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AUSTIN (KXAN) — Hundreds of protesters gathered at the Texas State Capitol Saturday calling on government leaders to reopen Texas – as the state’s death toll from COVID-19 continues to grow. People attending the “You Can’t Close America” rally ignored social distancing guidelines and could be heard chanting “let us work.” It comes just a day after Gov. Greg Abbott announced executive orders to open state parks and some businesses as part of a phased reopening of Texas.

Dwindling supplies of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants is sparking concern about shortages of beer, soda and seltzer water — essentials for many quarantined Americans. Brewers and soft-drink makers use carbon dioxide, or CO2, for carbonation, which gives beer and soda fizz. Ethanol producers are a key provider of CO2 to the food industry, as they capture that gas as a byproduct of ethanol production and sell it in large quantities. But ethanol, which is blended into the nation’s gasoline supply, has seen production drop sharply due to the drop in gasoline demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic....

Bill Maher went off on the media Friday night during his show “Real Time” on HBO, saying that they need to cut back on their “panic porn” reporting on the coronavirus or else they will end up helping President Donald Trump get re-elected. “And finally, new rule, now that we’re starting to see some hope in all this, don’t hope shame me, you know the problem with non-stop gloom and doom is it gives Trump the chance to play the optimist and optimists tend to win American elections,” Maher began. “FDR said the only thing we have to fear is...

Sunlight destroys virus quickly, new govt. tests find, but experts say pandemic could last through summer.

Senate Republicans are marching forward with probes into the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation and the surveillance of a former Trump campaign adviser. The developments come as the Senate is in the middle of a five-week break sparked by the rapid spread of the coronavirus, which has devastated the economy and resulted in more than 30,000 deaths in the United States. But top GOP chairmen are unveiling details of their controversial probes, or requesting more information, signaling they have no intention of slowing down even as senators aren’t expected to reconvene until at least May 4, the Senate’s tentative...

The U.S. crude death rate (mortality from all causes) still remains at multi-year lows despite COVID-19. This data has been updated for the week ending April 5th. On April 5th, the U.S. saw 1,344 COVID-19 deaths, as the number of cases in the U.S. accelerated. The overall number of deaths in the U.S., or the crude death rate did not show a correlated rise. SEE GRAPH......

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) said during a press briefing on Saturday that COVID-19 hospitalizations are "starting to descend" while also calling for more testing throughout the state. The governor cited models depicting a decline in hospitalizations and ICU admissions related to the illness for the past three days, adding that medical facilities are no longer reporting that they are at "max capacity." Cuomo also highlighted that the rates of intubation – the process of placing COVID-19 patients on breathing ventilators – are down, too. "The probability is about 80 percent that you won't come off a ventilator after...

American director and animated film producer Gene Deitch, living in Prague with his Czech wife, animator and producer Zdenka Najmanova, died there last night at the age of 95 years, Garamond publishing house owner Petr Himel told CTK today. Deitch directed the Czechoslovak-American animated film Munro, which won an Oscar for the Best Animated Short Film in 1961. Garamond published Deitch’s memoirs, For the Love of Prague, in 2018. In the book, he describes his experience from the American and Czech film world. Deitch arrived in the communist Czechoslovakia from Hollywood in 1959. Originally, he intended to stay for up...

Seeking to avoid the bitter feelings that marred the 2016 Democratic convention, Joe Biden’s campaign is angling to allow Bernie Sanders to keep some of the delegates he would otherwise forfeit by dropping out of the presidential race. Under a strict application of party rules, Sanders should lose about a third of the delegates he’s won in primaries and caucuses as the process moves ahead and states select the actual people who will attend the Democratic National Convention. The rules say those delegates should be Biden supporters, as he is the only candidate still actively seeking the party’s nomination. Quiet...

This week, Florida’s two U.S. senators–Republicans Marco Rubio and Rick Scott–joined U.S. Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and more than 30 other Senate Republicans in urging the Trump administration to maintain pro-life protections during the search for treatments and cures for COVID-19. The letter pushes back against abortion advocates who are requesting waivers to prohibitions on the use of fetal tissue obtained through elective abortion for coronavirus research.

