| Trump, reversing position, says he got tested for coronavirus after all Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:48 AM PDT  President Trump had more contact than previously known with people who have tested positive for coronavirus, but the White House said he won't be tested.
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| Hospitals prepare for the worst on coronavirus, and it's not a pretty picture Posted: 13 Mar 2020 06:16 PM PDT  Medical facilities are taking precautions to protect their staff while preparing for a spike in patients that has overwhelmed the health care systems of other countries.
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| When will there be a coronavirus vaccine — and who will get it first? Posted: 14 Mar 2020 09:59 AM PDT  One of the central questions for resolving the COVID-19 crisis is how long it will take to develop a vaccine.
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| Mnuchin says U.S. coronavirus aid bill cost should be significant, not huge Posted: 15 Mar 2020 07:12 AM PDT  U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said on Sunday officials will have a better idea this week of the total cost of a coronavirus aid package, but predicted it will likely be "significant but not huge." Mnuchin told "Fox News Sunday" he also planned to talk to lawmakers about critical aid to airlines, as well as the hotel and cruise ship industries. The coronavirus pandemic has forced public schools, sports events and cultural and entertainment venues to close across the United States.
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| Puerto Rico imposes curfew, early closings to contain coronavirus spread Posted: 15 Mar 2020 10:43 AM PDT  Puerto Rico has confirmed five cases of coronavirus, but there are at least 17 other suspected cases.
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| More than 3,800 passengers on a cruise ship disembarked in Miami without screening for COVID-19, despite a previous traveler testing positive days earlier Posted: 15 Mar 2020 01:31 PM PDT  "If we have it, it's going to spread throughout the country," one passenger told the Miami Herald on Sunday.
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| Biden says 'Medicare for All' wouldn't solve the coronavirus problems currently gripping the country - updates Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:37 PM PDT  Live updates as former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders face off in the first one-on-one presidential debate of 2020.
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| Spain imposes near total lockdown to fight virus Posted: 14 Mar 2020 03:14 PM PDT  Spain on Saturday followed Italy and imposed a near total nationwide lockdown to fight the spread of coronavirus by banning people from leaving home except to go to work, get medical care or buy food. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced the restrictions on movement following a huge spike in the number of infections in this nation of some 46 million people. Spain confirmed more than 1,500 new cases of coronavirus since Friday evening, raising its total to 5,753 cases, the second-highest number in Europe after Italy.
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| Fauci Says Americans Must be Prepared to Hunker Down More Posted: 15 Mar 2020 10:02 AM PDT  (Bloomberg) -- Americans must be ready to take more drastic steps to slow the march of the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci said as he made the rounds of major Sunday talk shows."Americans should be prepared that they are going to have to hunker down significantly more than we as a country are doing," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on NBC's "Meet the Press."Asked if he would prefer some kind of 14-day national shutdown to "flatten the curve" of Covid-19 spread, Fauci said -- in one of five interviews on Sunday talk shows -- "I would prefer as much as we possibly could."On "Fox News Sunday," though, the veteran infectious diseases specialist didn't endorse a nationwide shutdown. "Stringent mitigation and containment" measures will help the U.S. avoid getting to where Italy is now, he said.Fauci was asked on CNN's "State of the Union" if hundreds of thousands of Americans could die from the Covid-19 virus.'Be Realistic'"It's possible because, when you do a model, you have a worst-case scenario, the best-case scenario, and the reality is, how you react to that will depend where you're going to be on that curve," he said."It sometimes gets taken out of context, but we have to be realistic and honest," he said. "It is possible. Our job, our challenge is to try and make that not happen."Confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. have reached 2,893, with 60 confirmed deaths. Italy has logged over 21,000 cases and 1,809 deaths as of Sunday -- an increase of 368 fatalities in the past day.Scott Gottlieb, the former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, said some hospitals are preparing for worst-case scenarios."There's no question the steps right now are changing the course of the epidemic," said Gottlieb, now a special partner at New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm