| Coronavirus delays analysis of downed Ukraine jet black boxes Posted: 12 Apr 2020 03:54 PM PDT  Ottawa and other countries asked Tehran to delay downloading data on the black boxes from a downed Ukrainian international flight, because of coronavirus travel restrictions, Canada said Sunday. Iran had in March agreed to hand over black boxes from Flight 752 to Ukraine or France for analysis -- a move welcomed by Canada and Ukraine. The boxes are expected to contain information about the last moments before the Ukraine International Airlines jetliner was struck by a missile and crashed shortly after taking off from the Tehran airport on January 8.
|
| Report: Stockpile of 39 million masks exposed as fake Posted: 12 Apr 2020 11:31 AM PDT |
| Iran says $1.6 bn claimed by US released in Luxembourg Posted: 12 Apr 2020 11:13 AM PDT  Iran's President Hassan Rouhani said Sunday the country had won a legal "victory" over $1.6 billion of its assets that had long been frozen on a US request in Luxembourg. Tehran and Washington have long been arch enemies and tensions have risen sharply since President Donald Trump in 2018 withdrew from a nuclear accord and reimposed stinging sanctions. In a separate dispute, a New York court in 2012 ordered Iran to pay $7 billion in damages over the September 11 attacks, arguing that it had aided Al-Qaeda by allowing its militants to travel through its territory.
|
| In divergent Easter celebrations, prayers for virus victims Posted: 12 Apr 2020 11:12 AM PDT  Christians around the world celebrated an Easter Sunday upended by the coronavirus without the usual crowded church Masses and large family gatherings. The virus forced a change in Easter traditions that had even endured wars. Many states exempted houses of worship from orders curbing communal meetings to help stop the coronavirus from spreading.
|
| Amid a global pandemic, the Christian story of Easter shows us the power of hope Posted: 12 Apr 2020 10:40 AM PDT  Easter offers a moment for us to reflect on the role of suffering and the possibility of coming together as a global communityIn the spring of 1963, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was engaged in a campaign to defeat Jim Crow laws in Birmingham, Alabama.As they approached the Easter weekend that year, no victory was in sight. But Dr Martin Luther King Jr knew there was something in the logic of Easter that suggested the way to victory might be counterintuitive. He decided to go to jail on Good Friday and stay there through the Easter weekend. He would not be free to preach a sermon on the holiest day of the Christian year, but he would pen his famous Letter from a Birmingham Jail as he waited to see a way forward.In the midst of this world's deepest darkness, the Christian story of the resurrection points towards the power of hope. As we weather a global pandemic, Easter offers a moment for us to reflect on the role of suffering and the possibility of radical solidarity.Over the past month we have entered a new reality where despair is ever-present and fear pervasive. The death toll keeps rising, and instead of honest leadership we have a president who uses press conferences as political rallies. Trump might remind us of Pontius Pilate, who came from a well-known family and oversaw a tense, violent relationship with the Jewish minority of Jesus' day. America today is not unlike the Roman Empire in which Christ was crucified as an insubordinate revolutionary.Suffering is not anathema to Christians. In the Christian story, Jesus – the son of the creator of the universe – willingly undergoes a painful, bloody, public death. It is the last sacrifice, so that others do not need to continue the bloodletting. This is an astounding idea, a reversal of all our dominant values, our hunger for immortality, for power, for pleasure above all else. The crucifixion is the story of Jesus' ultimate sacrifice and solidarity with the world.But the story does not end with death. It ends with resurrection, an unbelievable miracle, and with the Holy Spirit persisting in a global community.Can we come together as a global community today? As we take hope in the Easter story, we must also take the lessons of Christ's life, which was spent in radical communion with the poor and sick.The Poor People's Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival has taken up the campaign begun by Martin Luther King Jr and others in 1968, which was itself a revival of the early church's commitment to the least of these. We stand for the 140 million poor and low-income people who were left out of Congress's Covid-19 relief package: the 60 million workers who do not have paid sick leave, the 25 million with no health insurance, the 72 million who already have medical debt, the 8 million to 11 million people who are homeless, the 11 million undocumented immigrants who will receive no support. Often, in the midst of America's obsession with the middle class, we forget