According to the Michigan Restaurant and Lodging Association (MRLA), about nine out of 10 restaurants and hotels are operating with too few employees.
On June 22, state officials lifted COVID-related restrictions on restaurant capacity.
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The COVID pandemic has witnessed the exercise of state “police powers” on a scale and scope unprecedented in America’s peacetime history. Out of fear of contagion, massive amounts of private property in the form of shops, restaurants, bars, and other businesses were peremptorily seized and shuttered. The rights of landlords to collect rents and evict tenants were suspended. The ability of people to cross from one state to another was hobbled by regulations, quarantines, and delays. And most of this was accomplished by governors and mayors acting by decree, with only the most tenuous of statutory authorizations.
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In an interview with MSNBC on Tuesday, Anthony Fauci said that defeating the coronavirus is more important than Americans’ personal freedoms, and that every American should be forced to get a vaccine, the Daily Caller reports.
When asked by host Willie Geist, Fauci said that he supports vaccine mandates for teachers and all levels of schools, including colleges and universities, referring to the India Variant, also known as the “Delta Variant,” as a “major surge” that has led to a “critical” situation.
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Maury County Mayor Andrew Ogles on Wednesday called upon members of the Tennessee General Assembly to convene a special session to address Gov. Bill Lee and what Ogles said was the governor’s “continued abuses of power.” Ogles, in this proclamation, said Lee’s “indecisiveness and half measures” have “subjugated parents and their children to out of control school boards and superintendents, liberal mayors and a complicit commissioner of education.”
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Michigan Senate Majority Leader Mike Shirkey (R-Clarklake) has indicated he plans to skip the Mackinac Policy Conference, which is hosted annually by the Detroit Regional Chamber, citing the conference’s COVID vaccine requirement.
The Republican leader reportedly said he is already immune, having gotten COVID-19, and therefore chooses not to get vaccinated.
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Michigan’s Board of Education passed a resolution Tuesday evening allowing individual school districts to either adopt or reject masking for students and staff to prevent COVID-19’s spread.
The Democrat-run board adopted the resolution instead of another offered by the panel’s two Republican members, Tom McMillin (Oakland Township) and Nikki Snyder (Dexter), who wanted a statewide policy against district mask mandates.
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Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) and more than 70 other Republican state representatives on Wednesday formally requested that Gov. Bill Lee call a special session of the General Assembly. Sexton said last week he and other legislators want to restrain public school officials who might mandate or have already mandated that students wear COVID-19 masks.
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A famous Tennessee music festival is set to require its patrons to be vaccinated, or submit to compulsory testing.
“The safety of our patrons and staff is our number one priority. As such a full COVID-19 vaccination or negative COVID-19 test will be required to attend Bonnaroo 2021,” Bonnaroo said on Twitter. “Bonnaroo strongly encourages vaccination. The last day to receive the second shot of Moderna or Pfizer, or a single dose of Johnson and Johnson is Thursday, August 19th.”
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Acontagion is ravaging the Democratic Party, destroying the credibility of its leaders and scaring away its supporters. It is the deadly Hypocrisy Variant. The most prominent Democratic carriers of this infectious strain of duplicity are former President Barack Obama, President Joe Biden, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer, and failed presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Less significant Democrats who have tested positive for the Hypocrisy Variant are Rep. Cory Bush (D-Mo.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the Texas Democrats who fled their state in order to hobble the democratic process.
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Parents in Williamson County who insist they — and only they — have the right to force a COVID-19 mask on their children faced off Tuesday night against members of the Williamson County School Board. Board members considered whether to implement a mask mandate to combat the Delta variant of COVID-19. They had not reached a solution before The Tennessee Star went to press late Tuesday night.
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COVID-19 isn’t over in Michigan but early 2021 data from 24 states suggests a fully vaccinated person is much less likely to be hospitalized or die from the virus, according to data from the Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF).
As summer winds down, The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) ranked Michigan as having “substantial” community COVID-19 transmission with a seven-day average case positivity rate between 5% to 7.9%.
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A new report from the payroll company PayChex ranked the states in order of small business job growth and Arizona came out No. 1, with nearly 6% growth over the past year. Phoenix ranked third among the country’s 20 most populated cities. The Arizona Legislature released a report shortly before that showing Arizona is in great condition, breaking records. The state passed historic tax cuts this year, preventing a 77% increase on small business taxes, reducing small business property taxes by 10%, and capping the maximum tax rate on businesses at 4.5%.
Frank Fiorelle, vice president of risk, compliance and data analytics at Paychex, explained that a lot of the job growth is due to the pandemic ending. “A lot of those restaurants are coming back online, opening the doors and turning on the lights, he said. He added that states which reopened their economies earlier have higher job creation rates.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order late last week regarding the state’s continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some people worry it infringes upon basic liberties. Among other things, Lee’s executive order permits more flexibility in behavioral health care to relieve capacity strain and allows medical laboratory directors to monitor facilities remotely. But the order also gives the state government discretion to use the National Guard in connection with certain health care and emergency services operations.
