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During a press conference on Tuesday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) rejected Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s pitch to “set aside” liability protection and funding for state and local governments in coronavirus relief negotiations.

While neither Republican nor Democratic leadership has signed on to the plan, a $908 billion bipartisan proposal from moderates has been unveiled this morning.Under the proposed compromise being pitched, Bloomberg reports, small businesses would get a roughly $300 billion infusion for a version of the Paycheck Protection Program of forgivable loans and other aid, and state and local governments would get about $240 billion, including money for schools, according to three people familiar with the proposal.Another $180 billion would go to an extension of pandemic unemployment benefits, providing an additional $300-a-week for four months.Transportation including airlines, airports, transit and Amtrak...

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is expected to move $455 billion in unspent coronavirus stimulus money into a fund that the incoming Biden administration cannot deploy without congressional approval, Bloomberg reported

How can you give disaster relief when the democrats, themselves, are the disaster. Are citizens required to pay to rebuild the city after democrats have burned it down? Our President has made it clear that when states turn down an opportunity of help in preventing this chaos and destruction, they have little right to then ask for monetary means in order to rebuild.TIME:12:22 A brilliant synopsis!

The latest economic stimulus package narrowly passed by the House on Friday was a tiptoeing act for Democratic leadership, not because they tried to craft a $3 trillion piece of bipartisan legislation - neither Republicans nor the White House were consulted - but because they struggled to get members of their own party on board. As a result of the inability to appease the entire caucus, some moderate and liberal Democrats crossed the aisle to join Republicans to vote against the proposal that includes another round of stimulus checks, state and local aid, an expansion of unemployed benefits and rent...

California’s $75 million Disaster Relief Fund will support undocumented Californians impacted by COVID-19 who are ineligible for unemployment insurance benefits and disaster relief, including the CARES Act, due to their immigration status. Approximately 150,000 undocumented adult Californians will receive a one-time cash benefit of $500 per adult with a cap of $1,000 per household to deal with the specific needs arising from the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals can apply for support beginning next month. The state’s Disaster Relief Fund will be dispersed through a community-based model of regional nonprofits with expertise and experience serving undocumented communities. In addition to the $75...

The Trump administration is focused on countering the disinformation from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, and is spreading news about U.S. humanitarian efforts, a state department official recently said. To deflect blame over its initial mismanagement of the CCP virus outbreak, the Chinese regime has embarked on a concerted disinformation campaign to posit the unfounded theory that the virus did not originate in China, and may have even come from the United States. On top of this, the CCP has sought to brand itself as a humanitarian leader amid global response efforts, touting its provision of...

The federal government is poised to send checks — or make direct deposits — to most Americans to help people survive financially in the wake of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. The health crisis has evolved into an economic crisis as businesses and schools shut down to slow the spread of the virus. Based on the CARES act approved by the U.S. Senate late Wednesday, many American would receive a payments of $1,200, and families would see an extra $500 per child they claim as a dependent on their tax returns. Want to know how much you are projected to receive?...

The Senate was burning the midnight oil but they finally managed to hold a vote and unanimously decide to take ten percent of the national GDP and light it on fire late last night. The final coronavirus relief package cleverly named the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security) passed on a 96-0 vote. The final price tag will come in at slightly more than two trillion (with a “T”) dollars. Of course, it can’t go to the President’s desk unless Nancy Pelosi decides to hold a vote on it later this morning, but we’ll get to that...

Will this tide us over until the end of June? And will Congress have to do this all over again if not? The Senate passed a massive relief bill last night aimed at rescuing the economy from free-fall during the coronavirus pandemic, and did so on a 96-0 unanimous vote. But just how much relief does $2.2 trillion buy?Three months, said Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, although he hopes we don’t end up testing whether it’s sufficient for that much inactivity: The package is intended as relief for an economy spiraling into recession or worse and a nation facing a...

In Italy, China is no longer thought of as the origin of COVID-19, but as a friend in a time of dire need.Medics and paramedics from China salute as the board a Red Cross vehicle upon arrival at the Malpensa airport of Milan, March 18, 2020. Italy has been an alluring geopolitical prize throughout the ages because of its strategic location in the middle of the Mediterranean, its wealth, and the useful skills of its people. Now it’s the turn of today’s rising power, China, to seek to extend its influence there. Last year, Italy signed a Memorandum of Understanding...

