The NDP wants the Saskatchewan government to delay Phase 2 of its reopening plan, currently scheduled for May 19.

Michell Jesse said the personal care home operators she represents have been frustrated trying to keep up with the government's direction during an already stressful time.

The Kansas City Chiefs will open defence of their Super Bowl championship by hosting Houston on Sept. 10 in the NFL's annual kickoff game — pending developments in the coronavirus pandemic, of course.

In the middle of a pandemic, who wants to see politicians engage in traditional games of partisan finger pointing and over-the-top attacks?

Most of the animals at the B.C. Wildlife Park in Kamloops are unfazed by the absence of paying visitors since it closed in March over COVID-19 concerns. But Blue the turkey appears "bummed," staff say.

Curbside pickups offer a bit of hope after months of being shuttered by COVID-19, but while retailers are happy to start getting back to business some are raising questions of fairness and access to opportunity.

Normal life is slowly resuming as the city of Hamilton begins to relax tight measures set in place because of COVID-19. Mayor Fred Eisenberger said now it's up to the public to help the city move in the right direction by continuing to stay two metres apart from each other and be cautious.

She only came for a week, but impacted lives of several families with children with autism. Isabel Black shares about her experiences in Montenegro.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 8, 2020 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, said that the Church must return to “normal life” after the governor announced plans to ban large gatherings until a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment is available.

Earlier in the week, the state’s Governor JB Pritzker unveiled a five-phase “Restore Illinois” plan that bans gatherings of more than 50 people until a vaccine or treatment is available, or the virus has stopped spreading for a sustained period of time. Health officials have said that a vaccine for the new coronavirus (COVID-19) might not be available for 12 to 18 months. 

Currently, people in the state are allowed to attend religious services of 10 or fewer people, but no gatherings of more than 10 people are permitted until phase 4 of Pritzker’s plan, and the state wouldn’t even be able to “advance” to phase 3 until May 29.

“The Church has certainly done her part in making great sacrifices to slow the spread of this virus,” Andrew Hansen, director of communications for the diocese of Springfield, Illinois, told CNA on Friday.

“That said, the Church must return to her normal life of liturgy and communal worship,” Hansen said, while emphasizing precautions such as social distancing “will likely be the appropriate path longer term for the return to some version of normalcy for the Church.”

Previously, in-person or drive-in religious services were banned in the state. The Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit on behalf of a church in Lena, Ill., on April 30. Later that evening a paragraph was added to the governor’s executive order allowing for people to leave their homes to attend religious services of ten or fewer people, the society’s president Peter Breen told CNA.

The next day, May 1, the archdiocese of Chicago announced it would be resuming public Masses with 10 or fewer people.

According to the “Restore Illinois” plan, there could not be any gathering of between 11 and 50 people in size until phase 4 of the plan—“Revitalization.”

That phase can start only when certain conditions have been met: the positivity rate of COVID tests is at or under 20% and doesn’t rise by more than 10 points over 14 days; hospital admissions don’t increase for 28 days; and hospitals have at least 14% “surge capacity” in ICU beds, medical and surgical beds, and ventilators.

Pitzker clarified in a Wednesday press conference that religious services would be part of this 50-person limit in phase 4, and schools would not be allowed to reopen until then, raising questions of how tuition-dependent Catholic schools might fare in the fall if remote learning is still widely utilized.

The state’s superintendent of education has said that at least some schools might have to begin the new school year with remote learning, or with students attending classes in-person only on certain days.

“So we continue to hope and pray schools will reopen next school year. Certainly, when our schools reopen, new measures and precautions will be in place,” Hansen told CNA.

The president of DePaul University, located in Chicago, announced earlier this week that the university already plans to “minimize our footprint on campus this fall,” and that an announcement of the fall plans could happen by June 15.

The vision of OM Madagascar is to partner with the Malagasy Church in every ministry. This vision is being realised in Manakara.

German translation of the BIS press release about the BIS Quarterly Review, December 2018

Over 1.2 million people have been affected by the earthquake that hit Guatemala on 7 November. OM Guatemala asks for prayers.

As a climax to OM´s just-completed Love Guatemala outreach, six teams carry out aid distribution and evangelism in an impoverished area.

When specific medicine is not available during a medical outreach, OM Guatemala sees God miraculously provide for one mother in need.

God answers the prayers of OM Guatemala and a partnering church with a Christmas celebration for children and families with OM’s Project Rescue.

