Free Republic

Pennsylvania restaurant owners who were fined roughly $10,000 for opening their doors in defiance of coronavirus restrictions have been deemed not guilty. A judge in Lebanon County, Pennsylvania, found Taste of Sicily not guilty in its fight against the Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf’s coronavirus restrictions, according to Local 21 News Harrisburg. “The crux of the legal argument is that orders that have been issued by the Governor and The Department of Health are legally unenforceable. Judge Garvey agreed with that argument,” the restaurant’s lawyer Eric Winter said. The restaurant, co-owned by siblings Michael Mangano and Christine Wartluft, opened in May...

State police in Lebanon County arrested a man they said stole Trump campaign signs in the Myerstown area, vandalized property and put “Black Lives Matter” stickers on homes. Jon G. Shandfelder, 24, of Richland, Lebanon County, was identified as a result of security camera footage of the rampage early Monday morning in Jackson Township and Richland and Myerstown, troopers at the Jonestown station said. According to a news release: Troopers from the Jonestown patrol and crime units responded to the area for multiple reports of stolen political signs, damaged “President Trump” signs and vandalism, including red spray paint on property....

Pennsylvania Rep. Russ Diamond didn’t take long to respond to Gov. Tom Wolf’s call on the House of Representatives to censure Diamond for his “thinly veiled attack on the LGBTQ community.” The Lebanon County Republican returned fire two hours later by issuing a statement calling on Wolf to resign but not before removing Dr. Rachel Levine as state health secretary. Diamond has been critical of Wolf’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as Levine’s response. Nearly parroting the words that Wolf used to describe Diamond’s defense of those who don’t wear a mask, Diamond’s statement begins: “Abhorrent, unlawful, political...

Lebanon County commissioners want their pandemic relief money and they’ve gone to court to get it. The board filed suit in Commonwealth Court Wednesday to force Gov. Tom Wolf to release approximately $12.8 million in federal coronavirus relief funding that the administration has thus far withheld. The suit was authorized during an executive session discussion earlier this week. County Solicitor David Warner said the board is making its case on an argument that the bill appropriating the funds, which Wolf signed into law May 29, very clearly sets out a formula for the distribution of federal CARES Act dollars to...

Gov. Tom Wolf’s refusal to release federal CARES Act aid to Lebanon County over a decision by its commissioners to defy his COVID-19 restrictions is an “incredible insult” to its residents, the county’s Republican state legislators contended Friday. Sen. Dave Arnold and Reps. Sue Helm, Russ Diamond and Frank Ryan characterized Wolf as a “petty tyrant” a day after the governor admitted to withholding the CARES funds over the county commissioners’ rebellion. State Rep. Stan Saylor, R-York, joined their ranks in an independent statement. Lebanon is the only one of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties that has not received its CARES allotment,...

The two out of three Lebanon County Commissioners who voted to reopen the county during the coronavirus pandemic before they got the directive from the state should have listened to the rules, Gov. Tom Wolf said at a press conference on Thursday. The county is losing out on $13 million in federal funding from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, known as the CARES Act, according to a letter written by Lebanon Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Karen Groh. Approved by Congress in March, the act was passed to help ease the looming financial burden of...

Lebanon County officials were sputtering mad Friday at the Wolf Administration’s decision to leave it as the only one of Pennsylvania’s 67 counties that is not taking at least a partial step toward the green, or least restrictive, phase of the state’s coronavirus reopening plan next week. The county’s four-member legislative delegation - which helped stoke the county commissioner’s decision to break out of the state’s reopening schedule last month - issued an open letter to county residents condemning Gov. Tom Wolf and his Health Secretary, Dr. Rachel Levine, for punishing the county. “If there was ever any doubt that...

Lebanon County is the only county in Pennsylvania that is not being given approval from Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration to move to the green phase. The Wolf administration said Friday 12 more counties will move next week to the green phase, the least restrictive in the governor’s plan to reopen Pennsylvania amid the coronavirus pandemic. Those counties include Philadelphia and all of its suburbs. Earlier Friday, eight counties, including Dauphin, moved into the green phase. As of Friday, 54 counties are now in the green phase, with 12 more headed there next Friday. On June 26, Lebanon County will stand...

Calling Governor Tom Wolf an ‘illustrious dictator,’ Lebanon County Republicans lashed out on Facebook over the county’s reopening status. Lebanon County will be the only county still in the yellow phase of reopening on June 26, according to Pa. Health Secretary Dr. Levine. The state said that was because of an increase in cases of COVID-19 in the county. Levine put the blame on the politics of the county. “Lebanon County’s partisan, politically driven decision to ignore public health experts and reopen prematurely is having severe consequences for the health and safety of county residents,” she said in a press...

A Lebanon County Republican lawmaker is adding his voice to the calls for the immediate resignation or removal of Pennsylvania Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine. Rep. Russ Diamond said Levine needs to go. He cited "the horrific results of the department’s COVID-19 policy" in regard to the number of cases and deaths that have occurred in nursing homes and other facilities under the department's oversight. More than two-thirds of the state’s coronavirus deaths have occurred in long-term care facilities. Let me again point out the irony -- or perhaps the calculated outcome -- that the only places in the US...