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The Iowa Democratic Party (IDP) announced Friday that it would delay its county conventions over concerns about the coronavirus outbreak. The IDP did not specify when it would hold the county conventions, which had been scheduled for March 21. “Today, the Iowa Democratic Party is announcing it will postpone County Conventions to a future date to be determined," IDP Chair Mark Smith said in a statement. "After extensive consultation with County Chairs, the State Central Committee, party leaders, and public health officials, we have come to the determination that the spreading coronavirus poses a risk that outweighs a temporary delay...

While neither she nor any of the show’s staff have tested positive for the coronavirus, Behar is heeding the entreaties of her daughter to stay at home for the time being. Behar is expected to be absent from the show all next week and will evaluate her situation after that. “I’m in a higher risk group because of my age, but I’m perfectly healthy,” Behar says on the episode, according to Variety. “I don’t look my age, but I’m actually up there. The number makes me dizzy.”

“We’re going to fill it right up to the top, saving the American taxpayer billions and billions of dollars, helping our oil industry [and furthering] that wonderful goal — which we’ve achieved, which nobody thought was possible — of energy independence,” Trump said. Trump’s announcement follows market turmoil in the international market when Russia and Saudi Arabia’s negotiations recently broke down and the Saudis announced they were increasing production. The Department of Energy describes the importance of the SPR: Established in the aftermath of the 1973-74 oil embargo, the SPR was established to counter a disruption in commercial oil supplies...

Astronomers have finally found something they have spent decades searching for: a teardrop-shaped star that pulsates on only one side. Citizen scientists helped the discovery team find the strangely lopsided star, which is known as HD74423, in data gathered by NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The star is about 1.7 times the mass of Earth's sun, and scientists determined that HD74423's weird pulsing is caused by a second, smaller star. "I've been looking for a star like this for nearly 40 years, and now we have finally found one," study co-author Don Kurtz, an astronomer at the University of...

Thursday night Seema Verma, one of the top members of the White House coronavirus task force and the current head of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services, repeatedly dodged when Fox News’ Martha MacCallum grilled her over possible ventilator shortages. Tucker Carlson was so stunned by that exchange he invited Verma on his show Friday night and opened by saying, “I watched that exchange last night, and I must be honest with you, I was really troubled by it. Because you were asked a direct question by Martha MacCallum, ‘do we have enough ventilators in ICU units,’ and you...

The Canadian Parliament on Friday ratified the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on trade, making Canada the third and final country needed to make the trade pact official and replace the 1993 North American Free Trade Agreement. The USMCA had faced opposition in the Canadian Parliament and became stuck in a committee for several weeks. That delayed the adoption of the deal for two months after the United States ratified it and even held a signing ceremony. Mexico approved the deal last year. "Now that the USMCA has been approved by all three countries, a historic new chapter for North American trade has...

A new paper describes how the researchers connected the moving dots to find the new TNOs, and also says this new approach could help look for the hypothetical Planet Nine and other undiscovered worlds. The Dark Energy Survey (DES) is designed to probe the origin of the accelerating universe and help uncover the nature of dark energy by measuring the 14-billion-year history of cosmic expansion with high precision. It studies galaxies and supernovas and precisely tracks their movements. This survey has been active since 2013, using the 4-meter Blanco Telescope located at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO) in Chile. The...

“It is not permissible to buy and sell from Zionists and Israel,” said Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi. “Unless the treatment is unique, and there is no substitute. Then this is not an obstacle.” A prominent Iranian cleric said on Wednesday that would be acceptable for the country’s citizens to use a coronavirus vaccine developed by Israel—if “there is no substitute.” “It is not permissible to buy and sell from Zionists and Israel,” Grand Ayatollah Naser Makarem Shirazi, 93, told the Iranian daily Hamdeli. “Unless the treatment is unique, and there is no substitute. Then this is not an obstacle.”...

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals will rehear arguments in two Trump administration cases over a House subpoena to White House counsel Don McGahn and funding for a southern border wall. The court vacated previous rulings in both cases on Friday, according to Politico. Arguments for each are scheduled for April 28 in front of the full D.C. Circuit. House lawmakers petitioned the court last week to revisit a lawsuit to force McGahn through subpoena to testify to Congress. A divided three-judge panel ruled on Feb. 28 that the Judiciary could not decide what amounted to a political debate between...

