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A Canadian company said Monday that it’s started construction on the long-stalled Keystone XL oil sands pipeline across the U.S.-Canada border, despite calls from tribal leaders and environmentalists to delay the $8 billion project amid the coronavirus pandemic. A spokesman for TC Energy said work began over the weekend at the border crossing in northern Montana, a remote area with sprawling cattle ranches and wheat fields. About 100 workers will be involved in the pipeline’s early stages, but that number is expected to swell into the thousands in coming months as work proceeds, according to the company. The 1,200 mile...

A Michigan state lawmaker infected with COVID-19 is crediting the controversial anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine with saving her life — saying she felt better within a few hours of taking her prescription. Democratic state Rep. Karen Whitsett of Detroit told FOX News’ “The Ingraham Angle” Monday that she went into home quarantine on March 12, the day she last attended a session at the State House in Lansing, and her condition only got worse from there. “It took the longest [time] for me to actually be able to get an appointment and getting with my doctor, which was the 18th of...

Prayers up for all the families suffering from the impact of this virus. And we're still praying that the spread starts fading with the warmer Spring weather and that an effective treatment and vaccine are developed before the next flu season starts. And we pray that our people are allowed to go back to work very soon and that our economy comes roaring back. Meanwhile, we may be hurt and slowed down somewhat, but we have faith in the long-run that "what doesn't kill us only makes us stronger." God willing, America will survive and we will survive and we...

Is the U.S. stock market building a V-shaped recovery? History suggests investors shouldn’t count on it just yet, analysts said. Stocks were putting in an impressive rally this week, with gains tied to signs the COVID-19 pandemic may be peaking in Europe and, perhaps, in New York City, the new center of the outbreak. While investors have little comparable experience in dealing with the effects of a deadly disease outbreak, the stock market’s moves remain in keeping with past bear market rallies, meaning a retest of the March 23 lows remains an easily imaginable possibility, analysts said.

Vendors in Soroti Main Market have deployed bouncers to enforce safety measures against the spread of coronavirus. The bouncers are tasked to deny customers who refuse to wash hands access to the market. Mr George William Eriebat, the chairperson of Soroti Market Vendors Association, said the initiative was taken following concerns that some customers were rushing past handwashing facilities. “You will not know who is infected with the virus. The best is to observe hygiene by frequently washing hands but some people have been ignoring that,” Mr Eriebat said. Mr Ted Enangu, one of the vendors selling farm inputs, said...

— Respiratory moratorium should bring COVID-19 to a quick haltCiting the effectiveness of sex abstinence in preventing sexually-transmitted infections like HIV, the CDC now strongly advises Americans to abstain from breathing for at least 2 weeks in an effort to quickly curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, which is transmitted via the respiratory route. "I'm afraid that social distancing and travel bans are not enough," said CDC Director Robert Redfield, adding that preliminary research on this virus indicates that the best way to avoid infection is to simply not inhale. "Every time you take in a new breath of...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AHNoLhLPpI

Spain, which has the biggest cluster of COVID-19 infections outside the U.S., will introduce universal basic income “as soon as possible” as part of its efforts to combat the economic effects of coronavirus, Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said on Sunday. Critically, the scheme is expected to be rolled out indefinitely. The move has been prompted by the coronavirus crisis, but Calvino told Spanish channel La Sexta that the measure, once rolled out, will remain after the pandemic is finally over. No date was given for the rollout, but Calvino assured that the measure will be launched as soon as possible,...

Updated model projects far fewer hospital beds will be needed to cope with the CCP virus epidemic in the United States. But the model still doesn’t match reality as there were overall fewer CCP virus hospitalizations than the model assumed already on the day the updated version was released. The model was developed by the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). It’s previous update from April 1 predicted the country would need 120,000 to 430,000 hospital beds for the virus patients on April 16, when it indicated the epidemic was to peak. Some online commentators and...

Linky only.

