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(Reuters) - Holiday shoppers braving the coronavirus pandemic to buy gifts in person are checking which stores are naughty or nice in terms of public health, a worldwide survey released on Monday showed. About 79% of respondents want to see masks being worn, 82% demand visible cleaning efforts, and 76% prioritize reduced occupancy in stores, according to the survey by Oracle Retail, a unit of software maker Oracle Corp ORCL.N. Contactless checkout and social distancing requirements are also paramount. “Customers are eager to shop,” said Mike Webster, senior vice president and general manager of Oracle Retail. “What consumers are looking...

A scam artist got away with $122 from a Fort Mill ice cream shop after threatening to lie about them to the media, according to a police report. The manager of Cold Stone Creamery in Kingsley Town Center said a black female came into the shop on Oct. 1 while a young employee was working. “(She) stated that she had an issue with the way she was treated during a previous visit to the business,” a police report says. “She wanted a full refund for the items that she purchased, totally $122.72.” The suspect would not let the employee contact...

According to the conventional wisdom, if you install solar panels on your roof you can zero out your electric bill and save pot loads of money. This is actually true if you live in certain states, particularly California. The catch is that everyone that does not have solar panels on their roof is paying for your benefits. For the homeowner that’s a not a problem. It’s a feature. Solar only works during the day and best in the middle of the day. But residential electricity consumption tends to peak in the evening. A scheme called net metering fixes this problem...

First Parallel Action by U.S. and Indian Governments Against Elder Fraud A federal court has ordered an individual and 5 companies to stop engaging in a technical-support fraud scheme that is alleged to have defrauded hundreds of elderly and vulnerable U.S. victims, the Department of Justice announced today. The temporary restraining order issued by the court follows the filing of a complaint by the United States, which seeks both preliminary and permanent injunctions to prevent the defendants from further victimizing U.S. consumers.  The complaint filed by the Civil Division’s Consumer Protection Branch and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern...

In the wake of heat waves, global warming, forest fires, storms, droughts and a rising number of hurricanes, the U.N. weather agency warned Tuesday that the number of people who need international humanitarian help could rise 50% by 2030 compared to the 108 million who needed it worldwide in 2018. In a new report released with partners, the World Meteorological Agency says more disasters attributed to weather are taking place each year. It said over 11,000 disasters have been attributed to weather, climate and phenomena like tsunamis that are related to water over the last 50 years - causing 2...

(CNN) There has been a "staggering" rise in natural disasters over the past 20 years and the climate crisis is to blame, the United Nations said Monday. Researchers pointed to a failure of political and business leaders to take meaningful action to mitigate the impact of climatic change and stop the planet from turning into "an uninhabitable hell for millions of people." Meanwhile, the coronavirus pandemic, which has killed more than 1 million people and infected at least 37 million, has exposed the failure of "almost all nations" to prevent a "wave of death and illness" despite repeated warnings from...

The Democrats control of the media allows them to misrepresent issues like the "climate change" scam as legitimate issues Republican journalists need to make an extra effort to discover and expose those scams. Weather Channel founder John Coleman calls global warming "the greatest scam in history." Lawrence Solomon published an expose' in the May 30, 2009 Financial Post detailing how the Enron corporation paid scientists and environmental groups to falsely claim increases in carbon dioxide would increase global air temperature. https://ep.probeinternational.org/2009/05/30/enrons-other-secret/ Physicist R.W. Wood disproved this warming theory in 1909. Philosophical magazine , 1909, vol 17, p319-320. Cambridge UL shelfmark...

How convenient. Joe Biden’s niece will have her day in court after she was ­busted on drugged-driving charges in Pennsylvania, with an arraignment set for Nov. 4 — one day after the presidential election. Caroline Biden, 33, the daughter of Joe’s brother James Biden, was arrested in Lower Merion Township, Pa., in August 2019. The DUI case has been slowly moving through the courts. The Nov. 4 arraignment ensures that the Biden bust will be kept in a deep freeze until after voters in the swing state and around the country go to polls. “I find it unusual that it...

What did the scientific literature say before the issue became political? If you are looking for the scientific rationale behind universal mask-wearing, you certainly won't find it now that the issue has become as political as guns, abortion, and taxes. We are now at a point where Canada's chief public health officer is calling on people to wear masks when engaging in sexual activities and 19-month-old babies are being forced to wear them on airplanes. There is no rational thought in a political cult. But what did the governmental and scientific literature say on the issue before it became political?.....snip....In...