those who have nothing. But Christ did not forget them.And, as we seek solutions to this virus at home, we must remember its global reach. India's 1.3 billion people are all in a 21-day lockdown. In Africa, the difficulty of social distancing in dense areas, paired with underlying conditions caused by malnutrition, could portend a devastating toll. As developing countries become harder hit, people are faced with the choice of infection or starvation.Meanwhile, there is little interest in the United States for increasing aid abroad. On the contrary, industrial nations expect to bring in tens of billions in debt payments in 2020. The International Monetary Fund, aid organizations and world leaders are calling on creditors to suspend these payments. But there is much more that could be done. Many of the same leaders, including the IMF leadership and Nobel laureate economists, have called for the IMF to help countries through this crisis by providing, as it did in 2009, large amounts of debt-free special drawing rights. We could end the illegal sanctions on countries like Iran and Venezuela, which target civilians and have caused tens of thousands of deaths. Or we could make a commitment to ensuring that when a vaccine is found, it will be available to all.American leaders have not taken any of these actions – and we should not be surprised. This is the way of a civilization that has lost touch with its own humanity. It is the sign of a civilization that cannot last. But Christ's life and death reminds us that we must continue the struggle. The resurrection reminded Christ's followers that the death of the body is not the ultimate evil. On the contrary, it is the death of the soul, the death of our ability to see clearly what is right, which is far more devastating.Christ's life was an indictment of the Roman Empire and ultimately he was executed for his revolutionary protests. Pontius Pilate washed his hands before ordering the crucifixion, much like western governments might wash their hands today as they turn away from the suffering they could have avoided.This Easter, the resurrection offers an indictment of empires and leaders that have become cruel in their hunger for power. But it also offers us a path forward. Though empires rise and fall, our ability to love and care for one another persists. When we press on in solidarity with those who are suffering, even when a way forward is not clear, we prepare ourselves to receive the good news of this season. * William J Barber II is president of Repairers of the Breach and co-chair of the Poor People's Campaign * Dr Leah Hunt-Hendrix is a writer and co-founder of Way to Win
|
| Russia slaps US for ignoring Gagarin on Spaceflight Day Posted: 12 Apr 2020 10:38 AM PDT |
| Older states grapple with fear, isolation and medical care Posted: 12 Apr 2020 10:27 AM PDT  This isn't the way Betsy Steen and her husband wanted to spend their golden years: Hunkered down at home, living with fear and isolation. Steen, 76, and her husband David, 75, both take immuno-suppressant medications, placing them at high risk if they contract the coronavirus. States with older populations carry special worries during the deadly pandemic: Loneliness takes an emotional and physical toll on fragile residents.
|
| Easter storms sweep South, killing at least 6 in Mississippi Posted: 12 Apr 2020 10:00 AM PDT  Strong storms pounded the Deep South on Sunday, killing at least six people in south Mississippi and damaging up to 300 homes and other buildings in northern Louisiana. Mississippi Emergency Management Agency director Greg Michel said one person killed was in Walthall County, two were killed in Lawrence County and three were killed in Jefferson Davis County. All three counties are more than an hour's drive south of Jackson, near the Louisiana state line.
|
| Nursing home deaths soar past 3,300 in alarming surge Posted: 12 Apr 2020 09:30 AM PDT  More than 3,300 deaths nationwide have been linked to coronavirus outbreaks in nursing homes and long-term care facilities, an alarming rise in just the past two weeks, according to the latest count by The Associated Press. Because the federal government has not been releasing a count of its own, the AP has kept its own running tally based on media reports and state health departments. Outbreaks in just the past few weeks have included one at a nursing home in suburban Richmond, Virginia, that has killed 42 and infected more than 100, another at nursing home in central Indiana that has killed 24 and infected 16, and one at a veteran's home in Holyoke, Mass., that has killed 37, infected 76 and prompted a federal investigation.
|
| What you need to know today about the virus outbreak Posted: 12 Apr 2020 09:28 AM PDT  Christians the world over are celebrating a solitary Easter amid a global virus pandemic. Pope Francis has called for solidarity. At the Vatican, Francis celebrated Mass in a largely empty St. Peter's Basilica.