Democrats’ strategic debacle continued apace this morning as news organizations report on their last-minute renege on the coronavirus relief package late yesterday. This is more of a headline than a substantive report, but nevertheless NBC’s Today show makes it clear that Democrats obstructed the bill. If Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer expected the media to carry their water, thus far they have miscalculated: The new $2.3 trillion-coronavirus aid package was blocked by Senate Democrats on Capitol Hill, where there has also been a new case of the virus, @tomcostellonbc reports. pic.twitter.com/zBCQP7WyN1— TODAY (@TODAYshow) March 23, 2020 Despite some headline...

Dive Brief: In what Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan is calling "a monumental and historic achievement," the three-member state Board of Public Works voted Wednesday to approve amendments to the public-private partnership (P3) that will deliver Hogan's $9 billion Traffic Relief Plan. The plan includes implementation of Maryland and Virginia's Capital Beltway Accord, which allows for a new American Legion Bridge between the two states near Washington, D.C., and the approval will allow the state to solicit bids. In order to win a majority vote for the plan, Hogan agreed to eliminate from the first phase of the project the widening...

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a press conference with his Japanese and South Korean counterparts Thursday morning in Singapore to elaborate on the post Trump-Kim summit strategy for denuclearizing the Korean Peninsula. Pompeo called the Singapore meetings between President Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un an enormous opportunity and turning point for advancing North Korea's relations with the U.S., its neighbors in Asia, and the rest of the global community. Pompeo reiterated that both leaders are committed to complete, verifiable, irreversible denuclearization before adding that the process would involve considerable coordination with Japan and South Korea.

A bill bringing possible relief to Maryland motorists who face thousands of dollars in fines from unpaid E-ZPass tolls passed the Senate unanimously last Thursday and gets a hearing in a House committee next week.Bill sponsor, Sen. Roger Manno, D-Montgomery, made fixes to his bill that died last year in committee, conf0rming it to a bill that passed the House last year.Senate Finance Committee Chairman Thomas “Mac” Middleton, D-Charles, told Manno at a March 7 hearing that he spoke with transportation officials last year and requested improvements. The Maryland Transportation Authority had a year to evaluate how it handles escalating...

After exploring other options, the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet released study findings Tuesday "confirming the need for a second bridge to carry Interstate 71/75 traffic across the Ohio River." A yearlong study "confirms the need for construction of a new bridge across the Ohio River to improve safety and travel on Interstate 71 and Interstate 75 between Ohio and Kentucky," a news release from the KYTC said. The news release cited the findings of the Brent Spence Strategic Corridor Study, which was led by the consulting firm Stantec. The best solution to "ease congestion and improve travel" is to build a...

BROWN COUNTY (WLUK) -- If you experience stop-and-go traffic heading to work or backups on your way home, you’re not the only one frustrated. Every community experiences traffic delays. Transportation planners design new roads to ease the congestion. But FOX 11 Investigates found that in Brown County, those planning the roads are frustrated too. Ads by ZINC Highway 172 in Brown County carries a heavy load of cars and trucks. During peak traffic hours, motorists are trying to cross the Fox River. A little over two miles to the south, the Claude Allouez Bridge in De Pere can be even...

FReeper help needed, please. Roughly a week or so ago, a FReeper posted an extensive list of relief supplies and ships that had already been delivered to Puerto Rico. Would someone please re-post that list here on this thread? (A link to the original source would be even better!) My granddaughter is in a college politics course, and the prof and students say they haven't heard of any real help the US has supplied to Puerto Rico. (Of course, their source is the MSM-CNN...)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Wednesday asked U.S. lawmakers to approve $29 billion in disaster relief funds to assist victims of recent hurricanes that hit Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. The aid request includes $12.8 billion in new funds to help storm victims and $16 billion to defray debt in the federal government’s flood insurance program.....

Gunmen waylaid a group of volunteers bringing aid to earthquake victims in Mexico, shooting one, raping another and beating several, all for $2,000 and a few cellphones. The group of Catholic youth volunteers left Mexico City in three pickup trucks loaded with food and relief aid for communities affected by the earthquakes in Oaxaca Tuesday morning, but a group of unidentified gunmen intercepted them and shot up their cars, wounding one of the volunteers, according to Siame. The gunmen raped one of the girls, beat one of the young men so severely that he almost died, and left with the...