News and Headlines: In The News, Politics, World News, Commentary/Opinion.
In The News:
Kellyanne Conway teases possible ‘phase four’ of coronavirus relief bill
White House counselor Kellyanne Conway breaks down details of coronavirus stimulus package.
Pa. supermarket forced to trash $35,000 in food after woman’s coughing ‘prank’
(AP Photo/David Goldman)
Hanover Township police said in a statement that a woman “intentionally contaminated” the food at the local Gerrity’s supermarket and that she was undergoing mental health treatment while awaiting criminal charges.
“While there is little doubt this woman was doing it as a very twisted prank, we will not take any chances with the health and well-being of our customers,” Mr. Fasula wrote.
“We had no choice but to throw out all product she came in contact with. Working closely with the Hanover Township health inspector, we identified every area that she was in, we disposed of the product and thoroughly cleaned and disinfected everything.
Major Tech Investor Is Providing Silicon Valley Insiders With Access To Private COVID-19 Tests
A California-based capital investment group acknowledged Wednesday that it provided many of the Silicon Valley companies and entrepreneurs it works with access to private coronavirus tests.
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington alerted his Twitter followers to the email’s existence in a tweet Tuesday, saying: “Got the email today that a lot of Silicon Valley insiders received.
That we can have access to private testing immediately.”
He added: “I HATE that certain people can get immediate testing based on who you are or who you know.”
PG&E Blasted for Trying to Use Fire Victim Trust to Pay Criminal Fine
(AP Photo/Noah Berger,File)
Speaking at a telephonic bankruptcy hearing Wednesday, PG&E lawyer Stephen Karotkin said the company would alter its required disclosure statement to inform stakeholders of a dispute over how the fine should be paid.
The company will pay the maximum $3.5 million fine and reimburse the Butte County District Attorney’s Office $500,000 for investigation costs.
The company says the $4 million should come out of a $13.5 billion trust for compensating fire victims.
After objections were raised, PG&E agreed to include in its disclosure statement that the Tort Claimants Committee, which represents fire victims, believes the company is not entitled to use settlement funds to pay the fine.
Planned Parenthood Sues Texas Over Halt on Abortions
Robin Wallace, co-medical director at Southwestern Women’s Surgery Center in Dallas, and seven Texas abortion providers and clinics sued Attorney General Ken Paxton, Governor Greg Abbott and several district attorneys in federal court in Austin.
Paxton said Monday that violators will face up to $1,000 in fines or 180 days in jail.
“No one is exempt from the governor’s executive order on medically unnecessary surgeries and procedures, including abortion providers,” he said.
The plaintiffs say that without an injunction, they will be forced to continue to turn away patients seeking abortion care.
In the Pacific, a COVID-19 outbreak sidelines deployed aircraft carrier Theodore Roosevelt
“We found several more cases,” Thomas Modly said in a news conference. “We are in the process of testing 100 percent of the crew of that ship.
“The ship is operationally capable if called upon to do so,” he added, “but we are pulling the ship into Guam. Nobody from the ship will be allowed to leave the ship other than on the pier.”
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that eight sailors on Roosevelt have tested positive for COVID-19, up from three announced on Tuesday.
The sailors who have been flown off are in quarantine on Guam and still are only showing mild symptoms, Modly said.
The military has suspended all travel, deployments, exercises for the entire force
The order affects travel for exercises, as well as deployments from combat operations in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria, in an attempt to stop the spread of coronavirus, the Pentagon announced Wednesday
“Approximately 90,000 service members slated to deploy or redeploy over the next 60 days will likely be impacted by this stop movement order,” the release said.
” Currently, this order is not expected to impact the continued drawdown of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which is scheduled to be complete within 135 days following the signed agreement,” the release said.
Actor Mark Blum dead at 69 due to coronavirus complications
According to TheWrap, Blum was a fixture of the New York theater community who appeared on Broadway in Neil Simon’s “Lost in Yonkers,” Gore Vidal’s “The Best Man” and many more.
Born in New Jersey, Blum reportedly got his start on stage in the early 1970s before making the transition to the screen. He began with a role in the 1983 film “Lovesick” followed by “St. Elsewhere” the following year.
He starred alongside Rosanna Arquette in the 1985 film “Desperately Seeking Susan.”
Missouri man plotting coronavirus hospital bombing killed in shooting, FBI says
Timothy Wilson, 36, was injured Tuesday in Belton, a suburb of Kansas City, when FBI agents tried to arrest him after a long-running domestic terrorism investigation, according to a statement Wednesday from Timothy Langan, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Kansas City office.