|
| AP PHOTOS: Christians celebrate Easter remotely due to virus Posted: 12 Apr 2020 09:22 AM PDT  There is nothing about Christians' celebration of Easter that is evocative of solitude. Easter Sunday morning is all about crowded churches, people parading in their best clothes, big family gatherings and happy children running and hunting for Easter eggs. An AP archive image photographed April 1, 1945, shows 175 Frenchmen, former prisoners of war, marching down a German road after being freed by a cavalry reconnaissance unit of the U.S. Ninth Army on Easter Sunday.
|
| Guam worries as sailors from virus-hit ship take over hotels Posted: 12 Apr 2020 08:34 AM PDT  People in Guam are used to a constant U.S. military presence on the strategic Pacific island, but some are nervous as hundreds of sailors from a coronavirus-stricken Navy aircraft carrier flood into hotels for quarantine. An outbreak aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt began in late March and has thrust the Navy into a leadership crisis after the ship's commander distributed a letter urging faster action to protect his sailors. Acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly fired Capt. Brett E. Crozier and then assailed him during a speech on the ship in Guam, saying Crozier was either "too naive or too stupid" to be in charge of an aircraft carrier.
|
| Millions of taxpaying immigrants won't get stimulus checks Posted: 12 Apr 2020 08:12 AM PDT  The $2.2 trillion package that Congress approved to offer financial help during the coronavirus pandemic has one major exclusion: millions of immigrants who do not have legal status in the U.S. but work here and pay taxes. "It's hard because to the government, we don't exist," said Contreras Lopez, who has lived in the U.S. for 30 years and has four grown children who are U.S. citizens. Anyone earning up to $75,000 in adjusted gross income and who has a Social Security number will receive $1,200.
|
| As the going gets tough, America returns to experts for help Posted: 12 Apr 2020 06:46 AM PDT  An invisible enemy is killing thousands and forcing people worldwide to cower behind closed doors. Unfounded conspiracy theories and miracle "cures" abound on social media. As the coronavirus rampages, the public increasingly is turning to experts in academia and government -- the educated, experienced "elites" that many Americans had tuned out.
|
| From the files: Isle used for virus burials has long history Posted: 12 Apr 2020 06:44 AM PDT  In 2010, AP National Writer Adam Geller filed an in-depth story about Hart Island, the island off New York City where the unclaimed, unidentified and indigent have long been buried. Last week, as New York City dealt with a mounting coronavirus death toll and dwindling morgue space, the city announced that Hart Island would be used for the burials of virus dead unclaimed after 14 days in storage. For those interested in learning more about Hart Island and its lengthy history, we offer here a look at Geller's story, "City of the Dead," as it appeared on Oct. 31, 2010.
|
| AP FACT CHECK: Trump's false hits on watchdogs, voting fraud Posted: 12 Apr 2020 05:09 AM PDT  In firing one inspector general, sidelining another and assailing a third, President Donald Trump in recent days has put his aversion to agents of federal accountability on stark display in a country consumed by the coronavirus. Clearly displeased when inspectors general come to independent conclusions that don't fit the stories he tells, Trump employs a tactic to mar their credibility. If public servants worked for the government in the Obama era, they are subject to being painted as Obama loyalists out to get him.
|
| Signs missed and steps slowed in Trump's pandemic response Posted: 12 Apr 2020 04:55 AM PDT  By the time President Donald Trump first spoke publicly about the coronavirus, it may already have been too late. Interviewed at Davos, a gathering of global elites in the Swiss Alps, the president on Jan. 22 played down the threat posed by the respiratory virus from China, which had just reached American shores in the form of a solitary patient in Washington state. "We have it totally under control," Trump said on CNBC.
|
| Netanyahu gains strength as coalition deadline nears Posted: 12 Apr 2020 04:37 AM PDT  Israel's president on Sunday rejected a request to extend coalition talks between the country's two most powerful political parties — appearing to give a boost to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and pushing the nation toward an unprecedented fourth consecutive election in just over a year. The decision by President Reuven Rivlin capped a stunning turnaround in fortunes of Netanyahu, who just a month ago was fighting for his political survival as he prepared to go on trial for corruption charges. Rivlin last month gave Gantz the task of forming a new government, after a narrow majority of lawmakers endorsed him as prime minister in the wake of March 2 elections.
