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Chicago, Ill., Apr 8, 2020 / 04:33 pm (CNA).- The Archdiocese of Chicago has assembled a team of 24 priest volunteers— all under age 60, and without pre-existing medical conditions— to administer sacramental anointing of the sick to Catholics with COVID-19 during the coronavirus pandemic. Father Matthew O’Donnell, pastor of St. Columbanus Parish on the city’s South Side, has been a part of the team for about three weeks, and told CNA that so far he has anointed two people with COVID-19. "I know that all of us who are doing this ministry in Chicago right now are doing it...

Emergency room doctors across the nation are experiencing cuts to pay, benefits and hours even as they battle COVID-19. Suddenly ER doctors in Alabama are facing the same slashes to their income. “It’s crazy, cutting hours and pay right as hell breaks loose,” said an Alabama ER doctor who has spent the last month treating COVID-19 patients. “We are putting ourselves at risk, reusing supplies and dealing with constant uncertainty, and this is how we are treated.” Healthcare professionals quoted in this report have asked that they not be identified by name because many hospitals have forbidden staff from speaking...

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Senate Democrats are pushing for a proposal that might send as much as $10 billion to local media outlets as part of a fourth CCP virus relief package, while blocking additional rescue funding for small businesses. “For over a decade, there has been a steady succession of local outlets closing down, reporters being laid off, production schedules cut, and resources tightened as the growth of social media and technology platforms has concentrated critical advertising revenue in the hands of a few,” states an April 8 letter from 19 mostly Democratic senators, to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate...

Authorities in Wuhan have consistently underreported CCP virus infections and the death toll, based on internal government documents The Epoch Times received from one of the city’s districts. The central Chinese city was where the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, first emerged. Experts who conducted statistical modeling, eyewitness accounts from locals, and data previously provided The Epoch Times have shown that Chinese authorities concealed the true scale of the outbreak in Wuhan and other parts of China. The latest documents this publication has obtained reveal how the deception begins at the low levels of...

Why are the bishops trying to be more like Caesar than Caesar? In the face of generous secular state provisions, it is hard to understand the sacramental blackout now reigning ominously over the country. April 9, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — In times of disaster in America, public authority has always called upon God to come to the nation’s aid. The call is to a vague God. Our religious consensus recognizes only “Nature’s God” without going into specifics.  Unlike secular Europe, America has always favored religion as a means to ensure God’s material and spiritual blessings upon the land. Thus, religion is...

Japan has earmarked hundreds of billions of yen of its coronavirus stimulus relief to go toward helping its manufacturing companies move their production plants out of communist China and back to Japan or to other countries.

Defective medical gear from China is drawing growing backlash overseas, with Finland, Britain, and Ireland being the latest to complain about faulty equipment. Eager to portray itself as humanitarian amid the global pandemic, the Chinese regime has sent medical supplies to virus-hit countries around the world from Spain to Peru. Since March 1, the country has around four billion masks, 37.5 million protective suits, and 2.8 million testing kits, according to an April 5 statement by the Chinese customs administration. Yet mounting instances of defective masks and test kits have called into question whether Beijing attempts at “mask diplomacy” can...

The annual Holy Fire service on Holy Saturday will be held in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem this year, but without pilgrims, due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Fire will also be delivered to other countries. The service, in which fire descends from Heaven and lights the Patriarch of Jerusalem’s candle as he prays in the Lord’s Tomb, is normally attended by thousands of pilgrims from throughout the world. The service, falling on April 18 this year, will also be celebrated with a “limited number of participants,” Akiva Tor, the head of the Department for the Diaspora...

A group of healthcare workers is seeking to hold the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) responsible for allegedly hoarding personal protective equipment (PPE) as frontline healthcare workers are battling the CCP virus in the United States. The healthcare workers are suing the Chinese regime in a lawsuit filed by The Berman Law Group in a Florida court on Wednesday. The lawsuit claims that the CCP is deliberately buying up medical grade protective masks, face and eye shields, and other protective equipment, while blocking exports on these supplies, in order to sell the items at substantively higher prices. The alleged hoarding happened...

The Erie County Executive signed an emergency order Thursday preventing individuals from being discriminated against based on their choice to wear PPE.Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz has signed an emergency order preventing business in the county from discrimination against customers or employees for the use of personal protective gear, such as masks and gloves. The order went into effect at 3 p.m. Thursday and mandates that businesses cant refuse entry or service to someone just because they are wearing a mask or gloves, or a lack thereof. Businesses also cannot prevent employees from wearing masks and gloves, and must provide...

