Behind the Scenes, Scientists Prep for COVID-19 Vaccine Test; Would You Get Infected With Coronavirus for $4,500?

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By Associated Press. A team of scientists jostled for a view of the lab dish, staring impatiently for the first clue that an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus just might work.

After weeks of round-the-clock research at the National Institutes of Health, it was time for a key test. If the vaccine revs up the immune system, the samples in that dish — blood drawn from immunized mice — would change color. . .

Dozens of research groups around the world are racing to create a vaccine as COVID-19 cases continue to grow. Importantly, they’re pursuing different types of vaccines — shots developed from new technologies that not only are faster to make than traditional inoculations but might prove more potent. Some researchers even aim for temporary vaccines, such as shots that might guard people’s health a month or two at a time while longer-lasting protection is developed. (Read more from “Behind the Scenes, Scientists Prep for COVID-19 Vaccine Test” HERE)

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Human Lab Rats Needed: Would You Get Infected With Coronavirus for $4,500?

By New York Post. Are you sick of being healthy? Would you like to experience the coronavirus firsthand?

Look no further than the Queen Mary BioEnterprises Innovation Centre in London, which is looking for 24 volunteers to inject with the dreaded coronavirus and participate in their flu camp.

They will be paid about $4,588 for their troubles.

This isn’t the latest twisted Stephen King novel. Rather, it’s an attempt by medical research and development company Hvivo to create a vaccine for the deadly disease which has killed more than 3,800 across the globe.

The human guinea pigs — who will receive a battery of tests before being selected — will be given two of the virus’ weaker strains, 0C43 and 229E, which should cause mild respiratory symptoms. They will then be given new or existing vaccines. (Read more from “Human Lab Rats Needed: Would You Get Infected With Coronavirus for $4,500?” HERE)

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School Removes Christian Mural Following Pressure from Hard-Left, Atheist Group

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The left’s crusade against Christianity has hit a new low: a mural invoking God and faith in a high school locker room has been covered in response to pressure from atheist, Freedom From Religion Foundation Foundation (FFRF) activists.

The mural at Letcher Central High School featured Jeremiah 20:11 – “But the Lord is with me like a mighty warrior” – and was positioned above athletes’ lockers.

After a letter from the notoriously left-wing, atheist activist group FFRF describing the display as “unconstitutional”, claiming it violates the “basic constitutional prohibition by creating the appearance that the District prefers religion over nonreligion and Christianity over all faiths,” the mural was erased. . .

While the FFRF letter was sent November 4th 2019, Letcher County superintendent Denise Yonts responded in late February, acquiescing to the foundation’s request by agreeing to remove not just the locker room mural but a bulletin board message proclaiming “Jesus is my savior. You can’t scare me!” and a Facebook post sharing a prayer for children at the beginning of the school year:

“Dear God, Thank you for the gift of education in every form. As our children prepare to start a new year may confidence be their foundation, may grace be their guide and may hope be their compass toward a bright future. I pray they would have eyes to see the needs of those around them and a heart to love well. May they face each day with positivity knowing that no matter what comes their way, they do not have to face it alone. Amen.”

(Read more from “School Removes Christian Mural Following Pressure from Hard-Left, Atheist Group” HERE)

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DNC Changes Debate Rules so Biden Can Sit Down

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The Democratic National Committee (DNC), aided by CNN, appears to be changing the rules for the next Democratic presidential nominee debate again.

This time, apparently, so former vice president Joe Biden can sit down. . .

And while the Biden camp denies pressuring the DNC and CNN to allow Joe to take a load off, the Sanders camp outwardly objected to the rule change. Team Biden did not. Usually, in the murky world of backroom political deals, this means you’re in on it.

“Why does Joe Biden not want to stand toe-to-toe with Sen. Sanders on the debate stage March 15 and have an opportunity to defend his record and articulate his vision for the future?” quipped Jeff Weaver, Bernie Sanders’s senior adviser.