A months-long investigation determined Wilson was a potentially violent extremist, motivated by religious, racial and anti-government beliefs, according to the statement.
He planned for several months to carry out a bombing and decided to target a Kansas City-area hospital using a “vehicle-borne” improvised explosive “to cause severe harm and mass casualties,” the FBI said. The name of the hospital was not given.
Florida restaurant diner leaves $10K tip to help employees during coronavirus outbreak
The owner of the restaurant, Ross Edlund, told WFLA that the customer, who chose to stay anonymous, explained, “I want each person in this restaurant to get 500 dollars.”
The manager distributed the money to the 20 employees, Edlund said.
According to Naples Daily News, Edlund estimates he had to lay off 90 percent of his staff as restaurants have been forced to close, and residents are asked to stay indoors and practice social distancing.
Crook throws dumbbell through glass door — even after homeowner warns him he’s armed. Crook should have sheltered in place this night.
Deputies headed to the home, but on their way to the scene a second alert came in — from the first caller’s next-door neighbors who said the man was trying to break into their home, the station noted.
Harrison, identified as the suspect, picked up a concrete landscaping border brick and threw it through a locked glass door that led to an enclosed porch, Sills told WGXA.
After getting to the porch, Harrison beat on the french glass door to the home, and the 28-year-old was screaming to be let in, the station said. But the homeowner hollered back that he was armed, and Harrison needed to leave, WGXA said.
PA gov allows gun stores to reopen; adds them to ‘life-sustaining’ businesses list
Wolf’s office did not announce the policy change.
Instead, it was quietly added to an updated list of businesses that are subject to his order to close their physical locations because they are considered “non-life-sustaining.”
Democratic-controlled states and cities have used the coronavirus pandemic to label gun stores as non-essential, sparking a backlash from gun rights advocates.
Politics:
House Plans Friday Vote for Virus Relief Package Passed by Senate
Directing representatives to the text of the bill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) told them at 11:21 p.m. on Wednesday night that the House would convene on Friday morning to consider the bill.
“On Friday, the House will take up the legislation with strong bipartisan support,” she wrote.
House Republican leaders are also recommending passage of the bill, which passed 96-0 in the Senate, as is President Donald Trump.
The voice vote comes with potential complications because one lawmaker could call for a recorded, or roll call, vote, forcing lawmakers to vote in person.
Other critics signaled they might act, including Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).
“I’m open” to asking for a recorded vote “if necessary,” Ocasio-Cortez told CNN.
McCarthy blasts Pelosi for boasting over coronavirus bill wins: ‘That is an outright lie’
“How many people were laid off as the Democrats fought to change the election law or implement the Green New Deal?” McCarthy charged Thursday in a press conference.
The Green New Deal was never included in the House proposal, but it did include measures meant to curb airline emissions.
A few minutes before McCarthy spoke, Pelosi boasted that Democrats had “won the day” in obtaining what they wanted from the Senate’s $2.2 trillion coronavirus response stimulus package, while hinting at other items she would like to see included in a forthcoming bill.
Sec. Mnuchin Says Americans Will Receive Stimulus Checks Within Three Weeks
“First of all, most of these will be direct deposit, so we call them checks in the mail, but most of them will be direct deposits, it will be within three weeks,” Mnuchin told CNBC’s Jim Cramer.
We’re determined to get money in people’s pocket immediately. So that will be within three weeks.”
Mnuchin says he’s hopeful that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will act quickly to pass the bill, so Americans can get their money as quickly as possible.
Coronavirus bill strips funding for Petroleum Reserve purchases
An earlier draft of the legislation included $3 billion in appropriations for the Energy Department’s SPR Petroleum Account meant “for necessary expenses related to the acquisition, transportation, and injection of domestic petroleum products.”
After Democrats resisted, claiming it was an expensive bailout for the oil industry, it was removed from the final version.
That money was to be used for purchasing oil to top off the U.S. petroleum reserves at a time when prices are low. WTI Crude is currently at just over $23 a barrel, down from a high of $63.27 in January.
The Energy Department had announced last week that it would purchase 77 million barrels of American-made crude oil to begin to fill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve amid the coronavirus outbreak.
World News:
God will help Israel persevere amid corona crisis, Netanyahu says – TV7 Israel News 26.03.20
1) Jerusalem is stepping up its efforts to limit the spread of the coronavirus, as it struggles to keep the situation under control.
2) Amid the persisting efforts to combat the corona contagion in Israel; the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem is battling against time, to try and help all Israelis abroad, who are keen on returning home.
3) The Palestinian Authority announces a first Palestinian victim to the coronavirus.