that invests in the health-care and biotech sectors. "We're impacting this, but we need to do much more."On ABC's "This Week," Fauci said domestic travel restrictions are not likely in the immediate future but are possible as the U.S. refines its response.Clusters of Cases"Travel restrictions within the country have not been seriously discussed," said Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force. He added that the Trump administration is "open minded" about potential steps.Asked if cities like Seattle and New Rochelle, New York, should be on lockdown given the high number of confirmed cases there, Gottlieb said it was a question of rights."I don't think we can quarantine a U.S. city, lock it down, and deny people their liberty in this country," he said. But by doing things like closing restaurants and preventing large gatherings, "there's no place to go; people stay home."Fauci said he was "absolutely" confident the federal government is doing what it needs to contain the Covid-19 outbreak."If it looks like you're overreacting, you're probably doing the right thing," Fauci, 79, said on "Face the Nation." "Right now, myself personally, I wouldn't go to a restaurant. I just wouldn't, because I don't want to be in a crowded place."Members of the task force are scheduled to brief the media later on Sunday.(Updates with Scott Gottlieb comments from ninth paragraph.)To contact the reporters on this story: Ros Krasny in Washington at rkrasny1@bloomberg.net;Tom Schoenberg in Washington at tschoenberg@bloomberg.net;Hailey Waller in New York at hwaller@bloomberg.netTo contact the editors responsible for this story: James Ludden at jludden@bloomberg.net, Ros KrasnyFor more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
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| Will coronavirus go away in the spring? Maybe — but it also might come back in fall. Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:07 AM PDT  Flu viruses generally subside in warm weather, for reasons that aren't totally clear. Coronavirus may follow that pattern — or not.
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| Life under lockdown in Italy: A look at what might be coming to the U.S. Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:46 AM PDT  An American living in Italy reports on what it is like during the country's stringent quarantine regulations.
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| Fed may take boldest steps in a decade to ease virus impact Posted: 15 Mar 2020 10:45 AM PDT  The Federal Reserve is all but sure to take its most drastic steps Wednesday since the depths of the 2008 financial crisis to try to counter the coronavirus' growing damage to the U.S. economy and the financial markets. With the virus' spread causing a broad shutdown of economic activity in the United States, the Fed faces a daunting task. Some economists say the policymakers, led by Chair Jerome Powell, could cut their already low benchmark interest rate by up to a full percentage point.
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| Skiers leave Alpine resorts as coronavirus measures imposed Posted: 15 Mar 2020 09:26 AM PDT |
| Coronavirus: US slashes rates and launches huge stimulus programme Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:23 PM PDT  The move to combat the impact of coronavirus is a co-ordinated action with Europe, Japan and Canada.
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| As mayor, Bernie Sanders condemned American interventionism but also defended undemocratic governments abroad Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:00 PM PDT  Archives of Bernie Sanders's mayoral papers shed light on the foreign policy views he held at the start of his political career.
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| Philippines closes off capital to fight virus Posted: 15 Mar 2020 01:15 AM PDT  Police began closing off access to the Philippines' sprawling and densely populated capital Manila on Sunday, imposing a quarantine that officials hope will curb the nation's rising number of coronavirus cases. Officers in military fatigues and armed with rifles blocked off main roads into the city of some 12 million as domestic flights to and from Manila were halted early Sunday for a month-long isolation of the capital. Mass gatherings and school at all levels have also been called off, but delays and exceptions have led public health experts to question how effective President Rodrigo Duterte's measures will be.
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| White House says Trump won’t be tested for virus after all Posted: 14 Mar 2020 07:51 AM PDT  The White House on Friday night said President Trump will not be tested for coronavirus, even as it disclosed that another person he hosted at his Mar-a-Lago resort last weekend has since tested positive for the virus.
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| Biotech company fighting coronavirus shoots down the idea of reportedly giving US exclusive rights to vaccine Posted: 15 Mar 2020 02:47 PM PDT  The company said it has been in contact with many organizations and global authorities, but denied "rumors of an acquisition."
