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Santa Cruz County in California issued a mask mandate for all indoor settings, including private homes, ahead of the holiday season. The mandate went into effect at 11:59 p.m. on November 21 and requires “all individuals to wear a face covering when indoors regardless of vaccination status.” Unfortunately, a potential winter surge appears to be a significant threat to the health and safety of our community,” said Santa Cruz County Health Officer Dr. Gail Newel in the announcement. “As we look forward to spending time with those we love during the holidays, it is important to protect vulnerable friends and...

The board of supervisors in Fairfax County, Va., voted Tuesday to impose a 5-cent tax on plastic bags used at grocery stores, convenience stores and drugstores. The measure, passed in a 9-1 vote, takes effect Jan. 1. The new tax will not apply in certain situations, such as bags used for dry cleaning, prescription drugs, garbage, pet waste and leaf removal. Revenue raised by the tax will help fund environmental cleanup and litter mitigation programs in the state.

A Florida county is urging residents to call 911 sparingly as hospitals experience an influx of COVID-19 patients. Brevard County Fire Chief Mark Schollmeyer said residents should consider other options such as contacting a primary care physician before calling ambulance services, CBS reported. “Leave emergency room and ambulance trips for those with life-threatening or serious emergencies,” Schollmeyer told the outlet. Schollmeyer said emergency rooms have been inundated amid the recent surges of coronavirus infections. “There is a capacity issue at our local hospitals dealing with this new surge in COVID-19,” Schollmeyer told the outlet. “Crowding in the ERs has caused...

Asked how soon does he think he will receive an answer from Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, State Senator Sonny Borelli told OANN’s Natalie Harp, “I’m really confident the attorney general will follow through with this.” “The attorney general did send in an amicus brief, if you will, when the county was challenging us on our subpoena. He wrote to the courts saying our subpoenas were legal and enforceable and they should comply. The judge agreed with him and told the county, ‘Yes, our subpoenas are legal and enforceable and suggest you follow through'”, Borelli said. Asked if AG Brnovich...

ORLANDO, Fla. — Central Florida leaders are on high alert as more positive cases of COVID-19 are popping up across Central Florida. Orange County leaders said recently that everyone should wear masks indoors now due to the recent spike in positive cases. A recent report from the health department said that Orange County is in roughly the 14% range when it comes to the COVID-19 positivity rate. "These numbers are extraordinary, we are seeing nearly 1000 new cases in Orange County daily. Those are the numbers we saw at the highest peak last year," Demings said. In Seminole County, officials...

LOS ANGELES - With local COVID-19 infection numbers surging upward, topping 1,000 new cases for the fifth straight day, Los Angeles County supervisors Tuesday lamented continued resistance to vaccines while health officials announced an outreach effort to bring shots to people's doors. The county reported 1,103 new COVID cases on Tuesday, lifting the cumulative total from throughout the pandemic to 1,259,772. The county also reported 12 new fatalities due to the virus, increasing the death toll to 24,554.

A DuPage County judge has ordered a full recount of the November race for DuPage County auditor, ruling there are enough ballots in question to potentially overturn the results. "Any in-precinct ballot that is not initialed shall be deemed defective and not counted," Judge Craig R. Belford wrote in a written ruling Wednesday. According to the initial count, incumbent Republican Bob Grogan lost to Democratic challenger William "Bill" White by 75 votes, 233,121 to 233.046. Grogan sought a recount, claiming in court filings that an election judge at a Downers Grove Township polling place failed to initial all ballots as...

A North Texas medical examiner’s office has brought in two refrigerated trucks to store dead bodies in response to low capacity amid a surge in coronavirus cases. Many of the hospitals and larger funeral homes in the Fort Worth area have reached their storage capacity or will soon, said Nizam Peerwani, Tarrant County’s chief medical examiner.

SAN DIEGO – San Diego County’s Board of Supervisors met with legal counsel behind closed doors Thursday to discuss options should the county soon find itself in a more restrictive state tier which would force some industries to close indoors. The meeting comes just a day after the board formally requested the state remove San Diego State University and other local colleges from the county’s coronavirus case totals, a plea which was flatly rejected by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The health officer of Montgomery County, Maryland, ordered nonpublic schools, including “private pay schools” and “schools affiliated with religious institutions,” to remain closed for in-school instruction through October 1. “Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have based our decisions on science and data,” said Dr. Travis Gayles in a press statement Friday, and he added: At this point the data does not suggest that in-person instruction is safe for students or teachers. We have seen increases in transmission rates for COVID-19 in the State of Maryland, the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Virginia, particularly in younger...

