Romney Cartoons

Cruise passengers off California await virus test results

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Coronavirus test results were expected Friday for some passengers and crew aboard a cruise ship held off the California coast.

The Grand Princess lay at anchor near San Francisco on Thursday after a traveler from a previous voyage died of the disease and at least four others became infected. While the more than 3,500 aboard the 951-foot (290-meter) vessel were ordered to stay at sea as officials scrambled to keep the virus at bay, only 45 were identified for testing, Princess Cruises said in a statement.

“The ship will not come on shore until we appropriately assess the passengers,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said.

A Sacramento-area man who sailed on the ship in February later succumbed to the coronavirus. Two other passengers from that voyage have been hospitalized with the virus in Northern California, and two Canadians who recently sailed aboard the ship tested positive after returning home, officials said.

Northern California officials also are awaiting test results from a man who died Thursday after being on a cruise where others have tested positive.

Meanwhile, the U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed to 12 on Thursday, with all but one victim in Washington state, while the number of infections swelled to over 200, scattered across 18 states. Colorado and Nevada reported their first cases. 

Nine of the dead were from the same suburban Seattle nursing home, now under federal investigation. Families of nursing home residents voiced anger, having received conflicting information about the condition of their loved ones. One woman was told her mother had died, then got a call from a staffer who said her mother was doing well, only to find out she had, in fact, died, said Kevin Connolly, whose father-in-law is also a facility resident.

“This is the level of incompetence we’re dealing with,” Connolly said at an emotional news conference in front of the Life Care Center in Kirkland.

The federal investigation of the nursing home will determine whether it followed guidelines for preventing infections. Last April, the state fined it $67,000 over infection-control deficiencies after two flu outbreaks.

The coronavirus has infected more than 98,000 people worldwide and killed over 3,300, the vast majority of them in China.

U.S. health officials said they expect a far lower death rate than the World Health Organization’s international estimate of 3.4% — a high rate that doesn’t account for mild cases that go uncounted.

U.S. Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir cited a model that included mild cases to say the U.S. could expect a death rate somewhere between 0.1% — akin to the seasonal flu’s — and 1%. The risk is highest for older people and anyone with conditions such as heart or lung disease, diabetes or suppressed immune systems.

Some major businesses in the Seattle area, where researchers say the virus may have circulated undetected for weeks, have shut down some operations or urged employees to work from home. That includes Microsoft and Amazon, the two tech giants that together employ more than 100,000 people in the region. The 22,000-student Northshore district announced it will close for up to two weeks as a precaution.

With many commuters off the road, traffic on the Seattle area’s notoriously congested freeways were much lighter Thursday.

King County is buying a motel for $4 million to house patients and hopes to have the first of them in place within days at the 84-room EconoLodge in Kent, about 20 miles (32 km) from Seattle. The rooms’ doors open to the outside rather than to a central hallway, reducing the likelihood of contact between patients.

The plan was met with resistance from local leaders, including Kent Police Chief Rafael Padilla, who called it “ill-advised and dangerous” and warned: “At any point a patient can simply walk into our community and spread the virus.”

Around the country, New York’s mayor implored the federal government to send more test kits to his state, which saw its caseload double overnight to 22, all of them in or near the city. Gap Inc. said it has closed its New York office and is asking employees to work from home “until further notice” after learning that one of its employees was confirmed to have the new virus.

In Rhode Island, about 200 people were quarantined because of their connections to a school trip to Italy that has so far resulted in three cases. Amid four cases in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis said the risks remain low for most people planning trips to the state for spring break or baseball’s spring training.

On Wall Street, fears about the outbreak led to a sharp selloff, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 970 points, or 3.6%. The drop extended two weeks of wild swings in the market, with stocks fluctuating 2% or more for the fourth day in a row.

The ship off California was returning to San Francisco after visiting Hawaii. Some of the passengers remained on board after sailing on its previous voyage, to the Mexican ports of Puerto Vallarta, Manzanillo, Mazatlan and Cabo San Lucas.

Princess Cruise Lines said that no cases of the virus had been confirmed among those still on the ship. But dozens of passengers have had flu-like symptoms over the past two weeks or so, said Mary Ellen Carroll, executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management.

“Once we have results from the tests,” she said, authorities “will determine the best location for the ship to berth.”

