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WASHINGTON - U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer on Monday said the United States would seek to promote more domestic manufacturing of key medical supplies in light of the strategic vulnerabilities laid bare by the coronavirus pandemic. Lighthizer told trade ministers from the Group of 20 major economies (G20) that Washington agreed there was a need to resolve supply chain disruptions and be aware of the impact of its actions on neighbors. “Unfortunately, like others, we are learning in this crisis that over-dependence on other countries as a source of cheap medical products and supplies has created a strategic vulnerability to...

With millions of people suddenly out of work and rent due at the first of the month, some tenants are vowing to go on a rent strike until the coronavirus pandemic subsides. New York, Boston, Los Angeles, San Francisco and St. Louis are among many cities that have temporarily banned evictions, but advocates for the strike are demanding that rent payments be waived, not delayed, for those in need during the crisis. The rent strike idea has taken root in parts of North America and as far away as London.

Today’s Cryptogram NQXVATRTAX TO BMVE SNK LN JDUNQD SNK LN ONYDEMTAX, ON EMVE BMDA SNK LN TE, TE TO ANE VPP YTWDL KC. —V.V. YTPAD

Please FReep Mail me regarding the ping list for these reports. Thanks. COVID-19 Update As of 03/30/2020 22:56 PDT (taken at 23:59) To the report... This information addresses solely the United States. Yesterday morning I explained that I had found a trend that seemed to indicate we were heading in a better direction with the growth numbers. It was a five day trend. And of course, after me telling you about it and inspiring hope, that's just what it remains, a five day trend... it ended yesterday. Lets go to the numbers. EOD Day's Size of Date Cases Grwth Gain...

BROOKSIDE, Ala. (WBRC) - Two people were arrested on Friday after they were caught having sex in a vehicle while in the Brookside Police Department’s parking lot. According to the Brookside PD’s Facebook page, the incident happened around 3:30 p.m. on Friday. Workers at the Brookside Communications Center spotted the couple “engaging in sexual activity inside a vehicle." Officers called for a K9 unit to be called to the scene after they smelled a marijuana odor coming from the vehicle. During the search, officers found crystal meth, drug paraphernalia, marijuana, and a firearm. Police arrested Paula Garner and James Sanders...

Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva announced he will no longer order that gun stores be temporarily closed during the coronavirus pandemic. For the second time, he said that gun stores could reopen after ordering them to close twice since last Tuesday. He had previously deemed them “nonessential," saying that panic buying produced long lines and could be a safety hazard for the public. Villanueva said the most recent decision stems from an Advisory Memorandum issued by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security on Saturday that said workers supporting the firearms and ammunition industry were "included in the list of...

U.S. equity futures are trading higher after the S&P 500 rose for a fourth session in the last five to begin the week. The major futures indexes are indicating a rise of 0.9 percent when trading begins on Tuesday. Asian shares traded mixed Tuesday after a rally in U.S. stocks.

Perhaps you’re exhausted from debates on Twitter about “My Pillow.” And those sports reruns. Was Duke really the only school to play in every meaningful basketball game of the past three decades? So now you’re wondering exactly what in the world went on the other day on Capitol Hill. That’s when Congress struggled to adopt the coronavirus bill. What was going on with Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY)? And why, oh why couldn’t lawmakers vote from the comfort of their living rooms – while watching Christian Laettner, Bobby Hurley and Mike Krzyzewski, of course?

Much of California's coastline is closed amid the coronavirus pandemic—but on Saturday morning, a surfer who apparently really needed his fix was fined $1,000 for ignoring the rules, the Los Angeles Times reports. A Los Angeles County lifeguard at Manhattan Beach ordered the man to stay out of the water, to which he replied, per the Easy Reader: "Go ahead and arrest me." The lifeguard says the man then threw out some "colorful language" before heading into the waves. The lifeguard called his supervisor, who called police. A cop arrived with a code enforcement officer, who issued the citation.

WASHINGTON — In late November 2018, just over a year before the first coronavirus case was identified in Wuhan, China, U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents at Detroit Metro Airport stopped a Chinese biologist with three vials labeled “Antibodies” in his luggage. The biologist told the agents that a colleague in China had asked him to deliver the vials to a researcher at a U.S. institute. After examining the vials, however, customs agents came to an alarming conclusion. “Inspection of the writing on the vials and the stated recipient led inspection personnel to believe the materials contained within the vials...

