An Italian nurse working on the frontline against the Chinese coronavirus was brutally sexually assaulted by an African migrant after finishing her shift and heading to her home.

Friday on Fox News Channel's "Your World," Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) argued when determining how and whether or not China was responsible for coronavirus global pandemic, it was undeniable China allowed the virus to spread beyond its borders.

Pressure is increasing on Gov. Tom Wolf (D) to reopen Pennsylvania, even among Democrats, as it is revealed that the vast majority of recent coronavirus deaths in the state occurred at nursing homes or personal care facilities, the Morning Call revealed this week.

Mexican health officials admitted to surpassing 3,100 COVID-19 related-deaths as cases continue to rise nationwide. The reports come despite repeated accusations of the government downplaying the true scope of the coronavirus pandemic

Kenya's regional governors are calling on national authorities to close the country's borders as illegal migration from surrounding countries has caused an increase in imported coronavirus cases, Kenyan newspaper the Nation reported on Thursday.

LONDON (AP) - From resounding applause to ostracization and isolation. That's essentially the journey Lt. Cmdr. Robert Embleton, who served 34 years in Britain's Royal Navy...

Data released from the California Departments of Health and Social Services on Friday show that nursing home deaths represent almost half of the coronavirus fatalities in the state.

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) detailed guidelines on Friday for the state to begin reopening next week under strict restrictions.

Physician and Rep. Gregory Murphy said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily that “draconian” lockdowns are no longer needed in many places.

Nearly three-fourths of U.S. adults say China bears responsibility for American coronavirus deaths, a Morning Consult tracker poll released Friday revealed.

(United States Second Circuit) - In a copyright infringement suit brought by the company that owns the recordings of the Turtles, a well-known rock band with a string of hits in the 1960s, on behalf of itself and a class of owners of pre-1972 recordings against largest radio and internet-radio broadcaster in the U.S., the district court's denial of defendant's motions for summary judgment and reconsideration is reversed where, in response to questions certified to the New York Court of Appeals, New York common law does not recognize a right of public performance for creators of pre-1972 sound recordings.

(California Court of Appeal) - Affirming the grant of summary judgment to Google executives in a suit brought by three shareholders bringing derivative suits alleging the corporation was harmed by executives who agreed to refrain from actively recruiting employees working for competitors, an arrangement that had been previously abandoned when it gave rise to antitrust issues with the Department of Justice, because the claim was barred by the three-year statute of limitations.

ASM Completes Its 150th Film Score And Retains Jonathan Firstenberg As North American Rep

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Reversed the denial of class certification in an action where a healthcare company was accused of unlawfully sending unsolicited faxed advertisements in violation of the U.S. Telephone Consumer Protection Act. The district court denied the motion for class certification on the ground that individual issues would predominate over issues common to the putative class. On an interlocutory appeal, the Ninth Circuit disagreed and remanded for further proceedings.

(United States Second Circuit) - Rejected an objecting class member's challenge to the amount of attorney fees awarded to a law firm that represented the class in a shareholder lawsuit. Raising what the court described as a novel issue, the objector contended that the lodestar fee must be unenhanced because the action was initiated under a statute with a fee‐shifting provision.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed. The district court's refusal to compel arbitration was upheld, as was their refusal of several motions by Rent-A-Center attempting to avoid class action against them because a contract to waive the right to seek public injunctive relief violates California law.

(United States Second Circuit) - Partially affirmed, partially reversed. A class action suit against energy providers was dismissed and a post-judgment request for leave to amend was refused. Plaintiffs should have been allowed to amend their complaint and their proposed amended complaint stated plausible claims.

Diskery.com Celebrates 20 Years On-line!

British Author/Musician MICHAEL MOORCOCK Releases Live At The Terminal Café.

The Music Artists Known As Big E And The Wild Hairs Have Released Their Latest Single, “Kiss Of Death.”

(Supreme Court of California) - Reversed and remanded. The Government Claims Act immunity for public entities is an affirmative defense that can be waived or forfeited if not timely raised.

Corrugated Iron Get Triple M Commercial Radio Airplay!

New Podcast Concept Station "Elevate Radio" To Help Podcasters And Musicians

IJazzy Classical Is Haiti’ Only Jazz Radio Station.

