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The cabernet sauvignon, enough to fill eight large tanker trucks, spilled at the Rodney Strong Vineyards in Healdsburg Wednesday after a door near the bottom of a large blending tank popped open, spilling all of the wine it was holding into a sanitary sewer system on the property, the Press Democrat reported. The wine spilled into a drainage ditch that feeds into Reiman Creek and eventually made its way to the Russian River. According to the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services, which was notified of the accident on Wednesday, about 20% of the 97,112 gallons spilled were contained. Estimates showed...

CNN anchor Chris Cuomo was quick to defend climate activist Greta Thunberg from "Trumpers" who mocked her on Thursday but was quickly reminded about the settlement his network recently made with Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann. At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin was asked by reporters about Thunberg's call for countries to divest from fossil fuels, which he didn't exactly take too seriously. “Is she the chief economist? Who is she? I’m confused,” Mnuchin jokingly replied. "After she goes and studies economics in college, she can come back and explain that to...

Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, a member of President Trump's impeachment team, argues the Democrats' case is 'built on a corrupt foundation.'

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Ted Cruz. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Ted Cruz is a conservative senator from Texas. He is one of the most accomplished debaters and is a staunch defender of the US Constitution in the country's history. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top half (letter columns) of...

Emerging data on the new virus circulating in China adds to evidence there is sustained human-to-human transmission in the city of Wuhan, and that a single case was able to ignite a chain of other infections. The World Health Organization reported Thursday that there have been at least four generations of spread of the new virus, provisionally called 2019-nCoV, meaning a person who contracted the virus from a non-human source — presumably an animal — has infected a person, who infected another person, who then infected another person. It’s not clear from a WHO statement whether transmission petered out after...

In an exclusive interview, Matteo Salvini, head of Italy's right-wing Lega party, says the EU has a long way to go to effectively fight anti-Semitism and pledges that when he is elected as prime minister, Italy will recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital. These are tumultuous days for Matteo Salvini, head of Italy's right–wing Lega party. Recent polls have projected that were elections in Italy held at this time, he would be elected as prime minister, but his political opponents are trying to strip him of his immunity so they can bring charges against him for alleged misconduct when he was...

The future envisaged by the 3% may yet condemn the 97% to death A “novel coronavirus” dubbed 2019-nCoV belonging to the same family as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) has, over the last six weeks, taken China by storm, and spread to Thailand, Hong Kong, Japan and now the US. There is no need – yet – to turn this drama into a crisis: the mutation is nowhere near as deadly as SARS: the outbreak began at the Huanan Seafood Market in the Chinese city of Wuhan, and it took scientists only a couple...

CNN canceled its upcoming town halls featuring Democrat presidential candidates slated for next week due to the ongoing Senate impeachment trial, the outlet reported on Thursday. CNN was slated to hold a two-day town hall event for the Democrat presidential candidates at Drake University on Tuesday, January 28, and Wednesday, January 29, just days before the February 3 Iowa caucuses. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), Andrew Yang (D), Tom Steyer (D), Pete Buttigieg (D), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), and Joe Biden (D) were expected to attend. However, the ongoing impeachment trial in the Senate will make it...

Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign in South Carolina contacted law enforcement officials on Thursday after undercover journalists with James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas pressed the campaign to answer questions about violent remarks made by a paid Sanders campaign staffer. The move by the Sanders campaign to call the police on reporters for asking them tough questions comes after Project Veritas released video earlier this week that allegedly showed Sanders field organizer Martin Weissgerber saying he wanted to kill wealthy people and throw Republicans into camps. The police officer who responded told Project Veritas, “They said they are going to have no comment....

A Chinese woman who knew she was infected with the deadly coronavirus has disguised her symptoms by deliberately taking antipyretics and successfully boarded a plane to France. She then bragged about her actions online in photographs with friends she met on arrival, according to Chinese media sources. Users of Chinese social media site Weibo were shocked and angry at the reckless and potentially deadly actions of the woman. One said: “This kind of person is the most shameless”. Another posted: “She is now a time bomb.” As the deathtoll hits 17 the "infected" woman posted about her "escape" from Wuhan...

