The Justice Department is still investigating the internet company and has been making progress on its case, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the...

Trump attacks tech giants for being controlled by ''radical left'' Washington, May 16 (IANS) US President Donald Trump on Saturday once again attacked tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter for being controlled by ''radical left, adding that the US administration is working to address the alleged political bias against the conservatives on social media platforms. Trump said in the tweet: "The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google." "The Administration is working to remedy this illegal situation. Stay tuned, and send names & events," he added. Trump has regularly slammed tech giants...

The provisional data presented on this page include the weekly provisional count of deaths in the United States due to COVID-19, deaths from all causes and percent of expected deaths (i.e., number of deaths received over number of deaths expected based on data from previous years), pneumonia deaths (excluding pneumonia deaths involving influenza), pneumonia deaths involving COVID-19, influenza deaths, and deaths involving pneumonia, influenza, or COVID-19; (a) by week ending date and (b) by specific jurisdictions.

Rose Garden 4:20 P.M. EDT  THE PRESIDENT:  Thank you very much.  Please.  Those are friendly truckers.  They’re on our side.  It’s almost a celebration in a way.  Please sit down.  Please.The First Lady and I are thrilled to welcome you this afternoon for our second event recognizing extraordinary Americans who have responded to the invisible enemy — we know what the invisible enemy is; we’ve learned a lot — with exceptional bravery and commitment and love.  And we appreciate it very much.  Great job, fantastic job.In the midst of this pandemic, our nation has been united in grief and...

Another major crisis is arising. Cities and towns across the United States have seen a MAJOR drop in sales tax revenue. This is going to lead to extreme financial duress for these municipalities. What happens next?

President Trump on Saturday dismissed Joe Biden's White House bid after the former vice president's campaign expressed confidence it could flip several states this November. "I'm not running against Sleepy Joe Biden. He is not even a factor. Never was, remember 1% Joe?" Trump tweeted, referring to Biden's past White House campaigns that failed to garner support. "I'm running against the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats & their partner, the real opposition party, the Lamestream Fake News Media! They are vicious & crazy, but we will WIN!" Trump added. Trump has repeatedly gone after Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, and...

Newsom is proposing to significantly shrink the footprint of California’s prison system, partly because of massive budget cuts prompted by the pandemic but also because of philosophy. The revised budget he sent to state lawmakers this week closing two state prisons in the coming years; cutting nearly one in five of the 43 inmate firefighter camps; and eventually closing all three state-run juvenile prisons. He’s also seeking unspecified increases to sentencing credits that allow inmates to leave prison more quickly. And he proposes to shorten parole to a maximum of two years, down from five years for felonies, and let...

Because of face coverings prompted by the coronavirus pandemic, companies are trying to ID people based on just their eyes and cheekbone In the age of the coronavirus, face masks have become a part of normal life. They're a safety requirement in many places, and for some people, a fashion statement. But for facial recognition technology, they pose a major challenge. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended wearing face coverings to help fight the spread of COVID-19, the coronavirus-caused sickness that's killed more than 302,000 people around the world. And governments in more than half the...

Professional haircuts are becoming available again at last. But as states begin to ease coronavirus lockdown orders, salons across the country are reopening with new safety protocols, which in some cases means not allowing back certain hair-care staples. “We’re not doing beard trims, lip waxes, nose waxes - anything on the face except for eyebrows,” salon owner Ashe Bowen tells The Post of the new rules their Denver salon has put in place since reopening on Saturday. One treatment that has proven perhaps surprisingly contentious for parlors coming out of lockdown? Blowouts. When Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont announced that state...

The founder of a liberal-leaning media outlet is defending a CBS reporter who was attacked for breaking the news of a request from 16 individuals to unmask the identity of then-national security adviser Michael Flynn. Speaking with Fox News host Martha MacCallum on Friday, the Intercept co-founder Glenn Greenwald praised reporter Catherine Herridge for her "extremely reliable" reporting on the Russian collusion narrative in spite of attacks from 2020 Democratic candidate Joe Biden's campaign staff. "I think Catherine Herridge is a reporter of the highest integrity and professionalism," Greenwald told MacCallum. "I find it extremely ironic because every time President...