Team Biden hit back in a predictably lame fashion: “We want to have an exchange of ideas next week in Phoenix. We look forward to taking voter questions in a town hall-style setting,” said Biden’s deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfield. (Read more from “Dnc Changes Debate Rules so Biden Can Sit Down” HERE)

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Pro-Criminal Organizations Blocking Governor’s Anti-Gang Bill

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Just how powerful is the “criminal justice reform” movement in our political scene? Well, not only is Kim Kardashian directing criminal justice policy at the White House, but every state has a cadre of well-monied organizations vouching for criminals and leaving forgotten law-abiding Americans behind to deal with the carnage. What’s most offensive is that they are using racial pandering to push pro-criminal ideas that actually harm African-Americans more than anyone. Nowhere is this more evident than in Georgia Governor Brian Kemp’s fight for anti-gang legislation.

While many GOP governors are joining with the Soros Democrats to push weak-on-crime laws, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is headed in the opposite direction. He understands, as Reagan did, that “criminal justice reform” means focusing on victims of crime and public safety. During his State of the State address in January, he pledged to introduce anti-gang legislation to combat the growing gang violence in metro Atlanta, an area that is experiencing an increase in both violent and property crimes.

With support of the governor and state attorney general, one would think that toughening sentencing on gang members would be a no-brainer in a state like Georgia. After all, Republicans enjoy a 103-75 majority in the House and a 35-21 majority in the Senate. But RINOs in the House joined with left-wing pro-gang organizations to gut the governor’s bill, H.B. 994, before it could pass committee. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that activist groups convinced some House Republicans to gut the bill and force amendments at a hearing last week.

Under the original proposal from the governor, juveniles who commit violent crimes as gang members would be charged as adults; gang members who commit crimes in multiple jurisdictions would be tried for all crimes in one county; and those who committed murder as gang members would be eligible for the death penalty upon conviction. All of those provisions were stripped from the bill.

Evidently, the deep concern of jailbreak advocates for “low-level, nonviolent offenders” has now transmogrified to advocacy for the most violent gang members. Much of the murder and mayhem in this country is committed by gang members, increasingly at a young age because there is no deterrent against gangs any more. Georgia has 71,000 gang members, 50,000 in the metro Atlanta area. DeKalb County experienced record murders last year, up 40 percent from the previous year, as arrest rates plummeted in the region thanks to “criminal justice reform.”

As politicians wring their hands to “do something” about mass shootings, they miss the point that most murder in this country is gang-related. Deterring violent gang members should be bipartisan, yet we can’t even get many Republicans to stand up to the de-incarceration crowd to get tougher on violent criminals.

Liberals in Georgia, just like Kim Kardashian, only care about criminals like Myliek Ryshiem Dunn, not his victims. Dunn is charged in Cobb County with gang-related murder, armed robbery, and rape of an 11-year-old. He is a juvenile, but that is no solace to his victims. They don’t deserve less justice, and society at large doesn’t deserve a lesser deterrent against juveniles capable of committing such crimes. Yet these are the people tugging at the hearts of the political activists, not the victims.

As in most states, the lack of deterrent against juveniles is a problem in Georgia. In January, I reported on an Atlanta teen who had a massive rap sheet and was not locked up who went on to allegedly rape and beat a mother of two in a park. He was offered bail even after the brutal rape.

On Friday, New York City police released a video of what appears to be a pack of several dozen violent teenagers beating one 15-year-old girl unconscious.

This is far from petty theft. Is the damage to the victim less severe and the public safety threat less potent because these grown violent perpetrators happen to be under 18?

According to the Atlanta Repeat Offender Commission, in 2017 and 2018, just 23 percent of repeat offenders arrested by Atlanta police were sentenced to any degree of confinement by Fulton County Superior Court judges — a decrease of nearly 14 percent from those sentenced in 2016. The most common sentence issued by a Fulton judge was “time served.”

The result? Atlanta police are experiencing a 22 percent increase in auto thefts this year. But rather than getting tougher on violent criminals and gangs, the bipartisan criminal lobby wants to diminish deterrent and weaken our justice system even further.

