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Was just wondering...I haven't seen any stories about what is going on in the trading exchanges per the Covid crisis. Do those folks have to be vaccinated, or are they exempt? You just don't walk away from a Wall Street job. Are they wearing masks? Or, is this all JUST for the little people? Can someone enlighten me.

I grew up in the San Fernando Valley, just over the hill from Los Angeles, during the Sixties and Seventies. It was a beautiful place to live. Ask anyone who lived there during that time period. The same can be said for most areas in The Golden State. Our neighborhoods were clean and orderly. Crime was low, and violent crime was almost unheard of outside the cities. There were certainly drugs around at the time, and I have noted that much of the evil we see in today’s world was germinating back in those days. We had gangs too, but...

The four star gymnasts testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday about the Nassar case The hearing examines why the FBI failed to investigate USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar sooner A damning report by Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz in July found the bureau made a series of failures in its handling of allegations It was first alerted to the abuse in 2015 but failed to bring charges leaving Nassar to abuse dozens more victims over the next 13 months, the report found It emerged Tuesday the FBI fired agent Michael Langeman last week Langeman worked as a supervisory...

BEIJING — China tightened lockdowns and increased orders for mass testing in cities along its east coast Wednesday amid the latest surge in COVID-19 cases. Checks have been set up in toll stations around the city of Putian in Fujian province, with a dozen of them closed entirely. The nearby cities of Xiamen and Quanzhou have also restricted travel as the delta variant spreads through the region. The National Health Commission on Wednesday said an additional 50 cases had been diagnosed in various parts of Fujian, most of them in the Putian region. Since the start of the pandemic, first...

A coup by any other name and maybe even a little light treason. Those are the accusations flying over revelations in a new Bob Woodward book about what Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley did after the January 6 Capitol riots. Milley reportedly held several phone calls shortly after January 6, with both Speaker Nancy Pelosi and with his counterpart in China. According to Woodward, the general gave assurances to Gen. Li Zuocheng that he would alert the Chinese to any possible coming attack, nuclear or otherwise. There is no evidence President Trump was planning any kind of strike...

2 Tennessee college students charged with stealing $114,000 from student groups Mohamed Gure and Mohamed Osman are accused of stealing student activity fees while the heads of two Middle Tennessee State University student organizations. Authorities allege that Gure and Osman, both 22, stole student activity fee payments while they were the heads of the school's Somali Student Association and Muslim Student Association, according to a news release by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Mark Milley confirmed on Wednesday he did speak to Chinese officials after a bombshell report claims he phoned his counterpart there over concerns then-President Trump would take rogue action to stay in office. Milley maintains in the statement that the calls were 'vital' to 'avoiding unintended consequences,' but seemed to dispute that they were done in secret. Multiple journalists posted the lengthy statement on Twitter, reportedly issued by Milley's spokesperson Colonel Dave Butler.

AOC, formerly known as Sandy Cortez, attended a grand Gala at the Met yesterday. The Met Gala is an entirely exclusive event attended by pop stars, actors, musicians, and scores of millionaire famous people with an estimated ticket costing $35,000 on an invitation-only basis. Noted The Cut:It’s big money and a lot of celebrities. Even if you can afford a $35,000 ticket, you have to be approved by Wintour and placed by Vogue at a table. The seating chart is normally drafted in December, a full five months before. They take into account where people and their exes are sitting,...

The Pope, Ecumenical Patriarch & Archbishop of Canterbury Walk Into a BarGuy called the Pope says, “I’ll have a Holy Water, with a twist.” Archbishop of Canterbury says “In the spirit of ecumenism, I’ll have the same.”Ecumenical Patriarch says, “Those bubbles are made from CO2. Are you sure those drinks are sustainable?”[LAUGH HERE]That’s a warm-up joke to lead us into the ones the Tittering Trio put out in their “Joint Message for the Protection of Creation.” Find it on the Vatican’s website — which is optimized for Mosaic browsers.‘… For the Sake of the Earth’The Message starts out with a...

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken denied accusations of a botched retreat from Afghanistan, blaming the Trump administration for any failures and saying Washington is focused on protecting LGBTQ and other vulnerable Afghans.

KEY POINTS: The FDA staff declined to take a stance on whether to back booster shots of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine, saying U.S. regulators haven’t verified all the available data. * “Overall, data indicate that currently US-licensed or authorized COVID-19 vaccines still afford protection against severe COVID-19 disease and death in the United States,” they wrote a 23-page document. * The staff report comes two days before an FDA advisory group meets to discuss data to support Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine booster shots. ___________________________________________________________________________ The staff of the Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday declined to take a stance on whether to...