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Despite the fact that many healthcare workers Butnationwide have taken to the streets to protest vaccine mandates, the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Health System has mandated that all of its employees must take the vaccine.
“All VCU and VCU Health System employees will be required to report COVID-19 vaccinations,” the university announced. “If you have already reported your vaccination, there is no action required on your part. If applicable, you may submit a request for a medical or religious exemption. Additional information is forthcoming from the university and health system about the medical and religious exemption process.”
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Cases of a common seasonal virus that can be deadly to young children and the elderly are exploding, according to an East Tennessee Hospital.
East Tennessee Children’s Hospital says that it treated more cases of Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) in July than it had for the rest of 2021 in total, according to a WATE report.
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A Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) bus driver has informed her employer she “cannot in good conscience comply” with the school system’s new COVID-19 mask mandate. That school bus driver, Brenda Mason, filed a letter Monday stating she disagrees with the mask policy and must object.
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Officials with the Atlanta-based Delta Airlines would not comment Monday after a rabbi accused the airline of anti-Semitism. This, after airline officials barred a group of Orthodox Jewish girls from boarding a flight from Amsterdam to New York last week — and then removed them from another flight the next day, according to BusinessInsider.com
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Word in Richmond is that the Virginia Senate — the more congenial of the two halves of the General Assembly — is looking to include the Virginia Republican idea that all law enforcement professionals should be extended a one-time $5,000 bonus.
House Democrats in the more rambunctious chamber are digging their heels in deep with a firm and potentially election hinging NO.
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Ohio crossed a COVID-19 vaccine milestone over the weekend as more than 50% of the state’s eligible population reached partial or fully-vaccinated status while masking and social distancing requirements continued to vary throughout the state.
Gov. Mike DeWine announced over the weekend the state passed 50% of eligible Ohioans at least starting the vaccine process, along with the increase in vaccinations in 85 of the state’s 88 counties. At the same time, Ohio’s reported cases Friday rose to 1,666 new daily cases and 24 deaths.
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Members of the Williamson County School (WCS) Board are scheduled to meet Tuesday evening to discuss COVID-19 safety protocols. An agenda sheet for Tuesday’s scheduled meeting does not say whether board members will discuss whether to mandate COVID-19 masks for students.
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If Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee favors a special legislative session to fight COVID-19 mask mandates in public schools then he has not yet put out a forceful enough statement saying as much. Lee’s office though, has released the following remarks:
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Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Federal Reserve Bank and Congress have taken unprecedented steps to stabilize the economy after entire industries and sectors ground to a halt last year amidst the public health crisis. The Fed has kept interest rates near zero, created lending programs to pump trillions of dollars into the economy, and bought securities to support financial markets. Congress passed three major COVID-19 stimulus packages in response to the crisis: the $2.2 trillion CARES Act in March 2020, the $900 billion Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act in December 2020, and the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan in March 2021.
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Anew poll conducted by the Trafalgar Group in association with Convention of States Action, finds that Americans are losing confidence in the ability of the federal government to present unbiased information about COVID-19 vaccine efficacy.
Just over half of U.S. voters are, at this point, not confident that the federal government is reporting unbiased information related to the Covid-19 vaccines; 44.5% remain confident in the government’s ability to do so.
Those figures are further broken down by political affiliation to reveal that among Independents, the feds are underwater. Among the politically unaffiliated or affiliated with a non-mainstream party, 53.4% of voters said they are not confident in the unbiased nature of government vaccine information – 40% of those polled specified they were “not confident at all.”
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With the new school year less than a month away, politicians are not in agreement on whether Virginia state law requires school divisions to impose mask mandates for students, teachers and faculty.
Gov. Ralph Northam said current law requires school divisions to enforce universal mask requirements, but some Republican leaders have accused him of lying and falsely interpreting the law.
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An analysis of recent data from the Arizona Department of Health Services found that zip codes with the highest vaccination rates in Arizona also have some of the highest percentage increases in COVID-19 cases. At the same time, zip codes with the lowest vaccination rates also have the highest increases, Arizona’s Family Investigates found.
The top 10 zip codes with the highest increases range from a high vaccination rate of 83% in Carefree to a low vaccination rate of 41% in Surprise. One zip code in Prescott had a 12% increase even though 56% there are vaccinated.
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Tourism spending in Tennessee dropped in 2020 for the first time in 10 years, according to data from the U.S. Travel Association and Tourism Economics.
Tennessee tourism spending fell 31.6%, less than the 42% decline nationally.
Within that decline was a 78.7% drop in spending from international visitors during a year that was affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and travel restrictions, according to a report compiled by the Tennessee Department of Tourist Development.
