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The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star

The Student News Site of Northern Illinois University

Northern Star

Trump wants Pentagon to review impeachment witness’ conduct

By AAMER MADHANI | February 11, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that the Pentagon should review the conduct of a former White House national security aide who played a central role in the Democrats' impeachment case and potentially consider disciplinary...

Thai army chief: Gunman wasn’t treated fairly in land deal

By BUSABA SIVASOMBOON and TASSANEE VEJPONGSA | February 11, 2020

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand's army commander said Tuesday the soldier who killed 29 people in a shooting rampage had not been treated fairly in a land deal involving his commander and such arrangements would have to be halted.The gunman killed his superior...

Thai soldier’s deadly rampage reveals security lapses

By EMILY SCHMALL and GRANT PECK | February 10, 2020

NAKHON RATCHASIMA, Thailand (AP) — As this Thai city mourns the 29 people killed in a weekend shooting rampage, many are questioning the apparent security lapses that allowed him to steal the weapons he used in the assault.It's still unclear how the...

Pentagon: 109 troops suffer brain injuries from Iran strike

By LOLITA C. BALDOR | February 10, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. service members diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries has shot up to more than 100, the Pentagon said Monday, as more troops suffer the aftereffects of the Iranian ballistic missile attack early last month in Iraq.The...

Air Force discloses drug investigation at nuke missile base

By ROBERT BURNS | February 10, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Security guards at an Air Force base responsible for protecting strategic nuclear missiles in three states are under investigation for alleged marijuana use, Air Force officials said Monday. They are part of the same security force...

In the heart of Mexico’s violence, disillusion grows

By ASTRID GALVAN | February 10, 2020

URUAPAN, MEXICO (AP) — Alejandra Uvilla fled her home city of Apatzingan because of overwhelming violence, moving 65 miles (105 km) north to bustling, mountain-nestled Uruapan in the avocado belt of Michoacan state. Three years later, the bloodshed...

Schumer wants to protect whistleblowers amid Trump payback

By LISA MASCARO | February 10, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer is calling on the nation's 74 inspectors general to protect government whistleblowers amid President Donald Trump’s ouster of key government officials in the impeachment probe.In a letter Monday...

Air Force suicides surged last year to highest in 3 decades

By ROBERT BURNS | February 7, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — Suicides in the active-duty Air Force surged last year to the highest total in at least three decades, even as the other military services saw their numbers stabilize or decline, according to officials and unpublished preliminary data.The...

Trump’s ex-Navy secretary endorses Bloomberg for president

By SARA BURNETT | February 7, 2020

NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — The former Navy secretary who was fired after criticizing President Donald Trump endorsed Democrat Michael Bloomberg for president on Friday, saying the U.S. needs a leader with integrity who would have “a steady hand on the wheel.”Former...

7 beheaded by extremists in Mozambique’s gas-rich north

By TOM BOWKER | February 7, 2020

MAPUTO, Mozambique (AP) — Seven people beheaded this week. Attacks on homes, schools, health clinics. Thousands of people displaced by the violence. Insecurity that threatens multi-billion dollar investments.This is the growing problem of Islamic extremist...

Iraq considers deepening military ties with Russia

By QASSIM ABDUL-ZAHRA and SAMYA KULLAB | February 6, 2020

BAGHDAD (AP) — Iraq and Russia discussed prospects for deepening military coordination, Iraq's Defense Ministry said Thursday, amid a strain in Baghdad-Washington relations after a U.S. airstrike killed a top Iranian general inside Iraq.The ministry...

Life under virus quarantine: Boxing, chalk art and waiting

By AMY TAXIN and ELLIOT SPAGAT | February 6, 2020

RIVERSIDE, Calif. (AP) — There's Zumba and boxing classes, lectures on business and taxes, and chalk art outside for the children.

While it might sound like a local recreation center's offerings, it's actually part of daily life for 195 American citizens quarantined on a military base after being evacuated from the heart of a new virus outbreak in China.

The cluster of American consular officials, businesspeople and families with children were whisked out of the city of Wuhan on a U.S.-chartered plane last week. Since then, they have formed their own community while waiting to be released from a 14-day federal quarantine order designed to limit the virus' spread.