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| Coronavirus: Royal Caribbean pauses operations globally, major cruise lines suspend US ships Posted: 14 Mar 2020 08:44 AM PDT  Royal Caribbean will suspend operations globally as of midnight Saturday amid the coronavirus pandemic. And it's not the only line taking action.
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| Iraq officials: Rocket attack hits base housing US troops Posted: 14 Mar 2020 01:13 AM PDT  A barrage of rockets hit a base housing U.S. and other coalition troops north of Baghdad on Saturday, Iraqi security officials said, just days after a similar attack killed three servicemen, including two Americans. The U.S.-led coalition said at least 25 107mm rockets struck Camp Taji just before 11 a.m. Some struck the area where coalition forces are based, while others fell on air defense units, the Iraqi military statement said. Jonathan Hoffman, chief Pentagon spokesman, said later that three U.S. service members were wounded in the Camp Taji attack.
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| Saudi Arabia restricts movement, other Gulf states limit entry as coronavirus spreads Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:43 AM PDT  RIYADH/DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia closed public spaces on Sunday and announced a pause in most government operations while Qatar and Oman imposed entry restrictions as Gulf Arab states broadened efforts to contain the spread of coronavirus and support their economies. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar reported new cases, raising the total number in the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) to 963, with no deaths reported.
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| Federal Reserve cuts rates to near zero in emergency action Posted: 15 Mar 2020 02:38 PM PDT  Dow futures immediately plunged by 1,000 points as traders worried that the crisis response would still fall short.
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| Sanders bets on Biden debate implosion Posted: 15 Mar 2020 04:00 AM PDT  His rivals have been waiting for more than a year for Biden to wilt under pressure. Sunday's debate looks like Sanders' last hope.
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| Pope leaves Vatican City to pray in one of Rome's basilica: Vatican Posted: 15 Mar 2020 12:09 PM PDT  Pope Francis left Vatican City on Sunday to pray in one of Rome's cathedrals for victims of the coronavirus pandemic, the Vatican said. The 83-year-old pontiff first visited Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore basilica and then walked "on foot, as if on a pilgrimage" to the San Marcello al Corso church, the Vatican said in a statement. The statement said Pope Francis selected the church because it holds a "miraculous crucifix which, in 1522, was carried in procession through the districts of the city" to mark the end of the Great Plague.
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| 3 human traffickers sentenced to 125 years in death of Syrian boy Posted: 14 Mar 2020 02:36 AM PDT  The lifeless body of three-year-old Aylan on a beach in Turkey was captured in a photograph that symbolized the 2015 Syrian refugee crisis.
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| Trump flicked a Google statement onto the floor during a live press conference in an apparent rebuke of a botched coronavirus website rollout Posted: 15 Mar 2020 04:07 PM PDT  "I'm sure you'll apologize," Trump said to reporters, as he threw Google's statement onto the floor.
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| Coronavirus closed this school. The kids have special needs: 'You can't Netflix them all day.' Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:31 PM PDT  Special-needs students in Chicago are under quarantine after an aide contracted the virus. Their experience shows how hard school closings will be.
