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The Pentagon is starting the process of activating Navy hospital ships USNS Mercy (T-AH-19) and USNS Comfort (T-AH-20) as part of the Defense Department’s domestic response to the spreading COVID-19 virus, USNI News has learned. “We’ve already given orders to the Navy… to lean forward in terms of getting them ready to deploy,” Secretary of Defense Mark Esper told reporters on Tuesday. The ships will now begin the several days-long process of bringing aboard medical staff and equipment ahead of deploying along the East and West coasts, a defense official confirmed to USNI News on Tuesday afternoon. Two sources told...

While the world is absorbed in the Coronavirus drama, yet another caravan of illegal immigrants is heading north to the United States from Central America. The group departed recently from the northern Honduran city of San Pedro Sula and is making its way to Guatemala en route to the southern Mexican state of Chiapas. The final destination is the U.S., according to a Mexican news report that reveals the caravan has some 500 Central Americans but is expected to grow along the way. “They left their country due to a lack of work opportunities and prevailing violence,” according to the...

Superstar Kevin Durant was among four members of the Brooklyn Nets who tested positive for the coronavirus, the superstar told The Athletic. The team announced Tuesday that multiple players were diagnosed with the deadly virus, without disclosing names. “Of the four, one player is exhibiting symptoms while three are asymptomatic,” the team added in a statement. “All four players are presently isolated and under the care of team physicians.”

Prankster vandals with a fine appreciation for animal traits may have taken it upon themselves Monday to update the Democrat logo on the Google results page for “Democratic Party”–from the tired old red, white, and blue donkey to a more suitable rat. . . . Interestingly, a Google spokesperson told Mashable that the Democrat Party has only themselves to blame because they hadn’t claimed their “Knowledge Panel,” an info box on the right side of the search results page

LONDON — A jury in Britain on Tuesday convicted the brother of a suicide bomber who killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester in 2017, finding him guilty on all 22 counts of murder for his role in planning and executing the attack. The man, Hashem Abedi, was the brother of Salman Abedi, the man who detonated a vest laden with explosives, killing children, teenagers, and parents waiting to pick them up after Ms. Grande’s concert at Manchester Arena in northwestern England. More than 235 people were injured in the bombing, one of Britain’s worst recent terrorist...

The Wuhan coronavirus is serious. It’s deadly to the elderly and the immunocompromised. It’s spreading. It’s a pandemic. Italy is being ravaged by it. Europe is now the epicenter. Incoming travel from Europe by non-citizens has been shut down. Canada closed its borders. In Maryland, bars, restaurants, and movie theaters were shut down. The collar counties around Philadelphia enacted similar methods to contain the spread—and New Jersey has pretty much shut down as well. It’s only a matter of time before Virginia does the same. In Las Vegas, the casinos have ceased operations. The NHL season is over. The NBA...

Fort Worth police will stop arresting people for low-level crimes if a ticket can be issued instead. The department made the decision in an attempt to shield their officers from getting infected with or spreading the COVID-19 virus. Officers will not be able to make Class C misdemeanor arrests without getting approval from a watch commander, according to a source within the police department. Class C misdemeanors are the lowest level of crime and include offenses such as theft under $100 and vandalism. People will also be encouraged to make reports online or over the phone, if possible. (snip) These...

If ever there was a need for a government-sponsored temporary employment project now is the time. President Trump should authorize a shovel-ready jobs program for those Americans who need help to finish building the wall along the US-Mexican border. This would do two things that are needed. The first of which is to address the national security issue of stopping the corona virus from entering the country from the south. The second is to provide economic support for those who need work. It would seem to me that with all of the compassion coming forth from democrat governors all across...

The U.S. airline industry has been hit hard by the coronavirus outbreak and will ask the federal government for a $50 billion aid package, according to Airlines for America (AFA), an airline advocacy organization. “U.S. carriers are in need of immediate assistance as the current economic environment is simply not sustainable,” an AFA statement said. “This is compounded by the fact that the crisis does not appear to have an end in sight.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—If Joe Biden wins the Democratic nomination, his running mate will be a woman, he said Sunday. He then promised that no matter which woman he appointed as his running mate, he would stand behind her at all times. Biden, throughout his presidential run, has mentioned a host of women as possible vice-presidential picks who he would love to stand directly behind at an uncomfortably close distance, including former primary rivals California Sen. Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Biden says each has an aroma about them that he likes. "You know I don't...