Republicans operatives are confident President Trump has the upper hand over his Democratic opposition. The Trump campaign entered the 2020 contest with a critical infrastructure advantage after spending spent last year building an extensive field and data program and deploying more than 800 paid staff and volunteers to key battleground states. But even with the switch to virtual campaigning, to avoid excessive person-to-person contact to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, Republican insiders say the president’s eventual Democratic challenger will begin the general election at a significant operational deficit. “This situation helps Trump a great deal,” said Jim Dornan, a Republican...

The House voted just before 1 a.m. Saturday to pass an emergency coronavirus response bill to increase testing and aid people kept from work, a measure meant for quick signing by President Trump next week as the government tries to arrest the pandemic. The final vote was 363 to 40, with one member voting "present." "Our bill which is basically intact what we are passing," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, referring to the Democrats' original coronavirus package released on Wednesday. "And there's some things that they wanted that we have to put off until the next time because it just...

March 14 2020 Saturday of the Second Week of Lent Reading 1 Mi 7:14-15, 18-20 Shepherd your people with your staff, the flock of your inheritance, That dwells apart in a woodland, in the midst of Carmel. Let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old; As in the days when you came from the land of Egypt, show us wonderful signs.Who is there like you, the God who removes guilt and pardons sin for the remnant of his inheritance; Who does not persist in anger forever, but delights rather in clemency, And will again...

Guatemala will from Monday widen travel restrictions to fight the spread of coronavirus, banning arrivals from the United States and Canada, President Alejandro Giammattei said on Friday. Earlier this week, Guatemala banned arrivals from European countries, China, Iran, South Korea and North Korea. “We are therefore announcing that everyone who arrives from Canada and the United States between now and midnight on Monday will be subject to quarantining,” Giammattei said in a televised address. The president said he had also asked the Mexican government to halt deportations of migrants by land to Guatemala. No cruise ships will be allowed to...

President Donald Trump announced that Sunday would be a National Day of Prayer on Friday, not long after he officially declared a state of emergency over the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic. After declaring a national emergency, Trump took to Twitter to announce his "great honor" in declaring that a National Day of Prayer would be taking place two days later. An annual National Day of Prayer normally takes place on the first Thursday of May, which falls on May 7 this year, although Trump has previously given other days the designation during emergencies. "It is my great honor to declare Sunday,...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) turned down repeated requests from Bernie SandersÂ’ presidential campaign to appear at events promoting the Vermont senatorÂ’s candidacy in recent weeks, according to three people familiar with the discussions. After the Iowa caucuses, Sanders campaign manager Faiz Shakir asked Ocasio-Cortez to stump for Sanders in New Hampshire, according to the sources. The campaign prepared a model schedule to highlight the kind of popular support she would expect if she attended, one of the people familiar with the talks said. Ocasio-Cortez resisted the entreaties until a few days before the primary on Feb. 12. She ultimately spoke...

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An attorney says a Maryland man who was shot and killed by a police officer was asleep in his bedroom when police opened fire from outside his house

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (WBRC) - According to the Alabama Department of Public Health, There are now 6 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in Alabama. The cases have been confirmed out of the following counties: Elmore Jefferson Limestone Montgomery Tuscaloosa An additional individual was tested in Alabama, but is not an Alabama resident. If you recently traveled to one of these affected geographic areas within the last 14 days, visit COVID-19 Resources for Travelers. If a person has questions about being tested for COVID-19, with or without any travel history, visit COVID-19 Testing.

Join Freepers throughout the world to pray for PRESIDENT TRUMP and VICE-PRESIDENT PENCE and for AMERICA: All Levels of Government, Family, Military, Business, Education, Churches, Health Care Systems, the News, Media and Social Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His Will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. A LIFE SPENT SERVING JESUS LEAVES BEHIND . . . NO REGRETS!

Residents of Sicilian capital pray for another miracle from Saint Rosalia, who they say rescued the city from a deadly plague in 1625Legend has it that in 1625, as a plague swept Palermo and killed dozens of people each day, Saint Rosalia appeared before a man. Rosalia, a young Sicilian hermit who died 500 years earlier, told him that if the people of Palermo walked in procession while carrying her relics, to be found in a grotto on Monte Pellegrino, then the “evil fever” would disappear. After months of debate over the authenticity of that apparition, Saint Rosalia’s remains –...