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his week, the price of oil futures collapsed catastrophically. In fact, the prices collapsed into negative territory in the near term. This bizarre situation, prompted by lack of consumer demand and lack of storage facility, led the irrepressible Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to tweet: "You absolutely love to see it. This along with record low interest rates means it's the right time for a worker-led, mass investment in green infrastructure to save our planet." This tweet was too dumb even for her -- an extraordinary bar, given her past commentary -- and she deleted it. But she then reiterated the...

Pritzker again made clear that the stay-at-home restrictions are not likely to be lifted in their entirety on April 30. “We will be making some changes to the stay-at-home order as it is, but it is true that it is working,” Pritzker said. “So to pull it off, the stay-at-home order ... to remove it entirely, is to simply open everything back up to infection.” Lightfoot offered her thoughts on the stay-at-home order during a teleconference with reporters... she said that the April 30 end to the stay-at-home order is no longer viable, reiterating her previous prediction that the order...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's plan to suspend immigration is distracting from efforts to combat the coronavirus pandemic and part of "inconsistent messages" that spread fear and put the public in "greater danger." Trump's pronouncements about freezing immigration are "scary" for immigrants, family members hoping to immigrate to the U.S., farmers who rely on seasonal migrant workers and Canadian nurses who work in Michigan, the Democratic governor said in an interview with The Associated Press. "These broad statements that come out I think are so problematic and counter to I think what we need right...

Attention Washington Post! If COVID-19 was truly putting supermarket employees in a “war zone,” their death rate would be higher, not lower, than the general population! Real world evidence shows that the fatality rate of COVID-19 is far, far lower than what has been portrayed by the mainstream media. Examples of this can be read here, here, here, here, here, and here.It has also been predicted that the shutdowns will kill more people than they save. Examples of this can be seen here, here, and here.If the COVID-19 virus was truly as big of a threat as is being claimed by...

A few states are moving toward reopening their economies amid the coronavirus pandemic, but some local leaders don't want their residents to go along -- even as idled workers weigh the benefits of getting paychecks again. In Georgia and South Carolina, Republican governors announced they'll ease restrictions this week despite neither meeting White House recommendations of a two-week downward trend in cases before lifting measures in phases. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, saying workers and business owners need relief, said businesses including bowling alleys, body art studios and hair and nail salons can reopen this week. Theaters and restaurants can open...

The government has decided to extend the circuit breaker for four more weeks till June 1, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong announced today (April 21). This is to keep everyone in Singapore safe, he said, after consulting with the multi-ministry task force (MTF) and assessing that "we will not be able to achieve our intended objectives by ending the circuit breaker on May 4." The MTF's two objectives are to ensure that transmission in the migrant worker dormitories is under control and that it does not spread further to the community. Current breaker measures will also be tightened further. He...

With the unwinding of the U.S.-Philippines Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), the utility of Washington’s oldest alliance in the Indo-Pacific hangs in the balance.In February, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte ordered the termination of a 1998 Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) with the United States, accusing Washington of “neocolonial” interference in his country’s domestic affairs. As political disagreements continue to fester, recent Chinese actions in the South China Sea underscore the need for a functioning U.S.-Philippines alliance. Richard Haass of the Council on Foreign Relations, writing in Foreign Affairs earlier this month, warned that declining U.S. leadership and mounting global discord, coupled with...

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has rolled the dice with a US$ 374 million bid to acquire storied British soccer club Newcastle United. If approved by Britain’s Premier League that nominally maintains a high bar for the qualification of aspiring club owners, Prince Mohammed would have demonstrated that he has put behind him an image tarnished by Saudi conduct of a five-year long war in Yemen, the 2018 killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, systematic abuse of human rights and, more recently, the kingdom’s badly-timed oil price war with Russia. A successful acquisition would send a message that the kingdom...

While lockdown was underway, some of the leading Pakistani scholars from the Deobandi, Barelvi and Ahle Hadith schools of thought, announced, they were ready to resume daily and Friday prayers in mosques. Most people, suffering loss of livelihood, welcomed the announcement. People, in general, have been convinced by social media of disutility of lockdown of mosques. Social media describes COVID19 as a Zionist conspiracy to pave way for Israel’s world government. Religious scholars on media channels tell people that the virus is a hoax. Some scholar naively suggest Aab-e-Zamzam, Kalongi (black seeds) or Ajwa dates as a cure for it....

