The City of Knoxville said Tuesday it will opt-out of sharing the names and addresses of COVID-19 patients with law enforcement following a statewide controversy over the practice.
Mayor Indya Kincannon and Police Chief Eve Thomas said that the Knoxville Police Department will leave a state program that allows law-enforcement officers across Tennessee to access a database of persons who have tested positive for COVID-19.
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On Monday’s Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 am to 8:00 am – host Leahy welcomed back good friend and undisputed King of Boston Talk Radio Howie Carr to the newsmakers line.
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Sometimes the truth is like mythical kryptonite. It radiates power and yet promises great destruction. And so reality is to be left alone, encased in lead, and kept at bay.
Take the Chinese genesis of the COVID-19 epidemic. We started in February with the usual Chinese deceptions about their role in the birth, transmission, and worldwide spread of the virus.
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Eighteen Republican attorneys general called for a congressional probe on Friday into China’s deliberate concealment of the severity of the coronavirus outbreak at its onset.
“Recent reports suggest that the communist Chinese government willfully and knowingly concealed information about the severity of the virus while simultaneously stockpiling personal protective equipment,” stated the letter from South Carolina Attorney General Alan Wilson, which 17 other state attorneys general cosigned.
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Gov. Andrew Cuomo partially reversed a March executive order Sunday that prevented nursing homes from denying admission of patients who tested positive for the new coronavirus.
Patients must now test negative for the virus before hospitals can admit them to assisted living facilities, Cuomo said during an Albany press briefing Sunday.
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Officials from several counties across central Pennsylvania said over the weekend they likely will lift pandemic restrictions against Gov. Tom Wolf’s orders.
The news follows the governor’s decision Friday to transition 13 counties in the southwestern region of the state – including the Pittsburgh metro area – to the yellow phase of his economic reopening plan after showing signs of slowing community spread and ramped up testing and contact tracing abilities.
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A Michigan health system and CBS News have come under fire after Project Veritas revealed that a line for a COVID-19 testing site was staged for television cameras.
Cherry Health and CBS News denied directing staffers to form a line to appear as patients for a coronavirus testing site before later reversing their statement and saying that the staffers were in line to “provide a visual backdrop.”
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer temporarily extended the expiration of various identification and vehicle-related documentation during the pandemic for the second time, the governor announced late last week. The order extends the expiration of state identification cards, driver’s licenses, operator endorsements and vehicle registration to July 31. The documentation must be originally set to expire between February 1 and July 30 to fall under the extension. “Nobody should have to stress about renewing their drivers license or state ID card, or worry about their auto insurance coverage during a global pandemic,” Whitmer said in a statement. “By extending this executive order, we’re lifting that burden off Michiganders’ shoulders so they can focus on staying home and staying safe.” The order protects Michigan residents from penalties for driving on expired licenses or permits, Whitmer’s office said. The protections do not extend to drivers with suspended or revoked licenses or those whose diagnoses have changed or expanded since their last medical certificate was issued. The order also requires that drivers complete driver’s license or vehicle registration renewals online “to their best of their ability.” Friday’s order is a continuation of a previous order in mid-April that also extended the expiration of licenses and registrations. That order was originally set to end…
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Georgia’s restaurants and barber shops are seeing a slow but steady increase in traffic after Gov. Brian Kemp began easing up the economic lockdowns he imposed to slow the coronavirus pandemic, location data show.
Visits to the state’s barber shops and tattoo parlors increased to 80% of pre-coronavirus levels after Georgia began rolling back own stay-at-home orders on April 24, according to data released by Foursquare, a location technology platform. Data also show restaurants are on the rebound.
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A state senator from Toledo is blasting Gov. Mike DeWine’s decision to cut funding to public schools as part of a move to reduce spending amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Governor DeWine’s decision to slash more than $300 million from Ohio’s K-12 funding is an alarming divestment from our public school system during a time when schools need more support than ever,” state Sen. Teresa Fedor, D-Toledo, said in a statement. “Nearly half of the $775 million total in cuts to General Revenue spending will be stripped from Ohio’s public schools, which continue to serve more than 90% of children in our state.
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An estimated 90 percent of Ohio’s economy will be reopened by the end of the week under Gov. Mike DeWine’s “Responsible Restart Ohio Plan.”
