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Nestled among the 12 titles and 880 pages of the $2.2 trillion “Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act of 2020,” approved unanimously by the Senate late March 25, is a paragraph sending $400 million to state governments “to help prepare for the 2020 election.” The provision’s senatorial proponents promise it will enable state election officials to increase the ability of citizens nationwide “to vote by mail, expand early voting and online registration, and increase the safety of voting in-person by providing additional voting facilities and more poll-workers,” according to a summary prepared by Democratic staff members of the Senate...

Minsk, March 26, Interfax - The Belarusian Orthodox Church does not intend to prohibit religious processions and other festivities due to the spread of coronavirus, head of the Information Department of the Belarusian Orthodox Church (the Belarusian Exarchate of the Moscow Patriarchate) Archpriest Sergey Lepin told Interfax. "The church is taking safety measures to prevent the coronavirus epidemic, including by disinfecting icons, crosses, etc. These measures will also apply to upcoming Easter celebrations and other holidays. We are not planning to take any additional measures," the priest said. Religious processions will not be banned. "Religious processions are performed outdoors. We...

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the holiest site in all of Christendom, encompassing both the site of Christ’s Crucifixion and the site of His burial and Resurrection, has been closed as part of the Israeli government’s new anti-coronavirus measures. The church was closed shorty after 5:00 PM yesterday, as Israel announced new measures that include the closure of all churches, synagogues, and mosques, reports the Times of Israel. Citizens are allowed to pray only on the street with the participation of no more than 10 people with a distance of at least 6 ft. between them, reports Ukrainian Pravda....

<p>WASHINGTON, D.C.—Congress has asked all non-essential businesses to limit their hours or close entirely for an undetermined amount of time.</p> <p>But this shutdown mistakenly shut down the most non-essential entity of all: the government.</p>

did they predict this? The two professors argue that the best evidence of the coronavirus death rate being significantly lower than what is being reported may lie in the Italian town of Vò. On March 6, the town's 3,300 residents were tested. Of these, 90 tests came back positive, indicating a prevalence of 2.7% of the population having the virus. If one were to apply this to the entire province where the town is located, which has a population of 955,000, it would mean there were actually 26,000 infections at the time, and not just the 198 that were officially...

Hospitals across the country are considering whether to enact universal “do-not-resuscitate” orders for coronavirus patients as the mounting pandemic threatens to overwhelm the health care system, according to a report. Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago is among the hospitals where the drastic policy is under consideration — even when the move is against the wishes of a patient and their family, The Washington Post reported. Richard Wunderink, one of Northwestern’s intensive-care medical directors, told the outlet the hospital is exploring whether state law would allow it to implement the policy, which would limit possible exposure to health care workers and...

Visibly frustrated with reports of gatherings throughout Chicago, Mayor Lori Lightfoot delivered a stern warning to those who continue to get together during the COVID-19 pandemic: We will shut it down and you may be arrested. “Stay at home. Only go out for essentials. You have to readjust your thinking. Be smart,” Lightfoot said. “Not only will our police be deployed to shut them down if you are not abiding by these orders we will be forced to shut down the parks and lakefront. The situation Is deadly serious and we need you take it deadly seriously.” Lightfoot added that...

Madrid — Cristian Guaman Benítez, a 33-year-old electrician who moved to Spain from Ecuador, had been sick for a week with a cough, a terrible headache and a fever as high as 104 degrees. He saw three doctors who treated his illness like a cold, prescribing medicines and sending him back to work. Finally, he called the number for covid-19 information, and a doctor came to his home to examine him — and sent him by ambulance to Madrid’s 12 de Octubre Hospital. Which was where he discovered he was an outlier. “I looked around and all I saw [were]...

The FReeper Canteen Presents... Tell Us Your Favorite Singer Who Served In The Military *Video* Elvis Presley – G.I Blues *Video* Elvis Presley – Frankfort Special Please remember that The Canteen is here to support and entertain our troops and veterans and their families, and is family friendly.

At Atlanta's Grady Hospital, all 100 beds in the intensive care unit were full. Then COVID-19 hit. Viral patients are now quarantined wherever the hospital finds space. "The stress is not just capacity," Chief Medical Officer Dr. Robert Jansen told CBS News. "It's not just stress of supplies, but on the individuals taking care of the patients. Because so much is not known." At all of Atlanta's four major hospitals, every ICU bed is taken. "Just kinda deteriorated," said Justin Anthony, whose cousin is in one of those hospitals. "By Sunday, the fever had not broken and she started coughing....

