California governor Gavin Nuisance Newsom has announced the replacement for Kamala Harris in the Senate. California Secretary of State Alex Padilla has been named to fill the remainder of Harris’s term.
Padilla, 47, will be the first Latino Senator from California. He has served as SOS since defeating Republican incumbent Pete Peterson in 2015.
California Blocked From Enforcing Stay-at-Home Orders Against San Diego Strip Clubs
In this Dec. 10, 2020, file photo, Cheetahs Gentleman’s Club is seen in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
SAN DIEGO (CN) — A pair of strip clubs became the unlikely heroes in the business industry’s fight against California’s pandemic-induced stay-at-home orders Wednesday when a state court judge found they could continue operating even as Southern California’s ICU capacity dropped to less than 1%.
San Diego Superior Court Judge Joel Wohlfeil issued a 9-page preliminary injunction order in favor of the strip clubs less than an hour following oral arguments in the case.
The injunction also applies to restaurants in San Diego County, which, under the order are protected from enforcement of stay-at-home orders temporarily closing outdoor and indoor dining in Southern California.
He found San Diego County and California public health officials should be blocked “from enforcing the provisions of the cease and desist order, or any related orders including the State’s Regional Stay Home Order, that prevent 1) plaintiffs from providing live adult entertainment; and 2) San Diego County businesses with restaurant service, such as plaintiffs’ establishments, from continuing to operate their respective businesses, subject to protocols that are no greater than is essential to further defendants’ response to control the spread of COVID.”
Wohlfeil also found “Plaintiffs have been devoid of covid, have done nothing to contribute to the spread of covid, and have honored their representations to Dr. Joel Day and the county.”
The pair of strip clubs — Pacers Showgirls and Cheetah’s — sued the County of San Diego and its public health officer Dr. Wilma Wooten, Governor Gavin Newsom and the California Department of Public Health within a week of receiving cease and desist orders in October ordering the strip club/restaurants to cease live entertainment operations to comply with state guidance issued Aug. 28.
Wohlfeil issued a temporary restraining order blocking public health officials from enforcing the county’s cease-and-desist orders, which was set to expire Wednesday.
“The State and the County are analyzing the scope of the ruling and discussing next steps which includes seeking clarity from the court. Until we have clarity, we have suspended enforcement activities against restaurants and live entertainment establishments. With record numbers of new infections, deaths, and ICUs at capacity, we want to remind everyone to do your part. Please don’t gather, socially distance, wear a face covering, and wash your hands,” county spokesman Michael Workman said.
Over the weekend, Attorney General Xavier Becerra also sent separate cease-and-desist orders to the strip clubs for violating the new stay-at-home policy which was implemented about a month after Wohlfeil’s injunction was issued.
The new stay-at-home order bars indoor and outdoor dining, social gatherings and live entertainment of all kinds, including adult entertainment, comedy shows, concerts and the like.
Deputy Attorney General P. Patty Li said during the court hearing Wednesday the temporary restrictions on live entertainment are content-neutral and do not single out First Amendment activities by strip clubs.
“The restriction is based on the risk and characteristics of the type of activities — for live performances, you have people gathered in close proximity. There is no targeting of expression here,” Li said.
She noted Southern California’s ICU capacity “is essentially at 0% — it was at 0.5%” and ambulances in San Diego County were turned away from bringing patients to full emergency rooms over the weekend.
The state also ordered 5,000 additional body bags Monday as Covid-19 deaths have increased, Li said.
“This is the most serious moment in this pandemic in the state, in the nation so far. While this is going on, plaintiffs are open and operating indoors, with close contact and no physical distancing,” Li said.
Li also pointed out Wohlfeil’s initial restraining order blocking enforcement of the county’s cease and desist order “was issued under very different circumstances” when San Diego County was classified under the “Red Tier” system which allowed indoor dining under limited capacity.
Attorney Jason Saccuzzo, representing the strip clubs, told Wohlfeil his clients “are being treated far less favorably than other forms of speech” including worship and political expression, which are activities permitted outdoors under the regional stay-at-home order issued Dec. 3.
“This is a discrimination against adult entertainment establishments. There’s no apparent reason people cannot gather for adult entertainment, but they can shop until they drop.” Saccuzzo said, suggesting mall parking lots during the holiday season “are packed.”
Saccuzzo said the state’s suggestion that Pacers and Cheetah’s could do their live adult entertainment on the internet was not a reasonable alternative.
“The defendants submit no statistics on increased risk from live adult entertainment because there are none … No single covid case has been traceable to either of plaintiffs’ establishments,” Saccuzzo added.
He commended Judge Wohlfeil for issuing the initial temporary restraining order, saying “This court’s TRO accelerated an important conversation on the limits of executive power in what has turned out to be, in the state of California, an endless emergency,” Saccuzzo said.
“If courts don’t look at these issues and put some restraints on the executive, what’s to come next — are we all going to be under house arrest? Will we even have a Constitution? This is an issue that involves strip clubs, but it involves an even bigger issue,” he added.