Due to the reports we have received of many Orthodox parishes being forced to close the divine services to the public, Archimandrite Seraphim has blessed for the monastery church services to be livestreamed for the duration of this crisis. While viewing the services over the internet is certainly less than ideal, nevertheless it is for now the only way that many of the faithful now have to participate in divine worship. We wish to make our life of prayer for the world, which will continue unabated, available to those confined to their homes or who are otherwise unable to worship...

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) has surged back into a single-digit deficit behind former Vice President Joe Biden in a poll of the Democratic primary field. Sanders trails Biden by 9 percentage points in a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday, just one week after trailing the former vice president by 21 points in the same poll. The Vermont senator sits at 39 percent among registered Democratic voters in the poll, compared to 48 percent for Biden. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), the only other high-profile Democratic contender remaining in the race, sat at 2 percent in the poll. Sanders is hoping for a...

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Tuesday the upper chamber will pass the House's second coronavirus funding package without changes. The decision comes despite some vocal GOP opposition to the measure over concerns about its impact on small businesses. "With regard to the bill that came over from the House, there was some discussion about whether to amendment that with a bigger proposal, because we all know a bigger proposal is necessary. But I've decided we're going to go on and vote as soon as the Senate can get permission to vote on the bill that came over from...

The American Red Cross said they're now facing a "severe blood shortage," as blood drives across the country continue to be cancelled as concerns over the novel coronavirus pandemic grow. "Right now, the Red Cross is distributing blood donations faster than they are coming in," Paul Sullivan, senior vice president of the American Red Cross, told ABC News. "As concerns about COVID-19 grow and more blood drive cancellations come, the Red Cross and other blood collection organizations as well as hospitals across the country have heightened concerns about our ability to meet patient needs," Sullivan continued. "That’s why we are...

The highly contagious novel coronavirus that has exploded into a global pandemic can remain viable and infectious in droplets in the air for hours and on surfaces up to days, according to a new study that should offer guidance to help people avoid contracting the respiratory illness called COVID-19. Scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, attempted to mimic the virus deposited from an infected person onto everyday surfaces in a household or hospital setting, such as through coughing or touching objects. They used a device to dispense...

Lighthouses shine the brightest and are the most needed in the darkness of the storms of life to point to safety and preserve life. Thus are we to be Christ's lighthouse and a beacon of TRUTH, LIGHT and ETERNAL SAFTEY in such times to point all mankind to the Savior of their souls (Psalm 27:1, Matt. 5:16, John 8:12, Eph.5:22-23; Thess. 5:5, James 1:17, 1 Peter 2:9). Are we - as Almighty God's blood brought children - looking subjectively at our fallen world with all its innumerable crises and fears or are we seeing things objectively from Almighty God's ETERNAL...

Empty Shelves? – Understanding Supply Chains, Logistics, and Recovery Efforts…Posted on March 14, 2020 by sundance By now everyone is familiar with the abundant pictures on social media of empty shelves in local stores.  Having some familiarity with the supply chain might help people to understand some of the challenges; and possibly help locate product. (Pics from Twitter)There are essentially two types of distribution centers within the retail supply chain for most chain markets, food stores and supermarkets.  The first type is a third party, or brokered, distribution network.  The second type is a proprietary, company owned, distribution center.  Knowing the...

President Trump said authorities are discussing a national lockdown to slow the coronavirus but that it’s unlikely to happen. “You can do a national lockdown. Hopefully we’re not going to need that,” Trump told reporters Tuesday at the White House. “You know, it’s a very big step,” Trump said. “That’s a step that, I mean, in one sense would work. It’s a very big step. It is something we talk about but we haven’t decided to do that.”

icon MSNBC host Joe Scarborough has spent the past few years slamming pretty much all things Trump-related, but on Tuesday, in the face of the growing pandemic, he had this change of heart: ‘We only have one president at a time. We have to do everything we can do to make sure this president succeeds.’

I find there’s no sight more pathetic than one of those Marjoe-like preachers on those high-numbered religious channels on your satellite system, worked up into a pro-wrestling-level fake harangue about how a hurricane has punished the wicked in some state or another. All right, then. As an evangelical Christian, I think I deserve an answer as to why plenty of believers in the Bible Belt are subject to tornadoes. If that’s your shallow, horrible theology, at least explain that one to me. Apparently, this kind of grim spiritual fatuousness isn’t endemic to Christianity. Iran-based Iraqi Shiite religious scholar Hadi al-Modarresi...