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The Chicago Teachers’ Union (CTU) declared its belief that schools should be shut down again if the India Variant of the coronavirus, also known as the “Delta variant,” continues to spread, as reported by the Daily Caller.
In a letter published on Thursday addressed to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D-Ill.), the union demanded that the mayor “acknowledge the changing dynamics of the COVID-19 virus” and make further bargains with the CTU regarding conditions for possibly returning to school.
“Parents are concerned,” the letter states in part, “and they deserve assurances that our union and the [Chicago Public Schools] team are working…to ensure safety in hundreds of school buildings across the city.” In fact, many parents have been critical of CTU and other teachers’ unions across the country, which have sought to extend school shutdowns for as long as possible for the teachers’ pleasure, often including absurd and unreasonable conditions in their requirements for returning to in-person instruction.
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Akey SARS-Cov-2 expert acknowledged this week that a mainstay of the global coronavirus response — the use of cloth masks — does little to stop the spread of the virus.
Michael Osterholm, the director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and an adviser on President Joe Biden’s transitional COVID-19 advisory board, made the stunning claim on CNN this week amid escalating worldwide fears and concerns over the “Delta variant” of COVID-19.
“We know today that many of the face cloth coverings that people wear are not very effective in reducing any of the virus movement in or out,” Osterholm said during the interview.
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U.S. Rep. Barry Loudermilk (R-GA-11) said this weekend that forces within the Biden administration and other Democrats in Washington, D.C. want to force a COVID-19 vaccine upon all Americans. “There are few things that remain very consistent, and one of those — and it is of grave concern to most of the people in our district, and I believe most of the people in America — is the attacks on our individual liberties. The one that is most prominent right now is the government trying to force a medical procedure, a vaccine, on every citizen,” Loudermilk said during a podcast Saturday.
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An Arizona congressman said that he will file articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “in the coming weeks.”
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ-05) said the following in a statement on his website:
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Well, isn’t this interesting.
Recall Roe v. Wade? The famous abortion decision from the U.S. Supreme Court that was issued in January of 1973? It said this:
This right of privacy, whether it be founded in the Fourteenth Amendment‘s concept of personal liberty and restrictions upon state action, as we feel it is, or … in the Ninth Amendment‘s reservation of rights to the people, is broad enough to encompass a woman’s decision whether or not to terminate her pregnancy.” — Roe, 410 U.S. at 153
In the vernacular, this quickly was reduced to a pro-Roe movement that self-identified as “pro-choice.” Or, as the saying goes, “abortion rights” boosters supported the idea of “my body, my choice.”
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The Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) Board’s decision to impose a COVID-19 mask mandate upon their students has prompted Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) to, as promised, call for a special legislative session. “We are starting discussions with House members,” Sexton told The Tennessee Star by text Friday.
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Though the COVID-19 vaccine does not stop the transmission or contraction of the virus, students, faculty, and staff at Grand Valley State University (GVSU) will be forced to take the experimental jab in order to return to campus this fall.
Everyone on campus is expected to receive the shot by September 30, WZZM reported. The school will provide numerous opportunities to get vaccinated at free at pop-up clinics.
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Governor Ralph Northam announced Thursday that all state employees will be required to show proof that they are fully vaccinated or take COVID-19 tests every week. Local governments and private employers are considering similar moves
“Governor Northam’s action comes as the highly transmissible Delta variant is driving up cases across the Commonwealth and around the country, primarily among unvaccinated people,” Northam’s press release explains.
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Despite the fact that only 23 people under the age of 20 are currently hospitalized in the state of Tennessee with COVID-19, the state’s health director is scaremongering, telling reporters that all of the pediatric hospitals in the state will soon be full.
Dr. Lisa Piercey said Thursday that every children’s hospital in the state will be full as children contract the delta variant of the COVID-19 virus.
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A doctor and professor with Johns Hopkins University said in a recent television appearance that, contrary to the official government narrative, those who actually catch the coronavirus and recover are approximately seven times more immune from future infections than those who receive a vaccine, as reported by the Daily Caller.
Dr. Marty Makary, during his interview on the Vince Coglianese Show, said studies have proven that “natural immunity is better against the Delta variant” than vaccines. “When you get infected with COVID, your body’s immune system develops antibodies to the entire surface of the virus. Not just the slight protein that the vaccines give you, but the entire surface. And so, you get a more diverse antibody portfolio in your system.”
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The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims decreased to 385,000 last week as the economy continues its recovery from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.
The Bureau of Labor and Statistics figure released Thursday represented a slight decrease in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending July 24, when 399,000 new jobless claims were reported. That number was revised down from the 400,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.