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| No to ‘FISA Reform’ Posted: 14 Mar 2020 03:30 AM PDT  Thanks to Senators Rand Paul (R., Ken.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah), as well as an amen chorus of Trump loyalists in the House, the president seems poised to fulfill one of the fondest dreams of Clinton and Obama Democrats: Government policy that regards international terrorism as a mere crime, a law-enforcement issue to be managed by federal judges rather than a national-security threat from which the officials Americans elect must safeguard our country.I doubt the president realizes these ramifications of declining to reauthorize three PATRIOT Act security measures that are set to expire. Successfully camouflaging themselves as "FISA reformers," Senators Paul and Lee have steered the president toward exploiting the imminent expiration as a way of holding the FBI accountable for FISA abuse.In truth, the senators' agenda predates the Trump era, and it would do nothing to fix what's actually wrong with FISA. Their aim is to dismantle the post-9/11 intelligence-based approach to counterterrorism, a strategy prudently adopted by President Bush, who recognized that when our most immediate threat is jihadist mass-murder attacks, prevention should take precedence over prosecution. "FISA reform" is a shrewd way for them to accomplish this objective because it appeals to the president's vanity — his most destructive blind spot.See, the libertarian senators have always opposed intelligence-based counterterrorism on philosophical grounds that they root in the Constitution. They are wrong, though their sincerity is not to be doubted. As I've related over the years (see, e.g., here and here), the distortion of the Fourth Amendment Paul has long championed (and to which Lee seems adherent) bears little resemblance to the Fourth Amendment as written and originally understood. If adopted, it would be a boon to both foreign terrorists and domestic criminals.Washington's reluctance to court this potentially catastrophic outcome has long frustrated libertarians, as have the facts that jurisprudence and the terrorist threat have lined up against them. But in recent years, things have started swinging in their favor.For one thing, Paul, Lee, and their ilk have forged an alliance with progressives, who regard jihadism (er, I mean, "violent extremism") as a global law-enforcement issue, fit for management by internationally coordinated judicial processes, and who favor an extension of American constitutional protections to foreign operatives — including anti-American terrorists. In the Obama years, these strange bedfellows found an administration equally disposed against the Bush-era counterterrorism approach.Then, there was the post-9/11 record of intelligence-agency envelope-pushing and deceit that eroded public trust — e.g., the Bush administration's controversial warrantless-wiretap and forcible-interrogation programs; the Obama CIA's hacking into the Senate Intelligence Committee's computers (and falsely denying it had done so); Obama's director of national intelligence's lying to Congress about the massive collection of Americans' telephone metadata; and the blatant politicization of intelligence after the Benghazi massacre.Finally, there was the Supreme Court's 2018 Carpenter ruling, which pivoted away from seemingly settled jurisprudence that a person does not have a constitutionally cognizable privacy interest in business records that are the property of a third-party service provider. The Court's 5–4 decision in Carpenter (written by Chief Justice John Roberts, joined by the four-justice liberal bloc) held that the government needs a probable-cause judicial warrant to obtain "cell-site location information" — phone-company records that reveal a person's physical movements over a given period of time.This concatenation has already yielded results for Paul and Lee. For example, the government's telephone-metadata program, the need for which was never compellingly justified, has been mothballed. Further, many foreign-intelligence operations in which the judiciary should have no involvement have nonetheless been brought under the FISA court's supervision.Now, "FISA reform" has offered Lee and Paul the chance to accelerate their agenda's implementation. What it lacks as a means of keeping America safe, it makes up for in legerdemain.See, the president and his most ardent supporters do not actually want to overhaul the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which created the FISA court. What they want is accountability for the FISA abuses committed by American intelligence agencies in connection with the 2016 presidential election. For President Trump, all politics is personal, and this matter is the most personal of all: the FBI's exploitation of FISA powers to spy on his campaign, hamstring his administration, and fuel the Mueller investigation, all of which led to his impeachment.To describe President Trump as angry that no official involved in those 2016 hijinks has been prosecuted understates the matter. He is apoplectic, as are his most ardent supporters. Grasping this, his allies in Congress and on the airwaves grouse that "no one has