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Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner made a televised plea to Houston’s criminal population to just chill and take a break from committing crimes until after the COVID-19 crisis had passed.

Fox News contributor Lisa Boothe reported Sunday night that the White House is considering random sampling of the general U.S. population to monitor the spread of the virus while gathering more data around overall mortality rates. "I reached out to the White House about it and they said it is something they were going to look to do in the next 15 days," Boothe said on "The Next Revolution" on Sunday night. "I talked to Dr. John Ioannidis of Stanford. He is an epidemiology professor there," she continued. "He said this something that really needs to get done as soon...

VIDEO Are you sitting at home in isolation going stir crazy with weeks more of the same ahead of you? Well, the source of your agony comes from people EATING BATS. I realize that bats are an important part of the world's ecosystem but I still find them to be disgusting critters. The last thing I would want to do is eat them. Even the thought revolts me and this video confirms just how nauseating bat eating is. However in some cultures bat eating is acceptable. Well, in light of the recent problems perhaps folks in those cultures might...

The phrase “a face only a mother could love” is usually used maliciously, but in the case of Xherdan, a bald, wrinkly and evil-looking cat, it couldn’t be more true, And his mother, 47-year-old Sandra Filippi, from the Swiss town of Rüti, does indeed love him very much and claims that despite his scary look, he is a sweet pet who loves to sleep and interact with his human owners. She claims that although most people are indeed a bit scared the first time they see Xherdan, they eventually grow to like him after seeing how playful and friendly he...

Two ships carrying passengers and crew from an ill-fated South American cruise are pleading with Florida officials to let them carry off the sick and dead, but Gov. Ron DeSantis says Florida's health care resources are already stretched too thin.

WASHINGTON/NEW YORK - U.S. officials want to build hundreds of temporary hospitals across the country to cope with the thousands of new coronavirus cases being diagnosed daily after the United States endured its deadliest day yet on Monday with 575 fatalities. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which converted a New York convention center into a 1,000-bed hospital in the space of a week, is searching for hotels, dormitories, convention centers and large open space to build as many as 341 temporary hospitals, the chief of corps said on Tuesday. “The scope is immense,” Lieutenant General Todd Semonite of the...

The two doctors spread out their charts on the Resolute Desk in the Oval Office. The projections were grim: Even if the U.S. were to continue to do what it was doing, keeping the economy closed and most Americans in their homes, the coronavirus could leave 100,000 to 200,000 people dead and millions infected. And the totals would be far worse if the nation reopened. Those stark predictions grew even more tangible and harrowing when paired with televised images of body bags lined up at a New York City hospital not far from where President Donald Trump grew up in...

---SNIP--- The Wollman Rink fiasco amplified the public perception of the general incompetence of government and their inability to complete even the simplest projects. Enter the Donald. In late May of 1986, the 39-year-old Trump made an offer to Mayor Ed Koch. Trump would step in and take over the construction and operation of the project for no profit and have it up and running in time for the holiday season. Koch tried mightily and quite sneakily tried to reject Trump’s offer.

ISTANBUL - Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling party said on Tuesday it proposed a bill that would temporarily release roughly 45,000 prisoners in response to the risk that the coronavirus could spread in jails. A separate reform included in the legislation, which the AK Party (AKP) and its allies sent to parliament, would release another roughly 45,000 inmates permanently. There are about 300,000 prisoners in Turkey’s crowded jails. The government has been working on reforms to ease pressure on the system, while human rights groups have said infections could easily grow there. The move comes after the number of confirmed...

Barring that, Professor Hofstadter, though wrong about the 1960s, would be right about today: We truly are shutting down America and harming a great many Americans, based on the worst fears that have not been true and are not on the horizon. We are scaring the hell out of the citizenry. A few additional statistics help counsel a lowering of our national temperature: The vast majority of deaths from the virus are of people over the age of 70 with underlying frailties. The focus on New York where, of course, most of the media is based, is also flooding and...

