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Local police investigated a small number of reports of non-life-sustaining businesses still operating after Gov. Tom Wolf ordered enforcement of their closures starting at 8 a.m. Monday to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Wolf’s order prohibits the physical operations of businesses that the state deems as nonessential to remain open, such as car dealerships and dry cleaners. Some businesses successfully sought waivers to the order after the state was deluged with thousands of requests. Businesses that can remain open include grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations, beer distributors, auto parts stores, bakeries and restaurants offering takeout and delivery. Residents can...

President Donald Trump did something difficult and remarkable during the White House press briefing on Sunday: he stood up for the free market in a moment of crisis, when at least half the country is pushing him to abandon it. A reporter asked the president why he was not using the Defense Production Act to nationalize industries to take control of companies and force them to produce needed health care equipment for treating coronavirus patients. Trump’s answer was that the United States does not believe in nationalization, and does not need it, either: Q: Mr. President, when it comes to...

Image from commons.wikimedia.org by CarlosXVIG Rudyard Kipling has long been a favorite author of mine. My parents had two volumes of his collected works, which included The Jungle Book, Kim, a number of short stories and poems. To a budding bibliophile teenager who loved the outdoors, they were magic carpet rides into the exotic.  I have much appreciated his poem, The Gods of the Copybook Headings. It is a complement to common sense, tradition, and hard won, practical conservatism. The wisdom it speaks of comes mostly from The Bible, with many direct references to Psalms, verses of which were printed...

(Watchvideo at link) Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday accused President Trump of dithering in the early days of the coronavirus, saying that a “failure of planning and preparation” by the White House has worsened the health and economic crises the nation faces. Speaking from a makeshift studio at his home in Delaware, Biden made his first public remarks about the coronavirus in nearly a week, addressing concerns from some on the left that he has been ceding the spotlight to Trump. The former vice president accused the Trump administration of ignoring early warning signs about the pandemic and...

A Global Pandemic Go To Waste The coronavirus relief bill congressional Democrats are pushing has all the hallmarks of Obama’s 2009 stimulus package: welfare funding disguised as relief. So it turns out the real reason congressional Democrats blocked a Senate coronavirus spending bill on Sunday wasn’t because they were concerned it favored corporations over individuals or because they wanted more direct aid to families and small businesses. It was because they want to use this crisis as pretext for passing a bunch of Democratic policies that have nothing to do with the pandemic.On Monday, right around the time Senate Democrats...

New York has tried to slow the spread of the coronavirus by closing its schools, shutting down its nonessential businesses and urging its residents to stay home almost around the clock. But it faces a distinct obstacle in trying to stem new cases: its cheek-by-jowl density. New York is far more crowded than any other major city in the United States. It has 28,000 residents per square mile, while San Francisco, the next most jammed city, has 17,000, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. All of those people, in such a small space, appear to have helped the...

Hey, congressional Democrats: In case you haven’t noticed, the economy is headed for a crash. Stop playing games — and do your jobs. On Sunday and again Monday, New York’s own Chuck Schumer led Senate Democrats in shooting down a nearly $2 trillion rescue package, demanding a host of goodies that have little or nothing to do with saving the economy or aiding those in need. Some of their demands, in fact, could actually undermine recovery. “This has got to stop,” fumed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. “The country is out of time.” Damn right. Among the Dems’ demands: new...

This is not an emergency virus bill. It is a Democratic election wish list, at a time hundreds are dying, thousands are losing their businesses, and millions are out of work in the United States. The weekend began with a bipartisan plan. People were hopeful. Outside of Washington, business owners told The Federalist they finally saw light in all the darkness. They thought they’d be able to hire their employees back again. These are employees who have families, mortgages, and lives, people who have never asked for public assistance in their lives and never thought they’d have to.The mood in...

March 23 (Reuters) - An Arizona man has died and his wife is in critical condition after they ingested chloroquine phosphate - an aquarium cleaning product similar to drugs that have been named by President Trump as potential treatments for coronavirus infection. The couple, in their 60s, experienced immediate distress after swallowing the drug, an additive used at aquariums to clean fish tanks, according to Banner Health Hospital in Phoenix. Chloroquine phosphate shares the same active ingredient as malaria drugs that President Trump has touted as possibly effective against COVID-19, the potentially life-threatening disease caused by the coronavirus.

Washington, D.C. – Speaker Nancy Pelosi released this statement ahead of the unveiling of House Democrats’ third coronavirus response bill, the Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act: “The Senate Republicans’ bill, as presented, put corporations first, not workers and families. Today, House Democrats will unveil a bill that takes responsibility for the health, wages and well-being of America’s workers: the Take Responsibility for Workers and Families Act. “Democrats Take Responsibility: • For our workers and small businesses: our bill requires that any corporation that takes taxpayer dollars must protect their workers’ wages and benefits – not CEO pay, stock...

