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COVID-19 surge pushes US toward deadly cliff BY REID WILSON - 07/12/20 06:00 AM EDT The coronavirus is spreading at ever-faster rates in a broad array of states, putting the U.S. on the precipice of an explosion of illness that threatens to overwhelm the nation's health care system. The painful economic lockdowns imposed in March gave the country time to flatten the epidemiological curve and contain the virus. But that window of opportunity, which came at great economic cost, is quickly slamming shut. Health experts say all signs point to a deadly summer and fall unless government leaders implement a...

Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, is pushing her father and the new White House administration to take legislative action on the issue of human trafficking, according to Axios. On Thursday afternoon, Donald Trump held a listening session on the issue, to greater understand the problem of women and girls who are trafficked into America, and then sexually exploited for profit. However, the issue was fast-tracked onto the agenda by Ivanka Trump, alongside Dina Powell, the White House senior counselor for economic initiatives. According to a source close to Axios, “Ivanka recommended the meeting to the president and he immediately agreed,...

Former Secretary of State and two-time presidential campaign loser Hillary Clinton wants Congress to stop people from reading “fake news” — after spending her political career promoting and defending herself with the exact same thing. Clinton told D.C. lawmakers this week that they need to act on “fake news.” Breitbart’s Charlie Spiering reported: “The epidemic of malicious fake news and false propaganda that flooded social media over the past year — it’s now clear that so-called fake news can have real world consequences,” Clinton said. “This isn’t about politics or bipartisanship. Lives are at risk.” Clinton called for Congress to...

Dalia Mogahed, a member of President Barack Obama's Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is fighting controversy over her online remarks about Israel. On March 10, Mogahed tweeted her opposition to embattled Syrian ruler Bashar al-Assad, listing as one of his flaws the allegation that he "cannot deliver...resistance to Israel," though Syria has been implacably hostile to Israel for decades. Until recently, the Assad regime sheltered the Hamas terrorist group, among other anti-Israel organizations, and recently organized a march on the Israeli border that was treated as a legitimate protest by the international media. After bloggers noticed Mogahed's tweets,...

Occupy DC Protesters assaulted conservatives as they exited an Americans For Prosperity “Tribute to Ronald Reagan” dinner. 78 years old, rode 11 hrs on a bus from Detroit to attend the dinner, taken to hospital with multiple injuries.

Here’s another entry for the Somebody Left The Irony On Department today. The SEIU held an election by mail for an internal election — for which it apparently uses the same kind of secret ballots that they want to deny workers with Card Check. By SEIU’s own rules, those ballots are supposed to arrive via US Postal Service, with postmarks to note the date so that the counters can verify they arrived before the deadline. One SEIU observer noticed counters opening large envelopes of ballots with no postmarks at all on them — and when she tried to protest, the...

Washington - A spike in the cost of gasoline pushed wholesale prices higher in March, a trend that could limit consumer spending in the coming months. Still, most economists don't expect that will lead to widespread inflation because businesses are wary of raising prices when most people aren't getting significant pay increases. (Snip) Diane Swonk, chief economist at Mesirow Financial, said the economy is seeing "a blip" in inflation because of the rise in gas prices, as well as higher foods costs. But "it is just very hard for the broader economy to hold price increases for very long when

TEL AVIV – As Islamist parties gain momentum throughout the region, President Obama has asked Israel to immediately give the Palestinian Authority more control over cities in the strategic West Bank, according to informed Middle East officials. The officials said Obama's envoys to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict met in recent days with officials from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office to express the request. The officials said the U.S. has made a strategic decision to renew a push now for Israel's immediate return to the negotiating table to discuss the creation of a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza and eastern...

They might be best known for space travel, but the folks at NASA are determined to shape the future of commercial aviation. The agency says airliners need to be quieter, greener and more fuel-efficient. To attain those goals, NASA handed out nearly $6 million in contracts this week to two defense industry giants: Lockheed Martin Corp. and Northrop Grumman Corp. NASA’s goal is to develop technology that would enable future aircraft to burn 50% less fuel than current models, cut harmful emissions in half and shrink the geographic areas affected by obnoxious airport noise by 83%. The agency hopes to...

The House Budget Committee Monday initiated the process that will allow the Senate to consider health care reform under special rules which ban Senate filibusters and require a simple majority to approve the measure. The House Budget Committee Monday initiated the process that will allow the Senate to consider health care reform under special rules which ban Senate filibusters and require a simple majority to approve the measure. The budget panel approved the reconciliation resolution 21 to 16. Two Democrats, Reps. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., and Chet Edwards, D-Texas, voted against the resolution. Both voted against the health care bill in...

