Free Republic

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and GOP House Leader Kevin McCarthy are pushing back against Democratic demands to include issues unrelated to coronavirus relief for small businesses in an expansion of the loan program. Politico: “Republicans reject Democrats’ reckless threat to continue blocking job-saving funding unless we renegotiate unrelated programs which are not in similar peril,” McConnell (R-Ky.) and McCarthy (R-Calif.) said in a joint statement. The $2 trillion virus relief bill contained a $350 billion fund for small business loans. That program has proven to be overwhelmingly popular and is in danger of running out of cash in a...

A phlebotomist working at Roseland Community Hospital said Thursday that 30% to 50% of patients tested for the coronavirus have antibodies while only around 10% to 20% of those tested have the active virus. Sumaya Owaynat, a phlebotomy technician, said she tests between 400 and 600 patients on an average day in the parking lot at Roseland Community Hospital. Drive-thru testing is from 9 a.m. to noon and 1 to 4 p.m. each day. However, the hospital has a limited number of tests they can give per day. Owaynat said the number of patients coming through the testing center who...

The United States Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) on Friday issued a statement making it easier for federally-licensed gun dealers to stay open and provide essential services while "safe distance" protocols are still in effect. CTV News: The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced on Friday that federally licensed firearms businesses could carry out transactions through drive-up windows and temporary booths in their parking lots or other parts of their property. Those transactions include verifying customer identity, completing paperwork, accepting payment and delivering firearms and ammunition. "An FFL may carry out the requested activities...

Illinois’ financial outlook was changed from ‘stable’ to ‘negative’ by two major ratings firms, raising the risk the state’s credit rating will formally fall to non-investment grade status.. ... the state is actually paying higher interest on its debt today than it was in June 2017, according to Crain’s Chicago Business. When investors demand higher interest it generally reflects a higher risk that borrowers will default. Illinois was the least prepared to weather a recession heading into the coronavirus crisis, with only about 15 minutes of state spending saved in a rainy day fund. Lower credit ratings mean investors will...

this thing is cranking up already...prayers to everyone...this does not look good...

The United States’ top infectious disease expert says the economy in parts of the country could be allowed to reopen as early as next month. Dr. Anthony Fauci says there’s no light switch that will be clicked to turn everything back on. He says a “rolling re-entry” will be required based on the status of the new coronavirus pandemic in various parts of the country. Fauci says those factors include the region of the country, the nature of the outbreak it already has experienced and the possible threat of an outbreak to come. Social distancing guidelines imposed by President Donald...

Can't post from USA today, the link is at the top of the google search above. Check out the two paragraphs at the end of the article starting with: "Fauci doesn't want people to worry about coronavirus".

One of the true greats of Formula 1, Sir Stirling Moss, has died at the age of 90. Often referred to as the greatest driver never to win the world championship, Moss contested 66 Grands Prix from 1951 to 1961, driving for the likes of Vanwall, Maserati and Mercedes, where he famously formed a contented and ruthlessly effective partnership with lead driver Juan Manuel Fangio.

Perseverance's descent stage was also fueled up last weekend, just before the helicopter integration, NASA officials said. The descent stage is the rocket-powered sky crane that will lower Perseverance onto the Martian dirt via cables in February 2021. Gassing up the crane was no trivial task; the craft's four tanks hold a total of 884 lbs. (401 kilograms) of hydrazine propellant, agency officials said. "The last hundred days before any Mars launch is chock-full of significant milestones," David Gruel, the Mars 2020 assembly, test and launch operations manager at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, said in a...

...For the past three weeks, Blanchet House has seen record numbers of people seeking meals. In the first week of April, staff and volunteers (the kind Kerman says would "fight through zombies to get to our door" to help) served 9,700 meals—nearly double the numbers from the first week of March. The first week of the month is typically a time when the number of meals needed decline as public benefits become available at the start of the month...In the past, more than three-quarters of the food Blanchet House served was donated. But now restaurants are closed and don't have...