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The Biden government has released over 7,000 COVID positive illegal immigrants into the city of McAllen, Texas since mid February of 2021—including
over 1,500 infected migrants in just the past week, Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported on Wednesday.
“Despite the City of McAllen and its community partners’ best efforts, the sheer number of immigrants being released into the city has become a crisis: a crisis the City of McAllen did not create and has proactively tried to avoid for seven years,” the city said in a statement.
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The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) issued updated recommendations for schools to help prevent transmission of COVID-19 within school buildings, reduce disruptions to in-person learning and help protect vulnerable individuals.
The guidance reflects guidelines by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on masking and prevention strategies to help operate schools more safely.
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Although the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) elevated Michigan’s level of COVID-19 spread to “substantial” on Wednesday, daily death totals statewide due to COVID remain in single digits.
According to the widely cited tracking website worldometers.info, the seven-day moving average of COVID deaths per day in Michigan has stayed under double digits since July 1st.
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Less than a week after Phoenix Union High School District (PXU) issued a mask mandate in defiance of state law, a high school biology teacher has sued the school district.
“Douglas Hester, who teaches Biology 1 and 2 at Metro Tech High School, filed a motion for a restraining order on Monday against its superintendent and its governing board, according to the Maricopa County Superior Court,” Fox News reported.
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A judge is expected to hear arguments on August 13 in a lawsuit filed by a teacher in the Phoenix Union High School district over its revived mandatory mask policy. Governor Doug Ducey signed SB 1826 in June, the education budget bill, which includes an amendment prohibiting schools from requiring masks.
Biology teacher Douglas Hester filed the lawsuit against the school district, its governing board and superintendent Chad Gestson, citing the conflict with state law. The school contends that the law isn’t scheduled to go into effect until 90 days after the legislature adjourns, September 28. However, A.R.S. 15-342.05 includes a clause making it retroactive to June 30.
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Earlier this week, the estimable Robert Stacy McCain delivered a quite spot-on assessment of the terrible science behind the Centers for Disease Control’s guidance on masks, vaccinations, and the Delta variant of COVID-19. That guidance has thrown the entire country into a fresh panic about the virus, so much so that in places like Nevada, Louisiana and Washington, D.C. there are now mask mandates in place even for people vaccinated against the virus.
It seems the CDC had two sources for upsetting the national applecart. According to House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, it relied on a study of a vaccine in use in India which apparently was less than effective in warding off the Delta variant — but that vaccine isn’t used in the United States because our authorities weren’t satisfied as to its effectiveness, period.
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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention extended the Trump-era public health order allowing border officials to expel most migrants back to Mexico or Canada, the agency announced Monday.
The regulation, known as Title 42, temporarily prohibits noncitizens from entering the U.S. through Canada or Mexico regardless of their port of origin in an effort to stop the spread of COVID-19 into the U.S., according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Unaccompanied migrants minors were exempt from the order.
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Private companies added 330,000 jobs in July, far fewer than expected and the lowest amount since February, according to a major payroll report.
The 330,000 jobs added to private payroll last month represented a significant decline from the 680,000 jobs added in June, the ADP National Employment Report showed. Economists predicted that private companies would add 653,000 jobs in July, nearly double the number reported Wednesday, according to CNBC.
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America’s largest automobile manufacturers, along with United Auto Workers (UAW), will require all employees to wear masks again starting Wednesday.
The decision was made by a COVID-19 task force comprised of health officials from UAW, Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, which manufactures Dodge and Chrysler vehicles. All workers, both vaccinated and unvaccinated, have to wear masks at plants, office buildings, and warehouses, UAW announced in a statement Tuesday.
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Flight attendants’ and teachers’ unions whose members are on the front lines of disputed Covid safety protocols are ardent enforcers of mask mandates for the public but do not require their members to get vaccinated. Such inoculation is widely acknowledged as the most effective step in stopping the spread of the new Delta variant, while masking is viewed as of secondary importance, and many are highly skeptical of its effectiveness and critical of its inconvenience.
As the Association of Flight Attendants continues to urge federal authorities to allow flight attendants to police passengers for masking – a policy that has led to fisticuffs on some flights – the union has struck an agreement with at least one airline, United, to allow unvaccinated members to fly. American Airlines and Southwest Air say they also do not require their flight attendants or other employees to vaccinate. Flight attendants for both airlines are unionized.
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Used car prices keep climbing in Detroit.
According to iSeeCars’ newest study, used car prices in June increased by 31.4% or $7,179, in Detroit year over year as a result of the microchip shortage and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Federal officials have sentenced a Stonecrest, Georgia man for defrauding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA’s) Coronavirus Food Relief Program and attempting to defraud the IRS’s COVID-19 relief program. This, according to a press release that the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia published this week.
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Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp reiterated his opposition to mask mandates in schools Wednesday.
Mandates “don’t work,” Kemp told Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt during an on-air interview.
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