OM Malawi endeavours to make its projects and workers self-sustainable, while transforming lives and communities at the same time.

Over an eight-day period, 18 Ride2Transform cyclists travelled 690 kilometers, participating in a personal journey with the Lord and praying for the country of Malawi.

Young Somali believers take bold risks in sharing their faith with their families and community.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, May 8, 2020 / 03:10 pm (CNA).- The Diocese of Springfield, Illinois, said that the Church must return to “normal life” after the governor announced plans to ban large gatherings until a COVID-19 vaccine or treatment is available.

Earlier in the week, the state’s Governor JB Pritzker unveiled a five-phase “Restore Illinois” plan that bans gatherings of more than 50 people until a vaccine or treatment is available, or the virus has stopped spreading for a sustained period of time. Health officials have said that a vaccine for the new coronavirus (COVID-19) might not be available for 12 to 18 months. 

Currently, people in the state are allowed to attend religious services of 10 or fewer people, but no gatherings of more than 10 people are permitted until phase 4 of Pritzker’s plan, and the state wouldn’t even be able to “advance” to phase 3 until May 29.

“The Church has certainly done her part in making great sacrifices to slow the spread of this virus,” Andrew Hansen, director of communications for the diocese of Springfield, Illinois, told CNA on Friday.

“That said, the Church must return to her normal life of liturgy and communal worship,” Hansen said, while emphasizing precautions such as social distancing “will likely be the appropriate path longer term for the return to some version of normalcy for the Church.”

Previously, in-person or drive-in religious services were banned in the state. The Thomas More Society filed a lawsuit on behalf of a church in Lena, Ill., on April 30. Later that evening a paragraph was added to the governor’s executive order allowing for people to leave their homes to attend religious services of ten or fewer people, the society’s president Peter Breen told CNA.

The next day, May 1, the archdiocese of Chicago announced it would be resuming public Masses with 10 or fewer people.

According to the “Restore Illinois” plan, there could not be any gathering of between 11 and 50 people in size until phase 4 of the plan—“Revitalization.”

That phase can start only when certain conditions have been met: the positivity rate of COVID tests is at or under 20% and doesn’t rise by more than 10 points over 14 days; hospital admissions don’t increase for 28 days; and hospitals have at least 14% “surge capacity” in ICU beds, medical and surgical beds, and ventilators.

Pitzker clarified in a Wednesday press conference that religious services would be part of this 50-person limit in phase 4, and schools would not be allowed to reopen until then, raising questions of how tuition-dependent Catholic schools might fare in the fall if remote learning is still widely utilized.

The state’s superintendent of education has said that at least some schools might have to begin the new school year with remote learning, or with students attending classes in-person only on certain days.

“So we continue to hope and pray schools will reopen next school year. Certainly, when our schools reopen, new measures and precautions will be in place,” Hansen told CNA.

The president of DePaul University, located in Chicago, announced earlier this week that the university already plans to “minimize our footprint on campus this fall,” and that an announcement of the fall plans could happen by June 15.

A change of plans for OM Panama volunteers leads to a powerful prayer meeting.

Ingrid Newkirk isn’t sure exactly how many times she has been arrested. “Definitely a few dozen,” she’ll say, if you ask. I’ve just done exactly that, so right now the British-born founder of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) is running me through a sort of greatest hits of her law-baiting exploits and the jailtime they have brought her in the name of animal rights.

During Easter, the oldest town in Austria celebrated the life of Jesus and furthered the dream of planting a church.

We check out the UEFA Grassroots Day activities that took place at the Malta Football Association national training centre in Ta'Qali.

Millie Small, who died Tuesday at age 73 in London, was the first Jamaican artiste to score a hit on the British pop chart. Her version of My Boy Lollipop reached number two in 1964 and was also successful in the United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.

MOST people's memories of Millie Small in 1964 are of her climbing international charts with the massive hit song, My Boy Lollipop. But for Dennis Smith, it was her return to Jamaica that year that made the greatest impression.

Participants of OM Costa Rica's Pearl Process programme start their own small groups to impact more women in high-risk communities.

During lockdown I’m less busy than normal so I have started making marmalade. It’s a lot of fun. Choose small oranges, lemons, grapefruit, limes…whatever you find. The rule of thumb is to use the same quantity of fruit to granulated sugar.

Maltese Premier League club Tarxien Rainbows FC is enriching the lives of a group of youngsters through football with a groundbreaking training scheme for children with special needs.

