The United States is struggling to test enough people to track and control the spread of the novel coronavirus, a crucial first step to reopening parts of the economy, which President Donald Trump is pushing to do by May 1. Trump on Thursday released a plan to ease business restrictions that hinges on a downward trajectory of positive tests. But more than […]
Posted inEntertainment
Stuck at home, music producers battle while fans party along
When pioneering producers like DJ Premier and RZA, Ne-Yo and Johnta Austin, and Lil Jon and T-Pain went head-to-head in recent days by playing some of their most impactful songs in battles on social media, in more normal times, it may have answered the hypothetical question many music fans have asked throughout the years: Who […]
Posted inElection Central
Governors feel heat to reopen from protesters, president
Stores in Texas can begin selling merchandise with curbside service, and hospitals can resume nonessential surgeries. In Florida, people are returning to beaches and parks. And protesters are clamoring for more. Governors eager to rescue their economies and feeling heat from demonstrators and President Donald Trump are moving to ease restrictions meant to control the […]
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‘LIBERATE!’: Trump pushes states to lift virus restrictions
President Donald Trump urged supporters to “LIBERATE” three states led by Democratic governors Friday, apparently encouraging protests against stay-at-home mandates aimed at stopping the coronavirus. At least two states under Republican leadership took their first steps toward easing restrictions. A day after laying out a road map to gradually reopen the crippled economy, Trump tweeted the kind of […]
Posted inElection Central
Senator tells VP failed virus testing is ‘dereliction’
Frustration boiled over into anger on a private call with Vice President Mike Pence as Democratic senators questioned administration officials about coronavirus testing plans but left without adequate answers. At one point in the Friday call, Maine Sen. Angus King, an independent and former governor, told Pence the administration’s failure to develop an adequate national […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Trump, aides float outlier theory on origins of coronavirus
President Donald Trump and some of his officials are flirting with an outlier theory that the new coronavirus was set loose on the world by a Chinese lab that let it escape. Without the weight of evidence, they’re trying to blame China for sickness and death from COVID-19 in the United States. “More and more, we’re hearing […]
Posted inNews
200-bed surge hospital nears opening in Atlanta exhibit hall
With Georgia officials still believing the state’s hospitalization peak from COVID-19 is in the future, they’re close to opening a 200-bed facility in a downtown Atlanta convention center. Crews have built rows of gleaming white cubicles, each 10 feet (3 meters) square, atop a bright white plastic floor in an exhibition hall at the sprawling […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Medical intelligence sleuths tracked, warned of new virus
In late February when President Donald Trump was urging Americans not to panic over the novel coronavirus, alarms were sounding at a little-known intelligence unit situated on a U.S. Army base an hour’s drive north of Washington. Intelligence, science and medical professionals at the National Center for Medical Intelligence were quietly doing what they have done […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Coronavirus: The alternatives to shaking hands
Dr. Anthony Fauci has declared the handshake dead. All that close physical contact is just not what you want when there’s a respiratory-borne pandemic going around. But look around you. The world’s got plenty of alternatives with zero touching and all of the intended warmth. Namaste Namaste, a traditional Hindu greeting, means, “The Divine within […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Kenya governor under fire after putting Hennessy bottles in coronavirus care packages
Recipients of Nairobi politician Mike Sonko’s Covid-19 care packages can expect to receive the typical food staples except for one item — alcohol. Sonko, the governor of the Kenyan capital city, Nairobi, confirmed in a media briefing on Tuesday that his care packages include a few small bottles of the cognac, Hennessy. The governor justified […]
Posted inCOVID-19
Anti-anxiety medication prescriptions up 34% since coronavirus
More Americans are turning to anti-anxiety medications as the coronavirus crisis has upended everyday life. Prescriptions for anti-anxiety medicine started climbing in mid-February, spiking 34% by March 15, according to a new report from Express Scripts, a Cigna-owned pharmacy benefit manager. The peak roughly coincides with the World Health Organization declaring a global pandemic on […]
Posted inFood
Foods to boost your mood, now that you really need it
It’s all too easy to reach for comfort foods when feeling stressed or anxious. Consuming that extra scoop of ice cream or another handful of chips or cookies, however, can cause feelings of guilt — and even more stress — along with fatigue and irritability from sugar highs and lows. Yet the opposite is also […]
Posted inEntertainment
SNL star honors his late grandmother by covering rent for 160 public housing units
Michael Che wants to honor his late grandmother, who died after contracting the coronavirus. The “Saturday Night Live” star took to Instagram on Wednesday to announce that he plans to pay one month’s rent for all those living in his grandmother’s public housing complex. “It’s crazy to me that residents of public housing are still […]
Posted inTop Stories
Trump gives governors 3-phase plan to reopen economy
President Donald Trump gave governors a road map Thursday for recovering from the economic pain of the coronavirus pandemic, laying out “a phased and deliberate approach” to restoring normal activity in places that have strong testing and are seeing a decrease in COVID-19 cases. “We’re starting our life again,” Trump said during his daily press […]
Posted inElection Central
Democratic super PAC: We will fight Trump in court over ads
A leading Democratic super PAC has promised it will tangle in court with President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign to keep airing television ads the Republican president is trying to keep off the airwaves. Priorities USA Action chief Guy Cecil said Thursday that his group will intervene as a defendant in a lawsuit that Trump’s campaign […]