Since May 1, the healthcare industry has been able to perform all medically necessary procedures that do not require an overnight stay, such as routine check-ups, outpatient surgeries, imaging procedures, and diagnostic tests.
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U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-08) joined President Donald Trump at the White House Friday for a discussion on the administration’s plan for a “great American comeback.”
Green thanked the president for his leadership in responding to the coronavirus pandemic and criticized the mainstream media for laughing at decisions that have “saved American lives.”
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The coronavirus has had, at least, the unanticipated benefit of obscuring and diminishing the very tedious public clamoring about climate change. It is a slightly redeeming virtue of crises that they tend to supersede and diminish previous crises; if a crisis is serious, public opinion can rarely worry about more than one menace at a time.
When Iran took over the role of principal promoter of terrorism in the Middle East, and Turkey, rebuffed by Europe, began imposing itself on the fringes of the Arab world, support for the Palestinian onslaught against Israel effectively collapsed. All the nonsense about Israel as an “apartheid state” has almost stopped, and the simpering of naïve or devious advocates of one big happy, multiracial Palestine (a formula for the subjugation or expulsion or even massacre of the Jews one more time) is rarely heard.
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Several weeks ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo gave a press conference on – what else? – the coronavirus.
The press conference was, like many these days, a discussion of numbers and the problems of reopening the economy, but one statement was a bit startling. Discussing the hopeful sign of plateauing numbers, Cuomo expressed caution rather than enthusiasm. Then he made the following blunt announcement:
“The number is down, because we brought the number down. God did not do that. Faith did not do that. Destiny did not do that. A lot of pain and suffering did that. And that’s why we lost five pounds, because we went out every day and we exercise and we burned more calories than we ate. That’s how it works. It’s math.”
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A man crossed the U.S.-Mexico border illegally to seek treatment for COVID-19 symptoms, the head of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said Thursday.
“This week, [U.S. Border Patrol] agents encountered a Mexican national who after being apprehended, was showing symptoms of COVID-19,” CBP acting Commissioner Mark Morgan tweeted. “During his medical assessment he admitted to being exposed to COVID-19 and his deliberate intentions to illegally enter the US for medical care.”
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San Francisco is giving free drugs and alcohol to some homeless addict isolating inside city-rented hotels during the coronavirus pandemic, the city’s department of public health confirmed Wednesday.
Fox News reports, San Francisco’s controversial practice was recently brought up last Friday when a man who describes himself on Twitter as “Formerly homeless addict in #recovery advocating for the #truth about homelessness and drug addiction. Faith, Hope and Love. SF Native. Tweets are my own.” tweeted to the city.
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Gov. Mike DeWine took a stand Thursday against Ohio House Republicans who are trying to limit the Ohio Department of Health (ODH)’s powers during the coronavirus pandemic.
On Wednesday, House Republicans on the House State and Local Government Committee (HSLGC) passed an amendment to a 2019 regulatory reform bill that would limit ODH’s orders to two weeks, The Ohio Star reported.
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The state of Minnesota plans to spend $6.9 million to acquire a warehouse facility for the “temporary storage of human remains.”
The funds will come from the COVID-19 Minnesota Fund and was recommended for approval by Minnesota Management and Budget Commissioner Myron Frans.
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Arrests along the U.S.-Mexico border in April dropped to some of their lowest levels in several years after the Trump administration restricted border crossings due to the coronavirus pandemic.
There were a total of 16,789 enforcement actions on the U.S. southern border during April, according to the latest data provided by Customs and Border Protection (CBP). That figure marks a 50% drop in enforcement actions compared to March, and a substantial decline from the more than 109,000 actions taken in April 2019. Enforcement actions are now at their lowest since April 2017.
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25.4 million Americans have lost their jobs since February through mid-April, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports — 17.3 million who are unemployed, and another 8.1 million who have left the labor force completely — in response to the Chinese coronavirus pandemic as Americans sit home and wait it out.
Although the Bureau tabulates a reported unemployment rate of 14.7 percent, if you count the 8.1 million who left the labor force, too, plus the 5.8 million who were already unemployed, and the number looks more like 18.9 percent.
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U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) co-sponsored a bill Thursday to rename the street outside the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. “Li Wenliang Plaza” to honor the late Dr. Li Wenliang, the Wuhan doctor who warned the world about the coronavirus before the Chinese Communist Party silenced him.