Liberals suggest you can’t arrest your way out of the gang problem, but what we are seeing across the country and in Atlanta is that you can release your way into the problem. (For more from the author of “Pro-Criminal Organizations Blocking Governor’s Anti-Gang Bill” please click HERE)

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Man Released by First Step Act Rearrested for Meth Trafficking

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Trump’s often-spoken instincts on punishing drug traffickers were correct. Therefore, he might want to think twice before his son-in-law or Kim Kardashian convince him to stand at a podium with drug traffickers released early from prison like Obama did. Now, one of those who spoke at a jailbreak press conference with him has been rearrested for drug trafficking after obtaining early release under the First Step Act.

On April 1, 2009, Trump held a summit with prisoners released under the First Step Act to celebrate passage of the bill. One of those convicts celebrated at the podium was Troy Powell, whom Trump referred to as a great electrician and even joked about using him one day for work in the White House. He celebrated the fact that Powell was hired by a lumber company in North Carolina.

Trump then brought him to the lectern amid rousing applause from the crowd. Powell thanked all of the jailbreak organizations like Cut 50 that helped get the legislation passed. Choked up with emotion, Powell said that “more needs to be done” and that he left many others behind in prison. “There’s people doing 40, 50 years, for nothin’, I mean absolutely nothing,” lamented Powell. The Republican National Committee even tweeted out the video.

It was one of those heartwarming moments. The tenor of that press conference was all about the injustice to criminals, not victims, as if the federal government just randomly grabbed great people and locked them up forever, and if only we abolished prison, we’d live happily ever after.

Fast-forward roughly a year later, and Powell was arrested in North Carolina with three others and charged with meth trafficking. Thousands of Americans are dying because of people like this. And this can’t be blamed on lack of job opportunities. This is a man who literally has the president’s ear and was given a job, but he was allegedly back to his old ways almost immediately.

The reality is, as Reagan warned, that some people are just irremediably broken and a danger to society. It takes talent to get into state prison these days, much less to graduate to federal prison. While no system is perfect, the fact that someone gets mandatory minimums in federal prison usually means he had multiple opportunities to escape the longer sentencing.

The sad thing is that this happens all the time. I’m told by sources at the DEA who are not authorized to speak to the media that they see many people who have been released in recent years, including under Obama, back to trafficking for the cartels within days of their release. If not for a local North Carolina TV station, we would never have known about this case.

The chickens of the First Step Act came home to roost even more severely in Providence, Rhode Island, last year when Joel Francisco, who was released under the First Step Act, was charged with murder. Francisco was serving life in prison for a third drug trafficking charge in 2005 under the “three strikes and you’re out” law. However, he got such a severe sentence not because of drugs but because he was a known Latin Kings member responsible for a lot of violence in the city, including shooting a man in the back of the head, execution-style, in 1997. He pleaded no contest for that, so at the time, he escaped full justice in the state system. The feds targeted him specifically for this reason, yet the First Step Act released him.

It’s unclear whether the judge in Powell’s case believed he was responsible for crimes more severe than the drug trafficking that landed him in prison for 20 years, but may never know, sense his sentencing report is sealed.

Numerous violent offenders have been released under this bill. We will never know how many reoffend, because 18 Republicans joined every Democrat in defeating an amendment by Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., that would have required the Bureau of Prisons to publish the rearrest information of released prisoners.

This is the big lie. Just as with numerous crimes committed by illegal aliens that get reported as “a New York man,” so many crimes committed by those released under these jailbreak programs never get traced back to the political movement that released them.

What is so jarring about the jailbreak of drug traffickers is that it comes amid the worst meth crisis in our nation’s history. Congress passed dozens of bills clamping down on prescriptions and spending billions of dollars for drug treatment. It is preparing more bills this year. Yet, when it comes to the people actually supplying this stuff, lawmakers are treating them like heroes. Which one is it? Is this the worst drug crisis ever, engendering a full-scale response from government, or are we going to celebrate drug traffickers and virtue-signal on how they were wronged?

Most of all, this tragic story demonstrates the fallacy behind one of the major talking points of the pro-criminal movement. Proponents of jailbreak constantly speak of the need for “second chances.” Aside from the fact that, with few exceptions, our system is full of endless chances for the criminal but no second chance for victims, they are missing the most important factor in rehabilitation. Someone who has truly reformed would recognize what he did wrong and commit to rectifying his mistake. Yet these people think they did nothing wrong, as Powell himself said last February. And therein lies the problem.