The Trump White House has intervened to weaken one of the few public health protections pursued by its own administration, a rule to limit the use of a toxic industrial compound in consumer products, according to communications between the White House and Environmental Protection Agency. The documents show that the White House Office of Management and Budget formally notified the EPA by email last July that it was stepping into the crafting of the rule on the compound, perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, used in nonstick and stain-resistant frying pans, rugs, and countless other consumer products. The White House repeatedly pressed...

"Gretchen Whitmer is a ghoul. She is a dangerous ideologue who knows nothing about science and doesn’t care to learn. Gretchen Whitmer deems elective abortion essential because the abortion lobby has bankrolled her political career."

American Repertory Theatre has announced casting for its upcoming production of Sherman Edwards and Peter Stone's 1776, directed by Diane Paulus and choreographed by Jeffrey L. Page. The entire multiracial company is made up of artists who identify as female, genderqueer, nonbinary, or trans. It is led by Crystal Lucas-Perry as John Adams, Patrena Murray as Benjamin Franklin, Kerry O'Malley as John Dickinson, Sara Porkalob as Edward Rutledge, Joanna Glushak as Stephen Hopkins, Elizabeth A. Davis as Thomas Jefferson, Liz Mikel as John Hancock, Eryn LeCroy as Martha Jefferson/Dr. Lyman Hall, Allyson Kaye Daniel as Abigail Adams/Rev. Jonathan Witherspoon, Shawna...

One week after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt began pressing the U.S. military to immediately strike the Japanese homeland. The desire to bolster morale became more urgent in light of rapid Japanese advances. These included victories in Malaya, Singapore, the Philippines, Wake Island, Guam, and the Dutch East Indies, as well as sinking the British battleships Prince of Wales and Repulse. Only improbable, audacious ideas warranted consideration, because submarines confirmed Japan placed picket boats at extreme carrier aircraft range. One idea even involved launching four engine heavy bombers from China or Outer Mongolia to strike Japan and fly on to Alaska....

The Summit County Coroner’s Office has determined that COVID-19 was not the primary cause of death for the Silverthorne man who died last weekend and later tested positive for the disease. On April 11, Summit County announced the death of a Silverthorne man in his 60s, who tested positive for the novel coronavirus after his death. On Friday, Summit County Coroner Regan Wood said the man had undiagnosed diabetes and suffered a diabetic ketoacidosis event that resulted in his death. The man also had coronary artery disease, which is related to the diabetes. While the new coronavirus was not the...

It's no secret that China did everything in their power to cover up the Wuhan coronavirus. They were more concerned with how their image looked to the rest of the world instead of focusing on saving millions of lives around the globe. But what we're seeing from China is nothing new. In fact, how they have handled this crisis plays directly into their MO and their general handling of international catastrophes. "To most in the United States, reactions to a crisis like this seems grotesque, really unimaginable. But to Mandarin speakers who have followed China carefully and have for a...

Ressler: We have you on video advocating a sale of 30 semiautomatics to a 24-year-old woman you had to know was a straw purchaser. Kemp: I had to know? You guys are agents, right? Not lawyers. Elizabeth: It has to bother you that a young woman like Sofia Salgado was murdered using one of your guns. Kemp: I feel terrible about Ms. Salgado and every victim of gun violence killed by my weapons or any weapons. I make guns. I don't get to choose how people use them. Nobody goes after the carmakers when a driver intentionally runs someone down....

The coronavirus pandemic has seen its impact hit nearly every area imaginable across the world. Perhaps the largest industry to see its demand climb as high as ever are grocery stores. From mega-corporation supermarkets to local grocery shops, stores are struggling to keep many items in stock. First, it was the toilet paper craze that settled over in the early going of the outbreak. Then it was the cleaning supplies from sanitizing wipes to hand soap. A new hard-to-find item now happens to be frozen pizza. Stores across the states are finding it hard to keep the easy-to-cook products in...

Eric Holder, former Attorney General during the Obama presidency, boasted that "this current crisis gives us an opportunity to permanently revamp our electoral system. The duress created by the economic shutdown calls for urgent government action to ease the suffering of those thrown out of work. This gives the Democratic Party leverage to hold up any relief measures until our demands for voting reform are met." According to Holder, these "reforms" entail "elimination of voter ID, automatic voter registration for anyone receiving government benefits, prevention of voter registrations being purged for inactivity, universal vote-by-mail, and ballot harvesting. Each of these...

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