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No one has tested positive for the new coronavirus in Pennsylvania, but the state’s health secretary said Wednesday preparations are underway to deal with the “very serious health issue.” “Since the start of this outbreak, we’ve taken a proactive approach to prepare and carefully monitor the health and safety of Pennsylvanians that were returning from China,” Department of Health Secretary Rachel Levine said at a Capitol press conference. “It is critical now that we be prepared for the possibility of community spread of COVID-19.” There are more than 80,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide, according to the World Health Organization....

Rule number one in government: Never get into a bidding war with Democrats on how much money you want to spend. They have no limit to how much they will spend and will mortgage the future of our children to do so. Trump should heed this lesson as he fights with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer over the level of funding to deal with the coronavirus outbreak. Trump’s mistake was even offering another $2.5 billion in emergency funding to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS. Everyone is forgetting that HHS already has a record high discretionary spending budget...

Dr. Zhong Nanshan, China’s “top respiratory specialist” according to state-run media, on Thursday floated a completely unsubstantiated theory that the Wuhan coronavirus did not originate in China. China’s Global Times amplified the spin by claiming “some other experts” support Zhong’s theory that the virus “might have multiple birthplaces co-existing around the globe.” In other words, it came from everywhere but China. No one involved in spreading this theory seems to have offered an explanation for why all of the early cases came from the city of Wuhan, beyond vague suggestions that some X-factor at the wet market might have caused...

<p>The Federal Ministry of Health has confirmed a coronavirus disease (COVID-19) case in Lagos State, Nigeria. The case, which was confirmed on the 27th of February 2020, is the first case to be reported in Nigeria since the beginning of the outbreak in China in January 2020.</p>

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I., Vt.), frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination, has come under fire for his inability to stop praising authoritarian communist regimes. "When dictatorships, whether it is the Chinese or the Cubans, do something good, you acknowledge that," Sanders said during the Democratic debate in South Carolina on Tuesday. The socialist septuagenarian has been particularly enamored of late with the "massive literacy program" implemented in Cuba under Fidel Castro, citing them as evidence that it's "unfair to simply say everything [in Cuba] is bad." Regrettably, the candidate's narrow focus on the educational achievements of his fellow communists is...

Saudi Arabia on Thursday halted travel to the holiest sites in Islam over coronavirus fears just months ahead of the annual Hajj pilgrimage, as the Middle East recorded more than 220 confirmed cases. The extraordinary decision by Saudi Arabia prevents foreigners from reaching the holy city of Mecca and the Kaaba, the cube-shaped structure the world's 1.8 billion Muslims pray towards five times a day. It also said travel was suspended to Prophet Muhammad's mosque in Medina

U.S. stocks plummeted on Thursday in a day of chaotic trading as investors sought shelter from potential economic consequences of coronavirus. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 4.4 percent, about 1,190 points. The Nasdaq Composite tumbled 4.6 percent. The S&P 500 declined 4.4 percent. It was the biggest one-day point drop in the history of both the Dow and the S&P, although far from the largest decline in percentage terms. As the indexes rise over time, each point up or down represents a smaller movement. All three indexes are down for the year and 10 percent below their recent highs,...

Mike Judge’s workplace satire “Office Space” was a bona fide box-office flop when it grossed a measly $10.8 million in 1999. But once the comedy was discovered on DVD and cable, “Office Space” became a cult sensation, spreading concepts like “flair” and “assclown” across pop culture. Servers at T.G.I. Friday’s might want to raise a glass to “Office Space,” because according to a 2004 New York Magazine interview with Judge, the restaurant not only got rid of its dorky striped shirts but also the mandatory flurry of pins and buttons — known as “flair” — a few years after the...

Imagine you’re trying to count every single person living in the United States. There are two main ways that you can mess up; you can count some people twice and you can miss some people out. In 2010, the Census Bureau made both mistakes, as it always does, because counting people is hard. It double-counted about 3% of people and omitted another 3% and, because those mistakes work in opposite directions, the overall population count was almost perfectly accurate. What’s revealing though is who gets counted twice and who gets left out altogether. That’s where race has historically played a...

Thanks to a decision reached at the Chicago Board of Education meeting Wednesday, students and faculty will now observe the second Monday in October as Indigenous People’s Day rather than as Columbus Day. Until now, Chicago Public Schools had celebrated both holidays, but Wednesday’s decision means that only Indigenous People’s Day will be celebrated. “I think it’s great, changing the name of the holiday. That’s what (the celebration) is really all about,” Chicago charter school teacher Erin Walker said.