NEW YORK (AFP) – Voters in Massachusetts decide on a new senator Tuesday -- and possibly the fate of President Barack Obama's ambitious reform agenda. The special election to fill the seat of the late Democratic veteran Edward Kennedy could see Republican Scott Brown score a stunning upset against Democrat Martha Coakley in what was believed to be one of her party's safest seats. The latest Public Policy Polling survey conducted over the weekend gives Brown 51 percent to Coakley's 46 percent. One published by left-leaning website The Daily Kos showed them equal, but with Coakley sharply down from a...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave her strongest endorsement yet of a global financial transaction fee Thursday after raising the issue directly with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a conversation this week. Geithner was widely seen as opposing such a levy when it was proposed by Gordon Brown, the British prime minister, at a meeting of G-20 finance ministers last month in Scotland. But after their phone conversation Wednesday, Pelosi told colleagues that the secretary indicated he was more open to some such fee than had been reported. Pelosi didn’t reveal her conversation with Geithner at her weekly press conference Thursday, but...

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Thursday unveiled a new carbon tax to help combat global warming, calling it a "fiscal revolution" and overriding strong public opposition to the plan. The new levy on oil, gas and coal consumption by households and businesses will come into effect next year, making France the biggest economy yet to impose a straight-up carbon tax. "It is time to create green taxation," Sarkozy said in an address in Culoz, a town near the French border with Switzerland. "This is a major fiscal shift, an important innovation," he said. "It is the first step of a...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama is pushing ahead with plans to shore up dwindling federal reserves for highway construction and establish a government-run bank to pay for future transportation projects.

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass touted Uncle Sam as a realistic savior Wednesday for California's multibillion-dollar budget shortfall – but critics say the tactic could backfire by raising false hopes. "I'm still concerned that some folks are looking at this in isolation and not in its national and international context," Bass said of a projected budget gap of $27.8 billion over two years. Rather than Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's approach of bridging the gap by roughly a 50-50 formula of tax increases and program cuts, Bass said it's realistic to turn to federal officials for a bailout that would avoid cuts. "I...

LOS ANGELES - In a year when Republicans are slouching toward a post-Bush era, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has a winning strategy for his party — be like me. California's popular governor is known for his kaleidoscopic political stripes, and that's his point. He said Republicans could face a future of Election Day misery unless the party makes a decisive shift to the political center and claims issues usually associated with the Democratic agenda, like global warming and health-care reform. "We are dying at the box office," the actor-politician told party activists, lamenting a decline in Republican registration that...

BAGHDAD — Iraqi security forces, supported by Soldiers from Multi-National Division – Baghdad, expanded their combined security effort into the northeast Baghdad neighborhood of Adhamiyah on Sunday in support of Operation Together Forward. The combined operations are led by the 1st Brigade, 9th Iraqi Army Division, and 2nd Brigade, 6th Iraqi Army Division, supported by Iraqi National Police from the 1st Brigade, 1st National Police Division, and Soldiers from the 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team. The operations are designed to reduce the level of murders, kidnappings, assassinations, terrorism and sectarian violence in northern Baghdad, as well as to reinforce the...

Organizations controlled by Howard Rich, a Manhattan real estate investor with a longstanding interest in libertarian causes, have funneled more than $7.3 million into ballot initiative campaigns in 12 states, according to an analysis by The Oregonian newspaper in Portland. Most of the Rich groups' money is for state spending caps and property rights measures in the West and Midwest, led by $2.3 million to fund a now-derailed effort to get both causes on the ballot in Missouri. Next come California, with $1.5 million for a campaign to prohibit government from condemning property for private use, and Oregon, with $1.1...

SAN DIEGO – Rep. Brian Bilbray called Wednesday for increased immigration enforcement well beyond the border, but local law enforcement leaders said they could not take on a federal mandate to arrest suspected illegal immigrants. Bilbray, R-Carlsbad, made his comments during a hearing held at the Border Patrol station here within site of the U.S.-Mexico border, one of several such sessions Republican leaders in the House of Representatives plan to hold around the country to focus more attention on the immigration issue. Bilbray said the recent debates on illegal immigration show that not enough has been done to find and...

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger stopped by a Kern County highway junction Tuesday to promote what he called a "historic" $37 billion bond package for education, housing, levee repair and transportation. State Sen. Dean Florez, D-Shafter, left, joins in with California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Bakersfield Mayor Harvey Hall, right, along Highway 99 and Highway 65 gaining support for an infrastructure bond on the November ballot. The program calls for $1 billion in improvements to Highway 99. The bond package, passed by the state Legislature Friday, needs only to be signed by the governor to be put on the November 2006 ballot....