"Republicans have boasted of increased fundraising in the wake of the impeachment inquiry announcement. Officials said the Trump campaign, along with the RNC, brought in $5 million in the 24 hours after Pelosi’s announcement. National Republican Congressional Committee officials also said its online fundraising soared by 608 percent on the day Pelosi announced the inquiry."

The FISA court officially acknowledged Thursday that the FBI submitted false information when obtaining warrants to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page. Therefore, the FISA warrants that were issued are invalid. "Thanks in large part to the work of the Office of the Inspector General, U.S. Department of Justice, the Court has received notice of material misstatements and omissions in the applications filed by the government in the above-captioned dockets. See Docket No. Misc. 19-02, Order (Dec. 17, 2019; DOJ PIG, Review of Four FISA Applications and Other Aspects of the FBI's Crossfire Hurricane Investigation (Dec. 2019)," the court released...

As a cord cutter of many years, I have little first-hand knowledge of how the TV networks are covering the impeachment trial. I've been accessing C-Span online and catching little parts, or as much as I can stomach.

THE White House has livestreamed a church service which saw the US vice-president speak and a bishop claim “the devil” causes homosexuality. After Mike Pence addressed the congregation in Tennessee, the preacher took to the pulpit to talk about same-sex relations in a sermon still available on the administration’s YouTube channel. “It is a demonic spirit that causes a woman to want to live with another woman,” he said. “It is a demonic spirit that causes a man to be attracted to another man.” The preacher, who has been named as Bishop Jerry Wayne Taylor, claimed the “devil” was trying...

Prof. Jonathan Turley on CBS News said that Rep. Nadler made a “major blunder” by insulting the Senators. He prefaced the mention of a blunder by saying he teaches his law students not to do what Nadler had just done during the impeachment trial…Nadler had “insulted” the Republican Senators listening to the impeachment of President Trump. Nadler said the Senate could be engaged in a cover-up. One key Senator spoke out to say she was offended. Senator Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican, said she was offended by House manager Nadler’s claim that because Republican members voted against allowing new testimony...

This week, the juxtaposition between the Senate impeachment trial against President Donald Trump and his address to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, is surreal. The first is an attempt to remove Trump from the presidency; the second was an incredibly powerful speech that focused on the success of our nation and his presidency. It might lead one to ask, "How could both be true?" Yet here we are. The impeachment proceedings get almost nonstop coverage, so let's focus on the other, more worldly, more positive, less covered event. According to the WEF website, the organization "engages the foremost...

The University of Michigan has placed its provost on leave after allegations of sexual misconduct were made against him, the school has announced. Martin A. Philbert, who earns $570,340 a year, was placed on administrative leave on Tuesday, according to a letter from the university.

“It saddens me”, he says,” to see the white man beating his breast over and over, too emasculated to put up any resistance to people who’ve come to threaten him on his own doorstep”. He believes that a toxic mix of guilt, “human rightsism”, political naivety and crass ignorance of History have a debilitating effect on Europeans’ capacity to fight the invasion. He accuses the corrupt African leaders of destroying the lives of hundreds of millions of human beings in all impunity, but is equally critical of the ideologues who are paving the way for them. They should stop blaming...

BEIJING - Major Chinese cities, including the capital and virus-hit Wuhan, banned all large gatherings over the coming Lunar New Year festival, the most important holiday on the Chinese calendar, in an expanding effort contain the rapidly spreading outbreak.The announcement Thursday came as authorities expanded travel restrictions imposed on Wuhan to surrounding municipalities, shutting down travel networks and attempting to quarantine about 25 million people - more than the population of Florida. The extreme measures were accompanied by other indications that Communist Party authorities were struggling to control the outbreak, notably the aggressive censorship of any criticism or skepticism on...

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin announced a policy on Wednesday that will end cash bail for those being released from custody. The policy was formalized on Wednesday. The DA’s office says those being held ahead of their trial will now be based on the risk rather than wealth and poverty.