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BELLEVUE, Wash. — A patient with "extreme flu-like" symptoms checked into a Bellevue hospital Friday and will be tested for possible coronavirus, according to a hospital spokesperson. The spokesperson said a patient is currently in isolation at Overlake Hospital in Bellevue. The patient came to the hospital Friday morning while experiencing "extreme flu-like" symptoms, the spokesperson said. ...

East Room February 27, 2020 6:57 P.M. EST THE PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you very much. AUDIENCE: Four more years! Four more years! Four more years! THE PRESIDENT: We love you. Thank you very much, everybody. I want to just — first of all, a person that’s doing an unbelievable job — loves everybody in this room. She’s got tremendous heart. She’s been through a lot and she handles it better than anybody I know: our great First Lady. And she — (applause) — she heard you were all here, so she just wanted to come down and say hello....

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Oregon state officials have announced the “first presumptive case of [the] novel coronavirus,” and are expected to hold an evening press conference on the development, said Oregon Health Authority on Friday. The pending press conference will discuss Oregon’s first case of the COVID-19 in “an individual living in the state.” Governor Kate Brown, along with OHA Director Patrick Allen, and a few other public health physicians are expected to speak. The press conference is scheduled for 6 p.m. and will be held at the Portland State Office Building.

Russia on Friday said it was sending two warships armed with cruise missiles to waters off the Syrian coast and blamed Ankara for the killing of 33 Turkish soldiers in Syria's Idlib region the previous day. The killing of the Turkish soldiers on Thursday and the wounding of 32 others, announced by the governor in Turkey's Hatay province bordering Syria, raised the Turkish military death toll in the region to 54 this month. Turkey has sent thousands of troops and heavy military hardware into Syria and Erdogan has warned that Turkey will launch a full-scale offensive to repel Syrian forces...

The supply of extra workers does not have much effect on wages, so the government should import more workers to grow the economy, says a February 27 New York Times article titled “Why a Top Trump Aide Said ‘We Are Desperate’ for More Immigrants.” “Proponents of restraining immigration, particularly among low-skill workers, often argue that newcomers can supplant American workers or depress their wages, even if they help the economy as a whole … But the evidence supporting that argument is limited,” said the article. The newspaper’s claim that the law of supply and demand does not impact Americans’ wages...

Nearly 19 years ago, American service members went to Afghanistan to root out the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks. In that time, we have made great progress in Afghanistan, but at great cost to our brave service members, to the American taxpayers, and to the people of Afghanistan. When I ran for office, I promised the American people I would begin to bring our troops home, and seek to end this war. We are making substantial progress on that promise. Soon, at my direction, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will witness the signing of an agreement with representatives of...

    ***** Tunes For Our Troops ~ Music From Ohio ~ ***** ~ Support The Artists You Hear Throughout The Canteen ~   ***** Warning: Not all music may be appropriate for children! Please click with caution. Thank you! Tunes For The Troops     This music is provided for the entertainment of our Troops, Veterans, Allies & their families! Enjoy the variety of musical selections that the Canteen DJs provide throughout the thread. Please ping any DJ with your requests for the Troops! All music is removed on Monday.Thanks to all the DJs for their time &...

There are now more registered independents than Republicans, marking a first for the U.S. According to data from Ballot Access News, independents make up 29.09 percent of registered voters, while Republicans make up 28.87 percent and Democrats make up 39.66 percent. The data comes from the 31 states that require registration by party. An analysis by The Washington Post, which first reported the data, notes that there hasn't been a large drop in GOP registration since President Trump was elected, meaning he's likely not linked to the change. The growth of independents is more likely part of a broader trend...

Every day, NATO Allies work and train together to keep you safe. Through partnership and cooperation, NATO has secured peace and freedom for 70 years. Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952 and is an equal Ally in NATO.

I will say, opposition to voter ID laws is strange. If the problem is that not everyone can afford an ID or has easy access to the DMV, states should work to ameliorate those issues. Free IDs for those who can’t afford one, full online registration. I say this because too many illegals end up voting in our elections. No debate on Election Security should go forward without first agreeing that Voter ID (Identification) must play a very strong part in any final agreement. Without Voter ID, it is all so meaningless! This theme is again active because the lections...