A new youth academy in Ta' Qali for the island's outstanding talents has sharpened the focus of the Malta Football Association as it envisions a bright future for the game.

THE most important lesson in life is to always travel in hope rather than expectation. That way the almost inevitable disappointment that follows isn’t quite as crushing. A cheery thought for these troubled times.

IF you’re under 40, or as I like to call it these days, "pre-arthritis", you probably won’t remember the dark days of malbec when you had a 50-50 chance of opening something that would be as rough as sandpaper.

IN April 2004, the Victoria & Albert museum in London staged an exhibition of the work of Vivienne Westwood. The show was a celebration and a culmination of the fashion designer’s move from the margins of the industry in the 1970s, where she was creating clothes for the punks who hung around the King’s Road, to her 21st-century incarnation as first among equals in British haute couture.

Mardi Gras in New Orleans has always had a gothic element. The voodoo culture dates from the African American diaspora, though it’s now mostly for tourists. But this year there was an authentically macabre dimension to Fat Tuesday.

Nicola Sturgeon won plaudits from some unlikely quarters this week for her “grown-up conversation” on lifting the lockdown.

FACE it – we are going nowhere. Even if we had a particular place to venture the regulations would not permit. For the foreseeable we shall have to contract out our travelling to others. On the upside, no airport hassle. On the downside, no giant Toblerone.

The free literacy app Khan Academy Kids boosted early literacy skills in children and parents said it improved their home-teaching skills.

SCOTLAND’S universities must play their part in adapting to the “new normal” amid warnings that institutions could be forced to merge in return for government support.

Here are five takeaways on the teaching profession from the newly released 2017-18 National Teacher and Principal Survey.

Jill Gascoine, actress and novelist

A federal appeals court has struck down an Indiana school district's policy requiring short hair for boys on the basketball team, ruling that the lack of a similar policy for girls'-team basketball players results in illegal sex discrimination.

Smaller classes could help bridge the gap between home and school, writes former teacher Marc Vincenti.

Stand-up Romesh Ranganathan is back with a second series of topical comedy show The Ranganation. He talks to Sherna Noah about filming the show in lockdown, the place of comedy in a crisis, and spending so much time with his family.

In five northern U.S. states, black students comprise more than a fifth of ELL enrollment.

Over the last two decades, STEM teachers have become increasingly more likely to be female and well-qualified.

Very low birth weight (VLBW) male neonates appear to have increased mortality. VLBW female neonates appear to have better long-term outcomes.

VLBW male neonates have increased mortality and poorer neurological outcome. This gender difference appears to disappear at weeks' gestation. (Read the full article)

Clinic-based weight control treatments for youth have largely been designed for preadolescent children and their families by using family-based care, a strategy that may be less appealing to adolescents as they become increasingly motivated by peer acceptance rather than parental influence.

To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the efficacy of a primary care–based, multicomponent lifestyle intervention specifically tailored for overweight adolescent females and demonstrating a sustained effect (at 12 months) extending beyond the active 5-month intervention. (Read the full article)

The presence of malodorous urine is often mentioned as one of the clinical manifestations of urinary tract infection (UTI) in young children, yet the few studies looking at this symptom are contradictory.

Our study demonstrates that malodorous urine as reported by parents increases the likelihood of UTI among young children evaluated for suspected UTI. However, this association is not strong enough to definitely rule in or out a diagnosis of UTI. (Read the full article)

High or low lymphocyte counts at birth have been reported as a marker for subsequent intraventricular hemorrhage, retinopathy of prematurity, and periventricular leukomalacia. However, this conclusion is questionable because reference ranges for lymphocyte counts have not been constructed by using large numbers of neonates.

This study provides reference ranges for lymphocytes of neonates. A high count at birth is associated with early onset sepsis and IVH and a low count with early onset sepsis, IVH, and retinopathy of prematurity. Among neonates with birth asphyxia, a low count identifies a high risk for death. (Read the full article)

We lack prospective studies documenting "dosage effects" of chronic child maltreatment for both subsequent adolescent and adult outcomes. It is unknown whether effects are linear, shelving, or exponential, and we lack data across domains of outcomes.

Chronic child maltreatment reports are a robust indicator of future negative health and behavioral outcomes. There is a dose-response relationship between chronicity and outcomes in adolescence, but this is attenuated in adulthood once adverse child outcomes are controlled. (Read the full article)