Wuhan Lab Kept NIH Funding Despite Trump Crackdown  . . . Federal records show the U.S. government is partnering with the Wuhan Institute of Virology even though the Trump administration pledged to ban funding for the Chinese laboratory located at the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak. President Donald Trump promised that he would "end" public funding for the Wuhan Institute of Virology during an April 17 press conference. Despite his promise, the National Institutes of Health has left untouched a 2019 neuroscience research grant that disbursed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Chinese laboratory, according to a federal expenditure database. Washington Free Beacon

 

Scientists Doubt China’s Story Of COVID-19 . . . The World Health Organization recently concluded its six-week investigation into the origins of the coronavirus, but some of its conclusions, including that the virus did not jump to humans before December 2019 and that it was “extremely unlikely” that it originated in a lab, have solicited skepticism from scientists. Some of the scientific doubt, however, was not in response to the WHO, but to China’s unwillingness to provide holistic data regarding the appearance and early spread of the virus throughout Wuhan. Daily Caller

 

Trump’s CPAC Speech to Focus Laying out positive vision for America . . . President Donald Trump in his first public appearance since leaving the White House will lay out an optimistic vision for America and focus on standing up to China, reviving U.S. manufacturing, dismantling the monopoly of Big Tech, reopening schools, and securing the border, among other topics, according to former Trump senior adviser Stephen Miller. Miller, who has recently spoken to the president, outlined Trump’s upcoming speech in an interview aired on Sunday in response to a question about Trump’s potential run for the White House in 2024 and his first speech after leaving office. The President is "very excited to make his upcoming address to CPAC, where you will hear him lay out his positive vision for the future of this country," Miller said. Epoch Times

 

Biden admin announces reforms to PPP to assist small businesses . . . The Biden administration announced Monday plans to deliver “equitable relief” to small businesses impacted by the coronavirus outbreak, with a focus on those that may have had difficulty obtaining forgivable loans and minority-owned businesses.
The White House released a statement saying that it built upon last year’s Paycheck Protection Program. The PPP program, which started a month ago increased funding to businesses with fewer than 10 employees by 60% as well as rural businesses that have experienced a 30% increase. Fox News

 

 

Nancy Pelosi Funnels $300,000 to Democratic Gerrymandering Group . . . After calling for an end to partisan gerrymandering, House speaker Nancy Pelosi quietly funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to former attorney general Eric Holder's effort to redraw electoral maps in favor of Democrats, filings show. Pelosi's leadership PAC, PAC to the Future, pushed $300,000 to Holder's National Democratic Redistricting Committee late last year. In 2019, Pelosi said partisan gerrymandering efforts "compromise the integrity of our democracy." Holder’s group is gearing up for a once-a-decade redistricting process that significantly influences which party controls Congress. Washington Free Beacon

 

Psaki sidesteps questions on Cuomo's leadership during pandemic. . . White House press secretary Jen Psaki avoided answering questions on Sunday on whether President Biden still believes New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) represents the “gold standard” when it comes to leadership during the coronavirus pandemic. When asked if Biden still believes Cuomo represents the "gold standard," Psaki insisted that Biden would continue to work with Cuomo, as he would with all governors. “He plays an important role in ensuring that we’re coordinating closely in getting assistance out to people in his state and to states across the country, and we’ll continue to do that,” Psaki said The Hill

 

Google to evaluate executives on diversity and inclusion . . . Alphabet Inc's Google will evaluate the performance of its vice presidents and above on team diversity and inclusion starting this year, the company said on Friday in one of several responses to concerns about its treatment of a Black scientist. Timnit Gebru, co-leader of Google's ethical artificial intelligence research team, said in December that Google abruptly fired her after she criticized its diversity efforts and threatened to resign. Alphabet and Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai ordered a review of the situation. Pichai in June said that by 2025, Google aims to have 30% more of its leaders come from underrepresented groups, with a focus on Black, Latinx and Native American leaders in the United States and female technical leaders globally. About 96% of Google's U.S. leaders at the time were white or Asian, and 73% globally were men. Fox Business

 

DoD Budget ‘Bloodletting’ Inches Closer To Reality . . . The head of the House Armed Services influential seapower subcommittee just stepped closer to the position of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs that the Navy might be in line for a funding boost — and other services will have to pay the bill. The Pentagon is at an “inflection point” in terms of how to split the military budget between the services, Rep. Joe Courtney said, suggesting that when the 2022 budget is delivered later this spring a big strategic question will be “whether or not, frankly, naval and air and cyber are going to take a larger portion of the pie…that conversation has to happen.” The issue of changing the traditional one-third of the budget allocation each going to the Army, Air Force and Navy has been increasingly front-of-mind in Washington, particularly after Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley last year predicted a “bloodletting” at DoD when the expected changes are debated. Breaking Defense

 

Kroger is latest victim of cyber attack by way of third-party software data breach . . . Kroger Co. says it was among the multiple victims of a data breach involving a third-party vendor’s file-transfer service and is notifying potentially impacted customers. The Cincinnati-based grocery and pharmacy chain said in a statement Friday that it believes less than 1% of its customers were affected as well as some current and former employees because a number of personnel records were apparently viewed. Kroger also was among victims of the December hack of a file-transfer product called FTA developed by Accellion, a California-based company, whose other prominent affected customer is Jones Day. Former President Donald Trump is among Jones Day clients but the criminals told The Associated Press via email that none of the data was related to him. Associated Press

 

 

 

Dozens of Boeing 777 aircraft grounded after engine failure . . . Dozens of Boeing 777 aircraft have been grounded in the US and Japan after an engine failure that caused debris to be strewn across a Denver suburb.  The US Federal Aviation Administration on Sunday ordered inspections of the Boeing 777 planes with Pratt & Whitney PW4000 engines after the incident that resulted in an emergency landing of a United Airlines flight the day before. United flight 328 had to return quickly to Denver airport on Saturday after debris, which appeared to be an engine cover, fell from the aircraft on to a suburban yard shortly after take-off. Financial Times

 

 

Media Stops Covering Ted Cruz Story After He Puts On Andrew Cuomo Mask . . . Senator Ted Cruz found himself in some hot water this week after he traveled to Cancun in the middle of a Texas cold snap that left many without power. The media was hammering him relentlessly for the bad optics of flying out on vacation while his state suffered.
But Cruz was one step ahead of the purported scandal, landing back in the Houston airport while wearing an Andrew Cuomo mask. As soon as the media saw him, they were all of them deceived, and immediately started apologizing for ever criticizing his trip in the first place. "Greetings, journalists, I'm Governor Andrew Cuomo, and I'm here to, uh, kill some senior citizens!" he said in his best New York-Italian accent. "Just gonna head off to some senior homes and make sure everyone there gets infected and dies. Pay me no heed!" Babylon Bee