NEW YORK -- Macy's, Kohl's and Gap Inc. all said Monday they will stop paying tens of thousands of employees who were thrown out of work when the chains temporarily closed their stores and sales collapsed as a result of the pandemic. Macy's said the majority of its 125,000 employees will be furloughed this week and that it is transitioning to an "absolute minimum workforce" needed to maintain basic operations. Macy's said it has lost the bulk of its sales due to the temporarily closing of more than 600 stores starting March 18.

This is for the truckers today, working hard and keeping the country stocked up and running. This song got stuck in my head after hearing the album...and the lyrics just seemed to say Trucker... Hope you like it! (Warning: This video is not suitable for easily offended folks, PG13) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztDr9GN5TVc

Every morning at 10 a.m., the Maryland health department publishes an update to its sobering data about the rapidly spreading coronavirus. The latest state data showed the number of cases among people ages 10 to 19 more than doubled over three days. It documented how the number of cases among women in Maryland surpassed those among men. And it registered cases as they’ve sprung up in county after county after county. But absent so far is a breakdown of cases by race. Some lawmakers say publishing this information while the pandemic is ongoing is vital so that state officials can...

The Secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force, at the direction of the Secretary of Defense, and the Secretary of Homeland Security with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a service in the Navy, are authorized to order to active duty not to exceed 24 consecutive months, such units, and individual members of the Ready Reserve under the jurisdiction of the Secretary concerned, not to exceed 1,000,000 members on active duty at any one time, as the Secretary of Defense and, with respect to the Coast Guard when it is not operating as a...

Wisconsin officials are moving forward with holding the planned April 7 presidential primary election as reported cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, continue to mount in the state. As of Monday morning, the Wisconsin Department of Health reported 1,157 confirmed cases and 19 deaths from COVID-19, a massive increase over the 32 cases that were reported in the state two weeks ago on March 15. Nine other states set to hold primary elections in the rest of March and April, including Georgia, Louisiana, Puerto Rico, and the six mid-Atlantic states which planned to vote on the...

CBS News admitted to a "mistake" on Monday after airing footage of an overcrowded hospital room that was allegedly in New York City but was actually from a hospital in Italy. "It was an editing mistake. We took immediate steps to remove it from all platforms and shows," a CBS News spokesperson told Fox News. Last Wednesday, "CBS This Morning" included a brief clip showing several patients and medical professionals in one room during a report about the rising threat of the coronavirus outbreak in New York City.

CNN anchor Don Lemon suggested on Monday night that his network shouldn't carry President Trump's daily coronavirus briefings because they've become his "new rallies." "I have said I don't think that you should really listen to what he says, you should listen to what the experts say," Lemon told his colleague Chris Cuomo during their nightly handoff. "I'm not actually sure, if you want to be honest, that we should carry that live. I think we should run snippets. I think we should do it afterwards and get the pertinent points to the American people because he's never, ever going...

For the past two weeks now, we’ve been talking about hydroxychloroquine as the wonder drug in the fight against the deadly coronavirus. Two anti-malaria drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine are shown to be effective in treating COVID-19 patients after controlled clinical study conducted by doctors ​in France shows that a combo of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin (Z-Pak) cures 100% of coronavirus patients within 6 days of treatment. However, according to doctors treating coronovirus patients in Italy, Tolicizumab, a drug used to treat moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis, has been shown to be more effective than hydroxychloroquine. Tolicizumab is so effective that the...

On Monday, CNN chief White House correspondent Jim Acosta stepped back in the ring for Monday’s White House Coronavirus Task Force daily briefing and, as usual, he made a fool out of himself. Fortunately for our collective sanity, the ordeal lasted less than two minutes and ended with President Trump torching Fake News Jim for his “nasty, snarky question” about the President’s past statements at what was then a disturbing but evolving pandemic. Having recognized he was there, Trump called on him around 6:01 p.m. Eastern: “Go ahead, let’s give it a shot.” Acosta responded with this doozy, which felt...

"Amazon has fired the worker at its Staten Island warehouse who organized a walkout on Monday to demand greater protections from the company amid the coronavirus outbreak. Chris Smalls, 31, a management assistant at the facility, told The Post he was canned in a phone call following Monday afternoon’s strike. “They pretty much retaliated against me for speaking out,” said Smalls. “I don’t know how they sleep at night.” He and dozens of other employees at the Bloomfield warehouse walked off the job to demand Amazon AMZN, +3.36% temporarily close and clean the facility after a worker tested positive for...