90 Percent of Ohio’s Economy Expected to Reopen This Week

An estimated 90 percent of Ohio’s economy will be reopened by the end of the week under Gov. Mike DeWine’s “Responsible Restart Ohio Plan.”

Since May 1, the healthcare industry has been able to perform all medically necessary procedures that do not require an overnight stay, such as routine check-ups, outpatient surgeries, imaging procedures, and diagnostic tests.

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Chinese State Media Attacks Steve Bannon After Calling CCP ‘Enemies of All Mankind’

The propaganda arms of the Chinese Communist Party have set their sights on Steve Bannon, a former White House chief strategist and vocal critic of China’s Communist regime.

Bannon now hosts a popular radio show called “War Room: Pandemic” and has dedicated numerous segments and even whole shows to exposing the evils of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).

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Jesse Ventura ‘Testing the Waters’ for Green Party Presidential Bid

Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura said Monday that he has decided to “test the waters” on a third-party presidential bid.

“If I were going to run for president, the Green Party would be my first choice. I’ve endorsed the party and I’m testing the waters,” the former professional wrestler said on Twitter.

Ventura said he hasn’t filed for candidacy but simply authorized a letter of interest sent to the Green Party on his behalf.

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Business Groups Paint Dim Picture of Ohio Economy, Urge DeWine to Reopen ‘Sooner Rather Than Later’

Six of the state’s most influential business organizations sent a letter to Gov. Mike DeWine last week urging him to reopen the economy as nearly one million Ohioans have now filed unemployment claims since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

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‘Secret’ COVID-19 Model Touted by Acton and DeWine That Predicted 10,000 Daily Cases on Peak Sunday Was Off by 700 Percent

Ohio’s official coronavirus model was projecting 10,000 new cases for Sunday’s peak, but only 1,317 new cases were reported.

As recently as March 29, the Ohio Department of Health’s forecast was predicting that the coronavirus pandemic would reach its peak in the state on April 19 when 10,000 new cases would be reported, The Ohio Star said.

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House Democrat Criticizes Ohio Economic Recovery Task Force for Focusing Solely on Reopening

A top Democrat on the Ohio House’s coronavirus economic recovery task force criticized its Republican chair for gathering “one-sided testimony that only supported the idea of opening Ohio as soon as possible.”

In a statement released last week, Rep. Terrence Upchurch (D-Cleveland), vice chair of the Ohio 2020 Economic Recovery Task Force, voiced frustration with the fact that the committee hasn’t heard from “minorities or women.”

“We were under the impression by the majority that this task-force would be a bipartisan, collaborative effort to map out next steps for the General Assembly’s response to the COVID-19 crisis in Ohio,” he said. “However, it became almost immediately apparent from the agenda and the chosen speakers that this task force was actually designed to gather one-sided testimony that only supported the idea of opening Ohio as soon as possible. This was never a democratic process.”

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Twitter Suspended Account for Steve Bannon Show Critical of Chinese Communist Party

Steve Bannon

Twitter suspended and then reinstated without explanation the account for “War Room: Pandemic,” a radio program founded by Steve Bannon and one of the first shows in the country to warn about the dangers of COVID-19.

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Legal Groups Sue ICE to Force Release of Illegal Immigrants in Ohio

A group of legal organizations has sued U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeking the release of illegal immigrants detained in Ohio.

The ACLU National Prison Project, the ACLU of Ohio, and the lam firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP announced Friday that they have filed a lawsuit against ICE “on behalf of immigrants detained in crowded facilities in Geauga and Seneca Counties.”

The lawsuit seeks the release of illegal immigrants who are in civil detention and at high risk of serious illness or death in the event that they contract COVID-19.

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3D Printing Presents Possible Solution to Personal Protective Equipment Shortage

Mayo Clinic announced last week that it is exploring the possibility of 3D printing face masks and other personal protective equipment items to employ in the national fight against COVID-19.

The famous clinic said its 3D Anatomic Modeling Laboratories across the country as well as its Division of Engineering are working together to “reverse-engineer, 3D-print and machine solutions for patient care.”

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Ohio Department of Health COVID-19 Forecast Was Off by 850 Cases Monday, Actual Cases Just One-Third of ‘Mitigated’ Projections

Ohio health officials and Gov. Mike DeWine continue to reference a coronavirus model that hasn’t been updated since March 28.

The Ohio Star still hasn’t been provided with any information on the identities of the Ohio State University researchers behind the controversial model.

The Ohio Department of Health (OHD) claims on its website for the forecast model that it was “created based on current data” and becomes “more precise as more information is available.”