Speaking at a campaign event in South Carolina on Tuesday, Biden was talking about the Violence Against Women Act, which he drafted as a U.S. senator, when he offered an ill-advised scenario of a woman walking naked to say that “no man has a right to touch her.” “No man has a right to lay a hand on a woman for any reason other than self-defense,” Biden said. “If someone in this room got up, took off all their clothes, and walked out the door, no man has a right to touch her.”

With the coronavirus outbreak affecting at least 40 countries, many travelers are concerned about what’s being done to contain the virus. At JFK Airport, jetlagged passengers typically in a rush to clear immigration are now appalled by a lack of screening, especially compared to procedures in the countries they just left. Emily Ferrara and Blair Haworth just returned from Florence, Italy, where their study abroad program was canceled because of the virus. There are more than 300 cases there, one of the largest outbreaks outside China. Yet, the students told CBS2’s Christina Fan they weren’t asked a single question about...

SPARTA, WI (WEAU)-- Monroe County is declared a Second Amendment sanctuary. This comes after the county board approved a resolution during a meeting Wednesday. The resolution opposes any unconstitutional changes to the 'right to bear arms.' "The people that submitted this feel that it's a protection for future laws down the road where people are very concerned about the Second Amendment--to protect their rights to bear arms,"said Pete Peterson the Monroe County board chairman. Board chairman Pete Peterson says a member of the community as well as the sheriff and district attorney were key players with the resolution. Monroe County...

When patriotism still meant something and New Yorkers had balls of tempered steel. (b&w appx 3 minutes)

... When President Trump said at his press conference Wednesday that the disease might or might not become a big deal, he was faithfully encompassing the scientific possibilities. The press shrieked that he was misleading the public, never mind that New York Mayor Bill de Blasio was saying exactly the same thing. “We can really keep this thing contained,” he said at his own press briefing on Wednesday, and if a serious outbreak should occur, “we’ve got a long time to ramp up if we ever had anything like that.” Ditto the governor of California, also a Democrat, whose state...

An immigrant healthcare worker has been indicted on two further counts of capital murder in North Texas after previously being charged with smothering almost a dozen elderly women to death. A Dallas County Grand Jury on Tuesday indicted Billy Chemirmir, 47, on murder charges in the deaths of Leah Corken, 83, and Juanita Prudy, 82.

Friday, February 28, 2020, NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt presented, what seemed to me, unbiased coverage of Trump's handling of the coronavirus situation. In fact, Trump seemed downright presidential in their coverage. We know this act of journalism doesn't mean that NBC is becoming less biased or more ethical. So what does it mean? Do they think politicizing this disease will ultimately work to Trump's favor?

A new case of coronavirus in Santa Clara County, the county’s third documented case, is now the second instance in the U.S. of community transmission of the virus. The Santa Clara County Public Health Department was scheduled to give details of the latest coronavirus patient at a 4 p.m. news conference. The county health department said this latest coronavirus case – a 65-year-old woman with chronic health conditions – has no known connection to travel in countries most affected by the virus or close contact with a known infected individual. The development indicates the virus spreading among two separate populations...

Being an eternally sunny optimist, I had been thinking for a while about what a Donald Trump landslide versus a Trump squeaker might look like. (I refuse to contemplate the possibility of a Democratic victory.) Specifically, I had been thinking mostly in qualitative terms about the impact of the Libertarian Party on the election, and how things might look different in 2020 versus 2016. Harsanyi’s article got me to try to think about it a bit more quantitatively.

After a seventeen-year production hiatus, PBS has rebooted its enduring favorite, Clifford the Big Red Dog, but with one jarring change: The series now features a child with two lesbian “moms.” In the episode where the lesbian characters are introduced, “The Big Red Tomato/Dogbot,” the women are not identified as overtly lesbian, but in subsequent installments, the two are both called “Mom” by Samantha, the new friend of Emily Elizabeth, who remains the central character in the show along with her loveable gigantic red dog, Clifford. One Million Moms (1MM) director, Monica Cole, sent out a call to action to...