The Popes Refute the Monsters of Liberalism The Monsters of Liberty What kind of man would cite Holy Scripture to justify the brutal murder of unborn children even at the moment they are being born — even as their very heads are emerging from the birth canal?  What kind of man would drag a nine-year-old boy up on stage during a political rally to give that poor child advice before the whole world on how to “come out” as “gay”? Such a man would be a monster. And such a man is Pete Buttigieg: an apostate Catholic who pretends to have...

I am a word artist. I add words to photos and films. I am not an American, but I am a big fan of Donald Trump. He is the foremost political leader in the world at standing up to a very politically effective third wave feminist misandry that is poisoning institutions and ruining men’s lives across the Western World. He is the victim of Fake News. The Breitbart report I have just seen about Democrats trying by implication “to blame (Potus) for the spread of coronavirus” shows me an extreme example, if true, of just how absent truth is from...

Bernie’s decision to endorse Hillary Clinton back in July 2016 left his supporters with a little option as they would never support the candidate that stands for everything that they opposed. But it seems that we can see why he endorsed her! Former interim chief of the Democratic National Committee Donna Brazile broke her silence on the 2016 election early as 2017, saying she had “proof” that Hillary Clinton stole her party’s nomination from Bernie Sanders. As always the mainstream media did not crucify the DNC, if this kind of scandal was about President Trump it would have been another...

In the arguments and advertising in support of Proposition 13 on the March 3 ballot, the proponents are trying to convince the voters it is all “for the kids.” As with previous education ballot measures in California, a parade of disasters is predicted unless the proposal in question is approved. True to form, the opening argument set forth in the official voter information guide intones ominously, “Despite research showing students learn better in classrooms which are modern and safe, too many school buildings are dilapidated, unsafe, and unhealthy. Thousands remain at risk of wildfires or earthquakes. Others are contaminated with...

Dick Law & Order: SVU is making television history this season with its record-setting 21st season, making it TV’s longest-running primetime live-action series. And Dick Wolf;s venerable crime drama starring Mariska Hargitay is nowhere near done. NBC has given Law & Order: SVU a new three-year renewal for Seasons 22, 23 and 24, expanding the gap over the previous record mark of 20 seasons set by mothership series Law & Order (1990-2010) and Gunsmoke (1955-75). The massive renewal is part of a mega new deal for Wolf has signed with Law & Order: SVU studio Universal Television, that also includes...

Has any question taken up more airtime at the Democratic debates than how to pay for Medicare for All? The question keeps being asked partly because multiple estimates have found that the single-payer plan, which would eliminate virtually all private health insurance, would require more than $30 trillion in additional government spending over a decade, a historically unprecedented sum. But it has also been a fixture because of the way it has caused candidates to stumble in revealing ways. No primary candidate is more closely associated with Medicare for All than the current front-runner and likely nominee Sen. Bernie Sanders...

The next Democratic debate isn’t in Paterson, New Jersey, but it should be: that unlikely city is blazing new trails in multiculturalism and diversity. On Wednesday, the City Council voted unanimously (with two members not voting) to grant preliminary approval to the Islamic call to prayer being broadcast over loudspeakers in the city. This followed the swearing-in earlier this month, on the Qur’an, of course, of Paterson’s new police chief, Ibrahim “Mike” Baycora, the first Muslim police chief in an American city. Celebrate diversity, right? Sure. The problem is that it is by no means certain that this diversity will...

“so very sorry that I tried to create an unfair advantage for my children”

The Democrats just can’t seem to help themselves. Even in the midst of a bona fide public health crisis involving the coronavirus, all they’re doing is second-guessing President Trump and trying to stoke hysteria in order to score political points. The entire country should have found it reassuring when the president appointed Vice President Mike Pence on Wednesday to coordinate the Trump administration's coronavirus response efforts. Pence has direct experience with this type of work, having overseen Indiana’s public health system as governor in 2014 when the first U.S. case of the MERS (Middle East Respiratory Syndrome) virus emerged in...

LOS ANGELES -- Vanessa Bryant is suing the company involved in the helicopter crash that killed Kobe and Gianna Bryant last month. Kobe and Gianna were among 9 people killed in the crash. The wrongful death claim was submitted Monday morning, the day of the public memorial service for Kobe and Gianna. In the 72-page claim, Bryant's attorney alleges Ara Zobayan "failed to properly monitor and assess the weather prior to takeoff."'' The lawsuit also alleges "he failed to obtain proper weather data" prior to the flight. The claim also names Zobayan's estate as a defendant. In a statement, Island...