been held accountable." In truth, the officials who ran the Carter Page FISA surveillance — and who deployed informants in a futile effort to ensnare Trump operatives — have been both purged and subjected to duly humiliating inspector-general reports. Yet that is not enough for the Trump camp, which wants criminal prosecutions just like the ones to which Trump-campaign officials were subjected. The president is dismayed that none have been forthcoming, despite the fact that his Justice Department has been conducting a criminal investigation for about a year.Senators Paul and Lee may be wrong about counterterrorism, but they're not dumb. They realized that if they could persuade the president that "FISA reform" was really about holding the FBI accountable for the Trump–Russia collusion shenanigans, they could achieve a major roll-back of post-9/11 counterterrorism policy — the project they were working on long before Donald Trump sought the presidency. So that's what they've done, and they've swept the president's supporters along for the ride. In their rhetoric, which has seeped into the press reporting on the matter, "FISA reform" has become a rally cry for holding the rogue FBI accountable.But here's the thing: The FBI and its intelligence-bureaucracy collaborators executed their plan by misleading the FISA court in violation of the existing FISA rules. There is no "reform" of the statutory scheme that can prevent such a thing. There is no "reform" of the statutory scheme that can hold a rogue accountable. If your objection is that being fired is not enough, and that prosecution is necessary for accountability, only an indictment can accomplish that, not a change in the law.That becomes very clear if we focus on the actual targets of what is absurdly being called "FISA reform." Notice that the "reformers" avoid talking about the three provisions that are scheduled to expire if not reauthorized by Monday (March 15). That's because they are utterly unrelated to the abuse of FISA surveillance authority that occurred in the Trump–Russia scenario — viz., the incumbent government's misrepresentations to the FISA court, which duped the judges into authorizing electronic surveillance of the opposition party's political campaign despite the lack of probable cause to believe that campaign surrogates were clandestine agents of Russia.It is important to grasp this: Real FISA reform is not on the table. Over the last several days, as negotiations in Congress have broken down, one has heard Trump supporters say, "Let FISA die," because they've been fooled into thinking that if the president signs what's inaccurately called "an extension of FISA," there will never be accountability for FBI officials who abused their authority.It is not true. Not even close.FISA surveillance (the kind to which the Trump campaign was subjected) will not die if the three provisions lapse. A failure to reauthorize them will not prevent Americans, such as Carter Page, from being falsely framed as foreign agents. The only things that will die are investigative tools that help our government monitor actual clandestine operatives, such as alien jihadists plotting against our country.As I have previously detailed, the three tools at issue are: (a) roving wiretaps, which allow agents to continue monitoring, say, a terrorist who uses burner phones to try to defeat surveillance; (b) "lone wolf" authority, which allows agents to monitor a foreigner who appears to be involved in terrorism without evidence tying him to a known terrorist organization; and (c) the court-authorized collection of business records — a power long unremarkably exercised by criminal investigators (and which, if reauthorized, would no longer permit intelligence agents to engage in the controversial bulk-collection of telephone metadata).As should be obvious, these three tools have nothing to do with FBI accountability. They have nothing to do with the bureau's infamous "Crossfire Hurricane" probe. Indeed, they have very little to do with FISA — and nothing to do with the Russia-related malfeasance that comes to mind when Paul, Lee, and Trump supporters rail about "FISA reform." These are PATRIOT Act provisions. Though they are being threatened under the pretext of "fixing" FISA, they were enacted nearly a quarter-century after the FISA statute. They are labeled "FISA" only because Congress happened to insert them into the FISA sections of the United States Code.These three provisions were enacted with "sunset clauses," meaning they must be periodically reauthorized by Congress. Congress has reauthorized them, repeatedly, because they help protect us from terrorist attacks. Their value is so plain to see that they should not be subject to sunset clauses at all — the clauses should have been removed, with the proviso that Congress could always amend them (as lawmakers have done with the business records provision) or even repeal them if truly egregious abuses occurred.Nevertheless, they are subject to sunset clauses, and will lapse Monday if Congress fails to act. Consequently, the political left and the Paul–Lee libertarians opportunistically seized on that deadline as a chance to demand more "reform" that would further erode intelligence-based