A military helicopter lowered by rope and later retrieved the test kits Thursday, bound for a lab in Richmond, California, authorities said.

Michele Smith, a Grand Princess passenger, posted video of the helicopter to Facebook. Another video shows a crew member wearing gloves and a mask and spraying and wiping a handrail.

“We have crews constantly cleaning our ship,” Smith is heard saying.

In a post, Smith said she and her husband are not quarantined and were told only the people who had been on the Mexico voyage or those showing flu-like symptoms had to isolate.

“Spirits are as high as can be under these circumstances. We are blessed to be healthy, comfortable and well-fed,” she wrote.

But a late-night statement Thursday from the cruise line said all guests were asked to stay in their rooms while results were awaited, following CDC guidelines.

A passenger from the Mexico voyage, Judy Cadiz of Lodi, California, said she and her husband became ill afterward but did not given it much thought until learning a fellow traveler had died of the virus. Now, they cannot get a straight answer about how to get tested, she said.

With Mark Cadiz, 65, running a fever, the couple worries not only about themselves, but about the possibility that — if they contracted the infection — they could have passed it on to others.

“They’re telling us to stay home, but nobody told me until yesterday to stay home. We were in Sacramento, we were in Martinez, we were in Oakland. We took a train home from the cruise,” Judy Cadiz said Thursday. “I really hope that we’re negative so nobody got infected.”

___

Geller reported from New York. Associated Press writers Janie Har and Jocelyn Gecker in San Francisco; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; Gene Johnson, Martha Bellisle and Carla K. Johnson in Seattle; Rachel La Corte in Olympia, Washington; and AP researcher Monika Mathur in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.

___

The Associated Press receives support for health and science coverage from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

___

Follow AP coverage of the virus outbreak at https://apnews.com/VirusOutbreak and https://apnews.com/UnderstandingtheOutbreak

Trump to sign $8.3B coronavirus funding bill Friday, Pence says

President Trump on Friday will sign newly approved legislation allocating more than $8 billion in emergency funding to combat the spread of coronavirus.
The disclosure came Thursday from Vice President Mike Pence during his visit to Washington state, which has seen at least 70 cases of the virus and at least 11 deaths – more fatalities than anywhere else in the nation.
Pence has been overseeing U.S. efforts to contain the outbreak, after President Trump appointed him to head a special task force that includes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health.
The vice president said the efforts by health officials and lawmakers represented the “very best of D.C. coming together, putting the health and wellbeing of the American people first and making nearly $8 billion available not only to federal agencies but to state and local efforts as we confront coronavirus.”
Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Senate passed its coronavirus funding bill 96-1, with only Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., voting against it.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House passed its version 415-2, with only Reps. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., and Ken Buck, R-Colo., voting against the measure.
More than $3 billion is being dedicated to research and development on vaccines, medicines for treatment and diagnostic tests, including $300 million for the government to purchase such drugs from manufacturers at “fair and reasonable” prices to distribute them to those who need it — which is the standard applied in earlier crises like the 2009 H1N1 flu outbreak.
In addition, more than $2 billion will help federal, state and local governments prepare for and respond to the coronavirus threat, including $300 million for the CDC's rapid response fund. Another $1.3 billion would be used to help fight the virus overseas.
Other funds will be allocated toward medical supplies and other preparedness.
During his stop in Washington state, where he participated in a round-table discussion with Gov. Jay Inslee, members of Washington’s congressional delegation, and local officials responding to the outbreak there, Pence sought to reassure the state that the federal government was aware of the seriousness of the problem there.
“As the state of Washington, and the Seattle area in particular, deals with the coronavirus, we're going to continue to make sure that you have the full support of every agency in the federal government,” Pence said after touring the state’s emergency response center at Camp Murray. “We know you’re the front line.”
Most of the deaths occurring in Washington have been of residents of the Life Care Center, a nursing home in the Seattle suburb of Kirkland. Researchers say the virus may have been circulating undetected there for weeks, The Associated Press reported.
Washington’snumber of confirmed cases jumped to 70 from 39 on Thursday, including the first reported death in eastern Washington, Q13 FOX of Seattle reported.
The elderly are considered especially vulnerable to the virus, in part because the body’s immune system tends to weaken during the aging process. The most recent Washington death was a woman in her 90s, Q13 FOX reported.
President Trump praised Pence’s efforts during the president’s appearance on a special town hall broadcast on Fox News.
“Mike Pence is working 20 hours a day or more on this,” Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.
During the town hall, Trump defended his administration's response to the coronavirus outbreak, saying his decision to limit travel from China had averted a broader domestic crisis.
“I think people are viewing us as doing a very good job,” Trump told an audience member who asked about the outbreak response. “This started in China. How it started, is a question. ... It's gonna all work out. Everyone has to be calm.”
Fox News’ Andrew O’Reilly and Gregg Re and The Associated Press contributed to this story.

