News Bailout? Media outlets already have received millions in forgivable stimulus loans

Newspapers were struggling to stay profitable before the coronavirus

News outlets are receiving tens-of-millions in federal stimulus money as part of the $2.2 trillion coronavirus stimulus package that President Trump signed into law, among them such venerable newspapers as The Seattle Times and Tampa Bay Times. The money is coming through forgivable Paycheck Protection Program loans under the CARES Act that Congress passed last month. According to the Small Business Administration, businesses with under 500 employees can apply for PPP loans, which are forgivable if they are used for qualifying expenses such as payroll costs and rent. However, it's unclear whether any of the news outlets intend to repay the money, or how much they'll repay. The Tampa Bay newspaper, which received an $8.5 million loan, told Just the News on Thursday that its chairman and CEO, Paul Tash, says the federal government will "likely forgive much of the loan" and that the "remaining balance" will carry an interest rate of 1 percent.

The Seattle Times received a $9.9 million PPP forgivable loan from the federal government. In its voluntary announcement of the loan, the Seattle Times stated that the loan is forgivable but didn't specify whether the company plans to repay any of the money. The paper did not respond to a request for comment before publication. The media outlet Axios, based in Arlington, Va., disclosed that it had received a forgivable PPP loan of roughly $5 million. Axios did not respond when asked if it plans to repay the loan. Congress setup the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) in the 2008 rescue package during the financial crisis. Most of the money that went to financial institutions as part of the program had to be repaid.

The Treasury Department ultimately reported a profit of $15 billion in 2014 after TARP officially ended. The funds provided to businesses in the CARES Act that passed last month do not need to be repaid in full if certain requirements are met. The SBA's PPP program webpage explains that the loans "will be fully forgiven if the funds are used for payroll costs, interest on mortgages, rent, and utilities (due to likely high subscription, at least 75% of the forgiven amount must have been used for payroll). Loan payments will also be deferred for six months. No collateral or personal guarantees are required. Neither the government nor lenders will charge small businesses any fees."

https://justthenews.com/government/congress/media-outlet-receives-85-million-stimulus-funds-doesnt-plan-pay-it-all-back

Does military’s biodefense lab hold a key to future coronavirus treatment?

Little noticed research on oleandrin extract from flowering plant gaining steam.

Though often omitted from public conversations about pandemic solutions, the U.S. military has a huge stake in fighting deadly infectious diseases and quietly has been researching novel treatments for years at its secretive biodefense lab at Fort Detrick. The reasons are mission obvious. With soldiers deployed in exotic locations around the world where novel viruses like Ebola, Zika or bird and swine flus can strike with lighting speed and alarming fatality, the Pentagon wants to make sure it has treatments to keep its forces from being disabled. It’s from that body of research that an intriguing potential remedy, an organic extract, has emerged. And of all sources, it comes from the common but toxic flowering plant oleander. Dr. John Dye, chief of viral immunology at the USAMRIID lab at Fort Detrick, confirmed to Just the News that his team began testing the extract known as oleandrin a few years ago and found it was effective in fighting the Ebola and Marburg viruses. The Army lab is now ramping up a rapid plan to test oleandrin against COVID-19. “We found that at non-toxic concentrations, oleandrin was efficacious at slowing and halting viral growth in tissue culture assays” for the Ebola and Marburg viruses, Dye said in emailed answers to questions. Because those viruses are enveloped, just like COVID-19, the lab is pressing ahead to do similar tests on the theory that the extract may have similar effects on the coronavirus at the center of today’s pandemic, he said. “We are finalizing arrangements to test oleandrin in our tissue culture assays for COVID-19 virus,” he said.