Yesterday I wrote about how the official daily coronavirus death count in New York State had plateaued at 600 or so even though the IHME model projected 700+, with deaths expected to approach 900 per day at the peak. What explains the difference? Were the assumptions behind the model, which were based on China’s dubious early data, simply too pessimistic? Had social distancing by New Yorkers been more effective than anticipated in flattening the curve? Could be both, of course.There’s another possibility. There were reports last week that the official COVID-19 death toll in Italy and Spain didn’t fully...

President Donald Trump has removed the inspector general who was tapped to chair a special oversight board of the $2.2 trillion economic package intended to help businesses and individuals affected by the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday. Glenn Fine, the acting Defense Department inspector general and a veteran watchdog, had been selected by peers last month for the position. Now it’s unclear who will oversee the rescue law. The move threatens to upend the rigorous oversight that Democrats in Congress had demanded of the huge sums of money being pumped into the American economy because of the virus. “The president now...

The Trump administration is set to pare desk jobs at the top of the intelligence community, invoking the argument that its staffs are too large and duplicative, knowledgeable sources say. One of the first targets is the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), where Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany and a favorite of President Trump, arrived as acting director in February. Mr. Grenell has brought in Kash Patel, once a close aide to Rep. Devin Nunes, California Republican. Mr. Patel principally wrote the 2018 Nunes memo that exposed the FBI’s reliance on the discredited Christopher Steele...

Monday evening, Anderson Cooper greeted his ever-dwindling CNN audience with a stark and damning condemnation of the president of the United States and his daily Coronavirus Task Force briefings."What you mostly heard was the president. And what you saw was a hijacking. A hijacking of the task force press conference by a president determined to rewrite the history of his early and reprehensibly irresponsible response to this virus," said Cooper. "What the president showed us today is what the nation’s top scientists have to deal with every day- a president who now uses these briefings as a reelection platform, an...

Posted on April 6, 2020 by Msgr. Charles Pope Passiontide Chronology: Tuesday of Holy Week It is Tuesday of Holy Week. Jesus likely arises early, as did all the ancients. Days both ended and started early, at dusk and dawn, prior to the advent of electric lighting. They leave Bethany and head back to Jerusalem. Perhaps a few converts can be made before the transcendent events of the Passion begin.It is only a couple of miles, mostly downhill, to Jerusalem. As they come down the steep hill they see the fig tree Jesus had cursed the day before.As they...

While the news is inundated with stories about the COVID-19 pandemic, Inspector General of the Department of Justice Michael Horowitz issued a new report on the FISA program. His terse conclusion that "we do not have confidence in FBI policy compliance" grossly understated the gravity of the Agency's transgressions. The most alarming finding in this report is that 96% of the FISA applications requesting permission to spy on American citizens contained serious errors or omissions. These included "unverified, inaccurate, and inadequately supported allegations" that were used to get the FISA court to authorize the spying. James Comey, FBI Director overseeing...

The Kennedy Center reached a deal with its National Symphony Orchestra that includes pay cuts and wage freezes after the organization previously attempted to furlough the musicians. The center released a statement Tuesday announcing an agreement with the musicians that includes pay cuts of 35 percent for the next six months, a freezing of wages for the 2020-21 season and a delay of a planned pay increase. As part of the deal, the District of Columbia Federation of Musicians, the union that represents the orchestra members, said it will drop its grievance filed against the Kennedy Center, The Washington Free...

Dr. Michael Ryan, executive director of the World Health Organization’s Health Emergencies Program, suggested during a March 30 press conference that individuals infected with the Chinese coronavirus should be removed from their homes to prevent further spread of the deadly disease. The clip, first reported by Fox News Channel’s Tucker Carlson, shows Ryan warning that “most of the transmission that’s actually happening in many countries now is happening in the household at family level” before he speculates on measures to prevent the infection of patients’ relatives.

The Public Health measures mandated during the Coronavirus have made it to where healthy individuals who are used to taking communion cannot do so. This begs the question of should loved ones be giving communion to each other at home? While the deaths and sickness of the Coronavirus are tragic, as is any death, there are larger questions than even death such as “Where is God?”, “What is God trying to teach us during this time?” and “Who is Jesus Christ and what does it mean that He came to save us?” One of the greatest things that has happened...