Police arrested first-term state Rep. Derek J. Lewis of London early Thursday on a drunken-driving charge. Lewis became belligerent and cursed police during the arrest, according to a citation filed by Gary Mehler, an officer with the Laurel County Sheriff’s office. According to the citation, Mehler was responding to a call on Hatcher Road, which Lewis listed as his address on election records, when he saw a Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck sitting against a fence in a ditch. When he stopped to help, Lewis got out of the truck. He was “extremely unsteady” on his feet, almost falling backwards into...

“Real Housewives of Orange County” star Kelly Dodd offered her surprising take on the coronavirus pandemic on Tuesday, calling it “God’s way of thinning the herd.” On Instagram, Dodd, 44, has suggested she was both tested for COVID-19 and recently traveled on an airplane. Responding to a commenter that took issue with her air travel amid such conditions, the reality star replied, “If it’s dangerous why are the airlines still flying? You think I want to fly? I had to get back, how is that elitist?”

More than 20 years ago, the Dutch Supreme Court approved the assisted suicide of a woman in despair because her children had died. So we shouldn’t be surprised that it has now explicitly approved the forced euthanasia of patients with dementia if they asked to be killed before becoming incompetent. From Reuters: The Dutch Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled that doctors could legally carry out euthanasia on people with advanced dementia who had earlier put their wishes in writing even if they could no longer confirm them because of their illness. What the Reuters story failed to mention — and...

A second coronavirus outbreak could emerge this winter in conjunction with the flu season to make for an even more dire health crisis, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told The Washington Post in an interview. “There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a story published Tuesday. “And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.” “We’re going to...

California officials have discovered what are possibly the earliest known coronavirus deaths in the United States. Santa Clara County announced Tuesday that three people who died at home during February and March tested positive for COVID-19 during their autopsies. The deaths took place on Feb. 6, Feb. 17 and March 6. It was previously believed that the first US victim of the virus was a man in Washington state who died on Feb. 29.

Colleyville Mayor Richard Newton is allowing some businesses in his city to reopen this week, provided they are open for appointment only and not to the general public, while also allowing residents to attend religious services in person so long as they observe physical distancing guidelines. The amended disaster declaration signed this week by Colleyville Mayor Richard Newton, still encourages religious services be conducted through remote or virtual methods, but on-site services are no longer prohibited. The latter is a position reinforced by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday who offered guidance on the governor's...

Felt it!

A woman who survived a close-range gunshot wound to the chest was saved because of her silicone breast implants, doctors believe. In a case study published to the SAGE medical journal last week, doctors described how a silicone breast implant deflected a bullet away from a 30-year-old woman’s vital organs. The incident, which took place in 2018 in Toronto, Canada, is one of only a handful of instances recorded in medical literature where a breast implant played a role in saving a patient’s life, and the first recorded instance of a silicone implant doing so, surgeon Giancarlo McEvenue told CNN....

The Senate overwhelmingly passed a near half-trillion-dollar coronavirus bill on Tuesday to replenish a small-business loan program and fund hospitals and testing efforts. The $484 billion bill is the fourth large coronavirus deal since last month — and comes after a political standoff caused a lapse last week in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program, which gives businesses loans that will be forgiven if they don’t lay off workers. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) sought unsuccessfully to pass a $250 billion expansion of the loan program this month, but was blocked by Democrats who wanted a larger package...

Fitness apparel brand Lululemon is apologizing after a senior staffer promoted a T-shirt design for “bat fried rice” during the coronavirus pandemic. Senior global art director Trevor Fleming, whose social media accounts now have all been deactivated, posted the design featuring a Chinese takeout box and pair of chopsticks with bat wings on his Instagram on Sunday. The design was created by California artist Jess Sluder who was selling it digitally for $60. “Where did COVID-19 come from? Nothing is certain, but we know a bat was involved,” the artist wrote in a post of the design online.