Alice Johnson has become a celebrity for Republicans and is now a de facto spokeswomen for the Trump administration. She was a top-level cocaine trafficker for the Colombian cartels, and her prosecution was the biggest drug case in Tennessee’s history at the time. To this day, she doesn’t believe she did anything wrong. One would think a reformed person would go around with the DEA and federal prosecutors and warn about the dangers of cocaine trafficking, which is killing thousands of African-Americans. Instead, she is agitating for release of more traffickers.

At some point our government needs to pick a side in this battle. As for President Trump, he must remember that his initial instincts, opposed to “swampthink,” are always correct. (For more from the author of “Man Released by First Step Act Rearrested for Meth Trafficking” please click HERE)

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“Couldn’t Come at a Worse Time”: Putin Declares War on American Oil Production

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By Bloomberg. “The Kremlin has decided to sacrifice OPEC+ to stop U.S. shale producers and punish the U.S. for messing with Nord Stream 2,” said Alexander Dynkin, president of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow, a state-run think tank. “Of course, to upset Saudi Arabia could be a risky thing, but this is Russia’s strategy at the moment – flexible geometry of interests” . . .

When the coronavirus started devastating Chinese economic activity in early February – cutting oil demand in Saudi Arabia’s biggest customer by 20% — Prince Abdulaziz tried to convince [Russian Energy Minister Alexander] Novak that they should call an early OPEC+ meeting in response to cutback supply. Novak said no. The Saudi king and Putin spoke by phone ­­– it didn’t help. . .

In the short run, Russia is in a good position to withstand an oil price slump. The budget breaks even at a price of $42 a barrel and the finance ministry has squirreled away billions in a rainy-day fund. Nonetheless, the coronavirus’s impact on the global economy is still unclear and with millions more barrels poised to flood the market, Wall Street analysts are warning oil could test recent lows of $26 a barrel. (Read more from “Putin Declares War on American Oil Production” HERE)
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Opening the Floodgates of Oil Production Forcing Prices Down

By Brian Sullivan. Vladimir Putin just sparked what could end up being one of the ugliest oil price wars in modern history, and American oil and gas companies may be the victims.

This weekend Saudi Arabia dropped the oil bomb. It not only cut its forward crude price to Chinese customers by as much as $6 or $7 per barrel, but is also reportedly looking to raise its daily crude output by as many as 2 million barrels per day into an already oversupplied global market. Look out below.

The move by the Saudis is both a market share grab and a loud signal to Moscow that it’s done playing games. The dramatic action is in response to a contentious, and ultimately failed, OPEC meeting in Austria on Friday. OPEC members laid out a proposal to further cut oil output quotas by as much as 1.5 million barrels per day. [And it] couldn’t occur at a worse time. Coronavirus is already slamming global oil demand and crude prices have fallen 30% this year . . .

It′s not media hyperbole to call what happened this weekend in the oil markets “historic.” When the Russians walked out of OPEC’s Austria headquarters, it suddenly became every country – and every U.S company – for itself. A race to the top in production and a race to the bottom in prices. (Read more about the oil production crisis HERE)

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US Oil Production May Prove Resilient

By Jason Lemon. Under Trump, the U.S. has surpassed Saudi Arabia and Russia to become the world’s biggest oil producing nation, largely spurred by the expansion of fracking. Saudi Arabia had tried unsuccessfully to flood the oil market and reduce prices drastically to maintain its dominance back in 2014. But U.S. production proved more resilient than the Saudis anticipated.

Some analysts are suggesting that Russia may similarly be underestimating or misunderstanding how the U.S. oil industry will respond.

“While the crash in oil prices that began in late 2014 [due to Saudi Arabia flooding the market] did ultimately result in hundreds of shale producers declaring Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the net result of that process is that most of those companies reorganize themselves and come back with far less debt load,” David Blackmon, an independent energy analyst and consultant, wrote for Forbes.