McConnell calls Schumer's response to Supreme Court not 'much of an apology'

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., called the remarks by Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., not "much of an apology," early Friday morning after the minority leader backtracked from comments directed towards two conservative Supreme Court justices on Thursday.
During an exclusive interview with Shannon Bream at "Fox News @ Night," McConnell said that leaders of Congress owe it to the American people to act like adults and not engage in "shenanigans," adding that Schumer's apology wasn't enough and didn't satisfy him and his colleagues.
"He named the justices by name. He used words that generally are associated with inciting violence," McConnell told Bream. "Now, if that was an apology, [it] wasn't much of an apology."
Schumer attempted to walk back his threat earlier, claiming his words didn't come out the right way because of his state of mind at the time.
“I’m from Brooklyn. We speak in strong language. I shouldn’t have used the words I did, but in no way was I making a threat,” Schumer said on the Senate floor. “I feel so deeply the anger of women all across America about Senate Republicans and the courts working hand in glove to take down Roe v. Wade."
Schumer had called out Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, saying they would "pay the price" if they voted to restrict abortion rights.
"I want to tell you, Gorsuch. I want to tell you, Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price!" Schumer warned. "You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."
His comments come as Trump has criticized liberal justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor in the past.
McConnell said past presidents have often criticized justices, adding that he remembers Barack Obama, "shaking his finger" at them during his presidency.
"But that's quite different from joining a mob scene over in front of the Supreme Court building, mentioning Supreme Court justices by name and using language that is typically used to bring about some kind of violent reaction,"  McConnell said.

Romney could block Republican subpoena try aimed at the Bidens

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, who faced the scorn of President Trump and fellow Republicans over his vote last month to convict at the Senate impeachment trial, questioned the motivation behind a Republican effort to issue a subpoena related to Hunter Biden and his dealing with Ukraine.
"I would prefer that investigations are done by an independent, non-political body," Romney told the Washington Post. "There’s no question the appearance is not good." 
Republicans are gearing up for a vote next week in the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that would approve a subpoena aimed at gathering information related to a former Ukrainian diplomat with ties to the consulting firm Blue Star Strategies, Reuters reported. The allegation is that the company used Hunter Biden for access to the State Department. His father was vice president at the time.
The Bidens have denied any wrongdoing.
Unlike Trump’s impeachment trial, Romney’s vote in the committee is pivotal. The Post pointed out that Republicans maintain an 8-to-6 majority and—assuming that all Democrats vote together—would result in a 7-7 tie.
"There’s no question but that the appearance of looking into Burisma and Hunter Biden appears political. And I think people are tired of these kinds of political investigations," Romney told reporters, according to Reuters.
The committee has been pursuing its investigation into the Bidens since at least November.  The vote is expected next Wednesday.
"Joe Biden has never adequately answered these questions," Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told "The Story with Martha McCallum" this week.
"I’ve said repeatedly, if there’s wrongdoing the American people need to understand that. If there is no wrongdoing, or if it's not significant, the American people need to understand that," the chairman of the committee said.
Trump told Fox News that Joe Biden was "damaged" by the impeachment process that implicated his son Hunter in apparent overseas corruption while Biden was vice president. "They aimed at Trump and they took Biden down," the president said.
Fox News' Tyler Olson and Gregg Re contributed to this report

Chuck Schumer Cartoons

Global shares rise after surge in US on stimulus measures

TOKYO (AP) — Shares in Europe and Asia advanced Thursday, tracking an overnight surge on Wall Street as governments and central banks take more aggressive measures to fight the virus outbreak and its effects on the economy.

Benchmarks rose in almost every market, though U.S. futures pointed to a weak open.