County Supervisor Jim Desmond, a critic of Covid-19 restrictions on business operations in San Diego and California, tweeted following the ruling: “Amazing! Our pressure has worked once again!”
“I hope it’s not too late for the many restaurants hanging on! God bless you and thank you for your courage,” Desmond tweeted.
County of San Diego Senior Deputy Attorney Timothy White said the county receives 500 complaints every day for businesses not complying with Covid-19 operating restrictions. It has sent cease-and-desist letters, once violations have been documented and verified, to gain voluntary compliance from businesses ranging from comedy shows, churches, sororities and fraternities and other businesses, White said.
https://www.courthousenews.com/california-blocked-from-enforcing-stay-at-home-against-san-diego-strip-clubs/ By:
BIANCA BRUNO – December 16, 2020
Comment: Business is Business
“This weekend we start collecting all turkeys in excess of 10lbs from area grocers. This will limit group sizes in the name of safety. We also will obtain records of prior sales for bird-tracing to locate addresses as potential gathering spots.”
Yes, you read that right. In order to insure the gatherings are small this upcoming weekend. Gavin, the California Nuisance is not allowing birds to be sold in excess of 10 pounds and I’m sure that quick thinker will not allow you to buy two birds. So no, hubby or your significant other can not sit in the car and wait for your return.
According to….. And just how insane has the world became when this seems plausible…
See Also: Smartmatic Denies, and Lies
Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris and California governor Gavin Newsome visited fire stricken Fresno county this week for a photo op.
While in the town of Auberry, the walked through the ashes of someone’s home. Turns out the homeowners family isn’t real happy the pair used the remains of their home as a political prop.
Trampas Patten, the son of the homeowner took to Facebook to air his grievances.
For the friends of mine that don’t recognize the fireplace in the background, that is what is left of my parents house! What has me really frustrated right now is the fact that these two politicians used my parents loss for a photo opportunity to push their political agenda! Political party wouldn’t have made a difference in this moment. Decent human beings that have character and class, wouldn’t air someone else’s misfortune on national television! Think about this when you go to the polls in a few weeks to vote. Look at this picture closely, imagine it is what is left of your hard work, hopes, dreams, place of sanctuary. Do you want this kind of leadership, using you and your loss for political gain?!
For the record, my parents haven’t even been let back in yet themselves, to sort through what is left of their lives, but these two felt the need to go traipsing around my parents property without permission. I guess those property taxes my parents pay allow politicians to do this! Private property doesn’t exist in California anymore!
Trampas’ sister Bailee weighed in as well;
Dear Governor Newsom you don’t know me but I’m one of your CA citizens. That truck you are standing by is my dads work truck. He has had that thing for as long as I can remember. That land with all the rubble your standing next too, that’s my house I grew up in. You never got my parents permission to go on our property, nor did you ask if we needed help. What you did do is take my families loss and parade it all over social media and news networks to push your agenda.
That agenda can wait, right now you should be caring about the families of this state. Thankfully this community is #mountainstrong and we will thrive.
See also: Covid 19 emails from Nashville. . .
Of course Newsome and Harris couldn’t help but politicize the event. Both tried to place the blame for the fires on climate change. Newsome posted the following on twitter.
If there is anything that the fires in California taught us during 2018 & 2019 and that would be to not blame Mother Nature for all our woes. Yes, the timing does seem to be aligned with fire season. But, as we saw with the recent legal settlement with PG&E; contributing factors must be taken in to consideration.
I also referenced these reports in my recent research:
Law enforcement agencies across the West Coast have arrested multiple alleged arsonists accused of intentionally setting fires while hundreds of blazes wreak havoc in several states.
https://bluelivesmatter.blue/police-arrest-multiple-suspects-in-connection-with-west-coast-wildfires/
https://kion546.com/news/2020/09/07/woman-accused-of-intentionally-starting-fires-on-highway-101-arrested/
And I can’t help but ask myself – what portion of these fires are being set intentionally for the purposes of obtaining emergency Federal funds to help with their financial woes (Arson)? Giving little consideration to the loss of life or property? And why, would the FBI refute the existence of arsonists? Who are these people and what organizations are they affiliated with?
Wildfires continue to burn across California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado and Montana today. Hurricane-force winds and high temperatures kicked up wildfires across parts of the Pacific Northwest over the holiday weekend, burning hundreds of thousands of acres.
In California, helicopters were needed to rescue more than 200 people trapped by the fast moving blazes over labor day weekend. An additional 164 were choppered out of Sierra National Forest today. The smoke from the California fires could be seen as far away as Las Vegas.
In Washington, a wind driven fire destroyed most of the town of Malden in the eastern part of the state and forced evacuations in Oregon. A fire burning near Davenport, Washington, grew to 70,000 acres by Tuesday morning and was 0% contained, according to the Washington Department of Natural Resources. Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz said on Twitter that about 300,000 acres had burned so far. “As of this morning, we have 9 large fires,″ Franz tweeted on Tuesday. “We had 58 new wildfire starts in the last 24 hours.″
In Oregon, thousands of people were without power as crews battled large fires in Clackamas County on Tuesday morning. Over 40,000 people south of Portland were without power. In Marion County, which includes the state capitol of Salem, a blaze prompted evacuation orders Tuesday in the western foothills of the Cascade Range.