Millions of Americans in the Southeast are at risk as a powerful storm system mars the Easter holiday, bringing heavy rain, tornadoes and hail. The National Weather Service's Storm Prediction Center said severe thunderstorms are likely into Sunday night, with the greatest threat in Louisiana through the Tennessee Valley. The storm center said some 95 million people may be impacted by the storms. More than 5.8 million people live in the area where the most dangerous weather was most likely, including Birmingham, Ala., and Jackson, Miss.

Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union,” National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases director Anthony Fauci said if President Donald Trump had listened to top officials who wanted the shutdown to begin in February, fewer lives would have been lost to the coronavirus pandemic. Host Jake Tapper asked, “The New York Times reported yesterday that you and other top officials wanted to recommend social and physical distancing guidelines to President Trump as far back as the third week of February, but the administration didn’t announce such guidelines to the American public until March 16th, almost a month later. Why?”...

In the face of criticism and incredulity from its European neighbours, Sweden has stuck to its guns on resisting a France or Italy-style lockdown of its 10.2 million citizens to avoid the spread of COVID-19. The government has advised Swedes to work from home when possible and avoid crowded places like bars and restaurants, but it has stopped short of imposing formal restrictions, urging its citizens to "behave like adults" rather than fining them for leaving their homes without good reason. By contrast, Sweden's neighbours - Denmark, Finland and Norway - were among the first European states to impose lockdowns...

Rev. Franklin Graham’s charity is making sure Alaska residents have the supplies they need to fight the coronavirus. Tuesday on Facebook, Graham wrote that workers with Samaritan’s Purse had delivered more than eight tons of medical supplies to be distributed throughout rural Alaskan communities in the next few days:.... The supplies will be headed to rural AK to support our heroic health care workers. Thank you Franklin Graham & the Samaritan’s Purse team for your continuous service and help to Alaska! #FlattenTheCurve pic.twitter.com/ay0hA53IUp— Governor Mike Dunleavy (@GovDunleavy) April 7, 2020 ....As of Tuesday morning, the total number of coronavirus...

Last week Governor Charlie Baker released projections of how many Massachusetts residents were likely to contract the coronavirus. By this reckoning, Baker said, the state would experience “somewhere between 47,000 and 172,000 cases during the course of the pandemic.” This represents between 0.7 and 2.5 percent of the state’s population. These are daunting numbers. Unfortunately, they are not nearly daunting enough. Because while there is still a lot we don’t know about COVID-19, including exactly how many people are or have been infected, epidemiologists believe that this virus won’t begin to disappear until a far higher percentage of the population...

Chat forum, UFOs topic -- 2147 topics, chrono sorted, grouped by year posted:

We will remember this time as the Great Media-Driven Panphobia of 2020. ... So just how deadly is the virus? Though comparisons are looked down on because analogies have to be exact, we can still learn from another fever that swept through the land. The Centers for Disease Control on the swine flu of 2009 in the USA (emphasis added): During the pandemic, CDC provided estimates of the numbers of 2009 H1N1 cases, hospitalizations and deaths on seven different occasions. Final estimates were published in 2011. These final estimates were that from April 12, 2009 to April 10, 2010 approximately...

People across America are stepping up to the plate. Millions are performing essential services at great personal risk, and millions more are staying at home, away from friends and extended family. In return, they want the answer to a simple question: What is the plan to safely reopen America? So far, the Trump administration hasn’t supplied an answer. The plan has to start with responding effectively to the immediate medical crisis and ultimately lead to the widespread availability and administration of a vaccine. But we can’t stay home and just wait for the vaccine to arrive. As others have noted,...

Let's open school, work and sports half at a time. For example, in May this year, allow grades K through 2 attend Tues, Thurs and allow grades 3 and 4 attend Mon, Wed and Fri. The school buses will be half full with one child per bus seat. The school building and cafeterias will be half full. Also, for example, allow half of a factory to work on alternating days. Regulate meetings. Also, for example, allow Major League Baseball teams to play in their home park, maybe letting the New York teams play on the road for the first month....

It’s an opinion shared by President Donald Trump and a growing cadre of physicians and some infectious diseases experts who believe that an effective way to control the spiraling pandemic is to prescribe the anti-malarial at the first sign of symptoms even though it has not gone through the requisite number of clinical trials.