The California Fish and Game Commission abruptly canceled a teleconference Thursday morning amid cries of “make fishing great again!” and “fascists!” before it could consider authorizing a limited ban on sportfishing in some areas. Earlier this week, a group of conservative politicians, sheriffs and media outlets told their followers that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration was planning to outright cancel the fishing season statewide because of COVID-19.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and other federal agencies on April 9 urged the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to revoke Chinese state-owned company China Telecom’s authorization to provide international telecommunication services in the United States. The agencies—which included the Department of Defense, Homeland Security, and Commerce, among others—made this recommendation after a DOJ-led review of the company identified “substantial and unacceptable national security and law enforcement risks” surrounding China Telecom’s operations, according to a DOJ press release. China Telecom is the U.S. subsidiary of Chinese state-owned telecom firm China Telecommunications Corp. The move comes amid heightening U.S. scrutiny over...

Health officials in Nicaragua have stopped a church program to prevent COVID-19 in the Central American country, where the government has downplayed the pandemic’s potential impact and encouraged the population to go about their business as usual. Bishop Rolando Alvarez Lagos of Matagalpa, Nicaragua, tweeted April 5 that the health ministry told him he “could not carry out the medical prevention centers project and not even the call center,” which would have provided medical advice. “I want to say for the record, before the people, that we as a diocese wanted to work for the health of our communities, and...

The Swedish government is saying that U.S. President Donald Trump's criticism of their coronavirus strategy is, quote, "factually wrong." And that, contrary to his statement, Sweden is not trying to achieve so-called "herd immunity." Sweden has taken a more low-key approach to the pandemic compared to some other countries, and does not have a lockdown. Anders Tengel is the chief epidemiologist at the Swedish Public Health Agency. SOUNDBITE) (English) CHIEF EPIDEMIOLOGIST AT THE SWEDISH PUBLIC HEALTH AGENCY, ANDERS TEGNELL, SAYING: REPORTER: "Last night the U.S. President Donald Trump said Sweden is suffering very greatly. I wonder if you were surprised...

The Department of Consumer Protection said Thursday the state of Connecticut has received a donation of hydroxychloroquine from Amneal Pharmaceuticals, which is headquartered in New Jersey. The FDA recently authorized emergency use of the drug to treat COVID-19 in certain hospitalized patients. The drug will be distributed to acute care hospitals as they fight the COVID-19 pandemic. Hydroxychloroquine is traditionally used to treat autoimmune diseases like Lupus “Making sure that medical facilities have the resources they need to treat patients who are in dire need of our support is an absolute priority. I want to thank Amneal Pharmaceuticals for their...

9 Apr 2020354 Ezekiel Emanuel, an architect of Obamacare and special adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization, has been widely cited by the news media in recent days arguing that life in the U.S. can’t fully return to normal for about 18 months, estimating that’s when a Chinese coronavirus vaccine could be broadly available. Emanuel is also advising presidential candidate Joe Biden on the pandemic, joining Biden’s hastily assembled Public Health Advisory Committee. While the media has been quoting Emanuel as an expert in health policy, the brother of former Chicago mayor and ex-Obama chief of staff...

Today's Quotefall Puzzle features a quote by Milton Friedman. Click puzzle (or click here) for full size rendition, then use your browser's print command to print puzzle. Milton Friedman foresaw how we got into our this mess in which the reaction to the coronavirus will destroy the United States. To be blunt, the reaction to the coronavirus is MILLIONS of times MORE dangerous than the virus itself. I don't see a way out of this, but we must fight to the finish. All hints, along with the answer, are provided in the first reply comment below, using filtered font to prevent accidental...

What's extraordinary is Constitutional liberty, based on biblical truths. (snip) Last week, American journalists took a brief moment to express its shock and surprise. The brutal Philippines dictator Rodrigo Duterte had threatened his own people with mass murder. As reported at CBS News: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte took to the airwaves with a chilling warning for his citizens: Defy the lockdown orders again and the police will shoot you dead. (snip) You know all the names of these 20th Century pharaohs. They will live in infamy. They oversaw the greatest mass murders of their time, and carved their names into...

Those who thought getting the coronavirus once was bad enough may not be comforted by new research from South Korea. Jeong Eun-kyeong, the director of South Korea's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned on Monday that the coronavirus may be able to reactivate in people who have been "cured" of the disease because 51 patients tested positive for the virus after being discharged with negative results. “While we are putting more weight on reactivation as the possible cause, we are conducting a comprehensive study on this,” Jeong said. “There have been many cases when a patient during treatment will...