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Wednesday, April 29, 2020

DPI statement on President Trump's executive order

In response to President Trump’s executive order keeping meat and poultry plants operating during the COVID-19 crisis, Delmarva Poultry Industry, Inc. issued the following statement:

“This executive order will give needed assistance to Delmarva’s chicken processing companies by sending food supply chain resources to plants, giving them even more ways to keep workers safe and protected from coronavirus. By resolving inconsistencies among states in enforcing CDC guidelines, the order is a good first step towards a uniform standard for worker safety during this crisis in meat and chicken processing.

“Last week, Delmarva’s governors jointly conveyed to the President an urgent need for additional federal support for our chicken community, asking the White House to identify federal resources that could help chicken companies, employees, farmers and chicken growers and to provide necessary equipment, personnel, supplies and testing materials to ensure processing plants can remain open. They also asked for national, uniform guidance from the CDC and OSHA for the meatpacking and poultry processing companies. This executive order accomplishes those goals and aids us in keeping the safe and stable chicken supply chain our country must have.

“This crisis is sorely testing Delmarva’s chicken community – our more than 20,000 chicken company employees, the more than 1,300 farmers who raise chickens here, and the scores of allied businesses we rely on. All of them have shown astounding reserves of patience, determination and strength. Together, and with a helping hand from the states and the federal government, we will continue to feed the country and the world.”

Gregg Jarrett: New evidence on Michael Flynn — drop all charges and let him sue his persecutors

Michael Flynn is the victim of one of the worst miscarriages of justice in modern times — an innocent man who was unfairly targeted by the FBI, wrongfully prosecuted by special counsel Robert Mueller, and coerced into a guilty plea under threat.

New court documents finally handed over to Flynn’s lawyer contain exculpatory evidence that has been long sought, yet concealed until now. The charge against him should be dismissed. Then, he should sue the very people and government thatpersecuted him under the pretext of a legitimate prosecution.

The unvarnished truth is that the retired Army lieutenant general and former National Security Adviser never did anything wrong and committed no crimes. He was set up by unscrupulous FBI officials, then relentlessly pursued by Mueller’s team of overzealous prosecutors who were desperate to show that President Trump and his campaign colluded with Russia to win the 2016 presidential election.

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Jacki Pick: Artificial Depression Built Around Coronavirus Will Kill Thousands

An artificial depression created around the coronavirus outbreak by American leadership will kill thousands of Americans, explained Jacki Pick, host of the Jacki Daily Show on BlazeMedia, warning of the consequences of varying economic shutdowns across the nation ostensibly aimed at addressing the viral spread. She offered her analysis on Tuesday’s edition of SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily.

In her recently-published article, “What a Prolonged Shutdown Will Cost in Human Life,” Pick wrote:

A prolonged shutdown could bring tens of thousands of deaths through spikes in rates of suicide, heart attack, missed cancer diagnoses, domestic violence deaths, substance abuse, and more. We have evidence that these deaths are coming, and the shutdown is only a month old.

“For whatever reason, we decided to artificially create a depression around [a once-in-a-century pandemic],” Pick said. “Leadership created a demand collapse for oil — basically gasoline — and then any oil-derived products.”

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Detroit Democrats Cast Out Fellow Lawmaker Who Had Audacity To Credit Trump For HCQ COVID Cure

A Detroit Democratic lawmaker was officially censured by her party colleagues last weekend after she credited President Trump with for promoting hydroxychloroquine, which she says saved her life after she contracted COVID-19.

According to The Detroit News, State Rep. Karen Whitsett of Detroit 'broke protocol' by meeting with President Trump and VP Mike Pence during an April 14 meeting of coronavirus survivors.

"Thank you for everything that you have done,” Whitsett told Trump at the meeting. “I did not know that saying thank you had a political line. … I’m telling my story and my truth, and this how I feel and these are my words," she said during the meeting.

Whitsett's penalty? She was cast out by the 13th Congressional District Democratic Party organization, which unanimously voted via Zoom on Saturday to oust the first-term lawmaker representing Michigan's 9th House District.

"We have the ability to be the referee when we see our leaders out there attacking and not being willing to have a discussion to find common ground," said chairman Jonathan Kinloch. "Based on her actions and recent statements, she's chosen to be a stand-alone Democrat with the goals of a Republican."

According to the resolution, Whitsett has "misrepresented the needs and priorities" of Democrats to the President and public, and that she participated in events with the Republican Women's Federation of Michigan to express her thanks to Trump.

Whitsett "has repeatedly and publicly praised the president's delayed and misguided COVID-19 response efforts in contradiction with the scientifically based and action-oriented response" from Michigan's Democratic leadership, "endangering the health, safety and welfare of her constituents, the city of Detroit and the state of Michigan."