We now have two new Democrat/media hoaxes underway. – As the President’s public approval ratings continue to flourish during this China Virus crisis, Democrats and their toadies in the corrupt news media have flitted about in a desperate search to find some narrative – any narrative at all would do – to knock them down. Yesterday, they tried releasing the nation’s Unfrozen Caveman Senator from his hiding place, to give a “counter-briefing” on coronavirus matters. That strategy predictably crashed and burned as Quid Pro Joe couldn’t remember his dictated lines at the point at which the Teleprompter had a glitch:...

I think President Trump should say that in this time of need for the American peope, that he wants to see a one-page emergency bill. He should outline the things that he wants to see in it, and say that he is willing to sign only that short bill that can be produced TODAY. Shame them for playing politics with the lives of the American people. Mention that "War and Peace" has fewer pages than the bill that they are proposing and that nobody knows everything that is in it.

Pelosi’s Coronavirus Stimulus Bill Mentions ‘Diversity’ 32 Times 1,100-page bill would force all corporations receiving aid to fund 'inclusion initiatives' for at least 5 years The word "diversity" appears 32 times in the coronavirus relief bill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) unveiled on Monday. Pelosi released her plan as critics questioned the priorities of Democratic lawmakers facing the China-caused pandemic. Senate Democrats voted Sunday to block a coronavirus stimulus package worth up to $1.8 trillion, and continued voting down procedural motions on the bill Monday. Democrats in the upper chamber were reportedly upset that the legislation does not do...

In the past few weeks, all notion of what’s politically and economically realistic has gone out the window in the face of the fast-spreading coronavirus and the accompanying economic collapse this pandemic will certainly bring. To protect lives and livelihoods, governments around the world are taking measures that would have been treated as unaffordable or even impossible just last month. We must respond to COVID-19 in a way that centers the most vulnerable people in our society, many of whom are also at highest risk from the virus. However, we also need to think about how we come out of...

**SNIP** On Monday, Biden held his first livestream using professional production equipment. Higher-quality lighting and equipment made Biden appear and sound better than when he appeared in a livestream last week following primary victories. Gone were Biden’s shiny forehead and the two American flags in front of a black curtain, traded in for lighting that gave color to Biden’s face and a library backdrop that some speculated was a digital green screen image. But there were still some kinks in the flow of his address. “Mics are hot,” a staff member said at the start of the stream. “Ready to...

As the markets continue to drop and the U.S. looks to Congress for agreement on a massive stimulus package to save the economy from impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the newest offer by House Democrats includes a very forward-looking kind of stimulus: the creation of a ‘digital dollar’ and the establishment of ‘digital dollar wallets.’ In what will send shock waves through the cryptocurrency and blockchain industry, particularly for those following central bank digital currencies around the world, this signals the U.S. is serious in establishing infrastructure for a central bank digital currency.

CINCINNATI - Local advocates said they are seeing an increase in calls to domestic violence hotlines since people began self-isolating due to coronavirus. With Ohio under a Stay At Home order Monday night, they worry things will only get worse. "We're really concerned about survivors right now," president and CEO of Women Helping Women, Kristin Shrimplin said. Cincinnati-based Women Helping Women works to combat gender-based violence. "We looked at a snapshot of what we were seeing with hotline calls just even last week compared to this week," Shrimplin said. "We're already starting to see about a 30% increase there."

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Germany has closed its border to visitors from Europe due to coronavirus, but migrants claiming asylum from the Middle East and Africa are still allowed to enter the country. Aside from exemptions for people from France, Luxembourg, and Switzerland who are providing essential services, German authorities closed the country’s border to all foreign citizens last week. However, according to the German Ministry of the Interior, so-called “asylum seekers,” a catch-all term that basically describes economic migrants fleeing from the Middle East and Africa, are still welcome. “At Germany’s EU external borders [airports and seaports], there has been no change in...

NEW YORK - Six television networks began showing President Donald Trump’s briefing on the coronavirus outbreak late Monday, but only Fox News Channel stuck it out to the end nearly two hours later. It was a notable turning point in coverage of the president’s now-daily briefings. Networks had been starting to hear criticism of how much time they have been showing the president answering questions live, reminiscent of a similar debate in the past about showing Trump’s campaign rallies. Still, there’s a difference between political rallies and a White House discussion of a national emergency. ABC, CBS and NBC all...