Oleandrin has been a rising star in the biomedical world the last few years, with some clinical trials now showing it has helped several types of cancer patients improve. Because it is natural and appears to work in low, non-toxic doses and has a track record in the cancer world, it could have appeal should Dye’s lab find it works on the coronavirus. In fact, Dye said, it was oleandrin’s success in cancer research that first put it on his team’s radar. “A scientist moved from MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston to my group, and he provided the introduction for the oleandrin team,” he explained. “We were encouraged by the data that had been generated against other infectious viruses and decided to pursue testing with the filoviruses, Ebola and Marburg.” Fort Detrick’s research was presented at a 2017 medical conference that did not generate much media attention but provided a strong endorsement that oleandrin appeared to have strong potential for fighting enveloped viruses, which use disguises to infect the body without detection. Dye and a fellow researcher from Fort Detrick joined the findings along with scientists for Phoenix Biotechnology, the San Antonio, Texas-based company that has developed the extract. Oleandrin “fully inhibited” the Marburg and Ebola viruses in petri dishes, suggesting the natural compound has “broad spectrum efficacy” and may also have “antiviral efficacy against other enveloped viruses,” the researchers' presentation declared in 2017.

It was that data that gave Dye’s lab an interest in testing oleandrin against COVID-19 now. If the in-vitro tests show it works, the next step would be human testing in clinical trials. Andrew Whitney, executive chairman of Phoenix Biotechnology, told Just the News he is excited that Dye’s lab is beginning testing against the coronavirus and said a separate lab has already done extensive testing in recent weeks and preliminarily found oleandrin is effective against COVID-19. “One leading U.S. institution has already reported remarkable efficacy of our compound against COVID-19, having completed multiple lab studies over the past month. We will soon make the details of that public,” he said. Because oleandrin already has wide user in cancer trials and comes from a plentiful flower product, it has advantages in getting to market more quickly should Fort Detrick’s tests and then subsequent clinical trials find it is effective and safe, he added. “Of great importance is the fact that our solution is based on an Active Principal Ingredient that is 100% natural, made entirely in America, and our solution is available in significant scale, now,” he said.

https://justthenews.com/politics-policy/coronavirus/does-militarys-secret-biodefense-lab-hold-key-future-coronavirus

Iranian navy has terrorized international ships for five years: State Department

State Department reinforces president's warning: 'President Trump will not tolerate or appease Iran’s foreign policy of violence and intimidation' –

Iran has endangered international ships for the past five years, the State Department said following President Trump's unequivocal warning to Tehran about such actions. “Iran has long used its naval forces to terrorize the international maritime community — this is not a new phenomenon,” reads a fact sheet posted on the department's website on Wednesday, the same day as Trump's Twitter warning Iran about harassing Navy and Coast Guard vessels in the North Persian Gulf. In 2015 alone, while the international Iran nuclear deal was being negotiated and implemented, the U.S. Navy recorded 22 such incidents by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to the department's fact sheet, titled “Iran’s History of Naval Provocations.”

Since then, dozens of similar incidents have occurred. "I have instructed the United States Navy to shoot down and destroy any and all Iranian gunboats if they harass our ships at sea," Trump tweeted Wednesday. The department fact sheet also included a timeline of provocations that long predated the warning.

The provocations include the following:

January 2016: IRGC naval forces seized two U.S. Navy riverine boats, and detained 10 American sailors for 15 hours.

March 2017: USNS Invincible was forced to change course to avoid colliding with IRGCN fast-attack small boats.

July 2019: IRGC Navy seized the British-flagged Stena Impero tanker while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Iran held the ship and crew for more than two months.

April 2020: IRGC Navy forcibly boarded and detained the Hong Kong-flagged SC Taipei oil tanker in international waters, and sailed the tanker into Iranian waters.

