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London — In the global scramble for a COVID-19 vaccine, a select number of human trials are now under way, but it's scientists from England's University of Oxford who appear most confident that they're onto a cure. Professor Sarah Gilbert heads the Oxford team behind the potential vaccine being developed in partnership with the Jenner Institute. She's said it has an "80% chance" of success, and it could be available for wide use by the public as soon as September. Human trials of the vaccine began Thursday in Oxford. It will be administered to 510 healthy volunteers between the ages...

3 Reasons Why States Shouldn’t Get a Congressional Bailout Rachel Greszler / April 19, 2020 Illinois State Senate President Don Harmon sent a letter April 14 on behalf of the Illinois Senate Democratic Caucus to members of Congress requesting $40 billion in federal funds for the beleaguered state. Although the letter comes under the guise of unprecedented COVID-19 disruptions, the purposes for which Illinois and other states seek additional federal funds are anything but unprecedented. Opening the floodgates to federal taxpayer dollars to cover states’ self-imposed fiscal woes would only lead to even further fiscal recklessness. Here are three ways...

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Trump has pushed governors to reopen their states as fast as possible, and earlier this week, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp followed suit, permitting businesses such as gyms, barber shops and tattoo parlors to resume business on Friday. But the president turned on the governor at a White House briefing on Wednesday saying, “I want him to do what he thinks is right, but I disagree with him on what he is doing — I think it’s too soon.” The rebuke came after Dr. Anthony Fauci told other officials on the White House coronavirus task force he could not defend the...

Muslims worldwide began Ramadan on Friday with dawn-to-dusk fasting, but many will have to forgo the communal prayers and family gatherings that make the holy month special, as authorities maintain lockdowns aimed at slowing the coronavirus pandemic. Ramadan is usually a festive season, with the daylong fast followed by lavish meals and evening get-togethers. But this year many are confined to their homes, travel is heavily restricted and public venues like parks, malls and even mosques are shuttered. Many are also weighed down by anxiety about the pandemic and widespread job losses resulting from the worldwide shutdowns. “This is too...

A mystery clouded the death of Patricia Dowd in early February. The San Jose, Calif., woman was a seemingly healthy 57-year-old who exercised routinely, watched her diet and took no medication. She had flu-like symptoms for a few days, then appeared to recover, family members said. Then she was found dead Feb. 6, and the initial culprit appeared to be a heart attack.

BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping has written a letter expressing thanks to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for the organisation's "generosity" and support tackling a deadly virus epidemic, state media said Saturday. The outbreak of the new COVID-19 strain has claimed 2,345 lives in mainland China and infected more than 76,000 people, with cases in more than 25 countries. Earlier this month the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation committed up to USD 100 million for the global response to the outbreak. "I deeply appreciate the act of generosity of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and your letter of...

Americans could start to see shortages of pork, chicken and beef on grocery shelves as soon as May as major packing plants swept by the coronavirus remain shuttered and the nation’s massive stockpiles of frozen meat begin to dwindle. Any empty shelves to date have been the result of bumps in the supply chain, with stores being unable to restock as quickly as customers are buying. But bacon, pork chops and ham could be the first to face actual shortages: The amount of frozen pork in storage nationwide — more than 621 million pounds — dropped 4 percent from March...

Virus management is about power and control, the two things the elite always want and therefore don’t want to relinquish even when the virus recedes. The big-picture story of American politics of the last four years has been a battle royale between elite power structures and millions of ordinary Americans. Donald Trump’s 2016 election win, the Russia collusion hoax, and the impeachment drama were all essentially tussles between elite control and democratic norms, between the will of the powerful and the will of the 2016 voters, a.k.a. Trump supporters. A loose assortment of unelected bureaucrats, D.C. power players, Democratic leaders,...

TGIFF! Its Fiddle Friday and we have Kenny Baker with Chicken Under The Back Porch (1979). THE WESTERNER https://thewesterner.blogspot.com/

Democratic governors and mayors are going around Congress to put money into the pockets of illegal immigrants who were excluded from receiving the $1,200 coronavirus relief checks that are part of the $2.2 trillion stimulus plan approved last month, according to a report. California Gov. Gavin Newsom created a private-public $125 million fund that illegal immigrants would be able to draw from and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot expanded city benefits, including money from the city’s Small Business Resiliency Program, for illegal immigrants. Minneapolis, run by Democratic Mayor Jacob Frey, is creating a $5 million funding package that would be available...