counterterrorism — increasing the extent to which foreign counterintelligence efforts are subject to court control and made to resemble judicial proceedings.President Trump came into office promising to be tough on terrorism in a way President Obama was not. Most of his supporters are instinctively against the Obama-era counterterrorism approach, which shied away from even the word terrorism, and which mulishly denied Islamist terrorism's ideological underpinnings. Most Trump supporters do not actually think of counterterrorism as a law-enforcement issue to be managed by the same judiciary that reverses Trump's border-security and immigration-enforcement measures at every turn.So why are they backing FISA "reform"? Because they've been hoodwinked into thinking it is a way to hold the FBI accountable for the Trump–Russia caper. But it is not. Again, the only thing "letting FISA die" on Monday would accomplish is the loss of counterterrorism tools that promote national security — exactly the kind of thing Trump supporters would have sworn their candidate would never permit if elected president.The FISA reform that Senators Paul and Lee want, and that their progressive allies support, is the opposite of real FISA reform. The fundamental problem with FISA is the FISA-court system. As I've recently noted in National Review's print edition, that system transfers control of national security against foreign threats to the judicial branch, which is insulated from political accountability; the Constitution, to the contrary, assigned this duty to the political branches, which answer to the American people whose lives are at stake.The "reformers" aim further to solidify judicial authority over intelligence collection. They tell you their goal is to protect Americans from being abused the way Carter Page was; but their reforms always end up extending protections to aliens, including those who are outside the United States and should thus be considered outside the FISA court's jurisdiction. What's more, if you're worried about FBI abuses, the FISA court makes them more likely. As we saw with Page, the FBI deceived the FISA court to get its warrants; when called on the carpet, it then told everyone its surveillance must have been proper because it was green-lighted by federal judges. The bureau used the veneer of court approval as license to claim that Page — and by extension, the Trump campaign — was part of a Russian influence operation.If we really wanted to reform FISA, we would be wise get the courts out of foreign-intelligence collection and find a better way of overseeing the activities of the intelligence agencies — beefed up congressional oversight, not a secret court. And while I maintain that no act of Congress can hold rogue officials accountable (see, e.g., the Constitution's prohibition against bills of attainder), I have proposed a reform that would actually address the FBI's FISA abuse: Congress could take the foreign-counterintelligence mission away from the FBI, have the bureau stick to crime-fighting, and create a new agency to handle domestic security against foreign threats — an agency that would be subject to Justice Department supervision and congressional oversight.If we tried it my way, the nation would continue to get the security benefit of counterintelligence measures. If we try Paul's and Lee's way, we will lose that benefit and exacerbate the basic problem of judicial involvement in counterintelligence operations, all for the promise of "accountability" that these self-proclaimed "reformers" can't actually deliver.
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| Venezuela to Cancel More Flights, Announce Quarantine on Sunday Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:15 PM PDT |
| Greece bans all transport links with Albania, North Macedonia, Spain flights Posted: 15 Mar 2020 05:21 AM PDT  Greece said it would ban road and sea routes, as well as flights, to Albania and North Macedonia on Sunday, as well as banning flights to and from Spain to stem the spread of coronavirus. Only cargo and citizens who live in Greece will be allowed to travel to and from Albania and North Macedonia, authorities said. Athens also extended travel restrictions to Italy, saying it was banning passenger ship routes to and from the neighboring country, while no cruise ships will be allowed to dock at Greek ports.
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| Several African nations roll out measures to fight virus Posted: 15 Mar 2020 11:47 AM PDT  Several African countries have announced sweeping restrictions to try to contain the steady spread of the coronavirus, which has reached at least 25 of Africa's 54 countries. South Africa, Kenya, Senegal and Mauritania are among the countries that have imposed travel restrictions and closed schools. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa declared a national state of disaster.
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| Sanders had some vulnerable Democrats worried. Biden's surge eased their minds. Posted: 14 Mar 2020 05:13 AM PDT  House members in tough re-election fights "don't want to spend every single day being consumed by having to answer for Sanders rhetoric or Sanders policy."