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A Federal Bailout Won't Fix States' Finances

Bailing out the Illinois state pension system is the worst idea from a week in which we were discussing the health benefits of mainlining Lysol. (Please do not mainline Lysol. It will kill you.)

Irresponsible state and local governments are attempting to exploit the fear and disruption of the coronavirus epidemic to push off the consequences of their decades of reckless and culpably dishonest policies onto the federal government. This will inspire a great deal of conversation about “moral hazard” and “fairness,” but the fundamental problem is something else: Such a bailout would not work because it would not actually solve the real-world problems that threaten to cripple state and local finances.

Contra Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, this is not exclusively a “blue state” problem.

State and local governments are facing short-term financial problems that are tied to the epidemic and the imposition of social distancing, lost tax revenue prominent among them. With businesses forcibly closed and unemployment soaring, there is less money coming into state, county, and city tax coffers. Some states are better prepared for this than others: Wyoming maintains a “rainy-day” fund that has socked away in it funds equal to 109 percent of the state’s annual government expenditures. Alaska has more than half a year’s expenditures tucked away, North Dakota 30 percent, New Mexico 27 percent. Most states have a good deal less, and some have very little: New York has only 3 percent, Pennsylvania 1 percent, and Senator McConnell’s home state of Kentucky less than 3 percent. Illinois, to nobody’s great surprise, comes in at 0.0 percent, no doubt from spending all its money on Chicago-style avocado toast.

Conservatives often have been critical of these funds, characterizing the reserves as excessive an

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Maryland Covid-19 Data 4-29-2020



COVID-19 Statistics in Maryland
Number of confirmed cases: 20,849
Number of negative test results: 90,080  
Number of confirmed deaths: 985
Number of probable deaths: 93
Currently hospitalized: 1645
Acute care: 1,060
Intensive care: 585
Ever hospitalized: 4,402
Released from isolation: 1,361

Cases and Deaths Data Breakdown:
Parenthesis = Confirmed death, laboratory-confirmed positive COVID-19 test result
Asterisk = Probable death, death certificate lists COVID-19 as the cause of death but not yet confirmed by a laboratory test
NH = Non-Hispanic

By County

County    Cases Deaths   
Allegany    116    (6)   
Anne Arundel    1,662    (75)    8*
Baltimore City    2,014    (94)    7*
Baltimore County    2,740    (104)    14*
Calvert    142 (8)   
Caroline    69       
Carroll    421    (45)   
Cecil    164 (8)   
Charles    551 (41)    1*
Dorchester    51    (2)   
Frederick    893    (45)    6*
Garrett    4
Harford    371    (6)    7*
Howard    831 (18)    1*
Kent    73    (4)   
Montgomery    4,152 (218)    24*
Prince George's    5,738    (213)    11*
Queen Anne's    55    (4)       
St. Mary's    145    (7)    1*
Somerset    21
Talbot    34 (1)   
Washington    197 (3)
Wicomico    350    (7)   
Worcester    55    (2)
 Data Not Available (74)    13*

By Age Range and Gender

Age/Gender    Cases Deaths   
0-9    256
10-19    539
20-29    2,393 (7)   
30-39    3,511 (14)    1*
40-49    3,696    (24)    2*
50-59    3,792    (65)    7*
60-69    2,927    (152)    11*
70-79    2,035    (234)    12*
80+    1,700    (413)    49*
Age Data Not Available (76)    11*
Female:    11,130    (483)    52*
Male:    9,719 (502)    41*
Gender Data Not Available:  
    
By Race and Ethnicity
Race/Ethnicity    Cases Deaths   
African-American (NH)    7,615    (404)    27*
Asian (NH)    434 (36)    3*
White (NH) 4,808    (390)    49*
Hispanic 3,473    (64)    3*
Other (NH)    747    (17)   
Data Not Available    3,772    (74)    11*

Coronavirus lingers in the air of crowded spaces, study finds

The novel coronavirus that has swept the globe, infecting over 3 million people and killing at least 208,131, can linger in the air of crowded spaces.

A new study published Monday in the journal Nature Research revealed that bits of COVID-19's genetic materials were found floating in the air of hospital toilets, in an indoor space holding large crowds and in rooms where medical staff removed protective gear.

Researchers, who analyzed two hospitals in the pandemic's epicenter in Wuhan, China, did not seek to establish whether these airborne particles could cause infections. Scientists are still learning more about this new coronavirus, so the question of whether it can spread through airborne particles is still being debated.
https://www.foxnews.com/science/coronavirus-lingers-air-crowded-spaces-study-finds

Rental owners say there's 'no light at the end of tunnel' amid coronavirus

ATLANTA - Rental owners nationwide are dealing with the impact of the coronaviruswhile their properties sit empty.

