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Pence office to handle media on coronavirus © Greg Nash Vice President Pence's office is being given authority over media response and messaging on the coronavirus after he was tasked with overseeing the federal response to the disease, a person familiar with the arrangement confirmed Thursday. The person said media requests related to the virus will be filtered through Pence's office rather than the White House press shop in an effort to further centralize the administration's response. The shift in approach was first reported by The Washington Post and The New York Times. The Times additionally reported that Anthony Fauci,...

Canada will stop paying to protect the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they leave public life next month, the country's public safety minister has revealed, leaving questions over who will foot the pair's estimated £20million annual security bill. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are expected to live mainly in North America after Megxit at the end of March and the local authorities had previously said they would shoulder a share of the bill along with the British Metropolitan Police. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau assured the Queen when Megxit was announced in January that Harry and Meghan would be...

Workers say Target is making drastic cuts to their schedules and doubling their workload as it increases minimum wage under its ‘modernization plan’ to increase efficiency Adam Ryan, 31, has worked at Target in Christiansburg, Virginia, for three years. He works additional jobs whenever he’s able to, but is regularly scheduled only 20 hours per week at Target, despite having open availability. ... In Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Bonnie Furlong has worked as a cashier at Target for about seven years, but still makes what starting workers make, $13 an hour. “The last time they raised it, they cut our hours, so...

Trump wishes Christians a ‘prayerful’ Ash Wednesday, praises tradition of ‘sign of cross’ on foreheads 'We join in prayer with everyone observing this holy day and wish you a prayerful Lenten journey' WASHINGTON, D.C., February 26, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – President Donald Trump issued a public statement Wednesday to Catholics and Christians, telling them that he was joining them in prayer during their observance of Ash Wednesday, which marks the beginning of Lent which leads to the celebration of Christ’s resurrection at Easter. “For Catholics and many other Christians, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season that concludes with the...

Washington (CNN)The US Navy has ordered all ships that have visited countries in the Pacific region to effectively self-quarantine and remain at sea for 14 days in order to monitor sailors for any symptoms of coronavirus.

On Wednesday night, President Trump and government health officials assured the American people that the government is working hard to control the spread of coronavirus. "The immediate risk to the American public has been and continues to be low," Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said from the White House. "Our containment strategy has been working. At the same time, what every one our experts and leaders have been saying for more than a month now remains true. The degree of risk has the potential to change quickly and we can expect to see more cases in the United...

Earlier this month, I wrote about “Operation Chaos: South Carolina Republicans Urge Voters to Cast Dem Primary Vote for Bernie.” The South Carolina primary takes place on Saturday, February 29th, and it looks like the movement is gaining some steam. As I noted in that post, the strategy is intended to prove to South Carolina Democrats that open primaries are ripe for abuse by the opposing party’s voters skewing the results.

Federal health officials met with state and city public health labs on Wednesday to fix a crippling lack of options to diagnose the novel coronavirus, a shortfall driven by botched CDC testing kits. As a result, New York state and New York City are moving forward with developing their own test to detect the virus. The lack of adequate testing capabilities was spotlighted on Wednesday evening, when the CDC announced delayed results of the first potential case of a person contracting COVID-19 from “community spread,” meaning they got sick without traveling to China or being exposed to anyone known to...

5 Milwaukee shooting victims identified, suspected gunman was 17-year electrician at breweryMilwaukee authorities have identified the five victims who were killed by a co-worker during a shooting rampage at the Molson Coors Beverage Co. campus Wednesday, and they also identified the suspected gunman who died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. The victims are Jesus Valle Jr., 33, of Milwaukee; Gennady Levshetz, 61, of Mequon; Trevor Wetselaar, 33, of Milwaukee; Dana Walk, 57, of Delafield, and 50-year-old Dale Hudson of Waukesha.…Milwaukee police identified the suspected shooter as Anthony N. Ferrill, 51, who worked for the brewing giant for 17 years as...

President Donald Trump is considering invoking special powers through the 1950 Defense Production Act to ramp up the production of protective masks and clothing because…you guessed it… all that stuff comes from China. The establishment sold us out for money and this is one consequence. Now, Trump has managed to make corporations think about the China supply chain since day one but this emergency reminds us of how far we have yet to go. “Very little of this stuff is apparently made in the United States, so if we’re down to domestic capability to produce, it could get tough,” the...

