David A Johnson

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FULTONDALE, Ala. (AP) — A teenager huddling in his basement was killed and several of his family members were critically injured when a tornado blew a tree onto their home and it collapsed on top of them, police said Tuesday. At least 28 other people were injured as the twister carved a 10-mile path of destruction north of Birmingham.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Stocks opened slightly higher in the U.S. on Tuesday, helped by better-than-expected earnings from blue chip companies like Johnson & Johnson and General Electric. The results offset renewed worries that troubles with COVID-19 vaccine rollouts and the spread of new variants of coronavirus might delay a recovery from the pandemic.

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LONDON (AP) — Britain appears ready to order some travelers arriving from abroad to isolate in hotels at their own expense in an attempt by the government to stop the importation of new virus variants.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has been quickly thrown into a high-wire balancing act with Russia as he seeks to toughen his administration’s stance against Vladimir Putin while preserving room for diplomacy in a post-Donald Trump era.

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SAN DIEGO, Calif., Jan. 26, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — With only 20 days left before CA tax laws change, imposing limitations on property tax relief – property tax reduction firm Paramount Property Tax Appeal is ushering in the New Year with a free New Years evaluation for California families, affluent homeowners and all types of business property owners – to determine what steps to take to lower their property tax bill.

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YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio, Jan. 26, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — When Gina Marie Mordecki’s daughter was raped and murdered, she prayed that her death would not be in vain. Her new book, “God’s Amazing Intimacy in Grief” (ISBN: 979-8578563751), is the answer to that prayer. Mordecki’s book is written to help heal the hearts of others who have experienced the tragic loss of a loved one.

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NEW YORK CITY, N.Y., Jan. 26, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Carly Spindel, a second-generation matchmaker, and founder of Janis Spindel Serious Matchmaking Inc., recently created the first of its kind: online dating + online matchmaking + one-on-one matchmaking = Flash Match NYC.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats delivered the impeachment case against Donald Trump to the Senate for the start of his historic trial, but Republican senators were easing off their criticism of the former president and shunning calls to convict him over the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.

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JACKSONVILLE BEACH, Fla., Jan. 26, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — SalesLeads announced today the CY 2020 results for new planned capital project spending report for the Distribution and Supply Chain industry. The Firm tracks North American planned industrial capital project activity; including facility expansions, new plant construction and significant equipment modernization projects. Research confirms 2,198 new projects in the Industrial Manufacturing sector identified in 2020.

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Shutdowns, layoffs and salary cuts brought on by the coronavirus pandemic have left millions of Americans searching for new sources of income. Those who’ve recently turned to gig work may be weeks away from a financial surprise in the form of unexpected tax bills and insurance coverage fine print.

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Self-Service RV Parking App Addresses Pain Points as COVID-19 Continues to Grow RV Market and Exacerbates Parking Limitations

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MARINA DEL REY, Calif., Jan. 26, 2021 (SEND2PRESS NEWSWIRE) — Loren Data Corp. ( LD.com ), a leader in B2B messaging platform technology, announced today that Mercury Commerce, Inc. has selected Loren Data’s ECGrid® backbone to connect its customers to EDI VAN trading partners.

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A national leader in residential solar, Sunpro Solar to create hundreds of jobs and energy-saving opportunities in Arizona

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WASHINGTON (AP) — These suspects weren't exactly in hiding.

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LISBON, Portugal (AP) — In the first week of December, Portugal’s prime minister gave his pandemic-weary people an early Christmas gift: restrictions on gatherings and travel due to COVID-19 would be lifted from Dec. 23-26 so they could spend the holiday season with family and friends.

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Today in History

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The elite Russian hackers who gained access to computer systems of federal agencies last year didn't need to painstakingly break one-by-one into the networks of each department in order to do damage.

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LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — Sarah Sanders, Donald Trump's former chief spokeswoman, announced she's running for Arkansas governor at a time other Republicans are distancing themselves from the former president facing an impeachment charge that he incited the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A major winter storm threatened to blanket parts of the middle of the country with more than a foot of snow Monday, promising to disrupt travel and forcing the closure of some coronavirus testing sites.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats delivered the impeachment case against Donald Trump to the Senate late Monday for the start of his historic trial, but Republican senators were easing off their criticism of the former president and shunning calls to convict him over the deadly siege at the U.S. Capitol.

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AUSTIN, Texas — The number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in Texas continues to fall from record highs as the state nears the end of what has been its deadliest month of the pandemic.

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Coronavirus deaths and cases per day in the U.S. dropped markedly over the past couple of weeks but are still running at alarmingly high levels, and the effort to snuff out COVID-19 is becoming an ever more urgent race between the vaccine and the mutating virus.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday appeared to boost his goal for coronavirus vaccinations in his first 100 days in office, suggesting the nation could soon be injecting 1.5 million shots on an average per day.

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Groups of youths confronted police in Dutch towns and cities Monday night, defying the country's coronavirus curfew and throwing fireworks. Police in the port city of Rotterdam used a water cannon and tear gas in an attempt to disperse a crowd of rioters who also looted shops.

There's an interesting debate going on now about the nature of our drug laws.

When I was in high school, I played a football game at Shotwell Stadium in Abilene. It was a JV match, so very sparsely attended, and other than the fact that it was very cold, and we won, I don't remember much else about the game apart from the halftime.

The Cowboys lost Sunday and didn't make the playoffs.

I saw an article the other day about tapes from the Lyndon Johnson presidency being released. 

Actually, until my sister got a job selling cell phones (down in the Sam's store), I was pretty ignorant about the whole idea.

I once read that in a single year, California changed the nature of America more than any state ever has, maybe more than all the rest put together.

If anything I say here offends you, I wasn't trying to. There are two things you don't talk about over dinner, but if that extended to newspaper columns, I wouldn't have much to write. Religion and politics offend easily, and taken together the problem is even worse. Actually, this is my point, that under no circumstances should we put either at risk by mixing them.

According to the Rev. Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church, God hates gays, 9/11 was the result of America's tolerance toward homosexuality, and every dead U.S. soldier is a sign of the Lord's judgment on our depraved national character.

Because I didn't know that until someone told me to look it up. It has nothing to do with anything, but some people only read headlines, and I wanted to share.

I've recently rediscovered bouncing. Tennis balls, rubber balls, golf balls, toy balls - whatever bounces and fits in my hand, I bounce it, oh how I do.

Another OA writer had a recent column mourning the death of Customer Service. In response, readers offered explanations why we’d reached this sad state where employees are apathetic, have a poor work ethic, are all-around incompetent or some mixture of the above.