France’s CAC 40 added 0.5% in early trading to 5,490.52, while Germany’s DAX was up nearly 0.6% to 12,194.33. Britain’s FTSE 100 inched up 0.2% to 6,830.92.

U.S. shares were set to drift lower with Dow futures dipping 0.9% to 26,731. S&P 500 futures were down 0.9% at 3,085.70.

The gains on Wall Street more than recouped big losses from a day earlier as wild, virus-fueled swings around the world’s markets extend into a third week. Health care stocks led gains after former Vice President Joe Biden solidified his contender status for the Democratic presidential nomination. Investors see him as more business-friendly than Senator Bernie Sanders.

The rally’s momentum accelerated around midday after House and Senate leadership reached a deal on a bipartisan $8.3 billion bill to battle the coronavirus outbreak. The measure’s funds would go toward research into a vaccine, improved tests and drugs to treat infected people.

The upward momentum carried into Asian trading, where Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.1% to finish at 21,329.12. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 added 1.1% to 6,395.70. South Korea’s Kospi gained 1.3% to 2,085.26. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng added 2.1% to 26,762.43, while the Shanghai Composite jumped 2.0% to 3,071.68. India’s Sensex climbed 0.5% to 38,593.25.

Shares were also higher in Taiwan and Southeast Asia.

Shares in Chinese blue chips rose Thursday in Hong Kong, suggesting “investors’ confidence was restored by the surge in U.S. markets. We don’t have the panic selling evident last week when the market fell sharply,” said Francis Lun, a stock analyst in Hong Kong.

“Despite the specter of coronavirus lurking over the world’s economy, all appears well with the world, judging by Wall Street’s overnight performance,” Jeffrey Halley of Oanda said in a commentary. “China’s rate of new infections has plunged, even as coronavirus makes its presence felt in the far-flung corners of the globe.”

Investors expect other central banks will follow up on the Federal Reserve’s surprise move Tuesday of slashing interest rates by half a percentage point in hopes of protecting the economy from the economic fallout of the new coronavirus.

Even though many investors say they know lower interest rates will not halt the spread of the virus, they want to see central banks and other authorities do what they can to lessen the damage.

The Bank of England has a meeting on March 26 on interest rates. The European Central Bank and others have already cut rates below zero, meanwhile, which limits their monetary policy firepower. But economists say they could make other moves, such as freeing up banks to lend more.

ENERGY: Benchmark crude oil rose 19 cents to $46.97 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It fell 40 cents to settle at $46.78 a barrel. Brent crude oil, the international standard, gained 25 cents to $51.38 a barrel.

CURRENCIES: The dollar fell to 107.27 Japanese yen from 107.55 yen on Wednesday. The euro fell to $1.1127 from $1.1131.

ABA ‘deeply troubled’ by Schumer’s Supreme Court comments

The American Bar Association said on Wednesday that it is "deeply troubled" by a comment made by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., outside the Supreme Court that many said was a direct threat to two sitting justices.
Schumer was at a rally over a high-profile abortion case while the case played out inside. Schumer named Associate Justices Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh and, in an impassioned speech, said, "You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You will not know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions."
Justin Goodman, a Schumer spokesman, responded after Chief Justice John Roberts issued a statement on what he called "threatening" comments. Goodman said that Schumer was addressing Republican lawmakers when he said a "price" would be paid.
Goodman noted that the chief justice remained quiet in recent weeks when President Trump questioned the impartiality of Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor.
"Personal attacks on judges by any elected officials, including the president, are simply inappropriate," the ABA’s statement read. "Such comments challenge the reputation of the third, co-equal branch of our government; the independence of the judiciary; and the personal safety of judicial officers. They are never acceptable."
Trump himself weighed in on Schumer's comments, tweeting, “If a Republican did this, he or she would be arrested, or impeached. Serious action MUST be taken NOW!”
Mark Levin, the “Life, Liberty, & Levin” host, said he wants Schumer to be “sanctioned by the Bar, admonished by the Senate, investigated by the Senate ethics committee, and even reviewed” by the Department of Justice.
"No individual, let alone the Senate Democrat leader, who is also a lawyer, should escape accountability for his loathsome conduct," Levin said.
Fox News' Gregg Re, Joseph A. Wulfshon and the Associated Press contributed to this report