Free Republic

The IRS has established a special section focused on steps to help taxpayers, businesses and others affected by the coronavirus. This page will be updated as new information is available. For other information about the COVID-19 virus, people should visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (https://www.coronavirus.gov) for health information. Other information about actions being taken by the U.S. government is available at https://www.usa.gov/coronavirus and in Spanish at https://gobierno.usa.gov/coronavirus. The Department of Treasury also has information available at Coronavirus: Resources, Updates, and What You Should Know. Economic Impact Payments: What you need to know The distribution of economic...

FDA issues emergency use authorization for donated hydroxychloroquine sulfate, chloroquine phosphate The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) today accepted 30 million doses of hydroxychloroquine sulfate donated by Sandoz, the Novartis generics and biosimilars division, and one million doses of chloroquine phosphate donated by Bayer Pharmaceuticals, for possible use in treating patients hospitalized with COVID-19 or for use in clinical trials. These and other companies may donate additional doses, and companies have ramped up production to provide additional supplies of the medication to the commercial market. “President Trump is taking every possible step to protect Americans from the...

When will I get my check? Checks are supposed to be produced “as rapidly as possible,” but it’s been suggested that could take up to two months. If you use direct deposit, it will be faster. How big will my check be? Checks will be $1,200 per adult - or $2,400 for married couples filing jointly - and an additional $500 per child. Today In: Taxes Are there income limits on checks? The amount of the checks would start to phaseout for those earning more than $75,000 ($150,000 for joint returns and $112,500 for heads of household). This is adjusted...

The Diamond Princess was the worst case scenario, according to Levitt. “If you compare the ship to a country—we are talking 250,000 people crowded into one square kilometer, which is horribly crowded. It is four times the crowding in Hong Kong. It is as if the entire Isaeli population was crammed into 30 square kilometers.” Furthermore, he said, the ship had a central air conditioning and heating system and a communal dining room. “Those are extremely comfortable conditions for the virus and still, only 20% were infected. It is a lot, but pretty similar to the infection rate of the...

Passengers on Cruise Ships U.S. citizens, particularly travelers with underlying health conditions, should not travel by cruise ship. CDC notes increased risk of infection of COVID-19 in a cruise ship environment. In order to curb the spread of COVID-19, many countries have implemented strict screening procedures that have denied port entry rights to ships and prevented passengers from disembarking. In some cases, local authorities have permitted disembarkation but subjected passengers to local quarantine procedures. While the U.S. government has evacuated some cruise ship passengers in recent weeks, repatriation flights should not be relied upon as an option for U.S. citizens...

Andrew Romanoff, a staunch progressive who has championed policies such as the Green New Deal, on Saturday claimed victory over former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper in the state's Democratic Senate caucuses. Romanoff made the declaration with reported results showing him earning 55 percent of the raw vote and Hickenlooper with just 31 percent, the Denver Post reported. The Colorado Democratic Party has said that 55 of the state's 64 counties have reported results.

Joseph R. Biden Jr. has won the South Carolina primary

Updated 8:53 AM ET 60% reporting Candidate Total C.C.D.s* Pct. Bernie Sanders 3,523 46.0% Joseph R. Biden Jr. 1,496 19.6 Pete Buttigieg 1,172 15.3 Elizabeth Warren 773 10.1 Amy Klobuchar 364 4.8

Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean (D) said on Sunday that he is not concerned that down-ballot candidates would be hurt if Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) wins the Democratic Party's presidential nomination. CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Dean on "State of the Union" if he is “concerned of what it might mean for the Democratic Party in terms of winning the White House in November or winning down-ballot tickets” if Sanders is the nominee. Dean, a former Democratic National Committee chairman and 2004 presidential candidate, answered that he is not worried “at all.” “I’ll tell you why. [Sanders] certainly is a polarizing...

Proportional allocation, the sheer number of candidates, their financial resources, the compactness of the primary schedule, and Bloomberg’s specter all raise the probability of a contested convention to a level underestimated by the national media.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., has won the New Hampshire primary, Fox News projects, catapulting the 78-year-old self-described democratic socialist to the front of the still-crowded Democratic presidential primary field.

Elizabeth Warren admitted defeat in New Hampshire Tuesday night. She claimed to be still plotting a path forward for her presidential campaign, but, at this point, it has nowhere left to go. With results still coming in, MSNBC has projected that Warren will come out of the primary with zero delegates. At best, she'll be in a distant fourth, well behind Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, and Amy Klobuchar. This was a disastrous night for Warren on top of an already lackluster showing in Iowa last week.

Jussie Smollett is facing felony charges in Chicago again -- the special prosecutor just announced an indictment against the actor for the alleged homophobic attack against him last year. A grand jury handed up the new indictment against Jussie on Tuesday. Dan Webb was appointed special prosecutor for the case last summer. We're told he's now facing 6 felony counts for lying to law enforcement. The indictment calls the 6 charges "disorderly conduct," but all 6 involve allegations of lying to cops.

Asked by a volunteer how results would be transmitted from one place to another, the staffer demurred. “Those are all excellent questions, and we’re still working out some of the details around those ...” she said. In interviews, volunteers said they received little information at the training beyond a rough outline of how the tool is supposed to function. They also were unsure how the party plans to carry out its four-day early voting period, which previously relied on the use of an app to capture people’s preferences. Morrison said that there was “not a bit of proof” at the...

There was neither a soaring nor shattering moment for the Democratic presidential candidates at their debate on Friday night, but it was still the most contentious one yet ... Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. questioned the long-term viability of the candidacies of Senator Bernie Sanders and former Mayor Pete Buttigieg, the two victors in the Iowa caucuses. Mr. Buttigieg swiped at his opponents as Washington insiders. Mr. Sanders cast Mr. Buttigieg as the candidate of the billionaire class. Senator Elizabeth Warren hit others on how they were financing their campaigns. And Senator Amy Klobuchar swung both at Mr....

“What they’re looking at is the effect of this drug -- either the drug plus standard of care versus standard of care alone,” Anthony S. Fauci, MD, reported Feb. 7 during a press briefing held by members of President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force. “I think pretty soon we are going to get a definitive answer, whether one of these among several drugs works.” Dr. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added that several organizations and individual investigators are developing vaccines for 2019-nCoV. In one such effort, the National Institutes of Health is working with Moderna...

The Iowa Democratic Party released its first set of results ...

Iowa Democratic Party officials are hunkered down in their war room tonight, with presidential campaigns in the dark over the delay in the reporting of caucus results. Officials from two Democratic campaigns tell CNN they were told the app to tabulate results had crashed.

They found that all four of these spike protein inserts appear as matches to at least one sequence in at least one variant of the HIV virus. The sequences come from the gp120 and Gag proteins in HIV, the former of which is also a viral envelope recognition protein. This has led many to credulously assume that this is evidence, or even a strong indication, that 2019-nCoV was engineered from its bat ancestor by humans inserting HIV sequences. But they’re wrong; it’s still not engineered. An analysis of the paper clearly reveals that: 1. There is nothing remarkable about the...

“If we don’t get the articles this week, then we need to take matters in our own hands and change the rules ... so we can start the trial,” Graham said during an interview with Fox News’ Maria Bartiromo. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, called on Sunday for the Senate to change the rules set up for impeachment in order to start President Donald Trump’s trial within days, even if it means the chamber proceeds without receiving articles of impeachment from the House of Representatives. “If we don’t get the articles this week, then we need...