A fire near Red Feather Lakes, Colorado, more than tripled in size over the Labor Day weekend and had consumed almost 140 square miles by Monday afternoon as it moved through rugged terrain with lots of dead trees that had been killed by beetles, fire spokesperson Ronda Scholting said. The fire was only 4 percent contained. “You can’t stop it in that steep country,” she said.
Related: 2 Million Acres Burned in California
Montana officials hope a bout of cooler weather, with snow forecast, will help them tamp down the Bridger Foothills Fire burning in timber northeast of Bozeman. It started Friday and spread across more than 11 square miles (28 square kilometers) over the weekend amid warm and windy conditions. The BobCat Fire started last week southeast of Roundup and charred more than 46 square miles. It burned at least 10 structures and grew by several square miles Sunday.
AP is reporting more than 2 million acres have burned in California so far this fire season.
That is the largest area burned by wildfires since Cal Fire started keeping records in 1987, despite the fact several months remain in this year’s fire season. The previous record, 1.96 million acres, was set in 2018.
The most dangerous part of the year is yet to come according to Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, or Cal Fire.
“It’s a little unnerving because September and October are historically our worst months for fires,” she said. “It’s usually hot, and the fuels really dry out. And we see more of our wind events.”
Cal Fire said 14,800 firefighters are battling 23 major fires in the state. California has seen 900 wildfires since Aug. 15, many of them started by an intense series of thousands of lightning strikes. There have been eight fire deaths and more than 3,300 structures destroyed.
On Saturday, rescuers in military helicopters airlifted 207 people to safety after flames trapped them in a wooded camping area northeast of Fresno.
SB 145 author Scott Weiner
Senate Bill 145 just passed in the California General assembly, it now goes to Gavin Newsome for his signature.
The bills proponents claim the previous laws discriminated against LBGTQ individuals by mandating those convicted be placed in the sex offenders registry.
Currently, while consensual sex between 15- to 17-year-olds and a partner within 10 years of age is illegal, vaginal intercourse between the two does not require an offender to register as a sex offender. Other forms of intercourse such as oral and anal intercourse require sex offender registration.
The new law would eliminate those distinctions and lower the threshold to 14.
The bill’s author, Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, says “This bill is about treating everyone equally under the law. Discrimination against LGBT people is simply not the California way. These laws were put in place during a more conservative and anti-LGBT time in California’s history. They have ruined people’s lives and made it harder for them to get jobs, secure housing, and live productive lives. It is time we update these laws and treat everyone equally,”
See also: TX Supremes to Harris County: Hold Up
I say that anyone 10 years or more older than a minor has no business having any kind of sex with them. At that state of development, they aren’t capable of consent. That’s why there are statutory rape laws.
And to be clear, sex offender registries exist for a reason. The recidivism rate for all sex offenders is as high as 39.2% according to the 9 of Justice Statistics latest report. That’s 4 out of 10 who will repeat offend.
For those convicted of sex crimes against minors, the recidivism rate is around 35%, again according to the BJS.
Why then is california changing the laws the way they are? Why are they taking it easy on those who prey on the vulnerable?
No adult should ever take advantage of a child in that fashion. There’s a special place in hell for those who do so.
Addendum: The law was just recently signed by the idiot, ahem, Governor Newsome. (RU, 13 Sep 2020)
A pro-Trump caravan was fired on by a BLM supporter in Los Angeles today. There are three suspects barricaded at the scene, and Ventura Boulevard has been shut down for hours, according to Officer Drake Madison of the Los Angeles Police Department.
The rally, which had around a thousand cars, was traveling down Ventura boulevard in Woodland Hills when the shooting occurred.
See Also: Oops, is Moderna Double Dipping?
Yeah that.
A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit court of appeals has confirmed a lower courts ruling stating the California ban on standard capacity magazines was unconstitutional.
Judge Roger T. Benitez in the United States District Court for the Southern District of California initially ruled the ban unconstitutional. The ruling in the original case, Duncan vs. Becerra, handed Second Amendment supporters a sweeping victory by completely invalidating California’s 10-round limit on magazine capacity. “Individual liberty and freedom are not outmoded concepts,” he declared.
California Attorney General Xavier Becerra appealed the decision to the 9th circuit, as expected. From the ruling:
“The panel affirmed the district court’s summary judgment in favor of plaintiffs challenging California Government Code § 31310, which bans possession of large-capacity magazines (“LCMs”) that hold more than ten rounds of ammunition; and held that the ban violated the Second Amendment.
See also: Oh FFS!
California and Xavier Becerra face a choice. Either they can accept the three judge panels decision or ask for an en banc hearing. The risk they face is if they ask for an en banc hearing, it could potentially wind up at the Supreme Court.