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| New tax breaks for retirees Posted: 15 Mar 2020 02:50 AM PDT  Here are three of the week's top pieces of financial insight, gathered from around the web:Market crash yields refinance boom "A sharp drop in mortgage interest rates has sparked a sudden and unexpected refinance boom," said Diana Olick at CNBC. A flight to the safest federal bonds has sent interest rates on 10-year Treasury bonds to record lows, and mortgage rates have plummeted with them. This week, average mortgage rates "hit 3.11 percent," and borrowers have descended on mortgage lenders to take advantage. Bank of America told one caller there was "a two-hour wait to speak with a loan officer." Some lenders have expanded hours and hired staff to try to meet a demand running at three times the usual volume. "It's absolute pandemonium," said one sales officer at Cross Country Mortgage in Boca Raton, Florida. "Let's put it this way: We are like Home Depot during a hurricane."New tax breaks for retirees More states are looking at tax incentives to stem the "gray migration," said Sandra Block at Kiplinger. As more retirees move away from high-tax states like New York and California to locations where there are no state income taxes, such as Florida and Nevada, some lawmakers are fighting back. Maryland, for instance, has "introduced legislation that would eliminate state taxes on the first $50,000 of income for retirees making up to $100,000 in federally adjusted gross income," while those making $50,000 or less would pay no state tax. Similarly, Illinois recently "signed legislation making it easier for seniors in Cook County — which includes Chicago — to apply for a property tax break of up to $8,000 a year." Lawmakers in New Mexico are also considering "several bills that would repeal or reduce taxes on Social Security."Hiding fees for financial advice A popular website for finding financial planners will no longer disclose how much planners make in commissions or fees, said Jason Zweig at The Wall Street Journal. LetsMakeAPlan.org has "long served as a shortcut" for investors looking for a financial planner. It helps that it is run by the Certified Financial Planner Board, "a nonprofit that has awarded the CFP designation to more than 86,000 planners." However, more than half of all planners charge commissions on sales when you trade a stock, bond, or fund — a system than can encourage excess trading. By contrast, fee-only advisers only charge a one-time or recurring fee. Now, "to learn how a planner gets paid, you will have to ask."This article was first published in the latest issue of The Week magazine. If you want to read more like it, try the magazine for a month here.More stories from theweek.com Coronavirus and the end of the conservative temperament 7 scathingly funny cartoons about the Democratic presidential race Mnuchin says coronavirus economic downturn 'isn't like the financial crisis,' predicts 'big rebound'
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| GOP lawmaker ignores health warnings around coronavirus and tells Americans 'it's a great time to go out' Posted: 15 Mar 2020 12:43 PM PDT  Other lawmakers, including Republican Ted Cruz and Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, agreed that this was not a good time to go out.
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| 'We're not being quarantined. We're being detained.' Americans stuck in Cambodia amid pandemic Posted: 15 Mar 2020 02:53 PM PDT  When Ryan Knapp and his wife booked a cruise along the Mekong Delta, they thought it would be a dream trip. But it has turned into a nightmare.
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| 'Soft' closes, deep cleans, and 'distance learning': these are the 22 states that have closed K-12 schools amid coronavirus spread Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:18 PM PDT  The list of states closing schools for days to months to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus is growing.
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| Fauci: U.S. is 'entering into a new phase in the testing space' Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:23 PM PDT  Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, said on Sunday that the United States is "entering into a new phase in the (coronavirus) testing space."
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| Israel's president to ask Netanyahu rival Benny Gantz to form government Posted: 15 Mar 2020 02:38 AM PDT  Opposition leader Benny Gantz will be asked to form a new government, Israel's president said on Sunday, boosting his chances of ousting veteran Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. It was a blow to Netanyahu, who is fighting for his political life amid unprecedented political deadlock and a criminal indictment for corruption, which he denies. Netanyahu, 70, is Israel's longest-serving leader and has been heading the country's efforts to combat the coronavirus.