FLORIDA SHERIFF: "The people in Polk County like guns, they have guns, I encourage them to own guns. — And if you try to break into their homes to steal, to set fires, I'm highly recommending they blow you back out of the house with their guns."

BEXAR COUNTY, Texas (KXAN) — Bexar County is investigating after nearly 50 residents were locked out of their apartments at a San Antonio complex. They say they found their doorknobs bolted when they returned home on Monday. That’s despite a local moratorium on evictions that’s currently in effect due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “It is sad. It is sad when somebody put a key on the door, even though they don’t have money for two or three months. Right now, we don’t need that,” says Luis Falcon, who son was locked out of his apartment. “This is the first flagrant...

The mayor of Champaign, Illinois has declared a town emergency over the Wuhan coronavirus that includes a potential ban on the sale of firearms and ammunition. According to a local report from WAND 17, Champaign Mayor Deborah Frank Feinen has issued an executive order that would give her office "extraordinary powers." She has issued the order despite the town and surrounding area not having a single case of the disease.

Steuben County DA Brooks Baker is apologizing after the Chemung County 911 released audio of a phone call where Baker is heard berating and cursing at a dispatcher. Baker called 911 after picking up a dog off I-86 and was looking to connect with Animal Control. After what Baker calls a “tense phone call” between Baker’s wife and a male dispatcher, Baker spoke with a female dispatcher in the audio released on Facebook. While discussing with the dispatcher where he can hand off the dog, Baker became agitated and cursed at the dispatcher four times in a two minute phone...

Less than six weeks after Governor Andrew Cuomo (D) signed into law New York’s so-called “Green Light Bill,” Assembly Bill (AB) 3675, which allows illegal aliens to apply for drivers’ licenses, a second county clerk has stepped forward to sue the state in an attempt to prevent the law from taking effect. On July 24, Rensselaer County Clerk Frank Merola (R) followed Erie County Clerk Mickey Kearns (D) lead and filed suit. Recent polls show a clear majority of New Yorkers are against giving drivers’ licenses to illegal aliens. Rensselaer County Clerk Merola called the Green Light Law a “travesty,”...

Flanked by members of a local African-American faith community, a defiant Scott Israel defended himself against allegations of incompetence on Friday and made clear he would fight his suspension on any front necessary — whether before the Florida Senate or in state or federal court. Israel, 62, a two-term Democratic sheriff of Broward County, was suspended by Gov. Ron DeSantis three days after the new Republican governor was sworn into office. DeSantis cited a list of failures enumerated by a state panel that investigated BSO’s response to the Feb. 14, 2018, shootings at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland.

'Eleven years I served this county. I hate this county. I prayed to God that he would curse it. And guess what? He did,' he said in the arrest footage. 'Man, I saw it hit and cursed, and I saw people laid off right and left - white people. I hate this county ...' he added. Steven Lamar Foster, 61, was arrested on September 23 of last year and held nothing back as cops cuffed him. New police dash cam footage reveals how Foster insulted Whitfield County, where he's worked for over a decade. Six months later he launched a...

Cook County board meetings are usually dry and filled with policy and procedure details. On Tuesday, that was not the case. There were tears and real emotion. CBS 2’s Roseanne Tellez introduces us to some of the people who got the most unwelcome news, days before Thanksgiving. Some county employees begged for their jobs. Cook County commissioners who supported a penny-an-ounce sweetened beverage tax say they warned of the cost of repealing it: a budget amendment filled with pain. “It has actual layoffs of human beings who have jobs and who have families,” Commissioner Larry Suffredin (13th District) said. Officials...

BISBEE — The dining the room at the Copper Queen Hotel is like taking a step into another era. A grand chandelier from the early 1900s hangs in the center of the long, rectangle room and an antique-style phonograph plays old jazz in the background — the effect is transporting visitors back to what the hotel used to be in the beginning of the 20th century. Steven Reed, the general manager of the Copper Queen, said hotel staff wanted to capture the essence of the early 1900s in one dining room experience and restore the art-nouveau atmosphere the Copper Queen...

WATERLOO - Polygraph testing will soon be used to help supervise and treat local sex offenders. The Seneca County Board of Supervisors unanimously agreed Tuesday to contract with Michael Schank, owner of New York State Polygraph Service of Himrod, to provide the exams under the supervision of the county Probation Department, which will work in conjunction with the Mental Health Department. The service was recommended by the Public Safety & Jail Construction Committee Nov. 28 as a part of the county's new comprehensive sexual offender treatment program. The initial suggestion came from William Kelly, a licensed clinical social worker under...