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The government is preparing to release an app which alerts people if they come too close to someone who has tested positive for COIVD-19, Sky News can reveal. The contact tracking app, which will operate on an opt-in basis, will be released either just before or just after the lockdown is lifted, according to several people with close knowledge of the project. NHS bosses hope the app will attract more than 50% of the population, as large numbers of people using it together will be necessary for it to work effectively. The existence of the app, which was first revealed...

U.S. carmaker Ford backtracked Tuesday on its plans to reopen multiple key automotive plants in the United States in two weeks -- a move that drew concern from union workers over the ongoing coronavirus emergency. The automaker said last week it planned to reopen plants in Michigan, Kentucky, Ohio and Kansas City, Mo., on April 14, and a plant in Mexico a week earlier. The United Auto Workers union responded with alarm, saying it had "great concern" about the plan due to the ongoing coronavirus threat. Tuesday, Ford said it's postponed the plans. "The health and safety of our workforce,...

Not "everybody," Joe . . . On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said "everybody was attacking this My Pillow guy," Mike Lindell, regarding his appearance at President Trump's press conference. Not "everybody," Joe. Most Americans surely welcomed Lindell's presence, and his pledge to produce 50,000 masks. It was your fellow Trump-hating elitists, including your NBC network [and even your own wife--see this article], who were doing the mocking.Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

A relative has asked if I have seen Youtube videos of the streets of USA cities. I recalled a video showing there was no outside line at a hospital in New York City a couple of days ago. Now I cannot find it. I would expect there to be some Youtube videos showing empty streets, at least. I am not finding them, so far. Perhaps others, more adept at searching for them, can direct me to them. My relative suggests Youtube is censoring them. Any links to current videos, not done by major media outlets, would be appreciated.

The Holyoke Soldiers’ Home superintendent has been placed on paid administrative leave after at least five — and possibly as many as 11 — veterans living there have died of COVID-19. An additional 25 residents are believed to have contracted the coronavirus.

China's first candidate vaccine for the novel coronavirus may be put into additional trials in other countries seriously hit by the pandemic if the ongoing initial trial proves it is safe and effective, the top researcher for the vaccine said. The first stage clinical trial for the vaccine was started in Wuhan on March 16 after authorities approved. It has been proceeding smoothly, and its results will be published in April, said Chen Wei, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. Wuhan is the Chinese city that was hardest hit by COVID-19. "If the initial results prove the vaccine...

In dealing with the needs of people hurt by the coronavirus crisis, the state of Indiana has a notable advantage: a rainy day fund that holds more than $2 billion. Too bad Illinois was not so farsighted. Its Budget Stabilization Fund has only $58,655. That’s enough to cover the state government’s normal expenses for about 30 seconds. Indiana’s is enough to cover more than a month. This is not a new problem for Illinois. For years, it had nothing in reserve. One of Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s deputy governors, Dan Hynes, spent years as comptroller trying to convince lawmakers to set...

You don’t know Wanda but you probably know of her. She’s the surviving spouse who fed her husband a lethal dose of fish tank cleaner because President Trump made her…or something.Wanda got sick too, as she also drank some of the tank cleaner which included non-pharmaceutical grade chloroquine phosphate (clearly marked “For Ornamental Fish Use Only”). WARNING: If you are not an ornamental fish living in an aquarium DO NOT ingest fish tank cleanersBut Wanda has now recovered enough to display signs of “Orange Man Bad” disease by giving interviews to NBC in which she places the blame squarely on...

As the coronavirus death toll surges in the United States, Chinese and US health officials have pledged to work together to combat the pandemic, in their first telephone exchange in two months. According to China’s National Health Commission website, the phone call between its minister Ma Xiaowei and US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar took place on Monday night and included an assurance from Ma that China was willing to work with the US in managing the outbreak. It was the first move towards medical cooperation between the two countries after last week’s phone call between Chinese...