|
| UK virus deaths top 10,000 as leader Johnson leaves hospital Posted: 12 Apr 2020 04:21 AM PDT  British Prime Minister Boris Johnson expressed his gratitude to the staff of the National Health Service for saving his life when his treatment for the coronavirus could have "gone either way" as the U.K. on Sunday became the fourth European country to surpass 10,000 virus-related deaths. Dressed in a suit, and looking and sounding relatively assured, Johnson said in a video posted on Twitter after his discharge from St. Thomas' Hospital in London that it was "hard to find the words" to express his debt of gratitude to the NHS for saving his life "no question." The prime minister said the nurses he identified as Jenny from Invercargill on New Zealand's South Island and Luis from Portugal, near Porto, were the reason that "in the end, my body did start to get enough oxygen."
|
| Column: Iran needs medical supplies. Trump should help Posted: 12 Apr 2020 04:00 AM PDT  Iran is suffering through a catastrophe. The White House should make it easier for other countries to sell medical supplies to Tehran during the pandemic.
|
| Iran reports 117 new virus deaths, raising total to 4,474 Posted: 12 Apr 2020 03:46 AM PDT  Iran on Sunday announced 117 new deaths from the novel coronavirus, bringing the overall official toll to 4,474, even as it eased some restrictions that had been imposed to slow the spread of the illness. Health ministry spokesman Kianoush Jahanpour also told a news conference that 1,657 new infections had been confirmed in the past 24 hours, taking the total to 71,686. Iran has carried out 263,388 tests for the virus so far, he added.
|
| Afghan Taliban confirms release of 1st government prisoners Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:58 AM PDT  The Taliban announced Sunday it will be releasing 20 Afghan government prisoners the group has been holding, in the first phase of its commitment under its historic peace deal with the United States. The deal calls for the government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 1,000 government officials held by the Taliban insurgents. The Afghan government released its first 100 Taliban prisoners last week and Jawed Faisal, a spokesman for Afghanistan's national security adviser, said the government has thus far released 300 Taliban prisoners overall from government custody.
|
| AP PHOTOS: Iraqi couple gets police help to wed amid curfew Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:21 AM PDT  The couple's dream was to have a huge celebration with family and friends in the southern holy city of Najaf. Najaf has been among the Iraqi cities hardest hit by the pandemic, accounting for a little more than 20% of Iraq's total cases. Iraq now has nearly 1,300 confirmed virus cases.
|
| World's militaries face a new enemy in virus outbreak Posted: 12 Apr 2020 02:12 AM PDT  The coronavirus pandemic has forced militaries and militias to adapt to an invisible enemy, even as traditional conflicts grind on. On Thursday, Saudi Arabia declared a temporary halt to fighting in Yemen because of the pandemic, while in Libya and Afghanistan conflicts are intensifying despite U.N. appeals for a global cease-fire. Before the pandemic, Israel's military kept tabs on the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, carried out occasional airstrikes against Iran's military presence in Syria and retaliated for sporadic rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
|
| Pope urges solidarity on an Easter of both joy, virus sorrow Posted: 12 Apr 2020 01:09 AM PDT  Pope Francis called for solidarity the world over to confront the "epochal challenge" posed by the coronavirus pandemic, as Christians celebrated a solitary Easter Sunday, blending the joyful feast day with sorrow over the toll the virus has already taken. Families that normally would attend morning Mass wearing their Easter best and later join friends for celebratory lunches hunkered down at home. Police checkpoints in Europe and closed churches around the globe forced the faithful to watch Easter services online or on TV.
|
| Amid pandemic, Christians celebrate an Easter like no other Posted: 11 Apr 2020 11:51 PM PDT  Christians around the world celebrated Easter Sunday isolated in their homes by the coronavirus while pastors preached the faith's joyous news of Christ's resurrection to empty pews. One Florida church drew a large turnout for a drive-in service in a parking lot. In Britain, Prime Minister Boris Johnson, the first major world leader to test positive for the virus, paid an emotional tribute to the country's National Health Service following his release from the hospital, saying its doctors and nurses had saved his life "no question."
|
| Israel tightens quarantine in Jerusalem to halt virus spread Posted: 11 Apr 2020 11:40 PM PDT  The Israeli government approved a tight quarantine of several areas of Jerusalem on Sunday, including the historic Old City, in a bid to slow the spread of the coronavirus in the city's most susceptible neighborhoods. A ministerial committee approved the shutting down of movement in and out of several predominantly ultra-Orthodox areas of the city in order to contain the disease that has already resulted in over 100 deaths in Israel and almost 6,000 around the Middle East, about three quarters of which come from Iran. Israel's Health Ministry has documented over 10,000 cases of the novel coronavirus and over 100 deaths.