Chinese Restaurant Hangs Banner ‘Celebrating the Epidemic in the U.S.’
The Times claimed that the business itself profusely apologized on government-run social media and fired the manager that put up the decoration, in addition to police detaining the person.
The restaurant claimed owners were not notified or aware of the banner before it went up.
The newspaper identified the manager as a 30-something worker who had been there for some time and claimed that the banner was only up for about 90 minutes before police arrived at the scene.
US Government Ramps up Efforts to Counter Disinformation on CCP Virus
(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)
The CCP’s aggressive global disinformation campaign is primarily to deflect blame over its botched handling of the CCP virus, sow discord internationally, and to portray an image that the regime remains in control.
A website titled “Coronavirus Rumor Control” was recently launched by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) “to help the public distinguish between rumors and facts.”
The site’s description states: “Do your part to the stop the spread of disinformation by doing 3 easy things; don’t believe the rumors, don’t pass them along and go to trusted sources of information to get the facts about the federal (COVID-19) response.”
South Korea adopts ‘no-tolerance’ coronavirus quarantine policy, violators risk deportation, jail
(AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
Health authorities have been scrambling to prevent the virus from re-entering as an increasing number of South Koreans return from Europe and the United States, amid broadening outbreaks.
South Korea began testing all passengers arriving from Europe on Sunday, and enforcing 14-day quarantines on South Korean nationals arriving from Europe and foreigners coming certain areas.
South Korean citizens who violate the rules may face fines up to $8,100 and up to a year in jail, according to Reuters.
China cashes in off coronavirus, selling Spain $467 million in supplies, some of them substandard
Low on supplies or money, traditional American allies like Spain, Italy, France and Japan have had to turn to China for help.
China has used its money, medical equipment and teams of doctors and nurses in a high-stakes campaign to show the world that while the United States scrambles to contain the novel coronavirus within its borders, China is busy moving in on some of America’s closest allies.
China admitted that the kits they sold to Spain were bought from Bioeasy, a Chinese company not licensed to make them.
The time and money Spain wasted on faulty supplies could have devastating effects on a country that is now in its second week of a national lockdown after cases of COVID-19 spiked.
Trump Admin Indicts Venezuela’s Maduro for Drug and Gun Trafficking
The surprise indictment unveiled by the Justice Department alleges that Maduro and his allies engaged in a “narco-terrorism conspiracy” to export cocaine and weapons into the United States.
“The Venezuelan regime, once led by Nicolás Maduro Moros, remains plagued by criminality and corruption,” Attorney General William Barr said in a statement.
“For more than 20 years, Maduro and a number of high-ranking colleagues allegedly conspired with the FARC [Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia], causing tons of cocaine to enter and devastate American communities.
Royal Navy shadows Russian ships after ‘high activity’ in Channel
Photograph: Royal Navy/Reuters
The naval activity comes shortly after Russian planes were shadowed by RAF jets west of the British Isles on at least two occasions.
Typhoons were scrambled earlier in March to intercept two Russian Tu-142 “Bear” bombers north of the Shetland Islands and they followed them as they flew south and west into airspace used by transatlantic commercial airliners.
A navy statement said: “The navy has completed a concentrated operation to shadow the Russian warships after unusually high levels of activity in the English Channel and North Sea.
Do not relax Covid-19 measures in Wuhan too soon, scientists warn
A study published in the Lancet suggests lifting restrictions in March would lead to a surge in case numbers that would peak in August.
It predicts that maintaining the restrictions until April would delay a second peak until October, which would relieve pressure on health services in the intervening months.
The study serves as a reminder that there is no quick and easy exit strategy from the lockdowns that many countries have imposed.
The models the study uses are not directly applicable to other countries, but the overall conclusion probably applies everywhere, the researchers say.
Commentary/Opinion:
Tucker: Why are media pundits trying to discredit hydroxychloroquine?
If President Trump is for it, the media is against it, even if it might save American lives.
What Bill O’Reilly Is Really Like & Taking On Critics (Pt.2) | Dennis Miller | COMEDY | Rubin Report
Dave Rubin of The Rubin Report talks to Dennis Miller (Talk Show Host and Comedian) about the current state of politics and comedy.
Dennis reveals what Bill O’Reilly was really like behind the scenes and what it was like to do the Miller Time segments on the O’Reilly Factor.
He discusses why he thinks the dynamic between them worked.
Dennis gives his thoughts on cancel culture and the damage that a fear of telling jokes is doing to comedy.
He also describes why he self censors because he doesn’t think it’s worth the hassle.