President Joe Biden reportedly issued a stern warning to Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin over his reluctance to back a multi-trillion-dollar COVID-19 stimulus package. According to a new book, Biden called Manchin on March 5, the eve of the Senate’s vote on the package to convince him to join Democrats. “If you don’t come along, you’re really f***ing me,” the president allegedly told Manchin, according to The Washington Post’s associate editor Bob Woodward and national political reporter Robert Costa, who co-wrote the new book, “Peril.” At the time, Manchin, a moderate, was considered the key swing vote after he...

Vice President Kamala Harris got the ball rolling on the politicization of COVID-19 vaccines when she declared at her sole vice presidential debate that she would not roll up her sleeve to take the jab approved by regulators under the Trump administration, Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, said. "That put us in a totally different area that allowed it to be politicized and that politicization is just continuing now" he told ABC’s "This Week" on Sunday. President Biden recently announced a new mandate to get more Americans to sign up to take a COVID-19 jab because about 80...

The board of supervisors in Fairfax County, Va., voted Tuesday to impose a 5-cent tax on plastic bags used at grocery stores, convenience stores and drugstores. The measure, passed in a 9-1 vote, takes effect Jan. 1. The new tax will not apply in certain situations, such as bags used for dry cleaning, prescription drugs, garbage, pet waste and leaf removal. Revenue raised by the tax will help fund environmental cleanup and litter mitigation programs in the state.

A New Hampshire lawmaker on Tuesday switched his party affiliation from Republican to Democrat due what he says is the Republican House leadership's anti-vaccine stance. "I cannot stand idly by while extremists reject the reasonable precautions of vaccinations and masks," Rep. Bill Marsh of Brookfield said in a statement. "And so I have reluctantly changed my party affiliation. I urge others to consider what is happening and come to their own conclusions." In an interview with NBC10 Boston, Marsh said the last straw was a rally held by New Hampshire House Republicans on Tuesday opposing President Joe Biden's proposed COVID-19...

Fighter jets practised landing on a highway in southern Taiwan on Wednesday as part of an annual live-fire military exercise that simulates defending the island against an invasion by China. The drill, which was watched by President Tsai Ing-wen, is supposed to hone Taiwanese pilot skills if the island's airstrips are wiped out. Wednesday's drill took place on one of five highways that have been deliberately built with long sections that can accommodate planes landing. In June, 28 Chinese jets breached Taiwan's ADIZ in the largest single-day incursion. That came shortly after G7 leaders issued a landmark statement urging peace...

Milley made secret calls to top military official in Beijing, and held surreptitious Pentagon meeting asserting his own authority, according to new book. ________________________________________________________________________________ The military community erupted Tuesday in response to reports that Gen. Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, held secret phone calls and meetings in a surreptitious effort to sidestep the authority of his then-commander-in-chief, President Donald Trump. "If this is true GEN Milley must resign," tweeted Alexander Vindman, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who in 2019 was a key witness against Trump in impeachment hearings. Milley's actions include making secret calls to the...

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) on Tuesday made it clear he is inviting Afghan migrants to his state with open arms amid concerns of measles outbreaks and terrorist sympathizers being among them as others commit visa fraud. “Pennsylvania stands ready as a safe, welcoming place for those who seek refuge in the United States. To the Afghan evacuees who just arrived: Welcome home,” Wolf said, retweeting another grand welcome from the Keystone State’s official Twitter account, which declared in all caps that “ALL ARE WELCOME HERE”

HONG KONG, Sept 15 (Reuters) - China's major banks have been notified by the housing authority that Evergrande Group (3333.HK) won't be able to pay loan interest due Sept. 20, Bloomberg reported, underlining the broadening impact of the property developer's liquidity crisis. The troubles ailing the nation's no. 2 property developer have already sparked social anger among investors and homebuyers and raised risks for China's vast financial system.

New research from Trinity College and University of Edinburgh has examined the association between vitamin D and COVID-19, and found that ambient ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation (which is key for vitamin D production in the skin) at an individual's place of residence in the weeks before COVID-19 infection, was strongly protective against severe disease and death. Previous studies have linked vitamin D deficiency with an increased susceptibility to viral and bacterial respiratory infections. Similarly, several observational studies found a strong correlation between vitamin D deficiency and COVID-19. To overcome this, researchers were able to calculate "genetically-predicted" vitamin D level, that...