More recently, on April 15 of this year, 11 IRGC small boats repeatedly harassed U.S. naval vessels. “President Trump will not tolerate or appease Iran’s foreign policy of violence and intimidation,” the notice read. “Iran must act like every other normal nation, not a nation that sponsors piracy and terror.” Tehran today responded to Trump, saying that Iran will defend its maritime rights, and will give “appropriate response” to threats or wrong moves, the Tasnim News Agency reported.

https://justthenews.com/world/iranian-navy-has-terrorized-international-ships-five-years-state-dept-says

Iran responds to Trump warning about U.S. Navy vessels in Persian Gulf

https://justthenews.com/world/iran-summons-swiss-envoy-deliver-warning-us-navy-report

Oklahoma governor announces businesses to reopen Friday

Republican Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt announced certain nonessential businesses will be allowed to open starting on Friday, in an effort to restart the economy. The governor explained at a Wednesday press conference the state’s three-phase plan to reopen the economy, which is based on coronavirus testing and tracing. The first stage of the state's plan allows for personal care businesses to reopen starting on Friday for appointments only, while following strict sanitation protocols, according to KOCO. The stores included under the plan include hair salons, barbershops, spas, nail salons, and pet groomers, and these guidelines are only applicable in communities that do not have more restrictions in place.

"This statewide approach is based on the data from our public health experts, is intended to mitigate risk of a resurgence, and protects Oklahoma’s most vulnerable citizens from the threat of #COVID19," Stitt explained on social media. "The OURS plan will begin phase 1 on April 24th and is intended for businesses and individuals to utilize in conjunction with guidance from the @OKcommerce, @HealthyOklahoma, and @CDCgov."

Other “nonessential” businesses will be allowed to reopen at the start of next month, contingent upon them following the social distancing and sanitation guidelines. Stitt's three-phase plan looks to reopen the economy fully by mid-June, as long as there’s no surge in cases or hospitalizations. Georgia is also starting to reopen its economy on Friday despite significant opposition. GOP Gov. Brian Kemp has decided to restart some businesses even though he has faced criticism from other Georgia lawmakers, health officials, and President Trump.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/oklahoma-governor-announces-businesses-to-reopen-friday

Renowned Microbiologist Claims Wuhan Lab 'Did Absolutely Crazy Things' With Coronavirus

A world renowned Russian microbiologist says that the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic was the result of Wuhan scientists doing "absolutely crazy things" in their laboratory. Dr. Peter Chumakov of the Engelhardt Institute of Molecular Biology and Russian Academy of Sciences claims that while the Wuhan scientists' goal in creating the coronavirus was not malicious - instead, they were trying to study the pathogenicity of the virus, according to the Daily Mail.

"In China, scientists at the Wuhan Laboratory have been actively involved in the development of various coronavirus variants for over ten years," he said. "Moreover, they did this, supposedly not with the aim of creating pathogenic variants, but to study their pathogenicity." "They did absolutely crazy things, in my opinion," he said, adding " For example, inserts in the genome, which gave the virus the ability to infect human cells. Now all this has been analyzed."

The picture of the possible creation of the current coronavirus is slowly emerging.' He told Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper: 'There are several inserts, that is, substitutions of the natural sequence of the genome, which gave it special properties. It is interesting that the Chinese and Americans who worked with them published all their works in the open (scientific) press. 'I even wonder why this background comes to people very slowly. 'I think that an investigation will nevertheless be initiated, as a result of which new rules will be developed that regulate the work with the genomes of such dangerous viruses. 'It's too early to blame anyone.' -Daily Mail

Chumakov suggested that Chinese scientists were possibly searching for an HIV vaccine. The Mail notes that the professor works for Russia's Federal Research Center for Research and Development of Immunobiological Preparations - while Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, advised against speculation that the virus was manmade. "In the situation where there is not enough information that has been supported and checked by science … we think it is unacceptable, impossible, to groundlessly accuse anyone," said Peskov. Meanwhile, the head of Russia's Federal Medical-Biological agency, Veronika Skvortsova, told Russia's Channel One "This question is not that easy. It demands a very thorough study," adding "None of the versions can be ruled out. "We can see that a fairly large number of fragments distinguishes this virus from its very close relative, SARS," Skvortsova added. "They are approximately 94 per cent similar, the rest is different… I think that we must conduct a very serious research.

https://www.zerohedge.com/health/renowned-microbiologist-claims-wuhan-lab-did-absolutely-crazy-things-coronavirus

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