|
| Lives Lost: Milwaukee police leader ensured racial equality Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:07 PM PDT  "Lenny wasn't just a police officer," retired Milwaukee police Sgt. Kerry Flowers said. Wells, who died March 21 at age 69, dedicated his life to racial equality and fairness, both within the Milwaukee Police Department and the larger community. "He was a legend on the Police Department," said Andra Williams, a retired police captain, who met Wells in 1991.
|
| How the IMF Can Help Iran Despite U.S. Objections Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:00 PM PDT |
| North Korea calls for stronger coronavirus measures Posted: 11 Apr 2020 07:44 PM PDT  North Korea called for stronger measures against the rapidly spreading coronavirus pandemic at a meeting presided by leader Kim Jong Un, state media reported Sunday, without acknowledging whether the country had reported any infections. Officials in Pyongyang and its state media have repeatedly insisted that the North remains totally free of the virus, but Sunday's report did not make that assertion. The coronavirus epidemic -- which has infected more than 1.7 million worldwide -- had become "a great disaster threatening the whole mankind, regardless of borders and continents", the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported.
|
| Democrats Fear Trump’s New 2020 Strategy Is Working Posted: 11 Apr 2020 01:23 PM PDT  President Donald Trump and his allies are leaning heavily into a new 2020 strategy tying Democrats and their presumptive presidential nominee Joe Biden not just to China but to its role in spreading the coronavirus.Democrats are increasingly worried that the strategy will work.The Trump re-election campaign released a new ad this week going after Biden over his opposition to restrictions on travel from China designed to control the spread of the coronavirus outbreak. That was followed with a fundraising solicitation on Saturday that hammered home the point: "I am TOUGH ON CHINA and Sleepy Joe Biden is WEAK ON CHINA," it declared.There's a Huge Hole in Biden's Coronavirus PlanInside the campaign, the strategy is simple: make China the villain of a global pandemic that has complicated well-laid electoral plans and sparked growing criticism of the president."[China's] among many weaknesses, but when people learn about Biden's attack on the president's China travel ban, his other weak positions on China, and his conflict with Hunter Biden's business deal with China, voters are horrified," John McLaughlin, a Trump pollster, told The Daily Beast on Friday. Other Trump 2020 officials said that the campaign had always intended to hammer Biden on China until the election in November, and the coronavirus "angle" was merely another way to go after the Bidens and China simultaneously.In one sense it's simply an extension of Team Trump's months-long strategy to tie Biden to a country increasingly viewed with suspicion by American voters. The campaign and the Republican National Committee have been hammering Biden for months over his youngest son Hunter's past business dealings in China.But the outbreak of the novel coronavirus, which originated in the Chinese city of Wuhan, has made the country a far more potent political villain. And the massive disruptions in daily life caused by the virus virtually guarantee that China will remain in the headlines—and on the minds of American voters—for months as election day approaches. Polls already indicate that Americans of both parties overwhelmingly blame China for the virus' initial spread.For a Trump campaign that's a potential political goldmine. "China was an effective wedge issue for Trump in 2016," said one Republican strategist close to the campaign. "Now that it's at the top of everyone's mind, and Biden has a long record of being weak on China, just imagine how much more effective it will be in 2020."They Said They Were Bernie or Bust. Then They Talked Themselves Into Biden.The new tactic from Trump has not gone unnoticed by Democrats who fear that it may be the type of opening that a cynical president could effectively use—even one who has made a point of going soft on China's leader, Xi Jinping, whom Trump routinely praises as an "incredible guy" who's doing a great job handling the virus. Navigator Research, a progressive polling outlet that has taken the lead for the party in public opinion surveying around the virus, included an alarm bell nugget in its Friday dispatch. "Warning" the item read, "Trump's China rhetoric may be resonating and gaining traction." As evidence, the firm noted that 43 percent of respondents in its survey said "China bears more responsibility than the federal government for the way coronavirus has spread in the U.S.""A lot of times people on the left tend to have a knee-jerk reaction to Trump's racism and xenophobia that disallows them from taking it as seriously as a messaging tactic as it is," said Ian Sams, a top official at Navigator. "The public is pretty anti-China right now. And I think there is validity to the idea that they've been less than transparent and hid information on this virus. And Trump is seizing on that… We can't just let