Free Republic

Writing at PJMedia.com, Megan Fox has an excellent piece today about Michigan’s authoritarian Governor, Generalissimo Gretchen Whitmer, getting slapped with a lawsuit by a group of doctors and a single patient on Thursday. The suit smartly alleges that, through her increasingly irrational and anti-science edicts, the Herr Gretchen is creating a looming public health crisis of her own as a growing number of Michiganders continue to be denied the right to have what the state has declared “non-essential surgeries.” Here’s an excerpt from a Washington Times piece: VDO.AI The plaintiffs allege in federal court that Ms. Whitmer’s “drastic, unprecedented [and]...

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) — Gov. Andrew Cuomo has extended the stay-at-home order for New York State until June 13 unless regions meet certain conditions.

Retail and pet grooming businesses could be among those that are able to reopen by the end of the month, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said during a Thursday, May 14 video interview with MLive. If the number of new cases of COVID-19 continues to decline over the next two weeks, the governor said retail will “probably be in the next phase,” which she hopes Michigan will enter into after the current stay-home order expires at 11:59 p.m. May 28. “If we continue to see our testing go up and our positive cases continue to decline, that would be something that...

"I'm going to put it very simply: the president of the United States has the authority to do what the president has the authority to do, which is very powerful. The president of the United States calls the shots," Trump said Monday evening, pressed on his claim during a news briefing at the White House. He continued: "When somebody’s the president of the U.S., the authority is total, and that’s the way it’s gotta be." But experts — and the Constitution — say Trump is wrong. The authority to require businesses to close in a public health crisis is what...

Some Michigan law enforcement agencies say they won't enforce Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's executive orders meant to combat the coronavirus pandemic. The orders have enraged the Republican-controlled legislature and led to armed protests as some residents grow impatient over statewide restriction measures and business closures. In a letter Monday, Shiawassee County Sheriff Brian BeGole said his agency won't actively enforce the mandates, the Detroit Free Press reported. "I have decided, within my authority, that our office cannot and will not divert our primary resources and efforts towards enforcement of the Gov. Whitmer's executive orders,” he said. BeGole's letter comes after a...

Medical professionals and a patient in Michigan have filed a lawsuit against Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer as the battles grow between her and those favoring relaxing the economic shutdown she has imposed in response to the coronavirus crisis. Their lawsuit in federal court comes at a time when Ms. Whitmer continues to engage in a public spat with a 77-year-old barber, who has defied various orders and as of Thursday morning continued to cut hair at his Owosso shop. The plaintiffs allege in federal court that Ms. Whitmer’s “drastic, unprecedented [and] unilateral executive actions” to cease economic activity that her...

New York and New Jersey required nursing homes to admit patients who had tested positive for COVID-19. Meanwhile, Florida prohibited nursing homes from admitting such patients. The different results of these different policies are exactly what you would expect. And in my opinion, what New York and New Jersey did constitutes mass murder. New York and New Jersey required nursing homes to admit patients who had tested positive for COVID-19.NPR reported:New York and New Jersey both have ordered nursing homes to admit patients regardless of their COVID-19 status.In my opinion, this policy constitutes mass murder.Nursing home patients are elderly. And they...

West Shore barber Brad Shepler has rapidly become a symbol of the growing revolt against Gov. Tom Wolf’s order closing non-life-essential businesses over the coronavirus. That was unmistakable Thursday morning, two days after state officials threatened to revoke Shepler’s barbering license and fine him up to $10,000 a day for reopening his East Pennsboro Township shop in violation of the closure edict. A crowd of several dozen filled the small parking lot of his business, Shep’s Barber Shop, off Wertzville Road to cheer him on. A bevy of Republican legislators, headed by state Sen. Mike Regan, showered Shepler with promises...

At around the time New York’s state health department under Gov. Andrew Cuomo issued a directive prohibiting nursing homes from testing recovering coronavirus patients prior to admission, Florida under Gov. Ron DeSantis issued its own executive order strictly regulating incoming patients to protect those facilities from the epidemic. About a month and a half later, the differences are staggering. The latest tallies show that in Florida 745 residents and staff at long-term care facilities across the state have died from coronavirus although the numbers continue to rise in the state and nationwide. This compared to New York’s 5,300 dead in...

Pennsylvania Health Secretary Rachel Levine’s mother moved out of a personal care home with the health secretary’s help, after Levine ordered all nursing homes and long-term facilities in the state to accept coronavirus patients from hospitals.