Jenn Cook has two rental properties in Florida that were booked into the summer season before the pandemic began.

“I mean, pretty much all of our pending reservations, canceled, every single one of them. As soon as they started to do this quarantine thing, it was kind of a ripple effect,” Cook said.

Cook’s income from her rental properties has drastically declined and she doesn’t know when things will get better.

“We usually make about $12,000 a month between the two vacation rentals that we have. We’ve lost March, we’ve lost April…and we don’t know how bad it’s going to be,” Cook said.

Thousands of rental owners are in similar situations. Rich Munroe, a rental owner in Georgia said it feels like they are living in the unknown.

“Any bookings that were booked for the next 60 to 90 days, all of them canceled,” Munroe said.

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https://www.foxnews.com/us/short-term-rental-owners-coronavirus

Sen. Cotton asks how Dems who believed claims against Kavanaugh could 'possibly agree' to be Biden running mate

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said Sunday that Democratic senators who believed sexual assault accusations against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh shouldn't want to be Joe Biden's running mate, claiming there is more evidence for an assault claim against Biden as a sitting senator in the 1990s than there were for claims against Kavanaugh from his youth.

The Biden campaign has denied the allegation by an aide against the former vice president.

"These Democratic senators believed Christine Blasey Ford's claim against Justice Kavanaugh, yet there's more evidence to support Tara Reade's claim of sexual assault against Joe Biden," Cotton wrote in a Sunday tweet. "How could they possibly agree to be VP under those circumstances?"

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https://www.foxnews.com/politics/sen-tom-cotton-kavanaugh-biden

U.S. coronavirus death toll now greater than that of Vietnam War

(NEXSTAR) – The number of Americans who died from COVID-19 is now higher than the death toll of U.S. soldiers killed in the Vietnam War.

By late Tuesday afternoon, More data showed U.S. coronavirus deaths to be 58,343. The bloody conflict in Vietnam, which spanned two decades, killed 58,220 Americans, according to statistics from the National Archives.

Coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 1 million Tuesday, more than four times the number in Spain, the country with the second-most.

Rick Scott: ‘Not Fair’ to Bail Out Indebted States via Coronavirus Bill

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said on Monday that it is not fair for taxpayers to bail out indebted states, such as New York, Illinois, and California, via a future coronavirus package.

Scott slammed a Democrat proposal to use federal funds to aid struggling state and local governments, which could reach as high as $700 billion.

“It’s not fair to the taxpayers of Florida. We sit here, we live within our means, and then New York, Illinois, California, and other states don’t. And we’re supposed to go bail them out? That’s not right,” Scott told reporters.

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IMF chief echoes AOC on using pandemic as 'great opportunity' to push green agenda

International Monetary Fund head Kristalina Georgieva echoed Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Twitter feed on Monday by framing the coronavirus pandemic is a “great opportunity” to push green initiatives.

The Bulgarian economist told the Atlantic Council via videoconference that “Mother Nature” would continue warning the world about embracing green policies whether citizens liked it or not.

“A crisis [is] never to be missed as an opportunity to do better,” Ms. Georgieva said, the Washington Examiner reported.

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Eighth Circuit Upholds Determination that Wells Fargo is Liable for Penalties for Engaging in Abusive Tax Shelter Scheme

WASHINGTON – The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a precedential opinion on Friday, April 24, 2020, affirming a district court decision that a transaction designed to generate massive foreign tax credits (referred to as the STARS tax shelter) lacked economic substance and business purpose and was subject to the accuracy-related penalty for negligence, announced Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Richard E. Zuckerman and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Joshua Wu of the Justice Department’s Tax Division.

In Wells Fargo v. United States, No. 17-3578, the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota and the position of the United States. Wells Fargo, like several other U.S. banks, had entered into the STARS shelter, a transaction promoted to them by Barclays PLC and KPMG as a method of generating foreign tax credits on U.S. income. The Eighth Circuit rejected the transaction as an economic sham subject to penalties, consistent with the decisions of three other courts of appeals. In rejecting Wells Fargo’s appeal, the court agreed with the government that “STARS was an elaborate and unlawful tax avoidance scheme, designed to exploit the differences between the tax laws of the U.S. and the U.K. and generate U.S. tax credits for a foreign tax that Wells Fargo did not, in substance, pay.”

Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Zuckerman thanked Tax Division attorney Judith Hagley and former Tax Division attorneys Gilbert Rothenberg and Richard Farber, who handled the case on appeal for the government, as well as Chief Senior Litigation Counsel Dennis Donohue, Senior Litigation Counsel Kari Larson, trial attorneys William Farrior, Harris Phillips, Matthew Johnshoy, and former Tax Division attorney Viki Economides Farrior, who litigated the case in the district court.