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| Iran reports more than 100 new virus deaths as fears mount Posted: 14 Mar 2020 11:31 PM PDT  The official leading Iran's response to the new coronavirus acknowledged Sunday that the pandemic could overwhelm health facilities in his country, which is battling the worst outbreak in the Middle East while under heavy U.S. sanctions. Elsewhere in the region, Lebanon ordered residents not to leave their homes except for urgent necessities and even closed down Beirut's famous Mediterranean boardwalk. Muslim authorities indefinitely closed the Al-Aqsa mosque in east Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam, with prayers continuing to be held on the sprawling esplanade outside.
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| Biden leads Sanders by 2-to-1 among Democratic primary voters Posted: 15 Mar 2020 06:04 AM PDT  The former vice president also holds a 9-point edge in a one-on-one contest with Trump, according to a new NBC News/WSJ survey.
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| Islamist militants sentenced to death for Bangladesh priest murder Posted: 15 Mar 2020 07:24 AM PDT  Four Islamist extremists were sentenced to death in Bangladesh Sunday for the 2016 decapitation of a senior Hindu priest during a spate of attacks targeting religious minorities in the Muslim-majority nation. The Islamic State group had claimed responsibility for the attack in the northern district of Panchagarh, but authorities blamed militants from Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB).
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| Austria announces major restrictions on movement over coronavirus Posted: 15 Mar 2020 03:01 AM PDT  Austria's chancellor announced major restrictions on movement in public places on Sunday, banning gatherings of more than five persons and urging Austrians to self-isolate, as well as putting further limits on who can enter the country. The restrictions on public movement and gatherings will come into force on Monday, while restaurants are ordered closed from Tuesday, when new restrictions on entering the country will also take effect, a government spokesman said. "Austrians are being summoned to isolate themselves," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz's office said in a statement.
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| White House will extend Europe travel ban to Ireland, U.K., considering domestic restrictions Posted: 14 Mar 2020 10:13 AM PDT  President Trump on Saturday said during a press briefing that he's considering barring travel from certain places within the United States.The president didn't go into much detail about what places might be affected, but he said the White House is "working with states" to determine the best path forward. Regardless, he advised Americans not to travel if they "don't have to" because "we want this thing to end."> JUST IN: Pres. Trump says he is considering domestic travel restrictions "specifically from certain areas," after Pentagon restricted service members' domestic travel.> > "If you don't have to travel I wouldn't do it... we want this thing to end." https://t.co/zyG4ankfGn pic.twitter.com/dYT5QCPAvn> > — ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) March 14, 2020Vice President Mike Pence added that the current travel ban from Europe will be extended to Ireland and the United Kingdom, effective midnight Monday. As is the case elsewhere in Europe, U.S. citizens and legal residents from those countries will still be able to return to the United States. Read more at The New York Times.More stories from theweek.com Coronavirus and the end of the conservative temperament 7 scathingly funny cartoons about the Democratic presidential race Mnuchin says coronavirus economic downturn 'isn't like the financial crisis,' predicts 'big rebound'
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| Customs officers seized 6 bags full of fake coronavirus testing kits at LAX Posted: 14 Mar 2020 06:18 PM PDT  The bags were filled with small vials labeled "Corona Virus 2019nconv (COVID-19)" and "Virus1 Test Kit."
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| A coronavirus pandemic is sweeping the world, but what exactly is a virus? Is it alive? Posted: 15 Mar 2020 10:19 AM PDT  They're invisible and can make us sick — but how? And why is it so hard for scientists to stop a new virus?
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| What is magnesium good for: Benefits, daily value, sources, deficiency Posted: 15 Mar 2020 07:35 AM PDT  Magnesium is a vital macromineral that helps the human body repair DNA, build protein, and mentally process information efficiently.
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| Putin signs Russia's constitutional reform law Posted: 14 Mar 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday signed the package of constitutional reforms he had proposed, including a clause giving him an option to run for two more terms. The Kremlin has published the 68-page law spelling out the constitutional reforms on the official website. Putin's signature triggers a special procedure for the package, which differs from the way laws usually go into effect.
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