At least 28,100 residents and workers have died from the coronavirus at nursing homes and other long-term care facilities for older adults in the United States, according to a left-wing New York Times database. The virus so far has infected more than 153,000 at some 7,700 facilities. Deaths from these places alone have accounted for 68.6 percent of all deaths in Pennsylvania as of Tuesday, according to state data. Spotlight PA, a partnership between the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, and Harrisburg’s PennLive, also found evidence the Pennsylvania Department of Health drafted a quick strike plan to protect nursing homes...

The mainstream media, as Barack Obama once said, is all wee-weed up for Andrew Cuomo, New York’s Democratic governor. “Andrew Cuomo may be the single most popular politician in America right now,” CNN wrote earlier this month. “Andrew Cuomo Is the Control Freak We Need Right Now,” The New York Times wrote. “Cuomo Could Be The Leader The Democratic Party And Nation Desperately Need,” The Washington Post wrote. But let’s take a look at Mr. Cuomo’s actions as governor to see if all the breathless praise is warranted. **SNIP** In fact, New York has more deaths than the next five...

Faced with 20,000 coronavirus deaths and counting, the nation’s nursing homes are pushing back against a potential flood of lawsuits with a sweeping lobbying effort to get states to grant them emergency protection from claims of inadequate care. At least 15 states have enacted laws or governors’ orders that explicitly or apparently provide nursing homes and long-term care facilities some protection from lawsuits arising from the crisis. And in the case of New York, which leads the nation in deaths in such facilities, a lobbying group wrote the first draft of a measure that apparently makes it the only state...

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said Wednesday that the protests in the state's capital city against state measures meant to limit the spread of the coronavirus make it more likely that the state will have to keep restrictions in place longer. Appearing Monday on ABC's "The View," Whitmer, a Democrat, was asked about the pushback against her administration's coronavirus restrictions. There have been multiple protests in the state's capital city of Lansing in the past few weeks, including one late last month that saw protesters -- some of them armed -- entering the state Capitol, screaming at law enforcement officers and...

President Trump will visit the sharply divided battleground state of Pennsylvania on Thursday as he encourages a rebellion by local Republican officials against Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s stay-at-home coronavirus orders. The president’s trip to the state where he trails presumptive Democratic nominee Joseph R. Biden is intended to highlight the administration’s efforts providing N-95 masks and surgical gowns, at an Owens and Minor Inc. distribution center in Lehigh County. But the business is also located in the governor’s “red zone,” part of the state that won’t be allowed to reopen for non-essential business until June 4. And Mr. Trump is...

Thunderstorms are in the forecast for Harrisburg on Friday, but a storm of another sort will hit the state Capitol at noon. For the second time in less than a month, ReOpen PA and other groups from in and outside Pennsylvania that oppose Gov. Tom Wolf’s virtual lockdown of the state over the coronavirus pandemic will rally on and around the Capitol grounds. It is part of a nationwide phenomenon, a backlash against virus-related business shutdowns and stay-at-home orders that locally is receiving more than tacit support from elected officials, including county commissioners and law enforcement leaders, usually of a...

The mayor of LA has sent a terrifying warning to Angelinos that 'LA will never be completely open until we have a cure', one day after the county health director extended its lockdown by three months. Mayor Eric Garcetti gave a rambling interview with Good Morning America Wednesday in which he attempted to play down the lockdown extension through to August but sparked yet further confusion among angry residents over when it will reopen. Garcetti backpedaled on comments made by LA County Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer on Tuesday. She had said stay-at-home orders in LA will 'with all certainty'...

Several states banned religious gatherings due to the coronavirus but have allowed liquor stores to remain open. Governors in California, Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, and Vermont prohibited in person religious gatherings through stay-at-home orders implemented as the coronavirus took hold of the United States, data from the Pew Research Center shows. Some of these states have since begun the process of reopening that loosens restrictions on religious gatherings. But when governors initially banned religious gatherings, liquor stores remained opened in California, Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, Illinois, New York, and Vermont. Churchgoers in several of these...

Los Angeles County officials will likely extend the stay-at-home orders for three months, according to Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. The story: Speaking at a Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, Ferrer said that “with all certainty” the stay-at-home orders will remain in place for the next three months, several days after they were expected to expire on Friday.

State regulators on Wednesday suspended the license of a 77-year-old Michigan barber who insisted on cutting hair despite an order to stay closed during the coronavirus pandemic.