Blackburn is joined in the effort by U.S. Sens. Tom Cotton (R-AR), Ben Sasse (R-NE) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) and U.S. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Y), according to a press release from the Tennessee senator’s office.
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The U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, while the unemployment rate rose to 14.7%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.
Total non-farm payroll employment fell by 20.5 million in April, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, and the number of unemployed persons rose by 15.9 million to 23.1 million.
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The Star Tribune accepted $150,000 in grant money from Facebook, the tech giant revealed Thursday.
According to a press release from Facebook, the company awarded $10.3 million to 144 local U.S. newsrooms as part of a “COVID-19 Local News Relief Fund Grant Program.” Another $5.4 million was awarded to 59 North American newsrooms that participated in Facebook’s “Local News Accelerator” program, including The Star Tribune.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer released her full MI Safe Start Plan this week, detailing when each type of business could open.
The six-part plan is categorized as Uncontrolled Growth, Persistent Spread, Flattening, Improving, Containing and Post-Pandemic. Whitmer said Michigan is phase three of the plan, Flattening.
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A Republican lawmaker put forward an amendment Thursday that would suspend Gov. Tim Walz’s salary during the course of his peacetime emergency declaration.
The move is the latest escalation in a battle between Republican and Democratic lawmakers over the best course of action in addressing the coronavirus pandemic. House Minority Leader Kurt Daudt (R-Crown) announced last weekend that he would block a public works bill from being passed until Walz agreed to relinquish his emergency powers.
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The Tennessee government is providing the names and addresses of COVID-19 patients to law enforcement agencies and other first responders, documents obtained by the Associated Press reveal.
According to a memorandum of understanding (MOU) obtained by the outlet, the Tennessee Department of Health is “disclosing” the information to the Tennessee Emergency Communications Board, which in turn passes the information along to first responders.
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The European Union allowed the Chinese government to censor part of an op-ed by the EU ambassador to China that was published in a state newspaper, China Daily.
China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) insisted on censoring an op-ed by the EU ambassador to China to remove a reference to COVID-19 originating in China, an EU spokesman said Wednesday, adding that the EU acquiesced to the censorship rather than withdrawing the op-ed.
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Gov. Bill Lee said more than 23,000 Tennesseans have received a free COVID-19 test at one of 67 drive-through testing sites over the past three weekends.
“Testing remains one of the most important tools for gaining more information in our fight against COVID-19, and the 23,000 tests we’ve completed over the last three weekends have provided incredibly valuable data,” Lee said in a statement. “We’re grateful to the thousands who came out to receive a test this weekend and we continue to remind Tennesseans: when in doubt, get a test.”
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A 57-year-old man from El Salvador became the first individual in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody to die from COVID-19 complications.
Carlos Ernesto Escobar Mejia passed away early Wednesday morning after being hospitalized and on a ventilator for roughly a week, The San Diego Union-Tribune first reported. Escobar Mejia, a detainee at the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego, was one of hundreds of individuals in ICE custody who have contracted the novel coronavirus.
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More than 600,000 Minnesotans have filed for unemployment since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
According to the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the state has had 633,405 applications for unemployment insurance since March 16. That number represents a little more than 20 percent of the state’s workforce, Fox 9 reported Wednesday.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer extended the “Stay Home, Stay Safe” order on Thursday to May 28, while initiating her MI Safe Start Plan.
The plan allows manufacturing workers, such as those at automotive companies, to resume work on May 11. Companies must conduct daily entry screening protocol for those entering the facility, including a questionnaire about symptoms and a temperature screening. Facilities must also create dedicated entry points and suspend the entry of nonessential people.
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A second lawsuit was filed Wednesday against Gov. Tim Walz on behalf of multiple Minnesota churches and small business owners.
The complaint asks the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota to strike down Walz’s emergency executive orders issued during the coronavirus pandemic as unconstitutional under the First, Fifth, and 14th Amendments.
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State Rep. Diane Grendell (R- Geauga County) wants Ohio Health Department Director Dr. Amy Acton to be more forthcoming about COVID-19 statistics.
Grendell drafted the “Truth in COVID-19 Statistics” bill, the Record-Courier reported. She said the bill will be introduced in the House later this week, and she expects it to gain bipartisan support.