BREAKING: CA Supreme Court Orders Gov. Respond Re Unemployment Benefits For Undocumenteds

‘Not a slush fund for the Governor to spend as he sees fit’

While more than 3 million California citizens are awaiting state unemployment benefits because of Governor Gavin Newsom’s order for statewide lockdown, the governor announced last week he was extending $75 million to undocumented immigrants to be passed-through unnamed regional non-profit associations.

However, the Center for American Liberty’s lawsuit, in coordination with The Dhillon Law Group, filed an emergency petition with the California Supreme Court Wednesday asking the Court to immediately halt Governor Newsom’s appropriation of $75 million for the undocumented immigrants.

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U.S. Marshals Capture Eastern Shore Gang Member “RJ” Northan

Norfolk, VA – A Bloods gang member on the run from attempted murder charges in Accomack County since March 25 was captured today in Maryland. Robert “RJ” James Northan Jr., 34, was arrested as a result of an extensive multi-agency fugitive investigation.

At approximately 9:45am, U.S Marshals Fugitive Task Force members from Norfolk, VA and Salisbury MD arrested Northan at a hotel in Pocomoke City, MD. The arrest was the result of an extensive fugitive investigation involving the following agencies: U.S. Marshals, FBI, Accomack Sheriff’s Office, Northampton Sheriff’s Office, Virginia State Police, Maryland State Police, Eastern Shore Drug Task Force, and Worcester County Sheriff’s Office.

“I would like to thank the U.S. Marshals and all the agencies involved with this team effort in bringing this fugitive to justice,” said Accomack Sheriff W. Todd Wessells.

“I am routinely humbled by the tenacity and the “never give up” attitude displayed by Deputy Marshals and our state and local law enforcement partners. Despite the significantly increased risk to law enforcement during the crisis caused by the ongoing viral pandemic, the public should take comfort in knowing that the Marshals Service and their partners are still on the street every day helping to ensure that the public is protected from dangerous groups and individuals. Cases like this, under these circumstances, should give the citizens here in Virginia piece of mind in knowing that the Marshals Service works daily to serve the public with Justice, Integrity and Service.” U.S. Marshal Nick E. Proffitt.

Northan is being held at the Worcester County Detention Center awaiting return to Virginia.

Local Covid-19 Testing

PRMC hospital and Wicomico County Health Department will run a health clinic in which tests will be offered to people who are at high risk of contagion of Covid-19, especially chicken plant workers and their relatives.

Place: Arthur W Stadium. Perdue 6400 Hobbs Road, Salisbury, MD 21804

When: Thursday April 30, Friday May 1st and Saturday May 2

The hours of service are:

• 9 Am - 1 PM
• 3 PM- 7 PM

Interpreters will be available in the Spanish and Creole language
Reports Covid-19 (410) 912 6889

Transportation is offered: To know the places where you will pick up the people you want to go call 211

Covid-19 Nursing Home Cases ****5 cases at one Salisbury Nursing Home****

Here is the link to check other nursing homes. https://coronavirus.maryland.gov/pages/hcf-resources?

California, The Land Of Fruits & Nuts


AP declares Kweisi Mfume winner of 7th Congressional District race

BALTIMORE (WBFF) - Associated Press is calling the special 7th Congressional District election for former NAACP leader Kweisi Mfume.

The special election was held after the death of longtime U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings.

The Maryland Board of Elections has released only partial results from voting so far.

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https://foxbaltimore.com/news/vote-2020/ap-declares-kweisi-mfume-winner-of-7th-congressional-district-race?

Japan begins ‘mass manufacturing exodus’ from China

Japan is about to hit Covid Cover Uppers China with a massive manufacturing exodus following the Coronavirus pandemic that has brought the world to its knees.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has proposed “building an economy that is less dependent on one country, China, so that the nation can better avoid supply chain disruptions.” reports Nikkei Asia Review.

The plans have sent chills down the Chinese Communist Party’s spines as more of the worlds top economies are set to follow suit, Politicalite reports.

Britian, the EU and the United States – who have been touting an America First policy for almost four years could follow suit.

In Beijing, the ruling unelected Communist Party bigwigs are said to be in a state of panic.

“There are now serious concerns over foreign companies withdrawing from China,” a Chinese economic source said.

“What has particularly been talked about is the clause in Japan’s emergency economic package that encourages (and funds) the re-establishment of supply chains.”

“Had the pandemic not struck, Chinese President Xi Jinping’s maiden state visit to Japan would have been wrapped up by now with Xi proudly declaring a “new era” of Sino-Japanese relations. He would have cheered on Abe as Japan prepared for the next big event, the 2020 Olympics.”

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