A Seattle patient just became the first American to receive a potential breakthrough vaccine for COVID-19. That vaccine -- developed by Moderna, a Massachusetts biotech start-up -- is one of several experimental coronavirus vaccines and treatments that pharmaceutical firms are developing around the country. The industry's lightning-fast reaction is a testament to the ingenuity of America's scientists -- and the dynamism of America's drug-development system. And it's a reminder that Washington's ongoing effort to defund pharmaceutical innovation puts millions of lives at risk. To say that drug firms have moved quickly to combat this pandemic is an understatement. In the...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Jef I. Richards. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Jef I. Richards is an advertising instructor and professor for major universities. His emphasis is to teach students how to productively utilize their artistic skills into promoting other endeavors, such as business. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental spoilers. Please refrain from disclosing the full answer in comments to prevent spoilers.To solve the puzzle: Enter the letters in the top...

The Gateway Pundit has received audio of a video conference call between Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter, members of their human resources department, and 200 of their employees. The audio was first obtained by Jack Posobiec of One America News. As the Gateway Pundit previously reported, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts infamously received a controversial $25 million from Democrats in the coronavirus relief package — and just hours later they told their performers and employees that they will not be getting paychecks. During the leaked conference call, which took place on March 26, Rutter repeatedly makes...

Cape Cod’s year-round residents, alarmed by an influx of out-of-state license plates amid the coronavirus outbreak, are petitioning for the shutdown of the Bourne and Sagamore bridges — to keep out vacation homeowners and avoid overwhelming their small hospitals. A Change.org petition to close the bridges, which had nearly 5,000 signatures by Monday afternoon, states: “Stop the spread of covid-19 close the bridges. only year round residence, medical personnel. Trucks that deliver essential supplies. While we love our tourists and summer residents this is not the time to come to the cape, out hospital can’t handle it. We only have...

(NEWSER) – Democratic lawmakers are calling out an apparent lack of racial data that they say is needed to monitor and address disparities in the national response to the coronavirus outbreak. ...

As New York City's hospitals begin to buckle under the weight of the coronavirus crisis, two public spaces that are popular recreation spots in better times are being turned into field hospitals. One such facility has been set up in Central Park, in the East Meadow. It's a grassy space normally populated by sunbathers, but as of Tuesday it will be a 68-bed respiratory care unit opened in partnership between the relief organization Samaritan's Purse and Mount Sinai Health System. Another is about to be built at the home of the U.S. Open Grand Slam tennis tournament. The Wall Street...

Anne-Sophie Mutter has announced, via social media, that she has tested positive for the COVID-19 coronavirus. ‘I have tested positive for COVID-19 … I am staying very quarantined at home and I am expecting to fully recover ….’ the German violinist said. ‘It’s interesting what it does with your head. At first I thought this is a total distaster and in some tragic cases it is really a difficult situation but in my case I am 56 and not smoking. To the smokers among my fans, you should really consider stopping now.’

Didn't they decide to ignore it and have some kind of public function? If so, is there a link? Somebody I know is kind of freaked out about the sickness in New York at the present. She saw something in the news about tents in Central Park to handle the mass illness. But I seem to remember something about DeBlowhard declaring a "Protest Coronavirus Festival", or some such?

Wuhan (China) (AFP) - As China's coronavirus epicentre Wuhan awakens from its long nightmare, formerly locked-down citizens are beginning to reemerge, but for many, their first outdoor act in more than two months is grim: burying loved ones. At the Biandanshan Cemetery, downcast groups of masked residents filed quietly past hazmat-suit-wearing security personnel and police on Tuesday to lay friends and relatives to rest under a leaden sky, a scene repeated in recent days at Wuhan's graveyards. Whether from coronavirus or other causes of death, Wuhan's gradual re-opening in recent days has offered the first chance in weeks for the...

During this coronavirus shutdown, as so many of us have become unmoored, finding it difficult to process all the changes we're facing, I wondered: What's the safe way during the pandemic to tell the neighbors you're moving after 25 years in your home? You can't hug them. Email is so infuriatingly sterile. Handwritten notes on fine stationery would be nice, but doesn't coronavirus linger on surfaces? And bleach wipes would ruin the penmanship. You could put out black flags. But I didn't have any just then. And besides, black flags may have led some into thinking we had the medieval...