“There are a lot of parallels between the president’s behavior now and during the whole Ukraine scandal,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led Trump’s impeachment prosecution, told me. “Certainly the most apparent is his demand that the governors basically pay fealty to him, praise him, or they’ll suffer consequences.” “I don’t think anyone was that surprised when he was as vindictive as he was after the trial in firing people and having them marched out of the White House, and I don’t think anybody can be all that surprised now,” Schiff said of Trump. “Dismayed, horrified, appalled, yes. Their worst...

WASHINGTON — Mayor Muriel Bowser is threatening residents of Washington, DC, with 90 days in jail and a $5,000 fine if they leave their homes during the coronavirus outbreak. The threat of jail is alarming residents and civil libertarians who point out that at least five inmates tested positive for COVID-19 in the city’s 1,700-inmate jail near Capitol Hill. “Our message remains the same: stay home,” Bowser, a Democrat, said in a statement Monday. The stay-home order has exceptions for grocery shopping and work deemed essential. Outdoor recreation such as running is allowed, but cannot involve people outside of a...

While the US (indeed most of the world, it seems) is in the twilight zone of a suspended form of life in lockdown, concentrating on all news Wuhan China Covid-19, other news is happening, other people are, sadly, dying from other causes besides the mysterious virus. Including murder. A hate crime murder.

David Schramm, an actor known for his prolific work in theater as well as his role on the NBC sitcom “Wings,” has died at age 73. “We are heartbroken to have lost David Schramm, a founding member of our Acting Company family. We mourn his loss and will miss him,” the post read along with a link to his obituary in Playbill. No cause of death for Schramm has been reported at this time. Representatives for Schramm did not immediately respond to Fox News’ request for comment. Many may remember the actor from his role as Roy Biggins, the rival...

James Woods, our guy in Hollywood, gutted Joy Reid, the uberleftist freak. It was a joy to behold.James, if you are among the netizens of Free Republic, please come and take a bow. :)

“What, my son? and what, the son of my womb? and what, the son of my vows?” (Proverbs 31:2 KJV).

Among the many lasting cultural changes this pandemic is poised to bring about will be serious shifts in the entertainment industry. China started reopening its dormant movie theaters just as the U.S. box office “hit zero for the first time” last weekend. The lights were back on at only 5 percent of the country’s cinemas, and ticket sales were paltry. Now they’re dark again. As of Wednesday, more than 26,000 AMC employees were laid off or furloughed, including all 600 members of the China-owned theater chain’s corporate staff.Among the many lasting cultural changes this pandemic is poised to bring about...

Want to know which California counties are evidently not doing a very good job of obeying the statewide shelter-in-place order that has been in effect for over a week now? The data company Unacast, a firm that collects cell phone location data for private companies, created an interactive map that shows which counties in California and beyond are correctly "socially distancing" by staying at home. Each county and state is graded on an A-F basis on the "change in average mobility," or the decline in distance traveled since quarantine measures were first put in place. "To calculate the actual underlying...

Humans don’t easily grasp the concept of exponential growth, but it’s exactly why coronavirus has gotten so hard to manage—and why climate change could too. The coronavirus pandemic—sadly—has introduced or reintroduced many people to the concept of an exponential curve, in which a quantity grows at an increasing rate over time, as the number of people contracting the virus currently is doing. It is this curve that so many of us are trying to “flatten” through social distancing and other mitigating measures, small and large. (snip) It’s also how climate change works. And if there’s any silver lining in this...

Ohio Governor Mike DeWine’s early and aggressive response to the coronavirus pandemic helped Ohio minimize the damage from a public health perspective. Similarly, President Trump is preparing the entire country for a rapid post-COVID economic resurgence, even while he works to provide state and local leaders the resources they need to fight the virus. By now, even the national press is recognizing that DeWine stuck his neck out when he became one of the first governors in the country to institute bans on large public gatherings, cancel sporting events, close schools, and institute a state of emergency. Our governor demanded...