Afro Soundz Radio Is A New Radio Station, Broadcasting In The USA, Comprised Of DJs And Programmers Originally From The African Continent.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed. The district court's refusal to compel arbitration was upheld, as was their refusal of several motions by Rent-A-Center attempting to avoid class action against them because a contract to waive the right to seek public injunctive relief violates California law.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed. Defendant had a right to compel arbitration, but elected to proceed with a judicial forum. However, during the litigation process, Defendant changed its mind and filed a motion to compel arbitration. The district court held that Defendant had waived its right to compel arbitration.

(United States Fifth Circuit) - Certified. The state Supreme Court was asked how they would interpret the subrogation waiver in common form contracting agreements, a question that has split courts nationwide.

The Barkers Hill Footbridge will be closed to the public as of tomorrow [May 9], with reopening expected on Monday [May 11]. A Government...

“The three new positive COVID-19 cases reported in Wednesday evening’s press conference were residents in three of our Long Term Care homes,...

[Updating] Police can be seen in the Warwick area this evening [May 8], with crime scene tape visible, and unofficial information indicating that...

Bermuda-based PartnerRe Ltd. reported a net loss attributable to common shareholder of $433 million for the first quarter of 2020. The company said,...

By Ezra David Romero

By Rob Stein, Carmel Wroth, Alyson Hurt

To safely phase out social distancing measures, the U.S. needs more diagnostic testing for the coronavirus, experts say. But how much more?

The Trump administration said on April 27 that the U.S. will soon have enough capacity to conduct double the current amount of testing for active infections. The country has done nearly 248,000 tests daily on average in the past seven days, according to the nonprofit COVID Tracking Project. Doubling that would mean doing about 496,000 a day.

Will that be enough? What benchmark should states try to hit?

One prominent research group, Harvard's Global Health Institute, proposes that the U.S. should be doing more than 900,000 tests per day as a country. This projection, released Thursday, is a big jump from its earlier projection of testing need, which had been between 500,000 and 600,000 daily.

Harvard's testing estimate increased, says Ashish Jha, director of the Global Health Institute, because the latest modeling shows that the outbreak in the United States is worse than projected earlier.

"Just in the last few weeks, all of the models have converged on many more people getting infected and many more people [dying]," he says.

But each state's specific need for testing varies depending on the size of its outbreak, explains Jha. The bigger the outbreak, the more testing is needed.

On Thursday, Jha's group at Harvard published a simulation that estimates the amount of testing needed in each state by May 15. In the graphic below, we compare these estimates with the average numbers of daily tests states are currently doing.

Two ways to assess whether testing is adequate

To make their state-by-state estimates, the Harvard Global Health Institute group started from a model of future case counts. It calculated how much testing would be needed for a state to test all infected people and any close contacts they may have exposed to the virus. (The simulation estimates testing 10 contacts on average.)

"Testing is outbreak control 101, because what testing lets you do is figure out who's infected and who's not," Jha says. "And that lets you separate out the infected people from the noninfected people and bring the disease under control."

This approach is how communities can prevent outbreaks from flaring up. First, test all symptomatic people, then reach out to their close contacts and test them, and finally ask those who are infected or exposed to isolate themselves.

Our chart also shows another testing benchmark for each state: the ratio of tests conducted that come back positive. Communities that see about 10% or fewer positives among their test results are probably testing enough, the World Health Organization advises. If the rate is higher, they're likely missing a lot of active infections.

What is apparent from the data we present below is that many states are far from both the Harvard estimates and the 10% positive benchmark.

Just nine states are near or have exceeded the testing minimums estimated by Harvard; they are mostly larger, less populous states: Alaska, Hawaii, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.

Several states with large outbreaks — New York, Massachusetts and Connecticut, among others — are very far from the minimum testing target. Some states that are already relaxing their social distancing restrictions, such as Georgia, Texas and Colorado, are far from the target too.

Jha offers several caveats about his group's estimates.

Estimates are directional, not literal

Researchers at the Global Health Initiative at Harvard considered three different models of the U.S. coronavirus outbreak as a starting point for their testing estimates. They found that while there was significant variation in the projections of outbreak sizes, all of the models tend to point in the same direction, i.e., if one model showed that a state needed significantly more testing, the others generally did too.

