Wisconsin bars welcomed patrons without masks, social distancing or capacity restrictions on Thursday night immediately after the state Supreme Court overturned the governor’s latest stay-at-home order, leading to busy crowds and warnings from the governor that lack of restrictions could lead to more deaths.
Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Wednesday that the lockdown protests are “racist and misogynistic” and called on those with a platform to discourage the demonstrators.
Whitmer told ABC’s “The View” that the protests are “really political” as demonstrators have brought nooses, Confederate flags and Nazi symbolism.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker is threatening to use local law enforcement and state police against businesses that reopen in defiance of his policies.
The governor gave the stern warning on the same day Madison County officials have gone against the governor’s public health orders and started to reopen.
The New York State Department of Health acknowledged that its recent reporting does not fully reflect the known carnage coronavirus has caused among nursing home and adult care residents.
The Dallas salon owner who was jailed for refusing to close her business during the coronavirus pandemic has described her two-day stint in lock-up as ‘not pleasant’ – but says she doesn’t regret the decisions that landed her there.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s extension of the order, which took effect Friday and lifts May 30, allows for worship limited to groups of 10, along with other social distancing measures.
But Pastor Stephen Cassell has continued to lead meetings and services, with the Thomas More Society, a Chicago-based law firm, taking up the church’s case on First Amendment grounds.
COVID-19 has shined some important light on the tendency of government to do as Founding Fathers warned — stretch and reach and overreach, and tread into places it doesn’t belong. And as the executive orders come fast and furious from governors’ mansions around the nation, it’s high time for a reminder: Orders are not laws.
They should be challenged by the people. They should be held to constitutional muster. They should be challenged and debated and fought over because they threaten the very foundation of America’s free society.
hen Abraham Lincoln issued his Emancipation Proclamation he was criticized by abolitionists for not issuing a more sweeping order. He refused to do so, asking “If I take the step, must I not do so . . . without any argument, except the one that I think the measure politically expedient, and morally right? Would I not thus give up all footing upon constitution or law? Would I not thus be in the boundless field of absolutism? Could this pass unnoticed, or unresisted?”
A Democratic super PAC filed a lawsuit against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other state officials on Monday, challenging voting laws it argues could limit turnout in the nation’s biggest swing state this fall. The lawsuit joins a persistent and ongoing legal battle over voting in a state that will be key to President Donald Trump’s reelection.
The agreement in Nevada also applies to the primary only, although similar issues could resurface if the public health crisis persists in the state this fall.
Election officials in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas and is home to 72 percent of the state’s people, announced several changes to make voting easier in the primary — issues raised in a lawsuit also filed just three weeks ago.
Due to fears over continued spread of the novel coronavirus, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced Friday the entire state will be asked to vote by mail in November.
The governor signed an executive order that will ensure every registered vote in the state is sent an absentee ballot prior to election day, and those who choose to vote in person will have to comply with strict physical distancing measures at polling sites.
With the worst jobs report in history under our belt, which saw a record 20.5 million jobs lost in April, and the stated unemployment rate at 14.7%, some cities have been hit worse than others by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
To wit, after steadily increasing 2-3% every week for the past two months, the unemployment rate in San Diego county is at an all-time high of just under 27% – exceeding the previous record from 1933 set during the Great Depression, according to a report by the San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG).