Some New Jersey residents have received ballots meant for people who have moved out of the state and for deceased voters, but some election officials say they're confident that anti-fraud measures will take care of it, according to local reports. Under federal law, anyone convicted of attempting to vote more than once could face up to 5 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. The issue arose due to a combination of factors, including the state’s distribution of unsolicited ballots and an effort to protect residents from wrongfully being purged from the voter rolls, NJ.com reported.

The six-county region’s median price reached $600,000 in August, up 12.1% from a year earlier, according to data released Wednesday by DQNews. That was the largest percentage increase since 2014 and the third consecutive month during which prices set a new all-time high. Sales rose 2.4% from a year earlier. The price leap may seem unlikely amid double-digit unemployment, but analysts say the trend reflects the uneven effect of the coronavirus and its economic fallout. Compared with low-wage workers, people who tend to have the financial ability to buy homes have been less likely to lose their jobs, and in...

On Thursday's New Day on CNN, the show presented a pre-recorded "Reality Check" in which liberal analyst John Avlon excoriated President Donald Trump for being a global warming skeptic, and asserted that "you ought to have your head examined" if you disagree with the left's fearmongering and alarmism about climate change. After meteorologist Chad Myers discussed the current threat of hurricanes, co-host Alisyn Camerota introduced Avlon's "Reality Check" as she pivoted:

This election could be close, and as such, resources will be very, very important to candidates across the country. Unfortunately, when there is an important and close election, that not only leads to ridiculous fundraising emails from campaigns (Lord knows there are enough of those from all sides), it also brings out the grifters – opportunists who rip off an unsuspecting public under the guise of helping a candidate or cause. Don’t fall for it. If you want to help a candidate, and have the money to do so, give directly to that candidate or that candidate’s party. If you...

California Governor Gavin Newsom met with Donald Trump on Monday for a briefing on the wildfires that continue to ravage the state and much of the West Coast. Newsom asked Trump to "agree to disagree" on the politics of climate change, telling the president point-blank that "climate change is real" and is only exacerbating the deadly fires. "We can agree to disagree, and I appreciate your frame on the politics of this, but let me just acknowledge two things briefly," Newsom said in the meeting, which took place at the Sacramento McClellan Airport in McClellan Park, California. "There's no question...

HOUSE Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and her counterparts in G7 member states, issued a declaration from its virtual summit to name the climate crisis “the existential threat of our time.” Pelosi joined the leaders of parliament from Canada, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United Kingdom for the online summit where the legislative leaders discussed both the environment and the coronavirus. **SNIP** "Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations in 2020 are among the highest averages ever recorded. The planet suffered through the second hottest year ever in 2019,” the declaration reads. They added: “As the Earth heats up, climate-related impacts,...

The majority of Americans think the federal government’s response to the coronavirus outbreak is actually making the country worse, according to a new poll released Tuesday. Sixty percent of participants think the federal government’s initiatives are making the coronavirus pandemic worse, indicating that the government might be part of the problem, according to an Axios-Ipsos poll, whereas 39 percent think the federal government’s actions are making the crisis better. The survey’s results, as reported by Axios-Ipsos, revealed a “stark partisan divide” as 74 percent of Republicans thought the federal government was making the recovery better, while 80 percent of Democrats...

NOT JEWELRY: USDA says the unsolicited packages of seeds many Americans received were part of a “brushing” scam. The USDA says mystery seeds received by Americans recently were likely sent in a large-scale “brushing scam,” designed to boost a seller’s ratings. Seed testing results have revealed most to be vegetable, flower, herb and ornamental seeds. What’s a brushing scam? It happens when a seller fulfills fake orders, which show up on your doorstep in mislabeled packages — like those received by an estimated 1,000 Illinois residents in July and early August. Indiana residents received at least 350 by Aug. 7...

The first step towards slowing the rising cost of health care is blocking all the scammers abusing the system. Unfortunately, Congress is reluctant because scammers masquerade as respectable job creators, who make campaign donations to protect their gravy train. Our health care system has high premiums due to high medical prices. This results in anemic employee raises because too many stakeholders are looting the health care store. The cost of these scams are mostly borne by workers enrolled in employee health plans. What are some of the frequent scams? Surprise medical bills are perpetuated by a few bad apples from...

Basically Steven(Louder With Crowder) Crowder makes mincemeat outta Kamala's comparison between Trump's handling of the Chinese Virus vs. Obama/Biden's handling of the alleged Ebola "Pandemic".

Any other Pennsylvania residents getting deluged with Robocalls urging me to request my mail-in ballot? I have gotten 3 just today. Always rotating to different PA area codes. Full-court press to steal PA is apparently underway.