They hold a daily “town hall” meeting to receive updates from officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and discuss travel plans. There is an early morning jogging group and some who run stairs to stay in shape at March Air Reserve Base, said Matthew McCoy, a theme park designer and one of the evacuees.

Last weekend, there was a pizza party for the Super Bowl with two television screens outside the two-story building where they're being housed in modest hotel-style rooms. They're planning a flag football game and another party before evacuees scatter to Atlanta, New York and other cities to reunite with family.

“It's not a cruise ship, you know, but we're trying to make it as an overall team,” McCoy said in an interview over Skype. “That's what we're hoping the other camps do. We're still humans.”

The group was the first placed under federal quarantine order because of the new strain of coronavirus, which has sickened more than 20,000 people and killed nearly 500, virtually all in China.

Two more planes carrying about 350 Americans arrived Wednesday at other California military bases and two more are expected Thursday and Friday at bases in Nebraska and Texas. All passengers will be quarantined for 14 days.

At March Air Reserve Base east of Los Angeles, meals are catered, including breakfast burritos and noodles and chicken. There's baby food and kid-friendly options like chicken nuggets, and soda and water, McCoy said.

A non-profit group brought toys for the children and toiletries to make it feel more like home, he said.

“Real soap, not hotel soap. We're talking Irish Spring and Zest,” he said.

They also brought in a coffee machine, where McCoy bumps into other evacuees on middle-of-the-night runs. Many are still working remotely in China, which has a 16-hour time difference.

These furnishings and support from federal and local officials, he said, have helped the group band together to make the most of the highly unusual circumstance of being whisked out of a shut-down city and placed under the first federal quarantine order in the United States in more than 50 years.

The Americans who arrived Wednesday flew on two U.S.-chartered jets and landed at Travis Air Force Base, located in Northern California between San Francisco and Sacramento. About half are being housed there and the others were flown to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar just outside San Diego. Miramar is the former home of the Navy flight school that inspired the film “Top Gun.”

At Travis, they will live in a base hotel. There is a large outdoor area and common spaces in addition to individual rooms. At a Miramar, some are staying at the Consolidated Bachelor Quarters. Images provided by the military show a communal dining area with large dispensers of breakfast cereal, a laundry room and an auditorium, playground and lecture hall. Others are staying at an inn on the base.

Dr. Christopher Braden, the CDC's lead representative at Miramar, said the roughly 170 passengers were of all ages, including infants. He said they were in “a difficult situation.”

“They’re allowed 70 pounds of luggage to carry on board with them, Braden said, “So there’s not very much they have in the way of personal belongings, and so we need to do what we can to make sure that they’re well cared for."

They are free to roam their quarantined areas and will have phone and internet access.

The CDC isn’t recommending face masks or other protective gear but suggests that everyone keep a distance of about 6 feet (1.8 meters).

Anyone who exhibits coronavirus symptoms will be isolated in a medical facility. Three adults and a child at Miramar were found to have fever or a cough and brought to local hospitals Wednesday evening, the CDC said.

In Riverside County, some evacuees still wear face masks and keep their distance, but people are friendly to each other, said Jarred Evans, a former University of Cincinnati quarterback now playing professionally in China .

“Everything has been pretty chill,” Evans said.

But many face also challenges such as family stuck in China and business disruptions. McCoy said much of his work has slowed and he's been seeking help to keep supporting his son.

Kimmy McDaniel, co-founder of the non-profit Project Strong One, said she was moved to try to help the evacuees, noting many work for the State Department.

Her group furnished bikes and games for the kids, hair conditioner, diapers, and “anything and everything that would help make this transition more palatable and a positive experience,” she said.

There is also a round-the-clock mobile health clinic. One child was sent to the hospital with a fever, accompanied by a parent, and returned to the base after testing negative for the virus, said Jose Arballo Jr., a spokesman for the county's public health agency. Another child ran a fever on Wednesday and was sent to the hospital and is awaiting test results, he said.

For this first group, the quarantine will end Tuesday. But those arriving on later flights are just beginning their journey. “The American spirit provides,” McCoy said. “Everybody's nice to everybody. I think that's going to happen in all the other places.”

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Associated Press writers Elliot Spagat and Julie Watson in San Diego, Christopher Weber in Los Angeles, Carla K. Johnson in Seattle and Terry Chea in Fairfield, California, contributed to this report.