However, the model still predicts that the coronavirus pandemic will reach its peak in Ohio on April 25 when the state is projected to have 9,689 new cases. But that number is based on the information that was available as of March 28 and hasn’t been updated since.

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Ohio Will Appeal Ruling Allowing Abortion Clinics to Remain Open

Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost said he will appeal a federal judge’s ruling that exempts abortion clinics from a mandate to cancel all elective surgeries.

Several abortion providers sued the state last Monday seeking relief from the Ohio Department of Health’s order to cancel all elective and non-essential surgeries.

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Trump Clashes with 3M After Accusations That Foreign Countries Are Getting Face Masks First

President Donald Trump warned 3M on Twitter Thursday night that it will “have a big price to pay” after the company was accused of various wrongdoings surrounding its production of N95 respirator masks.

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Fox News Poll Shows Biden/Klobuchar Ticket Beating Trump

A new Fox News poll predicts that voters would support a Joe Biden/Amy Klobuchar ticket over reelecting President Donald Trump in the 2020 election.

The poll was conducted between March 21 and 24 and shows Biden beating President Trump by nine percentage points in November. Since Biden promised to pick a female running mate, the poll examined his odds with Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Kamala Harris (D-CA), and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) as vice president.

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FDA Allows Ohio Company to Make Unlimited Use of Face Mask Sterilizer After Trump, DeWine Intervene

Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine called an emergency press conference Sunday to express his “deep disappointment” with the Food and Drug Administration for limiting the use of a new technology to sterilize face masks.

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Omar and Bernie Ask Bezos for Answers About Amazon’s Efforts to Slow COVID-19 Spread

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) sent a letter Friday to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos asking for “detailed information” about his plans to protect warehouse workers from the coronavirus.

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Trump Admin Plans to Identify COVID-19 Hotspots So Low-Risk Areas Can Reopen

President Donald Trump said Thursday that his administration is working on a county-level approach to the coronavirus that will enable the government to identify hotspots across the nation.

Doing so will allow social distancing measures to be relaxed or tightened based on the number of confirmed cases in each county, Trump said in a letter sent Thursday to the nation’s governors.

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Ohio Dems Call Attorney General ‘Opportunistic’ and ‘Despicable’ for Telling Abortion Clinics to Close

Ohio Democrats called Attorney General Dave Yost “opportunistic” for urging abortion clinics to close during the coronavirus pandemic.

Gov. Mike DeWine and the Ohio Department of Health issued an executive order Tuesday that required health providers to cancel all non-essential or elective surgeries that utilize personal protective equipment (PPE).

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Mayo Clinic Says It Can Now Perform Up to 4,000 COVID-19 Tests Daily

Mayo Clinic announced last week that it can now test up to 4,000 clinical samples for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, on a daily basis.

Mayo officials said they now have the capacity to process COVID-19 test samples at all Mayo Clinic sites and have started processing test samples from their clients across the state, including eight major health systems.

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President Trump Says FDA Has Approved Testing of Anti-Malaria Drug Chloroquine for Treating Coronavirus

President Donald Trump announced during a Thursday press briefing that the anti-malarial drug chloroquine was approved by the Food and Drug Administration as a possible treatment for the coronavirus.

The announcement comes the day after Breitbart News reported that the medical establishment has known about chloroquine’s effectiveness in treating the virus since at least the 2005 SARS coronavirus outbreak.

“Clinical trials are already underway for many new therapies and we’re working on scaling these to allow many more Americans to access different drugs that have shown really good promise,” President Trump said.

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Breaking: Gov. DeWine Flouts Judge’s Ruling, Declares Health Emergency to Postpone Primary Election

In a late-night announcement, Governor Mike DeWine – through the state’s Health Director Dr. Amy Acton – declared a Health Emergency and ordered the polls closed for Tuesday’s primary election.

In a Facebook post, the Governor’s office said, “During this time when we face an unprecedented public health crisis, to conduct an election tomorrow would force poll workers and voters to place themselves at an unacceptable health risk of contracting coronavirus. As such, Health Director Dr. Amy Acton will order the polls closed as a health emergency. While the polls will be closed tomorrow, Secretary of State Frank LaRose will seek a remedy through the courts to extend voting options so that every voter who wants to vote will be granted that opportunity.”

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Governor DeWine Says Ohio Schools Could Remain Closed for Rest of Academic Year, Orders All Restaurants to Close

Gov. Mike DeWine said Sunday morning that Ohio’s public schools could remain closed for the rest of the academic year.

DeWine ordered all K-12 public schools to close for three weeks beginning at the end of the day Monday. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), however, said that closing for eight weeks or more would have a greater impact on mitigating the spread of the virus.

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