Oh, Gov. Gavin Newsom. What are we going to do with you, you hypocrite?
Newsom said on Monday that California “very likely” faces a longer COVID-19 lockdown after the state’s breweries and a Los Angeles restaurateur filed a lawsuit against him.
Newsom hinted at an extended lockdown at a press conference on Monday:
The San Joaquin Valley was the first region to face the restrictions, and the order was initially going to expire December 28. Southern California’s stay home order was set to expire December 30. Both areas have seen 0.0% ICU available ICU capacity for several days in a row.”Based upon all the data, and based upon all these trend lines, it’s very likely based on those current trends that we’ll need to extend that stay at home,” Newsom said.California’s Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the state will be looking at ICU projections for four weeks after the regional stay home order would be lifted to ultimately determine whether or not restrictions will remain. Health officials will also monitor current ICU capacities, the number of new coronavirus cases and transmission rates.
But Californians have had enough of Newsom. We all know our very own Leslie is at her wit’s end!
The California Craft Brewers Association and other breweries in the state filed a lawsuit last Thursday against Newsom and California State Public Health Officer Sandra Shewry:
California craft breweries are suing Gov. Gavin Newsom, alleging COVID-19 public health orders unjustly target small, craft beer makers operating across the state of California.—The suit alleges that state officials have unfairly denied beer manufacturers their equal protection rights by requiring them to serve a meal to operate a tasting room when others in the alcohol beverage manufacturing industry don’t have to do so.
They also allege that Newsom and Shewry gave wineries “more generous reopening privileges.” The craft breweries must have a sit-down mean for patrons “in order to reopen their outdoor tasting areas.”
The wineries do not have that requirement. More from ABC7News:
The suit alleges that wineries and breweries have identical manufacturing facilities that operate with the same “risk factors” as identified by the California Department of Public Health.They say the sole difference between wineries and breweries is the product they produce: wine or beer.”Both winery and brewery businesses are indistinguishable in their processes and privileges and should be assigned the same guidelines for reopening by the state,” the statement says.
Angela Marsden, owner of the Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill in Sherman Oaks, went viral over a week ago when she voiced her frustration and fought back tears over “an outdoor dining area” set up by a Hollywood crew near her restaurant.
Marsden “spent thousands setting up an outdoor dining area” in order to keep her business open. But the latest order banned outdoor dining:
She posted a video Thursday showing the near-identical — and legal — outdoor set up of a film catering site feeding the cast and crew of the NBC show “Good Girls.”“Everything that I own is being taken away from me and they set up a movie company right next to my outdoor patio,” Marsden says in the clip, her voice breaking with emotion.
Mark Geragos, the leader of the legal team, called Newsom’s lawsuit “an unconstitutional stretch of power by Newsom that is not supported by scientific evidence.” The suit includes Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Shewry:
The lawsuit also names Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra and the state’s public health officer, noting the hypocrisy in which “a major Hollywood production was recently in full operation, where it had an outdoor tent set up and was permitted to serve meals to its team of employees and contractors” 20 feet from Pineapple Hill. California has deemed movie production an essential business.“Defendants, in a gross abuse of their power, have seized the coronavirus pandemic to expand their authority by unprecedented lengths, depriving plaintiff and all other similarly situated small business owners in California of fundamental rights protected by the U.S. and California constitutions, including freedom of assembly and due process and equal protection under the law,” the suit states.
Mark Geragos and other lawyers convinced L.A. County Superior Judge James Chalfant that county officials “should not be allowed to continue the ban indefinitely.”
Judge Chalfant ruled a week later that the county “would need to provide a risk-benefit analysis to justify the restriction if it wanted to extend the ban beyond its initial three weeks, which ended Dec. 16.”
But the county rules do not include Newsom’s orders, which restrict outdoor dining “until at least Dec. 28.”
We all know that restaurants account for a minuscule of COVID-19 infections. I hope these people regain their livelihood.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL VERSION OF THIS STORY