“The strategy also fails to recognize that most producers have already put hedges in place for most of their equity production through the remainder of 2020 and beyond,” he noted. (Read more about how US oil production may respond HERE)

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Virginia to Force Anyone Who Buys Any Firearm to Undergo Background Check

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The Virginia state legislature passed, and Governor Ralph Northam is expected to sign, a measure that would force all citizens who purchase any firearm to undergo a background check.

Washington Examiner:

The bills are likely to be signed by Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who has advocated for more stringent gun regulations. In January, Northam called his gun control agenda ” common sense.”

“If there’s nothing in your record, you have nothing to worry about,” Northam said in his State of the Commonwealth address, asserting that the measures were consistent with the Second Amendment.

What nation’s Second Amendment is that? I looked, and looked and couldn’t find that part about giving someone a criminal background check before they could purchase a weapon.

(Read more from “Virginia to Force Anyone Who Buys Any Firearm to Undergo Background Check” HERE)

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How Did a Nazi Flag Wind up at a Sanders’ Rally?

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Bernie Sanders is managing to keep up an active campaign schedule, despite his recent heart attack and even more recent drubbing on Super Tuesday at the hands of Joe Biden. Last night he held a rally in Arizona to pump up the troops, but one particular “trooper” was of the sort that nobody wants to see showing up. A young man in the audience whipped out a Nazi flag and began waving it, briefly being caught on camera. The crowd quickly turned on the flag-waver, forcing him to drop his Nazi symbol and flee the area, but the damage had already been done. People raced to be the ones who most quickly denounced the display. (Associated Press)

The display of a Nazi flag by a man at a Bernie Sanders campaign rally in Arizona drew condemnation from Jewish American groups and his main rival in the Democratic presidential primary on Friday amid ongoing worries about Democratic candidates’ security at public events.

Images of a flag depicting the Nazi swastika symbol that was briefly displayed at Sanders’ Thursday night rally in Phoenix began circulating online after the incident. The moment also elicited warnings about anti-Semitism directed at the Jewish Sanders, who has talked about members of his father’s family being “wiped out” by the Holocaust.

(Read more from “How Did a Nazi Flag Wind up at a Sanders’ Rally?” HERE)

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Coronavirus Outbreak Means Costco Shoppers Can Say Goodbye to Free Samples

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The coronavirus outbreak that’s spread to at least 25 states now means that Costco customers can say goodbye to free food samples while shopping, according to media reports.

“Due to the outbreak of coronavirus, there are no food product samples,” a Costco representative in Nashville, Tennessee, told NBC’s Today.

Costco’s decision comes after Trader Joe’s changed how its employees distribute food samples to customers, according to an internal memo leaked on Thursday. The memo tells employees to plate samples for customers individually instead of keeping pre-plated samples on a platter, according to Business Insider. . .

Shoppers should be careful when they take samples all the time and not because of the recent coronavirus outbreak, Stone said. She said to make sure the employee handing you a sample has gloves and access to hand sanitizer or a sink. (Read more from “Coronavirus Outbreak Means Costco Shoppers Can Say Goodbye to Free Samples” HERE)

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Family of Missouri’s First Coronavirus Patient Broke Self Quarantine, Attended School Dance

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The father of Missouri’s first coronavirus patient disobeyed quarantine and went to a school dance with his other daughter on Saturday evening, officials said.

Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill School will close on Monday after administrators learned of the relationship between the patient and her younger sister — who goes to Villa and attended the social gathering. The father and daughter also went to a pre-dance party which consisted of other students in the St Louis County area. . .

Villa is an all-girls school that serves grades seven through 12, while Oak Hill is a coed school that teaches preschool through grade six. . .

“We will work with officials to ensure we are doing everything possible to mitigate risk and to maintain our safe environment, said Villa Duchesne and Oak Hill communications director Alice Dickherber, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The family was originally told to stay at home after their older daughter — who returned from Italy — contacted public health officials to report having symptoms of the fast-spreading virus on Thursday. She had been self quarantining herself at home with her parents who were not showing symptoms. She went to a hospital on Friday and tested “presumptively positive” on Saturday. (Read more from “Family of Missouri’s First Coronavirus Patient Broke Self Quarantine, Attended School Dance” HERE)

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