A black Georgia Democratic state lawmaker who announced his resignation Wednesday because of his support for Republican President Trump in the 2020 election has changed his mind. State Rep. Vernon Jones explained Thursday on Twitter "the outpouring of support I received was too great for me to ignore." "I will not allow the Democrats to bully me into submission. I will not let them win," Jones wrote. "I will NOT resign." In a video, Jones said he received a "barrage of attacks and name-calling by the far-left and the Democratic Party" in response to his endorsement of Trump.

One out of every four American adults say someone in their household has lost a job to the coronavirus pandemic, but the vast majority expect those former jobs will return once the crisis passes, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. The economic devastation writ by COVID-19 is clear: 26.4 million people have lost their job in the past five weeks, millions of homeowners are delaying mortgage payments and food banks are seeing lines of cars that stretch for miles. Forty-six percent of all Americans say their household has experienced some form of...

A Yale psychiatrist who repeatedly has issued long-distance diagnoses of President Trump without having met him, now is going after Trump supporters. Bandy Lee says they resemble "child soldiers" and easily could turn into "armed troops in the streets" if the president doesn't win re-election in the fall. Salon reports Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine, claimed the "armed protests" are a natural evolution of the loyalty Trump "demands from his supporters." She previously urged the House Judiciary Committee to interview "mental health experts" during the Democrats' impeachment of Trump.

The maker of Lysol and former head of the Food and Drug Administration warned Friday against consuming or injecting disinfectants after President Donald Trump asked whether injecting disinfectants into the body can be used to treat Covid-19. Consuming disinfectants is very dangerous and can even be fatal, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Friday. Trump’s comments came after Homeland Security official Bill Bryan presented new findings that showed the ability of disinfectants to kill the coronavirus on surfaces. Bryan said bleach will kill the virus in five minutes when applied to surfaces and isopropyl alcohol kills the virus...

Dead or alive? Probably the latter, but no one knows for certain what, if anything, happened to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un that made him vanish from the public eye since April 12. Kim is said to be recovering from a failed angioplasty operation to insert a stent into a blocked coronary artery. The obese Kim weighs more than 300 lbs, stands 172 cm tall and relentlessly smokes up to four packs of cigarettes a day, sources reveal. Daily NK, a website run by North Korean defectors in Seoul, claims Kim has had to deal with cardiovascular disease since August...

[Catholic Caucus] BREAKING: The Questionaire on Summorum Pontificum: what’s going on behind the scenes The EditorMessa in Latino  April 24, 2020 Dearest Friends, After publishing the translations of the CDF’s letter to the Episcopal Conferences and the attached questionnaire on theapplication of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, we would like now to add some further updating on this complex and delicate matter.  MessainLatino.it, in fact was given some [background]information that we judge reliable. Here it is: 1. It would seem that in the decision to effect the survey on the application of the Motu Proprio, and in the successive wording...

John 6:1-15 Friends, today’s Gospel tells of the feeding of the five thousand, which is a type of the Mass. Jesus is interested not only in instructing the crowds but also in feeding them. Copying this rhythm, the Mass moves from the Liturgy of the Word to the Liturgy of the Eucharist. The disciples supply a poor pittance—five barley loaves and two fish. Jesus makes the customary Eucharistic moves in regard to the bread: taking, giving thanks, and distributing. And everyone is fed. During the sacred liturgy, the priest, on behalf of the people, offers to God a small pittance:...

Tucker Carlson asked a crucial question last night, making the case that the ‘lockdowns’ haven’t worked as advertised. Which leads to all-important follow up: If they haven’t worked, why are we causing the death by other means while destroying the economy in keeping its ‘non-essential’ parts locked down? Defining terms: How much of the economy has been ‘locked down’? Let’s begin by pointing out that was never a total ‘lockdown’ or ‘shut down’ as implied in the authoritarian leftist media. Trying to obtain a precise valuation on how much of the economy was ‘locked down’ has been difficult. Estimates as...

OPA-LOCKA, Fla. — A Florida man was arrested Tuesday on suspicion he punched a 70-year-old man who was delivering food to the needy outside a church, police said. Burnice Lee S. Mikell approached the victim outside the Opa-Locka Church of God and asked him what he was doing there, WPLG reported. Police said the victim told Mikell, 64, he was there to give food to people in need. Mikell was upset that he was not contacted first and punched the victim in the face, knocking him out, WPLG reported. Mikell is not part of the church; however, the church allows...