The shivering tot was found in a drain by rescuer Charmaine Keeby, 63, who had taken her dog for a walk. Her sausage dog Georgie had began barking loudly at a duct. The catering company boss believed her beloved pet had come across a stranded cat. Yet when she looked down into the drain herself she realised she could hear a crying baby. Charmaine quickly flagged down oncoming motorist Cornie Viljoen, 60, who helped remove the concrete slab covering the water drain using a steel bar from his car. Cornie then bravely entered the duct, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa,...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Competent, a fighter, good. Old, out of touch, disingenuous. And, of course: Who's that? As the 2020 campaign intensifies, a poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research asked Americans to say what word or phrase comes to mind when they think of the top candidates, including incumbent President Donald Trump. Each received both positive and negative responses. In some cases, a sizable share didn't know enough about the candidate to give a description. Here's a look at how Americans characterized the contenders:

Thousands of travelers who have returned to the United States after recent trips to China are spending nearly half a month behind closed doors, under voluntary self-quarantine, even though they do not pose any immediate coronavirus-related health risk to others. These are not people sick with COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. They have had no fever and no cough, and they aren't necessarily being tested for the virus. Instead, they simply traveled in China within the past few weeks and have since been flagged by health officials at one of the 11 airports nationwide through which all U.S....

SINGAPORE (The Straits Times/ANN): The 62 Covid-19 patients who have been discharged here no longer have the virus in them and cannot pass the infection on to others, experts at the National Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCID) assured. Stories have surfaced in China that one in seven patients who has recovered is still infectious. But they said the situation in Singapore is very different Professor Leo Yee Sin, executive director of NCID, said doctors monitor virus-shedding in patients' respiratory tract - in other words, they check if the patient is still releasing live virus and thus remains contagious. This is...

A member of Harvey Weinstein’s jury spoke out about being shown naked photos of the former producer during his rape trial. The jurors were shown naked photos of Weinstein as evidence during the trial, according to an interview published Tuesday by “Inside Edition.” “I tried to block it out,” said the woman, who was only identified as “juror no. 2.” “It was presented to us, so it wasn’t something that we could have blocked out, but it’s hard not to make a face.” As previously reported, actress Jessica Mann testified about the first time she saw Weinstein naked, claiming he...

Officials at the Department of Health and Human Services sent more than a dozen workers to receive the first Americans evacuated from Wuhan, China, the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak, without proper training for infection control or appropriate protective gear, according to a whistleblower complaint. The workers did not show symptoms of infection and were not tested for the virus, according to lawyers for the whistleblower, a senior HHS official based in Washington who oversees workers at the Administration for Children and Families, a unit within HHS. The whistleblower is seeking federal protection, alleging she was unfairly and improperly reassigned...

The Iowa Caucus madness could be over as early as today. The Iowa Democratic Party spent the past two days recounting some results. Twenty-three precincts were recounted after the campaigns for Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg made the request. The party hasn't said when it'll release the final count.

This just in from dp0622... Farmer Dean is recovering in a hospital in Ohio. His temperature is back to normal from 106 degrees!! That’s Not a misprint. He only lost 10 pounds throughout the whole ordeal and the hole that was leaking in his colon has closed but he will STILL need surgery to completely rectify the problem. God is Great and this guy’s a walking miracle. 4 or 5 septic infections, 3 bouts of pneumonia, in a coma several times, abscesses and other issues over the past 3 years and he keeps on trucking. This is GREAT news! Everyone...

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., unveiled a bill Thursday to divert money from President Donald Trump’s border wall to the U.S. coronavirus response. As concerns rise about the outbreak spreading in the U.S., the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate argued the $1.25 billion in emergency funding sought by the president is inadequate. With the proposal, Warren not only aims to confront a budding public health crisis but also looks to knock a Trump policy she has called racist and divisive. “The coronavirus outbreak poses serious health, diplomatic, and economic threats to the United States, and we must be prepared to confront it...

(CNN) Some national and state Democratic party leaders concerned about Sen. Bernie Sanders' candidacy are willing to risk a messy, brokered national convention this summer, which could be potentially damaging to the party, to prevent the self-described Democratic socialist from becoming the nominee, The New York Times reported. Of the 93 superdelegates the Times interviewed, a majority expressed an "overwhelming opposition" to naming Sanders the party's nominee if he wins a plurality of pledged delegates before the Democratic National Convention in July. The vast majority also predicted that no candidate would secure the party's nomination during the primaries and that...