Investigators looking into the COVID-19 mystery could be one step closer to unmasking "patient zero." A seafood merchant in Wuhan, China, is believed to be the first person diagnosed as having the coronavirus, which can be linked back to a wet market in China, leaked documents allege. The Daily Mail reported Thursday that China's The Paper claims Wei Guixian, a 57-year-old woman working in Wuhan is the first person on record to be infected with the coronavirus. Wei told the media outlet she started feeling sick on December 10. Thinking she might have the flu, she went to a local...

Effective midnight tomorrow, Minnesota sinks more deeply into the shutdown mode of containment under the executive order promulgated by Governor Tim Walz yesterday. Kevin Roche worked with Minnesota Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm for several years “a long, long time ago.” He has copied us on his letter to Commissioner Malcolm. As it addresses questions of general interest that we have sought to raise, I am posting it below: It has been a long time since we have talked and while I hope you are doing well, I am sure it has been a very difficult time. I am...

If extraordinary times require extraordinary measures, and they do, then this is the time for the Democratic Party to nominate Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo for president. Why? First, because he is the only elected official in the United States today who has fully demonstrated the leadership, toughness, management skill and humanity that meeting the coronavirus pandemic demands. To be crudely political - and practical - he is the only Democrat who can absolutely beat President Donald Trump in November. **SNIP** Yes, former Vice President Joe Biden is on his way to the nomination, and Sen. Bernie Sanders is hanging in...

HANOVER TOWNSHIP, LUZERNE COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) – Gerrity’s Supermarket in Hanover Township was forced to toss out thousands of dollars of merchandise after a customer allegedly coughed on it. Police say it happened after 2:00 Wednesday afternoon at the store on the Sans Souci Parkway. The store said the woman coughed on produce, bakery items and meat. Gerrity’s said it has had issues with the woman in the past. Workers were forced to throw all of the food away out of abundance of caution. It totaled around $35,000. Hanover Township police say the woman is undergoing a mental health evaluation. They...

The White House and Congress agreed overnight to a record $2 trillion stimulus package to bail out the American economy from its free fall as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. But while the economic rescue package was expected — and eagerly welcomed — some Black people were openly wondering on social media how the U.S. was able to come up with so much money so quickly after repeatedly stalling attempts to broach the topic of reparations for descendants of slaves in America. To be sure, comparing the coronavirus bailout and reparations for slavery is far from apples-to-apples. But it...

The Florida man who claims his severe coronavirus case was cured overnight by an anti-malaria drug touted by President Trump says he’s feeling good a week later — but has warned others not to try the “dangerous” drug at home. Rio Giardinieri, 52, said he returned to his Miami Shores home Tuesday night and is recovering well after being prescribed hydroxychloroquine, according to Yahoo News. “Man, I’m alive and kickin’,” Giardinieri told the outlet. “Feeling good.” But he warned people not to take the “game-changing” drug without a doctor’s consent. “The one thing that scares me to death is people...

As you know, President Trump has used the pandemic exercise to move tax day from April 15, to July 15. Many here have, in the past, opined that if tax day were moved to October 15, taxpaying voters would be less inclined to vote for the “tax and spend” candidates. Can POTUS make the move to July 15 permanent? And further, could he then, after he wins re-election, move it to October 15?

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal: Francis Pushes Catholics Back Into Catacombs The Vatican must reconsider the June 2019 pastoral guidelines encouraging Chinese clergy to join the country’s official State church, Cardinal Joseph Zen told NCRegister.com (March 26). Zen finds it “incredible” that the Holy See is pushing for unity “with the wrong church, with a schismatic church.” He called the situation so serious that Catholics should retreat “to the catacombs,” as it is “useless to fight now.”

As Americans are preoccupied with staying afloat amid a coronavirus-related shutdown, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has finally begun delivering on an investigation he promised months ago. The origins of the FBI’s politicized “Spygate” counterintelligence operation against the 2016 Trump campaign. With uncertainties over how badly the coronavirus shutdown will harm the economy and how long that harm will last taking up most of our time and the oxygen in news cycles, what Graham’s doing is important because the objective is to ensure that what happened to President Trump does not happen again. Ever. Investigative reporter Sharyl Attkisson interviewed Graham this...

Hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin, remdesivir. Lots of drugs are getting attention as potential treatments. Could they work? Could they be dangerous? “Currently, there’s no FDA approved drug for COVID-19,” says Dr. Nitin Bhanot, an infectious diseases specialist at AHN. Hydroxychloroquine, brand-name Plaquenil, is an old drug used to prevent malaria. Also, people with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis take it to reduce inflammation. It could possibly work because the drug attaches to and blocks a cell protein the coronavirus uses to get into the cell. And it changes the chemistry inside the cell making it harder for the virus to make copies of...