Trump's lies be the only thing out there." To that point, Democrats have largely stopped pushing back against Trump's anti-China push on grounds that it's xenophobic and adopted the posture that it's all a big lie, pointing to, among other things, the fact that his administration sent China medical supplies as it was battling coronavirus, only to then have a shortage of them when it hit the U.S. Democratic National Committee talking points, obtained by The Daily Beast, say that Trump's claim to have "acted early with his China travel restrictions," was in reality "too little too late." The Democratic Party's top think tank, Center for American Progress, put together a memo that encouraged officials not to "concede a thing on Trump's travel ban.""The reality is, Trump was slow in instituting the ban," it reads. "And the ban was so leaky that 40,000 more people entered from China after the ban was in place."But Sams conceded that it likely would not be good enough to merely call Trump a liar on China. The case needed to be made, he said, that the president had coddled Beijing at a time when the country should have been warning the U.S. about the seriousness of COVID-19. Top Democratic officials said that they were gearing up to more proactively make that point in the days ahead. And Biden's campaign, for its part, seems to be there already. Trump's Sick Reality Show Is Built on Coronavirus Corpses"Despite repeated warnings from the U.S. intelligence community—and public warnings from Joe Biden—that he shouldn't take China's word about containment of the outbreak, Donald Trump praised China's response for weeks while downplaying the threat to us," said Andrew Bates, a Biden campaign spokesman. "Now we have the most coronavirus cases in the world and we're losing millions of jobs. Any time Donald Trump says the word 'China,' he accomplishes one thing: reminding the American people of his historic failure to prepare our nation for the worst public health crisis in generations."Indeed, this comes at a time when Trump's poll numbers on his handling of the coronavirus crisis have seen significant dips in recent days. In late March, major public polls showed a spike in how the American people judged the president's response to the pandemic and collapsing economy. White House officials were delighted that they were able to print out and slip into Trump's reading materials some favorable coverage, including this Fox News article titled, "60 percent of Americans approve of Trump's handling of coronavirus: Gallup poll," said a senior administration official.White House staff knew how much this would please the president and were confident he would incorporate the news into his daily messaging. However, as Trump's poll numbers on the virus slumped, these aides quickly stopped including the newer data in the president's daily batches of articles and reading material, for fear it would "upset him," the official added.Some Trump allies, though, are convinced that they can both ding Democrats' presidential nominee and boost their own public profiles—and standing with the president himself—by invoking China's role in the coronavirus' spread. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) even went so far as to buy television ads in Ohio ahead of that state's Democratic presidential primary attacking Biden on the China issue.Cotton and other Senate Republican China hawks, such as Missouri's Josh Hawley and Texas' Ted Cruz, have found China-bashing to be an effective strategy in its own right. All three have taken out Facebook ads criticizing the country for its role in the spread of the coronavirus.Outside advocacy groups have gotten in on the action as well. Stand Up to China, a new dark money outfit, has spent about $36,000 on Facebook ads hammering Beijing on issues from the coronavirus to its mass internment of Uyghur Muslims. It's not clear who, exactly, is behind the group, which has targeted the vast majority of its anti-China ads at Facebook users in Florida.Perhaps the most dramatic China-themed advertising, though, has come from Kathaleen Wall, a Republican House candidate in Texas. In a video ad that began airing last week, she dubs China a "criminal enterprise masquerading as a sovereign nation," which "has poisoned our people.""President Trump has the courage to call it what it is," the 30-second spot says, with a clip of Trump referring to "the Chinese virus." The ad promises, "Kathaleen Wall has his back." Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
|
| Kansas' high court rules for governor on religious services Posted: 11 Apr 2020 09:08 AM PDT  The Kansas Supreme Court ruled Saturday that a Republican-dominated legislative panel exceeded its authority when it tried to overturn the Democratic governor's executive order banning religious and funeral services of more than 10 people during the coronavirus pandemic. The decision letting Gov. Laura Kelly's order stand came after the justices heard oral arguments one day before Easter, which is typically the busiest day on the Christian calendar in terms of church attendance. The Saturday hearing was the court's first conducted completely via video conferencing.
|
