The Allegan County Health Department is threatening jail and child confiscation over alleged coronavirus order violations.
Allegan County voted 61 percent for Donald Trump in the 2020 election and is run entirely by Republicans. Nevertheless, the agency issued a letter August 27 to an unknown parent, who posted it on social media:
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State Auditor Doug Ringler says he will review how many Michiganders died from COVID-19 in nursing homes and long-term care facilities.
Ringler wrote the June letter to House Oversight Chair Steve Johnson, R-Wayland, over the concerns of inaccurately counted COVID-19 deaths in nursing homes.
“We will be working with various departments’ databases to address your concerns, which will impact the timing of our work,” Ringler wrote.
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Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Friday announced the state health department will align its policy with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s latest guidance on face coverings starting Saturday at 9 a.m.
“For more than a year, we’ve been following the best data and science to slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives,” Whitmer said in a statement. “The vast majority of us have trusted the scientists and experts to keep us safe during the pandemic, and it has worked. With millions of Michiganders fully vaccinated, we can now safely and confidently take the next step to get back to normal. The message is clear: vaccines work to protect you and your loved ones. If you have not yet received your vaccine, now is the time to sign up. This pandemic has been one of the toughest challenges of our lifetimes, but we came together as a state to persevere. We have all been working incredibly hard toward getting back to some sense of normalcy, and today’s news makes all of that work worthwhile.”
On Thursday, the CDC released updated guidance recommending “fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”
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In the weeks leading up to Gov. Tim Walz’s “pause” on youth sports, state officials were privately scrambling for evidence to support the restrictions, at times admitting that “there isn’t much,” emails released Monday reveal.
“Here’s the way it should work: There is data, then there is a decision, then there is communication,” Sen. Michelle Benson, R-Ham Lake, explained at a Monday Senate hearing. “It’s not, ‘We need a message. Go find me the data that matches it.’”
Benson and her Republican colleagues published a trove of emails between state health officials and members of Gov. Walz’s staff ahead of Monday’s informational hearing.
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A bill that will give local school boards the sole authority to close schools was approved Thursday by the Tennessee House and is on its way to Gov. Bill Lee.
Senate Bill 103, which passed the House, 85-2, makes it clear local school boards can close public or charter schools in the state, not the governor through executive orders or local health departments.
The bill, sponsored in the House by Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville, aimed to clarify who had the authority because during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was unclear in some locales whether the county health department or local school board held the authority.
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In West Chester, a battle is raging after a donut shop called the police on a Republican state congresswoman who was holding an event inside their establishment.
“We didn’t think we’d be a shop that would have to make a post like this, but here we are… Our staff in West Chester were bombarded with a large group of people for a Facebook event ‘Coffee Chat with Rep. Jennifer Gross’. This was NOT approved by us, nor did anyone call to tell us that this was happening,” Holtman’s Donut Shop said on it’s Facebook page.
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Ohio’s reported coronavirus cases and hospitalizations dropped significantly on Sunday from the 21-day average.
The Ohio Department of Health on Sunday reported 773 more coronavirus infections, increasing the number of cases to 130,558. That is below the 21-day average of 1,061 newly reported cases a day.
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NASHVILLE, Tennessee – A third #FreeTN rally held Sunday included attendees from across Tennessee and out-of-state visitors as well as subject matter experts on the topic of freedom. The event was held across the street from the Tennessee Department of Health in Nashville, which also happens to be the lawn that sits below the state capitol with a few hundred in attendance. Counties as far away from Nashville as Carroll, Knox, Maury and Putnam were represented as were neighboring counties of Sumner, Robertson, Rutherford and Williamson. Residents of other states, such as Wyoming and Washington also took time to attend. Even the highly esteemed Dr. Alan Keyes – a champion of returning the United States to a God-honoring nation who served in the administration of President Ronald Reagan and more recently founding IamTV – made the drive from Sevier County. He told The Tennessee Star that, as he has conducted interviews about the impact of the coronavirus, he wanted to see what the #FreeTN movement was all about. While Kim Edwards spearheaded the non-partisan, grassroots #FreeTN movement to push for the reopening of Tennessee’s economy by pointing out that everyone is essential, it has evolved into protecting constitutional liberties…
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