The model they used to create these estimates is the Youyang Gu COVID-19 Forecasts, which they say has tracked closely with what's actually happened on the ground. Still, the researchers caution, these numbers are not meant to be taken literally but as a guide.

Can't see this visual? Click here.

If social distancing is relaxed, testing needs may grow

The Harvard testing estimates are built on a model that assumes that states continue social distancing through May 15. And about half of states have already started lifting some of those.

Jha says that without the right measures in place to contain spread, easing up could quickly lead to new cases.

"The moment you relax, the number of cases will start climbing. And therefore, the number of tests you need to keep your society, your state from having large outbreaks will also start climbing," warns Jha.

Testing alone is not enough

A community can't base the decision that it's safe to open up on testing data alone. States should also see a consistent decline in the number of cases, of two weeks at least, according to White House guidance. If their cases are instead increasing, they should assume the number of tests they need will increase too.

And, Jha warns, testing is step one, but it won't contain an outbreak by itself. It needs to be part of "a much broader set of strategies and plans the states need to have in place" when they begin to reopen.

In fact, his group's model is built on the assumption that states are doing contact tracing and have plans to support isolation for infected or exposed people.

"I don't want anybody to just look at the number and say, we meet it and we're good to go," he says. "What this really is, is testing capacity in the context of having a really effective workforce of contact tracers."

The targets are floors, not goals

States that have reached the estimated target should think of that as a starting point.

"We've always built these as the floor, the bare minimum," Jha says. More testing would be even better, allowing states to more rapidly tamp down case surges.

In fact, other experts have proposed that the U.S. do even more testing. Paul Romer, a professor of economics at New York University, proposed in a recent white paper that if the U.S. tested every resident, every two weeks, isolating those who test positive, it could stop the pandemic in its tracks.

Jha warns that without sufficient testing, and the infrastructure in place to trace and isolate contacts, there's a real risk that states — even those with few cases now — will see new large outbreaks. "I think what people have to remember is that the virus isn't gone. The disease isn't gone. And it's going to be with us for a while," he says.

Can't see this visual? Click here.

Daniel Wood contributed to this report.

By Bert Johnson

(United States Second Circuit) - Held that a consumer could not proceed with a proposed class action challenging electricity rates in the wake of market deregulation. Affirmed summary judgment against his breach of contract, unfair trade practice and other claims alleging that a retail electricity supplier charged unlawful rates.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed. An organization of wireless providers appealed the district court's denial of a preliminary injunction in their challenge of a Berkeley ordinance requiring cell phone retailers to warn potential buyers that carrying a phone could cause them to exceed FCC guidelines for exposure to radio-frequency radiation.

(United States Ninth Circuit) - Affirmed the district court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the defendant in an action under the Driver’s Privacy Protection Act, which prohibits the use and disclosure of personal information derived from Department of Motor Vehicles records.

Prayer and a ministry of presence can make an eternal difference.

My grandmother died ten days ago. She was 88 years old. By all accounts she had lived a colorful life, with three husbands, three children, six grandchildren, and seven great-grandchildren. She routinely stated her intention to live another decade. Even though her body was failing her through arthritis and muscle loss, she hadn’t lost her desire to live, to see those great-grandchildren grow up, to enjoy the daffodils in April. But when she was diagnosed with colon cancer in early January and decided not to put herself through surgery, she knew her days were numbered, and she started to prepare to die.

Much has been written of late about the problems with end-of-life care in America. In an earlier post (Have Christians Made an Idol of Life?) I wrote about Ezekiel Emanuel’s argument that Americans should aspire to die around age 75. For many Americans, the final years are a series of financially debilitating medical decisions that—more importantly—result in suffering for patient and family members alike. Many studies have shown that doctors aren’t well-equipped to talk about death with patients, and often physicians suggest further treatments even when they know it will not serve the patient well. For the alleviation of physical suffering and financial burden, a national conversation about health care and end-of-life care has begun. (See, for instance Dying Shouldn’t Be So Brutal in the New York Times, The Ultimate End-of-Life Plan in the Wall Street Journal, and More on Faith and Life Care here in Christianity Today.)