MILFORD, PIKE COUNTY (WOLF) — The Pike County Sheriff's Office announcing it will not be enforcing, if asked to do so, any order that violates the U.S. Constitution or the Pennsylvania Constitution. "I'm proud about what the sheriff's office is doing, I think it's a fine line, he's not going to enforce anything that's unconstitutional, which is all we ever want," said Eve Yasthal, Milford resident. Businesses that decide to reopen under the Red Phase will not have to worry about facing any citations from the Pike County Sheriff's Office. In a statement Sheriff Kerry Welsh said "Just to be...

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is willing to reopen Fenway Park and TD Garden for Red Sox, Celtics, and Bruins games this summer. That willingness, though, rests upon non-negotiable conditions: no fans in the stands, and the City of Boston must sign off on advanced health and safety protocols that protect not only the athletes but everyone else reporting to the workplace. “Yes, as long as the players and the teams and the support staff and all the people that are associated with it are safe and feel comfortable,” said Walsh during a Friday morning telephone interview. “Obviously, their health is...

...I’m a virologist, and modelling complex processes is part of my day-to-day work. It’s not uncommon to see long and complex code for predicting the movement of an infection in a population, but tools exist to structure and document code properly. The Imperial College effort suggests an incumbency effect: with their outstanding reputations, the college and Ferguson possessed an authority based solely on their own authority. The code on which they based their predictions would not pass a cursory review by a Ph.D. committee in computational epidemiology...

Tennessee announced Friday it would lift capacity restrictions on restaurants and shops as it moves to focus on reopening larger attractions such as amusement parks, water parks and theaters starting next week. Tennessee's Economic Recovery Group said 89 out of 95 counties in the state could lift capacity restrictions on businesses, adding that the next reopening phase begins May 22 for reopening larger noncontact attractions, according to Nashville, Tenn., NBC affiliate WSMV. Included in the next phase of reopening are race tracks and auditoriums as well as recreational parks and large museums, although restrictions on gatherings of more than 10...

Joe Allen, assistant professor of exposure assessment science at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and director of its Healthy Buildings program, suspects that broader airborne transmission of the coronavirus is likely, and thinks certain precautions indoors and out can help reduce its spread. ... --- ALLEN: I had a piece in The Washington Post last week that makes the case that everyone should be wearing masks. It outlines four lines of public health benefits. First, a mask can catch large droplets....Second, ...the homemade mask acts as a physical barrier for me. ...Thirdly, a mask also serves as...

It is an astounding feature of the contemporary international political scene that almost no coverage of American affairs, including in most of the President Donald Trump-hating American media, reports or comments in a way that is even slightly relevant to the unfolding facts in that country. Unlike all other important countries except Britain and Canada, the United Stares has had the same political institutions for over 150 years. For over a century it has operated on a scale that the world had never imagined to be possible. It is a fantastic success, but it is not at all the shining...

NEW YORK — Following an investigation by ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York with the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and the FBI, four complaints were unsealed Thursday in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, variously charging 10 members and associates of La Mara Salvatrucha, also known as MS-13, a transnational criminal organization, with murder in-aid-of racketeering, attempted murder, murder conspiracy, related firearms offenses and marijuana distribution conspiracy. This gang investigation was prompted by three murders, occurring on the street, at Kissena Park and on an elevated Subway Platform in Queens. One defendant...

Though a COVID-19 vaccine is likely still more than a year away, according to experts, concerns over mandatory vaccinations have spread throughout the anti-vaxxer community in Texas, which is one of the largest in the nation. In recent years, prominent voices in the anti-vaxxer movement have settled in and around Austin, and a vocal Facebook group formed a political action committee, Texans for Vaccine Choice. This school year, nearly 73,000, or 1.35 percent, of Texas students opted out of getting at least one required vaccine for nonmedical reasons, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. That number does...

Police in Warsaw, Poland used tear gas to subdue protesters demanding a quicker end to stay-at-home orders in the country, Reuters reported Saturday. Like the U.S., Poland has begun reopening some business in parts of the country at the start of the month in an effort to salvage the economy amid the coronavirus pandemic. The protesters, who claimed the shutdowns in Warsaw has threatened their income, have staged demonstrations in the capital city since late last month. The organizers planned a march that was blocked by police who cited government restrictions temporarily banning public gatherings amid the pandemic. “Unfortunately we...