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Even as a handful of states have made tentative steps back to normalcy in recent days, new jobless claims continue to flood in across all 50 states, driving the number of unemployment claims to 33.5 million over the past seven weeks.
According to data released Thursday morning by the U.S. Department of Labor, 3.17 million Americans filed for new unemployment benefits for the week ending May 2. That was down 677,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 3.85 million but still well above the numbers seen before the coronavirus outbreak led to the shutdown of most of the national economy.
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The propaganda arms of the Chinese Communist Party have set their sights on Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist and vocal critic of China’s Communist regime.
Bannon now hosts a popular radio show called “War Room: Pandemic” and has dedicated numerous segments and even whole shows to exposing the evils of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
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A CBS News crew pulled medical professionals off the floor at the Cherry Medical Center in Grand Rapids, Michigan, and asked them to line up their vehicles outside a COVID-19 drive-through testing site, a new report from Project Veritas claims.
James O’Keefe, the founder and CEO of Project Veritas, said an insider “witnessed the whole thing and came to Project Veritas because he knew we would protect him.”
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The economic shutdown has turned Minnesota’s projected $1.5 billion budget surplus into a $2.4 billion deficit, state officials announced Tuesday.
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U.S. Rep. Paul Mitchell (R-MI) has sued Gov. Gretchen Whitmer over her executive orders concerning the coronavirus pandemic.
The lawsuit alleges that Whitmer’s stay-at-home order and businesses restrictions have violated his rights and those of all Michigan residents.
“Michiganders can and do take reasonable, private action to protect themselves from infection without the need to shut down civil society,” Mitchell said in the lawsuit.
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Gov. DeWine announced on Tuesday that he is slashing Ohio’s budget for the remainder of the 2020 fiscal year due to the state general suffering heavy revenue loss due to COVID-19.
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Live from Music Row Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – Leahy was joined on the line during the program’s second hour by Tennessee State Senator Kerry Roberts.
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Roughly $800 million was allocated to the country’s top 25 universities and colleges that have endowments totaling $350 billion, according to OpenTheBooks.com, a nonprofit watchdog organization.
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A new, internal government report projects coronavirus cases will expand to 200,000 per day within a month, while the number of daily deaths will nearly double during that time, The New York Times reported.
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Three of the largest oil companies in the United States are feeling the pain amid historically low crude prices, economic lockdowns and a pandemic that has killed tens of thousands of Americans.
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The city of Lakefield, Minnesota will no longer direct any resources to the enforcement of Gov. Tim Walz’s stay-at-home order issued in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
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Gov. Mike DeWine defended the news media and Ohio Department of Health Director Amy Acton during Monday’s press conference after several incidents occurred over the weekend when Ohio extended its lockdown order until May 29 last Friday.
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Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine updated the state’s guidelines for order of priority for coronavirus testing on Tuesday.
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The University of Akron President Gary Miller said in a video message to campus Monday that the school is set to lose between $65 million to $70 million as a result of the coronavirus outbreak.
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Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel issued a letter of guidance to law enforcement on Tuesday to reaffirm that they should continue to enforce social distancing guidelines and stay-at-home orders.
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One of the most important principles of epidemiology is weighing benefits and harms. A failure to do this can make virtually any medical treatment seem helpful or destructive. In the words of Ronald C. Kessler of the Harvard Medical School and healthcare economist Paul E. Greenberg, “medical interventions are appropriate only if their expected benefits clearly exceed the sum of their direct costs and their expected risks.”
Likewise, a 2020 paper about quarantines published in The Lancet states: “Separation from loved ones, the loss of freedom, uncertainty over disease status, and boredom can, on occasion, create dramatic effects. Suicide has been reported, substantial anger generated, and lawsuits brought following the imposition of quarantine in previous outbreaks. The potential benefits of mandatory mass quarantine need to be weighed carefully against the possible psychological costs.”
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The Daily Caller News Foundation filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit on Monday through government watchdog group Judicial Watch against the Department of Health and Human Services for communications regarding the World Health Organization, the Chinese government, and the novel coronavirus.
The lawsuit seeks the communications of Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. H. Clifford Lane, the director and deputy director, respectively, of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Fauci is the top scientist on the White House coronavirus task force. Lane was the U.S. government’s top official on a WHO-sponsored fact-finding mission to China in February. World health officials investigated the origins of the coronavirus outbreak and monitored the Chinese government’s response to the pandemic.
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