In my grandmother’s case, good health insurance, financial plenty, devoted family members, and a daughter who had worked for years as an oncology nurse secured ...

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Everyone can experience God’s presence through worship

In honor of autism awareness month, Jared Kennedy reflects on his daughter Lucy's experience as a part of a church community:

Kelly couldn’t wait to talk after the service. She met Megan and me in the stairwell on our way to the children’s wing. “I have to tell you about Lucy’s morning!” At that moment, anxious questions filled my head. “Did she bolt from the classroom? Did she have a meltdown? Did anyone get hurt?”

Lucy was diagnosed with Autism at age 3. Over the past five years, we’ve pressed into daily therapy and training with love, and we’ve seen our little redhead grow and progress. Lucy’s verbal and language skills were essentially non-existent at the time of her diagnosis. Now she can clearly ask us to play “Let It Be” or “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” on the car stereo. But Lucy still struggles profoundly. She has some obsessive tendencies. For example, (in addition to the Beatles) she’s a fan of Martina McBride’s Christmas album, and we’re still playing it in the car a week after Easter. Though she’s grown in social awareness and language skill, we’ve seen the gap between Lucy’s actual age and her developmental age steadily increase. At age 8, we’re still working on potty training. And some of Lucy’s more persistently negative behaviors—such as frequent tantrums and bolting away from tutors and care givers—are more like those you’d expect from a toddler.

That’s why, when Kelly greeted us in the stairwell, I didn’t immediately expect the best. But this was good news. It was a baptism Sunday. At the service, one of our youth who recently graduated ...

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Alias Wayne New Single “Ring Of Fire”

Members of California’s Congressional delegation are center stage at the House Intelligence Committee impeachment inquiry hearings on Capitol Hill. The chair of the committee is LA area Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff. The ranking Republican member of the same committee is Fresno Rep. Devin Nunes. Other Californians are Democrats: Bay Area Rep. Jackie Speier and East Bay Rep. Eric Swalwell. McClatchy DC reporter Kate Irby joins Insight. She follows the California Congressional delegation. 

California’s State Endorsement Convention is this weekend in Long Beach. One of the surprises is that candidates Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Former Vice President Joe Biden will not attend. What does this mean? 

On Saturday, Nov. 16, the California Democratic Party in conjunction with Univision will host a televised 2019 Presidential Forum from 4 to 6 pm PST. Confirmed candidates are New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, South Bend Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Former Health and Human Services Secretary Julián Castro, California Sen. Kamala Harris, Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, investor Tom Steyer, and entrepreneur Andrew Yang. CapRadio’s Capitol Bureau Chief Ben Adler provides a preview to this weekend’s convention.

The JIRGA Score Was Nominated ‘Best Music’ In The Film Critics Circle Of Australia Awards (FCCA).

BELEAF, Which Releases In Stores And Online Worldwide August 16, 2019, Is A 14-track Powerhouse That Promises To Be Their Strongest, Clearest, And Most Authentic Work Yet.

The Partnership Allows Artists, Managers, And Their Teams To See Conversion Data From The Service To View What Fans Do After Clicking On A Linkfire Smart Link.

NIE Presents: The Hsu-nami, Fuck Your Birthday, NegativeHate, Stereobird @ Santos Party House

La Banda Zarabanda Surgió A Finales De Los 90. Fueron Contratados Originalmente Como La Banda De Planta Para El Restaurante Zarabanda, Propiedad Del Reconocido Cantante Cubano Willy Chirino.

BAYONICS Will Release Their New Album RESILIENCE In Stores And Online August 2, 2019.

Producer Bekim! Releasing Masterpiece Single With Amilcar Singing

(United States Supreme Court) - Construed a provision of the Federal Arbitration Act that excludes disputes involving certain transportation workers. The plaintiffs, interstate truck drivers, argued that their wage-hour lawsuit fell within the exclusion, and thus there was no basis to force them into arbitration despite the mandatory arbitration clause in their contract. Agreeing, the Supreme Court also held that the FAA's transportation worker exclusion covers independent contractors. Justice Gorsuch wrote the 8-0 opinion (Justice Kavanaugh took no part).